I'm working on a figure who will be a motorcycle rider, but the problem is his head faces down when he's riding due to normal neck articulation. He can't pilot a bike if he's staring at the gas tank! Any thoughts on how I can rig him so he can look up while riding?

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What scale is the figure? You have a couple of options, but the scale will determine how easily they work:

1) A graduated barbell neck - have a smaller ball at the head end and a larger one at the torso end. Make sure the head ball sits fairly deep in the head, with a conical shape from the base of the socket to the base of the head to allow more range

2) A pivot joint instead of neck ball - make a pivot joint where the neck and head meet, with a peg the head attaches to. (think knee joint on Joe figures). This will give you more range of motion but won't look as natural as #1.

3) Similar to #1 but it's just the ball and socket for the head, not the neck. You still want to make the socket fairly deep in the head and hollow out the base of the head as much as you can (to within a millimeter or so of the exterior surface) to allow a wider range of motion. Looks more natural than #2 but still not as good as #1.

you can grind out the inside of the back of your head at an angle and add some rearward tilt. i make most head holes over sized now and add heatshrink to dial them in.

is your rider helmeted? if so you can fudge eyeline as he's just helmet down for less drag.

it might be easier to use a fortnite upper torso since they come ready to lay way back. or i guess easier to transplant a fn neck into your torso.

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Fortnite figs have a decent neck articulation with a pivot hinge and ball combo. Boss Fight, Marauder, and Spero use a double ball joint between the head and neck. In the past I trimmed necks from waste plastic to fit newsculpt and ARAH bodies with a ball joint for new style heads, now I have an .stl model that I can print as necessary.

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The figure is 1:18th, a Rise of Cobra - Cobar commander body with Dr. Rex legs and a custom head. I can't really say he has a helmet, as he is somewhat insectoid looking, but I guess that's as close a comparison as any.

What if I used a section of wire as the "joint" and have it exposed just a bit above the neck/neck ball? It might make the head look like it's floating though.

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if you are talking about the wire "bending" back and forth it will eventually weaken it and break.

i tried magnets in heads with BB implanted in neck balls, but it really didn't do much.

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There’s a few marvel universe figures that had an articulated neck joint that you could remove and replace on the cc body. If you can’t find one of those, you could use an elbow joint and add the neckball from the cc torso to the elbow joint. Acid rain figures also had a pretty good neck joint you could use (barbell design?).

Just about every option will involve some serious plastic reconstruction/modding and painting.

I had recently removed the head from a Star Wars VC Kuiil (sp?) and it has that double bar-bell system, but it's on the stubby side and might not be possible to transplant. I could use an elbow joint, but I'm afraid it being an elbow will stick out.

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To add hight to necks I've been drilling a hole and screwing in a small screw. Like a Joe leg screw but thinner. Sometimes while doing that I'll get better head articulation. It depends on how much material is hogged out of the head.

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Ok, use the existing neck to make a custom barbell joint. Cut the neck off and add a ball to the bottom (I recommend drill and pin or screw with glue). Then dremel out a socket for the ball to fit snuggly in the torso (just like the ball for the head). You may need to add green stuff as filler. You’ll have to experiment to see how deep to make the socket for the ball so it looks normal and still has the range of motion you want.

Another option I forgot about is revoltech joints. They come in different sizes and colors. It would involve cutting the neck off and drilling holes in the neck and torso for the pegs as well as rounding them out to fit the ball part of the joint. I haven’t bought any in years but I bet you can still find them online.

i bought some 3 part ball joints on sprues from ebay, but they were called something else i think. drilling a hole in the top of the neck (where old ball was) and insert the ball joint right there. one major thing though is color. i have only seen black.

eta joints like these

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Those look pretty much the same except revoltech joints only had 2 parts that snapped together.

Joytoy figures also have a similar design to acid rain. They use a ball joint neck (male neck sculpt) that pops onto a ball on the torso. It’s only restricted by the sculpt of the collar on the torso. Otherwise it has potential for a great range of motion.

You telling me that for years I've been butchering Star Wars figures for joints and these have been available? Dang man.

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I posted about them way back(2013?), but is was just the last few yrs I used them with success. The shown Lenard alien and more Recent customs ,cannibal girl (knees), killer croc & Deadshot (ankles).

When I first got them I tried making elbow joints ,but counter sunk them so far they no longer functioned.

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