many thanx for your reply, Brendan
I think there's something *funny* going on with it, however. this actually has no effect on the fill colours: private static const fills:Array = [0xFFFFFF,0x00FF00,0xFF0000,0x7A7A7A,0x0000FF,0xAAFFAA,0xFFAAAA]; I thought this was overriding the defaults. so... value.element.getStyle("fill").color; is used here when the data is set? public function set data(value:Object):void { if (_chartItem == value) return; // value already set, exit _chartItem = ChartItem(value); // else set the value if(_chartItem != null) _label.text = BarSeriesItem(_chartItem).xValue.toString(); }