>>5934042>And what exactly is the issue with the locking knees?It's as
>>5934062 says, but as an analogy, if you're familiar with Marvel Legends, the joint kind of feels like the joints on those toys, where the joint has a position it prefers to go into but you can sit in between the preferred positions if you want (sort of like a pseudo-ratchet joint).
And anon already said it, but it should be stressed that this "preferred position" thing is only on the upper knee joint; the lower knee joint is a normal smooth joint. The way it works in practice is when you bend the knee, the lower knee joint starts bending first. As you bend the lower knee joint more, you'll sort of "activate" the upper knee joint to bend and as the upper knee joint gets into its preferred position, that gets your knee into a 45 degree bend. Then, from there you can continue bending the lower knee joint freely until you have the lower leg almost flat against the upper leg.
Another way to describe it, the upper knee joint has basically two preferred positions; unbent and 45 degree bent, but to compensate for that the lower knee joint is free to go into any position it wants.
Not sure how clear/unclear that description is coming across, haha. I guess what I'm getting at is that while I can understand people who dislike this, it's not a big deal to me. I can still get the leg into essentially whatever position I want and I've never felt hindered by how the upper knee joint behaves.
And again, as anon pointed out, the grunt Zaku II has normal, smooth joints on both upper/lower knee. Oh, and just to note, my Char hasn't had any issues with looseness, but then I haven't had him in any extreme poses for an extended period time or anything.
I still think Char's Zaku is worth grabbing, especially considering how often it goes on sale. The sweet effect parts it includes add some nice value to the package. HLJ has it for 2750 JPY til the 30th:
http://hlj.com/product/BANN03820 