What’s the Production Process of Action Figures?

If you are willing to customize action figure or have a design file already, then you should know the production process before making your figure to life.

At RD Animation, we manufacture custom action figures from concept to mass production.
Below is the exact production process we use for brands, studios, and IP owners.

3D Modeling and Color Sample Making

In the production process of action figures, modeling and sample making are always the first steps. Through detailed debugging in modeling and the already formed figure prototype, we can change the unsatisfactory places and improve more details.

Mold Lay Out and Mold Making for Custom Action Figure

In our production, we typically use silicone molds for early-stage testing,
and switch to steel molds once the design is finalized for mass production. With the sample, we can make the mold required for figure making. Make a mold consistent with the product by laying out the required shape.

Produce Injection Figure & QC

Use the mold to produce the injection figure and conduct preliminary quality inspection to ensure that the quality can meet the subsequent production process.

Painting Mold Making and Dustless Painting

You may be wondering why it needs to make molds for figure painting sometimes. The reason is to distinguish the color blocks during the process. When coloring a figure, the mold can ensure that other parts of the figure are not colored incorrectly to ensure accurate coloring. We usually use water flow to absorb the excess fuel and some dust impurities sprayed by the spray gun during coloring, so as to avoid them from affecting the quality of coloring.

Manual Coloring & Cleaning

Some details, parts of figures that are difficult for machines to complete, need to be painted manually. Usually, this process is that our painting masters use a paintbrush to draw and color carefully. At last, clean some surfaces and debris in the gaps of the figure, and then it is ready to be assembled and shipped.

 

This production process is based on how we actually manufacture custom action figures for commercial projects.

From early design evaluation to mold development and mass production, each step reflects the real constraints, decisions, and trade-offs involved in manufacturing, not just a theoretical workflow.

If you are researching how action figures are made or assessing potential manufacturers for a production project, this overview is intended to give you a practical, behind-the-scenes perspective on what the process looks like in reality.