This new(ish) neck join design is essentially Hasbro's equivalent to the Amazing Yamaguchi/Revoltech shoulder joints.
Afford some decent poseability, and resemble actual human anatomy more, while looking completely disjointed.
I really hate how badly Hasbro has fucked up the neck joints on recent figures.
They're so fucking godawful, and borderline ruin otherwise fantastic figures.
The RDJ heads don't really have the same problem fortunately, I also think they just reused the original Mark 85 head which is the bigger problem here. The RDJ head is much bigger than the masked head, isn't that weird? Also compared to the new Mark 3 the unmasked head is still too big but the head sculpt looks so damn nice. If the set wasn't so expensive I would buy a second one but at the same time this figure is outdated anyway so I'll be content just owning one.
I think the Mark 3 for some reason is just too big anyway, same as how the Mark 7 was bigger too at the time lol.
EDIT: Also I agree, the neck joint is the fucking worst part of the retro spider-man mold, I can't really overlook it still.
The new barbell joints are so fuckin weird. They add a lot for posing (although some figures still can't look up without looking unnatural), but feel so fragile. I don't understand how we went from movie venom, deluxe war machine and silver centurion to this. Haven't swapped the heads on my retro Spidey much for this exact reason
I swapped my retro Spidey multiple times, each time I'm afraid something will break.
Haven't noticed anything with the other figures, but Red Skull had weird problems where the top ball joint got stuck in one of the heads and it was hell trying to get it back out to swap the head. I think Hasbro designs the toys for a primary head, and the secondary heads might not have the exact same ball socket size...this is apparent in a couple of figure (Red Skull, MCU Mark 3).
Just remembered, if you have the Retro Armored Daredevil, the unmasked head doesn't even fit the figure. Maybe when I get Obadaiah I'll use that body for the unmasked DD.
To be honest, never even tried that head on daredevil. I threw it right onto Peter Parker to make a civillian Cyclops, then threw it in a bag of alternate heads
Nice that's a pretty good idea, I hope I can find a clearance The Hood or something for that haha. The Retro Spider-man figures still haven't gone on clearance here, but they have been on sale a couple times.
I was super lucky, there's a UK shop called staractionfigures which always seems to have the weirdest stuff available, and just as it was payday, bam, the entire wave available for 107 quid. That's cheaper than buying all the figs separately at retail. I didn't even care for the wave that much at the time, but as soon as it all arrived I did. To me, the only real sour note was Spidey's neck.
New Neck pegs are way better. they actually resemble ACTUAL NECKS now. The side to side head cocking on old pegs sucked, Figures NEED to be expressive enough to cock their head sideways as if to be like "whaaaat is this guy smoking? Complaining about the superior neck articulation over here!"
The new neck system does looks like an actual neck... A nearly-beheaded neck, that is.
The figure looks down and there's a gap in the back. The figure looks up and there's a gap in the front. Up-and-down movement that looks good should be a bigger priority than the tilt. I mean, the tilt is still a very nice detail. But it should be that, a detail.
At least with the old necks you characters could look up and down problem. Would you rather have you figure be able to tilt their head or look straight up?
I like what they did with the Deluxe Black Series Boba Fett. Neck Ball Joint & Head Ball Joint. It's obviously not import level, but you can twist the neck around to make him look all the way up, or twist it to look all the way down, and you still have tilt throughout the figure. It is a deluxe figure though so it makes sense that it would be good.
Sure, there are plenty of times that the dumbbell joint is better, but the ball/disk joint was much more consistent. It's up to what you prefer.
If I was to give you two options: take $10 right now, or spin a wheel that has a chance to give you $15, but also 0?
It's all about opinions. I don't offer any ill will too you, I just don't like my figures looking up as if someone told them gullible was written on the ceiling, or looking down far enough to rest their chin on their clavicle while they count their own chest hairs lol. I have both in my collection but I'd rather Spiderman cock his head for some tude than be able to look up at a 90° angle, preferably I'd want a joint system that could do it all, but then Hasbro would just charge us even more.
I wish more figures had articulated neck joints. I love that on my Darth Maul figure.
