What if you take a long thin Lego piece and load up the two ends with a ton of other Lego pieces, so it looks kind of like a barbell. Then if you drop it all that weight on the sides could cause it to snap into sharp edges.

More likely, the other lego pieces on the ends would pop off before then. Ultimately, you're going well beyond what the standards of the drop test with your scenario.

How so? (Sorry, but I don't feel like reading through that document.)

 

You don't have to read the whole document. The requirements for the use and abuse tests are on page 6. For toys targeted for children 37-96 months (3-8 years or older), a toy must be able to survive four drops from three feet plus or minus a half and inch.

Aren't the small Lego blocks chokable pieces?

For a child under three, yes, That's why LEGO® blocks are specifically marked not for children under three years old. Transformers have the same warning label on them.

So the chokable parts aren't part of the equation then for TFs?

No, not really. That's because the age group that these toys are targeted for aren't likely to be putting the parts in their mouths.

 

I just have a hard time believing they couldn't make voyager and deluxe toys that combine and can't pass this drop test. I think the real reason Devastator came out the way he did is Hasbro was pressed for time and only had so much to work with as far as the movie model.

If they made a new Devastator later on I bet they could make one a ton better just like they did with leader Prime. There's a huge walking dinosaur toy that's $130. It has many neck pieces and must have electronics all up and down it. If they could make that thing and pass a drop test I'm sure Hasbro could do the same with Devastator.

That could be part of the reason, but the drop test is the biggest. Think about it. G1 Fortress Maximus is a lot more solid than what such a Devastator would be, with a lot fewer moving parts, and it can't pass the drop test. An RotF Devastator made up of fully transforming Deluxe and Voyager class components would be very complex and have a lot of delicate parts. They couldn't support that kind of weight and wouldn't pass the impact test or the compression test.

Whatever happened to parent supervision? :shrug Seriously, this is why government is bloated anymore. Instead of parents making responsible decisions and supervising their kids correctly, they leave everything to Big Brother and the manufacturers. Thus, you get turds like Supreme Devastator. If you have 3YOs around the house, keep the toys away from them. Make the older kid(s) clean their mess and put their toys away when they are done. Simple solution to me.

 

Then again, I use too much common sense, which seems to be an endangered species :redface

The dinosaur toy you mentioned doesn't have quite as many pieces as you think, and they're not that small nor delicate either. The neck also doesn't have quite as many pieces as you think either. IT's a very solid toy from what I've seen. It has to be since it's target audience is younger. It's also covered in a tough rubberized hide.

It's beyond the scope of the test. Your example would more like fall under the Flexion and torque tests. This is because, the central piece would have to survive the stresses of the oddly distributed weight on either end. More than likely though, the pieces making up the weights would pop apart before the main piece broke. Also, The number of pieces needed to make a ton is astronomical. I'm talking thousands of blocks. Simply put, the construction you're talking about would pop apart before any of the individual pieces actually broke. They're designed to do so.

IF it were to snap, it would happen when it was picked up because of excessive torque. Torque which is beyond what it needs to sustain to pass the torque test. And the flat pieces aren't that long and thin to really worry about that anyway. The only way to make a really long thin piece would be to combine multiple flats together, and once again, the pieces would more likely pop apart before the plastic itself breaks.