Cracks in Minifigs

[Tezclatipoca]

Hi,

From my experience, I have some cracks on minifigs torsoes, but only on old ones from the 80's and I had removed the arms of some of them. The cracks are never too bad, but the arms are moving a bit too freely on these figures.

Cracking torso is mainly done by removing the arms of the minifig or it could be plastic default or environmental conditions... I never experienced a crack on a recent minifigure, but I try to not remove the arms, and am not playing with the minifigs, I am mainly displaying them.

Cracking arms or hands are rare I think and I never saw it, except for a skeleton leg clip that simply poped in my hand as I was disassembling it and I am sure I did it carefully.

Minifigure hands (as clips btw) could be severly damaged if you put some items that are not fitting in it, but if you just put a item and display the figure, I don't think it'll break.

So if you just display minifigures in good healthy house conditions (careful to the direct sunlight ! and smoking !), you could keep them without a crack for many years, so no need to check every month if they have got cracks.

Hoping that will help, thes were my two cents...

Thomas a.k.a. Faladrin

[MAB]

Iron Man legs commonly crack if displayed on the polycarbonate trans blue round bricks.

[THERIZE]

Really, i have like 100 minifigures (only sorted) and nearly all had been amputated by my little sister. It was a pain to get them back together but non have been known for cracks. The only cracked minifig I know of was a second hand one. And I tend to crash them in planes, crush them with boxes, use them as bullets and many more destructive things. All are happily lying in boxes now.

[1980-Something-Space-Guy]

The thing that mostly scares me is that, should one of my licensed figures crack after the set it came in was retired, I won't be able to get a free replacement from Lego. I have had no cracks (that I know of) so far and I have 1000+ figs, but from what some of you guys are saying, it seems like this is a matter of luck...

[dr_spock]

Minifigures are toys but if you are treating them as long term collectibles, then you should wear gloves when handling. Oils from your fingers could get in between molecules of the plastic. If that part of the plastic is under load then that could lead to a chemical stress crack. Your body oils may not react nicely with the printing. To avoid stress fractures on torso, the legs should not be attached to the torso. The part of the leg in contact with the torso is putting some outward pressure on the torso. If the tolerances are not perfect, then you know...

[AmperZand]

Minifigures are toys but if you are treating them as long term collectibles, then you should wear gloves when handling. Oils from your fingers could get in between molecules of the plastic. If that part of the plastic is under load then that could lead to a chemical stress crack. Your body oils may not react nicely with the printing.

I don't know about the printing, but I would be surprised if ABS were damaged by the oils in your skin. Some materials such as steel definitely are susceptible to staining due to skin oils, but ABS isn't as far as I know. Is there a materials scientist who specialises in plastics here on EB who can provide a definitive answer?

[Vindicare]

I got a bit worried reading these comments. I checked what was specified in here, and I seem to be unscathed. Figs on. Ike's, 3, are all fine. They've been on the. Ike's for a few years now also. I also checked my Black Manta, Scarlet Witch, Grren Goblin Juniors, & Iron Man. Nothing. I did notice when I pushed the arms up as high as they would go with a head attached that were seam lines, that could appear to be hairline cracks. But I checked many other figs, they have the lines. Sounds like an extreme case of bad luck, Captain Nemo.

[1980-Something-Space-Guy]

Minifigures are toys but if you are treating them as long term collectibles, then you should wear gloves when handling. Oils from your fingers could get in between molecules of the plastic. If that part of the plastic is under load then that could lead to a chemical stress crack. Your body oils may not react nicely with the printing. To avoid stress fractures on torso, the legs should not be attached to the torso. The part of the leg in contact with the torso is putting some outward pressure on the torso. If the tolerances are not perfect, then you know...

