How to Assemble an Action Figure

In a follow-up to his insider’s perspective on the King Hsss-shoulder issue, Jazwares Director of Product Development and all-around toy fan Joe Amaro sent these images from the Jazwares factory in China. It provides an interesting look into how action figures are assembled, and why fixing an error like the shoulders can be so expensive.

Writes Joe:

Attached are pictures of some insert molded parts. This is how MOTUC shoulders are made.

Basically it is taking the joint part, putting it into the tool (mold) and injecting the plastic around it. So when the worker pulls them out of the tool the joints are already assembled.

You can see the different parts in the pictures by color, the lighter parts are the joints.

The parts come out of the tools just like models cars come from the box. They are all attached together and have to be cut out. So you can’t just flip a part, they are all attached.

This is why you can’t interchange joints and why it requires a retool.

And to the issue of mixing parts, again, we [collectors] only think of one figure. They look at thousands and thousands of individual parts.

Look at the pictures of bags and bags of pieces. If they are not careful, it is easy to mix up parts.

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19 Comments

  1. Reverend Ender

    @ jackstatic:

    I didn't buy King Hsss, and I don't miss him.

  2. Pretty interesting.

  3. Benzie

    Honestly, the majority of collectors don't really care about the MINOR issues the line has. The fact is, we are getting freakin MOTU Figures in 2011 based on a cartoon in 1983 and for a true fan that is all that is important. I have the ROBOTO and HSSSS with the reversed shoulders. Do I care? NO! My Goddess had a broken crotch and she fell to pieces. Do I care? Hell it was a extra $50 for me in South Africa, but I was so glad that we finally got a Goddess that I did'nt even think twice or bitch about the issue!

    We're getting MOTU toys and the line is strong, get as many people as possible to buy it so it can go on FOREVER!!!

  4. FakeEyes22

    @ Rustin Parr:

    I agree completely. If it changes your opinion on the matter or even reinforces your feelings, it definitely helps understand the problem. I find the whole process interesting.

  5. Rustin Parr

    I just want to say thanks to Joe and Poe for this awesome post. Photos are worth a 1000 words and those are pictures are incredibly insightful. Thank you!

  6. Logan

    @ Barbecue17:
    I think you hit the nail on the head. Some people will say that we help propagate these problems by continuing to buy the toys and while that argument has some validity (I used to feel this way myself) but the fact of the matter is not all the figures come out effed up and boycotting the line would throwing the proverbial baby out with the bath water. Additionally, most of these errors are discovered by consumers after the point of purchase (not by reviewers who get advance copy that sometimes differ from what we receive anyway) and so there is no "wait and see" window, unless you want to pay a secondary market markup, to listen to nitpickers and decide if you want to purchase the final product. I think the more sensible argument would be to simply return items that you find to be defective.

    As a consumer (and a self-entitled outspoken critical American), I'm well within my rights to complain about poor quality or service and demand better. I have the right, some may say even the duty, to complain about things like gas prices while continuing to purchase until they improve. And as far as Mattel's motivation to please consumers is concerned, pride and integrity should be enough. That may sound a little old-fashioned, but quality and service never go out of style.

    Big thanks to Mr. Amaro for sharing his insight into the production problems and thanks to Poe Ghostal for producing more great content!

  7. Perhaps they should sell the figures like that: unpainted, unassembled, unpackaged. That would be kinda neat…although I think backwards shoulders would be the least of my figures' worries then.

  8. Kid Nicky

    I guess Joe is right,after all,these figures only cost 5 bucks at Dollar General so why expect them to be of acceptable quality. What assholes we are!

    whoopstheycost30bucks

  9. thomas

    i love looks inside the toy industry.

  10. Southzen

    I am mostly just a daily reader, but I feel I need to say something on this. I appreciate and thank the insight we are receiving from Joe and Jazwares, no company has to share any of this information with the public, and I think it is helpful to the community to give both informationa and insight on production (something that is always requested at Joecon yet rarely if ever shared). The issue with the sholders on King Hsss appears to happened with whoever prepares the figure for molding, and I am fairly certain it falls somewhere between Mattel and The Four Horseman. It happened again, it stinks, but honestly neither Roboto or King Hsss bother me. I guess years of army building G I Joes has conditioned me to over look the small stuff. I understand wanting quality for what we are paying.

  11. FakeEyes22

    This is also good visual reference for why some figure pieces are painted vs. a colored plastic I think.

    For example, Whiplash having one spear cast in orange and the other cast in green, then painted. Same with Robin's goofy painted legs. It all depends on how the pieces are all separated into groups and cast together.

    I can definitely see how errors can happen. It's just strange that it seems to happen so often now with Matty product in particular. This does a great job showing exactly why what looks like a simple swap is more complicated than that.

