How Are Plastic Toys Made?

Playing plasticine is one of the fun activities for children. This soft material, also known as playdough, can be formed into a variety of interesting toys. Not only fun, playing with plasticine is also considered to be able to train children’s imagination.

Plasticine is a simple toy like a lump of clay that can be shaped as desired. Currently, there are many types of plasticine that can attract the attention of children. In addition to children’s toys, plasticine can also be used to decorate various objects at home such as patches, frames, photos, and much more.

In accordance with its purpose, plasticine is a soft material used in children. For this reason, security standards have been maintained and there is no need to worry.Plastic toys are a booming business with 2018’s global revenue for the market reaching 90.4 billion US dollars. Those international figures are not all for large conglomerates of toy manufacturers, as you can find many smaller or niche toymakers holding their own with online sales and conventions bringing in larger audiences. Getting started in this market can be challenging, particularly if you do not have the resources to purchase a manufacturing plant or work with one to produce your products.

Design Phase

When most people think of plastic toys, they envision the dolls, cars and foods kids play with, but it is essential to keep in mind that game pieces, collectibles and animatronic toys are often made of plastic as well. Suppose you are working with an established manufacturer to create your toy. In that case, you will collaborate with a design team to generate ideas and sketch them out before rendering the plans in 3D for injection mold design & manufacturing. Home hobbyists will often create prototypes of toys out of modeling clay or other materials which are more easily manipulated. Designers scan these prototypes into specialized 3D modeling software to create the blueprints for the toy.

Manufacturing Phase

The most common way for plastic toys to be made is injection molding. The molds made during the design phase will be mounted in a machine to hold them steady while molten plastic is pushed through a nozzle and into the mold. Hollow toys like balls or vinyl figurines are made with rotation molding. Instead of using pressure to fill the mold, the mold is spun and coated with a thin vinyl layer. Some toys will be complete after the molding, but others will be blown bigger by pressurized air.

Making plastic toys for promotional items, collectibles, or developmental child play is a larger market than most people think. The size of the global market makes it relatively easy to find resources to create your line of products to sell online, hand out at trade shows or market to large retailers.