I have heard of oil being bad for printing, but I had never heard of chemical stress cracking before. Believe it or not, I actually wipe my figs and try to avoid touching them directly as much as possible. However, from what you are saying, it would seem that the best way to avoid this kind of cracking would be to avoid touching the fig in the areas under stress (i.e. the sides of the torso, the arms near the hands...). Aside from that, I can only think that the plastic could fail under fatigue, which can be avoided by never disassembling the figure. However, you made me curious. Do you know for sure that ABS specifically can be damaged by chemical stress cracking with oil from hands?

I would think that Lego would avoid a plastic that is prone to cracking simply by contact with human oily skin. However, it is clear that the bricks can fail under fatigue. Perhaps, as other have mentioned, their quality control has gone down. It might be possible that errors in tolerancing are making the hips too tight inside the torso, making the plastic in the torso exceed its utlimate tensile strength. Maybe this is what has changed?

Edit: I see what you are saying now. It seems that ABS is actually particularly susceptible to this kind of failure...

Edited November 5, 2015 by johnnyvgoode

[Michal87PL]

As I can read know cracks on minifigs which are only displayed (avoiding direct sunlight and minimizing the stress) are very rare, and it`s also a case of luck.

Do you know others company like COBI or MegaBlocks have issue with cracks on minifigs?

[AmperZand]

Do you know others company like COBI or MegaBlocks have issue with cracks on minifigs?

I don't know about Mega Bloks and COBI, but I do have plastic toys by other companies (I collect fantasy toys generally: dragons, wizards etc) and they sometimes get sticky after a few years. I have read this is due to the plastic breaking down chemically. You can reduce or even remove the stickiness using isopropyl alcohol, but that only solves the effect, not the cause; the plastic is still breaking down. I have never had a LEGO part become sticky and have been an AFOL for over 20 years.

[VintageLegoEra]

Minifigures are toys but if you are treating them as long term collectibles, then you should wear gloves when handling. Oils from your fingers could get in between molecules of the plastic. If that part of the plastic is under load then that could lead to a chemical stress crack. Your body oils may not react nicely with the printing. To avoid stress fractures on torso, the legs should not be attached to the torso. The part of the leg in contact with the torso is putting some outward pressure on the torso. If the tolerances are not perfect, then you know...

Indeed!

I always make sure my hads are clean and dry enough when touch lego and the quality stands High over years

[notaromantic]

(Raises head.) My gosh! - we all live in labs, don't we...

Edited November 5, 2015 by notaromantic

[Vindicare]

I don't see oils being a culprit in this. This is a toy were talking about. Most notably in the hands of grubby little kid hands. I'm sure with all the research TLG does, they would take oils into account. Something that is meant to, and encouraged to the highest degree by TLG, be played with.

Perhaps we need a bit of a poll of specific figures, like the few Captin Nemo mentioned, & see who all has problems & how they keep them stored. To maybe get an idea of how bad the cracking actually is among figs. Take Black Manta, Juniors Grren Goblin, & Scarlet Witch. All of mine are fine. I keep them in a plastic container with all other figs from the same theme-DC with DC, vice versa.

[Mercury]

I agree with the above post. I highly doubt that TLG would produce parts that were highly susceptible to chemical breakdown in the element they were designed for, which is the sweaty, oily, grimy hands of little kids. My son rarely has sparkly clean hands, and he plays with his Lego sets all day long. Whatever is on that 7 year olds hands gets on the bricks and minifigs. TLG meant for him to play with his Lego like that, same as they did for me 25 years ago when I got my first set. I can't remember any of my Lego Minifigs ever cracking, and I played with them all the time. I also can't remember any printing coming off unless it was worn off with friction ie the minifig sliding across the floor or something.

I only recently became an AFOL, and these types of threads are making me paranoid. With the amount of cash I have been and am prepared to invest in my minifig collection, I am ultra wary of breakage and wear. I always wash my hands and make sure they are as clean as possible before I handle my minifigs, but I can't avoid handling them, they are too cool! I don't plan on ever selling them, I am buying them for myself because I like them. My son likes them too, we are doing this together. I am not one of those fathers who won't let his son touch the "special" toys. He gets to hold every minifig I buy, as long as his hands are clean. He knows that mine aren't for playing with in the traditional sense, but I wouldn't dream of not letting him hold whatever awesome new fig his daddy just bought. He is enthralled with them. I guess if cracks or wear happen to mine, then I'll have to buy new ones.

