Ok... looking at the file history this is a bit confusing as there was already a colour change. Anyways I think 4 is the correct colour.

Probably the entire torso family needs a little update someday, but at the moment I only did some basic updates:
*collar changed from Dark Red to (regular) Red
*added Keywords
*cleaned structure a bit
*Unificator, T-junc etc. seemed ok

What is the rationale for the various color changes? RB calls it maroon but BL says it's red…I can find photos that agree with both. The real part has red printed over black, which could be intended to create a dark red, but more likely has to do with getting red to print correctly over green.
(Apologies if this has been discussed somewhere already.)

My main argument for this to be red is the continuity with the other Forestmen torsos.

The Black and Blue Forestman each has their color matching their arms. Why would they do it otherwise here?

Also consider that Red and Green are opposites on the colour wheel, does being far more prone to discoloration then black or blue.

Also be aware that this was released in 1987. Those were far simpler times considering Lego colours.

Lego colours usually are intended to line up with existing plastics. So why would they make this rare occasion were they introduce this strange "Maroon" shade, when there are no pieces to match?

Back in the early days of AFOL internet culture, knowledge about "official" Lego colours was almost non-existent and people tried their best to describe colours of prints, often without the ability to share high quality images with others to get a second opinion. Also they sometimes had parts with poorly applied ink, or simply aged, used parts.

These terms just stuck over the years, without any further prove. Many parts listed as "Maroon", "Light Blue" or other unusual shades are typically just left-overs from this era. The entire colour "Rust" was made up by the community, because Lego couldn't get PP/PE plastics to match the regular ABS Bright Red.

It was agreed upon here:
https://library.ldraw.org/parts/43171

The ink is red. We model "ideal" parts in LDraw. The color of the plastic bleeding through the ink doesn't make the ink a different color and there is precedence for this ideal modeling all over the library.

Thanks. I agree that bright red is the “intended” color; my concern was to avoid multiple color changes without consensus. I hadn’t seen the parallel discussion in the shortcut part.

Release 2025-01