How To Make Plush Toys
Overview of Common Coloring Processes for Demeng Toy
Covering full workflows including mass production, custom manufacturing,
workshop operation and post-coating, we have sorted out mainstreamcoloring processes in the toy industry. This introduction elaborates on technical features, applicable scenarios and product ranges, to meet your demands for mass production and order processing of toys in various styles and positioning.
How to make plush toys?
The production process of personalised plush toys is generally divided into: Plush Toy Design---Making Samples---Purchase Fabric---Purchase Filling Materials---Embroidering---Transfer Printing---Laser Cutting---Sewing---Adjusting Shape---Quality Checking---Packing--- Shipping.
Types of Spray Molds
1.Edge Mold: Suitable for flat surfaces such as plastic bases and block sides. It accurately defines coloring boundaries to prevent ink overflow and ensure consistent appearance across bulk products.
2.Clamp Mold (Mold Clamping Spray Painting): Specially designed for 3D toys. It enables one-pass spraying on multiple sides of dolls and toy car shells, greatly boosting assembly line productivity.
3.Large Spray Gun: Ideal for base coating of large-sized products, including full-body dolls and large shells. Operators shall standardize operations and control spraying distance properly to avoid production defects like paint sagging and color deviation.
4.Small Spray Gun: Used for delicate details such as doll blush, eye gradients and pattern transitions. It delivers exquisite coloring and rich layers, widely applied in fine processing of premium toys and IP figurines.
Production Notes
All sprayed products need heat curing in drying tunnels. The standard temperature for plastic toys is 60-80℃ to strengthen paint adhesion, prevent peeling and ensure qualified finished products. Special flexible ink is required for plush toys to keep fabrics soft.
Application & Applicable Categories
• Application: Mass base coating, full-body solid-color painting, standardized assembly line production.
• Categories: Plastic toys, alloy toys, building blocks, children’s educational toys, retail dolls.
The History of Plush Toys
Pad printing serves as a core production process for fine pattern printing on toys. With engraved steel or silver plates and flexible silicone pads, it precisely transfers logos, characters, serial numbers and small icons onto products, specializing in high-precision printing of small-size graphics and texts.
Applicable Scenarios
It works well on flat and slightly curved areas like doll hands and function buttons. With fast printing speed and stable precision, it is perfect for mass processing of small components.
Limitations
Complete pattern transfer cannot be guaranteed on highly curved spheres, cylinders, hollow-out parts and complex reliefs. Sectional printing on oversized toys or large patterns will leave obvious splicing marks. It is not feasible to print on sharp corners and narrow gaps. Complex multi-color overprinting tends to cause misalignment and blurring, resulting in production waste.
Application & Applicable Categories
• Application: Brand logos, product serial numbers, button characters and fine local patterns.
• Categories: Electric toys, remote-controlled toys, trendy figurines, infant toys, scale models, export certified toys.
Water Transfer Decal | Low-Cost Flexible Process for Small-Batch Production
Based on the oil-water separation principle, water transfer decal features simple operation and flexible deployment. It is highly suitable for small-batch sampling, new product trial production and multi-style flexible manufacturing. Patterns are attached to toy surfaces after soaking and peeling, then fixed by drying, with no complex molds required.
Production Notes
It only applies to flat and slightly curved products. Severe curvature will lead to decal wrinkling and cracking and increase production loss. A layer of dedicated clear varnish must be applied afterwards to improve wear resistance in strict compliance with production standards for children’s toys. Decals are prone to lifting and peeling on surfaces with large height differences, narrow gaps and hollow areas.
Application & Applicable Categories
• Application: New product sampling, decorative patterns for small batches, custom designs and prototype production.
• Categories: Model accessories, festival toys, cultural & creative products, niche custom toys, small-batch export toys
UV Printing | High-Precision Process for Personalized Customization
Adopting non-contact piezoelectric inkjet technology and instant curing by LED cold light, UV printing causes no heat damage to materials. Compatible with plastic, wood, plush fabric, metal and more, it is an ideal fine processing solution for high-end customization and high-definition pattern making.
