Look today at most 3P Masterpiece offerings and what's one thing that stands out? Individually segmented fingers that can mimic any position you can think of.

Now look at Takara Masterpiece hands. Fingers (usually 3) molded together, and pins that allow them to move together.

Segmented digits gives far greater range and motion, but they sometimes lack the strength to hold the weapon securely in place. Granted, some 3P who offer this have designed their weapons to hold better than others, but generally this is the downfall of 3P hands. Case in point: KFC. The Ultra Magnus hands have no problem holding his gun. Same for Soundwave. But the hands for Optimus Prime will drop his rifle if you look at him wrong.

Takara's hands are kind of hit or miss. Usually they offer a very secure fit: look at any of the mid-sized Autobot cars for an example. The only two that don't really work that well is Grimlock and Rodimus. Remember trying to get Starscream, Thundercracker and/or Skywarp to hold Megatron in gun mode? Ugh. And pinned hands are really limited. MP-10 can kind of do this. Magnus and Soundwave both can with their Takara hands, but generally we're left to open palms or odd looking fists because the thumb doesn't curl naturally.

So what do you guys n' gals think? Does Takara need to update their hand designs so they can offer as much as 3P does? Or do you think what they offer now is the better way to go?

 

I like individual fingers. It adds life to the figures. So many more poses are possible.

 

I liked the individual fingers on Quakeblast. LIKED, because the translucent hand is broken now and i don't pose the fingers of his regular hand anymore. I like individual finger articulation but it needs to be done in a better way than with balljoints and the tolerances have to be really good.

 

No. individually articulated fingers has always been overrated to me much like filling a figure with 15 pounds of di-cast. My figures poses look just fine with the hands they come with.

 

Please no. They never work right and they just pop apart at the slightest provocation. The three molded fingers and a pointer are by and far good enough for me.

Do you really need your robots to be able to pull off a Vulcan?

 

No thanks, every second hand 3p figure with those fingers that I've got is missing one or some of a finger

 

Die-cast, no
Rubber tires, no

Fully articulated hands, yes. Look at Shockwave and Ultra Magnus, they intentionally included extra hands just to allow you pose them either saluting or holding the matrix [albeit poorly] You know what they could've done? Articulated the figures.

And I don't know where this missing finger issue comes from, all my figures are fine.

 

What we really need are a standardized runner of balljoint-wrist hands. Start including it with the car-scale MPs and maybe make a larger scale runner with extras for the bigger figures.

 

I´m not a fan of articulated fingers. Would prefer well sculpted closed fists with 5mm ports, though.

 

Ew... no.

 

The only problem I see is that there will be quite a few instances of completely loose fingers. I bought a set of the hands for Streak, and the left thumb was so loose that it would flop around in whatever pose I had him in. I tried Future and it didn't make a difference, so I just put the stock hands back on. While I'm sure it will remain the exception rather than the rule, once they are more mass-produced, those problems will only increase.

 

On Generations/Main line toys yes. On MPs, no.

 

I only like a few 3p articulated fingers. Most just don't look right.

I like Prime, Starcream, and Soundwaves hands over 3rd party.

I think the Hasui cars have oversized hands, which could have been done better, but at this point you still want it to look like all future cars belong together.

 

I would like a set of articulated fingered hands with proper length (Pinky isn't as long asbindex) along with a set of partially articulated (like Prime) in every Transformer.
Also would like weapons and hands to have magnets for that perfect fit.
Also would love to see parts like computer consoles and medic beds be in them like BAF parts to form structures from different episodes.
Also would love to see alternate panels with battle damage (nice touch on the new megs)

 

Yeah, same here. I don't know what people are doing with their figures, but I haven't lost a finger yet. 3P or MP.

 

Build your own space bridge!

Comes with each Devastator figure!

 

I think this is a fantastic idea. Kinda' like what Hasbro's been doing with Marvel Legends fro the past couple of years now. I love alternate hands.

 

lol, no way! For CHUGs, sure.

 

Perhaps a few spare hands if quality an issue.

Die Cast yes, but mainly on the trunk.

 

Not too fond of fully articulated hands, especially the ball jointed ones, with the sole exception of very large figures like Combiners.

For figures at MP Magnus and Prime size, I wouldn't mind fully articulated, but through hinges and not balljoints (FT Dinobots do this and seem sturdy)

For anything smaller, I prefer what TT is doing.