Tools

The Basics

Whether you’re ready to make that toy you’ve had on your mind for years, or you just want a bird’s eye view of how the manufacturing process works, this article will serve as a primer. You’ll learn how toys are manufactured, the process, and hopefully a better idea of what your next steps may be.

Types of Toys

The most two types of toys we'll cover are hard/plastic toys and smart toys. Let’s take a look at each:

Plastic Toys

Plastic toys are cheap to manufacture and are very durable. The manufacturing process starts with a finished rendering of the toy by an artist. Upon completion, the render is transferred over to a model maker, or engineer who will either 3D print it in plastic or sculpt the master model in CAD. While a 3D Print is useful in bringing the unit to life, it is not strong enough to withstand repeated handling, so the master model will serve as the basis for a silicone cast (small prototype run). After the silicone has set, the model is extracted from the silicone, and the cavity in the cast is then filled with hard plastic. Then, the hard plastic is excavated from the silicone cavity, and sent over to the tool makers of a manufacturer for a final production mold to be made out of metal.

Smart Toys

Smart toys run the range from light up fighting robots to licensed Star Wars figures that are app controlled and use advanced mechatronics to interact with their environment. These toys require more expensive development and programming as they combine software and hardware to bring the toy to life.

Types of Manufacturers

Depending on the kind of toy you want to make, one manufacturer may be better than an another. The most common types of manufacturers for toys are as follows:

Turnkey

Turnkey manufacturing is the full realization of a product or service. With turnkey manufacturing a product is designed, supplied, built, and/or installed fully complete and ready to operate and function. This is the most straightforward for launching a product but offers the least control and protection.

Contract

Contract manufacturing is the making of products for other companies that prefer to focus on product design and marketing. Most of these manufacturers are in China, though there are some still available in the United States.

Assembly House

Assembly manufacturers focus exclusively on combining semi-finished components into more complex or final products. There is no machine-tooling, casting, cutting, or material production. Their focus is on adding value along the way to the final product. Examples include gluing, wedding, soldering, bolting, etc. This can be the hand or automated machinery.