Three new LEGO colours debut in January 2024 sets

A total of three new colours have joined the LEGO palette this month, including the much-vaunted reddish orange – and two surprise new skin tones.

We’ve already seen plenty of the new hue that sits between red and orange – dutifully denoted reddish orange – across sets including 60433 Modular Space Station, 60434 Space Base and Rocket Launchpad and 80054 Megapolis City 5th Anniversary. Filling a gap in the LEGO palette to allow for better gradients, such as on the garage walls in 42639 Andrea’s Modern Mansion, the new shade is proving to be both useful and plentiful in the 2024 range.

It’s not the only colour spotted for the first time among the latest wave of sets, though. As identified by Brickset, two new shades of brown have also appeared in a pair of LEGO Friends sets, offering an even greater diversity of skin tones for its mini-doll characters. Umber brown is used for Aveline in 42605 Mars Space Base and Rocket, while sienna brown can be found on Jamila in 42601 Hamster Playground.

The LEGO Group’s range of colours used to represent skin tones now extends to at least eight different hues, including light nougat, nougat, medium nougat, warm tan, medium brown, reddish brown, umber brown and sienna brown. Both warm tan and medium brown were newly introduced in 2022, but have so far remained restricted to skin tones for minifigures, mini-dolls and BrickHeadz characters.

The same fate could await the two new shades of brown, although the LEGO Group has shown a willingness to use other hues in this family outside characters in recent years – most notably with light nougat as a central colour in 10297 Boutique Hotel. If nothing else, future BrickHeadz characters could deliver bricks, plates or tiles in either or both new browns, as 40616 Harry Potter & Cho Chang did for warm tan in 2023.

For now, you’ll need to pick up 42605 Mars Space Base and Rocket and 42601 Hamster Playground to see umber brown and sienna brown in person. You’ll find reddish orange across a range of City, Friends and Monkie Kid sets, and in Technic sets from March.

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