Why would a completely custom toy cost this much?

Not a week goes by without someone asking us if we can make a completely custom new toy for them. Technically, it's doable but the cost of such a toy may be well over $1000. Let's see why the pricetag is so steep and why the production of such a toy may take from several weeks to several months.

3D model

Cost: $500-$1000

First, to make a new toy we need to make a new 3D model. It is possible to outsource this part of production to a professional 3D artist, who typically charge between $500 and $1000 per model. We can also do this in-house, which means several weeks of work in Blender to bring the model to life. Paying for those hours of work would cost roughly the same as hiring a designer to do it, probably more as we are not as efficient as top-tier designers.

Making a master

Cost: $20-$100 (per size small toy)

A "master" is a 3D-printed version of the toy which is used for making a mold. One print of small-sized (16 cm / 6.3 inch) master takes about 50g of filament. Most models need to be prototyped, which means we will usually print several early versions of the 3D model until it's finalized. The final master also needs to be post-processed to be completely smooth, which is a fickle chemical process and may destroy the master, so pretty often we have to print a new one and start over. Generously, for a small-size toy we can guesstimate that it needs around 300g of filament.

We are not adding the cost of the smoothing chemicals, as those are quite cheap. We are also not adding the negligible cost of electricity to run the 3D printer for approx 20-30 hours to print the prototypes and the master, plus, the wear the use of the 3D printer incurs over time. We are including a cost of roughly a whole day's worth of work that is required during the whole process of making a master.

Making a mold

Cost: $30-$50 (per size small toy)

To make a mold, we need 2 parts: a 3D printed shell and a silicone sock mold (which is way cheaper than a block mold but on the flip side, needs to be re-made after roughly 50 pours). A shell takes around 150g of filament. 3D modelling a shell and pouring the sock combined is about 1 hour of work, so not a significant time cost. A sock mold for this size of toy is usually under 300g of silicone. 

Pouring the toy

Cost: $40-$50 (per size small toy in soft firmness)

Finally we are ready to pour your toy. We prefer to make first pours in soft firmness to prime the mold and avoid sticking+tearing issues, which may result in destruction of the sock mold and the pour. So double the price if you want a firm toy.

Other considerations

Our backlog and workload

At any given time, we usually have several new ideas in the works, so you might end up waiting for several moths for our backlog to clear up. We also have seasonally increased workload from October to February, so we prefer to not work on new models during that time.

Mishaps during production

During every step, something can go wrong (overcooked master, bubbles or hair in the mold etc.), resulting in double or even triple the price of that particular production step. 

3-size selection and commercial appeal

For commercial viability, we typically offer 3 sizes of each model. To simplify the math, you can triple the cost of making a master and a mold to account for selection of mini, small and medium size. Another consideration we take into account is the commercial appeal of that particular toy - we prefer to put in the work for models that have a potential to be popular among our buyers.

Fandom models and copyright

Sometimes we get requests like "can you make a lightsaber model for me", which probably goes into copyright infringement territory and we don't want to risk any legal trouble. We might consider suggestions like "make a Garrus dong" because I doubt the character designers themselves know what his dong looks like, so its depicition likely isn't protected by copyright, unlike a lightsaber shaped dildo which would probably count as some sort of bootleg merch. 

Conclusion

So yeah, making a whole new toy costs money, resources and time. A lot. I hope this breakdown helps to illuminate exactly how much of those is involved and why the quote is this unreasonably high.