The Energon Pub

That thing they do with the arms so often. It annoys me. The elbow thing where if you make the arm go up at the elbow, the palm points straight up in the air or makes the figure look like it's doing a fist pump. That's the best explanation I can come up with. They did it with RotF Voyager Long Haul, countless Movieverse Bumblebees, Animated Blackarachnia, DotM Shockwave, Movie 1 Leader Megatron, RotF Leader Megatron's left arm, RotF Deluxe Mudflap's left arm, RotF Deluxe Skids' right arm, RotF Deluxe Soundwave, Leader Starscream, etc. I don't think it looks good. Any thoughts on these arms?

The very worst offender is Animated Blackout. And yes, it's very annoying. The figures should really have wrist rotation at least.

Diem wrote:The very worst offender is Animated Blackout. And yes, it's very annoying. The figures should really have wrist rotation at least.

I agree. I'm not really a fan of open fists anyway but a wrist swivel/ball joint should be standard.

I believe the term for this is Monkey Arms.

And yes, it is rather annoying at times.

I got over it by rationalizing that they're robots. No one ever said they had to bend like humans.

Yeah it's a rason held together with duct tape and string, but it helps me sleep

Hate them. HFTD Starscream would have been far more posable if those damn palms could actually rotate! Well, a less bloated alt mode and more articulation on the fingers wouldn't hurt either, but I digress.

I hate this! I'm glad someone else has noticed it too. It's incredibly annoying. I also don't like it when the arms can bend normally (with the hands in the right direction) but they have less detail on the front of the arms when they're in that position (it's kind of hard for me to explain it, but it's on Universe Ultra Onslaught and Animated Leader Megatron, if you want examples).

Optimus1138 wrote:I hate this! I'm glad someone else has noticed it too. It's incredibly annoying. I also don't like it when the arms can bend normally (with the hands in the right direction) but they have less detail on the front of the arms when they're in that position (it's kind of hard for me to explain it, but it's on Universe Ultra Onslaught and Animated Leader Megatron, if you want examples).

I know exactly what you mean. RotF Voyager The Fallen has such an emphasis on the "monkey arms" pose rather than the normal arms pose.

I don't think anyone hates them more than me. In fact, I think I coined the name 'monkey arms' but I can't prove it!

Within an hour of opening Leader Starscream I was kitbashing those wrists. Anyone who designs a figure with monkey arms is an idiot and I challenge you to spend an entire day with your arms like that.

I'm intrigued... I don't think I own any figs like that, can anyone point me in the direction of some pictures? Thanks.

It'd be nice to have wrists on all these guys, but that stuff costs money. Add the wrists, lose something somewhere else. I can live with it, but just barely. The more figs I get w/ this "feature", the more I want to fix them.

Side note- I love the title to this thread!

Bots like Long Haul and Shockwave need their hands to be flush with the arm for transformation, I'm not sure how easily extra joints could be worked in while keeping it cost-effective and what-not.
I don't mind it so much, particularly since bots like the aforementioned Long Haul and Shockwave have swivels in other parts of their arms.


Side note- I also love the title to this thread!

Noideaforaname wrote:Bots like Long Haul and Shockwave need their hands to be flush with the arm for transformation, I'm not sure how easily extra joints could be worked in while keeping it cost-effective and what-not.
I don't mind it so much, particularly since bots like the aforementioned Long Haul and Shockwave have swivels in other parts of their arms.


Side note- I also love the title to this thread!

A ball joint instead of the swivel would do the trick. I've done it with Long Haul and leader Screamer.

Ugh, I hate the monkey arms bit with those guys! It makes good posing difficult at best!