Was messing around with a couple Iron Man and Star Wars figures, trying to see what LBC I could do. I first tried a clone trooper head on a Fury boxed set Iron Man, and the neck balls matched. Cool, but since I like that Iron Man, I decided instead to use a blue Iron Man body with the clone head to make some sort of armored Cobra trooper. I pop off the blue head.....and the neck ball is smaller.

Really, its the same stinking head sculpt. Why would Hasbro (or their Chinese contractor) not use the same stinking neck ball size for the same head? From my personal manufacturing experience, that just means one more way to cast the wrong batch of heads for the figures you are making that day, the loss of the chance to have a backup if something happens to the first mold, and just plain-simple wasting money having a completely different mold/part around. The sad part is how often you see this with action figures. If anything, you figure they would want standardization to Frankenstein a figure whenever they wanted to.

Don't feel bad...I have had the neck balls come off completely.

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Not even all of the Iron Man figures share the same sized neck ball. Just look at both War Machines. One is HUGE and the other is reg sized.

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Yeah, don't remind me. One of my 25th divers his neck ball is embedded in one of my Dusty heads. Another issue with different next balls - small head with large neck = great chance to sheer off the neck ball.

My God it's like they have more than one mold for the same figure or something....wait why wouldn't those have the same neck ball sizes?

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I would love for Hasbro to standardize neck ball sizes across not just all of the figures in a line but across all of their 1/18 scale brands. I have no idea how to get anyone important to take that simple easy to mandate suggestion seriously.

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I know that they can't take unsolicited ideas so at a recent con I asked upfront how do we get our ideas to the people who should see them, I was told the best way was probably to post our wants and complaints and they would be seen. Now with that said they may not feel the same way after reading what we write, but I would still write about it with a logical and well reasoned thought. It might not hurt to have a forum for problems and or wants. Just remember they do read the boards and I know several want a lot of things we do too.

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Yeah we already know that JoeCustoms is a site they like to visit regularly. Severel of the guys that work and have worked at Hasbro has told several of us that. They usually hang at the JoeCustoms table at the cons even. That's why i've always said that we should always post constructive criticism when we felt it necessary.

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I have no idea how hard it is to add a folder and maintain a sub forum but if the powers that be think it is worth their time maybe we could have a "Dear Hasbro" thread for constructive criticism of what we like and don't, perhaps even across brands that we tend to talk about like the Marvel lines or Star Wars. (if I need t start this as its own thread let me know)

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There is no reason for the necks to be of different sizes. I could understand if Lucas or Marvel wanted different parts standards but this happens within the same line.

And there's the chromed Destro heads. How I removed one of those without breaking the neck, I have no idea.

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Actually, there's a very good reason.

Each brand has a different design team.

This is also why figure construction is different from one brand to another, and why Star Wars figures are distinctively shorter than Hasbro's Marvel or Joe lines.

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Not true. There is a well known customizer that works for Hasbro that's worked on both GI Joes and Star Wars. They may have a group that mainly handles one or the other, but in the whole it's not.

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Jay that doesn't explain how figures from a single Hasbro brand gave different neck ball sizes.

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Do they pay attention, though? How many times have we and other websites and even figure reviewers mentioned the crappy arm design that prevents it from bending enough to have a 2-hand grip on a rifle. Yet, 3 years on and its still an issue.

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Unilateral neck balls would be our dream come true, and it would open up so many "kid approved" customs, as even the kids would be right where we were, back in the screwdriver days. A new head means a new character. A new character means play is never sedate.

Thankfully, I haven't experienced a broken neckball, but thanks for enlightening me to the possibility of such. Now I will definitely take some extra care in the boil and popping, and the general removal of parts.

Also, I would like to see, at least for Star Wars the polystyrene torso done away with in favor for the softer plastic they use for the extremities. I know this would be a hassle for some of our customizers, as polystyrene takes paint extremely well, but I was looking at it from the contruction./swapping standpoint.

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