Might have to grab an Absorbing Man single card. He's got Road Pig possibilities...

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This doesn't match with what I'm seeing done. The joints are the same hard plastic that the torsos are made of, and since they're usually the same color as the torso I have to assume they're cast out from the same mold at the same injection. There's *nothing* about this process that requires universally-interchangeable joint pieces be cast on the exact same mold as the torso pieces. They should be cast separately so they can be color-matched to whatever they connect.

I'm not talking about stuff like Clone Troopers having white shoulder pads and black bodysuit armpits so the white of the joint piece looks weird in the should-be black armpit. I'm talking about stuff like Thunderball having green ankle in entirely-yellow boots, or Luke Cage having a yellow neck piece in his entirely-chocolate brown neck.

Being unable to even attempt color-matching because you made a mold with too many parts on it is rank incompetence, imho.

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And there is the crux of my issue with ALL these arguments. No one on this board except for maybe General Hawk, or nova knows what goes on. Yet all you folks seem to want to do is whine about toys that we would have killed for as kids.

Hike up your collective panties, sit down, and play with your toys, FFS.

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Ouch - I just hurt my hand because I was slow-clapping so loud.


Anyway, I've had decent enough luck finding the newest stuff - grabbed a handful of Namor for customs, a couple of Darkhawks (have to find a way to fix those jacked-up wings) and 1 each of Steve & X-23.

X-23's not as bad as I initially thought - she needs to be shortened, though, because her legs are WAY too long. But if you chop a bit off the tops of her boots, she's perfect. Now I'm trying to hunt down a second one so I can update my Wonder Woman with new, long-ass girlie legs. But X-23's torso is great - nice & small - perfect for a Kitty Pryde custom.

No new comic packs to be seen, though. Eagerly waiting on those.

No real interest in the Iceman/Creel wave, though - I've got plenty of custom Creels in various forms, and I never liked the idea of a see-through Iceman. Oddly enough, Magneto looks kinda cool to me - even if he is just a repaint. The cape is lame, and will be replaced, but I like the rest of the figure for some weird raisin.

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I am liking the Iceman, Mags, and Wolvie. But then again, I love me some X-Folks.

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Cost. Since the harder plastic (yes, usually used for the torsos) requires different types of molds and different equipment to run parts with, it makes sense from a time and money standpoint to run all of those parts on the same mold. The joints have to be made of a harder plastic for the sonic welding process they use to hide the joints to work. The sonic welding means that we don't see visible holes and pegs at joints (and also gives them more flexibility in where they can place joints, since they don't need to have as much extra material to support the peg). If you use two plastics that are too close in type in the joint the sonic weld will fuse the joint to the limb, this mistake has happened a number of times in Mattel's DCUC line (though I think they were all the fault of a single factory). Could they do it a different way? Absolutely. But they have no incentive to. You just gave them like a hundred bucks despite not liking the way they do it, I'm not saying that you can't dislike the method, but if you keep buying the product, Hasbro has no reason to change anything.

I'm simply not believing that. If this is true, then why don't Joes routinely have mis-colored joint pieces? Why not SW figs? Or the other Marvel lines?

I've worked the line on plastics-injection products (Igloo coolers and suchnot), and it was possible to make molds such that you can assemble them in the machine similarly to movable-type printing presses so you can cast out similar parts with the same requisite plastics - if you make a mold for each individual part and shape their exteriors so they can all fit into the mold box at once. And the joint inserts are so universally interchangeable that a knowledgable molder/caster would have made those parts color-optional instead of color-mandatory.

This stuff happens on certain MU bucks nearly every single time simply because they made a whole mold that had the torso and joint inserts in it instead of multiple molds that can be assembled together in the casting machine. It's not cost, it's incompetence.



Oh, hush. Quit accepting incompetence when you don't have to. Hasbro doesn't have any super-exclusive casting technology that only they have. This stuff has been common knowledge for centuries, going back to the Bronze Age for criminy's sake.

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What, that fanboys are a bunch of whiny little [LASER BLAST]?

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Is it accepting incompetence when I'm having fun in a hobby? If so, I choose fun over pointless mewling any day.

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Those joints are not made from the same plastic as the torso. The torsos are made from ABS. The joint pieces are made from some type of engineering plastic, seems to be either some type of nylon, or something from the acetyl family. That's why paint and glue don't want to stick to the stuff. They require a separate mold, and separate plastic to make them. Running them in two colors for each figure, requires a second mold, and does take the production cost up. They only do that on Joes, because the knees are made from the same stuff. MU knees are made from the same PVC as the rest of the legs.

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I have a couple Super Soldiers (1 to use the head for an unmasked Cap) and the Iceman wave coming from BBTS. Not sure if I'm going to keep Darkhawk and Magneto yet. I'll make a decision when I get them in hand.

Also, does anyone know if Iceman is based on the regular 616 version or the Ultimate version? I recall the do-rag being something the Ultimate Iceman had but the "X" across his torso looks more like the 616 version (specifically it reminds me of 80's X-Factor Iceman which I really like).

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I think it is X-Factor Iceman.

I heard there was going to be a darkhawk varient. Has anyone seen a pic of it? Is it still going to happen?

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Now that you say it, you're absolutely right. The joints do have that soapy feel common to Nylon type plastics. I'm curious how the joint molds are set up now, since some figures do have several joint and peg colors (the pegs being made of the same plastic). Cable for instance has joints that match the limb color across the board. Regardless, each wave/figure has a certain budget, so I imagine sometimes they have to run joints in colors that don't match to meet it.

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