Fragile Pieces?

[MiloNelsiano]

Hi, Eurobricks. I have a question, and I'm not sure if this is the right place for it or not. Hopefully it hasn't already been asked, as I haven't seen it asked yet. I realize that after building with pieces enough times, eventually they will weaken in certain points and they will break, especially any clippy pieces. My question is, are pieces made of certain colors weaker, and therefore more likely to break than others? I'm sure the question sounds a little silly, but my reason for asking is that I have been having more and more reddish brown pieces break on me lately, and I don't think I've had pieces of any other color break on me yet. Granted, I have a lot of reddish brown in my collection, and I use it in every build I do, but there are other colors I have a lot of and also use often. Is there something about reddish brown pieces (or any other color) that makes them structurally weaker, and therefore more likely to break?

[greg3]

Interesting you should ask this as the only pieces I've had break are.... Reddish brown clips!! (1x1 plate with clip on top)

In my case they were in the Winter Village Santa set and after building it 2 Christmases ago I dismantled it and stored it in a container. Last Christmas, I came to build it again only to find 2 of the clips had split in half!! So I don't think it is a result of overuse.... Perhaps there is something about the colour that dos make them weaker!!

Wonder if anyone else has had this problem?

[MiloNelsiano]

The 1x1 plate with clip on top was the first of mine to break as well. I thought, OK, it's a clip, they're weak, no big deal. I think now I've had 4 or 5 of those break, all of which were reddish brown. Since then, I've had stranger pieces breaking. 1x4 tiles splitting down the center, the side wall of a 4x4 plate chipping off, half the knob of a 1x2 jumper plate breaking off--all reddish brown pieces. To be fair, I have also had dark brown droid arm clips break, but they were being used in a way they weren't supposed to be used, so I'm not at all surprised that they broke, especially considering how thin those clips are.

[Foxw]

Some part designs do seem to be more prone to failure then others,

To date i've found moderate to severe cracking in the following (part - color)

Several 1x1 slopes (cheese slope) - in light and dark bley

2 1x4 curved slope - RBrown

1 1x2 tile/groove -LBG

1 2x4 tile/groove - DBG

All pieces are under a year old (bought new since may 2k16) and were in a maxi-mixel build. Some are minor tiny cracks, but some like the 1 1x4 curved are almost severing the part.

As this is all ive seen since may (when i woke up), clearly somethings up.

Maybe we all should be documenting here what parts & colors we each have had issues with, and with time and a bit of effort a coralation might be found with enough data.

[xboxtravis7992]

Lime green Bionicle ball sockets made from 2007-2010

[Bricky Dee Williams]

I just has to order multiple replacement pieces for the special clip pieces that made up Groot's fingers from 76020. These brown/reddish brown pieces were very, very loose on the "hands," and one actually snapped when moved. A very weak piece, I hope the replacements are better quality.

[HawkLord]

The only pieces I've had break in seven years of collecting are the plates with clips on top and the horse saddle with clip on side. They're both essentially the same clip, so I can see why both have broken. I'll also add that they only broke from having a rod piece clipped into them over time - I literally just found them broke.

[Space Police XVIII]

This seems like it's getting worse. I've got a small collection of broken pieces by now, mostly 1x1 tiles and 1x1x2/3 slopes, and I've gotten paranoid about ever using dark blue flags.

Last week I bought a small Iron Man set. His torso was cracked down the sides.

[BrickJagger]

I have about six or seven broken clips, mostly from Star Wars sets. Battle Droid arms are also prone to breaking.

I haven't noticed a trend in the color of the broken parts, no I can't give you an answer there.

[soccerkid6]

I too have had way more reddish brown parts break than any other color. Particularly 1x4 tiles, 2-4 wide plates, and the 1x1 tile with clip.

