Mold

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 mold. Fans also commonly refer to retools as "remolds".

Contents 1 Types of molds 1.1 Plastic injection molds 1.2 Die-cast metal molds 2 Multiple uses of a mold 2.1 Redecos 2.2 Retools 3 Issues with Reissues 3.1 Lost molds 3.2 Broken molds 3.3 Deterioration 3.4 Replaced molds 3.5 Legal issues 3.6 Resurrection 4 See also 5 References

Types of molds

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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 (i.e. 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, Spychangers 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 be 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.

Die-cast metal molds

Die cast metal molds are created similarly to plastic molds, but usually with much sturdier materials to handle the extreme heat of molten metal. Additionally, such molds have to be lubricated, often with water-based emulsions, to prevent the product from bonding to the mold. The type of material the parts are being cast in also determines how long the mold will last. While Zinc has a relatively low melting point of 419 °C (787 °F), Aluminum has a much higher melting point of 660 °C (1,221 °F). Due to this, ten times more parts can be cast in Zinc than can be cast in Aluminum. Stronger molds can last longer, but are typically much more expensive.

An advantage to die-cast molds is that they can also be used to cast plastic, both extending the life of the mold and reducing the cost of materials. Several G1 toys that were originally made with die cast parts were later given rereleases or running changes that used plastic instead.

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 possible to recoup the development costs. In other words, the same molds already used for a toy will be used again to create another toy that is then released under a different name (or at least a "variant" name). There are several possible ways to have the "new" toy differ from the original toy.

Redecos

Main article: Redeco

The easiest way to get a "new" toy out of an existing molding is to redeco it. There are several methods that may be used for this, with some toys using more than one of these strategies.

• 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. 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 number of paint operations can stay as low as possible.

• The toy is given a different set of stickers. This is extremely rare in modern toys with the advent of tampographs.

Retools

Main article: Retool

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" (also known as a "pretool"). 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 some 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, or even get stolen by burglars for their internal components. Whatever cruel fate befalls a set of molds, once they're gone, they're gone for good.

In some cases, Hasbro/TakaraTomy may actually still have a mold, which may or may not still be in a usable condition, but due 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
• Generation 2 Go-Bot Hound (unreleased)
• Generation 2 Go-Bot Mercedes-Benz SL500" (name unknown, unreleased)
• Beast Wars Basic Class Insecticon
• Beast Wars Basic Class Armordillo
• Beast Wars Ultra-sized Lio Convoy

Molds rumored to be lost:

• Generation 1 Sunstreaker
• Generation 1 Optimus Prime's trailer

Molds initially thought to have been lost, but later turned out not to have been:

• Beast Wars Basic Class Terrorsaur

Molds not owned by Hasbro or TakaraTomy that are confirmed to have been lost:

• Generation 1 Shockwave (original ToyCo-produced metal mold lost—current copyright owner likely made a new one after acquiring the rights, though this is unconfirmed)

Broken molds

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

• Generation 1 Wheeljack

As an aside, Fun Publications faced some consternation from G.I. Joe fans after they were unable to deliver on a promised convention-exclusive version of the Mauler tank. As they later explained in an e-mail, they simply did not have enough money in the budget to repair all of the molds which broke during production.

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." Just compare the face of an original 1984 Generation 1 Prowl or Hound with a 2000-onwards reissue.^[1]

Molds specifically said to be worn out beyond a condition where further use is still viable include:

• Essentially all of the mass-released Armada Mini-Con teams
• The 2001 Robots in Disguise Autobot Brothers: Prowl, Side Burn, and X-Brawn

Molds that seem to be on their way out include:

• The Alternators Subaru Impreza mold in its various incarnations started to show major signs of deterioration with Binaltech Asterisk Alert
• The Generation 1 Combaticons
• The Generation 1 Seacons are considered by many to have been beyond this point already when the Transformers Collectors' Club released the Timelines versions
• The Generation 2 Cyberjets
• Cybertron Legends of Cybertron Optimus Prime
• Classics Voyager Optimus Prime
• Classics Starscream
• Masterpiece Starscream
• Transformers (2007) Deluxe Class Concept Camaro Bumblebee
• Revenge of the Fallen Leader Class Optimus Prime
• Beast Hunters Cyberverse Legion Class Rippersnapper
• Transformers: Robots in Disguise (2015) Legion Class Optimus Prime
• Armada Unicron

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. Time is also a factor in this process; big blocks of steel are sturdy, but they don't last forever in storage.

