It looks to me like the more recent MPs no longer have individual finger articulation (like MP1) but instead have 3 of the fingers molded into a single piece, which IMO look really cheap and made them less of a "Masterpiece" in my eyes.

Unlike third parties MPs which STILL have fingers articulation. Crazy

Has Takara gotten lazy? Trying to cut down cost?

 

There's a lot of work to be done and is more expensive to do, kfc has a ton of hand articulated upgrade kits, so kfc will always do.

 

I don't know about "gotten" lazy because they haven't done individually articulated fingers since MP-04. 10 years ago.

But yes, it is probably due to cost.

 

Same reason mittens are cheaper than gloves.

 

All the missing fingers MP10s and Soundwaves I reckon.

 

To clarify. It's move/decision like this that made me worry where they'll cut corner next, and yet still maintain the same premium price point.

Figures like Unicron and Primus for example aren't MP and yet their fingers have full 10 points articulation!

We have to pay high price for MPs so I expect a bit more.

 

Why are you acting like this is a new decision? We haven't gotten fully articulated hands since... What, the original MP Megatron?

 

Because designers realized that the main thing fans did with hands with articulated fingers was pose the figure flipping the bird?

 

so true! simple yet effective!

lol! also true!

 

I wish we could get DX9 hands mass produced. The kind that came on Hanzo

 

I kind of agree with you, I would prefer them too, especially for the larger-than-carbots figures, but I don't think MP could ever be exactly everything we (and likely the designers) would want them to be without cost concerns at head office. That said, I'm willing to bet IF we ever got gestalts, they would get full hand articulation. The bird may yet be the word for long suffering fans  

 

I'm surprised no company has tried copying SoC Gaogaigar's hands.

 

Agreed. I often prefer the less articulated hands they are more stable and less easy to damage/lose.

 

I kind of prefer the smaller MP figures to not have articulated fingers. Even for the bigger bots, I've had fingers fly across the room like a meteor hurling towards earth. I'm shocked I haven't lost any fingers yet... or put someone's eye out. *knock on wood*

 

Articulated fingers are overrated. And not all 3P companies do them either. I have several Badcube, FT. XTB and MT figures that don't have them at all.

 

I hate to be a downer, but I find fully articulated hands extremely fiddly and annoying, especially during transformation when they keep getting in the way. It also makes me hesitant to move the upper arm on the figure in case I mess the hands up. And to be honest, they never actually look right as a fist.

If this were waist or head articulation or ankle tilt, oh yeah. But these I can live without.

 

Cost and durability. Individual digits are easily broken.

 

Articulated fingers only belong in Marvel figures IMO. (If they ever get back to that   )

 

Honestly, fully articulated hands at the scale we're talking about are fragile, and get in the way. Honestly, having hands that move at all, even if it is just the first finger and the rest of the fingers fused, is fine, and I think is a good compromise between poseability and durability. What irks me more is the fact that MP figures have so many QC issues, even though they probably don't cost much more to produce. Back in the day, an MP figure was $70, not $170. Any figure that is more than $60 in my opinion should have better QC than mainline releases. But, among high end figures, that just seems to be par for the course, not just Masterpiece Transformers.