In the G1 era, some figures could reveal their hands with a sliding switch on the outside of the forearms (soundwave). In the CHUG lines, I cant think of any figures that do that. Most have fold out hands. There used to be panels that covered them (2006 Classics Megatron ). Some have the hands molded into the forearms and not as a separate piece (many Legends class figures, CW Hotspot/Onslaught) So is the sliding hand cut due to costs? Does it make wrist rotation impossible?
I think that the sliding hand engineering thing was generally a lot more cumbersome and easy to break than a lot of modern hand transformation engineering. They tend to be difficult to push out (especially for small kids) and a lot of that friction and grinding against the inside of the forearm can stress the plastic and cause the mechanism to loosen over time.
Sliding joints in general have been dialed way back in TFs. Not sure of the exact reasons, but possibilities include them becoming loose easily over time (at least they sure did in G1 toys), and/or perhaps a design/parts/plastic budgetary thing, as sliding parts generally need to be contained within other parts with 'rails' sculpted in to move along.
I'd imagine its due to how easily sliding joints in general tend to loosen, compared to ratchets, mushroom pegs, friction, and ball joints, and how much simpler, and in turn, cheaper, said methods are.
Great subject @jignat. I haven’t thought about the sliding feature in years. It had lots of obvious benefits like complete hand concealment without the need and an extra cover panel, sliding clicks are cool, and no big hollow forearms when the fists are out. These days the limitation seems to be parts count. I suspect it takes actually two pieces to make an enclosed forearm as opposed to a one piece opened flip out forearm. It has to be an engineering or budget reason but I miss it and gladly welcome the feature back.
I’ve gotta admit, I do miss me some good sliders. They just feel great. I vastly prefer them to click into place, since that prevents the joints from collapsing on themselves from age. The new solution of folding is fine, I guess, but it’s gotten old for me. A big satisfying clack of plastic on plastic never gets tiring.
The last chug instance I can think of is with cw dragstrip...it was his legs, not his hands. I wish we would see it more often if it meant less visible gaps. Of course if it does make for floppy joints then thats a no go.
It's all how it's done.. those done well, slid fine and had a secure snap to hold them in place, but overall they did look much better, the design had to be precise and done well otherwise it would end up not working well. I used to love the sliding mechanism, but I've come to realize and accept that it does wear out and requires an additional locking tab or such. So, I'm quite fine with the flipping type that we get, BUT I hate... HATE when they don't have a panel that: 1) hides the freaking gap 2) secure the hand in place. 3) can add details Every figure with such hinged panel looks and feels so much better and all that's needed it the panel and the pin or bumps for the hinge. For wrist rotation and anything like some swivel to got a bit of angle and so on, that's just Hasbro being lazy/cheap as there's many older figures that have rotation and some have some extra articulation and it only requires a snap-together two piece (mushroom type for rotation).... there is zero reason that not all figure should have at least wrist rotation aside it being cheaper to do a single part.
The sliding mechanism on both the arms and legs loosen up quickly. The locking mechanism inevitably fails. Repeatedly transforming eventually wears it out. The temperature in your home creates uneven expansion/contraction of the plastic. Tge leg expanders often gave way due to the weight of the upper body would be too much for the legs to handle. My G1 megatron is forever consigned to a box for that reason. Ultimately the sliders added extra engineering challenges to the figs. Sliders often have more parts than simply rotating the part out. You know Hasbro would take advantage and up the price accordingly. While Sliders look good initially, the drawbacks outweigh the benefits.
