29 replies to this topic

[Trudop561]

Hello, Star Wars fans

You may already have encountered problems with battle droids joints and clips, especially for the arms and the legs and some of you are professionnal in taking care of your minifigs. I would know what is the best solution to store these droids : let them in their sets or display them on a large baseplate. I am wondering about this because, when I am not playing with my sets, I put them back on their shelf and they can stay there for a few weeks and I do not know if, with the time, the droids can break or have problems during this time.
I know it may occur with old droids from 2000 but with the new ones (2007, 2008...) ?
You may also share your personnal stories  

You can close the topic when an answer will have been provided.

Thanks

[Rocky]

I don't move any of my lego battle droid hinges at all myself. My droids from the 2000 MTT and ATT are still like new. Another thing that wears them out is holding blasters (guns). It stretches out the hand over time.

To store them I would dismember them into ziplock bags. Even when a droid isn't being played with there is presure on it's limbs.

You shouldn't have any troubles though. Lego was meant to be played with and shouldn't break unless under quite a bit of stress or heavy use. Putting them on a shelf for weeks will not wear them out.

[Corvus]

Whatever you do: Don't put them in water. My family made a LEGO brick cake and stuck a lot of droids on top. When I soaked them in water to get the cake off of them, most of the joints on my Super battle droids failed. As a result, I have very few SBDs.

Meh, it was a good cake anyway.

As far as I can tell, non of my normal battle droids are experiencing any problems.

[Millacol88]

There are definitely problems with BD joints snapping under what would generally be considered normal use. I know after getting the 7660, I left it on display for around a year, then needed to take it apart for a MOC. As soon as I went to detach one of the BD arm held-on wings of the vulture droid, I snapped one of the joints. You seem younger, so you probably like keeping your Minifigures together. But really, the only way to prevent them from snapping is to not leave them attached for long periods of time.  

[prateek]

As Millacol88 said, BD droids arms snap really easily. I have 8 BD arms and out that 8, 4 have snapped. That's a whole 50% of all my BD arms! Now they are almost useless.

[Destroydacre]

Hmm, this is an interesting topic. I've always displayed my battle droids and my earliest onces (Naboo Swamp, Original MTT, AAT, etc) got a decent amount of use out of them, but I've never had any problems with the droids themselves or with any of the joints breaking. I'll definitely make sure to treat them more carefully now though after reading this thread.

[gogglev]

I think the problem with the Battle Droids is primarily with the older droids. All my older battle droids have either loose joints or have had arms broken at the hinges. None of my droids from the past few years have had this problem and they seem to be made of a better quality plastic or something.

This usually works with softer plastics so i'm not sure if it will work with the droid arms, but if you run the arm under hot water to soften the plastic a bit, you can try to compress the  joints to make them tighter, though don't apply too much force. You could also try coating the pin on the droid body with a thin layer of super glue to create some friction for the arms.

Edited by gogglev, 17 August 2009 - 05:43 AM.

[Trudop561]

Thank you, everyone, for your answers and advises. I will take note of what you said and do what is necessary to preserve my minifigures.

[Jammiedodger]

So should I dismantle my droids standing on a 32x16 baseplate? They have been like that for a month or so now.

Edited by Jammiedodger714, 17 August 2009 - 07:26 PM.

[The Who]

After years of display, mine are all fine.

I only ever broke one SBD, and it was brand new, and very brittle.

[Holy Diver]

I've had battle droids since 1999 that have suffered heavy use and abuse and they haven't broken on me yet.  But, if one does break, I have a hundred others to replace it.

The super battle droids on the other hand are breaking left and right.  A skillful application of model glue can fix it, but it is still anoying.

[fenris]

i got mine all "used" and they are still fine... maybe there's a difference with different lots... i tried the warm water - refitting trick and it worked well with the ones that where a little "hang my head"... thanks for the tip.

[HumanPackMule]

Holy Diver, on Aug 17 2009, 03:37 PM, said:

The super battle droids on the other hand are breaking left and right.  A skillful application of model glue can fix it, but it is still anoying.

Tell me about it. The arms of my SBD's are in very small fragments. I'd have to say this is a worse problem than the Bionicle joint breaks.

