Toys & Promotional

Based in Hong Kong, A-Tech is one of the professional prototype makers in the toy industry and has two main factories in Shinzhen, South China. The General Manager of A-Tech, Mr. Eddie W. H. Kwan, says that the FreeForm system is the most frequently used modeling software within their production pipeline, even though they have many major CAD systems. This is why they currently have installed 15 systems (5 FreeForm Modeling Plus systems and 10 FreeForm® Concept™ systems).

The MEGA BLOKS sculpting team introduced the SensAble FreeForm Modeling Plus system in March 2002.  From the very start, productivity increased and the system proved to very efficient.  FreeForm saved countless hours and was easily integrated into MEGA BLOKS product development.

Creata Promotion recently used the FreeForm ® Modeling™ system as part of a virtual choking gauge test for a series of McDonald’s Happy Meal toys from the most popular animated film of the summer, Finding Nemo. The test enabled Creata to detect potentially dangerous toy designs that could pose as choking hazards to children before physical prototypes were even produced.

 Gentle Giant Studios delivers a wide range of design and production services to the toy industry. They recently teamed up with the WWE and reduced development time for a line of action figures by more than 6 weeks. Do you smell what the Rock is cooking?

"The FreeForm system took Hasbro’s modeling challenges by the horns, allowing sculptors to work around mechanical data from engineering and within parameters set for packaging. Using the FreeForm Modeling system to create three new dinosaur toys for the new 'Jurassic Park Junior' line allowed Hasbro to explore more design possibilities and streamline collaboration between design, modeling, and engineering."

Industrial reduced their product development time, and gained new business and a competitive time advantage by integrating the FreeForm® Modeling Plus™ system into their design process.

In 1999, Tokyo-based MIC, a toy model design company, had 6 employees and its revenue represented 10% of the profit of its parent company, Kuwagata. Now, in 2003, Kuwagata’s revenue continues to grow and MIC has more than 30 employees and its share of Kuwugata’s profit is 50%. Masaya Sasano, MIC’s President, says the explanation for such impressive growth lies in their embrace of a new digital workflow, the cornerstone of which is six FreeForm Modeling systems. MIC uses the FreeForm Modeling system as an integral part of many different types of workflows, including original design, reverse engineering, cleaning up of digital scans, and design for manufacture. Using its digital tools, MIC has increased not only the amount of business it is doing, but the types of business it has been able to become involved in. Just recently it has added customized chocolate figures and a scanning and rapid prototyping service bureau on wheels to its business repertoire.

Combining superior sculpting skills with the touch-based FreeForm® modeling system, Alaska-based Master Sculptor Oluf W. Hartvigson creates toys and collectibles for blue-chip clients such as Mattel/Fisher-Price, Hasbro, Creata Promotion, and Sideshow Toy. Hartvigson's current line of collectibles includes figures from Star Trek® and Lord of the Rings® as well as Monty Python® and James Bond® movies.

In Europe, geobra Brandstätter is well-known for its Playmobil plastic figures and animals for all kinds of creative worlds such as farm-life, city-life, dinosaurs, and prehistoric eras with dinosaurs. Additionally, they are known for their remote-controlled boats and cross-country vehicles. This leading toy manufacturer has been working with the SensAble FreeForm® Modeling Plus™ system since the beginning of 2001. The enthusiasm of the industrial designers and the extensive use of the modeling software led to the purchase of a second system at the end of 2002. Since then the company has added a new system yearly for a total of four FreeForm® Modeling Plus™ systems to date. The department of design development creates up to 80 new pieces from the combination of new designs and nearly 10.000 archived pieces every year.

It takes you eighty hours to sculpt a model. Your client approves but now you need a production version that is exactly 7% larger than the original. You could start sculpting from scratch...or you could do what RJ Studios did.

When a representative from Aardman visited Synapse at their shop in Watford, England to look at the design of a figurine, he had never seen the FreeForm modeling system before. Still, he sat down at the FreeForm station, and in just seconds he was moving the model of Rocky the rooster around, turning it upside-down, viewing it from all angles, feeling it.

ClayTools dramatically sped up Kyle Houchens workflow, improved model quality and detail, and, significantly boosted his bottom line. Read how SensAble and ClayTools have revolutionized the way Kyle Houchens works, and given him a significant competitive advantage.