Articulation
Articulation is the ability of a toy to be posed and moved. The more joints on a figure (in either form), the more articulated it is. This includes the elbows, waist, knees, wrists, and even the neck of a Transformers. Articulation in Transformers toys ranges from figures like the Spy Changers, who are limited to rotating their arms up and down, to the non-transforming Revoltech line, whose entire selling point is massive amounts of articulation. Possibly the only Transformer toy that has *no* real articulation, but can still be said to transform, is Under-3.
For some fans, articulation is more important than even what the toy looks like; if it has an unusually high number of parts that can be moved, they will buy it over another figure that looks good, but can't move as much. Toys with low articulation are often referred to as bricks. One popular way of giving a toy a high level of posabilty is by giving it ball-and-socket joints on its shoulders and hips, and even sometimes the neck.
However, there is a certain balance between how articulated a figure is and how much it costs to produce; the more complex the figure, the more parts that must be assembled and therefore produced, and the higher the price it would cost to the end buyer. For example, Megatron (Armada) could easily have been given knees, and many kitbashers have taken to altering the figure to be more posable. These fans then shout that this is how Hasbro "should" have made the original, despite the fact that adding knees to the figure would likely send the figure over budget.
But many figures are more likely hampered in how well they can pose by their altmodes. Hot Shot's shoulders are harder to pose than most others because of how he transforms, many times only being able to move them in one direction (though his Energon figures were less articulated because of the ball joints in his shoulders, ironically). Conversely, others, like Unicron, have a higher number of points of articulation due to the fact that a larger number of parts have to be moved to transform the figure to begin with; his neck, shoulders, arms, wrists, hips, ankles, and even feet all have to be moved to change him from planet to robot and back. As such, many newer toys are finding new ways of having high posability, simple (but still interesting) transformation sequences, and impressive character models.
Sometimes, there is a thing as too much articulation. If a figure is totally overloaded with joints, especially in the legs and waist, this can result in a figure having problems standing or holding poses well. This is a common complaint with Omega Prime. The toy is loaded with exciting and dramatic articulation, but is so top-heavy that it can barely hold poses beyond "standing up straight."
