How do they paint mass produced dolls and action figures? Are they just hand painted by lots of people, if not, what kind of machines do the painting?

1.18K views

How do they paint mass produced dolls and action figures? Are they just hand painted by lots of people, if not, what kind of machines do the painting?

In: Engineering

3 Answers

Anonymous 0 Comments

Depends on what kind of item it is. There are certain machines that will stamp on a color, then the next color, and so on. It’s evident in some toys when things don’t line up correctly (say, the eye white is in place, but the iris is a little off).

More expensive figures, like big anime figures, are typically hand painted with airbrushing and masking tape in pieces, then put together. Some statue figures are painted in one piece.

Anonymous 0 Comments

At least for barbies it is hand painted by factory workers. For LEGO figures it is stamped on in several passes through the machine That’s why the minifigures are so expensive

Anonymous 0 Comments

Fine details get stamped on by a tampo printer, which uses a silicone dome to stamp paint onto contoured surfaces. Larger areas of color get airbrushed on. A mask (basically a mold of the toy with the areas to be painted cut out) is fitted onto the toy, then it gets airbrushed, either by hand or robot arm.

You can see both processes here – airbrushing at 1:20, tampo printing at 2:36