Brick Quality

[xenologer]

Yep, broke a piece today.

one of those 1*1 plate with cliplight pieces.

From the Aero Pod

was sliding a lightsaber rod into it and it just cracked. Since when are bricks brittle?

I think the lightsaber rod is mostly to blame. Nearly every single one I've seen has had problems with the alignment of each halve of the mould, so that instead of having a round profile, they tend to be oval shaped or like two semicircles offset with a jagged edge. The uneven shape probably didn't fit the hole in the clip correctly... tho they really should stretch, not just crack...

Anyone else notice consistently bad lightsaber rods? Maybe TLC serously needs to update them....

[prateek]

that happened to me with both of my Quigon hair pieces and both of my orange clip pieces from the snowspeeder and ATST mini set *n* *sing* :'-(

EDIT:I also broke my battle droid hands

[ApophisV]

both of my orange clip pieces from the snowspeeder and ATST mini set *n* *sing* :'-(

YES!!! SAME HERE!!!! Brown and orange 1x1 Tiles with clip are breaking so easily!!!! >:-(

[alex54]

I have noticed this jagged edge with the magic stick (I don't remember me the english correct word...) of Harry Potter. But I never break pieces with it. I will have a look when I will use it!

[SuvieD]

The lightsaber blade used in the dino set guns got stuck on mine. I ended up break the technic part it was stuck in to retrieve the more valuable blade. Still the blades are obviously not completely round or to the proper size.

I have broken many clips as they are so thin they break somewhat easily. Most thin plastic parts do with any significant stress. I am suprised that a reinforced round clip would break though. In 20 some odd years of using LEGO I have only broken one or two and that was through abusive play or misuse.

Out of the tens of thousands of pieces I own I am happy to say I have broken less than 1% of them. No other toy can boast such durablity.

[Mithrandir]

I had a light gray 6x8 plate from Roaring Roadsters with a deformed stud on top.

It's the stud where the injection point is, it was all weird shaped and I had to get an xacto knife to cut off the excess plastic.

Also that set was missing two pieces (first lego set I've ever seen to be missing two; dark grey 1x6 plate, dark gray 1x2 plate with handle), and the absolute weirdest thing ever: the set came with one OLD dark grey 2x4 plate.

WTF?

Out of the tens of thousands of pieces I own I am happy to say I have broken less than 1% of them. No other toy can boast such durablity.

The only lego piece I've ever broken was an old 24-tooth technic gear (the one with the extra axle holes).

I, in my youth, had just learned the concept of trading torque for speed, so I decided to build the biggest gearbox I could create, using every gear I had. Using 24t gears to spin 8t gears, I created a system that increased the speed of each axle by a factor of 3, using 7 axles, I managed to obtain a gearing ratio of 729:1.

Content with my geniousocicity, I decided to spin the lowest gear. It didn't work, there was too much friction. After generously adding bushings all over the place and using more plates to brace the box, I decided to give it another go.

MARVELOUS! The highest gear instantly whipped into action!

Now Faster! FASTER! FASTER!!!!!

*SNAP*

The last 24t gear made a loud snapping noise, and flew up and whacked me in my forehead.

Crapsticks. The plastic in the gear broke on one of the outer axleholes.

I lost a good gear that day.

I'm guessing this is why they redesigned the gear without the extra axleholes:

[Deinonychus]

Yikes! This is slightly horrifying to me! X-O

In my 29 years of playing with LEGO I've only ever broken one brick and seen one other broken one.

And I broke a real deal 2x4 brick, it wandered away from the pile and found it's way under the awesome crushing power of my boot...otherwise in all my tens of thousands of LEGO pieces I've only had that one casualty

[xwingyoda]

The only part I broke is the legs of the Super Battle Droid >:-( Argh, how to ruin a more than 20$ fig !!

Those darn attacments are quite fragile :'-(

Oh well...