  12. dayraven

    you know, i see joe's point here, and i don't.

    on the one hand, if i was assembling a model, and i took all the pieces off the sprue at once and tossed them in a giant bag, i'l likely lose track of which pieces belonged where too.

    on the other hand, since most of the sprues i've worked from have labels to indicate which set of bits the pieces are from, or at least, some sections are labeled to provide me some direction of where the pieces go, i have never had this assembly problem. not w/ cars, boats, aircraft, gundam, etc… and in my youth, i assembled a lot of models. i never transposed a part, or got to assembling symmetrical parts and discovered i was assembling mixed bits, or anything like that. i have what's called "a system" and that has so far served me unfailingly.

    now surely, the chinese have developed systems, and they can read right or left, front or back, etc… i know that these things touch potentially hundreds of hands, but a single plan of assembly, moving parts in order, etc… these are the fundamentals to assembly line work that make it efficient. i just don't get why here, now, the assembly line concept goes all to pieces. the motuc stuff, for example, w/ fair regularity at this point, has assembly issues. perhaps we need to look at how the process is being done, and change it.

    for example, using the above model pieces, if we're getting left forearms put onto right upper arms with any regularity, then we have a problem. the arm assembly team either can't recall how to pull both arm parts from left sprue, assemble, drop in bag, THEN pull right arm parts from sprue, assemble, drop in bag (in which case, it's back to the gulag for arm assembly team and we replace them) OR we create sprues that are JUST left arm bits, and then sprues that are JUST right arm bits, and create two arm assembly teams who bring their bits to the torso team at two different times of day, so that the torso team only has one batch of arms to attach at a time.

    now, can we get that translated into mandarin? 🙂

    i guess my optimal point here is, the figure doesn't dictate the assembly process, we the humans doing the assembly do. if there's a breakdown in effective assembly, it's up to the guys in management to restructure the mold layout, or redesignate the work teams, whatever, to make sure product is getting churned out efficiently. if the managers at one factory can't/won't fix the problem, we change factories. if the people there won't implement the fix, i hear kenya has a very capable english speaking labor force who are in no position at all to argue for their collective bargaining rights. a minor investment in local infrastructure, and we have a whole new economy we can exploit for decades of sweatshop labor and cheaply made goods.

    china is not the end all, be all in cheap labor, and as they're getting more expensive, it's time to start shopping elsewhere for the next exploitable labor force. africa has several nations that would suit that purpose well.

  13. Bigbot

    I wonder what those hands and legs are for.

  14. André

    I have never imaginated something like it.

    Crazy!!

  15. jackstatic

    In addition, Barbeque17, there is another old saying "Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me" Since Mattel has proven time and time again that there will be simple qc mistake, and i can guarentee they will do it again, are you going to stop purchasing the MoTUC line? Have you stopped purchasing it yet? Or are you going to keep supporting the line? If you've stopped purchasing it then why do you care if they keep making qc mistakes that people choose to continually pay for? If your still buying the figures, why? If your unhappy with the product they are putting out?

    I know you said people should stop hiding behind the "these are just toys" defense, but the bottom line is, thats just what they are, they aren't your life, they aren't food you need to survive, its a consumer product, and once again, if people are unhappy with the product, they need to stop buying it.

  16. jackstatic

    Barbecue17 wrote:

    Quality is expected and the producer of a product needs to take responsibility. I feel that Mattel and those who defend the company continously hide behind the banner that “These are difficult to produce/ We should just be thankful that Mattel is offering us these to buy/ Our budget is so limited/ It’s just a toy.”

    That is the problem though, everyone feels that quality is EXPECTED and that we deserve it. The problem is this though, the blame is in our hands more so then Mattel at this point. We KEEP purchasing these toys, and they KEEP selling out. Mattel has 0, zilch, zip, nada incentive to produce figures that are up to our standard as fans, because for as much as people demand quality from mattel, month in and out they KEEP giving them money. If you keep giving the bum on the street corner money, and he keeps buying beer, and you keep giving him more money and all he does is KEEP buying alcohol, despite your best efforts no matter how much you hope for it, he will never use that money to better himself. It's the same thing here, if we as the customers KEEP supporting mattels inferior quality then they will, in the end, say to themselves "well, it keeps selling out, so whats the problem?" the only way to force mattel to change this is to boycott their product, which no one will because they love the line. Mattel has us by the balls, IF we want He-Man figures.

    End of story.

  17. Dead Man Walking

    Barbecue17 wrote:

    “It is a lowly discipline and not worthy of much respect and he makes very little money.”

    Though extraneous to your point, I can't help but think that this would be a more common perception of a philosopher in this day and age.

  18. Barbecue17

    I appreciate Joe's perspective on this. He seems to be a real asset to his company and to the collecting community as a whole. He definitely has taken the time out of his own schedule and the effort to give fans a true insider's perspective on this situation.

    That being said, I find it rather sad that Joe is the one posting this instead of Scott from Mattel. I still fail to see how because a process is difficult, involves so many pieces, or is expensive, that defective products can be justified. I imagine that most computers, cars, medications, foods, furniture, firearms, and electronic devices are at least as difficult to produce or manufacture as an action figure. Those companies don't offer a shrug of the shoulders and say "I feel as bad about it as you do" when defective product is released: They fix it or offer an acceptable solution to customers.

    There is an old addage that speaks of a plumber and a philosopher. Everyone begins accepting mistakes and shoddy work from the philosopher, because they argue that his work is so esteemed and respectable that these things can be ignored. Everyone then also begins accepting shoddy work from the plumber because they say, "He is a plumber. It is a lowly discipline

    and not worthy of much respect and he makes very little money." Pretty soon, the people have holes in both their pipes and their ideas.

    The point is that it doesn't matter if the product being purchased is a collectible action figure for adults, a jump rope fopr kids, food to be sold at a grocery store, a vacuum cleaner for domestic usage, or the latest computer to be used for military purposes: Quality is expected and the producer of a product needs to take responsibility. I feel that Mattel and those who defend the company continously hide behind the banner that "These are difficult to produce/ We should just be thankful that Mattel is offering us these to buy/ Our budget is so limited/ It's just a toy."

  19. Dead Man Walking

    Those pics of the arms creep me out.

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