Whiteagle wrote:Natalya wrote:Find a way to do it without ball joints and it will rock.
Why is there always such ball joint hate?!?!
I have a few reasons...
First, they are flimsy. The amount of weight they can support is pretty low.
Secondly, in creations where people use them, they are almost always exposed, so they would be easy targets. The rules even provide for considering joints as weak-points that can be damaged more easily. I don't know why you would want to set up your creation for military failure just because the joints were exposed.
Third, they don't look very good. It is like, "Oh wow, they spent a lot of time on that model--oh wait no, they didn't, they just used ball joints."
Fourth, the more skilled builders I have seen shy away from them. When they do use them, it is in awesome places like this where they add to the creation's aesthetic, instead of taking away from it.
Sixth, you can do better with Technic. It is possible to achieve even cooler designs when you don't use them. See here:
The legs have four axes of motion (excluding the wheels), which is sufficient for posing, but their joints are strong enough to hold up the weight of the whole thing. You couldn't replace the joints in the Spider Tank with ball joints and have it stand. Also, two of the joints for each leg are completely obscured and can not be targeted by its opponents. The other two have the bulky armour of the leg protecting them from most other possible angles of attack.
It takes a lot of time, a lot of tinkering, a lot of experimentation, and sometimes even planning to design a mecha that uses no ball joints, but the effort will pay off in the end.