The currious case of "muscle" bodies. Please read the first post before voting

The currious case of "muscle" bodies. Please read the first post before voting

here is a question that I've been pondering lately.
How many of my fellow freaks prefer aesthetic Over articulation on your 1/6th figures?

For example. the hot toys truetype body is one of the best articulated bodies in the 1/6th market. it poses very ver nicely, and has lit e to no problem holding that pose, and is fairly sturdy.

The other end of the spectrum is the hot toys rubber "muscle" body. there is No question that these bodies are the best LOOKING bodies on the marked if you intend to display a character shirtless. the muscle bodies do, however, have 2 very big drawbacks that you sacrafice for this added artistic blessing.
the first is durability. containted within the rubber arms, the figures elbows are composed of a flat metal strip that you bend to allow the figure to move his arms. as I'm sure many of may recall, this is not a new idea. wee all had toys as a child with metal skeletons, and eventualy, the metal would break from exces bending. eventualy, this will happen to the muscle bodies.
Also, the rubber CAN eventualy deteriate.

the second sacrifice we make is that of posability. Take, for example, dutch. as awesome as this figure is, hes has NO mid-torso, nor waist articulation. in addition, it's more or less impossible to put his rifle into realistic fireing pose. He CANNOT shoulder his rifle.

But that's the price we pay for asthetic.

Simply swapping dutch over to a regular truetype for example would fix it, but then his clothing would no longer fit.

ther seems to be this anti-exposed joint mentality, thinking that exposed joints makes a figure seem more toy-like.

I kinda shake my head at this concept, becuase, trying to be honest here they ARE toys. In specific, They're 1/6th action figures, more specificly, they're Dolls. so, my advice is to take off the rose-colored glasses and face reality. Much like the people who can't buy toys in a local toystore without pretending it's for their "cousin" or "nephew"'s birthday.

If you like something, you want it, and can afford it, buy it, but I digress.

Point is, is it worth it for you to trade off better articulation for asthetic?

Re: The currious case of "muscle" bodies. Please read the first post before voting

I'll take Articulation. I don't collect statues and don't want to worry about ruining a figure because I bent the elbow one to many times.

Re: The currious case of "muscle" bodies. Please read the first post before voting

I err on the side of articulation... but I appreciate figures like Dutch or Hellboy were the musculature is so key to the character.

So most times give me the standard body, but on some rare occassions the muscle body is a good choice.

Re: The currious case of "muscle" bodies. Please read the first post before voting

I prefer articulation.

Re: The currious case of "muscle" bodies. Please read the first post before voting

galactiboy said:

I err on the side of articulation... but I appreciate figures like Dutch or Hellboy were the musculature is so key to the character.

So most times give me the standard body, but on some rare occassions the muscle body is a good choice.

Click to expand...

i concur with this statement

Re: The currious case of "muscle" bodies. Please read the first post before voting

Wow, lerath, you're really going to town with this. Just because Sheva doesn't like you anymore.

Re: The currious case of "muscle" bodies. Please read the first post before voting

Some figures need to show muscle - particularly Dutch in Predator. In these cases I definitely support the muscle body. All you have to do if you don't like the more limited poseability is switch it over to a standard TT which are almost always available for purchase these days unlike loose muscle bodies. And the clothes do fit normal TTs in his case. I've done it. I bulked the underlying TT up a tad using blue tack but it looks perfectly fine. He does need an extra long neck though and those are a tad rare.

So, Yes to muscle bodies for characters who need to display muscle. But if its going to be completely hidden anyway - normal truetype.

I didn't actually vote by the way. Theres no option for saying yes to muscle bodies 'where particularly needed' such as an Arnold Schwarzenegger figure or Hellboy.

Re: The currious case of "muscle" bodies. Please read the first post before voting

i would rather see a normal true type bodie on all figures that the costume covers the arms and torso and only use a muscle bodies on ones were the arms are exposed

Re: The currious case of "muscle" bodies. Please read the first post before voting

EVILFACE said:

I'll take Articulation. I don't collect statues and don't want to worry about ruining a figure because I bent the elbow one to many times.

Click to expand...

What he said.

Re: The currious case of "muscle" bodies. Please read the first post before voting

plasmid303 said:

Wow, lerath, you're really going to town with this. Just because Sheva doesn't like you anymore.

Click to expand...

