Shinbone Creative specializes in design, digital sculpting & illustration, and manufacturing of unique goods for discerning people.
For resin, the minimum is extremely low, as low as 10 or 30 units. For vinyl, it is possible to sweet talk a factory into producing 500, but they would prefer to do no less than 1000, usually. A run of 500 will cost more,…
Some “designer toys” are toys and some “designer toys” are decorative art. If you are making toys that are accessible to children under the age of 14, even if you didn’t intend that young of an audience, then yes, you are obligated by the laws…
A little guy we made for the wonderful Shriners Hospitals for Children in Canada. We had a blast working with the creative Mélanie Baillairgé at Nolin BBDO in Montréal. She developed the character and the original look of Fezzy.
The Triple Crown of YoYo, a contest series for modern yo-yo play, approached us with vector art of their mascot. From their vector art, we were able to create a full 3D digital sculpt ready for output, to be used to create a mold for…
Yes and no. Time for math fun. The total cost of a “run” of toys is the combined result of complexity, size, material, packaging, and number of units. Let’s look at a run of resin figures as an example. There are “one time” costs such…
Designers who are planning a toy occasionally wonder whether to produce their figure in resin or vinyl. Both materials are being used to make wonderful and attractive figures. Here are brief overviews of the materials. More!
You want to make a toy and you don’t know where to start? Simply put, have a strong original idea. It’s okay to be inspired, we’re all inspired by the fantastic work being made by the artists and designers that we love. But it’s harder…
When we’re not designing or making toys, we’re using the magical power of our electronic wizard machines to produce engaging and haunting digital illustrations.
Well loved artists and designers with massive fan bases could see four figures come in from a successful run of toys. Inspired and talented designers who are just starting out might see “sushi money” come in from a successful run of toys. There’s a complex…
Every step of the process of making a set of figures has options and choices that affect the cost. Possibly the best way to answer this question would be with a flowchart, but for now let’s pick one option and stick with it. Let’s consider…
What to get the Predator fan who has everything? Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment, 3d Systems and Shinbone Creative bring your favorite nightmare to life. Using 3d Systems photo based portrait technology, you can have your very own statue of the Predator holding your bloody…
Collectible urban vinyl space marine that debuted at Blizzcon.
We’re massive fans of “The Law” and Scott jumped at the chance to sculpt a character study of Judge Dredd. Readers of the British comic 2000 AD will recognize his unique silhouette and trademark giant green knee-pads. Green is a notorious color to make look…
John “Spanky” Stokes asked for a smooth DIY version of his hairy mascot. Because we had sculpted the original hairy version digitally, it was simple enough to shave the beast, remove his facial features and clean up the mesh.
October is the most wonderful month of the year. Why? Because it’s “Monstober”. What’s “Monstober”? It’s a daily challenge to design a new monster. While a drawing or sketch would have been acceptable, we went the extra mile and sculpted up a new critter most…
A cute but street savvy rhino character study done as an urban vinyl toy. Created as a digital illustration, sculpted in 3D, and ready to be rapid-prototyped for production and manufacturing. We look up to all the legendary designers such as Tristan Eaton and Jeremy…
Short answer – rarely. But patching up the high poly game asset for print is not too difficult. Detailed high poly game models are used for a few reasons in the game development pipeline. For “next gen” titles, the high poly models are used for…
Tim Stephson is an Austin, Texas based designer and sculptor and we are updating his classic figure for a new vinyl release.
Who likes monsters? Who wants to get their hands on a nice juicy, drippy, lumpy freak named Skullbee? If you’re curious about the magic behind the mischief, grab yourself this file and take a peek. If you’d like to play with the character, go right…