So hasbro & takara is able to add a new head sculpt when doing repaints. yet we don't get any added/retooled parts that allow more poseability on a previous TF toy mold. example: doing a remold giving ROTF Leader sized megatron's huge death arm a elbow bending joint. doing a remold that adds sideways splitting hip joints to the armada voyager seekers joints. doing a remold that gives armada tidalwave bending knee joings doing a remold that gives armada megatron,walking hips & bending knee joints. doing a few remolds that give certain TF toys articulated fingers & rotate wrist joints. I noticed that the most extensive re-sculpts appeared to be the beastwars 2nd takara cyborg beast molds. recently the most extensive re-sculpt appears to be the ROTF Voyager sized fallen blue & purple recolor. the toy appears to have a new head sculpt that pops on/off. a new accessory staff. and what appears to be a new set of hand that are different & have more poseability.
That is probably a big reason. Remember, a 80/90s era basic action figure had a single tool for their arm. That makes it effectively "one piece". The more articulation you add, you have to make molds FOR EVERY SINGLE PIECE of the arm. More molds=more investment for what may end up not being a factor in the final sale (in general, I find most Transformers to be adequately articulated). Remember, Hasbro primarily sells to kids for whom articulated fingers may not add much to the play value, but would drastically increase the cost to develop (plus a whole mess of safety issues) Plus, remember that Transformers TRANSFORM, so changes in the articulation (depending on figure) my cause adverse effects on the toy's core play feature, and if their is an electronic or projectile feature, the removal of that feature may make the toy "less desirable" to kids, thus the added articulation would not be worth the lost sales.
