I think that, had this been 2004 and all these were what we were getting at that time at those prices, I likely wouldn't be this persnickity about articulation on EVERYTHING.
I've paid $7 for most every figure I got this year though... That's outrageous at this point, to pay that and get basically something that has a little bit of poseability at the arms and NOTHING at the legs. Veers is my best case for this... You're getting a GOOD $5 figure.... You're getting a **** $7 figure.
It's not so much that I dislike the Veers figure, as I dislike the price I paid to get a figure that is about as poseable as a vintage figure is from the waist down. The helmet bowing outward and lack of back armor flaws aside, it's a passable 2004 figure. Veers would've gained high marks that year at the $5 pricetag I paid for most of 2004.
Then 2005 came, we got a movie year packed with figures I consider high quality like almost anything out of Collection 2. IT was a great year for most of 2005. Hell, even the OTC ended with the Cantina Wave... How freaking great were those figures, and at $5 to $6 you got a deal on those IMO. HOlsters, guns, articulation, booze... They had it all plus scupts and paint aps that rivaled teh best work Hasbro has thrown our way.
Now jump to today, and we get Derlin... He's not bad for 2004. He's **** for 2006 and $7. Same with Veers... Sora Bulq goes right in that category. Few figures are getting the pass because I know Hasbro can do better because they DID do better and for the love of god they charged us less on top of it!
I'm not so much bitching about $7 for a figure as long as I get a $7 figure, not something that falls FAR short.
Sora Bulq didn't even fall far short... He's like a milimeter from greatness to me. Just that someone at Hasbro... We'll call him Hasbro Monkey #3. He said, "Hmmm... Why give him knee joints? Let's put the investment in those into his ankles instead! Because ankle joints really are versatile for poseable toys!"
Ankles are cool articulation points, no doubt, but when you don't articulate the knees... Then wtf is the point?
It's like articulating a figure's elbows but NOT his shoulders, ya know? Well what good is an elbow joint if the shoulders don't move?
The ankles can be omitted... They're expendable articulation points on most figures (not all, just most). The knees however, as with elbows and wrist joints, should really be a line standard, especially when you're raping your consumers for $7 a figure.