parksroad Posted January 19, 2014 Posted January 19, 2014 Same problem bricks as others--noticed a lot of the cheese and curved bricks in my Blue Roadster were showing tiny cracks at the ends, and I've had it less than a year. Quote
Vee Posted January 19, 2014 Posted January 19, 2014 I think the most common problem... ... ... ... ... human perception is one of the trade offs. Summing it all up, it is a "bug" and Lego should be able to fix it, considering how much they charge us. Quote
Paperballpark Posted January 19, 2014 Posted January 19, 2014 Same problem bricks as others--noticed a lot of the cheese and curved bricks in my Blue Roadster were showing tiny cracks at the ends, and I've had it less than a year. the yellow 1x2 tile on the front of my blue roadster developed a hairline crack less than 6 months after putting it together Quote
Timoonn Posted January 19, 2014 Posted January 19, 2014 (edited) The most parts prone to crack are mini slope, most of cruved slopes, headlights bricks, 1x1 bricks, 1x2 latice slopes, 1x1 bricks with studs on sides, etc. But some "classic" parts can also crack, i have 1x6, 1x2 plates, 1x3, 1x4 bricks, etc. About the parts geometry, dont forget the clutch power. When i connect a non-cracked slope33 to another brick, or a 1x1 brick to another one, im suprised to see how the clutch power is strong. Herewith, the part can only crack because because it is too tight. Especially with a plastic thicknesses extremely minimized. Concerning TLG's reactions, except the cracked parts replacement (the replaced parts will crack, so why bother), I think that they do nothing for improving the quality, as the quality continues to decline year after year. It's been years that the problem is known and it continues. :/ Edited January 19, 2014 by Timoonn Quote
Vee Posted January 19, 2014 Posted January 19, 2014 Is it bad to have good smelling things around Lego parts? I like good smells so my "office" has some special soaps around and they are always smelling good. Is this bad for Lego? Someone wrote here that scents may contribute to this cracking problem. Quote
62Bricks Posted January 19, 2014 Posted January 19, 2014 ... Finally color. We often forget that in plastics color = chemistry! and chemistry = strength and properties of the plastic. So different colors of the same type of plastic may behave somewhat differently. A white or a red may be more brittle than a green, which may feel different or seem softer than a blue, etc. so different colors of the same part may handle stress differently. This is one of the reasons why we do not see every part in every color. TLG has to do a lot of testing. It's also one of the key reasons that some clone brands are so horrid. They don't do anywhere near the degree of needed testing on color properties. ... There may be some reporting error, here, too, as cracks may be more noticeable on some colors. I have taken to inspecting my white headlight bricks for cracks when I'm building something I want to photograph because it seemed to me they crack more frequently than other colors. I have not gone through all my headlight bricks and surveyed which are cracked, though, to verify this. It may just be that I notice the cracks on white pieces and not on other colors. Quote
LEGO Historian Posted January 19, 2014 Posted January 19, 2014 I have about 1/3 million parts that date to the 20th century... and they are segregated from more recent LEGO... Not 1 cracked element! Just some small hairline cracks visible on the bases of brittle plastic polystyrene 1x1 trans-clear round bricks. There was discoloration on some of these old parts, especially white parts, but no physical problems... even for items that were built for 20 years and later disassembled. So cracked LEGO items appears to indeed be a modern phenomenon. Quote
Vee Posted January 19, 2014 Posted January 19, 2014 I have about 1/3 million parts ... I already have 1/33 million parts... :laugh: Quote
zux Posted January 19, 2014 Posted January 19, 2014 So cracked LEGO items appears to indeed be a modern phenomenon. Since which year you call items modern? Recently I had a look at my LEGO from childhood - I was really disapointed to see lower arm part of almost all minifigs to be cracked heavily, some even have sliced cracks (that is "parallel") . All sets from early 90's. Quote
Vee Posted January 19, 2014 Posted January 19, 2014 Maybe the solution is simple. Have our Lego pieces, parts and sets stored, built, played and displayed only in an eternally controlled temperature and humidity room with air purification and no windows to avoid direct sunlight? Don't forget to wash your hands with neutral soap before handling them... This is a very upset problem. I had convinced my wife to let me buy Legos (she _is_ the boss here! ) by selling the idea that we were buying our future grandchildren their toys... Quote
Kilroy Posted January 19, 2014 Posted January 19, 2014 I have quite a few palm tree leaves from Adventurers & Pirates & they seem to brake fairly easily. I don't have many recent leave parts (My newest being the Indy Temple Run) but they are fine. The problem here is probably to do with age. Quote
