Broken pieces. Broken pieces everywhere...

[M.T.M.A.]

Firstly, um, hi! 

 

I've been absent from the forums for quite some time, and from Bionicle too, as a whole. 

 

I recently dug up my old sets from my closet and found most of them in this state:

 

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B_qEInzNWEuSNGxrSG9WR2VWT28/view?usp=sharing

 

This leads me to some questions. 

 

First, can I fix this?

 

Second, what causes this in most of my sets?

 

Third, are the new guys prone to breaking like this?

Edited August 19, 2015 by MTMA

[xccj]

Ouch.  Those are quite the broken pieces.

 

Between like 2007 and 2010, a lot of the Bionicle sockets started getting weaker and breaking a lot more, in my experience anyway.  (The lime green of 07 was especially brittle due to some mix up with the mold.)  They did a couple of design changes, but something just made those sockets weaker.  And, granted, they are one of the most stressed pieces in any build, so it makes some sense that they'd be the first to break.  But they churned out a new system of building in 2011, and the sockets in particular are much sturdier.  (They come in fewer colors now unfortunately.)  While LEGO does a decent job at replacing broken pieces if you ask them, those style of sockets are too old now so they won't have them in stock to send you replacements.  If you want to replace them, I would suggest looking on the secondary market, like Bricklink, where you can buy individual sockets for cheap.  Never attempted to "fix" the broken pieces myself.

 

TLDR: 1- Probably not.  2 - bad design, play wear.  3- New guys are better.

 

[dotcom]

Wow. I'm not sure how that happened. Some parts in Bionicle's run were prone to breaking, but not these, and not like this. Maybe something about the way they were stored? I really don't know. I can't imagine being able to fix these properly.

 

The new sets aren't prone to breaking at all, though, no.

[M.T.M.A.]

And almost none escaped this... Rahkshi, Bohrok-Kal, Toa Hordika, Toa Mata... I just stored them in their canisters.

[Xan]

Yeah, I find that is quite common. Could be worse. 

 

[M.T.M.A.]

Yeah, I find that is quite common. Could be worse. 

 

 

Aren't these the new sockets? O_O

Edited August 19, 2015 by MTMA

[Bfahome]

I don't think I've had this kind of problem with any of those pieces, but I imagine it's due to how they were stored.  If they were stored with any sort of twist or bend on the axles, that may have weakened the pieces over time to the point where they broke.  Were they already broken, or did they only break once you took them out?  Also, any extreme temperatures or temperature swings could've weakened them as well.

 

Also, I don't know if the new sets are less prone to this kind of breakage.  The main weakness was in the socket cups themselves, so those were what was strengthened.  I don't think the newer pieces did anything to fix this specific issue, since it's less likely to happen.

[Bonkle]

 

Yeah, I find that is quite common. Could be worse. 

 

 

 

Aren't these the new sockets? O_O

 

Yes, but it would probably take a lot more to break them. I'm curious myself about what happened to them.

 

The only piece I've ever broken was one of the pieces on the left of the photo, a red one from Hero Factory.

[M.T.M.A.]

I had considered selling them for parts online... But I can't let go of them, they were part of... Well they WERE my childhood.

 

I'm thinking of keeping them here until I buy a 3D printer and remake the pieces ._.

[Xan]

 

 

Yeah, I find that is quite common. Could be worse. 

 

 

 

Aren't these the new sockets? O_O

 

Yes, but it would probably take a lot more to break them. I'm curious myself about what happened to them.

 

The only piece I've ever broken was one of the pieces on the left of the photo, a red one from Hero Factory.

 

I'll tell you now, one of those leg pieces came from Tahu, and broke while I was building him. 

 

The other two were from some Hero Factory sets, and the hand piece was from my Mutran moc, and broke while I was disassembling him.  

 

And no, I'm not built like Hulk. 

[Bonkle]

 

 

 

Yeah, I find that is quite common. Could be worse. 

 

 

 

Aren't these the new sockets? O_O

 

Yes, but it would probably take a lot more to break them. I'm curious myself about what happened to them.

 

The only piece I've ever broken was one of the pieces on the left of the photo, a red one from Hero Factory.

 

I'll tell you now, one of those leg pieces came from Tahu, and broke while I was building him. 

 

The other two were from some Hero Factory sets, and the hand piece was from my Mutran moc, and broke while I was disassembling him.  

 

And no, I'm not built like Hulk. 

 

I guess the Vahki were right.

 

 

 

Hope is fragile.

[M.T.M.A.]

I was planning on getting Kopaka, at least. Any reports of breakage on him?

[Nescent]

I'll tell you now, one of those leg pieces came from Tahu, and broke while I was building him. 

 

The other two were from some Hero Factory sets, and the hand piece was from my Mutran moc, and broke while I was disassembling him.  

 

And no, I'm not built like Hulk. 

 

I hope you got replacement parts from LEGO, especially on those parts from Tahu.

