Designing a toy

Toy factories need the work of designers. Clients and toy company employees have a
brainstorming session and, after that, designers prepare sketches of the toy in
question. They include the size, colors, and facial expressions and poses, according to
the type of toy (it can be a figurine, a doll, a car or some plastic food).
 
Sketching precedes a 3D depiction of the product, which is regularly made with
specialized software. Here, depending on the equipment of each toy factory, the
process can take different paths. One of them is to get the toy model with the help of a
3D printer. Another more traditional involves modelers. And, finally, top-notch
technology allows a machine to sculpt the design pattern into the metal that will shape
the plastic.
 
Modelers will work the traditional way by sculpting wax models following the 3D
depiction of the toy. You may think this step takes a long time, but an experienced wax
modeler can work faster than a computer. Models can also be made externally, there are
factories that specialize on this. Anyway, once the model is finished, the toy factory
will use it to fabricate the molds that will be of use to produce plastic toys.