Small figure.
Serious engineering.

Steel injection and rotocasting molds require precision CNC tooling and electrical discharge machining (EDM), which represent a fixed upfront investment ($6,000 – $18,000). At 3,000 units, that tooling cost amortizes down to roughly $2 – $6 per piece, allowing the unit FOB price to land at $3.75 – $6.75. For quantities under 1,000 pcs, tooling amortization becomes disproportionately high.

The gold standard is a 3D digital file in STEP, STP, OBJ, or STL format. If you only have 2D character artwork, provide orthographic front, back, side, and 3/4 turnarounds with Pantone color callouts. Takara can coordinate 3D digital sculpting and DFM modeling before tooling begins. 3D sculpting and sampling are quoted per project.

The client owns the molds 100%. Once tooling is paid, the physical steel molds belong entirely to you. Our partner factories store, maintain, lubricate, and insure the molds in clean tooling racks for your future re-orders at zero additional tooling cost.

During the initial DFM sculpt phase, our tooling engineers position parting lines along natural anatomical contours—such as the hairline, collar edge, hat seams, or clothing folds. Any remaining micro-seams are hand-buffed before cleanroom pad printing.

Requirements depend on where the figures will be sold. Our partner factories use vinyl and pigments free of lead, heavy metals and regulated phthalates, and samples from your actual run go to accredited laboratories (such as SGS, TÜV or Intertek) to be tested to that market’s standard, e.g. EN71 for the EU or ASTM F963 / CPSIA for the US (mechanical pull tests, flammability, element migration). Declare every destination market when you send the brief so testing covers all of them; requirements added after production starts can mean re-sampling or extra testing. Corporate gifts handed out in Vietnam and not sold need only a valid VAT invoice.

Yes. We provide complete turnkey retail packaging: aluminum foil sealed bags, custom 4C blister trays, full-color printed blind boxes, collector scratch-off cards, and 12-unit master display boxes (PDQ counter displays) packed directly for retail distribution.