Sci-fi Revoltech Iron Man Mark V Part 3

Tiresome flaw
Examining the articulation design of Sci-fi Revoltech Iron Man Mark V after the previous posting. ^^




Very wide vertical tilt for the head.


Without adjusting the neck joint's hinge, side-to-side swivel of the head doesn't work as well as the vertical tilt shown above, resulting in a weird look for the head. ^^;


When the neck joint itself is rotated so that the hinge is facing the side (right image), a more natural-looking horizontal tilt for the head is possible. ^^


Two Revoltech joints of different sizes control the neck's articulation.


Forward and backward swings are of course possible with the large Revoltech joints for the shoulders.


The shoulders can be bent upward from the side of the body very easily. The edge of the upper arm is the limiter of the shoulder's articulation as shown in the image above, not the armor. ^^


With the upper arm swivelled around so that the protruding base faces downward, the arm can now be bent upward for an even wider range. ^^



The armor is connected to the back of the upper arm via a small Revoltech joint. It has its own hinge/swivel articulation range which is not tied to the shoulder at all, allowing it to be bent to a crazy position such as that shown above, for whatever purpose. XD


A large Revoltech joint embedded in the armpit for the shoulder joint.


Using the swiveling point of the shoulder joint, there's a limited range of bicep swivel. If the upper arm is rotated more than what is shown above, it would look more like the entire arm is swung forward/backward. ^^;


Taking advantage of the elbow Revoltech joint's swivel, the forearm can be rotated around on that joint even though the upper arm is not separated from the shoulder.


Slightly over 90 degrees for the elbow bend.


Making use of the forearm swivel shown above, the elbow can still be bent, albeit with limited range even with the side of the forearm facing the front.



Small Revoltech joint enables the wrist's swivel/hinge articulation capability.



Very flexible forward/backward and side-to-side bends for the waist.
As you can see in the second row of images above, the waist have separated parts that move independently.


There is a separated waist segment that is connected to the chest and lower body via two different Revoltech joints.
The design is very similar to that on War Machine, except it's bigger and without a separate "ring" for the abdomen details.



Adjusting the position of the two Revoltech joints' hinge direction allows the body to be bent to different directions rather freely. ^^
For most of the poses, the body segments need to be extended to give more room to the joints' movement.



The hip joints themselves are obviously Revoltech joints, but there are more movable parts that are involved in the hips' articulation.


Almost 90 degrees for each hip joint's outward expansion.



A pair of flippers-like movable parts beside the hip joints. ^^ One for each hip, the two flippers seem to serve no purpose other that to fill in the large hollow gap when the thighs are bent outward.
The same design can be seen on War Machine.


Standard 90-degree forward lift for the leg.


Restricted by the flippers, the thigh have limited range to swivel around on the hip joint.
The maximum range of thigh swivel is not as big a concern as the hollow gap and unnatural look of the hip joints. ^^;


As hinted by the small Revoltech joint above the knee cover, the tip area of the silver "track" on each thigh can be flipped downward.


Over 90-degee forward lift for the leg when the thigh panel is pushed/bent to its joint's limit. ^^


With its Revoltech joint, the thigh panel can be adjusted to adhere to the bent thigh and waist as closely as possible so that it won't stand out too much.


180-degree bend for the knee joint.


The split isn't noticeable when the knee is closed, but when the latter is bent, even the inner section that has been painted silver is pretty helpless in giving the whitish Revoltech joint a subtler look. ^^;


The lower legs can be swiveled around under the knee using the knee joints' pegs, but it's definitely an unnatural movement. ^^;


Wide vertical bending range for the ankle joint via its hinge component.


Either foot can be swiveled from side to side quite flexibly via the ankle joint's straight peg.


There's a pin embedded inside the front section of each foot, which seems to allow said section to be bent.
As tried on the left foot, the range of movement is very minor, ...


... and bending the front section downward caused quite a bit of the paint on the edge to be scrapped off. ^^;






The flexibility enabled by the hips, plus the standard articulation points of the knees and ankles makes adjusting a very natural-looking kneeling pose for Mark V extremely easy. ^^
Looking at the joints individually, their design is actually not bad. Major joints like the shoulders, knees and even the waist are flexible enough to give the figure a wide range of posability, even though the placement of the waist joint's peg is a noted issue that I've been mentioning since the previous posting. ^^; Even though the flexibility isn't exactly special per se since almost the same joint design could be seen on the previously reviewed War Machine, but it's certainly useful for the figure itself.

The again, stability is the Achilles heel of the figure. ^^; No matter how flexible some of the joints may be, it still takes a frustratingly long time just to adjust the hips and knees in order to get the figure to stand properly. It also reveals an unfortunate paradox of joint size versus ratcheting range that is a pretty common "issue" with Revoltech figures. ^^; For more critical joints, like the shoulders, knees and waist, large-sized Revoltech joints are used to provide strength and sturdiness in supporting any pose adjusted using those joints. However, the larger the joints get, the ratcheting range gets wider, causing it to become harder to bend the joints to the right click one desires. On Mark V, the issue is most obvious with the waist and hips. ^^;

Looking at the different joint design implemented on various Revoltech figures across different sub-series over the years, I can see the designer's intention to create figures with more flexible and human-like posability, but it does seem that relying on Revoltech joints alone just isn't enough to achieve that objective. ^^;

Some action poses from Mark V to demonstrate its posability:


Supported using Soul Stage Act 4 for Humanoid Clear.









More action poses from the figure coming up next. ^^