Some design tips

Knowing how things are made is important for product manager or designer; it could mean better product quality or cost control. Take a look at the two female body designs on the right for example; you may say the breast shape of body A looks more natural than that of body B. We agree, but the design of body B is not without a reason: it avoids the recess area of the breast which forms an undercut in body A. This slight alternation actually makes a big difference in terms of manufacturing and materials used. Action figure body is usually made of ABS, a thormaset plastic, which is rigid so any undercut would prevent the molds from pulling out from the forming.

Can design of body A be achieved? Yes, but in a more complicated and usually more costly way. Following discussions may help you gain more knowledge about issues like that.

About product idea

• Product idea should come from client. Dora doll may look ugly at first, but they are one of the most sellable plush toys out there. Why? Young children love it and that's what matters! Some marketers seem not realizing that they are actually the ones who know what would sell and what wouldn't, so instead of relying on designer or factory, they should be in the best position of coming up with product ideas. We encourage clients to pay more attention to this common sense. 

• It's worthy to spend a little more on designing. We have worked with clients who are artists themselves and those who have very good product ideas but care less about graphics. The outcomes can be very different; in fact, while production usually goes well with the former, we often ended up altering products in the middle of production with the latter. So called "a picture is worth a thousand words"; showing your idea in graphic is usually a good idea.
  
  Another important point of having someone to draw out your idea is that designers are usually artists, who can add the aesthetic value to your product. In fact, if you think about how Mattel or Hasbro spend on developing a toy, you should agree that it is worth to spend a little more time and money in presenting your design. 

About cost elements

Does quality always come with a price? Not necessary; true is, a good design may help reduce cost. The NFL Robot on the right is a pretty good design, right? Aesthetics-wide, yes; but if you look at it from the manufacturing prospect, you may discover a few issues. The whole thing is made of solid PVC plastic which weighes 600 grams (1.3 lbs); in addition, PVC is a thermoplastics plastic which soften with heat, meaning the joints would not hold well, especially in the hot days. So on one hand, the excessive weight would not only make it less playable, but also consumes more material, which means more cost; on the other hand, it poises safety issues.

More discussions about some cost elements are as follows.

• Type. Action figure that requires articulations and mixed materials is usually more expensive than simple figurine or bobble head; collectible statue is usually more costly than giveaway toy.
  
  
• Size. Dimensions of the product and its accessories (if any) determine consumption of materials. The larger in size, in general, the more material consumed and more powerful equipment may be required, therefore more costly.
  
  To help reducing cost, some of the techniques can be considered, including hollowing the parts, removing unnecessary materials (see this example), and changing manufacturing methods
  
  In the case a product is designed hollow inside, by the way, size may be a key for some manufacturing methods. For example, fiber can be added to strengthen large resin statues but not small pieces. In roto-casting, on the other hand, certain cavity is required in order for the casting pieces to be pulled out from mold.
  
  
• Colors. Colors can affect production costs dramatically. For example, transient color is difficult to achieve, if not impossible; fragmental color patterns require more paint molds and operations; it can also cause problems such as misalignment, spread, or stains.
  
  
• Functionality. If you want an articulated action figure, meaning with moveable parts, we need to know where and what joint types you want; if you want a doll with sound, we need to know what type of sound device (e.g., record-able or just replay-able), single phrase or multi-phrase, as well as duration of each message. 
  
  
• Material. As far as toy or gift item are concerned, the popular materials include resin (poly-resin, poly-stone, polyurethane), plastic (PVC vinyl, ABS, rubber), metal (pewter, bronze), fabric, or wood, which application is depending on quality, cost, and functionality. For example, while resin is normally perceived as more valuable due to its fine details and hand-crafted nature, it is rigid and fragile so not feasible for articulated figures; plastic, on the other hand, requires expensive molds and machine so is not as feasible for small runs.
  
  
• Packaging. Packaging serves for both protection and decoration; while protection is necessary (e.g., Styrofoam for resin product), decoration is basically the beauty in beholder's eyes. In general, for the decoration part, color box with window is most expensive, then color box without window, blister with color backing, and white box, in the order from more to less costly.
  
  
• Production quantity. Quantity is very important, if not the most important, cost element in production. Considering, for example, Customs handling charges for exporting and importing, which range from $400-1,000 for each shipment; dividing it by 1,000 and 100,000, we would have $0.40-1.0 apiece for 1000-piece run, and $0.004-0.01 apiece for 100,000-piece run. In addition to Customs processing charges, of course, there are other fixed costs, including setups, tooling, difference in material prices, test run wastes, failure rate, as well as factory overheads. So minimum quantity is not only required in regular production, but also necessary in order to control cost.
  
  Note also, production quantity can be limited by material; for example, it is not feasible, if not impossible, to do only a few pieces of action figure in plastic due to the expensive molds and machine it requires.
  
  
• Market target. This information would help us understand your application therefore provide better guidelines from manufacturing standpoint. 
  
  
• Manufacturing method. Once we have the details of your design, we should be able to advise what manufacturing method is proper; so you are not expected to provide this information. We do have some discussion about different manufacturing methods if you are interested. 
  
  
• Safety. Since the Mattel's product recalls in 2008, the US Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) has tightened up its regulations on consumer products especially children products, which are actually mandatory for tests for toxic elements, Phthalates, Small-parts, among others. Toxic elements usually result from paints, while Phthalates from low grade additives in plastic and other materials; so a general rule is to minimize the use of paints and low grade materials. Small-parts, on the other hand, are usually the result of moveable function, so for product for small children, you definitely shouldn't think about too functional.