JoJoNiZeR 2 - ELeCTRiC BOoGALOo; or, My LAWLAWSTYLE EXPERIMENTS in the WACKY WORLD OF POSES
Initially I was amused by forum member lawlaw91's "experiments in the wacky world of poses" in his topic:
My Wild Jojoniser Jojoniser Vibe Poses
Then I became intrigued.
Finally, I found myself inspired to attempt to emulate some of lawlaw's impressive action figure posing.
My efforts do not (yet) approach the stylish precision lawlaw91 has achieved, but after a couple of hours of playing around with a basic jointed figure and a TBLeague seamless figure, I learned a lot about how much these figures are capable of and how to get them to do what I want them to do... more or less.
For my first attempt, I started with an old DiD military figure body that I picked up via eBay a few months ago. Nothing fancy, just a cheap twenty-year-old jointed body.
The first challenge I set for myself was simple: get the figure to stand on its own in a position other than rigidly straight, and without external support.
Quasimodo Muchly?
'Kay, that's not exactly "Jojo Stylin'," but at least it's... something. I dunno what, but something!
Once I got the fig to stand by itself, I began to scroll through lawlaw91's photos, looking for a relatively simple pose to emulate. I chose Post No. 3, the "cool hair" pose:
Cool Hair, Don't Care!
It's a mostly standing straight pose, with some bent knee and pointy toe action happening. It might not look like much -- because it's not -- but compared to what I've done with my figures up to this point, this simple "vogue - strike a pose" felt like a significant first step toward upping my game!
Next "step," then, is the Cool Dude Walk, as illustrated in Post No 14:
Yo!
It's a little stiff, but it's a start. Loosen up, man, loosen up!
Que Pasa!
'Z'uuuup? Gimme Five, Clive!
Oooops!
Well... that was bound to happen! Turns out the old DiD body chillaxed a bit too much. The ankle joints, in particular, started to loosen up after just a little bit of play time. I'll maybe try to tighten them up with some teflon tape later.
That was a key discovery, however: "posing" requires a figure that will actually hold a pose! The joints have to be tight, because the slightest slip and down he, or she, or it goes!
By this point I was starting to "get a feel" for the fig, and some things I learned way back when I was nine or ten years old while building model rockets began to come back to me regarding center of balance.
The diagram in the first post of lawlaw91's Phicen/TBLeague Posing Compilation topic...
https://onesixthfigures.forumotion.com/t1411-phicen-tb-league-posing-compilation-messing-with-seamless-family
... proved helpful in this regard, re-activating some long-dormant memories about center of gravity and balance points. While the topic is mostly about realistic posing, the points illustrated pertain to balance as well. People (and animals, and things) stand and sit and move and pose the way they do because those are the positions that allow them to maintain balance and not fall down. It makes sense, then, that a "realistic" pose should, in theory, be a "stable" pose. Post No. 6 in that topic offers three excellent examples of "dynamic standing" poses -- the figure is just standing, but there's a sense of dynamic comic book style energy to the stances that not only serve to make the figure look cool, but to help it stand unaided.
Okay, so... looking cool. Now that we've got a few falls bruising our backside, it's time to take things up a notch, and go for the Cool Guy Leaning Backwards in Style move, as seen in Post No. 17:
Hey, Pretty Mama!
I call this one 'Cool Hand Juke!'
Cool Hair, Don't Care 2 - Leaning in to It
'Kay den... optimistically, but unrealistically, thinking we're ready for the Big Leagues, it's time to try... Post No. 22: Look, Ma, One Foot!
Hang on... I Got This! I... Think!
Oh Yeah!
Now that we're getting a feel for the basics using a jointed figure, let's bring in somebody from Team TBLeague!
Say Hey, Old Man! Way to Bust the Moves!
To Be Continued....
That you were able to do this with one of the old DID bodies (which, correct me if I'm wrong, are not exactly cutting edge in terms of range, realism, and balance) is even more impressive. With the TBLeague figures, especially, I'd imagine making sure your ankle joint is strong is crucial. Their heftiest bodies sometimes tend to overcome the ankle hold even in their own native feet -- if and when you get to that, try using electrical tape or silicon tubing, or something else that helps the ankle hold. As for the girl, those untied shoelaces are an accident waiting to happen -- attend to them fast! 
