Making Vinyl Toys in the US: the Race is ON
I took this photo a few months ago at an undisclosed location, but the cat is now out of the bag. This morning, Vinyl Pulse posted photos of test pulls from the LA-based upstart small vinyl factory called Veracious (“truth”) Vinyl. For the past year, a few individuals have been pushing the boundaries of manufacturing in America in an attempt to create soft vinyl toys (like those made in Japan). Bullshark Toys (based in Florida) has posted a few photos of their progress via Flickr, but with these transparent, glitter Buff Monster minis, it seems like Veracious may be first to get the new toys to market.
I have the same questions as everyone else at this point. Wasn’t this “not possible”? What about REACH, FDA, EPA and/or OSHA compliance? What kinds of vinyl toys will Veracious produce? How can I get a job there?
[Update: Buff just sent over this photo, showing the scale of the vinyl. These toys are the size of his 3-inch minis, not the mini-minis. Good to know.]
Stay tuned, because with the help of Mr. Monster, I’m going to get some of those answers for you and post them here. Congrats to Veracious on this exciting accomplishment, and I look forward to seeing the rest of the folks experimenting with vinyl make it to the finish line as well. 2011 is already getting exciting.
Okay, I admit that I don’t follow the toy scene as closely as I probably should these days, but everyone seems stoked about this and I don’t understand why. Why weren’t vinyl toys made in the U.S. before?
Will they be cheaper to produce over here as opposed to shipping the work overseas factories?
And, more importantly, how can I start my own vinyl toy empire!?
actually, vinyl toys (kits mostly) were produced in the US before. Aurora (http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aurora_Plastics_Corporation) was the name of the company. Then again, as we all know the art of making vinyl via slush molding was actually exported by Mattel to Japan in the 1950s…
@brownkidd, I feel pretty sure that no, this will not be cheaper than overseas production. However, there may be savings in costs of shipping and time due to the domestic location.