You can contact Mayfair and get plastic rings that go over your mothership to keep them from breaking when you snap in the boosters. It took them a while and a reminder e-mail, but just this week, I got six grey rings to slide over my motherships.

And, I wouldn't feel guilty about getting the fix from Mayfair, because whoever bought the game originally is entitled to them. That they essentially traded the game before the fix was available shouldn't matter; it sounds like the game needs them, and you are now the owner of a game without them.