There are a number of stages in the process of taking an action figure from prototype to production. Many of these stages involve communication between our studio and the factories in China which produce the actual toys that eventually find their way into the hands of our fans. One of the final stages in this back and forth is what is known as “fine cuts”.
What Are “Fine Cuts”?
One of the most expensive parts of producing action figures is creating the steel molds where the individual figure pieces will be made in. Because of this, a substantial amount of work is done prior to committing to the creation of these molds, and the final stage in that process is what is known as “fine cuts”.
Sometimes the fine cuts come back from the factory with incorrect existing parts in place (such as the five fingered hands on Equaddron). In many cases, we're really only looking at the newly tooled parts to make sure the sculpting is all clean and correct and those incorrect existing parts that were used for the figure we were sent will be correct when the figure's released.
The photos included here in this article show some of the fine cut samples our factory sent us for the Arethyr wave, as well as the Equaddron figure that was part of our recently offering “20th Anniversay Bundle”. You will notice that the pieces include writing directly on the various parts of the figure. These are notes to us from the factory, but they actually create a pretty cool look on the character, kind of like magical runes!
Receiving boxes from the factory with fine cuts, or even the earlier examples of this process, is always an exciting day for us at the studio. To see the progress being made on these toys and to know that we are getting that much closer to our fans being able to enjoy these toys too!
Published on 08.25.20