Minifig arm cracks

[CaptainCRO]

I was wondering why do those little cracks in arms of minifigs appear? I have a few of minifigs I have never used in a moc or played with and they have got cracks on one arm or both arms. They were just displayed on my shelf. Does puting weapons in minifig's hands cause this?

I don't know what would I do if some of my promo expensive minifigs suffered this.

Any advice?

[brickmack]

Putting items in the hands wouldn't cause it (Though I have had some hands snap apart from that). My guess is (At least for ones that haven't been used at all) they were damaged at the factory, probably when the hand was being inserted. Moving the hands around and switching minifig parts (particularly the ones not designed for removal, such as legs from hips, and arms and hands from the torso) can also cause this in many types of minifig parts. Unfortunately there is no way that I have found to prevent this, so if it happens you will have to replace the broken part (LEGO replaces most parts that are still in production for free if they break, and individual hands, arms, armless torsos, hips, and legs are for sale on Bricklink.

[woolie]

Many (maybe 20%) of my old minifigs (15-20 years) have cracked arms.

[Capt.JohnPaul]

This happens to me all the time and it's so frustrating. Like others said, removing arms and legs from hips would cause it. Also, licensed theme minifigs seem to crack a whole lot easier.

But I do have a question that is really confusing.

My minifigs from a long time ago, (before 2000) don't have cracked arms, but my newer ones are constantly getting broken. Any ideas why?

[brickmack]

This happens to me all the time and it's so frustrating. Like others said, removing arms and legs from hips would cause it. Also, licensed theme minifigs seem to crack a whole lot easier.

But I do have a question that is really confusing.

My minifigs from a long time ago, (before 2000) don't have cracked arms, but my newer ones are constantly getting broken. Any ideas why?

That's strange that licensed ones break more, I never noticed. I wonder if those minifigs are made at a different factory, or it's just random.

As for the old ones cracking more, my guess is that TLG made some change to the plastic, or the manufacturing process, as I've noticed the same thing with many other part types as well. For example, I rarely break clips that are in the old grey colors (Which are a minimum of 7 years old, and often older because of getting sets from the 90's and before, since (If I remember correctly) the color change was in 2005, but newer clips I break all the time (About once a month for new ones, compared to less than 5 ever for the old ones).

Edited February 3, 2012 by brickmack

[GeluNumber1]

One of my minifigures has this problem. It's a minifigure from Exo Force, from set 8107. So annoying; I only had two purple torsos, and now one's cracked. >.<

[______]

Torso cracks are the worse, my poor original Boba Fett :(

[CaptainCRO]

Today I discovered two more of my minifigs have this. They have really never been used very much. If a kid would play with them they wouldn't last 2 days. That's very dissaponting from LEGO, and I think they sohuld do something about it.

[Brickity]

My minifigs' arms always crack when removing their arms. The *best* thing you can do is remove their hands, and then their arms (in case you want to remove them) this way they won't crack.

Now, if they're new and crack then that sucks.. that has never happened to me

[Omicron]

It's just stress on the plastic. Continuous pulling hands in and out can cause it. Especially at odd angles.

-Omi

[Blondie-Wan]

Exactly. I just don't remove hands from arms, arms from torsos or legs from hips, since they're not designed for that. If a hand comes out of an arm I consider that broken, though of course it's generally fixable. I'm always a little taken aback at how many people take apart elements that aren't meant to be taken apart.

[brickmack]

Exactly. I just don't remove hands from arms, arms from torsos or legs from hips, since they're not designed for that. If a hand comes out of an arm I consider that broken, though of course it's generally fixable. I'm always a little taken aback at how many people take apart elements that aren't meant to be taken apart.

I agree. It would be cool though if LEGO released these parts non-assembled so they could be used for other things, that would be great. There have been some really great uses of these parts (particularly hands and arms) in MOCs I've seen. Only reason I haven't done it is because of the stressing (Though if I have a torso that is broken really bad, I might take the hands and arms off and throw away the broken bits, then use the non-broken ones)

[CaptainCRO]

I never took their arms out, just moved them up and down.

I actually think old figs are better quality.

[Cwertle]

Hmm, suprised that most of you never remove the arms or hands, I do that to nearly all my figures, but have ended up with only two or three cracked arms.

(I had to use that dragon smiley, no one has ever used it before)

[MetroiD]

In order to prevent that sort of thing from happening to my minifigs, I placed a nice order for some minifig hands. Forgot to order arms though. Should put that on the list for next time. As discussed above, taking the wrists out of the arms is the primary cause for such cracks to appear on the arms of minifigs, so I prefer to use a separate batch of hands when I need them.

But yes, I also do have a few (old) minifigs with cracked torsos which is rather weird - of course, this can't have just happened like that, by itself, so probably I must have mishandled the torso at some point. That said, I very much like to fiddle around and combine torsos / legs / heads to come up with random minifigs (I don't even keep some of the exlusive ones as they are), so I guess I have to be extra careful... If a hand is broken, it's no big deal, since hands are easily resuppliable, but cracked torsos is indeed quite inpleasant - and probably irreversible.

[CaptainCRO]

Yes, I suppose I could replace cracked ARMS(not hands) via bricklink, but when you remove an arm from a fig the next time you put it it is a bit loosen up.

[parkman2000]

for some reason I have been noticing cracks on my minifigures is there any way I can prevent this from happening?

Edited March 1, 2012 by parkman2000

[Darkdragon]

Don't remove the arms, don't leave them in the sun.

[Donut]

Are these old minifigs? Regardless if they're cracking, I wouldn't handle them as much.

[brickmack]

Keep them out of the sun and heat, and don't handle them too roughly.

[LEGO Guy Bri]

Here is another topic regarding cracking minifig arms. Same topic with more answers. On a related subject, I've noticed a few cracks on new, white, 1x1 bricks. They've had zero play and have never seen the sun or felt harsh heat. I wasn't to happy Could a moderator merge these? Edited March 1, 2012 by Lego Guy Bri

[Omicron]

Are these old minifigs? Regardless if they're cracking, I wouldn't handle them as much.

Old. New. Doesn't matter, they'll crack.

-Omi

[Shroffy123]

Sorry to bring this old thread up. But I was bringing out my mini figs again to display my army. Haven't touched them in almost a year. I went to position a spear in one of the soliders from PoP sets, and it snapped! Did it with a second similar mini fig, and snapped on him as well. Are these flukes or is this common? I'm afraid to position other minifigs now. 

[AmperZand]

@Shroffy123, What cracked? The spears? If so, just buy a bunch of spears on the secondary market. They’re widely available and pretty cheap.
There was a known issue with reddish-brown and dark red bricks/plates and minifigure hands snapping a few years ago. LEGO eventually changed the formula and newer parts in those colours are no longer particularly prone to cracking.

If not the spears, then what? Pictures of the cracked parts please!

[Shroffy123]

it was the arm when I tried to rotate the spear in his hand. Happened to the same minifig. Both PoP mini figs. Let me know if you can properly see the arm in the picture above.