[Dannylonglegs]

As a result of the fact that I have used my Lego collection heavily since before I was able to appreciate the necessity for treating some Lego "gently" I have a large number of broken pieces, many of which I kept despite their state. I don't actually have many reddish brown clips... maybe 0, actually, but I do know that the most easily broken piece I have are the battle droid arms. Those things are so flimsy, I have maybe 10 broken ones at least. It's always the clip that snaps.

also, of course, some lime green bionicle parts from Ellek broke. Of course.

~Insectoid Aristocrat

Edited September 4, 2016 by Dannylonglegs

[PicnicBasketSam]

Ball joints from the three pre-2011 Constraction sets I have. All of the sockets have shattered over the years, not just the lime green ones. Also any plant pieces with those REALLY thin stems, and of course, hairline cracks on cheese slopes that have done nothing but be connected to a model for 2 months. I don't have any brown clips, I believe, so I can't vouch for that...

[TranscendingBrick]

I've found clips of any color to be pretty week though recently it seems they've improved the mold so they break less. The most note worthy piece that broke on me was sebulba's legs. A few months after the pod racer set and I started disassembling one leg broke. I tried to improvise as I needed an alien in my next MOC so one legged sebulba was born however the other leg also broke. I don't think color has anything to do with strength though however I did have a reddish brown 1 x 4 plate break on me and so did a white 1 x 4 brick.

[rodiziorobs]

I have had the reddish brown 1x1 clips break on me, as well as a 4x6 plate crack right down the middle.

The only other color I have seen the same kind of consistent breakage with was dark red bricks (from when that color was new), headlight bricks specifically.

[dr_spock]

I have a PAB cup of 1x4 reddish brown tiles. So far only one cracked while removing from a base plate.

I have a quite a few old ball joints cracked too. There is stilll enough grip to hold the ball in place if there isn't too much weight on it.

Over the years, I had various 1x1 bricks cracked.

Plastics can be weakened by heat, stress from the molding process, chemical attacks, etc. I don't find LEGO cracking all that disasterous compared to when the plastic cooling flange on my car engine cracked and leaked coolant...

[zux]

Technic Connectors with axle joints are prone to cracking, sadly. New piece or old, all of them are cracking, sometime with even multiple cracks .

[antp]

There was a whole thread on that subject:

http://www.eurobricks.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=78740&st=0

(and I see that someone posted in it just today, before that it had fallen in the old threads)

[Brandon Stark]

Don't know if this is too late to chime in but I have the same problem. The only pieces to ever break for me were reddish brown pieces. One from the Kingdoms Joust and one from the Helm's Deep set. It would be great to know the cause of this.

[Legostone]

Well, I had some trouble with dark red headlight bricks, 4 out of 60 have broken, and I've seen a few that are close to breaking as well.

[Captain Britain]

Might be a bit delayed replying to this but I had a few bits in the Ghostbusters Ecto-1 set (the original ideas one) break very very easily! Mostly the 1x1 white slopes (cracked in half) and the spanner looking bit (I'm not good with the real names!) that holds the aerial on.

 

 

[1980-Something-Space-Guy]

Minifigure legs are especially prone to breaking around the base of the legs. For that reason I almost don't have minifigures standing on display anymore.

[AFOLguy1970]

In addition to the cheese slopes, minifigure torsos, and 1x1's that have cracked for no other reason than existing, the minifig handcuff accessory seems weak at the thin part, especially when placing it on/off a minifigure

[1980-Something-Space-Guy]

Also, if you try to put a suitcase on a minifig hand, and struggle, this could end up scratching the suitcase reaaaally badly.

[shelego42]

Interesting read, I haven't seen too many pieces breaking, but the ones that have seem to be of varying colors. At least from my experience

[scatmanjack]

I just picked up several used Monster Fighter Sets this week in a trade.  Several Dark Red Pieces were cracked or fell apart upon disassembly...

1x1 tile with tooth that line Dracula Hearse windows

1x4 flat tiles that make Bed in Vampyre Castle

No problems with any other pieces, only the Dark Red Versions of these two...