I don't believe a thigh swivel is an option or it would have been done originally. The transformation negates a thigh swivel. It's not something they forgot/left off that can simply be added.

 

For other artists out there (ppl who can do anatomy), which other fans think the cartoon artists sucked? The "designs" are all over the place, from rounded face plate, duo panel face place to quad panel face plate...and that doesn't cover the inside "horns" to "antennae" variants.  
cartoon accurate shenanigans! (I only wished every fan had art skills to know the "jacked up" nature of "cartoon accurate"...not to mention "comic book accurate") AT out!  

 

That's called a knee swivel at that point. Excellent mental gymnastics though, lol.

 

I don't know about you but my thigh is closer to my hip then my knee.

 

A knee swivel is what MP-10 had, this is on the thigh and it allows him to rotate it just like MP-44 can.

 

A thigh swivel's purpose is to let the leg rotate above the knee, allowing the shin to be perpendicular to the body. The location may be lower than average, but it does the job.

Also, the entire part of the leg between the knee and hip is the thigh, so what are you talking about?

 

Guys don’t let these swivels tear us apart, by V8 we’ll have swivels on everything!

 

They both swivel at the knee. TE is immediately above the knee joint, MP-10 immediately below. In reality they both swivel at exactly the same spot though- where the thigh meets the lower leg. But on MP-10 the knee ratchet is exposed above the lower leg/calf while TE hides ratchet in the calf.

Nobody else I've seen calls the swivel on TE a "thigh" swivel. It's a knee swivel. But semantics aside, the lack of an UPPER thigh.swivel on TE is a bummer.

 

It's not semantics, they do different things whether they're above the knee or below it. Here's a clearer example. Classics Jetfire has a swivel below the knee, and it doesn't let him rotate his leg like he's looking what he stepped on. TE-01's swivel, while close to his knee, still lets him do the pose I mentioned.

 

Look down and rotate your own thigh. Where do muscles in the quadriceps group go? Do they stay facing forward or do they track with your shin? Now what does TE-01's do? It's not just about "doing the job". It's about proper anatomy.

In medical terms what's doing the work is a group of muscles called the external rotators and they originates at the hip as shown here, not at the knee.

 

Look- I'm not sure what pose you're talking about, but given that TE's actual thigh in fact does NOT rotate at all, period, I'm not conceding this. It's a fact that only his lower leg rotates and that is a knee rotation. Sure, it helps that the actual knee bend is below that rotation. You're right about that.

It sounds like it gives you what you want and that's cool. But a thigh rotation it isn't. That's all I'm saying.

 

Yup.

 

I think I'd buy it. A version of TE-01 with a nice detailed paint job and chrome would be magnificent. The lack of chrome was my biggest complaint. Take the blue out of the windows and make them clear (or the slightly brownish clear of the G1 toy) and make him a nice glossy red and I'd be all over that thing. My nephew needs an Optimus anyway, and I could give him my V1 (to go with the Apollyon I gave him after I got IT01) if they made one good enough for me to buy him again.

"You even got rid of a nasty bur on my rotator."

 

Nice image, but the purpose of a thigh swivel is not to make the thigh face in different directions, but to rotate the knee so when the leg is bent, it ends up on the side of the body, not behind it. A Knee swivel just rotates the leg below the knee so that the shin and foot faces sideways.
Now, what does TE-01's swivel joint do? rotate the knee or just the foot?

Classics Jetfire and TE-01 both have joints near the knee, but have different functions, are they both knee joints then?

TE-01's swivel may be closer to the knee than the hip, but can pull off all the poses that a swivel near the hip can do, so what do you call that? also what about swivels that are exactly in the middle of the thigh, being the same distance between the hip and the knee? What do you call that?

A thigh swivel is named for what it does, which is to rotate the leg above the knee.

 

So MP-44?

 

I don’t see why TE couldn’t have an ab crunch
Make a hinge in the diecast part I think
I dunnooooooo lol

 

Comparing the V3 to V1/ V2, i can live without the cosmetic upgrades. The grey mouth plate on the V1 head, flat left shoulder and darker windows don't make much of a difference to me anyway. I never mind the indent on my copy and the autobot symbol TE provided fits pretty well and it looks good to me. Now unless they improve on articulation (like v2's extra ratchet teeth) or added more to the overall figure's function besides visual cosmetics i really couldn't care what version i got because they all look pretty good to me.

 

Why are you so upset? the figure is the same mold, same pieces, same head, same engineering, the only noticeable change is the logo indentation, but when you apply the logo, the indent is inapreciable. For me, the darker windows are worst, because you can't put decals / prints inside.

 

Also, standard head is now gray.

Or it means you don't have to use inserts at all if your plan was to use a blue window reflection decal anways.