Custom Action Figures & Custom Dolls
Getting Started With Original Corporate Action Figures

Manufacturing Action Figures & Custom Dolls with Happy Worker

Just The Basics

Design & Creative Decisions

Prototyping & Manufacturing

Happy Worker manufactures retail quality custom action figures. Each order of custom dolls we make are designed and fabricated from scratch to best suit our client’s needs – as well as those of their fans and collectors.  We’re passionate about great design and getting all the little details right.

Just the Basics

They’re collectible, heroic, playful, and cool. Custom action figures and custom dolls are mini tributes that bring brand celebrities, creative characters, corporate mascots and business heroes to real toy life.

Happy Worker is a unique toy and gift manufacturer. We help companies, brands, agencies and organizations create custom action figures, custom dolls, designer vinyl figures and figurines. But we don’t make just any “old” toys…

The custom figures we make stand out for their innovative designs and retail quality. We strategically create each order of figures so they become lasting brand collectibles and treasured desk keepsakes.

Together with our client-partners like Yahoo!, Tucows, McAfee, Safeco, Apartments.com and Merrill Lynch, we’ve created exciting marketing results through the toy superpowers of collectible dolls and action figures.

 

 

What Happy Worker is Passionate About
Originality & Creativity. Client and Fan Happiness.
Great Design, Great Quality and Great Toys.

We work together with our clients to design and produce original dolls and figures that embody the spirit, energy and character of their brands.  And we include our passion for creative perfection and happiness in each and every original action figure we make.

 

Timelines
Creation-to-Delivery for Custom Action Figures

Creating and producing new orders of collector quality action figures or figurines normally requires 20 to 26 weeks to design, prototype, manufacture and deliver. Some custom figures that have complex designs or that mix different materials or production techniques can take a bit longer.

Faster delivery timelines may be possible depending on the figure and current production capacity. To achieve shorter production schedules often review & approval stages are minimized and additional “rush” charges will apply.

 

Order Quantities
Ideal Order Sizes of Custom Dolls and Custom Action Figures

Happy Worker normally manufactures action figures in the thousands of toys at a time. Our recommended production quantities are 2,000+ toys for custom designer vinyl figures and vinyl dolls, and 5,000+ toys for plastic action figures and custom dolls. We have experience with large complex projects and can readily support orders in the hundreds of thousands to millions of action figures.

Orders less than 2,000 figures - please note:
We put the same details, time, and effort into each new figure, regardless of project size. So the fewer toys we make the less cost effective pricing becomes. This is because the creative and pre-production investments such as design, prototyping and molds are spread over a smaller number of figures.

• For smaller orders of 1,000 or more toys, please Contact us and we will happily make recommendations.

• A Happy Note about Personalized One-Off Action Figures

 

Pricing
Setup & Per-Unit for Custom Action Figures

Pricing for custom dolls and action figures varies based on:

• Figure size
• # of Accessories and joints
• Painting and detailing
• Packaging
• # of toys created at a time
  
  

Most orders of action figures we produce in quantity are priced at wholesale prices, or typically two-thirds to half of what the figure’s suggested retail price would be if they were sold at retail stores.

Budgeting for custom action figure orders includes two parts:

• Per-unit (Per action figure)

As a general pricing guideline, most 6-inch action figures with accessories range between $6/ea and $12/ea in quantity, while pricing for mini figures (less than 4 inches high) can range from $4/ea to $8/ea, or less in the hundreds of thousands or millions of figures.

• “Start-up” Investments

Design, sculpting, prototyping, tooling and molds are normally on top of the per-unit pricing, and can range from the mid thousands to tens of thousands depending on figure design, number of figures developed at the same time and project complexity.

• We Design to Budgets

Because Happy Worker designs and produces custom action figures and dolls from scratch for our clients, we work backwards from budget targets and program objectives to select the best toy characteristics to achieve all key goals. Please contact us and our happy team will help recommend the best action figure toy format.

Mini Marketing Superheroes

Often we’re asked to create collector action figures as toy tributes to all kinds of professionals. We’ve created toy superheroes for IT experts and geeks, managers and executives, HR and recruiting experts, financial types, working moms and insurance pros. Each order of action figures and dolls is designed from the ground up - just our clients’ brands, messaging, and audience. These branded toys are then gifted by our clients to their prospects, customers and employees – always with exciting results.

Custom action figures & custom dolls are always a hit - and they hit big. Here's why:

• They’re instantly recognizable.
  Action figures and dolls remind people of themselves and people they know. When action figures take on human forms, people connect with them.
• They’re heroic.
  Traditional action figures celebrate comic and movie heroes like “G.I. Joe”, “‘Wonder Woman” and “Superman”. Many of the figures we create to celebrate heroic workers, people and professionals.
• They’re collectible.
  The toys we make are designed to be played with over and over, and displayed forever.
• Action figure branding goes deep.
  Your marketing message and brand are embodied in every part of the finished product: the character, the toy’s name, bio, accessories, and packaging.
• They’re provoking.
  The toys we create with our clients are engaging, unusual and provoking. They’re designed to stay in their recipients hands, on their desks and most importantly, in their minds.
• They're retail quality.
  All of the action figures and custom dolls we create are retail quality, because we make toys for retail too.

 

Next Steps

 

 

 

 

Our Work

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Super Leasing Pro Action Figure

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Fun Facts - Yahoo!

Yahoo! and Happy Worker created the Super Recruiter character and launched the first action figure in the line in 2005. Since then, these mini HR heroes have been adopted on HR pros desks across the US, and continue to organically generate regular, unsolicited inbound calls to HotJobs' sales reps.

We've been on hand to help Yahoo! launch their custom action figures and original promotions at HR trade shows in San Diego, Washington, DC, Las Vegas and Chicago.

See the work...

• Figurines
• Plastic Figures
• Dolls
• Designer Figures
• Vinyl Toys
• Mini Figures