I recently Purchased a used, 1998 build year, ABA Set from a seller on these forums. This is NOT about the seller. I will not even give his name. Anyway....
The set is absolutely beautiful for a 22 year old set. There is one issue though. 3 metal couplers SNAPPED. The first one snapped within 10 minutes of having the set. 2nd one snapped about an hour later. The 3rd snapped on day 2. Needless to say, I was pretty upset. Thinking I was sold a box of junk.
After doing some research, I found out this this is a fairly common occurrence with older MTH trains. I was able to find a set of 8 on Ebay. But it cost me 77 bucks.
I am posting pics. The jaw snapped off all 3 couplers.