Replaced molds

Sometimes Hasbro/TakaraTomy invest funding into repairing the aforementioned damage to reasonably approximate the original tooling. Alternatively, if the mold is lost entirely, then they may resort to surviving design sketches or samples of the toys themselves to manufacture a replacement mold. The newly produced toys will have small differences compared to the originals, but it works!

Known molds which were repaired or replaced are:

• Generation 1 Dile
• Generation 1 Zaur
• Beast Wars Basic Class Rattrap

Legal issues

Several Generation 1 Transformers toys were produced under license from companies other than Takara, including Shockwave, Jetfire, Omega Supreme, Sky Lynx, the Deluxe Vehicles 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 in the possession of Tomy, which ultimately allowed the merged company TakaraTomy to release them as "reissues" in Japan.

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.

In Generation 1 Shockwave's case, the original mold owner and designer, ToyCo, who had been incredibly generous over the years licensing out the mold to anyone who would pay them money for it, eventually sold the mold on to another company presumably in China (given the fact that this was the last location ToyCo had it manufactured), meaning the chances of a Hasbro/TakaraTomy sanctioned Shockwave reissue are very slim (see Shockwave's toy article Notes section for more on this).

Resurrection

Sometimes, molds can be recut and repaired. One of the most famous examples is Generation 1 Jazz, whose face started out with a normal mouth in 1984, acquired a slightly deteriorated grin with the 1993 Generation 2 release of the toy, and had degraded into an ugly grin with Takara's 2002 Transformers Collection and Hasbro's 2003 Generation One Commemorative Series reissues. Takara then fixed the face for the 2004 Stepper/Ricochet reissue. The fixed head was subsequently also used for the 2007 Transformers Encore reissue. Note, however, that in this case an entirely new head sculpt was apparently cast based on the original one, rather than restoring the existing mold, judging from several minor differences between the "fixed" head and the original one (such as differently-shaped ending points for the horns and not perfectly parallel vertical lines for the vents in the cheek guards).

In 2021, when Beast Wars Basic Class Rattrap was revealed to be getting a reissue in the Vintage Beast Wars line fans assumed that Hasbro had rediscovered the long-thought lost mold. However, it was found that this "reissue" was an entirely new mold set once fans started to get their hands on the figure.^[2] Hasbro remaking the mold has been speculated to be the reason the reissue was priced as a Deluxe and not a Basic, due to the extreme costs that come with tooling a new mold.

Generation 1 Soundwave is also rumored to have been "fixed" by Takara prior to the 2003 Transformers Collection reissue. However, the reissue is simply based on a retooled running change variant of Takara's 1985 release of Soundwave. Whether the initial toolings used for the Hasbro and early Takara versions are genuinely "lost" or "damaged", or have been directly modified to make the variant back in 1985, is unclear.

It is also speculated that the original Generation 1 Optimus Prime mold is long gone, as reissues share the toolings of the Generation 2 mold. In general, the process of restoring a mold is presumably very expensive, and as such seems uncommon. Considering the iconic nature of the character, however, it seems likely that Hasbro and Takara are willing to invest a lot of money into restoring and/or recasting the mold(s) whenever necessary. In fact, it's speculated that multiple molds existed for the toy as early as the 1980s.

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

If you build it, they will play. This toys & merchandise-related article is a stub. You can help Transformers Wiki by expanding it.

References