How to Make Vinyl Toys

Many designers, musicians, cartoonists, and artists like to make vinyl toys to show their personalities and reflections on life, so before you learn how to make vinyl toys, I would like to introduce you to vinyl.

What is Vinyl

Vinyl is the “V” in PVC (Polyvinyl Chloride), it is simplified to make it easier for people to remember, so vinyl is commonly used as a shorthand name for polyvinyl chloride (PVC), which is one of the many materials in plastics.

Vinyl Toys Meaning

The vinyl toy is a toy made of vinyl, it also refers to a process of producing toys, due to the unique manufacturing process, the vinyl toys adding vinyl also added other raw materials, this process of manufacturing the toy inside is hollow, lightweight, feels a little soft, Just like the popular yellow duck toys around the world, Vinyl toys don’t just mean a toy, it can also be art and collectibles.

How to Make a Vinyl Toy

If you only want to make a vinyl toy, it will be much easier compared to making it in large quantities, because it reduces the process a lot. You only need to use software to create a 3d model, such as Zbrush, Free-From, C4D, and other professional design software, then use a 3d printing machine to print out the 3d model you make, now the 3d printing technology is very mature, and the cost has been reduced a lot, for individual players, this is really good news. Finally, polish the model, remove excess print traces, and color the model, a vinyl toy is made successful.

Before 2015, you needed to do a sculpture first, with clay pinched into the shape you want, and then make a PU resin model and coloring, but the simulation effect is not as good as the effect of 3D printing. If you can not make a vinyl toy by yourself, you can contact us to help you make a 3D model, 3D printing, and coloring, we will send the samples to you through international express, such as UPS, DHL, TNT, and FedEx.

How to Mass Produce Vinyl Toys

Mass production of vinyl toys is for those customers with business needs(custom vinyl toys), for mold manufacturing and cost efficiency, the minimum order quantity should be 100 pieces of vinyl toys, and the unit cost of vinyl toys is lower than making a vinyl toy, so why the manufacturing process of vinyl toys so complex, but its manufacturing costs are not too high, the more the same kind of vinyl toys produced, the unit cost is lower. So if you want to know how to make vinyl toys in the factory, the mass produces vinyl toys through the following steps.

Mold Making

Because of producing a lot of vinyl toys, you need to make a certain number of vinyl molds for production, such as the production of 1000 vinyl toys, you need 6 vinyl molds, using the wax sample mold species into the electrolytic pool for batch plating, plating from the wax model that is the vinyl mold.

Vinyl Molding

Stir the liquid PVC evenly, use the injection gun to inject the liquid PVC into the vinyl mold, then put the vinyl mold into the furnace for high-temperature heating, keep rotating, so that it is heated evenly, then take it out to cool, open the vinyl mold to take out the vinyl toys. PVC material is a thermosetting material, at a certain temperature (usually 250-280 degrees Celsius), after 6-10 minutes, the liquid PVC will solidify as a model.

Spray Painting

It can be divided into all spray paint or partial spray paint, which is usually the same color on the same part of the coloring. The speed of mass spray paint will be faster, rather than one-by-one painting.

Pad Printing

the use of an automated pad printing machine for coloring vinyl toys, which is usually for a variety of color parts or eyes, eyebrows, and other parts, the staff only needs to take the uncolored toys to the machine and the coloring completed toys down.

Hand Coloring

For some detailed parts, spray paint and pad printing are difficult to reach the depths, we will be using hand-painted, you do not have to worry about the quality of the hand-painted effect, as our staff is trained in professional painting.

Packaging

Once the coloring of the vinyl toys is completed, We would assemble and package the vinyl toys in a Color box designed by the customer, labeled Made in China. We can produce the packaging cartons according to the packaging design files provided by the customer.

After each step of the above is completed, we will check its quality to ensure that each step meets the quality requirements, and we will return any problematic vinyl toys to be re-made.

How to Customize Vinyl Toys

You need to find a professional vinyl toy manufacturer in order to customize vinyl art toys, you can find a US manufacturer or a Chinese manufacturer, but the most important thing is that you need to find a reliable manufacturer, this will make the quality of the produced vinyl toys is reliable and the coloring is perfect, the production process of the custom vinyl toys is the same as the previous introduction, except that the custom vinyl toys need to be made according to the client’s design.

The factory will provide you with the whole process, including making 3D models, vinyl molds, coloring, packaging, and express shipping to your designated place. Honestly, many vinyl toys are custom-made in China, believe it or not, you can see if your vinyl toy box has a Made in China label printed on it. The cost of custom vinyl toys in China is lower than in the U.S., China has plenty of labor and the worker’s wages are not high, which is the price advantage of Made in China.

If you have a need for customized vinyl toys, you can contact us, we are a Chinese manufacturer with 17 years of specializing in custom vinyl toys for foreign customers, we have produced vinyl toys for many famous toy companies.

How to Make Vinyl Toys at Home

If you want to make vinyl toys at home, it is not a difficult thing, you can use 3D printing technology, however, making 3D models is not a simple thing, you have to use the professional design software Zbrush to make it, if you overcome this difficulty, now you can buy a 3D printer to put in your bedroom, and then make your 3D vinyl toy models Print out.

This process is happy for some individual players, they are very hands-on and like to make their own DIY vinyl toys at home, they can constantly modify the 3D model to adjust the printed vinyl toy until it meets their expectations of the perfect model.

How to Make Soft Vinyl Toys at Home

the soft vinyl toy is a special Japanese manufacturing process of toys, known as sofubi. Soft vinyl refers to a PVC plastic material, soft vinyl toys are partially made in the form of fire with an oven, while higher quality and pure Sofubi toys are made with an oiled oven.

So it is impossible to make soft vinyl toys at home, which requires special large equipment to produce, and you will not spend much money to buy such instruments. The feel of soft vinyl toys and 3D printed vinyl toys is different, soft vinyl as the name implies is soft and comfortable, and 3D printed vinyl toys will feel harder.