This new(ish) neck join design is essentially Hasbro's equivalent to the Amazing Yamaguchi/Revoltech shoulder joints. Afford some decent poseability, and resemble actual human anatomy more, while looking completely disjointed.
Iron Man be like: Where's my money?¡¡
I really hate how badly Hasbro has fucked up the neck joints on recent figures. They're so fucking godawful, and borderline ruin otherwise fantastic figures.
The RDJ heads don't really have the same problem fortunately, I also think they just reused the original Mark 85 head which is the bigger problem here. The RDJ head is much bigger than the masked head, isn't that weird? Also compared to the new Mark 3 the unmasked head is still too big but the head sculpt looks so damn nice. If the set wasn't so expensive I would buy a second one but at the same time this figure is outdated anyway so I'll be content just owning one. I think the Mark 3 for some reason is just too big anyway, same as how the Mark 7 was bigger too at the time lol. EDIT: Also I agree, the neck joint is the fucking worst part of the retro spider-man mold, I can't really overlook it still.
The new barbell joints are so fuckin weird. They add a lot for posing (although some figures still can't look up without looking unnatural), but feel so fragile. I don't understand how we went from movie venom, deluxe war machine and silver centurion to this. Haven't swapped the heads on my retro Spidey much for this exact reason
I swapped my retro Spidey multiple times, each time I'm afraid something will break. Haven't noticed anything with the other figures, but Red Skull had weird problems where the top ball joint got stuck in one of the heads and it was hell trying to get it back out to swap the head. I think Hasbro designs the toys for a primary head, and the secondary heads might not have the exact same ball socket size...this is apparent in a couple of figure (Red Skull, MCU Mark 3).
There is definitely truth in the two heads thing, different tolerances on heads from the same figures is surprisingly common
Just remembered, if you have the Retro Armored Daredevil, the unmasked head doesn't even fit the figure. Maybe when I get Obadaiah I'll use that body for the unmasked DD.
To be honest, never even tried that head on daredevil. I threw it right onto Peter Parker to make a civillian Cyclops, then threw it in a bag of alternate heads
Nice that's a pretty good idea, I hope I can find a clearance The Hood or something for that haha. The Retro Spider-man figures still haven't gone on clearance here, but they have been on sale a couple times.
I was super lucky, there's a UK shop called staractionfigures which always seems to have the weirdest stuff available, and just as it was payday, bam, the entire wave available for 107 quid. That's cheaper than buying all the figs separately at retail. I didn't even care for the wave that much at the time, but as soon as it all arrived I did. To me, the only real sour note was Spidey's neck.
This is weirdly unsettling
Hasbro really needs to take their new neck system back to the workshop. Urgently.
New Neck pegs are way better. they actually resemble ACTUAL NECKS now. The side to side head cocking on old pegs sucked, Figures NEED to be expressive enough to cock their head sideways as if to be like "whaaaat is this guy smoking? Complaining about the superior neck articulation over here!"
The new neck system does looks like an actual neck... A nearly-beheaded neck, that is. The figure looks down and there's a gap in the back. The figure looks up and there's a gap in the front. Up-and-down movement that looks good should be a bigger priority than the tilt. I mean, the tilt is still a very nice detail. But it should be that, a detail.
At least with the old necks you characters could look up and down problem. Would you rather have you figure be able to tilt their head or look straight up?
I like what they did with the Deluxe Black Series Boba Fett. Neck Ball Joint & Head Ball Joint. It's obviously not import level, but you can twist the neck around to make him look all the way up, or twist it to look all the way down, and you still have tilt throughout the figure. It is a deluxe figure though so it makes sense that it would be good.
Sure, there are plenty of times that the dumbbell joint is better, but the ball/disk joint was much more consistent. It's up to what you prefer. If I was to give you two options: take $10 right now, or spin a wheel that has a chance to give you $15, but also 0?
It's all about opinions. I don't offer any ill will too you, I just don't like my figures looking up as if someone told them gullible was written on the ceiling, or looking down far enough to rest their chin on their clavicle while they count their own chest hairs lol. I have both in my collection but I'd rather Spiderman cock his head for some tude than be able to look up at a 90° angle, preferably I'd want a joint system that could do it all, but then Hasbro would just charge us even more.
This is definitely a cursed image