Marker binding failure

DavidG that's exactly it: everything is plastic crap. who cares how light it is if it doesn't work?

Snow Troopers: I had only a couple problems in the first 2 years. This failure occurred while skinning on hard snow. Too much torque through the binding with the wide-ish ski. I tend to break things, not just ski stuff , so I really try hard to buy things for reliability over weight. I'm thinking of going for trekkers next, since the s16 is the only binding i've had and haven't blown up in the last 5 years...

All products have a rate of failure.
Most of the time as consumers we aren’t aware of it as companies aren't going to rush out and publish those statistics.
Generally however, it's a single digit percentage relative to units sold, this accounts for variables in the manufacturing process, etc.
It's part of the reason warrantee departments exist.
When it exceeds that you will see recall notices, etc.
I've seen all bindings fail, metal and plastic...
FWIW, I have a gen 1 pair of Dukes on my rock/ Gotamas that have 150+ days on them that are still working fine without any issues.

It wasn't my intention to knock the Duke/Baron or any other bindings. Many people view the Duke as "indestructable", which I disagree with. The F10/F12 is basically a lightened version, so we'd expect a higher failure percentage among the masses. While everything sounds fantastic from the marketing material, lighter generally equates to less durable.

Maybe they should come out with a heavier version of a Duke

I didn't take it that way, so no worries.
I just find that it's common for people to jump into these types of threads, beyond the original post with a "sky is falling" mentality. Fact of the mater is, when these things do break, people that participate in this forum, TGR, and others are far more likely to be the ones skiing them because in many cases they are enthusiast/some times pro level skiers that are putting their gear to a real test (I do realize that wasn't the case here, none the less). My contribution is here to add some balance to the discussion.
Are Dukes perfect? No, but that is another topic all together, no?