I'm very sad this has happened to my Storm Arena Ryu, and pictures don't even show it. THIGHS suddenly tight AND ratcheted?!
I got this one in June of 2025, and I've said ever since I got him that he's objectively the best action figure I own so far. The joints were all smooth, felt great to move around with, held their places VERY well when posed, and the sculpt and paint are all great. I recently grabbed him off the shelf again after a few weeks of just leaving him up there. I was messing with his right thigh, swinging it forward in a kick, which also usually engages the drop-down part of the thigh joint, then returned the thigh to standing position shortly thereafter, maybe a few minutes. The drop-down was engaged at this point, so I push it up while keeping the leg straight so it's at the same level as the left leg, but I felt something strange happen, like a click or something. I immediately started testing it, and now his thigh joint is all super tight, and it CLICKS like it's ratcheted when kicking forward or moving backward! I test out the left thigh, and it's doing the same thing now! What in the HELL is going on?! I think this is too crazy, let me just soak it in some hot sink water for a minute or two, that always loosens up the joints, but it still sounds ratcheted and is super tight. I test the splits position on the right leg to see if that feels different, but it's roughly the same as it's always been. Then I try twisting the thigh joint a little from the split position, and that seemed to stop the ratcheting sound and action (still pretty tight, though), but the left leg, no matter what I did, was still ratcheted feeling. This is the craziest thing I've ever even heard of with an action figure. How is this even possible? The thighs are so tight that when I move them forward or backward I'm legitimately worried that something might break, and I can't afford to waste money on a replacement in the foreseeable future.
Has this happened to anyone else's Alpha Ryu or Ken? What in God's holy name could possibly be causing this? It's so discouraging when a 10/10 figure suddenly goes to a 3 or a 2. I don't know what else I could do, other than try a little shock oil in the thigh joints, but it seems like that wouldn't help the weird ratcheted feeling of them. This is so crazy, I have no idea what's going on, and things don't look out of the ordinary when I put him in the splits to look at the joints. If anyone really wants pics (there's not much to see) I'll post some tomorrow for them.