Fascinating channel that shows various manufacturing processes in Japan: https://www.youtube.com/@TheGreatProcess/videos This one in particular is relevant to your interests, Skullbrain. The process of creating sofubi molds:
The design they're pulling from the mold is an SD version of Ixine, Kunio Okawara's own pachi Gundam project: https://ixine.mystrikingly.com/ That video is fascinating, I'll be watching it a few more times. It's interesting that they blurred out whatever "secret sauce" they use before they coat the wax casting with the silver spray. It makes sense to protect their trade secrets. It was also interesting to see how many different treatments the mold went through after welding it to the plate. I am guessing that process establishes the surface finish that Japanese-made sofubi is known for. Here's what I don't get. Why did they make a mold with just one robot on it to start with, when later on in the video they show a gang mold with several robots on it? Do they just create a mold with one first to test it out, then make the gang mold later?
Adding this to my watchlist too. There are great vids on sofubi collecting and even painting but this is a whole side of the process that isn’t available for viewing!
The multi mold is made from vinyl pulls. Likely from that single mold. They use a very soft vinyl, it has a special name, but I can’t remember. The multi mold pieces will all undergo a little shrinkage like any molding process and end up a little smaller than the original single mold pieces. It’s a lot easier and cheaper than making multiple wax masters.
Yes... I want to see that blurred out moment too. The one hole vs 10 pile up tripped me out too. My guess is money. Maker has enough money to first do a single to see how much he/she/they like it or how popular it is. Science Patrol first made a single peanut killer, but still had the sense to combine it with some other stuff, then made a multi mold for peanut Killer to save some time and money. What a cool video. I've never had the chance to see the metal mold making process.
Wouldn't those sofubi copies then need to be duplicated in wax again multiple times, though, and then those copies would go through electroplating? Or do they just coat those soft sofubi copies with the silver directly and dip those in the electroplating bath? As far as I know, the factory in China that created the Mudbelly tooling did not go through that first step of the process shown in the video, they actually made five complete wax copies to start with, and these were used in creating two separate molds, one for the heads, one for the bodies. Of course, I realize that we're talking about different countries, different companies, etc. View this post on Instagram View this post on Instagram
Often I’ve had a “master” mold made and then subsequent smaller reproductions made for a gang mold. For smaller toys this makes since and drops time per pull and thus, the price.
I’ve put two copies on a mold initially just doing multiple wax copies for minis. I felt it was probably just as cost effective and going through molding twice, for only 2 copies. It’s funny if you pay close attention there are slight differences in the wax and you can tell which figures came from which molds. I’m not sure when they do they vinyl, if there is any special coating needed for the mold making. But I’ve done that as well.
Oh yeah, when I got my first pulls I really scrutinized them. Aside from the obvious numbering, I was able to find tiny details that distinguish all five mold cavities from one another. It's one of the things I love about this old process, everything is done by hand and as a result there are little flaws to discover and appreciate.