Paperballpark Posted January 19, 2014 Posted January 19, 2014 Last year I was at a LUG display event, with a load of old bricks that one of the members had brought for the kiddies to build with. Taking one of the Old Light Grey plates (2x8 I think) off another plate, the Old Light Grey plate snapped clean in half, without me putting all that much pressure on it. I was quite surprised, but on closer inspection it did seem slightly 'brittle'. Quote
Faefrost Posted January 19, 2014 Posted January 19, 2014 So cracked LEGO items appears to indeed be a modern phenomenon. Yes and no, once again. I don't think we have seen any reports on cracked bricks. If you were to line up the old parts with similar new ones they all probably withstand time and forces about the same. The problem is more newer part geometries. Ie single stud gripping slopes. Which have a whole different degree of forces than older parts. Don't forget there are plenty of old parts that were prone to crack or break. Clips, old style finger hinges, etc. wherever we saw parts discontinued and redesigned there was probably some unwanted stress there. Maybe the solution is simple. Have our Lego pieces, parts and sets stored, built, played and displayed only in an eternally controlled temperature and humidity room with air purification and no windows to avoid direct sunlight? Don't forget to wash your hands with neutral soap before handling them... This is a very upset problem. I had convinced my wife to let me buy Legos (she _is_ the boss here! ) by selling the idea that we were buying our future grandchildren their toys... You do realize that by its nature, plastic will eventually deteriorate? (Granted so will wood, and most metals when exposed to air.) Quote
LEGO Historian Posted January 19, 2014 Posted January 19, 2014 Since which year you call items modern? Recently I had a look at my LEGO from childhood - I was really disapointed to see lower arm part of almost all minifigs to be cracked heavily, some even have sliced cracks (that is "parallel") . All sets from early 90's. Ah yes... the minifigs... yeah... LEGO Alzheimer's kicked in the other day.... aside from the fact that all my Minifigs from day 1 (1978) have ended up in a LEGO landfill unused and unloved in my basement... but you did jar my memory... even back in the early 80s the minifigs had issues with the too thin walls to the minifig arms... also noticed a few leg cracks... But the minifigs were not used for building... and my mind was on parts used in building... and the problem with cracks... no bricks in my collection from that era have any cracks.... Quote
AFOLguy1970 Posted January 20, 2014 Posted January 20, 2014 Unfortunately, I do not have room to display all purchased Lego sets, therefore some have had to be taken apart and stored until we can one day get a bigger house with a dedicated "Lego room". I did notice that the cheese slopes seem to be the worst offenders when it comes to cracking, therefore I did not remove them from the parts they were attached to before placing into storage. The assumption is that perhaps not cycling (taking apart, putting together, taking apart.....)the bricks and slopes will help. Quote
aurly Posted January 20, 2014 Posted January 20, 2014 Ah yes... the minifigs... yeah... LEGO Alzheimer's kicked in the other day.... aside from the fact that all my Minifigs from day 1 (1978) have ended up in a LEGO landfill unused and unloved in my basement... but you did jar my memory... even back in the early 80s the minifigs had issues with the too thin walls to the minifig arms... also noticed a few leg cracks... But the minifigs were not used for building... and my mind was on parts used in building... and the problem with cracks... no bricks in my collection from that era have any cracks.... Well, lots of mine do, you must have been a lot more careful with your bricks than I was. But I suppose my bricks cracking wasn't "just from being connected to one another" ... I can't rule out that the train motor and the stairs have something to do with that. Some of my newer bricks do crack without my "help", yes... but they're almost always types of bricks that didn't exist in the 80s (or even 90s). So you can't really compare. Quote
antp Posted January 20, 2014 Posted January 20, 2014 (edited) I have about 1/3 million parts that date to the 20th century... and they are segregated from more recent LEGO... Not 1 cracked element! I got several cracked trans-red plates & tiles. But as they are not ABS, and also were used for playing (as cars taillights, and cars used to often have crashes ), it is maybe not abnormal. In plain colors, I got a major broken one: It is a part from the late 70s / early 80s. It disintegrated when I separated it from other plates using the brick separator. Edited January 20, 2014 by antp Quote
Heppeng Posted January 20, 2014 Posted January 20, 2014 The dark grey sleepers (ties) in the 1980's train sets get very brittle and break/crack at the slightest provocation. It must be an age thing because if they were that bad new, lego would have had a serious problem! Quote
