Mold

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Invasion of the Seeker Snatchers

A mold is a pre-cut metal shape into which plastic (or, sometimes, die-cast metal) is injected to manufacture the parts for a given Transformers toy. Although Transformers toys are usually created from several molds for the various parts of their body (which is the reason why their parts are cast in more than one single plastic color), many fans also commonly use the term "mold" to refer to a toy's sculpt, i.e. the entire body shape which can be redecoed or retooled into a new toy that is still based on the same sculpt. Fans also commonly refer to retools as "remolds".

Types of molds

Plastic injection molds

As part of the creation process of a new Transformers toy, Hasbro and Takara create one or more hand-sculpted hardcopy prototypes (also referred to as "gray models"). Once these prototypes have served their purpose (ie. proving that the transformation works as intended, all the individual parts have the necessary clearance and the sculpt looks visually as intended in both modes), the hardcopy (or, if there are multiples, at least one of them) will be disassembled. From all the individual parts, Hasbro and Takara will then cast plastic injection molds made out of steel, basically a "negative" counterpart to the toy parts. This mold consists of two or more parts, so it can be opened and the cast plastic parts removed.

To minimize development costs (the steel molds are reported to be by far the most expensive part of the development process of a new toy), Hasbro and Takara will try to include as many of the toy's parts in the same mold as possible. This, however, means that all the parts in one mold will end up in the same plastic color, which puts limits on the toy's plastic color layout. In other words, if a toy's hands, feet and head are cast from the same mold, the toy can't have black hands, blue feet and a red head—unless they are painted over, that is. This is particularly important to consider in the case of redecos, since Hasbro has a maximum number of allowed paint operations per size class to stay on budget. The larger a toy, the more plastic injection molds are used to create all the parts needed for assembling the toy. If the toy in question is very small, Hasbro and Takara will occasionally create parts of several simultaneously released toys (such as Micromasters, Spy Changers or Mini-Cons) from the same mold, which is referred to as gang-molding. This means, however, that creating parts of one toy will automatically also create the corresponding parts for the other toy(s), unless they are gated off.

The liquid plastic enters the mold through a large sprue, is distributed to the mold cavities through smaller runners, and enters individual cavities through gates. Once the plastic has cooled down, the mold halves will be opened and the plastic parts removed. At this point, the parts are still connected by the plastic residue in the sprues, runners and gates, and have to trimmed off. If you see excess plastic on a part of Transformers toy that looks like it was connected to something at one point, this is the explanation. The excess plastic will then be recycled. The entire connected system of the toy parts, sprues, runners and gates is referred to as a "tree" (or, alternatively, as a "sprue" as well).

Initially, Hasbro and Takara will create test shots from the molds to test the toolings, spot and fix flaws, see if the toys cast from the molds still look and work like they are supposed to as compared to the hardcopies and perform safety testing. Once the molds have been given clearance, mass production can begin.

Multiple uses of a mold

Since the creation of molds is the most expensive part of the development process of a toy, Hasbro and Takara will try to use an already-created mold as many times as possibleto recoup the development costs. In other words, the same molds already used for a toy will used again to create another toy that is then released under a different name. There are several possible ways to have the "new" toy differ from the original toy.

Redecos

The easiest way to get a "new" toy out of an existing molding is to redeco it. This is achieved in two different ways.

• The plastic colors for the individual mold trees are changed, thus giving the new toy a different overall plastic color layout

• The "new" toy is given different paint operations than the original version, thus changing its appearance further. As noted above, however, a maximum number of allowed paint operations required to stay on budget puts a limit on the extent of possible changes to the toy through paint operations. Therefore, the plastic color layout is usually carefully chosen so the amount of paint operations can stay as low as possible.

In some cases, a redeco may also be given a new, permanently attached accessory such as an emergency-vehicle light bar.

Retools

In addition to redecos (which are merely a cosmetic change), a toy can also be physically altered in order to visually differentiate it further from the original release. Such alterations are collectively referred to as retools, but can actually be achieved in three different ways:

• The actual tooling is permanently altered, thus making the "new" toy out of the existing molds, but with changes to them. Since those modifications to the molds are hard to undo, this method is usually limited to changes that objectively improve the toy.

• One or more new molds can be cast for the altered parts of the new toy, retaining the basic shape of those parts but with physical changes to the details. This is achieved more or less in the same way as the original molds were created, and the new molds are then used instead of the existing molds for the parts that are replaced on the new toy. In extreme but rare cases, the new toolings will be so thorough as to change the toy's transformation mechanics, as happened with Pipes and Dark Crumplezone.