Kinda. Sheva is more or less the straw that broke the camels back. I' was extremely disapointed when the Aliens dutch figure was unable to puld his smart gun in the "ready" position ( barrel pointed perpendicular to the ground)

I've been messing with dutch since i got him unable to find ANY pose I'm happy with on the figure, unless he's holding a pistol in one hadn, and the machette in the other. not to mention hit's hard to get dynamic poses out of him with no waist movement.

Sheva having the same arms that wull be unable to hold two-handed weapons ( like chris) pushed me over, as when i played tyhrough the game, i only ever gave her assult weapons, and Id like to pose Chris with his pistol, and sheva with a machine gun.

It's irratating. Expecialy for what hot toys charges us.

Re: The currious case of "muscle" bodies. Please read the first post before voting

galactiboy said:

I err on the side of articulation... but I appreciate figures like Dutch or Hellboy were the musculature is so key to the character.

So most times give me the standard body, but on some rare occassions the muscle body is a good choice.

Click to expand...

Same for me. Not all characters that Hot Toys will do are going to look good on a Muscle Body but when its needed I'll take one.

Re: The currious case of "muscle" bodies. Please read the first post before voting

That's a hard one! Couldn't choose a vote. Basically, I prefer aesthetics... to a point! As a matter of fact, the best compromise is probably the EB BL body! Good range of articulation and good looking too!

Re: The currious case of "muscle" bodies. Please read the first post before voting

Where it's needed, it's needed, i.e. Rocky. I just wish HT would find a happy medium though. Like a muscular sculpted normal jointed arm that gives you the look but also the articulation.

I had to choose muscle body in the poll. They just look too nice and I haven't gotten a figure yet that the limited articulation really bothered me.

Re: The currious case of "muscle" bodies. Please read the first post before voting

Cocoboloboy said:

Where it's needed, it's needed, i.e. Rocky. I just wish HT would find a happy medium though. Like a muscular sculpted normal jointed arm that gives you the look but also the articulation.

I had to choose muscle body in the poll. They just look too nice and I haven't gotten a figure yet that the limited articulation really bothered me.

Click to expand...

Their Muscle Bodies are getting better though. I liked what they did with Dutches arms and I'm sure we will see further improvement in the future.

Re: The currious case of "muscle" bodies. Please read the first post before voting

Aesthetic....I dont play with those...

Re: The currious case of "muscle" bodies. Please read the first post before voting

Depends on the figure. Obvisously fully clothed figures don't matter, but for Arnold and female figures, I prefer it to look most natural. Considering the visual effect is only in question on exposed flesh areas, I vote for silicon skin.

Re: The currious case of "muscle" bodies. Please read the first post before voting

On characters who wear a shirt with short or no sleeves or no shirt at all I definitely prefer the muscle body. Otherwise a regular TT will do just fine.

Re: The currious case of "muscle" bodies. Please read the first post before voting

For the most part, I prefer articulated bodies over the cast "rubber" bodies.
Though, it's actually easier for Hot Toys to produce a unique skin sculpture in rubber then for them to engineer a unique one for a articulated body, I'm sure HT could pull it off as they did with the Predator figures. And they constantly reuse the rubber skin bodies anyways, so they could spread out the cost of an engineered articulated body just the same.
When it comes to appearance, you'll never have perfectly scaled cloth covered figures, they'll always look toy like, so seamless skin isn't necessary.

If you want a seamless figure, buy a statue. If you want something poseable buy a action figure. I don't like the strengths of either format compromised, and that too me is what the rubber skin figures are, compromised action figures.

Re: The currious case of "muscle" bodies. Please read the first post before voting

In 1976 there was a Six Million Dollar man figure/doll that had rubber "skin" that could be rolled up or down to expose bionic parts. Its cheap, and was invented in the 70's. It would cover exposed joints, and you could still pose the figure. Problem solved. The bionic arm was originally covered in a flesh-colored rubber skin that you could roll back to reveal cool-looking removable circuit blocks. The same process could be used to cover joints. Takes about 30 years to rot/harden/whatever. By then, who will even care?

Re: The currious case of "muscle" bodies. Please read the first post before voting

I admit the muscle bodies look great on characters like Dutch & HellBoy, but it's a small step away from an action figure into the realms of a 1/6th pose-able statue.

I know it would add to the cost of the figure, but maybe HT could include interchangeable arms in future releases, to retain the articulation we love.