Vinyl Figure Manufacturing Process: From Sketch to Ship

Once the model is approved, tooling begins. The character is first split into independent parts — head, body, limbs, accessories — and then, based on order quantity and each part's actual size, we decide how many mold sets are needed, how many parts go into one mold, and how many cavities each part gets. The standard approach is one part per mold with 4 cavities — the head gets its own mold, 1-out-of-4, so each rotocast cycle pulls four identical heads at once: high output, and the mold cost spreads thin per unit. But it's not a hard rule. For smaller orders we may put different parts in one mold at 1-of-1 or 1-of-2 to keep tooling cost down; for very large or structurally complex parts the cavity count drops, otherwise the layout won't fit or molding quality goes unstable. Which parts merge, which stay separate, and how many cavities each gets — all of it is balanced against order quantity, part size, wall-thickness requirements, and the convenience of downstream painting and assembly. Before we lock the mold layout, we walk the client through the number of mold sets, the cavity distribution, and the resulting unit price, because that plan directly determines both the tooling fee and the per-piece cost. Client confirms, then we cut iron molds.

Rotocast and injection molding are two completely different roads; Demeng Toy mainly runs the rotocast vinyl process . Rotocasting, put simply: PVC paste resin, stabilizers, and color pastes are blended to formula. The mixing step is critical — get the ratio wrong and the blank comes out either too soft or too brittle; leave the color paste uneven and the paint job mottles. The paste is poured into the iron mold, the mold is closed and loaded into the vinyl oven at 200+°C, rotating on two axes so the PVC paste coats the cavity wall layer by layer. Only a full rotation cycle gives even wall thickness; under-rotation or unstable temperature brings uneven walls, bubbles, and bare spots. After cooling and demolding you have a hollow white blank — then the gate must be handled. A rotocast gate is soft, unlike the hard sprue of injection molding; it's trimmed, sanded, and deburred by hand, cleaning up seam lines and flash, because sloppy trimming ruins everything downstream. Injection molding, by contrast, forces molten plastic into a steel mold under high pressure, producing solid or ribbed parts with tight dimensional accuracy and short cycles — but the molds are expensive, it only pays off at very high volumes, and the hard gates need shears and machining. Rotocast wins on cheap tooling, hollow lightweight bodies, and small-to-medium batches for designer pieces; injection wins on precision, cycle speed, and ultra-high-volume cost.

Painting and assembly are the last two steps — and where the real craft shows. In spray-painting, one color is one pass. If the masking jig is misaligned or the tape isn't sealed tight, overspray ("flying paint") lands where it shouldn't. Machines can't fix this — a craftsman takes a fine brush and touches the color back in, stroke by stroke, then re-checks for color deviation, bleeding, and runs. For demanding areas like eyes, we don't hand-spray: we use pad-printing or waterslides, printing sclera, iris, and highlight in layers — accurate registration, clean edges, far more stable than hand-painting. Assembly isn't just gluing parts together, either. We pick eco-friendly adhesives by structure, apply them exactly where needed, press the seams tight and clean them after bonding — no glue squeeze-out on the visible surface. For mushroom-peg joints (like a head on a peg), forcing them cold cracks the part or seats it poorly, so we first warm the mating area to soften the material, push it in while it still has give, and let it lock as it cools — secure, without damaging the piece. After assembly, every figure passes a standing test and a center-of-gravity check before moving to QC and packing.

Our QC checks every single piece, not a sampling shortcut. Each finished vinyl figure is inspected for flash, streaks, and whether seam lines fall within tolerance; for paint overspray, bleeding, and color deviation; for pad-printed eyes and logo registration; and for assembly gaps and stability. Problems are handled two ways: fixable issues — small overspray, minor flash — go back for touch-up, sanding, or reassembly; unfixable ones, or anything involving safety, structural cracks, or severe warping, are destroyed, never packed to pad the count. Packaging is also a line, not one person doing everything: one station loads the body, one adds accessories, cards, and desiccant, one folds and seals the boxes, and a final verification station counts every item against the packing list — no missing accessories, quantities matched — before the case is sealed for shipment. Split this way, it's fast and nothing gets left out.

Demeng Toy is a Shenzhen factory with 12 years making custom vinyl figures. We’ve served over 2,000 brands. We skip the industry buzz. Just honest shop-floor stuff: how we set up molds, clean up overspray, and why samples are non-negotiable. OEM starting at 50 pieces. We take care of the whole job from 3D modeling right through shipment, and arrange CE/EN71 testing for your market.

Got your design ready? A design file on your computer stays just a file. Send it across, we’ll give you a straight answer: can we produce it, what’s the process, and what it’ll cost.

OEM MOQ: 50pcs Prototypes: 5–7 working days Hard molds: 1–2 weeks Pre-production samples free for bulk orders, you only cover shipping. We do all steps in-house: modeling, parting, tooling, spray painting, pad printing, assembly and QC. Normal lead time 60–90 days. You’ll get quote and timeline back in 2–3 working days. No fluff — we’ll be clear if we can make it, or if we can’t.