I've had a few pieces break over the years, which was a real bummer as I was not expecting them to.
What are some commonly used pieces that are prone to breaking? Pieces that should be handled carefully and stored separately.
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6This might be better as a community wiki, as there are multiple correct answers.– PubbyCommented Oct 29, 2011 at 14:05
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I didn't know Lego bricks could break! I realize there is a theoretical limit but I've never seen damage.– William GrobmanCommented Oct 29, 2011 at 14:21
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1A single answer might be better as CW, if we are to build the list ourselves rather than find an external resource; not the question.– user23Commented Oct 29, 2011 at 18:58
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I had a leg peice break. I never have had this happen.– user5619Commented Mar 26, 2015 at 0:57
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2Easy one: the space helmet.– Stephane DelcroixCommented Apr 7, 2015 at 7:51
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18 Answers
Lego is generally quite robust, but there are potential weaknesses:
Material Problems
Some parts are prone to damage as a consequence of the material from which they are made:
Plastic
- Sunlight can cause discoloration
- Bricks can be damaged by extremes of temperature
- Older bricks (pre ABS) are prone to warping, discoloration and may become brittle
- Most plastic bricks are easily damaged by pressure (eg. from teeth) and abrasion
Stickers
- Most are easily damaged by water
- Wear easily
- Are easily damaged when they span components
Rubber
- Rubber bands tend to perish
Structural Problems
Damage can also be caused due to the shape and structure of some components:
Long Parts
Long thin parts are prone to bending or snapping under load, for example:
- Long technic beams
- Flags, signs etc. with long stems
- Larger plates and baseboards
- Swords
- Propeller blades
Clips and Other Joints
- Lego clips are prone to breaking under stress, for example:
- Minifigure hands
- Flags that clip on to flag poles
- Bricks with clips on
- etc.
- For older types of window frame, the lugs that hold the shutters can snap off quite easily:
- Ball sockets can break if you force the ball out by levering it against the socket instead of pulling it straight out.
- The hinge holes on chests can be stripped out by pushing the lid open too far
Technic Parts
Wheels and gears can crack under stress
Smaller items that fit on technic (axles bushes and the smaller cogs) are easily crushed
Other Parts
- It is rather easy to supply excessive force to angle brackets eg. by stepping on them or when they are at the junction long parts that can apply leverage
Electronics
Electronic items have special problems:
- Battery boxes can be ruined by leaking batteries
- Electrical items can be damaged by applying the wrong voltage, eg. 12v to 4.5v lamps
- Most electrical items can be damaged by water
- Cables break easily, and (at least in the case of the old 4.5v system) can easily be pulled from plugs
- Some conductors are prone to corrosion
Recommendations
I recommend:
- Sort lego before washing to remove parts that will be damaged by water
- Don't play with lego on the floor where it can be stepped on
- Keep bricks out of sunlight
- Don't let bricks get too hot
- Keeping lego away from children(!) and pets
- Remove batteries when not in use
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32"Keeping lego away from children" - I think that's the most cruel thing I've ever heard.– user23Commented Oct 30, 2011 at 10:40
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2@Joe: ...and not quite serious! (I've aready bought my 7-year old more lego than I've ever owned myself) At the same time, I don't let him play with my vintage / collectors items. He just isn't ready.– KramiiCommented Oct 30, 2011 at 20:25
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"Don't play with lego on the floor where it can be stepped on". That's more for your own safety. Walking barefoot on small lego pieces hurts. A lot. Commented Dec 24, 2013 at 6:58
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If I wouldn't have played with LEGO when I was a kid most likely I would be an engineering PhD student in one big university of the UK. LEGO are the ones that brought me here, so Keep LEGO close to children Commented Mar 30, 2015 at 9:48
- Minifig Hands (and skeleton arms) - if you replace/change tools often
- Axles - be careful where bearing loads, long axles make easy weak points.
- Gears - I've had cracked 24t gears - old style, cracked old style crown gears, and those tiny bevel gears, the old style - I've had those broken too.
- Pneumatic system push fittings - I've seen sheared off.
- Electrical cables - these can get caught up and kinked which will break the signal.
- Lego space - whip antenna -
- these can snap in the long fragile stem. - Longer accessories - such as Swords and Spears can be bent and broken.
