Now we take them for granted and we are looking into double ball joints, for example.

 

G1 Whirl had them a year earlier!  

 

Big fan!

For deluxe class and under...

 

Yup, balljoints start getting wonky on bigger figures...

 

Ha. ha ha.

 

Balljoints are indeed a great thing. But is it my imagination or are figures going more for pin joints now where a ball joint would've normally been used instead? Just looking at many of the Deluxes on my desk and quite a lot of them now have pinned elbows, sometimes accompanied with an upper arm 'T' joint swivel. Personally I prefer ball joints for elbows as I've had a lot of breakages with pin joints over the last few years.

Additional: Actually, just quickly looking through my Generations and RTS Deluxes pin joints for knees seems to be mostly the norm too.

 

Ball joints are cool but I prefer hinges and swivels. But I think ALL TF head must be on ball joints.

 

Vortex and Whirl want to see you.  

 

Tell them that I will get to them after Armada Scavenger has a word with me. lol

 

I can tell you what they would be like:
today'c Classics / Universe.

Both.
But in a good way.

 

Well there is a ball joint on G1 optimus primes trailer on the robot

 

I prefer ratchet joints and swivel joints.

 

With Ball joints I like them in the neck so they can fully move the head but in the rest of the body I'm iffy about it having them. Like Kup who only has one in his head and the rest being different kinds of Joints instead I like more then if they were ball joints since they get loose.

 

ball joints are awesome untill they mess them like they did with Rotf Brawn's hip joints. i fixed many loose joints till now but that damn thing is unfixable. i tried everything and it keeps popping out everytime i think of the figure. seriously, i don't even need to look at the figure. in fact it popped out again in the other room just now, because i typed about it.

oh well, ball joints are still awesome  

 

G1 Prime had one first.  

Not really. Look at Beast Wars Primal's hips.

I think that has to do with the designs these days. Balljoints are still widely used, but as figures become more complex and more space is needed, balljoints are being dropped because of how big they need to be to function properly. Thee need smaller joints for all the pieces that move.

Lets say well done ball joints are awesome.  

 

Here's the thing, ball joints are very useful for articulation, but they do sometimes cause problems. Namely where the joint is relied upon to create friction but fails to do so. I appreciate the technology for what it's managed to do, advance general engineering forward.
What I'm also glad for is that no one has decided to go the old school GI Joe route and use the hook and rubberband ball joint system. Man those things were TERRIBLE.

 

Balljoints have been on Transformers toys since G2.

The G2 Smokescreen/RM Smokesniper mold is quite evident of that, although it was much more common in Beast Wars.

I like Ball Joints except for when they get loose, Still looks at my Classics mirage who hasn't had the ball joint tighten still (for like 5 months  )

 

you're kidding, right?
with that mentality, Apollo 13's crew would be still in space between Earth and the Moon.
it's like telling NASA that they can't reconfigure an air filter because, "oh, that's cheating."

no, it's called improvisation for survival's sake.

ball sockets on a figure aren't that extreme, but it isn't a cheap trick.

cheap is using subpar plastics or rubber materials, or flimsy assembly processes.

 

This thread title got me wide eyed when I saw it. Never thought that someone can actually put the two words transformer and technology in the same line. Add revolution into the mix and u get one geeky party indeed

Anyway, word picking aside, I think that the activators have shown advanced toymaking. Watching the g1 cartoon where they transform so easily and seeing it translate to the toy just rocks

 

Ball joints were originally introduced for safety reasons.

Translated version of the Takara Tomy Transformers Henkei / Classics Staff Interview - Transformers News - TFW2005

I like them a lot, for one, it is easy to fix even for a clumsy person like me.