*yoda*

[Sir Dillon]

The only part I broke is the legs of the Super Battle Droid >:-( Argh, how to ruin a more than 20$ fig !!

Those darn attacments are quite fragile :'-(

Oh well...

*yoda*

Ouch. :-( Did you throw the pieces away? Would it be possible to glue back together?

[xwingyoda]

I lost at the time the broken blue part so it's impossible to glue it :'-(

However now it looks cool on a battle field chopped in two by a lightsaber :-D

*yoda*

[Mister Phes]

both of my orange clip pieces from the snowspeeder and ATST mini set *n* *sing* :'-(

The clips on flags have always been a weak point... They break so easily which is really annoying because if they both break then the flag can't be clipped onto anything without the assistance of super glue.

[xwingyoda]

Phes, the legs of my broken Super Battle Droid is that same clips as you refer in your previous post !! But on the droid, there is only one clip that holds the fig together ;-)

*yoda*

[Mister Phes]

I know nothing of Super Battle Droids so I cannot answer the question, however I shall provide a picture of which I speak (errr... write...)

[xwingyoda]

I didn't ask any question, I was just letting you know that the clips used on flags and droids are the same, its all.

*yoda*

[optimus-convoy]

I've broke some parts over the years. Mainly due to accidental carelessness. :-(

But recently I've noticed some newer bricks and plates crack after just being connected for a while. *wacko*

[Mister Phes]

Phes, the legs of my broken Super Battle Droid is that same clips as you refer in your previous post !! But on the droid, there is only one clip that holds the fig together ;-)

Ahhhhh... A typographic error has occurred!

I didn't ask any question, I was just letting you know that the clips used on flags and droids are the same, its all.

You meant: "Phes, the legs of my broken Super Battle Droid have the same clips as you refer in your previous post !!"

Now I understand!

[xwingyoda]

As long as you understand, all is good :-P Also congrats on using a perfect copy/paste !!

*yoda*

[snefroe]

hm...

i've broken several pieces when i was young...

let me see...

1) the 6x10 plate of my galaxy exploerer

2) mast/flag of the yellow castle

3) classic sword

4) 2x8 old grey plate

5) white brick hinge of the Star Voyager

6) white base plate of a classic police car

7) broken off a section of a trans red 1x1 round brick

8) clips on sadles for the castle horses

9) grey hinge plate

10) red 4x12 plate

think that's it...

[captaintau]

I lost at the time the broken blue part so it's impossible to glue it :'-(

However now it looks cool on a battle field chopped in two by a lightsaber :-D

*yoda*

:-D

I like this. Sort of an unintentional MOC.

As to pieces I've broken - thankfully few and far between. Nothing as an AFOL. Couple of things when far younger. Helicopter rotors seemed a little fragile, as did digger spades. Went through several of each.

I had a really smart Technic car. I broke an essential part of the gearing for which I had no spare. No idea what the part is called, but it was sort of a two-hinge thing with axel holes on each end. I accidentally but teh end of an unrelated axel through one of holes at the double-hinge. Tried to drive forward - SNAP! That was the end of use of the best Technic set I had.

[jof]

I think quality is suffering.

I have my original late 70's/early 80's minifigs that are fine & in working order & played with by the kids all the time, yet I have harry potter minifigs that have cracked on the arms so the hands won't stay in.

Its not just the harry potter figs either, some of the other new minifigs have gone the same way.

Looking back over the old figs, I only appear to have 1 nondescript man & a yellow spaceman that have suffererd vintage 1989/90.

I have put darth away in a box so the kids don't get him!

Jof

[Berry Syedow]

It could very well be that TLC is giving us an inferior product (quality wise) to save money. I've been playing around with a new tan 2x6 plate from 4884 Wild Hunters in comparison to another one from one of the first adventurer sets.