Core Advantages
No pre-treatment on workpieces is needed, which simplifies production procedures. It achieves photo-quality images, intricate gradients and artistic textures with bright, sun-resistant and long-lasting colors. The non-contact working mode protects delicate surfaces from scratches.
Process Features
Relatively low printing speed and high material costs make it unsuitable for large-scale mass production. It is mainly used for small-batch customization and processing of high-end premium products.
Application & Applicable Categories
• Application: Personalized patterns, high-definition IP graphics, artistic textures, limited-edition customization and high-precision sampling.
• Categories: Art trendy toys, collectible figures, high-end custom dolls, cultural & creative gifts, IP co-branded toys.
Hand Painting | Premium Process for Retro & Artistic Styling
As a fully manual coloring process different from mechanical mass production, hand painting excels at creating retro styles and unique handcrafted textures. It can also be used for paint defect repair on finished products, acting as a distinctive manual procedure for art toys and collectible models.
Types of Hand Painting
1.Manual Brush Coloring: Direct painting with brushes retains natural strokes to deliver a vintage handcrafted look, commonly used in manual processing of art dolls and wooden toys.
2.Spot Filling: Cotton swabs and fine brushes are used to color mesh textures, grooves and hollow corners with high accuracy and zero ink overflow, so as to improve product quality.
3.Special Hand Tinting: Professional effect inks create antique, aged, rusted and worn looks to enhance the texture of retro toys and simulation models.
Application & Applicable Categories
• Application: High-end handcraft customization, retro effect creation, model aging treatment, paint repair and artistic texture design.
• Categories:Retro toys, simulation models, art handcrafted dolls, collectible figures, film & television prop toys.
Screen Printing | Mass Production Process for Large Regular Patterns
Screen printing is a mature process for mass production of toy patterns. The printing plate adopts a mesh structure. Nylon and polyester meshes are widely used in the toy industry for their high toughness and wear resistance, suitable for long-term assembly line operation. During production, the squeegee presses ink to pass through mesh holes and print onto workpieces. It efficiently finishes coloring for large regular patterns with stable performance, ideal for large-scale production.
Applicable Scenarios
It is mainly used for processing flat and slightly curved toy surfaces, such as packaging boxes, building blocks and costume patterns of dolls. With mature techniques, even colors and stable yield rate, it boasts moderate production cost and becomes a preferred solution for large regular orders.
Production Guidelines
1.Mesh count directly determines printing precision. Use 120–200 mesh screens for fine patterns and 80–100 mesh screens for large-area base coats to ensure consistent quality of bulk products.
2.It is not suitable for uneven surfaces or parts with large curvature, which will easily cause blurry patterns, ink leakage and other production defects and raise waste cost.
3.Precise alignment is required for multi-color overprinting in mass production. Extra attention shall be paid to cartoon patterns to control position deviation and avoid defective products.
Application & Applicable Categories
• Application: Printing on packaging, surface patterns of building blocks, costume prints of dolls and regular decorative patterns for mass products.
• Categories:Educational toys, assembly toys, gift toys, retail toys, mass-market toys.
Heat Transfer Printing | Exclusive Process for Regular Curved Surfaces
Heat transfer printing is a standardized mass coloring process specially designed for toys with regular curved surfaces. Patterns are first printed on heat-resistant transfer film. Under high temperature (150–200℃) and pressure, the ink layer is firmly transferred onto toy surfaces and fixed after cooling. With simple procedures and high stability, it fits mass production of toys with regular curved surfaces.
Production Guidelines
1.It only applies to regular curved structures including cylinders, spheres and smooth arcs. Irregular curved surfaces cannot achieve complete pattern transfer and are not recommended for mass production.
2.Workpieces must have good heat resistance. ABS and PC plastic are applicable materials. Heat-sensitive materials such as PVC and plush fabrics will be damaged under high temperature and are prohibited from this process.
Application & Applicable Categories
• Application: Decorative patterns on cylindrical, spherical and smooth curved toys.
• Categories: Ball toys, cylindrical toys, plastic arc ornaments, children’s casual mass-produced toys.
