>>10309248>despite me being relatively gentle in how I played with themThis is the thing that always gets me.
Pretty much all the post-2000ish cracked parts I've seen around the interwebs and personally are in otherwise pristine condition - no chips, no dents, no bite marks or any other indication of outside force or hamhanding and the pieces ALWAYS crack in the same way and in the same places, with that "crack - slight piece of plastic still connecting - crack" pattern on them being extremely prominent.
No one is actually playing rough with that stuff - it all comes from internal issues with the bricks themselves.