[DarkFader]

I've had no problems with the battle droids I own except for one that broke: a super battle droid. The leg clip just snapped off so it proved that they are some of the most fragile minifigs; it's quite odd that the normal LEGO battle droids are sturdier than the SBD's when it technically should be the other way around.

[Skipper 24]

DarkFader, on Aug 19 2009, 03:46 PM, said:

I've had no problems with the battle droids I own except for one that broke: a super battle droid. The leg clip just snapped off so it proved that they are some of the most fragile minifigs; it's quite odd that the normal LEGO battle droids are sturdier than the SBD's when it technically should be the other way around.

Why is that? I think SBD's are made from a slightly different type of plastic, a harder and less flexible one at that. I think this is why people are having there legs snap.

I personally have only had normal battledroid arms snap. All of which have been replaced by the spares that come with lego sets or ones that come from LEGO customer service. If you have any snapped arms, legs etc. I recommend talking to customer service via email or phone. They usually understand and will send you a replacement free of charge .

[DarkFader]

Skipper 24, on Aug 19 2009, 07:01 PM, said:

Why is that? I think SBD's are made from a slightly different type of plastic, a harder and less flexible one at that. I think this is why people are having there legs snap.

Yeah, I think you're right; the part about "the other way around" was just something I was thinking when reading the rest of the thread. Accidents do happen, though, so both droid types might snap at some joints even though the normal battle droid minifigs haven't broken for me personally.

But I do think that the SBD's should get an upgrade by TLC so they don't break so easily; perhaps a lighter type of plastic oughta do the trick?

[Big Cam]

I store mine dissasembled so I can't say I have this problem.

[AFOL12v]

I have 200+ droids, but only arms have broken and maybe 1 or 2 legs and head. But I admit, it's very fragile and should handle with care.



Only the sandred ones are very expensive to replace..........

[Commander_Rob]

Sandred droids, my god. Of the two I got, three arms have broken.

With other droids I have also had the problems described above: occasionally an arm breaks, the neck and leg joints of older droids (original MTT, Naboo fighter) are a bit worn out  and my original bluish Super Battledroids have broken three of their total of six joints and some of the other SBDs have snapped legs.
I have come to fix these with very thin wire, that works quite well.

Edited by Commander_Rob, 20 August 2009 - 03:43 PM.

[The Rancor]

Trudop561, on Aug 17 2009, 12:45 AM, said:

I know it may occur with old droids from 2000 but with the new ones (2007, 2008...) ?

No, it's never happened with any droids I've bought ever since the droids Episode 3 battlepack in 2007.
However, some of my old droids (such as original Episode I set droids) do have problems with too big hinges.
It doesn't matter though, because I've got the newest MTT so I have loads of droids!  

[Rain Jake]

I have a SBD that has a broken hip joint, he wont stand up, so I call him Wobbles

[Trudop561]

Commander_Rob, on Aug 20 2009, 03:42 PM, said:

Sandred droids, my god. Of the two I got, three arms have broken.

With other droids I have also had the problems described above: occasionally an arm breaks, the neck and leg joints of older droids (original MTT, Naboo fighter) are a bit worn out  and my original bluish Super Battledroids have broken three of their total of six joints and some of the other SBDs have snapped legs.
I have come to fix these with very thin wire, that works quite well.

It already happened for a few of my SBDs but almost never with simple droids. However, sometimes, the legs are not well fixed to the body and turn very easily   . I just do an exchange of legs between two droids and the problem is solved. And, every month, I'm doing an "inspection" of each of them to check if there are broken pieces   . Oh well.

[The Who]

I think the best solution, if you want them to stay built on display, is just don't play with them. Simple as that.

I know Lego is made for the purpose of playing with, but it is the best way to go, I think.

What I do is buy the set (with droids, of course), build it, put it on display, and leave it there. You can't constantly take the droids apart and put them back together.

And if you do anyway, always 'slide' the regular droid arms on, don't snap them on.

[simonjedi]

I've got battle droids from the original 1999 releases that apart from the obvious wear and tear are still fine.

I've not yet encountered the SBD problems either.

[Spyder]

Some of my B1 battle droids have loose joints, but I don't think I've had any of them break. Plus they are mostly from 1999, and have gone through lots of play. I haven't had any problems with any SBDs, but maybe that's because I only have one, I built him, put him on display with the set, and now I can't find him.