Vinyl or Resin
- Posted: March 30, 2012 @ 10:02AM
- Category: Open Conversation
So people, resin or vinyl, whats your drug of choice.? For me over the years it has changed from my initial fascination with blind boxed production toys to my love primarily for the resin toy scene, the connection with the artisit being a strong pull for me. of course a great figure is a great figure & if it happens to be made of vinyl doesn't mean i will avoid it, but to me resin seems to have more diverse character design these days as well. Wel maybe its just my tastes changing, enough of my waffle.
What you guys think, is resin the new vinyl ;)
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17 Replies
I think what is going to happen in the near future is that the line between these two categories is going to blur.
I'm sure the point has been made 100 times but "vinyl" and "resin" don't actually mean anything.
They are kind of generic terms that this industry has latched on to as meaning something specific, at my day job i work with a lot of different materials from pvc, polystyrene, acrylic, polypropelene and even synthetic rubbers. When we buy any of those materials by the truckload, it is all called "resin". "Vinyl" might be a little more specific but it can be applied to anything from a record to a screwdriver handle or a soft rubbery toy.
I think when most people in our little community say "vinyl" they are reffering to mass produced goods with an expected level of quality and finish in a somewhat flexible material. That material is usually some type of PVC compound that enters the molds in either pellet, powdered or liquid states and changes properties with the aplication of heat.
In contrast "resin" usually refers to DIY goods of varying quality, that are typically a heavy rigid material. And that material is usually an rtv urethane that starts out as a liquid and changes properties when a chemical catalyst is mixed in.
There are lots of reasons to choose either and neither are limited to their uses or properties associated with this small industry.
The properties of both can be tweaked and adjusted, you can have rigid pvc that feels like resin and you can have soft resin that feels like vinyl. They just aren't in widespread use in this industry. There are companies manufacturing very high end medical equipment that requires exacting tollerances and material specs their primary materials are rtv urethanes. I've also always found it interesting that the most coveted designer toys are "soft vinyl" and in other industries "soft vinyl" is the bottom of the barell worst material you can use.
I am running a traditional rotocasting machine with RTV urethane. The advantage is that i've got a shorter cycle time than vinyl and i don't have to spend money on energy to run the heater in the molder since my materials are curing with a catalyst.
One of the usual problems with urethane casting is that there is a lot of secondary work required to clean up the parts, cutting flash, sanding and spackle to fill bubbles, etc. These are not actually problems with the material but with the process. There are ways to build molds that don't leave sloppy parting lines and there are a lot of material options for making those molds beyond soft silicone.
I think the real differnce is in quantities and process.
Can you efficiently make enough pieces to bring your quality and pricing in line with what is expected of mass produced goods?
or
is your process so complicated that your piece can only stand as a extremely limited edition piece with a premium price?
is either right or wrong? i don't think so.
about 12 years ago · Comment ·
I've had chats with a few artists like Erick and I definitely have a love for resin, simply because of the hands on approach. Resin feels 'crafted' where vinyl definitely feels 'produced'. A lot of my collection is still vinyl only because the artist chose to produce the figure i like in vinyl, had they produced it in both materials I would always choose resin.
about 12 years ago · Comment ·
Resin, absolutely. I love the feel of it, the weight, the fact that it's usually done in smaller runs(well, you simply can't produce a 50 edition size in vinyl, that'd be crazy expensive).
Just generally speaking, though, I've been feeling exhausted and ground down by the repetition of work produced by large companies and manufacturers, but increasingly more excited and inspired by the self produced work being released by artists themselves. I just feel so disconnected from a work when an artist designs a toy, but someone else has sculpted it, someone else has molded it, someone else has painted it and someone else sells it.
about 12 years ago · Comment ·
View all 8 comments
deadhero13 i agree with the weight and feel comment! about 12 years ago
RedlineToy I like the exclusivity. When a Resin piece is just as high quality as a vinyl one, It feels great to own one. about 12 years ago
Resin is great, but the limited nature of releases hurts the widespread appeal. Until you've been cartjacked by some jerk flipper (I always assume if someone beats me to the click, that they're a flipper...what can I say? I'm flawed...) or had to deal with a bigcartel shop that refuses to load after waiting for weeks for the six pieces the artist made...man, you haven't known frustration. So, vinyl is my everyday meal...resin is my "special night out." If I get lucky and score a piece, I'm psyched; but the collector and completist in me hates resin to the core.
