Cracks in Minifigs

[VintageLegoEra]

I have sets from 80s and 90s, pulling the srms from torsos didnt cause any cracks till date. I am the original owner of these vintage srts. But buying some figures from bricklink, the crack sign appears in dome torsos, legs ans arms.

So i believe it is how do you take care of you figures and sets.

[TeufelHund]

I just pulled out some Star Wars stuff that hadn't been played with for a while for my kids and noticed that more than a couple of the figures had "loose" arms. When I raised the arms there were splits running from the base of the torso under the arm. They were all fine when I packed them away less than a year ago.

I've noticed this before from time to time, but only ever on individual minifigs - never on a bunch at once. All those affected are probably 6-7 years old. I'm wondering if this means storing the torsos and legs separately is the best way to go?

[Cobb]

That's just not true VintageLegoEra, as I wrote done there were a few figs never played with and some only two months old. This is a kids toy and shouldn't break that soon.

I also have older figures that have no cracks, it's mainly a problem with newer figures from the last couple of years.

Edited April 20, 2016 by Cobb

[Cobb]

http://www.eurobricks.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=129872

It's a real problem.

[HawkLord]

Every time I see a thread like this, it gets me all paranoid and go check my minifigures at the soonest opportunity I get. I ended up doing that last night.

For reference, I keep probably 90% of my minifigures in tackle-boxes. The other 10% are on display in some way either in MOCs or on shelves. The whole minifigure collection gets rotated periodically, so most minifigures see the light of day. All my Lego are stored in an upstairs room, where the temperature can fluctuate during the year from very warm to brisk. I don't do anything to moderate the temperature. They have been stored in this fashion for two years and previously had been stored in a similar fashion at our old place. My collection dates from current to 2009.

In reviewing a good sample of the minifigures, I have found no broken minifigure parts. I did find one broken saddle clip from a LOTR horse.

[Cobb]

But everyone surely agrees with me that they are toys ment to be played with ( not abused, normale play). And that they should not break under these circumstances, certainly not after just a few months.

[HawkLord]

I can agree that toys are designed to be played with and once process has begun, there's no way to qualify how long the toy should be expected to last. Yes, the majority of them should have a reasonable life, but there's no clear definition of "play".

I distinctly remember breaking a Transformers Optimus Prime toy and those things were made with die-cast metal.

I think it's impossible to identify specific parameters on something so abstract. Lego puts them through play-testing of their own and have found them suitable for the market in their current form.

[Cobb]

Some of the figures he got 15th februari, it's april now. They lasted little then 2 months.

And the Nexo Knights he barely touched since he prefers Ninjago.

Edited April 20, 2016 by Cobb

[Dohed44]

One thing to be very careful of, and something that many overlook, is greasy or oily fingers. Many food oils will weaken the plastic and cause cracks at any mold seams and stress points, which minifigs have a lot of. I found this out the hard way from MOCing while eating potato chips, and lost around thirty cheese slopes because they all cracked due to my oily fingers, and it happened in a matter of a week or two. If your child is eating before or while they're playing with the minifigs, it's very likely that it's part of the problem. Lego may send some replacements, but if you don't make sure your childs hands are squeaky clean before handling them, then it will most likely happen again and I'd imagine they wont just keep replacing them. I hope this helps. Cheers

[Cobb]

Thank you, that might be helpfull. Lego send out the replacements today o my suprise! I didn't expect them to do so because my order was automatically denied.

So that's great customer service!

[Lordofdragonss]

The reason? There is a molding seam there. You can see it on metalised figures.

[TeriXeri]

I noticed many of my nexo knights silver pieces like arms and armor got lines or stains that appear to be cracks or damage but actually are consistent in the same place among each of them, across many sets, so some of it is most likely just part of the mold process, and not actual broken.

[YellowCorvette]

The reason? There is a molding seam there. You can see it on metalised figures.

I don't think those are molding seam. From the picture in the 1st post, some of the minifigures isn't really metalised.

But anyway, those cracks are pretty terrible. I don't know how to repair those, but my advise is try to avoid applying way too much pressure and force on the minifigure parts.

[Cobb]

I think it' s stress. The legpegs are just a half mm to wide. If you pull the legs out, the crack closes. I' ve noticed now that some collectors don't push the legs completely in the torsos to avoid this.

[JPN366]

I have the same problem with the legs on my Ghostbsuters figures from the Ecto-1 set. All four figures have cracks on each leg on the back where they attach to the studs. I'm currently in double digits on cracked torsos. I've replaced 8 of them and I'm trying to figure out what to do about the other 5. The total list includes, Wicket (Ewok Village), Obi-Wan (Wheel Bike), Zeb (The Ghost), Anakin (Azure Angel), FO Crew Member (Kylo Ren Command Shuttle), Lighthouse Keeper (Scooby Do Haunted Lighthouse), Wonder Woman (Gorilla Grodd), Riddler (Riddler Chase), Luke (Mos Eisley Cantina), Old Han (Millenium Falcon), Rey (Millenium Falcon), Rey (Rey's Speeder), Maz Kanata (Takodana).

