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Plastic kids’ backpacks, purchased in September, with the fershlugginah glued-together seams that bust out in November. “Oh, no, you’re not asking me to carry anything HEAVY like BOOKS, are you? Mercy!! Load limit–four pencils and a lunch, in a paper bag, please, no lunchboxes.”
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Vinyl raincoats that age and crack after only a season or two. Ditto vinyl shower curtains (yes, I know it’s because the plasticizers evaporate, but it’s still irritating).
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The backing of bathroom rugs, that decays and leaves little brown bits all over the bathroom floor.
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Plastic action figures, where the Turbo-Magnetic Shredding Galactic Claw (the hand) breaks off and is totally non-repairable, putting Turbo-Magnetic Shredder on the permanent inter-galactic Sick List (“no, Mom, he can’t fight The Invincible Granolaton with only one claw…”).
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Every plastic picnic fork in the history of mankind. Is there some kind of manufacturer’s requirement that one tine should always break off and fall into your pie while you’re trying to cut it?
A thousand years ago, I purchased a telephone headset so I could work at my drafting table and hold a phone conversation hands-free. Worked great for a while, the reception was particularly good. Everything was going great until the piece that actually went over your head broke in half.
Yep. Plastic.
Couldn’t glue it back. Couldn’t tape it back. Couldn’t clip it, melt it, or strap it back.
Could throw it away. Did.
I find it hard to believe that duct tape wouldn’t have fixed that problem. After all, if you can’t duc’ it, fuck it!
Plastic parts that have to take stress. Making plastic connectors for water lines inside a house should be outlawed. If you tighten it too much it cracks, breaks, leaks, floods your bathroom, and soaks your carpet. We just bought a house and the prior owner had put in flex lines to the sink. It had a plastic connector, it started to leak. I reached up to try to tighten it, and the @#$% thing broke in my fingers. Oh, yeah, they did not have a shut off under the sink. All remaining flex lines in the house will be replaced this weekend.
I found the opposite true with these guys. Dogs can chew on them and they just become Guy with mangled leg. Firecrackers won’t kill them. Melting them only makes a cooler monster. The only thing that caused death to my GI Joe figures was being caught out on a recon mission in the backyard when the evil lawn mower made a security sweep.
My wife’s coffee grinder had a thick, heavy plastic attachment which looked as if it would withstand nuclear attack. One day I was washing it and it slipped out of my hands, falling towards the vinyl floor. As it dropped, I thought to myself, “No need to stop that, it’ll bounce right off.” Two seconds later: SHATTER There was not a piece left that was larger than an inch square.
Plastic: the material that self-destructs of its own volition.
Plastics son. That’s the future. Get into plastics.
Plastic backpakcs are soo evil! I decided that I didn’t need a locker last year as they finally let us tote are packs from class to class. Went through four packs in 9 months. I shouldn’t be too mad as they cost only $2 from Pay-Less, but it is humiliating as hell for your straps to snap when you are coming down the stairs.
None of this breakage would be an issue, if we had arenak.
I’m typing this very message on a laptop with one very stupid design aspect. The mouse button is, of course, plastic. But picture if you will a button that clings to the frame of the computer by two flimsy one-millimeter strands of plastic. Furthermore, picture designing the button so that, with every click, the button flexes and bends those slender strands. Sound like a formula for breakage?
Simple gluing didn’t work, so I finally tore the metal pocket-clip off a pen, flattened it, trimmed it to size, and used it to fortify the flimsiness. It’s been working fine for a few months now.
Small mechanical devices with plastic bearings and gears.
We all know where they fail.
Plastic has lots of good uses, but any designer who uses a plastic load bearing member should be taken out and shot.
Windshield wiper moter casings! A little spindle in the middle controls all on/off settings on the suckers. THen you can only get it at the dealer. Plastic glue worked for 30 seconds.
::still waiting for someone to acknowledge the reference::
Car parts!
I tried to put the taillight cover back after replacing the burned out bulb, and the d@mned thing snapped in half in my hand. IN my hand! 10 stitches and two weeks out of recorder ensemble. Thanky you Detroit or Mexico City ot Windsor or whereever the d@mned thing was made.
Moe - oh yeah, The Gradute. Good flick, except the copy from Blockbuster was so chopped, skippy and grainy, it was like watching the edited version on the Family Channel.
“plastic load bearing member”? I’m sorry but the image is just so tantalizing and reviling at the same time… 
Please replace the following wording in my previous post:
Thanky = thank
ot = or
whereever = wherever
Gradute = Graduate
I really hate typing one-handed
Duke;
Two seconds?
Well no wonder! From now on don’t wash dishes 96 feet above the floor.
CD cases that break one of the hinge arms off.
The locking lug that keeps cassette player dorrs closed when not in use.
Plastic wheels on metal axles, they wear out long before the the rest of the item has(Shopping trolleys, vacuum cleaners etc)
The Graduate