I’ve taken a quick look at the modern toy lines… and I can’t help but think that cool features have almost disappeared and nowadays all that matters is points of articulation.
I remember the he-man toys as being cool because they could do awesome stuff…
Orko: Had a ripcord that you could pull causing him to roll around
He-man: Had a rubberband or something inside his waist so you could have him swing his torso wacking at enemies. (Still works as well today… quality…)
Leech: Could suck himself to the fridge
Kobra Khan: Could spit water
etc…
Am I the only one thinking that articulation is a little lame compared to the stuff toys could do in the old days? I would expect toys to be able to do cooler stuff today with our technonology… All I see are toys that fall apart when you play with them. Paintjob seems more important than fun-ness.
What happened to the toy companies? Are they making toys for toy collectors instead of children nowadays? Are the toys just meant to stand in a shelf with a cool articulated pose?
Am I just an old grinch, who doesn’t understand children today?
What are your thoughts… Would you like to see toys where the Sword of Omens has a small LCD display that can open the Eye of Thundera accompanied to music? That seems more fun to me :P.
That’s one reason I love the Metamorph Figure Line from the Ben 10 Bandai toys. Most can also pass as nice action figures with decent articulation too!
RipJaws: A squirtgun.
HeatBlast: A flashlight.
GreyMatter: Binoculars
BenWolf: A voice amplifier.
The rest of the line is rather questionable…
UpGrade: A car?
WildMutt: A door knob hang..thingy?
FourArms: You put things in him and his arms lock the things put in?
The last to are still great action figures despite this.
So I somewhat agree. Toys should have articulation, but not having other fun options neglected.
Though applying this to ThunderCats is rather hard. HeatBlast is a lava monster, so a flashlight makes sense, same for RipJaws being a squirt gun considring he’s a fish monster.
True… it might be harder with the thundercats not having such weird qualities…
Also I am no puppeteer, but with a little fantasy the toy companies should be able to find some cool quirk.
Cheetarahs staff could be able to spring load to shoot out and become longer.
Lion-O could have a feature that when you lift his arms over his head a circuit closes and he says “ho” and a diode lights up in sword of omens if connected in his hand.
Tygra might have some of that hotwheels colour going on in his paint job, so that if you dip him in water he slightly alters color to reflect his invisibility…
There are probably options the manufacturers could find even for thundercats if they put their mind to it.
Personally I’d rather have good articulation than some gimmick. As a kid I always hated it when I couldn’t bend a toy’s knees or elbows (and still do). Nothing kills my interest faster than being forced to pose a toy either in a boring straight pose with their arms straight down or having them stick out the front like a zombie.
I haven’t seen this asked or mentioned. But how do you not produce a liono with a light up eye feature? Even if it’s a future classic exclusive or in the new one, I’d like one. What do you think?
That would be really nice… Even nicer would be if they could network that feature to the sword of omens so all characters eyes light up when sword is activated…
I never really cared that my He-men and Thundercats and TMNT couldn’t bend their knees or elbows… And, now, While I’m glad they can, I wish they articulation had stability so heavy weapons wouldn’t bend arms all on their own.
So, while I’m all for articulation, I’m not actually a fan of it . . . (wow, I sound totally crazy.)
Since this new TC line is my first time buying actual toys outside of videogame and movie figures that seem more geared for display purposes stuck in one possible pose, I actually appreciate the articulation… for displays purposes haha.
I can put them in any position I so choose sprucing up my shelf space whenever I see fit. My TRU exclusive Lion-o is in a pose similar to the review video with claw shield on and reaching forward and the sword hand is back holding it above his head. But the regular classic Lion-o, which is virtually the same figure, is reaching for the dagger sword in the claw shield (which he’s wearing). Same figure, 2 totally different poses. I prefer that to him shooting lasers/lights out of the eye of thundera…
I never understood the articulation argument. People like to pose them? Ok well I get that, EVERYONE likes to do that, but when does it get too much. I remember when Marvel Legends started adding foot articulation, like as in the toes would move if you wanted to have their feet half in a pouncing pose. I think figures stop being durable and fun when they start turning into gymnasts. Just my two cents, but LJN did it right from the start. Unique sculpts, basic articulation, and DURABLE plastic. I love that Bandai is taking it back to stronger plastic. Yes the weapons may be a limp, but has anyone here bought a Star Wars figure recently? They are basically spaghetti. I bought a bunch of Marvel Universe and Star Wars figures for my nephew (age 3) and he wont even touch them, he doesn’t like them at all. What he really liked, are the classic MOTU figures, the 90’s X-Men stuff, and LJN Thundercats. He has four Marvel Universe figures right now that I can remember that none of them have heads, simply from basic “play”.
I prefer good articulation and decent paint apps/sculpting. Toys of the 80s were great and had some cool action features. But as time progressed the action features got worst (cheaper if you asked me), made the figures break easier, and hindered poseability. On the other hand if a figure was too articulated it made the figure less poseable due to loose joints and made it hard for the sculpting to look good.
They are called action figures! I am not a fan of the sculpted statuesque Mcfarlane figures, and Neca is close behind. They make great figures but with limited poseability. Or like warcraft figures, they can only go in 1 pose. (I do like the Gremlins figures, they look great and have decent articulation.) I got the SDCC gizmo figure this year, he was soo worth it. You can move his eyes around!! Its great!
Right now my 2 favorie toons are thundercats and young justice. I am definetly buying the T-cats figures, but will be passing on young justice (unfortunatly). Why? The figures look good, but theres no elbow or knee articulation.
Mcfarlane figures are hit or miss with articulation. It all depends on the design of the character. Most are nothing more than slightly posable mini-statues, but the ones that are designed where they can hide the joints (usually the ones with lots of armor) can have amazing posability. And I’ve always appreciated when they used real metal to make chains or actual fiber for ropes. But Mcfarlane toys are almost all exclusively for collectors. They aren’t designed with kids in mind.
Articulation is fine as long as it’s not over done. I don’t need my figures toes and fingers to be movable
Gimmicks are fine as long as they do not turn the figure into something completely different and only remotely resembling the character to accommodate said gimmick. Like Ram-Bam. I would rather have a figure that looks like the cartoon.