 

It's weird, because I've built, re-built, re-re-built, and re-re-re-re-re-re-built all of the G2 sets with absolutely no breakage or noticeable wear on any of the parts. And I'm really not super careful with them either, since they seem silly-durable.

 

That Y-joint split down the middle is just...2007 lime-green levels of destroyed.

[Bfahome]

I had considered selling them for parts online... But I can't let go of them, they were part of... Well they WERE my childhood.

 

I'm thinking of keeping them here until I buy a 3D printer and remake the pieces ._.

Trying to 3D print new pieces isn't a good idea.  The precision and consistency needed for an effective LEGO piece, especially something like a ball cup, likely isn't something you'll be able to get from most affordable printers.  You'd be better off financially just ordering new ones from BrickLink.

[MrSciFiGuy]

Depends on the temperature and environment they were stored in, but sadly there is no repair. This also makes it hard to MOC with any 07-10 pieces :/

[Wazdakka]

Wow. I'm not sure how that happened. Some parts in Bionicle's run were prone to breaking, but not these, and not like this. Maybe something about the way they were stored? I really don't know. I can't imagine being able to fix these properly.

 

The new sets aren't prone to breaking at all, though, no.

 

I am similarly surprised that Hordika pieces (2005) are breaking. 2007-2008 pieces were known to be relatively prone to breaking, but not those. I second the advice of others - just BrickLink some replacement parts. It shouldn't be very expensive at all. 

[Guardian Legend]

I've had many issues with the lime green pieces. I still hate to think about it, even after all this time. 

[Ignatius]

I have Kongu Inika and I've been trying to replace his pieces for a few months now. Mostly ball sockets on the hand-piece-thingies and a chewed up axle. I've also lost one of the blue zamor spheres. 

Any ideas where I can replace these?

Edited August 19, 2015 by Ignatius

[Xan]

You could buy replacements from BrickLink. 

[AvakNuva]

From what i have seen, the gray "hand" pieces are pretty common. So you can replace them by taking apart some other sets you have. Or if you have a bionicle parts bin, check that out.

[masterchirox580]

After having my sets stored in plastic tubs for many years a lot of my pieces (particularly from 2006 onwards) have ended up like this, nothing you can do really, best you can do is buy replacement sets or replacement parts. Although interestingly enough my sets from 2001-2005 don't have this problem that often. 

[Xan]

I actually only just got a replacement for Tahu. The funny thing is, none of the joints on my Lesovikk are broken. 

[Hidron Nuva]

I wonder how we will replace the broken pieces in 2040. I wish the new pieces had the socket used for the armor pieces (also used for Hero Factory 2.0 heads).

[Shadow Destroyer]

Like many have already said, bricklink is your best bet. I'd say you could replace many of the broken parts in your collection for under $20.00 if you find the right seller.

[Tuuli]

My new pieces don't break like that you must be applying some sort of force beyond our imagination.

[Umm Durmán]

Firstly, um, hi! 

 

I've been absent from the forums for quite some time, and from Bionicle too, as a whole. 

 

I recently dug up my old sets from my closet and found most of them in this state:

 

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B_qEInzNWEuSNGxrSG9WR2VWT28/view?usp=sharing

 

This leads me to some questions. 

 

First, can I fix this?

 

Second, what causes this in most of my sets?

 

Third, are the new guys prone to breaking like this?

 

Hey there, first of all let me tell you that I had this same problem. I discovered cracks on my bellowed Bionicle sets sometimes in winter of 2014 (Northern hemisphere winter I mean  ). I have a solution for you, although the solution doesn’t involve repairing, it involves rebuilding. When I saw those cracks on my Bionicles I pretty much just told them my farewell and put them into a paper box, which I put into storage in one of my old stuff storage cabinets (kinda the equivalent of a burial). This day was the end of my original Bionicles. But it was not the end of Bionicle for me, just as 9/11 was not the end for the World Trade Center. Just as the Freedom Tower was rising in New York City to replace the fallen twins, so was I brewing plans on how to rebuild my collection. Buying new parts was out of the question since all parts I could order would be of nearly identical age and so probably wouldn’t last much longer. Home iron casting was too technically and economically difficult and therefore unfeasible, resin casting, while feasible, required still a of an effort just to get Bionicles of equal strength (resin casting can be done easier but then you have to sacrifice strength and to me rebuilding my Bionicles weaker than they were before was out of the question – utterly unacceptable), concrete casting is easy, but the parts would have been very weak, 3D printing is hideously expensive and the printed material will be most probably inferior to the ABS plastic of the originals. So all of these proposals were discarded by me. However then I came upon the idea of building a new generation of sets out of various steel parts you can get in your local iron store. This was the single greatest Bionicle related idea of my life (I said Bionicle related, so don’t tell me that I have no life, ROFL  ). So I went to our largest iron store and bought all the pieces I needed. Out of them I was able to faithfully recreate the Bionicles I loved so much, stronger and better than ever before. Here I will present to you what I built. But first I will talk about the pros and cons of sets made this way:

 

Pros:

1, Heavy duty structural steel is far, far stronger than ABS plastic so my rebuilt sets can endure forces and stresses far above and beyond what original Bionicles could ever hope to endure.