Tuinman Posted January 28, 2014 Posted January 28, 2014 Unfortunately, I do not have room to display all purchased Lego sets, therefore some have had to be taken apart and stored until we can one day get a bigger house with a dedicated "Lego room". I did notice that the cheese slopes seem to be the worst offenders when it comes to cracking, therefore I did not remove them from the parts they were attached to before placing into storage. The assumption is that perhaps not cycling (taking apart, putting together, taking apart.....)the bricks and slopes will help. Well, that doesn't help to prevent cheese slopes from cracking. Bought Dol Guldur Battle just before xmas, build it a few days after the purchase and it hasn't been taken apat since than. Still I got two cheese slopes with cracks (1 tiny, but also quite a big crack). Just to inform you... I guess that's why you always get spare cheese slopes from Lego. Quote
TheLegoDr Posted January 28, 2014 Posted January 28, 2014 (edited) ^Well you get spares because of the weight distribution and the machines that assemble the packages for the sets. Or something like that. They don't necessarily throw in spares because they expect you to crack them. Faefrost can explain this better than I can. It was mentioned above that a lot has to do with single stud connections, which makes sense since all the clutch is attached to that one brick. I have noticed all of my cracked pieces (which are a lot!) have come from single stud pieces. 1x1 plates, 1x1 bricks, 1x1 brick modified with stud on one side/two sides, 1x1 headlight brick, 1x4 arch (which has only the two single stud attachments), 1x1x2/3 cheese slope... I'm not sure why my collection is singled out. Everyone else in my LUG keeps responding they haven't found any cracked pieces, and they all live in the same town as me, so odd indeed. I guess my basement is a terrible environment for bricks to be in. I just made a rather large order of sand green cheese slopes for my mini-Hogwarts build and I'm sure they will all crack sooner or later. Definitely sucks. LEGO is in no way an investment for yourself, unless you can sell off sealed boxes to unsuspecting people... EDIT: And I have observed some cracking in my early 90s pieces from my childhood. But I've only seen headlight bricks to have cracks, and they were mostly white from what I could tell. If that is anything useful. Edited January 28, 2014 by TheLegoDr Quote
antp Posted January 29, 2014 Posted January 29, 2014 EDIT: And I have observed some cracking in my early 90s pieces from my childhood. But I've only seen headlight bricks to have cracks, and they were mostly white from what I could tell. If that is anything useful. Indeed headlight brick itself tended to crack when playing, not only the headlight plate on it, I forgot that one in my comment Quote
Deathleech Posted January 29, 2014 Posted January 29, 2014 I have noticed that a large number of my new, barely used minifigure legs seem to have stressing on the inside: This isn't really a crack and it doesn't seem to affect the poseability of the minifigure. I noticed it on a large number of their legs, but not all of them. At first I thought I might have done it from bending the legs too far forwards or backwards, but after trying it on legs without any stress they didn't seem to develop any lines. Now I think it's just from the assembly in the factories. The plastic is so thin there that it seems sometimes they develop stress cracks when they are assembled? Quote
Faefrost Posted January 29, 2014 Posted January 29, 2014 ^Well you get spares because of the weight distribution and the machines that assemble the packages for the sets. Or something like that. They don't necessarily throw in spares because they expect you to crack them. Faefrost can explain this better than I can. I think we get spares of small parts because of how they are packaged. The parts bags are packed via an automated mechanism. The machines don't count parts, they measure weight. So they add x many grams of part A to the bag, y many grams of part B, etc. I suspect that some of the smallest parts, such as studs, cheese slopes, bandanas, technic pins, etc, are individually below the margin of error for the weighing mechanism. Hence they add two of such pieces or an extra or two when setting up the machine, to insure that the parts go in the bag. Quote
Vee Posted January 29, 2014 Posted January 29, 2014 I am not sure the weight logic applies to why we get spares. Some bags have small parts and they don't have extras. Some bags have the same small parts and they have extras. I think we get extras because TLG wants us to, because they are a nice company and can spare a few cents out of their many dollars of profits per set. Quote
aurly Posted January 29, 2014 Posted January 29, 2014 It seems to be both lightweight and easily breakable parts that they give out extras for. Probably just the bits they have to replace the most often. But on the topic of brick stress, if you put a http://www.brickset.com/parts/?part=6015344 on a http://www.brickset.com/parts/?part=4654577 bricks you connect on the side don't seem to fit right, they're more stressed than they should be. Quote
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