When the entire. Scrapping. Alt mode is a shell. I won’t put shell forming in general since sometimes there can be some really cool tricks with the parts that aren’t a shell like with SS Sideswipe or the Siege Seeker, the shoulder pylons turning into the nose cone makes me nut everytime.
All things being said.. I will never, ever, under any circumstances forgive inward curling elbows/monkey wrists.. ever. TR Twinferno was crippled with these.
I’m annoyed when knees don’t have a clearly-defined stopping point when straightening the leg, or the stopping point results in a hyper-extended knee.
Sometimes the hyperextension is intentional, though. Maybe not so much for standard shelf toys, but the recent G1-based Masterpieces for sure, because of how the model sheets were always drawn posed with hyper-extended knees.
On occasion, clear windows bug the heck out of me. It seems random, though. I enjoy the windows on things like PotP Jazz and Moonracer molds but can't stand it on WFC Ironhide or Grapple molds... Maybe it's the size, i don't know.... *looks at Avocando and Aday the botbots* ....yeah, i understand this....
They're also a lot safer. If you snap off a leg that's on a ball joint, it's designed to snap back on. Pinned or ratcheted joints that break are just broken for good.
I sincerely doubt that as the reason Has/Tak uses them otherwise they'd show up on their high end figures a lot more than they do.
High end figures don't go through the same physical punishment as midrange kids' toys do. When the little buggers yeet their favourite robot down the driveway and it inevitably breaks, you want it to be repairable so they can get back to playing. Adult collectors who have just spent £150 on a single figure are going to be handling it with a hell of a lot of care. No yeeting for MP Beast Megatron, unless you're a serious masochist.
So why has Has/Tak switched from using ball joints to more complex joints on so many WFC and SS figures?
In the case of Studio Series, the Deluxes still use ball joints. It's only the Studio Series Voyagers and Leaders that are using the more complex joints.
Interesting. I haven't been willing to pay that much money for mainline small figures so I never really noticed. I only have a couple voyagers and leaders.
Largely this is because of their size and weight. Ball joints are fine on deluxe and smaller figures, but the bigger they get the heavier the limbs are and ball joints struggle to maintain enough friction to hold a pose. I still have an old RID 2001 Ultra Magnus and it has huge ball joints for the shoulders that always sagged under the weight of the arms.
When feet are molded to let the figure naturally stand in an "A" stance, I cannot stress enough how much pre-tilted ankles bug me.
Not so much toy design, but packaging design. I am 100% not a fan of Transformers packaged in robot mode. A HUGE part of my joy in opening up a new figure is transforming it out of its alt mode and revealing the robot. Outside of a very few circumstances I don't display anything in alt mode, so there's very little incentive for me to transform a figure into it.
Then may I suggest checking out Studio Series where a good percentage of the Earth vehicle modes are fully licensed? Some figures are fiddly, I'll give you that but most of them look really good in vehicle mode.
pre applied stickers several transformers from titans return were guilty of this Friction points that are supposed to hold a good portion of the altmode and heaven forbid the back pack and other parts together Thin pieces that are supposed to hold a heavy piece or section together and you know will eventually give and break.
On car alt modes: Low clearance from the ground. Unpainted tail lights. Clip-on wheels with visible clips. On aircraft alt modes: painted cockpits instead of clear plastic. Short wings.
Hinge fold wrists, almost every car bot sans earthrise and decepticon has been treated to it, just give them wrist swivel.
