Thanks for stopping by to participate in the poll
Many of you are aware the groundbreaking work Crazy Cajun and I were doing to supply a cost effective, robust, and easily installed modification to full size WM dolls. CC had already developed a hand plate with anchor points which would prevent the fingers from being dis-located, and I followed up with a design for fingers that wouldn't break after repeated use, and had articulated movement (much more realistic than wires).
Sadly we lost our good friend and partner last month. He would have been so thrilled with the final prototype that I was on the verge of installing on Jolene (our test doll). I had promised myself I would get off my duff and do that installation this Friday May 4th, and then...WHAMOO and AH HA!
While the latest prototype was designed for a two plane (up down) movement at the knuckles where the fingers attach to the hand plates, some amount of side to side movement was possible. We had tried many different ways to obtain a four plane movement (up, down, left side, right side) that was fully articulated but it just became complicated, difficult to produce and to fragile for the end user.
But then came the Ah ha moment. I've now discovered a way to make a knuckle joint with a three plane movement (big shout out to Mannequin Fan for having solved this problem!). I've discovered a way to easily and cost effectively have "three plane" movement (left side, right side and down). Three plane movement more closely mimics human finger movement. While we can extend our fingers up, human fingers are not designed to be bent back.
But progress has a price...and thus we've arrived at the reason for the poll.
Two way up down movement (with slight side to side movement) is very robust and would be quite difficult for the end user to damage. Your doll would be able to easily hold a hand gun, glass of wine or banana (wink wink).
Three way movement would also have all these features but would also have a true articulated movement side to side. Example-your doll would be able to "splay" all her fingers apart and hold that pose. Unfortunately some sturdiness is sacrificed for this movement. If you hyper extended this joint backward it would very likely become disjointed. Surgery would not be required to "pop" the joint back into place as it would be achievable by simply pressing both opposite sides of the joint to pop it back in. How many times could your doll endure a dis-jointment? That's a wild card that we don't know and would take quite a bit of testing on a prototype to discover.
So, I put it to you! Yes, you! The end user.
Unlike our Chinese manufactures who could all but give a damn what we as end users want for doll improvement, I (and I KNOW CC were he still with us) are extremely interested in what the community wants.
Two way movement with high robustness or three way movement with the sacrifice of some sturdiness.
Thank you for participating in the poll, your input is valuable!
And while comments are appreciated, their's a bunch of posts in a variety of groups this particular modification. I invite you to make commentary there
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