I just got myself a Wei Jiang M01 Commander (great figure BTW). Those who know me know that I baby all of my Transformers. This figure is pretty tight so I transformed it very carefully.

When I tabbed the legs together (gently as I could), however, stress mark suddenly showed up on one of the holes there... >_>

So my question is: Are some figures/parts just prone to stress mark no matter how gentle you are with them?

I guess I'm going to refrain from transforming him anymore.

 

Yes. Stress marks can occur from:
-factory assembly alone.
-just moving parts around.
-transformation.
-tabbing in stuff.
-unclipping stuff.

So yeah, even basically carefully transformation can cause stress marks.

The more brick-ish and robust the toy, the less likely you'll have stress marks. Stress marks became more prevalent when stuff got more complex.

 

CHUG Wreck-gar is notorious for getting stress marks in his hands if you have him holding his weapon.

 

Any figure with that style of hand and a staff type weapon, like ROTF Bludgeon and Wreck-Gar, is bound to get stress marks inevitably. My first copy of ROTF Bludgeon had his hand snap in half due to overuse, I'm very glad Has/Tak have not been using that style of hands lately.

 

TR Triggerhappy curiously has gotten a stress mark at the joint where the waist locks into the torso, and I thought I was being pretty gentle with it.

 

This is a good list but one more to add is quality of the material being used.

 

It depends. Some figures have parts that will stress up no matter what due to quality control or poor design. Others will only break through extreme stress or intentional damage.

 

Another good example of "will break eventually" is the cone section for the old Titanium seeker jets. That piece folds onto the back and is only attached by a small plastic joint and a connector with very thin plastic. With enough use, the connector WILL give out over time. The good news is that it will still work just fine...it's just no longer attached to the figure properly.

 

I have had four classics Rodimus. The chest/hood hinges all either broke or had severe stress marks. It just happens to some figures due to the various reasons that others already listed.

 

At first I thought of my wife, but joking aside, the stress mark that appeared even by mild hamfisting was PE Warden's BFG's handle that connects to the barrel by a ball. The joint turned whitish so I decided just to leave the BFG alone in my display cabinet...