Originally posted by Alex645 ...plastic parts has in my experience been the right design choice.
Note: I'm not saying the K-1 shouldn't have a stronger hot shoe. But built-in flash units and flash shoes always seems to be the weak link in most cameras.
True. Modern, tough plastics are all over many new DSLR's, and do a commendable job.
But in the case of the OP's accident, I would have preferred to see the flash fall apart, rather than see the top of the camera burst open.
No doubt Pentax DSLR body engineers did lab test all these things - mount Pentax flash(es), knock camera and flash about vigorously to simulate real-world field usage, see what happens to the camera hot-shoe. Or maybe not.
Either way, this incident does seem a great excuse to use radio triggers (like the Cactus ones) on the K-1. Pity Pentax makes no radio triggers.