 

2, This steel is also far more durable, than the quickly decaying ABS. If you keep these sets out of rain they can stand tall for a millennium, just like medieval swords you see in your local museum. Your grand children will be playing with these sets …….. and the grand children of your grand children ……..

 

3, My custom sets solve the eternal battle between posability and playability. In Bionicle there was always this schism between those who wanted the limbs of the sets to be hard, so that they can play with them and those, who wanted these limbs to be movable, so that they can put their sets into various different poses. My steel Bionicles can do both. If you leave the nut of the screws un-fastened, the limb can move without any resistance, if you fasten the nut a bit, the limb moves at some resistance, but is still movable, if you fasten it hard, the limb will be immovable even during the most heavy duty playing.

 

4, The customizability is also a great plus. With the parts I bought at my local iron store I can build far more customized sets, since they are smaller, but far more modular with far more connectivity options. There is a myriad of ways in which you can build even a basic Toa and it is up to you to decide which of these potential builds you like the most. Creativity is the key to getting optimal results, just as in original Bionicles, however with these sets I have far more options than I did with the original sets.

 

5, Cost is another positive aspect of this way of rebuilding. Fact is, building one of these Bionicles is actually far cheaper than buying an original Bionicle. I don’t know the exact figures, but I estimate that one of the smaller, Toa sized Bionicles I made costs about 8 euros, which is far less than the cost you would pay if you would order the original from ebay.

 

Cons:

 

1, Steel is much heavier than ABS, so if you drop one of these sets on your foot, you’ll gonna feel it  .

 

2, While you don’t really need anything except for your bare hands to assemble these sets, it is nevertheless recommended to have a wrench – both for greater comfort and for being able to fasten the nuts more than you could just with your fleshy fingers  .

 

3, If you want, you can make your Bionicles look very much like the originals, however they will never truly be the originals. They will be Bionicles, no doubt about that, just as the Toa in Bionicle the Game, however they won’t be LEGO. To me this doesn’t matter, but to some it might, so I am listing it here just so you are informed  .

 

And after this whole essay, there is finally time for showing you what I built. Here is the gallery I present:

 

 

These are all I need to build any Bionicle save for the mask. Don't believe me? Let me prove it to you below   I bet that each iron store around the world might have different versions of these parts in different sizes. That doesn't matter, as long as the parts are compatible to each other (and with the right screws they will be) everything is OK.

 

 

Ladies and gentlemen, here you can see the mighty Axonn himself. He stands 32,5 centimeters tall (to the tip of his mask horn-thingy  ). He is one of the large steel Bionicles in my collection This is the default color of the steel parts, I could color him any way I would like, but I kinda like the quicksilver look he has to him, so I decided to not color him. But if any of you would like to color such a Bionicle, I'm sure you could find the right colors in your local model store or paint store (although I would recommend a model store since in paint stores they usually have only large packages of color, which are a waste if you want to paint only a few small parts). Please note that all four limbs (the arms/hands and legs/feet) are completely identical, so there is no differenece between their build.

 

 

Here is a side view of Axonn.

 

 

Sorry for the blurriness folks, I'm pathetic at using my own camera   Here you can see a closeup of the arm. The build allows for 360 degree forward/backward movement of the arm, an approximately 225 degree sideways movement of the arm, 360 degree rotating of the arm and an approximately 270 degree flexing in and flexing out of the elbow.

 

 

Here you can see Axonn's hand. It can rotate 360 degrees and each of the four fingers can be moved independently by about 225 degrees.

 

 

In this pic and the next three pics you will see the torso and head. Not much to say about it, the head can be moved in a 360 degree motion to the left or to the right.

 

 

 

 

 

This is Tahu Mata. He is 21,5centimeters tall and he is one of the smaller Bionicles in my collection. The build is very similar to the build of the larger Axonn, all four limbs are again identical, save for an additional two screws on each foot, cause without them he would have very poor stability.

 

 

Side view of Tahu.

 

 

The mobility of the arms and legs is the same as that of Axonn, with the only difference being that while the hand and foot can be opened and closed, there are no individual fingers. Please note the two additional stability screws on the foot.

 

 

The mobility of the head is the same as that of Axonn.

 

 

 

 

 

I definitely would recommend to get one of these. Life is so much more beautiful if you don't need to rely solely on your soft fingers. I myself have three of these (all three of the same size of course  ), just to be sure

 

OK, so we finally made it to the end of this whole huge presentation. I apologize if I have cut off a sizable chunk of BZP forumers' time, however I wanted to share my experiences and the solution to which I came. At the end everybody must decide what to do about those nasty cracks on our bellowed sets but this is one of the possible solutions. If anybody would have any questions about my rebuilding effort or anything else, please contact me via PM or post a reply in this thread