Inspiration

Lately I’ve been getting into soft vinyl toys, also known as Sofubi. Companies like Kidrobot and independent artists like Rampage Toys produce these stylish, Japanese-influenced art toys, and I’ve grown intrigued by the aesthetics and the production processes. That’s why I’ve decided to have my own vinyl toy produced and dive into the world of Sofubi.

Let me start with a disclaimer: I am not a very talented sculptor or graphic designer, and my own attempts to sketch, sculpt, and mold are too amateurish to share in most cases. Luckily, I read a MAKE: Magazine article that chronicles working with a manufacturer to have a toy produced based on vector illustrations and drawings. What follows is my attempt to do the same.

Finding a Manufacturer

My search for a suitable company started by contacting some Sofubi artists that I follow on Instagram. They specialize in taking sculptures made by artists, making wax copies of them, and ultimately making metal molds suitable for vinyl casting. I won’t name names, but the two Japanese producers I received quotes from were charging a little bit (read: “a lot”) more than I could afford to pour into a hobby.

Remembering a Human Rights Watch article I read, I realized I could probably produce a toy more cheaply in China. I used Alibaba’s search engine of companies to find Chinese toy companies and requested quotes from 8 of the most promising. I lucked out and found one who had worked on projects just like mine and was willing to prototype my design for a pretty nominal price.

Choosing a Character

One of my favorite cartoon shows ever is Mission Hill, a sarcastic pre-9/11 show about hipsters in a fictional cosmopolis. The show only lasted for a single season on the WB and was largely overshadowed by their new hit show “Dawson’s Creek” (shudders), but they still have a loyal cadre of fanatics including a Twitter account that appears to have gone mostly dark in 2014.

Jim Kuback, a monotone ne’er-do-well voiced by Brian Posehn, is my favorite character, and I have always wanted a Mission Hill action figure. Since Mission Hill lasted all of 13 episodes before getting the axe, the show had neither the lifespan nor the success to have toys produced. With that in mind, Jim was my top choice.

Legal Concerns

Before you even say it, I know — “It sounds like you’re about to get a an official-looking letter from a copyright lawyer”. I was hoping to get by with the excuse that my design was in 3 dimensions and was distinct from the show version and was therefore not an infringement, but a scholarly paper by Isaac Lew on Toy Copyright told me I was dead wrong. In fact, Lew tells us that the first ever copyright lawsuit revolving around a toy was a bootleg Betty Boop toy based on the cartoon. The toy maker lost the suit, and the case set a precedent for future lawsuits.

I hired a lawyer in Portland that specializes in intellectual property rights with a track record in toy copyrights to try and secure the license from WB. Unfortunately, they were unable to get WB to respond to faxes, emails, or phone calls. So, for now this will be a one-of-a-kind prototype that I’ll keep to myself.

Concept Sketches and Vectors

Simple sketch of Jim from the front and side

Using screenshots from the Mission Hill DVD as reference, I roughed in two sofubi-style sketches of Jim in a notebook — one from the front and one from the side. Using Adobe Illustrator and a scanned picture of the sketches, I traced over my concept art using the pen tool and a few others. After experimenting with some shading, I decided against it and fired off my unshaded concept to the toy company.

Experimenting with shading

Final image sent to manufacturer

Rough Sculptures and Customer Critiques

The manufacturer’s site says they will take the concept art, rough in a sculpt of the character, and send pictures of it to the customer for tweaks and changes. They do not put a limit on how many revisions can be made. When I vectorized my sketch and sent it, I did not think they’d interpret my concept so exactly. The first round of sculptures followed my shoddy vectors too closely, and they managed to capture all of the asymmetrical parts and idiosyncrasies in clay form.