Why Did My Pieces Break?

Most pieces take a fair amount of pressure to snap. They usually will get stress marks first and if pressure is continued might finally break. There are also some pieces that snap with little effort. Just connecting to another piece or trying to get them apart will cause this disaster. With little effort, these all broke while trying to separate them. It is hard to tell what pieces are going to be brittle by just looking at them. The only exception is Brittle Blue.

The 2×4 brick on the left is normal Blue. The one on the right is Brittle Blue. Of the colors that are prone to breaking, Blue is one where there is a noticeable color difference. It looks a little yellower than normal blue though this could also be due to age as well. The easiest way to tell is if you can easily break it. The colors so far I have found that are Brittle are Blue, Dark Red, Dark Green, Green and Reddish Brown. It is not just bricks and plates but minifig parts and accessories.

The 10177 Boeing Dreamliner set from 2006 had a lot of Brittle Blue. I came across a used one and lost half the pieces disassembling it. Recently my own 10226 Sopwith Camel from 2012 crashed on display and almost all the Dark Green and Reddish Brown broke trying to put it back together

As a seller, I try to catch all the Brittle Blue pieces I see. The other colors are not noticeably different so it is hard to not sell them and aren't sold intentionally. Larger pieces that can be flexed I will bend them to see if they crack. The two sets that I have found are in a six year span so hopefully this is a problem that won't happen again.