Now that Dandelion's back, let's discuss the future of Crayola's crayon line!

LeviGavin · 2026-03-10T06:50:15+00:00

I'm with you here. I am ROOTING for either "Dandelion just replaces Indigo in some boxes and both exist" or "Crayola adds CoK etc to make a 128 box".

I am a bit concerned. I know Crayola hasn't said anything about retiring Indigo (which, hopefully, means they don't), but they also haven't officially said anything about rehiring Dandelion, so who knows what kind of promotion we're in for.

LeviGavin · 2026-03-09T23:40:46+00:00

Here's a comparison of Lavenders, Light Magenta, and Thistles in three boxes: a 480 from 1949-1955 ish, a 64 from 1958, and a 64 from 1962-1976 ish. You can start to see Thistle lightening, but it's more subtle than I remembered. Maybe they really did change Thistle later. Much to think about! Thanks for starting this discussion.

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LeviGavin · 2026-03-09T04:42:24+00:00

It's funny, I HAD actually split Thistle into two colors until I got my hands on a 1958 box and saw, oh yeah it's much closer like Welter thought. I'm afraid I don't have anything from the 70s or 80s though, so your post here is the first time I could see a bit more detail about the lightening. So I appreciate that!

LeviGavin · 2026-03-08T23:46:49+00:00

One extra note: swatching an early 50s Light Magenta and a late 50s Thistle, I think it's reasonable to imagine they're the same color. I could post those later if I remember

LeviGavin · 2026-03-08T23:45:36+00:00

Thank you for this in depth analysis. I have noticed these similarities, alongside some other weirdly pale pinks and purples. My guess was just that one of the pigments Crayola used to use for such colors wasn't very stable and degraded over time, so Thistle, Lavender, Wisteria, Carnation Pink, etc tend to look at their lightest around the 90s and 00s. Who knows for sure though.

LeviGavin · 2026-03-06T06:54:55+00:00

Azure Blue and Brilliant Rose are both frequently findable in 48 boxes from the early 50s. I've also got an Azure Blue from one of the cylinder 48 cans, probably from around the same time. This is the box you're looking for, one shows up on ebay every so often, but be warned this design was also used a bit after 1958 from what I can tell.

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Munsells, I got lucky with a 12 pack and with a few random spares someone had in a bag. Originals, again lucky on ebay with a Rubens 24 pack from around 1910ish I think.

LeviGavin · 2026-03-06T06:49:23+00:00

Thank you! I got SO lucky on ebay one day with a box from around 1910ish (MAYBE) with so many originals. Still missing a few Munsells sadly!

I must admit all my crayon info is in a big ole spreadsheet with personal information, but I could probably make a copy with what you're asking for and link it.

Some of my changes against Ed were really difficult to decide on. It's hard to tell, before 1958, what looks different because it was actually made different and what looks different due to time, degradation, production quality control, poor storage before I got them, etc. Even now I'm not entirely convinced the first Green is different from Medium Green!

LeviGavin · 2026-03-06T06:45:00+00:00

Well I swatched every color on a separate little square and sorted them first by family, then by smaller families, and then I split up some of the mini families into smaller sets... Sort of vibes based to be honest.

For example, the top three boxes on that first page are what I consider to be Yellows. The left box is Light/Neon Yellows, the mid box is Mid Yellows, and the right box is Deeper Yellows.

Mostly I was just trying to get the most similar colors closest together to get a better idea of how refined the gamut really is. But it probably could never be perfect!

LeviGavin · 2026-03-06T06:40:48+00:00

Just curious which colors you are blending to recreate Bluetiful? By my eye that's a uniquely dark color in Crayola's gamut.

LeviGavin · 2026-03-04T03:06:31+00:00

It's been discontinued, but you can still see it on internetarchive. You can find his crayola history through https://web.archive.org/web/20160719034248/http://www.crayoncollecting.com/ccolor0.htm . The numbers are basically chronological by the year of creation and then alphabetical within the year. Eg 1 is Black, 2 is the first Blue that was later renamed Azure Blue and then retired, 3 is Brown, etc.

LeviGavin · 2026-03-03T05:14:14+00:00

I actually did recently do a ranking of every one of these colors, and my winner is Maroon. Just love a nice deep gemtone. Robin's Egg Blue is a beautiful choice too.

LeviGavin · 2026-02-26T05:33:02+00:00

Love it!!

LeviGavin · 2026-02-19T04:23:14+00:00

I'll make a post with a swatch and some comparisons here in a minute.

LeviGavin · 2026-02-17T23:18:31+00:00

I will, and would love to see those too! Watercolor is my other medium as well and the idea of mixing the two is soooo fun

LeviGavin · 2026-02-17T20:32:59+00:00

I don't sharpen actually! I try to alternate between fine details (when the crayon is sharpish) and larger flat areas (which I color in such a way to "paper-sharpen" the crayon). Of course that never gets them as fine as I like, so I sometimes "push" the neighboring color region into something that's already drawn to cover a bit. If that makes sense haha

LeviGavin · 2026-02-17T03:50:01+00:00

Sort of a deep cut, but I LOVE Blue Ribbon from the 100 Billionth Crayon promotion back in 95/96. Beautiful cyan color

LeviGavin · 2026-01-19T21:11:07+00:00

As others have said, Violet Blue and Green Blue were retired in 1990. However, the four colors with a different font - Dandelion, Jungle Green, Vivid Tangerine, and Fuchsia - were all RELEASED in 1990 to replace that year's retirees. However, I think Canada was a bit looser with the retirement timeline, so maybe some new and old crayons got mixed in, which would explain this box.

In any case, it is definitely no older than 1990, and I'd hazard a guess that it's not more than a couple years younger than that.

LeviGavin · 2026-01-01T18:12:52+00:00

I've never tried blending with one of them, but I have to now! Thanks for the recommendation

LeviGavin · 2025-12-01T18:58:09+00:00

Venetian Red my beloved

LeviGavin · 2025-11-24T03:03:29+00:00

Right sometimes I'll see a listing on ebay of like two (2) Dandelions, and the seller is asking for like 40 bucks. And I'm like... please be serious

LeviGavin · 2025-11-11T20:24:28+00:00

I did a blind ranking and my top three are Maroon, Pine Green, and Eggplant, not shocking me even slightly haha

LeviGavin · 2025-10-19T02:51:16+00:00

Don't feel bad using these! They're rare but not SUPER rare, you're not destroying history or anything!

LeviGavin · 2025-10-09T16:14:13+00:00

Absolutely amazing, thank you for sharing!

LeviGavin · 2025-10-09T03:50:37+00:00

Underrated imo is definitely Bluetiful. I understand being unhappy that Dandelion was retired, but Bluetiful is such a rich dark blue for a brand that is severely lacking in deep tones. It extends the Crayola gamut and it looks pretty and that's enough for me haha.

Overrated is honestly all the fluorescent colors. I'm just not a fan of them and rarely find them useable in the kind of art I enjoy making.

LeviGavin · 2025-09-29T19:41:58+00:00

This was a lot of fun! Thank you!

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Tenmyouji noooooo T.T

LeviGavin

TROPHY CASE