Did you know that Crayola Crayons came out in 8 and 16 packs with late 1990s techno-names? It’s true!

Via crayoncollecting.com we find out the skinny. These were issued starting in 1997 –

The Techno Brite set did have unique color names specifically associated with technology.  The true colors were simply existing colors.  Originally, they came in an 8-color and 16-color assortment.  They used a fancy embossed design for the original run and upon reprint they changed that to a normal four-color print using the same design for the box.  A couple of years later (in 1999) there was a 6-color Smucker’s Jam promo box that had Techno Brites but they weren’t anything different.

So if you are a Crayon Purist, here are the colors that were reissued:

• circuit board green was a new color name but its true color came from Shamrock
• cyber space orange was a new color name but its true color came from Orange
• floppy yellow was a new color name but its true color came from Dandelion
• graphic green was a new color name but its true color came from Green
• green.com was a new color name but its true color came from Screamin’ Green
• infra red was a new color name but its true color came from Wild Watermelon
• megabyte blue was a new color name but its true color came from Pacific Blue
• megahertz maroon was a new color name but its true color came from Maroon
• on-line orange was a new color name but its true color came from Neon Carrot
• plug & play pink was a new color name but its true color came from Shocking Pink
• point & click green was a new color name but its true color came from Electric Lime
• transistor yellow was a new color name but its true color came from Atomic Tangerine
• ultra violet was a new color name but its true color came from Red Violet
• web surfin’ blue was a new color name but its true color came from Blizzard Blue
• world wide web yellow was a new color name but its true color came from Yellow
• www.purple was a new color name but its true color came from Violet (purple)

Many of the true colors were from the Neon (formerly Fluorescent) set of colors.  Traditionally, these were the brightest looking colors offered.  It wasn’t usual to see a collection of fluorescent colors with regular colors in the same box.  Clearly the fluorescent ones don’t color in the same way that non-fluorescent colors do.  In fact, on regular paper, fluorescents are not rich in color at all.  It could have added confusion on the part of the consumer; wondering why some of the colors didn’t color well.  Apparently that wasn’t the case since they sold long enough to change the box design slightly.

Jenny’s Crayon Collection states :

Both of these boxes are very collectible and hard to find. You can sometimes find these offered on eBay. The colors also were issued as colored Crayola markers.

Finally, here’s a reddit thread on these crayons.

Are you a collector or fan? Let us know in the comments below.