(FORTUNE Magazine) – When Apple rolled out its first Bondi Blue iMac, it was a technological success and a design revolution. The company patented the look for computer design, but unfortunately there isn't any legal way to secure the rights to translucent blueberry. There should be: How much colored plastic can one country be expected to take?

On a hunch that we've become a plastic-saturated nation, FORTUNE set out to trace the cheapening of this trend (see below). As we suspected, it's a revolution turned devolution: Designers have beaten the original concept to a pulp, robbing it of tasteful shapes and hues. We found magenta office cubicle sets, bright-blue George Foreman grills, and lime iMac-inspired alarm clocks. (Combining hypercolor with the frustrations of an alarm and a computer? Like that thing won't get broken.)

"As designers, we always want the materials we choose to have an inherent relationship to the product," says Mark Dziersk, board chairman of the Industrial Design Society of America. "The iMac design was so popular because it demystified the machine. If you put an iMac next to one of those beige, old, boring computers, which one are you going to fall in love with?"

Admittedly, the trend does seem to hold fast to the Bauhaus tenets that Dziersk described: Most of these gadgets use friendly, transparent design in an attempt to demystify scary things (computers, overcooked burgers, and your abs). But is it really love? Doubtful. One sign it won't last much longer: Apple's new laptop already has a different shine--brushed titanium.