More hair & skin colors for #41597 Go Brick Me
Why did LEGO include only three skin tones and four hair colors in the amazing #41597 Go Brick Me set? A closer look at the data offers some hints, as well as revealing which colors you can easily add to your set.
Note: This article references a lot of LEGO colors with a color swatch, LEGO Color ID, LEGO Color Name, and BrickLink Color Name. If you like this format or have suggestions to make it better, leave a comment below!
Go Brick Me is a fantastic set that inspires LEGO enthusiasts to create ‘Brickheadz’ figures of their friends and family. In the Brick Architect review of the set, it earned our top Must Buy (5/5 star) rating! The set also offers a fantastic value; $29.99 for over 700 pieces—that’s enough parts to build two whole figures.
Understanding ‘Go Brick Me’
#41597 Go Brick Me includes instructions for 6 torsos and different 13 hair styles. The torsos are built using a small selection of brightly colored basic bricks and plates; it is easy to use different colors by borrowing parts from your collection. Because these parts are so common, they aren’t the focus of this article.
By contrast, the skin and hair is built using less common parts, such as the 2017’s 2×2 Corner Plate (part 26601), 2017’s 1×1 Quarter Round Tile (part 25269), 2013’s 1×2 Bow (part 11477), and 2010’s relatively rare 2×4 Tile (part 87079).
Let’s take a closer look at the parts/colors included in the set, and see if we can expand the set to include additional hair and skin color options.
Skin Colors
The set provides 42 pieces (13 unique) for each of three skin colors for you to choose from. For fair-skinned figures, we get 5Brick YellowTan. For darker skin, we have the same selection of parts in 312Medium NougatMedium Dark Flesh. The darkest skin color option which is provided is 192Reddish Brown.
BrickLink prices for three existing skin colors (to purchase all 42 pieces):
- 192Reddish Brown – $3.40
- 5Brick YellowTan – $4.13
- 312Medium NougatMedium Dark Flesh – $5.10
Additional Skin tones
Even within the limitations of the current LEGO color palette, those three colors are a subset of the realistic skintones which they could have offered. It would have been nice to see additional options such as: 308Dark Brown, 283Light NougatLight Flesh, 18NougatFlesh, and possibly 138Sand YellowDark Tan.
Further, there are scenarios where you might want to use the entire LEGO color palette as possible skintones. For example, you would want to use “Bright Yellow” to re-create the classic LEGO minfigure head. If you enjoy Guardians of the Galaxy films, you would need 119Bright Yellowish GreenLime for Gamora, or 322Medium AzurMedium Azure for her sister Nebula.
Upon deeper analysis, it turns out that only 9 additional colors are currently available on BrickLink in the 13 unique parts needed to create skin using the instructions included in the #41597 Go Brick Me set.
BrickLink prices for nine additional possible skin colors (to purchase all 42 pieces):
- 119Bright Yellowish GreenLime – $2.84
- 194Medium Stone GreyLight Bluish Gray – $3.09
- 26Black – $3.12
- 1White – $3.27
- 21Bright RedRed – $3.73
- 24Bright YellowYellow – $4.54
- 141Earth GreenDark Green – $4.88
- 154Dark Red – $5.18
- 38Dark Orange – $5.53
In addition to these nine colors, you might notice that there are several additional colors which do not come in all 13 parts, but include most of the parts you would need to create skin for your BrickHeadz figures.
The two parts which come in the fewest parts:
- 1×2 Plate w/ Clip (part 11476) – 16 of 40 possible colors.
- 1×4 Plate w/ 2 Studs (part 92593) – 22 of 40 possible colors.
It’s easy to use a 1×1 Plate and a 1×2 Tile as a substitute for 92593. It’s not as easy to come up with alternatives to the 1×2 Plate w/ Clip. You could use a black or white part simulating a hand in gloves, or use a 1×1 Plate w/ clip which is more commonly available.
Hair Colors
While there’s a limited number of realistic skin tones, there’s a very wide range of common hair colors when you consider the popularity of hair dye products. The set includes a whopping 90 pieces for each of the four common hair colors which are provided in the set. Let’s see which colors are included in the box, and which ones we can easily add to our collection to expand our palette.
BrickLink prices for four existing hair colors (to purchase all 90 pieces):
- 24Bright YellowYellow – $7.70
- 106Bright OrangeOrange – $6.71
- 192Reddish Brown – $7.11
- 26Black – $6.15
Additional Hair Colors
While we learned that there are 12 possible skin colors, there aren’t as many possible hair colors.
BrickLink prices for additional possible hair colors (to purchase all 90 pieces):
- 194Medium Stone GreyLight Bluish Gray – $8.36
- 1White – $6.90
- 199Dark Stone GreyDark Bluish Gray – $7.60
- 21Bright RedRed – $7.11
Two of those colors are very realistic—1White is a relatively common hair color, and 194Medium Stone GreyLight Bluish Gray is necessary to include multi-generational families.
But that’s just four additional colors—Why is it so hard to get all the pieces you need for more of these colors? It turns out that two of the parts are relatively new and available in relatively few colors.
The two parts which come in the fewest parts:
- 2×2 Wedge (part 26601) – 14 of 40 possible colors
- 1×2 Bracket (part 99780) – 25 of 40 possible colors.
While those are the most difficult parts to find, there are some surprisingly hard to find parts which have been around for a long time. The most striking example is 2×2 Corner Plate (part 3022), which is still only available in 24 colors even though it was introduced in 1987.
Conclusion
While I am well aware that experienced LEGO builders will work around these limitations through creative parts usage, I know that there are many builders who benefit from the guidance included in the book, and by having fewer part choices. Overall, it’s a bit disappointing that you can’t easily add any additional realistic skin tones. That said, I am happy to see that there are two additional realistic hair colors you can add easily (1White, and 194Medium Stone GreyLight Bluish Gray), as well as 21Bright RedRed which is a common hair dye color.
Further, as you can see by reviewing the charts in this article, about half of the colors are available in all but one or two parts. This isn’t enough to re-create all the models in the instructions, but should be enough for experienced builders to use.
That said, I felt like the analysis raised a couple points about the set:
- It makes sense why they chose those three skintones. They would have needed to introduce 9 new elements to offer 283Light NougatLight Flesh as an option, 10 new elements for 18NougatFlesh, and 6 new elements to offer 308Dark Brown.
- The set really is a fantastic value. Based on BrickLink pricing, the set includes $12.63 in skin elements, and $27.67 in hair elements. That’s a lot of value, especially considering this is just half the parts in the set, and the set has an MSRP of just $29.99.
Methodology
The spreadsheets included in the article helped me determine which additional colors contained all of the parts used in this set. I used the same methodology as in my previous article: Hard-to-Find LEGO Colors (and what to do about it). For more detailed methodology, please refer to that article.
Disclaimer: Price data in this article is based on historical averages and may not be up to date.
Thanks for noting and caring about the issue of skin and hair color variations with this Lego set and analyzing the likely reasons for the lack of variety.
Fantastic way to show the colors! And great article as always!