Adding Weight to a Figure, Advantage or Not?

[Shabby J]

I just replied to a thread started by Broncoman about the weight issue and while typing trying to keep with my thoughts as they were flowing, I came up with a question, as follows:

Take a custom figure based up at 3.8 grams for instance, could he be at a slight disadvantage if going against a Miggle bigman that had weight added to him to equal 3.8 grams?
Those experienced in tweaking and that have an understanding of base/figure physics may be able to use the ability to add weight to a figure where they need it, thus making for a more effective tweak, in turn making a better running, more powerful player than the custom figure at 3.8 with no weight added.

This is possible right? I would appreciate anyone's feedback/experience with this.

if the character's base is bad or you need him to be a brick wall blocker. Good for zone coverage!

He's a ninny anyway!

[Shabby J]

bump...

Does my question make sense?

Its all about the base. IMHO.

[Reginald Rutledge]

Originally Posted by Shabby J

I just replied to a thread started by Broncoman about the weight issue and while typing trying to keep with my thoughts as they were flowing, I came up with a question, as follows:

Take a custom figure based up at 3.8 grams for instance, could he be at a slight disadvantage if going against a Miggle bigman that had weight added to him to equal 3.8 grams?
Those experienced in tweaking and that have an understanding of base/figure physics may be able to use the ability to add weight to a figure where they need it, thus making for a more effective tweak, in turn making a better running, more powerful player than the custom figure at 3.8 with no weight added.

This is possible right? I would appreciate anyone's feedback/experience with this.

I think I understand what you are asking here coach.

Yes, it could be at a slight disadvantage based on how the custom player is created. The same principles that apply in real football apply to miniature football when it comes to leverage. Usually (but not always), low man wins.

Also, a lot depends on the type of rules that are in play plus the ability of a person to tweak a base. My experience has been in the DFW League that if you put two bases of equal ability and looks, the custom figure wins provided he is created in a manner the his center of gravity is towards the front. This create added momentum and force which in turns makes him naturally stronger. I have receivers (stock) who are naturally strong because all their body weight is towards the front.

On the Big Men, their weight is towards the front also which make them naturally stronger than most. However, when I put that 67 Big man up against one of my 3 point linemen or my Minister of Defense (stock) pose, it is no contest. I play in a league where Miggle 67 Big Men are allowed and my defense goes against them pretty regularly.

Not much isolated film is shown of the custom player going up against the Miggle Stock 67 Bigmen but I can tell you that based on my team's ranking in the DFW Power Rankings, we are ranked #1. This is no coincidence! Our custom players do a pretty good job of dominating the competition!

Also, a lot has to do with the coaches ability to tweak. I do understand that. My team is usually pretty natural (as far as the bases are concerned but I am starting to use tweaked bases) and we use all custom-made players on defense.

Trust me, it is not just about the base. Conventional wisdom would think so and I have seen plenty rookies come into the DFW thinking it is simply about the base but having an understanding of leverage is what makes one team more dominant than another. I think I have wrote on this subject from time to time?

Reginald

[Shabby J]

Thanks Reg, I am starting to see from tweaking and experimenting on my own with various figures, including yours, that is has a lot to do with "where" the weight is on the base, for leverage purpopses.


By adding weight to a Miggle big man I was able to change the center of gravity, thus giving it a slight advantage over a figure that weighed the same but had no weight added. The ability to add the weight where it worked the best is key.

Reg, now I am seeing what you mean about the design of your figures. They are designed and posed to work in a similar manner.

[Shabby J]

Originally Posted by BigFranco

Its all about the base. IMHO.

It's not all about the base, but more about where the weight is on the base that gives the advantage.

I am finding this out as I have been tweaking and testing various figures to decide which ones to use at certain positions on my Charger team.

[Raven maniac]

Shabby I think it could, but I think it's more of the combination between both tweaked base and figure. By no means am I the best tweaker, but when you tweak a base you tweak it with a figure. And it performs a certain way 3.8 or 1.8, but it's both together. As Reggie has stated before the athlete is both the base and figure. I think worry less of the weight and more on the athlete. Weighted league is a whole different subject that I haven't played in yet.

Darrian

[Michigan Joe]

I have every type of custom figure imagineable and I'll say this about weight. Its a great thing to be able to play at greater than 3.2 when you are a customizer because you can use weight to balance a figure, add grass (which weighs 0.1-0.2g), add putty to figures (0.1-0.2g), and use FF.com. Now yes you can create balanced custom figures, but for me its is FUN to do more than that.

Now for pure performance its been my experience over and over that adding weight is more of an advantage to the speedsters than to the power guys. I stated this before but my absolute favorite comination is a weighted speed diamond base with a customized figure. I can make them absolutely fly with minimal tweaking, AND the weighted speed player can hold his directional line much better which is something I enjoy to see. The power guys is ALL ABOUT TWEAKING, and tweaking a base is a uniquely individual thing for each figure's pose, hence the "athlete" as Reg has described. I got tons of customs and I can't just switch bases between them as the bases are tweaked for the weight configuration of the custom pose.

My experience is that weight does play a minor factor in strength as I ran an experiment where I take 2 equally strong bigmen lineman (weighing 3.2) and add weight to one (to make it 4.0) and the heavier figure began to show some more strength (and was slower). But its not a "linear" relationship as the speed of the board actually appeared to affect this. For example, the heavier figure only showed incrementally more strength at higher board speed, and at low board speed the strength difference was not evident. In additon, the added weight was far less significant than a well tweaked base. In other words, a 4.0 speed diamond (flashed for speed) up against a 2.8 TTC (tweaked with thin back prongs) is no contest for strength, the tweaked TTC wins easy.

The other thing about strength that I have seen is the players weight configuration and interaction of figure/figure contact. When watching customs go at it, strength of the players is like the NFL, "any given sunday" you never know. For example, player A could be stronger than player B and then player B stronger than player C, but player C can be stronger than player A when they matchup. I see this often times when you have figure to figure contact, and not quite as much when you have base to base contact.

Joe