• A "retool" might be planned in advance, and thus the "new" parts and the parts they will eventually replace are cast from the same mold, thereby ending up on the same "tree". The unused parts are then discarded or recycled. Therefore, this method is usually limited to cases where only a small number of parts are replaced, such as different head sculpts.

Issues with Reissues

Toy molds are mysterious things. As mentioned above, the larger a toy is, the more molds are required to create all the numerous parts required to assemble the complete toy. Even a Scout Class (formerly "Basic") Transformers figure requires at least two or three separate molds, one for each plastic color. If some ill fate should befall one or all of those molds, the toy may be lost forever. The older a mold is, the more likely this is to happen at one point.

Lost Molds

Molds can be lost when Hasbro or TakaraTomy (or any other toy company) sells, closes down, or otherwise abandons a plant or factory. The molds may be sold as excess inventory as part of a warehouse deal. Sometimes, they simply get misplaced in the supply chain between factory and warehouse. Occasionally, molds are outright destroyed in order to prevent piracy. Whatever cruel fate befalls a set of molds, once they're gone, they're gone for good.

In some cases, Hasbro/TakaraTomy may factually still have a mold, which may or may not still be in a usable condition, but to the sheer number of molds created over the years, in addition to the number of different factories and warehouses employed by the two companies over the years, they may be misplaced somewhere deep inside a warehouse. And since the molds are not necessarily marked with bright labels that say "TRANSFORMERS GENERATION 1 1989 PRETENDER BUMBLEBEE INNER ROBOT TORSO AND FEET" in large letters, they're hard to track down once they have vanished off the radar.

Known lost/stolen molds are:

• Generation 1 Grimlock
• Generation 1 Slag
• Generation 1 Sludge
• Generation 1 Snarl
• Generation 1 Swoop
• Generation 1 Mirage

Molds rumored to be lost:

• Beast Wars Rattrap
• Generation 1 Sunstreaker
• Generation 1 G1 Constructicons

Broken Molds

Despite their impressive size and heft, molds can break and thereby be rendered useless. Known broken molds are:

• Generation 1 Soundwave (later reissued using a different/repaired version of the mold)
• Generation 1 Wheeljack

As an aside, Fun Publications faced some consternation from G.I. Joe fans after the molds for a promised convention exclusive were accidentally broken before production of the toys was complete.

Deterioration

Molds can only be used so much before they begin to wear down and deteriorate. The mold is then unable to supply products of the same quality of the original release. This may result in toys where parts no longer fit together properly, joints are overly tight or overly loose, and sculpted detail appears "washed-out."

Molds specifically said to be worn out include:

• Essentially all of the mass-released Armada Mini-Con teams.
• The Robots in Disguise Autobot brothers; Prowl, Side Burn, and X-Brawn.

Molds that seem to be on their way out include:

• Alternators Impreza
• G1 Combaticons
• The G2 Cyberjets
• Classics Voyager Optimus Prime
• Classics Starscream
• G2 Optimus Prime

It is unclear exactly how many uses a mold can take; some of the various Mini-Con teams were released over a half-dozen different times in the space of four years.

Legal issues

Several Generation 1 Transformers toys were produced under license from companies other than Takara, including Shockwave, Jetfire, Omega Supreme, Sky Lynx and the Deluxe Autobots and Deluxe Insecticons. While Hasbro still owns the characters represented by those toys, the rights to these molds eventually reverted to their original owners, some of whom have since gone bankrupt or been absorbed into other companies. In the case of Omega Supreme and Sky Lynx, the molds actually ended up being unwittingly acquired by Takara.

Similarly, while Hasbro owns the intellectual property pursuant to Tonka's GoBots line, the actual toy molds themselves still belong to Bandai, making any sort of reissue series extremely unlikely.

Resurrection

Sometimes, molds can be recut and repaired - compare the Japanese reissue of Jazz, which suffered from severe mold deterioration in the face, to the later U.S. reissue. The process is presumably very expensive, however, and as such seems uncommon.

Do not, however, confuse the recent trend towards high-quality bootlegs with reissues. Many of the current bootlegs of Generation 1 toys are reverse-engineered from existing toys; instead of stealing or copying the original toy's mold, the bootleggers cut new molds based on the toys themselves - creating a copy of a copy. The same practice also holds true for the ...less faithful bootlegs and knockoffs out there, generally speaking.

See also

• Gang-molding
• Sprue