I remember these from childhood... always beige so you could see the bands.
Now they are on turquoise backgrounds and impossible to determine R/Br/K and have 5 nearly-identically spaced bands...
Why the change?
Nobody changed anything, its called a “standard”.
If you want beige body resistors with four color bands, buy 5% carbon film. If you want blue body parts with five color bands, keep buying 1% metal film.
WattsThat:
Nobody changed anything, its called a “standard”.
An arbitrary "convention" would be a better description. 
Still wondering though why no-one in their right mind didn't think of adding a way to unambiguously tell which band is #1...
mattlogue:
Now they are on turquoise backgrounds and impossible to determine R/Br/K and have 5 nearly-identically spaced bands...
Difficult sometimes for sure, but often easy enough.
Certainly not 'impossible'.
Use your DMM to measure the resistor. No more confusion.
wvmarle:
Still wondering though why no-one in their right mind didn't think of adding a way to unambiguously tell which band is #1...
+1
Wouldn't be that hard to make the first band a broken line instead of solid.
I normally avoid the need to read the colour bands at all, I adopted a radical approach to this problem a couple of years back.
When a batch of say, 91K, resistors arives, I measure a couple as a check, then put them in a drawer marked with a clear lable that says '91K', neat idea eh ?
Still wondering though why no-one in their right mind didn't think of adding a way to unambiguously tell which band is #1...
Use your DMM to measure the resistor.
I remember being very pleased with myself as a boy having learned the resistor colour code and being able to read the value on any resistor. Then they added the extra band and I never did find a way to be sure which end to read from, so resorted to using a DMM to read them instead. I feel cheated!
I guess part of the problem is that vast majority of resistors go into manufactured products and there is no need to read the colour code.
The first band is supposed to be closer to the end.
I use an Ardutester instead of the multimeter. Very clever device and convenient to use to test resistors.
+1 for the Ardutester. I do use that more than my DMM nowadays for component measuring. Use for resistors, caps, diodes and transistors. It even reports the forward voltage of LEDs. Very convenient.
Are they sold anywhere? I'm coming up empty on Google and two of the prime suspects: Sparkfun and Adafruit.
srnet:
I normally avoid the need to read the colour bands at all, I adopted a radical approach to this problem a couple of years back.When a batch of say, 91K, resistors arives, I measure a couple as a check, then put them in a drawer marked with a clear lable that says '91K', neat idea eh ?
Until you have built a project on a breadboard, and then have to return the resistors to their designated drawer...
Here is one from Amazon with case. Be sure to get the case.
Thanks. Gonna see if I can find it a bit closer to home - that shouldn't be too hard as it's no doubt made in China 
Looks like a very useful little gadget.
wvmarle:
Until you have built a project on a breadboard, and then have to return the resistors to their designated drawer...
I have a 'I can't be bothered box' for those.
srnet:
I normally avoid the need to read the colour bands at all, I adopted a radical approach to this problem a couple of years back.When a batch of say, 91K, resistors arives, I measure a couple as a check, then put them in a drawer marked with a clear lable that says '91K', neat idea eh ?
- I like that idea. I may print out color coded labels that are clearly marked. A few for each value and put em on when I measure them. I really, truly can't make out the 5 banded blue ones. Found some older style and that's in my cart!
Paul__B
I didn't know about the Ardutester, thanks for mentioning it, I've ordered one
PerryBebbington:
Paul__B
I didn't know about the Ardutester, thanks for mentioning it, I've ordered one
These are great.
Initially I thought these were a gimmick, I picked one up and never looked back.
It is my go to (never use goto 
) test tool.
Identifies components, identifies component leads, identifies component characteristics.
dougp:
+1Wouldn't be that hard to make the first band a broken line instead of solid.
They are painted whilst the resistor body is spun round, dotted paint doesn't exist! I've see markings other than bands on resistors, presumably printed after the resistors are mounted in their bandolier, which might be to indicate end. Or perhaps just the manufacturer's identification.
The resistors I've seen this on are 49.9 ohm 0.1% metal film. They have an orange spot between multiplier and tolerance bands. yellow-white-white-gold-(orange spot)-purple. I inherited a box full of them
I find coloured bands are much harder to read against the blue background of metal-film resistors
than the biege background of carbon-film, brown and red are particularly difficult to distinguish. Use a multimeter if in doubt.
MarkT:
dotted paint doesn't exist!
No, but dot matrix printers exist. Cog wheels exist. It'd wouldn't be hard. They would do it if there were enough outcry!