[Cara]

I have a number of chima and ninjago figures that have cracked, and a few super hero :( The chima/ninjago may be because they held a long staff/weapon in both hands. I shall have to consider that in future. None of these have had the arms removed. But I also have a problem with cracking cheese slopes and 1x1 plates when a build is left constructed. I live in a really dry environment.

[MichaeLEGO]

as I read the topic most of cracks seams to appear on license minifigures especial super heroes

[TheLegoDr]

^It does make you wonder if more Super Heroes figures crack, OR more people buy Super Heroes sets and therefore more in the wild appear to crack. I don't know. But all of the figures that have cracked for me were Licensed. Is it because of the factory they are made in? I know it can't all be environment since I live in a similar environment with other LUGmates and they don't have the same problem I do.

[dr_spock]

There are many factors causing plastic to fail. There can be external stress from play. Internal stress from the molding process. Chemical attacks. Incorrect density of plastic in the area under stress. Incorrect molding temperature, pressure, time, etc. Any one or combination of can lead to failure immediately or later on. This could be a good university thesis for someone on survivability of LEGO minifigs. There are things LEGO can control and there are things outside of LEGO's control.

We are all different human beings and don't secrete exactly the same oil and sweat from our skins. Depending on genes, diet, etc., some of us could be acidic. Acid could technically etch your fingerprint on to the paint or dull like acid rain on car paint or it can have no effect at all depending on the chemistry. If you really want your figs to stay museum quality collectibles, you should handle them like sensitive ancient artifacts--avoid contaminants on the object, ensure proper temperature and humidity range, avoid UV light, remove unnecessary stress or play on the object, and so on. Otherwise, just enjoy and play with them like toys in Toy Story.

(Raises head.) My gosh! - we all live in labs, don't we...

Yes, I did live in a lab for a while, experimenting the production of peroxymonosulfuric acid through electrolysis. My lab coat was pretty holy by the end of the project.

[EdWebhead]

After reading this, I checked all my minifigures and unfortunately my Deathstroke and Robin figures from the Batboat set are cracked. :( This has only ever happened to me once before, and it's weird seeing as they're the only ones cracked just from display, and they're from the same set.

[VintageLegoEra]

This thread/Posts will cause a lot of panic around Lego Fans...:-)

[1980-Something-Space-Guy]

This thread/Posts will cause a lot of panic around Lego Fans...:-)

Hopefully enough to catch Lego's attention? It seems to me that reports of random cracks are too common for an external factor. Clearly something must be up with the quality control, or the way they are producing the parts.

[egg roller]

I have some cracked figs and I chalk it up to arm and hand removal. With arm removal I have mostly noticed splits from the armpit to the bottom of the torso or some length in between. For hands the split will be in the wrist making hands super loose. Its so sad when a prized fig cracks

[Mercury]

I have some cracked figs and I chalk it up to arm and hand removal. With arm removal I have mostly noticed splits from the armpit to the bottom of the torso or some length in between. For hands the split will be in the wrist making hands super loose. Its so sad when a prized fig cracks

I bet!! That's what I'm worried about, a rare Superhero cracking or something.

[VintageLegoEra]

after coming back from dark age, and before knowing that taking out arms will cause such a crack ( of course i did replace he arms from those bad ),,,and after reading this thread, i check my vintage minifigures and so far they are ok without any crack.

so the Question is: does the crack happens immediately when you replace/take out the arms? or it will appear after a while?

Thanks

[egg roller]

Snip

so the Question is: does the crack happens immediately when you replace/take out the arms? or it will appear after a while?

Thanks

Its hard to say. It may happen right away but I dont notice it at the time or it happens later and i catch it then.