Fantasy-era barding: lousy clips, or my bad luck?

[Reiniger]

It finally happened. The last of my three fantasy-era crownie bardings not to have broken a clip...broke a clip. Is this common with this particular piece? I feel like it must be - I haven't had this problem with saddles that are way older, and bricklink's listings have way more "broken clip" caveats than any other piece I've seen. I figured this community would know better than anywhere else. Sorry, Crownies. From now on, normal pearl-gold saddles it is.

[josdu]

I have a pair of saddles with broken clips... so probably the clips are the problem.

[dzidek1983]

The one i have also has a broken clip.
It comes from the 7009 The Final Joust set.
I thought i had bad luck but it seems it's a larger problem

[DraconisTerrena]

Hmm. None of mine have broken clips; I think I have nine total. Granted, I don't fiddle with them much, but they've all been clamping swords for years.

[Elephant Knight]

Bad clips. I have 3, one has both clips in that stage which they aren't broken, but things are loose. The other two I have been very careful with, still in good shape.

EKnight

[Wilfred of Ivanhoe]

I have had this happen too. I think it's a combination of time, playing , and possibly design/defect issues. It's not uncommon though.

[Leo of Rothenburg]

I had skeletons' prison carriage when the fantasy era sets first came out. When I scrapped the set for spare parts and the sadde had a sword clipped on the side of it. I removed the sword and the clip broke! But to answer your question, I am quite sure that it is the clips and not your luck. I have heard some rumors for around that time, LEGO had decided to experiment with either different plastics or different sizing. Many sockets from BIONICLE sets have been broken. This was extremely common with the Phantoka sets (2008)