Have you ever seen a purple Lego brick? Seriously, think about it. Have you ever seen one?
A couple of years ago, my friend Rachel gave us a big box of Duplos. We love Duplos, and this batch came with a few regular Lego bricks trapped in the nooks and crannies of the box. I happily integrated the entire lot into our family stash, and went about my business.
Over the next few months, this 8×1 purple brick kept turning up, and eventually it caught my eye. We have thousands upon thousands of Lego bricks, but only one of them is purple. How could this be? Lego bricks are some of the most creative, thoughtful, brain-growing toys out there. Had they simply neglected to make purple bricks? How rare are they?
Apparently, purple Lego bricks ARE very rare! As this Yahoo Answers thread indicates, the missing color has definitely been noticed by fans. I’ve learned that most of the purple bricks in existence probably came from a Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban Bus Set. One observant brickhead noticed the purple cone lampshade in the Sunshine House Set. The color is noticeably absent from the Lego online store, so clearly there is some kind of concerted effort to keep purple bricks oppressed – right?
Hey Lego: Set the purple bricks free!!! People want purple Lego bricks, so why not make it happen? I mean, look how happy this woman was when she found some in a Chicago store.
Until Lego can make it happen, feel free to bask in the glory of my 8×1 purple Lego brick:
12 Comments | Leave a comment
There was a lego box available in 2003/2004 (no theme, just a box of bricks) that had purple and orange bricks – I bought loads of boxes & haven’t seen the purple & orange bricks since 
Although your purple brick doesn’t look the same as my purple bricks – unless your camera didn’t pick up the colour properly, mine are a brighter purple.
@David – Pink is sort of rare, unless you you have a girl in the family. It’s certainly not a common color, but there are plenty out there.
@Harriet – I’d love to see a pic. Our brick is a little more saturated than my photos show, so maybe they are the same color.
We have lots of purple lego bricks but they are 2×2 not 1×8!
Michelle, do you know what set or store they came from?
yep the piece was in only one set called “cat show”
in 2004
Purple is not very common, but you can buy purple pieces on Bricklink.
http://www.bricklink.com/search.asp?viewFrom=sa&colorID=24&searchSort=P&sz=25
There has actually been quite a few series targeted towards girls that contained a lot of pastel colored pieces. My sister’s pieces used to get mixed up with mine all the time and then my friends would make fun of me when they found pink and purple pieces. Google image searches of Lego Belville will find a lot of sets from one of the more current series. There was also beach, pony stables, and house themed sets.
I have been collecting legos my hole life and the reason purple legos are rare is because most (a very small percent are) not even legos! check to see if it is a mega blok or something like that. the lesser percent that are legos do not come in the shade you have. (i have a couple from years past.
Ralph, that is VERY interesting. The next time it pops up I will take a closer look, something I’ve never done. It really looks, feels, and works like a real lego brick, but I wouldn’t be surprised.
Though, that still doesn’t explain WHY they are so rare – why wouldn’t Lego make any? I mean, it’s one of the six main colors, and there are multiple shades of each of those. But no purple? It’s madness I tell you, madness! (c:
[...] found another purple lego brick! In 2009, I blogged about how rare purple Lego bricks seem to be, so my boys were stoked when they found the single round piece above. We have always wondered why [...]
Leave a comment
If you’re gonna do purple, you gotta do pink as well. Haven’t seen many of those either.