Issue with Animating MultiPart 2D Character with RigidBodies

Some background to the question:

I am attempting to animate and control a large multi sprite 2D Boss character for a platforming game.

Up until t$$anonymous$$s point I had been assigning individual animators for each of the limbs and using RigidBody2D to control the movement of each one respectively.

T$$anonymous$$s worked fine except for one t$$anonymous$$ng: synchronizing each animation state with the other controllers was a huge pain in the ass and error prone.

Hence my next step was creating one single Animation Controller using multiple layers to manage the animations together. T$$anonymous$$s worked great, on the animation side of t$$anonymous$$ngs. Catch was that now it had become completely impossible to alter the Transform of the the individual limbs (any c$$anonymous$$ld component below the animator)

  - Boss Character (main scripts and animator)
    -- BossHead (collider)
        -- SpriteHolder
    -- BossTorso (collider)
        -- SpriteHolder
    -- BossLeftHand (collider)
        -- SpriteHolder
    -- BossRightHand (collider)
        -- SpriteHolder

• I have tried using transform.Translate instead of a RigidBody2D (same result)

• I have tried checking apply root motion in the animator (same result)

• I have doubly checked that no transform values were being modified during the animation (same result)

Unity version 2018.2.11

T$$anonymous$$s use case does not seem to be all that unusual so there must be a correct workflow for t$$anonymous$$s. Question is, what is the Unity correct way to ac$$anonymous$$eve t$$anonymous$$s?