Here is a perfect example of why the Chinese really aren't doing the hobby (or the marketplace for manufactured goods) a whole lot of good. Its a simple pair of Atlas couplers off one of their freightcars, infected with Zinkpest.
Its pure laziness on the part of the Chinese, coupled with a pretty crafty business model where the manufacturer takes no responsibility for product quality once the importer takes possession and the container doors are shut.
The cause is well known (poor quality control of the alloy or laziness in its handling such that lead contamination ensues), and castings made anywhere else in the world after about 1960 or so are free of this affliction. Not so the Chinese, whose product often shows this level of quality demonstrating the attention to detail in the manufacturing process, and whose backing of their product is the stuff of legend.
Before anyone says it, yes its "just toys", but $100 a pop now-a-days isn't exactly such a bargain justifying an inconsistent quality that shouldn't be beyond this sort of thing. I hope that same justification doesn't apply to your pacemaker. Grin!
