Vegeta First Color
Vegeta's First Color Scheme in Dragon Ball Z Is Fondly Remembered by Some Many DBZ fans were surprised by Vegeta's old-school appearance, occasionally poking fun at it in the comment section of Toei's original post. However, a considerable number of followers also stated that they actually prefer Vegeta's original look. The first few episodes of the anime that depicted Vegeta were animated prior to his first colored appearance within the manga, and Toriyama had yet to give Toei Animation the color schemes for either him or Nappa.
They were somewhat close with Nappa, though the browns on his attire would later be changed to yellow and the black be given a more shiny blue hue to it, but with Vegeta, they were. It's not until the anime's depiction of Vegeta in his first arrival on Earth, that his color scheme completely changes to become more consistent to his traditional look, once the manga eventually revealed his actual color scheme. In Vegeta's first appearance in the anime, the legendary prince appears with the red hair and green and orange armor, a decidedly different aspect than what it looks like when it arrives on earth.
First Vegeta by salvamakoto on DeviantArt | Dragon ball image, Anime ...
Vegeta made his appearance in chapter #204 "Sayonara, Son Goku", published in Weekly Shōnen Jump magazine on January 7, 1989, [3] seeking the wish-granting Dragon Balls to achieve immortality. As the first major antagonist of Dragon Ball Z, Vegeta is the prince of an elite extraterrestrial warrior race known as the Saiyans. It was a production mistake.
They didn't have anything to go off of for coloring. It's also why Trunks has purple hair in Z instead of blue. Similarly is Goku's Super Saiyan appearance in Lord Slug, there was nothing to go off of but notes, so the coloring had to figured out by them.
Vegeta - Wikipedia
But I'd note that the wiki answer about the first appearance of Nappa and Vegeta is wrong, they appear briefly. Yes, if you watched the original Z (and not Kai), Vegeta always had this color scheme. This was the color palette that Vegeta (and Nappa, as his armor isn't quite the same color as it was depicted with when they reached Earth) were originally depicted when first shown, as those first episodes were animated prior to the first full.
There is a in universe explanation for the strange colors we see in the first scene with Vegeta. I kinda had to puzzle this one up and was just about to give up when I noticed that the planet had a strange color scheme (Nameksei-esque) so that got me thinking that maybe the planet's star is a different type then our sun. These days, Vegeta's look is instantly recognizable.
Why Bleach's Characters Look Different In The Thousand-Year Blood War
With his black hair, blue suit, and white and gold armor, his look is iconic. However, in the anime's early days, Vegeta's color scheme was almost completely different, having light brown hair, a dark blue suit with a green and orange set of armor. Why Was Vegeta's Hair Red? When Dragon ball Z first aired, Vegeta and Nappa looked very different than how they do now.
They had different colors for their armors and even Vegeta's hair.
