darkSpyro

Hey there,

I'm wondering if this is just me, but all of the Skylander figures I have purchased recently seem to have some pretty shotty paint jobs on them. I was really impressed with the quality on the first figures I got, the paint job was outstanding. But recently ... it looks like it was done effortlessly. My sunburn looks like it was painted by a chimp! It makes me wonder if they recently outsourced their painters to someone else.

I want to re-paint it myself and I was wondering if anyone on the forums knew what kind of paints I could use on the figure that would work?

Has anyone else noticed this decline in quality? :[

Yeah they are pumping them out in any condition. Whether it is poorly painted, in the incorrect box or broken.

They used to outsource the figures, and the people that made them did alot better job on the quality, for obvious reasons. Now however, they use a 3d printer to produce the figures, and do it in-house so the quality and attention to detail just isn't there anymore, unfortunately. Lower production cost + same end cost = $$$$ profit

Quote: Iloveninjas

Yeah they are pumping them out in any condition. Whether it is poorly painted, in the incorrect box or broken.

That's pretty sad ... paying $15 (standard price in Australia, but I buy online) for a single figure of such poor quality isn't right. I've seen some figures that are even assembled incorrectly, such as a Chop Chop with it's torso and head on backwards. However people just sell those 'oddities' on ebay with bigger price tags.

Chop-Chop: What! they have a wall here?

Make me think of the movie Spaceballs, the whole having your head on backwards and staring at your...

Quote: ex0r

They used to outsource the figures, and the people that made them did alot better job on the quality, for obvious reasons. Now however, they use a 3d printer to produce the figures, and do it in-house so the quality and attention to detail just isn't there anymore, unfortunately. Lower production cost + same end cost = $$$$ profit

I don't think that's quite right. The 3D printing was only done to demo the figures for the most part. I've never heard them printing all of them in house. After all, that'd be crazy. It takes like 20 minutes to print one.


The reason the paint jobs have gotten a bit more "shoddy" is because they're pumping these out as fast as possible now, especially from that long drought. If I'm not mistaken, they also said something about changing the company that produces them, so that could be another reason.

this is why people hate activision

braking children's dreams since the start

hate

Quote: spyroflame0487

Quote: ex0r

They used to outsource the figures, and the people that made them did alot better job on the quality, for obvious reasons. Now however, they use a 3d printer to produce the figures, and do it in-house so the quality and attention to detail just isn't there anymore, unfortunately. Lower production cost + same end cost = $$$$ profit

I don't think that's quite right. The 3D printing was only done to demo the figures for the most part. I've never heard them printing all of them in house. After all, that'd be crazy. It takes like 20 minutes to print one.


The reason the paint jobs have gotten a bit more "shoddy" is because they're pumping these out as fast as possible now, especially from that long drought. If I'm not mistaken, they also said something about changing the company that produces them, so that could be another reason.

they wouldn't be able to print the rfid and they wouldn't be vibrant as they are painted if they printed them and they use a softer plastic than the 3d printers I have seen.

I don't think there has been a decline because they've had bad paint jobs since the beginning. I noticed that right away and started to only shop at places like Walmart and Toys R Us because they usually have a wall full of the same guy. Then I can compare a half dozen or so and walk out with the nicest looking one. If you order from online who knows what they'll send you.

Some characters look consistently pretty good but others like Cynder are just brutal. I probably picked through about 30 Cynders before I found one that wasn't cross-eyed, had a poorly glued right horn, or had excess paint overspray on her eyes.

Most of the little kids won't care about imperfections but if your a collector you might want to examine them a bit right there in the store before you purchase.

Quote: dragonmk

Quote: spyroflame0487

Quote: ex0r

They used to outsource the figures, and the people that made them did alot better job on the quality, for obvious reasons. Now however, they use a 3d printer to produce the figures, and do it in-house so the quality and attention to detail just isn't there anymore, unfortunately. Lower production cost + same end cost = $$$$ profit

I don't think that's quite right. The 3D printing was only done to demo the figures for the most part. I've never heard them printing all of them in house. After all, that'd be crazy. It takes like 20 minutes to print one.


The reason the paint jobs have gotten a bit more "shoddy" is because they're pumping these out as fast as possible now, especially from that long drought. If I'm not mistaken, they also said something about changing the company that produces them, so that could be another reason.

they wouldn't be able to print the rfid and they wouldn't be vibrant as they are painted if they printed them and they use a softer plastic than the 3d printers I have seen.

