HOW TO: Plastic Designer Toy Blanks

Greetings fellow makers!

My name is Lazaro " Sinister " Gomez, owner of BOT10ART.

I have always had a fascination with vinyl toys like POP, Dunny, Titan, etc.

Recently I have been working on making my own designer toys, and I wanted to share my process with you all for my first figure. Since then I have learned more and perhaps I will write another piece but for now I want to publish my first time use of the materials listed below for this kind of project.

I do not have exact measurements and I am sure they will vary depending on the figure, however I was able to make 8 figures with the materials I purchased.

Materials I Used:

1. Super Scupley ( Purchased at Michael's Hobby Store $16.00 )

2. Sculpting Tools ( Purchased at Michael's Hobby Store $12.00 )

3. Smooth-On Oomoo 30 ( $25.00 )

4. Smooth-On Smoothcast 300 ( $25.00 )

5. Smooth-On Smoothcast 45D ( $25.00 )

6. Small Paper Cups ( Walmart $2.98 )

7. Large Paper Cups ( Walmart $2.20 )

8. Release Agent ( Purchased at Michael's Hobby Store $10.00 )

9. Plastic Bags ( Purchased at Michael's Hobby Store $5.00 )

10. 110lbs Card Stock Paper ( Already had )

11. A stapler ( Already had )

12. Glue Gun ( Already had )

13. Cardboard ( Already had )

14. Gloves ( Purchased at Home Depot $5.00 per box )

I have been working on some designs and I wanted the first figure or toy to reflect my personality and artwork.

So I decided on an Astronaut that has long since died in the vastness of space on some SCI-FI mission. The mission went sideways making our spaceman not so good at space exploration.

So I decided to call the toy Astro ( NOT! ).

I started with a piece of Aluminum Foil that I balled up to make up the bulk of the figure's body.

I then started layering clay on the foil until I had the basic shape of my design.

I used my various tools to add texture to the clay and when I was done I placed the figure in the oven following the instructions on the Super Sculpey box.

Once the figure was cool I sprayed the figure with the releasing agent and used my glue gun to adhere the figure to a piece of cardboard. The cardboard was an empty cereal box.

I then used a thicker cardboard ( the back of a water color paper pad ) and built the walls around the figure, I made sure to keep the walls tight as to not waste the molding material on negative space.

I then began using the Oomoo 30 following the instructions on the box. I poured out 1 part A and matched it with 1 part B in their own paper cups.

I then combined the mixture in the large plastic cup until it was a uniform in color. It is recommended that you scrape the sides and bottom of the cup while mixing.

After this I poured the mixture in an empty spot of the box via a small strand of mixture to avoid creating bubbles. I held the cup about 1 foot above the figure.

I allowed gravity to do the work for me and find all the places it needed to fill naturally.

6 hours later the mold was ready to release the figure.

I sprayed the mold with the release agent and then moved on to using the frosted plastic, this too has instructions that are really easy to follow.

Mixing part A to equal amount of part B, then mixing the two together. This material has a short working time and it will begin to warm up right before it is about to set so read the instructions carefully!

I recommend using gloves at this point to avoid getting casting material on your hands.

15 minutes later my first copy was ready to be released!

For the white plastic I basically repeated the steps mentioned in the previous step.

1. Spray the mold with release agent.

2. Mix the casting material

3. Release the copy.

I then loaded up my artwork in Photoshop and printed out the packaging sleeves.

I used the artwork from my concept design and 110lbs card stock.

I placed the figure in the bag and stapled it shut.

Thank you for reading this Instructable and if you decide to make your own toy, have fun and I wish you the best of luck!