Foosball Tables > Tornado > Men

Tornado Foosball Table Men

The players that are mounted on the rods are a critical component to your table to help you maintain ball control, pass and take complex shots. Most people wouldn't even notice that some manufacturers have flat, smooth feet design that are really only good for striking the ball. However, if you really want to achieve consistent precision and accuracy you need a cross-hatching grip pattern that almost acts as teeth that can hold onto the ball. This will allow you to have better ball control for instance when you want to grab a loose ball or even pin one against the playing surface. Tornado is known for their advanced toe design that allows for this and has continued to evolve their players over the last five decades.

Anatomy of the Modern Tornado Foosball Man (From Head to Toe) 
Believe it or not, there are engineering decisions that are made for every little aspect of how the players are formed. These changes have been inspired by years of experience from the manufacturer as well as professional player feedback. The innovations are impressive when you break them down to each patented body part:

• Head: The head was designed to be low profile to have the least amount of ball interference as possible. This is especially important for 1 on 1 games where your own player's head may come in contact with one of your shots and ruin a goal. The head is important to add weight and counter balance the weight of the long foot that has to reach the bottom of the playfield surface. This allows you to position the man horizontally and it will not tip over from a different weight balance on the head vs. the foot.
• Chest & Shoulders: Tornado designed a thick chest with a hole in the center to accommodate the roll pin design. The thicker design allows the roll pin mounting design to have enough length for added strength. The shoulders on both sides of the chest are shaped to replace a washer and are an exact match for the diameter of the rubber bumpers to help absorb maximum impact.
• Leg: The leg is shaped like an I beam for strength and used to extend the player down to the foot. It is intentionally hollowed out to reduce as much weight as possible. 
• Foot & Toe: The patented foot design has high cross hatching for added grip on the ball during passing, catching and pinning the ball against the playing surface. The sides are square to allow for a crisp corner to shoot bank shots and pass the ball laterally along the men on the same bar. A hole is cut out through the entire interior of the toe to further reduce weight and also add sensitivity for better ball control.

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The Evolution of the Tornado Foosball Men

1970 - 1976 First Generation Player Design
​The first models that were produced back in the 1970-1976 and did not have any counter balancing to them in the heads. This means the men would consistently fall down when positioned horizontally.
1977 - 1981 Second Generation Player Design
In 1977 they introduced the counterbalanced men to stay positioned exactly where you left them. The first and second models offered a tapered toe design, but become flat at the very bottom.

1982 - 1993 Third Generation Player Design
​The third version evolved ever so slightly to be closer to have some more of the features you see on the modern men that you see today. The toe becomes more narrow towards the base and starts to lose its flat base. There is more ridges along the side of the toe that will allow for more ball control. These players were still held on to the rod by a nut and bolt hardware versus the roll pins that you hammer into the center to mount them that see on anything after 1994. This generation of men was also the first time the three man goalie was introduced along with a completely flat playing surface.

1994 - 2008 Fourth Generation Player Design
​In 1994 the roll pin was introduced to mount the players to the rod. These are tiny metal pins that are hammered through the man that lines up with a small hole in the rod. You use a pin punch tool to drive the roll pin when assembling a foosball player to prevent damage to the man or rod. However, the biggest evolution on this model is notably the players foot. First and second generation had a tapered design with a flat foot, but this generation of players was redesigned to have a triangle that ended in a point. This was to allow for better pinning of the ball and snake shots were born. The cross hatching "teeth" on the bottom of the foot was then introduced which provides better trip and a hole was cut into the center of the foot.

2009 - Current Fifth Generation Player Design
​​The final generation that is used in production still today was invented in 2009 along with a number of other enhancements for their tournament-grade products. This change was centered around the player "foot" upgrade that has a higher cross-hatching pattern that extends 2/3 the way up the foot where it makes contact with the ball as opposed to the previous 1/3 design. This allows for more precise ball control with higher cross hatching. It also has completely square sides that allow you to dribble the ball back and forth more accurately along the same rod and shoot crisp bank shots and angle passes. These men are still mounted with the same roll pin and pin punch process as the forth generation players so you can buy replacements and upgrade them from the previous model.