Water Transfer Printing | Process for Complex Curved Surfaces & Special Textures
Water transfer printing is a key production process for toys with irregular shapes, complex curved surfaces and special textures. With the help of water pressure and hydrolysis reaction, patterns on transfer film separate from the carrier and evenly cover workpieces. The whole process includes rinsing, drying and varnish coating. No custom complex molds are needed, so it adapts well to production of various special-shaped toys.
Core Features
1.It creates realistic textures such as wood grain, camouflage, leopard print and marble grain, widely used for mass production of animal-skin simulation, wood-textured parts and camouflage toys with excellent visual effect.
2.It features wide material compatibility and works on plastic, metal and wood. Capable of processing complex curved surfaces, uneven structures and hollow-out parts, it solves the coloring difficulties of special-shaped dolls and creative toys.
3.Process limitations: The rejection rate is generally over 50% in toy mass production. Positioning errors and incomplete hydrolysis often lead to wrinkled or damaged patterns. It cannot produce fine texts and tiny patterns, with lower precision than pad printing and UV printing.
Application & Applicable Categories
• Application: Special textures on complex curved surfaces, coloring for hollow-out & special-shaped workpieces, custom simulation textures and overall decoration for high-end craft toys.
• Categories: Simulation models, military camouflage toys, art trendy toys, special-shaped craft toys, collectible ornaments.
Electroplating | High-End Surface Finishing for Metallic Effects
Electroplating is a high-end post-treatment process to upgrade the appearance and texture of toys. Plastic electroplating is dominant in the toy industry. Chemical and electrochemical treatments form thin metal films of chromium, nickel, gold and other materials on plastic surfaces to deliver mirror luster and pure metallic texture, greatly increasing product added value. It requires highly stable base materials, so soft vinyl is not applicable, and available colors are limited.
Production Guidelines
1.Surface cleanliness is critical to mass production quality. Workpieces must be thoroughly cleaned, degreased and polished in advance. Impurities and oil stains will cause plating blisters, pinholes and peeling, which seriously affect appearance and adhesion.
2.It is mainly applied to plastic toys, such as metal parts of toy cars and decorative components of dolls. Electroplating is not available for wood materials.
3.Electroplated parts for children’s toys must strictly comply with toy environmental standards to control heavy metal content. Anti-rust treatment is required after electroplating to prevent oxidation and discoloration and guarantee delivery quality.
Application & Applicable Categories
• Application: Metallic coating, mirror finish, electroplating for decorative parts and processing of simulated metal components.
• Categories:Toy car models, high-end dolls, simulated metal toys, collectible models, craft ornaments.
Flocking | Process for Velvet Texture Enhancement
Based on mass electrostatic flocking technology, flocking is a featured coloring process to improve the tactile feel of toys. Fibers such as nylon and viscose are evenly adsorbed onto workpieces by static electricity, then dried and cured to form soft velvet layers. Colored fibers can be used to create multi-color velvet effects, widely adopted in custom and mass production of featured toys.
Application Guidelines for Toy Production
1.Suitable for plastic and wooden toys, it is commonly applied on doll bodies, faux fur of animal toys and velvet shells to greatly enhance softness and tactile experience.
2.Flocking colors can be customized while the base color remains monochrome. Short fibers bring smooth touch, and long fibers are fluffy. Eco-friendly toy-grade fibers must be used for children’s toy production to eliminate fiber shedding risks from the source.
3.Flocked products are not resistant to washing and direct sunlight, which will cause fiber loss and discoloration. Uneven flocking often occurs on narrow gaps and sharp corners, so such structures shall be avoided in mass production.
Application & Applicable Categories
• Application: Overall velvet finish, faux fur decoration, tactile upgrade for shells and partial soft decoration customization.
• Categories: Velvet-style dolls, simulated animal toys, infant soothing toys, high-end featured craft toys.
Mass Coloration | Integrated Base Color Process
Mass coloration is a fundamental mass production process for in-situ coloring of toy raw materials. Special eco-friendly colorants are mixed into plastic pellets, plush fabrics, wood panels and other materials. Finished products come with preset colors after molding, eliminating post-coloring procedures and simplifying production flow. It is a cost-effective solution for mass production of solid-color toys.
