Phicen/TBLeague male body shoulder joint issue

So, relatively new here and to these figures, but I seem to have gotten my M34’s shoulder out of whack twice already. I must have moved the shoulder joints into a position as to where they seemed to get out of alignment. I did check out GF’s general Phicen body catalog thread that shows the bare metal skeleton to try to see what I was working with...

Both times this has happened, it was when I raised his arms up and over the head to assist with removing or putting on a shirt. It seems that the shoulder ball joints (on his left side only in both of my experiences) ended up in an inverted position where you could not swivel the shoulder up, but it wants to stay down, a bit further than the normal “low” position.

I should have taken a photo when it happened or even a video to better illustrate how it was stuck. But (with a little patience) modulating the arm/ball joint in a rolling/twisting motion (both ways) did seem to allow it to get back into position. Eventually, I was able to move the shoulders “up” normally as if he’s pronouncing them. Not quite sure exactly how I fixed it or at what point it became unstuck.

I think that there might be a potential issue and it could maybe end up breaking. When it was in the incorrect position, I was worried about the body becoming damaged by being too far away from where it’s supposed to be. It would be nice to know a better method of getting it back into position aside from just wobbling it until it corrects itself. Does anyone have any experience with this issue?

Appreciate any guidance or feedback with this or a quick fix or method to unstick it the next time it happens.

Thanks in advance.

GubernatorFan took some photos of the bare skeleton, maybe it will give you a better sense of how to joints could be rotated incorrectly. Hope you find a solution, I'm worried about running into this issue myself once I obtain the figures I've ordered.

Now that I need to replicate the problem, so that I can try to describe the solution, I can't! I know Stryker has described it before, hopefully he will do so again, and in minute and clear detail.

I have run into lots of frustrations with tbleague shoulders on female figures, especially when it comes to trying to get them back into alignment. My only solution so far is just to be extremely careful when putting clothing on them, and instead of raising the arms all the way over the head, I tend to just put them straight out in front of the figure and pull the clothing on that way.

One of the things you need to do when raising the arms up to remove shirts is to move them forward and up, not sideways up. What you did to correct the problem is the only way to do so once you get it in that “stuck” position, is to essentially “rotate” the joint under the skin, working it slowly, letting the “meat” go back to where it belongs (by gently massaging it), and carefully as to not twist the joint back to where it had gotten locked. While you can raise and lower the arms side to side (like a bird flapping its wings), you should never raise them above 90 degrees really in this position, and always move them forward to raise them straight up, as I mentioned. While these things are surprisingly resilient, they do still require a certain amount of care. If the bodies you’ve gotten came all tweaked (which has happened where it was obvious that the manufacturer put a joint into the mold backward — like one of the arms was bending at the elbow in the wrong direction), follow the above steps to correct the issue — gently twisting it around to correct spot. Never “force” a bend that isn’t readily available as it should be, and check to see in which direction the bend wants to go with little effort. That will let you know that the skeleton (usually just one of the arms, and not always at the shoulder) is backwards. Hope this helps.

Thank all you folks with guidance on this. Like I said I was able to figure it out, but now I know exactly how to fix it instead of just guessing!

I knew y’all would not only know what I was dealing with, but how to alleviate it. Thanks again, all!!

I located my flayed M31 body and made Andy play along to try to replicate the issue. After some failed attempts, I think we have pegged it down. It seems to be usually caused by raising the arm up from the side, perpendicular rather than parallel to the body. Although in theory one can get it back down the same way without a problem, in practice it often "locks" and fails to regain its previous level of functionality because the shoulder joint in the upper arm has rotated out of its normal configuration (or because there are in fact two different joints here that both need to taken into account). In fact, although most commonly seen with the shoulders, this issue could theoretically occur elsewhere, as this type of joints, allowing different ranges of bending in different directions, can be found in several places in the skeleton. For an illustrated guide, identifying the joints, comparing body and skeleton, and a showing step-by-step fix, follow the link to the thread below.



https://onesixthfigures.forumotion.com/t4010-tbleague-phicen-stainless-steel-skeleton-and-articulation-guide

Excellent!! As always, you come through!

Thanks, as always!

collectorofmany wrote:Excellent!! As always, you come through! Thanks, as always!

You're very welcome, I'm happy to help. I know you figured it out, but hopefully someone else can benefit from it too. Mark (Stryker) deserves credit too, for explaining it more thoroughly and for urging me to make a more elaborate tutorial than first intended.