Are there any shops/studios/producers of soft vinyl figures/ sofubi in the united states? If so who? I've heard that some of the chemicals used in the cooling process are toxic. I didn't know if maybe the overhead was too high and EPA issues. I've looked at producing in japan and also china. I'd hate to outsource to china though. Thanks!
As it stands, there are no manufacturing factories in the States. Reasons vary from person to person, depending on who you talk to. But from what I understand it is that certain chemicals are considered toxic and not permitted for use here. Your best route is in Tokyo. The process, handling and quality is second to none.
Use the search function. It helps a lot and there is a thread where this has been discussed at length. Welcome to the forum.
There was a company called Bullshark that teased the idea of producing vinyl figures but they never actually released anything. There was another company called Veracious Vinyl that was also doing it. They released at least one figure called Molezilla. It looks like Veracious is no longer around. If you do some searches on those terms on this BBS and Google, you will find out more. Making vinyl toys in the US the way the Japanese do it is difficult, because there are many regulations that need to be followed and it's expensive to keep up with them. Additionally, you have the issue of high labor costs and the fact that you'd have to teach your factory workers how to do it from scratch. This Facebook post by Mike Rowe is tangentially related and a good read: https://www.facebook.com/TheRealMikeRow ... 9721828505
Sorry for my naivety. Ill look into it the for the thread about American produced stuff. For now I guess I am stuck radiocasting in soft urethane, until I can save up the $. Thanks gentlemen! Cheers!
These were made in Brooklyn, I've also found other American factories in the past. There are American factories out there.
I'm pretty sure that My Plastic Heart (MPH Labs) manufactures their soft vinyl figures in the US. The Andrew Bell Dealmaker and the Lou Pimintel fang guys are in that category.
Oh, damn. Thank you Jon and Joe for those tidbits! I was completely unaware. If you happen to know any further, is it the same type of vinyl and process as Japan's?
I had a conversation with Paul about this exact thing on Saturday and he said he was not aware of anyone in the US doing soft vinyl this. He did say that some have tried but could not get it right. This is very good information though so thanks!!!
The difference is that the Japanese factories use a slush casting technique instead of rotocasting or rotomolding. There are plenty of plastic companies in the US that rotomold PVC plastic. The world of designer toys is incredibly small and they probably have no idea what a designer toy is. If they did, they probably wouldn't care enough to market those services because they'd probably still get very little business from it. But if you were to contact them with an example of a platform toy and ask them if they could rotocast a vinyl toy for you, I'm sure many of them could.
I called a place in Pittsburg that does slush casting, about making some toys. They had no clue what I was talking about. Smooth on 60 D is allot like soft vynil. You get those casting lines though. I would figure the hardest part of that slush casting sofubi process would be obtaining and desposing of those chemicals. I don't know shit though. Nothing compare to the stuff made in Japan.
I wonder what the cost difference would be. Not to be cheap, but going through mediation and shipping has to add up.
By casting lines, do you mean the seamline from a 2 piece mold? With the Japanese slush casting, they use the 1 piece metal mold, the vinyl is soft enough after being poured the entire piece can just be pulled from the pour spout. That Smooth on 60 D does look really soft. Theoretically, and maybe I'm wrong because I am by no means a resin or wax caster. if you didn't make a metal mold, but were using a silicone mold, and you either did your sculpt in wax with your or made a wax casting with the joint pieces in place. You could make a one piece silicone mold, and then just melt out your wax prototype. a slush 60 D cast would probably be soft enough you could just pull it out of the pour spout, without a seamline from a 2 piece mold.
Yes, the seam from the 2 part mold. I don't like it. Oomoo silicone Useful Temperature Range: -65°F to 400°F (-53°C to 205°C) With the relatively low melting temp of wax, I would think that the Idea is totally possible.
At about 1:20 Chance says... "I'm making sofubi here in Texas, and you better believe I'm gonna make it even better than Japan does"... sure it's probably sensationalism and a bit of saleman style talk but I lost all interest/belief at that point. This guy has been collecting long enough to know that's kind of a slap in the face to the Japan workshops.
That's quite a boast. Reminds me of the saying - 'Your mouth is writing checks your arse can't cash."
I wonder if either of the two mystery partners are Skullbrainers? I'm leaning more towards them being X-Plus Kaiju maniacs who don't understand wtf they are getting into