The one significant difference is the sticking noise when fused to another gray 2x6 plate. There's a very distinct squeaky sound. When I fuse the newer plate onto the gray one there is almost no sound, and definitely no squeak. I can even rub my fingers against the older tan plate and still hear that distinct squeak. The newer one? No dice.

Now this doesn't mean that the newer piece is inferior in quality, but it's safe to say they're not composed of identical ingredients.

I also have three Star Wars mini-figs that are cracked (two arms, one torso). The arms aren't so bad because they can be replaced, the torso on the other hand... :-(

[snefroe]

Yep, broke a piece today.

one of those 1*1 plate with cliplight pieces.

From the Aero Pod

was sliding a lightsaber rod into it and it just cracked. Since when are bricks brittle?

I think the lightsaber rod is mostly to blame. Nearly every single one I've seen has had problems with the alignment of each halve of the mould, so that instead of having a round profile, they tend to be oval shaped or like two semicircles offset with a jagged edge. The uneven shape probably didn't fit the hole in the clip correctly... tho they really should stretch, not just crack...

Anyone else notice consistently bad lightsaber rods? Maybe TLC serously needs to update them....

i also used to have lots of problems with this clip when i was playing with lego as a kid. Back then you very often had to put an antenna thru it, which was rather difficult to do. Getting it in wasn't that hard, though, it was getting the antenna out of it later on that was a very hazardous job... and yep, very often the clip just broke... that's why they redesigned the clip, making the ring stronger than on the older one... It's like the old space helmets, really.... the front section of those things cracked very easily, so they changed it a few years later as well...

[Echo]

I too have noticed a slight decrease in the quality of bricks. It is most visible in the '06 Bionicle sets, specifically the ugly crudpiles known as Piraka. The ball joints are extremely loose in all six of my (Now taken apart.) Piraka.

I now get to use a funny image I found in JINZO's Brickshelf.

:-P

[Skinny Boy]

Super Battle Droid Hands/Arms. They don't last very long, one of my hands came off one of them, the other cracked down the middle. COMPLETELY UNUSABLE.

[JINZONINGEN73]

I too have noticed a slight decrease in the quality of bricks. It is most visible in the '06 Bionicle sets, specifically the ugly crudpiles known as Piraka. The ball joints are extremely loose in all six of my (Now taken apart.) Piraka.

I now get to use a funny image I found in JINZO's Brickshelf.

:-P

Heh... beat me to my own punch. X D

I've only really been buying / playing with Lego since about 1991, and I can say I've broken a good few parts, but I've also seen a good few that were broken to almost broken fresh from the package. Like in the pic above, I have MANY of those parts in various colors with cracks in them. Some of that might be attributable to me being a mocer who likes to build robots TIGHT, in ways Lego would never do. But also some of those parts were already compromised from the get go. There were lime joints I got from NuiRama sets which actually had microscopic GAPS on the top of the axle hole opposite the ball holder.

Then there was the all-too-brittle arms from the Tohunga sets sold at McDonald's (also lime) which just broke in two.

The biggest crime in Legoland has to be those lightsaber rods... yikes.

Like people in this topic are sayin', they OFTEN get stuck to a point of frustration where breaking the part it's stuck in starts to seem logical.

God forbid you stick a saber lengthwise through the part shown above... it's almost guaranteed you'll have to shatter your teeth or break out the vicegrips to remove it (all the while DESTROYING it, cosmetically).

I know I'm leaving out a few other problem parts, but I'm too tired right now to bother remembering them.

: D

I also have three Star Wars mini-figs that are cracked (two arms, one torso).

Same here... C-3PO was a mess in plastic quality. Must've been a result of using metal flakes to make him speckled... ?

Berry Syedow Posted Jun 13 2006, 06:53 PM

It could very well be that TLC is giving us an inferior product (quality wise) to save money.

Unfortunately, I do see that as totally possible. They better stop it if they are, for Lego's number one trump card against all their competitors is THE QUALITY OF THEIR MATERIALS. If they lose that, then they're just Megablox.