A look at how action figures are made from B-sheets to Production as presented by Scott "Toyguru" Neitlich. rare items on Ebay for charity at: www.ebay.com/s...
This was an awesome & informative video- thanks for making it. On a side note, I need to take up diving now as I have lots of basement room to store old toy molds. I'd gladly donate some space to save these unique treasures.
I found this absolutely fascinating, and would really like to see more of these showing how our beloved toys are made. A few things weren't clear however. If a toy is not articulated I can understand using a single mold, but what about articulated with parts (arm, torso, neck, legs, etc). Is there a unique mold for each part, can multiple parts be cast in a mold, and just how are the parts assembled into a figure that's painted. Unless I'm missing something obvious modern action figures are not 'detachable' or interchangeable like the vintage motu, right? So how do they fit together?
Love your videos. It’s interesting hearing the “hows” and “whys” of the toy industry, especially from someone who is not only an insider but a collector as well.
Incredibly informative videos! I would like a video on different types of action figure joints, and why there’s variations of the same type of joint depending on the figure; for instance, ball hinged elbows (Mattel Jurassic World 1:18 figures) or regular hinged elbows with a pin connector (Mattel WWE line). Also it would be neat to see how joints are assembled as well. I am currently an engineering student pursuing a degree in the field so I can eventually design toys, so these videos are super awesome to have!
Fascinating! I get the toolings takes up a lot of space once a toyline is dead. But Hasbro and Mattel release vintage toys from the 80s like Ghostbuster, Star Wars, Transformers, etc......Are these new tooling or same old tools from storage? In the case of Star wars Kenner figures, I read new tooling was made from scanning vintage toys. The original Kenner Millenium Falcon tool was damaged and was reason to release a new mold. I also read the O-ring joes tools were sold to another toy company but has never re-surfaced. Hopefully they are not sitting at the ocean floor.
Am working in plastic and metal molding company...but they make a parts of car...and other appliances......I love action figure....I have collection of anime action figure...hehe
Why are tools so expensive? How do companies as, Mcfarlane for example, release mostly newly tooled figures each time, if each one costs so much? Is there any other way to make an action figure? What about a smaller company, or a kickstarter proyect makes figures? How do they do it?
Got some questions about the Mighty Spector figure after watching this video. 1) why was glaring bright yellow plastic color chosen for his harness parts?? 2) what is the deal with the spade card symbol on his harness?? 3) what happened to the neat green energy whip part option seen in the video??
That was basically how I designed him when I was a kid, His harness was base don Batman's Utility belt but, - all over, if you will. The only color I was not happy with was the purple. I wish it was a bit brighter.
In your buck video, you go into detail about how these tools are routinely reused across a variety of different characters. How many parts are typically shot from a single mold before it needs major rework or replacement? Are molds routinely destroyed as a soon as a planned line is completed? Are molds ever resold to third parties with or without licensing? Are there many instances of dual-shot molding used on action figures? Do you have or know of any videos that show the actual mold making, plastic injection, painting, assembly, and QC process? I'm learning a lot from your insider perspective videos. Thank you!
Thank you, very interesting video. If possible, I'd like to see a video on all the steps necessary to turn the resin prototype into the metal mold. Also on how action figures are painted (by hand? other recent techniques?), and using your experience, what part of the process is where things go wrong more often.
what I still don't understand is once they are being produced - what are the paint processes then? they aren't all hand painted like prototypes, so how is the quality maintained? Look at Spiderman's webbing designs...was that a factory job? what machine is that if so!?
Spector Creative, thank you for doing this video--and your other videos. I'm horrified that all of the Classics tools are now sitting at the bottom of the ocean. It seems that Mattel doesn't keep its tooling, because they don't want to invest in the storage space. Does this mean that the 2020 He-Man Origins line is made from entirely new tools? What factors does a toy company decide to keep its past tooling? Lastly, do toy companies allow another toy company to buy their past tooling?
@@spectorcreative1872 Quick question, you mentioned molds getting used as Anchors for boats but who legally owns the toy molds? Do they belong to the toy companies or the production factories????
So do people who make custom POP figures have to pay thousands to get molds? I'm having a custom made for my comicbook/audiobook character, and I'm curious as to how this all works.
I know in the transformer fandom. People always complain Repaints & retools are so Lazy & Like Oh how 3rd party is beating them. Mattel Uses the same mold. I try to tell people Unless they want to fund the mold for a new figure go ahead. I told them it costs thousands to produce a mold. I think in the toy industry lot of fans w ill never be happy. Even He- man in the past has reused Molds & parts. He man was used for He-Man- Prince Adam & Faker. You got 3 out of that mold., Even a lot of GI Joe parts were reused I been collecting toys all my life never stopped I can understand. Sadly not a lot out there doesn't know. & I think Repaints & such Helps pay for the new molds we are getting now these days.
Why does the tooling cost so much? You see car shows where they make there own parts out of metal. And all these small toy companies cant be spending that much on tooling.
Just a quick suggestion, after the fact (I know it's too late now). You should have spelled his name Spek-Tor. That would have fit right in with the MOTU universe 😁
