very idiosyncratic bug in sprite animation

CRunObject** instances;
int count;
pRuntime->GetTypeInstances(MySpriteType, instances, count);

if (instances != NULL) 
{
	CRunObject** i = instances;
	CRunObject** end = instances + count;

	for ( ; i != end; ++i)
	pRuntime->DestroyObject(*i);
}[/code:bwqd537a]

//Create One New Instance
[code:bwqd537a]MySprite = pRuntime->CreateObject(MySpriteType,0,pLayout); [/code:bwqd537a]

//Set Animation Frame to MyInteger
[code:bwqd537a]pRuntime->SetAnimationFrame(MySprite,MyInteger);[/code:bwqd537a] 
//stop animation
[code:bwqd537a]MySprite->info.curAnim->speed=0; [/code:bwqd537a]

If you set MyInteger to anything other than  0 (frame 1 inside construct) it works as expected:
destroys all sprites, creates a new one, sets the frame to MyInteger

if MyInteger is set to frame 0, it works as expected ONLY IF you have a MySprite on the screen area of your layout at startup. 
If it is off screen at startup, the sprite will be invisible when you set it to frame 0;
occasionally (rarely) it'll blink on for a split second if you have it set to Always (but it's instantaneously gone, you can barely even see it)

it doesn't make a difference if you destroy on startup or not
and I isolated the code down to this specific combination of commands.
if you don't destroy the other instances first, setting it to the first frame works fine
and if you have the sprite on your startup view, it works fine
and if you set it to any other frame it works fine regardless of where the sprite is or isn't in the layout upon startup

to be clear it doesn't matter whether you place this action in "on start of layout" or later, it just matters whether there is a MySprite on your layout in the visible square inside the layout editor