about 12 years ago · Comment ·
I love both for different reasons, but — in the end — it's the design that matters to me and not the material. And what if there was a blind boxed resin release, Mr. Quiche? How would you feel about that?
about 12 years ago · Comment ·
trustpigs m I'm sure it will get done. I working with a sculptor & caster on this, though… so not just my timeline. And it's a fairly intricate bugger… about 12 years ago
webecomemonsters v My mini skelechub run will not be traditionally blind but I do plan chases of a sort- they will just be randomly inserted free figures as well as the ordered figure. about 12 years ago
I like the "completely original" feel of a full resin item, but I also like customized vinyl toys which could have resin pieces affixed to them. It really doesn't have to be either/or.
about 12 years ago · Comment ·
Vinyl smells SOOOOO much better then resin! Come on, you KNOW i'm right!
about 12 years ago · Comment ·
MeatballEye Kind of like the "new car" smell. about 12 years ago
JayJayFool haha yeah!! But they make a spry for that now!! Oh how rad would it be if they made a "New Toy" smell spray!! GOLD!!! about 12 years ago
Resin - I cannot afford vinyl nor can I get it made in the USA. resin I can manufacture myself.
I'm also not really comfy with having a factory churn out my pieces - I don't really want 'them' making it - I want to make this shit. I don't want to design it and walk away. I don't want another sculptor involved or a factory.
Primarily money though, if I win the lotto or get hit in the head with a brick of money I'd attempt to get something done in vinyl in the US (or anywhere so long as I can see factory conditions.)
about 12 years ago · Comment ·
@quijanoth Limited releases can be frustrating when there's a ton of demand. Then various types of shops have different levels of frustration from their "rules" that you really have to research to ensure you'll score your toy. Bigcartel - once it's in your cart, it's yours essentially & the flipside is that if someone's wishy-washy & gets something but doesn't check out, you have to stick around for 30 minutes to see if it becomes available again. Etsy - an item's not yours until after you've completed the paypal and clicked the "confirm" button when you're returned to etsy. Storenvy - once you get to paypal, it's yours (I think it's the same with Shopify).
Lately, I've been gravitating more towards items put out/ sold by artists directly. I don't have the deepest of pockets when it comes to toys and I'd prefer to support artists directly rather than spending a similar amount on vinyl from a big company. This mentality also has been affecting how I weigh what to buy. Meaning, when I see a production toy that's $85-100, I'm more likely to think about the quality and how it compares to something that's around the same price that's been hand poured and painted by an artist. Usually, I tend to think of pieces from an artist as being higher quality and more worthy of my money than a production piece of the same price.
about 12 years ago · Comment ·
crazylikeafox11 m Do you feel the same about blind boxes? I dislike blind boxes and how "chases" cost so much, especially since you either have to be lucky or get a whole case to get one. about 12 years ago
Easily_Amused OH yeah! If I were your financial consultant I would tell you that these are what we call Wealth Inhibitors. With that said, it beats smoking! about 12 years ago
i'm interested in what you mean by "the connection with the artist"? i've only had limited experience with resin, so tend to favor vinyl at the moment. but i'd be willing to switch for sure if it was better off for the artists in the long run.
about 12 years ago · Comment ·
webecomemonsters v Necktie, a good spot with a bunch of video all in one place is smooth-on.com about 12 years ago
I don't at the moment consider the material the piece is made out of when I purchase it (though I think I should). I am more interested in the intangible quality/look of the piece. However, vinyl does smell great.
As for what causes a toy to no longer be a toy and become art...
I think this speaks to a deeper question, "What is Art?" A few years ago I would never have considered a toy art, but as I delve deeper into the Low Brow genre in art I have come to embrace it. Art Toys challenge my ideas of art, and infuse it with questions of cultural and moral decay in our global society. While the medium of toys connects to my idealized memories of being a kid (safety/stability/naivety/nothing ever being wrong), it distorts and corrupts this leading me to question whether things were ever, "the good old days."
about 12 years ago · Comment ·
I am open for both. Love the smell of a fresh unpacked vinyl toys and I also like the handcrafted look and feeling of resin.
about 12 years ago · Comment ·
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