Detaching the elastic muscle cords

To detach the muscles from your knee kit, you just need to know how to detach the cord ends from one of the three possible attachment site types: a quadriceps tendon clip, an attachment site/hole on the surface of a bone, and an attachment site/hole in a cross-section plate. The instructions below are the same whether the muscle end you're attaching is of the thinner, elastic cord type or the thicker, inelastic cord type.

Materials needed

To detach most of the muscles, you'll need the forceps, located at the bottom left corner of Parts Plate A.

The forceps should be attached to the bottom left corner of Parts Plate A in your kit.

Before you detach any muscles, be sure that you understand the muscle color and labeling scheme used in your kit. This will help you easily identify each muscle and its corresponding compartment to know where to "dock" the muscle on the Parts Plates.

Detaching a muscle from a quadriceps tendon clip

The quadriceps tendon clips are the yellow plastic clips at the ends of each of the quadriceps tendons (wide yellow straps).

The quadriceps tendon clips (the yellow plastic pieces indicated by circles) connect the quadriceps elastic muscle cords to the quadriceps tendons (yellow straps).

If you're detaching a muscle that is attached to the cross-section plate and to a quadriceps clip, detach the muscle from the cross-section plate first. To detach a muscle from a quadriceps clip, pull the cord out of the slit to unlock the knot and then up, as shown in the video below.

Video showing how to detach an elastic muscle from a quadriceps tendon clip.

Detaching a muscle from a bone

The second attachment type is the surface of a bone. These are the keyhole-shaped holes (with accompanying labels) that you see all over the surface of the bones of your kit.

Photo of an example of an attachment site on the surface of a bone with an elastic muscle cord attached, showing label printed in the surface

Inside each of these keyholes is a hook that catches the knot of a cord and holds it in place as long as the cord is pulled within the normal action range of the corresponding muscle. This means that for all of the motion simulations you perform, the cords will stay attached even though they are simply hooked into place. If you're attaching a muscle between the surface of a bone and a cross-section plate, attach it first to the bone before attaching it to the cross-section plate. If you're attaching a muscle between the surface of a bone and a quadriceps clip, attach it first to the quadriceps clip before attaching it to the bone.

To attach an elastic cord to an attachment site on a bone's surface, push the knot's cord into the hole using forceps and then pull the cord through the slit of the keyhole to pull the knot into the internal hook, as shown in the video below. If one end of the cord has a longer "tail" than the other (the bit of cord after the knot), attach the end with the shorter tail to the bone.

Video attaching an elastic muscle cord to a bone surface attachment site using forceps.

Detaching a muscle from a cross-section plate

The third and last attachment type is a cross-section plate (either the superior or inferior one). The cross-section plates have the same keyhole-shaped holes as the surface of the bones, each located within the indentation of the corresponding muscle.

Photo of cross-section plate showing the holes and their labels

Attaching a muscle to a cross-section plate is easier than attaching it to the other two attachment types. For this reason, whenever you're attaching a muscle, attach it to the cross-section plate last; that is, attach it to a quadriceps tendon clip or to the surface of bone and then attach it to a cross-section plate. To attach a muscle to a cross-section plate, thread the cord and knot through the hole and then slide the cord into the keyhole slit to secure the knot in place, as shown in the video below. If one end of the cord has a longer "tail" than the other (the bit of cord after the knot), attach the end with the longer tail to the cross-section plate.

Video showing how to attach an elastic muscle to a cross-section plate. Insert the cord first through the labeled side and then pull the cord into the slit from the opposite side to secure the knot in place.