Maz is cracked on both sides of the torso and her arms are cracked from the elbow to the wrist on both arms.

[JPN366]

I called customer service and got the rest replaced. I had already ordered replacements from LEGO for the others.

Edited April 23, 2016 by JPN366

[Mercury]

I called customer service and got the rest replaced. I had already ordered replacements from LEGO for the others.

How old are these figs that are cracking? I have over 150 minifigs and not a single one of mine has a crack anywhere, and my son has over 50 that he plays with regularly and they don't have any cracks either.

Edited April 24, 2016 by Mercury

[Cobb]

How old are these figs that are cracking? I have over 150 minifigs and not a single one of mine has a crack anywhere, and my son has over 50 that he plays with regularly and they don't have any cracks either.

What themes are we talking about? I find it highly unlikely that not one figure has a crack.

Like I mentioned in my own thread about this. My son has figures less than two months old with cracks. And he plays with them but does not pull out their arms or throws with them. My guess is Lego sometimes uses lesser quality plastics or isn't able to recycle them correctly. I 've noticed that figures from a magazine/book are of lesser quality. We have seen with the first CMF's that those figures are very different from their 'normal' figures. Just compare the yellow hands, they are very different in color.

At least Lego should reckonise this and beef up the torso's with 0.2 or 0.3 mm of plastic.

Edited April 24, 2016 by Cobb

[HawkLord]

Star Wars, LOTR, Hobbit, Marvel, DC, Ghostbusters, Dimensions, City, The Lego Movie, CMF, Harry Potter, Jurassic World, and Ideas/Cuusoo.

In all those themes that I have multiple sets from (and in some cases multiple copies of the same sets), I just have one minifigure with damage - a crack on the face of one minifigure from the Lego movie line. And he isn't even a main character. Otherwise everything else, well over 300 minifigures is in perfect shape. No damage, no breaks, no misprints, nothing.

[Vindicare]

What themes are we talking about? I find it highly unlikely that not one figure has a crack.

Like I mentioned in my own thread about this. My son has figures less than two months old with cracks. And he plays with them but does not pull out their arms or throws with them. My guess is Lego sometimes uses lesser quality plastics or isn't able to recycle them correctly. I 've noticed that figures from a magazine/book are of lesser quality. We have seen with the first CMF's that those figures are very different from their 'normal' figures. Just compare the yellow hands, they are very different in color.

At least Lego should reckonise this and beef up the torso's with 0.2 or 0.3 mm of plastic.

I can't say for sure as to the minifg making process, but the CMFs(book ones too?) come from the China factory.

Star Wars, LOTR, Hobbit, Marvel, DC, Ghostbusters, Dimensions, City, The Lego Movie, CMF, Harry Potter, Jurassic World, and Ideas/Cuusoo.

In all those themes that I have multiple sets from (and in some cases multiple copies of the same sets), I just have one minifigure with damage - a crack on the face of one minifigure from the Lego movie line. And he isn't even a main character. Otherwise everything else, well over 300 minifigures is in perfect shape. No damage, no breaks, no misprints, nothing.

Ditto. I have many of the minifigs mentioned in this thread & I have zero problems. Take the Ghostbusters, as it was brought up again recently, I've had them built & on the stand since day 1 & nothing. No cracks.

Edited April 24, 2016 by Vindicare

[Vindicare]

One thing to be very careful of, and something that many overlook, is greasy or oily fingers. Many food oils will weaken the plastic and cause cracks at any mold seams and stress points, which minifigs have a lot of. I found this out the hard way from MOCing while eating potato chips, and lost around thirty cheese slopes because they all cracked due to my oily fingers, and it happened in a matter of a week or two. If your child is eating before or while they're playing with the minifigs, it's very likely that it's part of the problem. Lego may send some replacements, but if you don't make sure your childs hands are squeaky clean before handling them, then it will most likely happen again and I'd imagine they wont just keep replacing them. I hope this helps. Cheers

While I've been lucky to not have any issues, but hearing this(again) makes me want to become one of those crazy germaphobes.

Wash wash wash wash wash! I don't eat while LEGO-ing, but I don't always wash up when I'm tinkering. New sets I would typically wash up prior to.

Edited April 24, 2016 by Vindicare

[Mercury]

My collection is primarily Marvel and DC superheroes, with some CMF. My son has Jurassic World, City, Star Wars, Chima, and some random parts from the lego store. I've not noticed any cracks whatsoever.

[Cobb]

I've checked my DC baddies, only one Joker torso has cracked completely while on display (green shirt purple neck tie). Do you guys instert the legs all te way? I loosened them up now, just to be sure.

[HawkLord]

I assemble minifigures completing - heads and legs are fully inserted on day one.

[Mercury]

Mine are all fully assembled. One thing I have noticed is on most minifigs, there is a mold line where the plastic came together in the mold, and most of the time this falls directly under the arms and could be mistaken for a crack. Maybe that's what some folks are seeing and calling a crack.