I just plugged some Steel Brigade flippy hands into Resolute Flint and holy cow, does that articulation make the figure better.

POC/perfect Snake Eyes was the first figure I got with that articulation and I remember being completely blown away. Well, plugging those hands into an already awesome figure (Resolute Flint) just sent him off the charts.

I understand why Hasbro won't commit to making this new articulation standard (price, mold reuse precluded) but, DAYM these new joes with flippy hands are just flat out amazing.

It's the same kind of advance as swivel - ball neck (84-85) or single to double knee (06-07). It's that good.

Look at the new Storm Shadow. Or the Zombie Viper. These figures are made by their flippy hands. SO GOOD.

I couldn't agree with you more.

all of my default male figures get them. If they come out with figures with some smaller joint's then the ladies will get them too.

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I got into the Clone Wars clone troopers because they sported those cool wrists articulations.
Now we'll be able to equip our figures with guns that don't have a pistol grip like the M14.

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I'm a fan of the new wrists. Definite progress.

I love them too... the only reason I buy any new joes at all is if they have those.

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Also, "Flippy Hands" MUST become their official designation.

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Agreed. I love me some flippy hands. I opened up a new Namor figure recently and he's got tons of good arcticulation, but he's missing the floppy hands to really put him over the top.

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I've been using SW commander Gree figures for quite awhile, as those were the first I had discovered with flippy hands.

For use on female figures, the Clone Troopers that have them - from the Clone Wars series line - are slender, and work well on Joe ladies. Also, if you have any Tieka (sp?) Toys Our War figures, they sport flippy hands as well, and work ok for female gloved hands.

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There is one drawback I've found... and I've been thinking of ways to fix it. Now, don't get me wrong, I love the flippy hands, but here's a nice little nit to pick.

On the ones I have, one of the hands usually has the ability to "flip" one way, while the other "flips" in the other way.

What I mean, is that on one, the joint usually splits the wrist at the base of the palm, while the other is on top of the hand just behind the base of the thumb.

This restricts just a bit... I had an idea the other day... what if the flippy joint was back into the forearm rather than forward into the hand, and the hand itself was mounted onto a ball? Sorta like a Microman ankle?

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I think this is mimic actual wrist movement. If the joint was in the forearm, then the bend would be unnatural.

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I don't think you could do a proper ball joint in the hand itself without making the palm unrealistically proportioned. It would have to be pretty small to make it not look goofy and then it might be too fragile.

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Double ball joints should be able to mimic wrist articulation pretty fully (see Bandai's high end figuarts toys). But at this scale, I think Pluv's right: it probably wouldn't work.

But I'm with you, wowboy. It'd be great if the flippy hands could do all the tricks instead of one or the other.

For example, with the flippy hand that tilts the hand back against the forearm, you can achieve a push-up pose. But the gun-holding flippy hand won't play along. While Snake Eyes and Stalker have two gunholder hands (so they can hold knives awesomely), we haven't had a figure with two push-up hands yet.

On the star wars front: I can't count the number of times I've considered buying a star wars figure for its hands, then realized that's silly.

But even a single ball joint, just in the forearm, would be better than what we have now, no? That way, you would get a fuller range of motion, instead of one hand flipping up/down and the other flipping left/right. And you would still retain the swivel action.

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I think there's only one thing to do... bash a Microman ankle onto a Joe wrist and see how it works.

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Yes.

And I think the tolerances are too tight for a mass market figure. I think you'd wind up with less movement overall if Hasbro engineered the hands to be solidly on a shaft with a ball at the end which pegged into the arm.

Also, for a ball/socket to work like that the ball would need to be hard plastic.

Maybe this (sorry for the ASCII, I'm using an iPhone)
arm. Ball/shaft. Hand
))))( ) •--- ]]hP

That way the hand would swivel on the shaft, which would tilt in the arm. You could sculpt the back of the hand to hang over the edge and hide the shaft that would have to be exposed in order to have enough mobility for posing.

But I think it'd be more fiddly and less 'fun' than what we're getting.

This is a fun tread though. Who's got a better idea?