Articulation
Articulation commonly describes the number, position, and type of a Transformers toy's joints. "Posability", a fan-coined contraction of "pose" and "ability", is often found in conjunction with mentions of articulation, although they are not necessarily interchangeable.
The more joints on a figure (in either form), the more articulated it is. This generally includes the shoulders, elbows, hips and knees, and sometimes even wrists, ankles, and neck among others. Posability in Transformers ranges from the Spy Changers, who are limited to rotating their arms up and down (shoulder swivel articulation only), to the non-transforming Revoltech line, the entire selling point of which is the high amount of articulation per figure. Possibly the only Transformer toys that have no real articulation but can still be said to transform, are the Battlechargers, the Throttlebots, the Duocons, Under-3, and arguably Freedom Fighter and Enemy.
Articulation is one of many factors that fans weigh when evaluating a toy, and naturally is of subjective value. To some, if a toy has unusually good posability, they will buy it over another figure that looks "better", but can not move as much. Toys with very few points of articulation are often referred to as bricks. Many modern Transformer toys, particularly those from the Beast Era and Robots in Disguise, have high posability thanks to the incorporation of many ball joints.
Unfortunately, there is a trade-off between articulation and production cost — the more complex the figure, the more parts that must be assembled and therefore produced, and the higher the retail price. For example, Armada Megatron could easily have been given knees, but instead has a plethora of other gimmicks. Many customizers have taken to altering the figure to be more posable, and while some fans claim this is how Hasbro "should" have made the original, doing so would likely have sent the figure over budget.
Some figures are hampered in how well they can pose by their transformation or alternate mode. Armada Hot Shot's shoulders, for example, are limited by how he transforms. A different transformation may have allowed his arms to move on an additional axis... however, as noted above, this would have also increased the toy's complexity and cost. Even when the needed articulation is present, posability can also be limited by kibble blocking a part's motion.
Conversely, sometimes a toy's posability is improved by its transformation. Or, perhaps more accurately, the designers managed to place the transformation-related articulation in places that would also serve the robot mode's articulation. The Unicron toy released during Armada is an example of this. His neck, shoulders, arms, wrists, hips, ankles, and feet must all be moved to change him from planet to robot and back.
Articulation can have a drawback. If a figure is overloaded with joints, especially in the legs and waist, this can result in the figure having problems supporting its own weight, holding a pose, or even standing. This is a common complaint with Omega Prime. He is loaded with exciting and dramatic articulation, but is so top-heavy that it is hard to get him to do anything beyond "standing up straight". The much-loved ball joints are especially susceptible to weight and play wear problems, and as such are generally not used on larger figures. A similar level of flexibility can be created with a combination of two swivels or ratcheted swivels.
Articulation as a feature
In the mid 90s, Hasbro began introducing highly articulated toys and promoting their posability as a gimmick and selling point. In 1994, the Generation 2 Laser Rod cards advertised the toys as "Super Poseable!", and the Dreadwing and Smokescreen box describes the toys as "Super Poseable Robots". Laser Optimus Prime's box notes the toy's "Fully poseable Laser Optimus Prime robot" mode. Other highly posable toys from the G2 era include the Cyberjets. Beast Wars (1996) was the first transformers line to make a high degree of articulation standard across the toyline.
Posable figures and safety
Unlike what most people think, an articulated action figure passes the safety regulations better than a brick. During the time Hasbro started to make its own molds to represent characters as toys instead of importing from other toy lines, the company noticed that safety standards required a toy to withstand a pulling force of 20 pounds to deem them safe. Because most toys in those days had little to no outward movement in their legs or arms, they would rather quickly break with little force, so most figures were made with fused legs, preventing kids from pulling the legs apart. Because of this, most of the toys dropped articulation to make the figures stronger, turning a large amount of them into "bricks". During the time Takio Ejima started working on the brand, he noted that they could make the toys safer by the use of ball joints, making it easier for the toy to pass the test (ball joints simply pop off under stress and can subsequently be snapped back on, resulting in no breakage and thus no safety hazard), and have a full range of motion at the same time. This idea would even change the standard of articulation outside the Transformers brand.
