|
Often, I am asked the question above .
Here’s the easy answers , a VARIANT is a publicly available and distributed version of a toy which has significant differences from the initially issued color
scheme. Toy Companies do this because it’s cheaper to recolor a finished toy rather than invest the time and money on new design and tooling.
A TEST SHOT is a ‘first run’ of a new plastic injection mold ( usually in weird colors dictated by what color is currently in the plastic injection molding machine at the
time ) . These Test Shots are NOT available to the public. Often , the test shots show experimental paint jobs or processes ( like the chrome examples below )..
PROTOTYPES are the earliest incarnation of a toy. They are almost always cast from eurethane in silicone molds and are NOT made from Injection Molded Plastic
. Prototypes are typically what are initially shown at Toy Fair as samples to Distributors .
They are hand painted and usually rougher looking than the final product. Prototypes are not available to the general public. If you look closely at many toy ads and packaging , you can often see that it is a picture of the prototype and NOT the final product. Many toys never make it past the Protoype phase because a toy line gets dropped or the tooling becomes too expensive.
|