In the article I read where the head of toys for bob talked about it, they don't print them in color, they are printed out in a normal grey color and painted aftwards, and as far as the rfid chip is concerened, all it is is a chip attached to the bottom of the skylander between the skylander and the green plastic base they are standing on

they also used to paint chop chop's legs, now they just leave it in the dull grey color

Oh, definitely - if you compare the original release of the Wave 1 figures to later waves (or even current releases of Wave 1), there are a lot of discrepancies. I saw a Bash whose eye was on his CHEEK.

Unfortunately, up until recently, no stores near me sold Skylanders, so I didn't have the opportunity to shop around. I had to order online to get my collection, so had to take the risk.

I was concerned about my final three figures having shoddy paint jobs (since I ordered them sight unseen from amazon), but they all look perfect to me. No quality issues whatsoever.

Yeah, I went to a GameStop yesterday and found two 3-packs. One looked like it was painted by an ape. The other was painted wonderfully. I got the better one, luckily.

Quote: SpyraArtisan

this is why people hate activision

braking children's dreams since the start

hate

They're rushing the toy production to satisfy the consumers, that's why.

In case you all are wondering. The toys aren't made by 3D printing. They aren't painted by a printer. They are produced in a mold. If you look closely you can see part trim marks on the figure from where they inject the plastic into the mold. They have a station for each figure set up. They produce blanks of all figures. They put them in the paint area which they register the figure in a base that will do the paint in a sequence. If the part is not aligned properly (probably machine loaded or possibly loaded quickly by hand. If they are even off a hair, everything will be scewed. Then after they have been finished they likely are cured and then the RFID chip and base is put on for final assembly. If you go look up how things are made, you will see they are using typical techniques. But yes, as parts need to be pumped out, and things go out of calibration, they produce shoddier parts. If they run 500 figures...by the time the 350th figure is being painted, the locator could be out of alignment and needs recalibration. You all should watch the show How Things are Made on Netflix. You'll all learn a lot about just about anything. I'm not saying I'm 100% sure on this as we've never seen their production facilities, but that's my guess. 3D prints don't turn out well at all. We have one at my work and they are not meant for anything but prototyping...as you've probably seen in the original prototypes of Terrafin. Just saying.

the paint process is technically called printing upon further read...but by use of rubber pads. See this article for a quick idea of how it's done.

http://blog.dyzplastic.com/201...rt-5-fresh.html

Quote: Aura24

Quote: SpyraArtisan

this is why people hate activision

braking children's dreams since the start

hate

They're rushing the toy production to satisfy the consumers, that's why.

I was kidding. I:

No, my figs are pristine...... Enough

Quote: Failinhearts

No, my figs are pristine...... Enough

lol

good enough man

I've noticed this too, but only on a few figures. Make sure you take a good look at your figure before purchasing and you should be ok.

Quote: xerokills

In case you all are wondering. The toys aren't made by 3D printing. They aren't painted by a printer. They are produced in a mold. If you look closely you can see part trim marks on the figure from where they inject the plastic into the mold. They have a station for each figure set up. They produce blanks of all figures. They put them in the paint area which they register the figure in a base that will do the paint in a sequence. If the part is not aligned properly (probably machine loaded or possibly loaded quickly by hand. If they are even off a hair, everything will be scewed. Then after they have been finished they likely are cured and then the RFID chip and base is put on for final assembly. If you go look up how things are made, you will see they are using typical techniques. But yes, as parts need to be pumped out, and things go out of calibration, they produce shoddier parts. If they run 500 figures...by the time the 350th figure is being painted, the locator could be out of alignment and needs recalibration. You all should watch the show How Things are Made on Netflix. You'll all learn a lot about just about anything. I'm not saying I'm 100% sure on this as we've never seen their production facilities, but that's my guess. 3D prints don't turn out well at all. We have one at my work and they are not meant for anything but prototyping...as you've probably seen in the original prototypes of Terrafin. Just saying.

the paint process is technically called printing upon further read...but by use of rubber pads. See this article for a quick idea of how it's done.

http://blog.dyzplastic.com/201...rt-5-fresh.html

^ Thanks for sharing the process.

3D printing is actually extremely costly and time consuming depending on how many details and hues are set up on the blueprint image which is sent to the printer. It can take weeks for a 3D model of a figure to be created by the printer. It's far cheaper for them to use the molding and stamp methods.

Activision however does use a 3D printer for personal character design use such as testing a pose, concept, or base-design of a figure before finalizing it. Jet Vac was a character that they tested different 3D model poses of before they finalized it with his figure design today. 3D models are technically blueprints in the way they are laid out so it's not too difficult for them to transfer the character 3D game model into the printer's 3D blueprint program so that's why a lot of game and toy industries are using this visual method of figure concept design.