- Technic 2M Cross Axle with Groove
have been snapped under load. - Lego-made rubber bands exposed to oxygen degrade over time.
The pieces that broke most frequently for me were the 2-by-2 square flags:
They are often used in pirate sets as cannon porthole covers (shown in red on the Black Seas Barracuda). The clips tend to break very easily.
I would say the most breakable piece, in my opinion, is the Plate, Modified 1 x 1 with Clip Horizontal.
I've had quite a few of these break:
Peeron calls them Minifig Mechanical Arm (id 30377). Apparently Lego calls them Space Skeleon Arm (I'm guessing that should be Skeleton, but no idea)
They're used as door hinges in the City Passenger Plane:
The ones that break for me are the sockets for the ball joints. See http://www.flickr.com/photos/grandpappy/3988584161/...
Minifigure hook hands are easily broken — especially the gold-coloured hooks from the 2010 Pirates line, as the material used for gold pieces is rather fragile.
It isn't even a fair contest. In my childhood of playing with Lego Space sets, this piece (Bracket 2 x 2 - 2 x 2) broke the most.
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1I think there were two reasons. When used in building it was used to attach pieces which ended up being horizontal, so if there wasn't enough support underneath you could flex it at the corner of the "L" and break it. The second reason I believe is that I had all bricks in a big bucket, I think the act of sifting through the pieces may have put stress on the piece enough to bend it and it would break. If I had compartmentalized storage that may have saved some pieces.– ghoppeCommented Dec 7, 2011 at 13:47
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I too had a few of these pieces break, but not many other pieces. This is only wild speculation on my part, but it may be to do with a combination of two things: Design - Mine cracked horizontally between the studs across the hole, which is probably the weakest point due to the least amount of plastic. Sun exposure: My classic Space sets that used these pieces have quite a lot of fading and maybe the UV exposure made them brittle.– mcqwertyCommented Jul 20, 2012 at 18:30
The ones that gave me the most trouble were the "new-style" BIONICLE axle connectors like this one:
It seems that the parts holding the axle ball were much thinner than on the previous versions, and they tended to crack and break from extensive use. It was possible to use some cracked ones, but some broke beyond that.
98% precent of all the broken LEGO pieces I own are colored in reddish brown. I've broken a lot of them too. Just broke one right now, in fact. They probably use a weaker type plastic on them. I seem to be the only one who's ever noticed this.
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At some point of time elements in Dark Red were prone for braking a lot. Especially 1x1 tiles. It seems like this issue has been addressed by TLG.– AlexCommented Jan 2, 2021 at 12:14
I see no mention of Lego propeller blades. Both when I was a child and now in my kids' LEGO collection I find it hard to get a propeller that doesn't have at least 1 blade broken off.
This weekend I sorted through some boxes of lego that have laid dormant under my parents' house since I moved out. They contained bricks from the 80s to late 90s. THe only broken pieces I found where these technic chain pieces, crushed at the bottom of the box, and lego traffic signs broken off at the base. I can reuse the traffic signs by sticking them into a 1x1x1 barrel piece, but the chain is ruined and I'll need to buy a whole new one.
I remember that back in the day (which would be mid eighties), I had a number of 1×1 translucent plates split on me. Right through the middle — and then I had two halves. They would typically split either when trying to connect or disconnect them to/from a regular stud. No idea if it was a bad batch or what. Haven't had that happen with more recent versions.
Without about the hinge plate. All three I had in 6652 and 6678 broke at the time which was really disappointing in pre-Internet times as you had no way of replacing them.
Slope 30 1 x 1 x 2/3, better known under "Cheese Slope" name is another element that tend to crack even in the modern days no matter what color is being used.
Technic U-joints are also quite vulnerable parts in motorized applications.
1x1 plates in transparent colors (mainly red and green) from the Lego space sets in the 80's/90's seem to use a plastic that is very brittle to start with and doesn't age well.
Just pushing one of those onto a stud can be enough to break the piece in 2 or more parts. I just rebuild all my old sets over the Christmas holiday to identify and replace missing/damaged parts and I found I needed to replace 12 of these, out of a total of 31.
I broke about half during the rebuild. The other half were already broken 20 years ago when the pieces were relatively new. I recall that 1 snapped when it was brand-new on the first time build when I bought that set around 1995.)