Well.....It finally happened!

[Jetrax99]

One of the joints on Furno 2.0 developed a crack big enough to render the joint useless. It'll still connect, but there's no more friction. It's all floppy.

He won't be able to stand on that.

So far it's only Furno who has the problems. I did pick him up right as the 2.0 sets came out so that may be a contributing factor.

Anyone else experiencing this problem?

[Mephek]

I have so many broken HF parts

1 stormer 3.0 claw

2 furno 4.0 chestplates

dozens of bone parts

dozens of hydraxon fingers

2 blue hands

ect. Still last longer than bionicle. I have enough duplicates for those small amounts to not hurt me.

[BrickBuilder3213]

Only one part has broken for me so far... A yellow Exo-Force arm that came with Brain Attack Evo.

[VBBN]

One of those small blades that were used a lot on the Fire villains busted yesterday, however I fear that was my fault. They were on the back of Kronos' (Chaos/Tyrant) heel and his weight finally took a toll on it

And Mephek what in blazes do you do to your parts? Even pieces that have been taken apart hundreds of times haven't broken on me, I can't imagine how that many parts could break under normal conditions

[WARHEAD]

I've broken ALL of those little red claws that came with Core Hunter. And I bought two of that set :I

But every other part is still perfectly fine, the joints aren't even getting a bit loose.

Edited January 4, 2014 by WARHEAD

[vexorian]

None of my bones broke. What does break all the time are the system bricks that come with HF, the exo force arms, the claws... Yeah, system is less resitant than HF :/

[VBBN]

The issue with the breaking system parts is because that connection is not as easy to reduce stress on. With a ball and socket system you can depress the ball's surface to reduce the shock of the connection, and the cup can be strengthened with a shape that allows and easier initial connection. The small exo force arms and claws use the bar system. If you attempt to modify the dimensions of the bar or the clip, you risk the connection becoming loose. The current solution to the shock reduction is shown by the hand components. A minifigure hand is a softer plastic, and while it doesn't have as firm of a grip as some other pieces might, it helps to accommodate the size of the bar. The exo force robot hands had a notch at the back of the clip, once again reducing the stress while offering a slightly looser connection. It also called for a larger piece to accommodate that notch. The bar itself would be difficult to depress, as there is the risk that any change in it's surface would cause the clip to fall off.

I could be quite wrong with my analysis here, but from my observations that is the main issue. As of lately none of my arm pieces have broken, but I have noticed that it takes more force to remove than I would normally like

[ZORK64]

My HF parts are all intact, as far as I know... unless some of my joints from the 2010 line actually broke, but hey, those are the old-style joints.

I must confess though that I didn't got around to MOC much in the past months, so many of my newer sets are still in their original condition.

[takarawarrior2014]

breez's 5.0 chest broke as well as waspix's chest

[Dorek]

None, same with basically any joint post-2007 (the lime joints actually were a problem).

Of course they're going to break at some point. It's not made of diamonds. But there's always this paranoia of faults (especially since the lime joint fiasco, which was, as I say, actually a thing) related to the parts. This is why LEGO's replacement part service exists. They know a minority of people will experience this problem for assorted reasons, so they offer a solution.

[Jetrax99]

None, same with basically any joint post-2007 (the lime joints actually were a problem).

Of course they're going to break at some point. It's not made of diamonds. But there's always this paranoia of faults (especially since the lime joint fiasco, which was, as I say, actually a thing) related to the parts. This is why LEGO's replacement part service exists. They know a minority of people will experience this problem for assorted reasons, so they offer a solution.

Yes, but sadly replacement parts from LEGO aren't free (whereas replacement parts from MEGA are)

[Lyichir]

Yes, but sadly replacement parts from LEGO aren't free (whereas replacement parts from MEGA are)

Well, you know what they say: you get what you pay for...

I do think Lego sends free replacement parts for missing parts, but if they did so for broken parts I think you'd see more and more collectors claiming their army of minifigures all "broke".

[Faefrost]

is charging for parts replacement something specific to the constraction lines? I have had them replace broken system parts (mainly stuff broken or defective out of the box) and they never charge or even ask a question. I think once they asked for a picture of a part that was extremely damaged out of the box. But from the conversation with them it was more so they could show engineering the damage, and not that I had to prove that it was damaged.

[Dorek]

Their system makes subtle differentiations between "came broken" and "has broken", so the two often get mixed up. Ultimately they encourage old sets with broken pieces to go through PAB (how else would they make money?) but it's not uncommon for people to simplify the process to just check it as "missing" because the PAB store is not the greatest, and the claims system involves some dialogue.

[Mephek]

One of those small blades that were used a lot on the Fire villains busted yesterday, however I fear that was my fault. They were on the back of Kronos' (Chaos/Tyrant) heel and his weight finally took a toll on it

And Mephek what in blazes do you do to your parts? Even pieces that have been taken apart hundreds of times haven't broken on me, I can't imagine how that many parts could break under normal conditions

I honestly have no clue. I just kept them in boxes, tried rebuilding sets with them and *SNAP* loads of parts break.

[bacem]

never have broken HF parts, at least until now.

[Infernum]

I find how many people's parts have snapped quite shocking... I MOC a lot, and I've never had a single HF joint snap/crack.

[legoknight00]

at least 8 of those little spacer guys have cracked on me, at least 3 of the blue three bar- connector things have broken, two core hunter claws, one of those mini- holder claw things from rocka 4.0, and a robot finger

[Bfahome]

None, same with basically any joint post-2007 (the lime joints actually were a problem).

Your 2008-2010 joints survived? How?

[Dorek]

Because the "cracking" problem was massively overhyped? I had a few break, just as I had a few from pre-2007 break. In the grand scale of things, pretty negligible.

[Mesonak]

I'll just chime in and say that the majority of my joints from 2009, 2010, and HF 1.0 (and I owned nearly all the sets from those years) all broke within a relatively short timeframe from normal use and MoCing.

Ironically, 2008 remained pretty unscathed. :P

Edited January 5, 2014 by Mesonak

[Infernum]

None of my early BIONICLE joints broke, only the limes ones from Elhek and all of the Stars sets' joints

[Aanchir]

Because the "cracking" problem was massively overhyped? I had a few break, just as I had a few from pre-2007 break. In the grand scale of things, pretty negligible.

I have had lots of mine and my brother's break, even though I take extra special care with them. Even my Glatorian head from Stormer XL ended up breaking — since then, I haven't even attempted to remove a Glatorian head or other pre-2011 joint piece from any of my Hero Factory or BIONICLE figures. It wasn't as big a problem as lime green 2007 joints, but it's incredibly rude and presumptuous to suggest that it wasn't a real problem because you personally didn't experience it to the same degree as other people.

Among pre-2007 parts, the only BIONICLE parts of mine that tended to break were Bohrok feet and 7M double ball cups (which I learned early on were somewhat fragile compared to their 5M counterparts). But Y-joints, Glatorian heads, double ball cups of both sizes, and Matoran/Agori/Stars limbs gave me a lot of grief throughout 2008—2010.

Edited January 5, 2014 by Aanchir

[Dorek]

Doesn't that work both ways? It's all anecdotal. Obviously the 2007 lime joints were a legitimate problem, but the rest was just hype brought on by the changing of the joint style.

Regardless, it's all a lot better now. And will continue to improve in the future, I'm sure.

[TheDesuComplex]

Around half of my 2008-2010 joints disintegrated within 3 or so months, and most of my figures are hanging on by a thread. Technic bits are a similar story, but those are designed to be easily replaceable. I've never had a CCBS piece break on me though.