All new minifigs hands are always upside down?

[bobalego]

I have never seen this discussed before so was wondering. Has anyone ever gotten a set and the hands didn't have to be rotated to the proper position? I have never seen a set with out the hands being upside down. I figured it was random how they were placed on by machine but since they have always been upside down in my sets I have stopped thinking it random. I know they don't rotate from shelf life. Any thoughts on a weird topic?

[Gingerbeard Man]

Over the years I have had a number of minifigs in sets with their hands the right way up, but the vast majority has indeed been upside down. Sometimes the hands are sideways, ie. both pointing to the left or both to the right.

I have always assumed it to be random, with more machines attaching the hands upside down than any of the other possibilities. (Based on the idea that any particular "minifig-assembly machine" will always attach hands in the same orientation.)

I imagine that the assembled torsos from a number of machines are stored in a single container before they are packaged into set bags, so it is pure chance which particular torsos go into the bag of your set. I'm fairly sure that I have had sets with multiple identical torsos (e.g. clones) and their hands in different positions. Unfortunately that's difficult to verify, as I always turn them the right way up as soon as I've opened the bag.

[meeotch]

I never noticed before, but I can assure you I won't be able to not think about this with each set I open from here on out!

[Teekay]

Yeah, I have noticed this. And also, whenever I try to turn them, it hurt my fingers, so I have to give them an accessory (toy industry code word for weapon) to turn their hands to the proper position.

~Sam (Teekay)

[LL918]

Always upside down? Definitely not. From memory they are often not quite right, sometimes more often than not, but it is human nature to remember the times that they are not right rather than the times they are ok. I just opened a new Echo Base set and checked. Five minifigs. Two Snowtroopers, both had hands in a normal upright position. Two Rebels, both had both their hands rotated by about 45 or 60 degress. Han's right hand was upright, left rotated by less than 45 degrees. So out of ten hands, five were upright, five were a little off upright but none were upside down. But for this set, one of the snowtroopers (with both hands in the 'correct' upright position) then needed both hands to be rotated to hold the E-web anyway. It probably depends on which machine on which production line the particular part was assembled. In the end - does it matter?

[Andi]

What is the correct position for a minifig hand? Sometimes I have accessories which fit better in a position, and others in the other position.

[fredjh]

What is the correct position for a minifig hand? Sometimes I have accessories which fit better in a position, and others in the other position.

If you reach your hand out forward to "shake" or hold a gun, for example, you notice that your thumb makes the top part of your hand stick up, so IMO LEGO hands would have the larger part on top. If you look at the FBTB banner image above, you can see what I mean... although the hands would normally be the other way... the "top" of the hand is on the blade side, and the "curved" part is the bottom part of the hand... it's not just conjecture; the "top" part is a standard "stud" size and you can attach bricks and other things to it, and you can't do that to the "bottom" side.

FWIW, I noticed this earlier this year (that they come upside down), and that being the case, paid attention to it since then and it certainly seems (at least this year) that the hands always seem to come upside down, even on the torsos I ordered from PAB.

EDIT: Actually, this is true for regular sets... for things like battle packs and magnet sets, when they're already holding an accessory, they come the right way.

[RocketClone]

Yeah, I have noticed this. And also, whenever I try to turn them, it hurt my fingers, so I have to give them an accessory (toy industry code word for weapon) to turn their hands to the proper position.

~Sam (Teekay)

Yea same here sometimes my fingers are really red afterwards(due to twisting the minifig hands) .