Advantages & Guidelines for Toy Production
1.Advantages: Uniform color and excellent color fastness prevent fading. It reduces post-coating procedures and production costs, ideal for large-scale production of solid-color plastic and plush toys.
2.Production control: Only eco-friendly colorants complying with children’s toy safety standards can be used. Precise color matching is required to reduce batch color difference. The color cannot be changed after molding, so it is only for products with fixed base colors.
Supplementary Notes for Mass Production
• Slight color difference may exist between different batches of raw materials. First article inspection and batch sampling inspection shall be carried out before mass production to stabilize delivery quality.
• Its surface texture is inferior to painted finishes.
• The surface has low impact resistance and scratches easily when collided.
Application & Applicable Categories
• Application: Integrated base color, solid-color matching, standardized production without post-treatment.
• Categories: Basic plastic toys, solid-color plush toys, simple assembly toys, mass-market toys.
Core Selection Guidelines for Toy Coloring Processes
1.Mass production & large-area base coats: Prioritize spray painting and mass coloration for high productivity and controllable cost, suitable for assembly line production.
2.Fine patterns & tiny characters / logos: Prioritize pad printing for stable precision and good adaptability to mass processing of small parts.
3.Complex curved surfaces & special simulation textures: Prioritize water transfer printing for few shape restrictions and outstanding simulation effects.
4.Regular curved surfaces & common patterns: Prioritize water transfer decal for flexible operation, suitable for small and medium-sized orders.
5.Retro styles & artistic customization: Prioritize hand painting to create unique textures and custom antique & worn effects.
6.Metallic mirror finish & grade upgrading: Prioritize electroplating to improve product grade, and strictly follow environmental standards throughout production.
7.Soft velvet texture: Prioritize flocking to optimize tactile feel, and conduct strict process control to avoid fiber shedding in mass production.
8.Universal production standard for all processes: All coloring procedures adopt eco-friendly inks, colorants and fibers. Strictly control harmful substances and heavy metals to fully comply with safety specifications for children’s toys.
Fuel injection
Pad Printing
Hand Painting
Electroplating
FAQ
The 10 most commonly used fabrics for making plush toys: Cotton, Polyester, Wool, Short pile fabric, Long pile fabric, Felt, Velvet & Velour, and Faux fur.
There are three best types of fillings for plush toys: cotton filling, odorless memory foam filling, and natural cotton filling.
Custom plush toys vary in price depending on the amount of embroidery, different fabric colors, weighted beans, clothing accessories, and whether they need to create the design from scratch, etc. For example, customizing 300 plush toys typically costs around $10-20 each for an 8-inch tall plush animal toy.
From a material perspective, "plush toys" generally refer to toys covered with plush fabric. Plush is long, soft, and delicate, making it very comfortable to touch. For example, many common teddy bear plush toys fall into the category of "plush toys." The scope of "stuffed toys" is broader. Any toy filled with stuffing in fabric, leather, or other materials can be referred to as a "stuffed toy." The fabric does not necessarily have to be plush. Some small items with a coarse cotton fabric shell and filled with cotton can also be called stuffed toys. From an appearance standpoint, "plush toys" appear fluffier and more luxurious due to their fur. The appearance of "stuffed toys" is more diverse, with some possibly having a primitive and simple shape.
Creating a high-quality plush toy involves many complex processes. Starting with the design, professional designers need to create patterns based on market demand and current trends, a process that requires significant creativity and manpower. Cutting the fabric must be precise to ensure that each part is the correct size and to avoid material waste. The sewing process requires meticulous stitching to prevent unraveling and ensure clean seams, which demands skilled workers and considerable time and effort. Some high-end plush toys also utilize special techniques such as embroidery and printing to further enhance the toy's sophistication and aesthetic value, which undoubtedly increases production costs.
In fact, there is no specific fabric that can be called the most ideal material for plush toys. When choosing the right fabric, it is necessary to consider several factors. The selection of appropriate fabric is influenced by various factors, including many application requirements, aesthetic preferences, safety issues, and material characteristics. If the plush toy needs to be used frequently, it may require durable fabric to prevent tearing and wear. On the other hand, plush toys designed for comfortable sleep may need softer and hypoallergenic materials.
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