chrome on toys

[guyverraziel]

Whats the deal with chrome on cheap toys?

It seems like we're forever trying to find a decent spray on chrome (alclad, spaz stix for example) while toy manufacturers seem to have no problem acheiving great looking chrome effects on cheap(ish) plastic replicas like the new star trek phaser and the terminator skull dvd set? How are they doing this?

 

[Jedifyfe]

Great question! I have wondered the exact same thing. Especially the vac-metalized 3-PO figures.


Brad

 

[CessnaDriver]

Guessing it is because they have big ass industrial high production vacuum metallzing equipment that costs an arm and a leg.

 

[defstartrooper]

This thread should help.
http://www.therpf.com/showthread.php?t=38945

 

[DL 44 Blaster]

Guessing it is because they have big ass industrial high production vacuum metallzing equipment that costs an arm and a leg.

...definitely. Plus it's all about volume. Ordering 100,000 of a cheap toy from China to have parts chromed is run of the mill. Having a product that can exactly duplicate the same process in a can for home owners.....not so much.

 

[PHArchivist]

What I want to know is how they do the gold. Like plastic gold pirate coins, or the gold blades on on plastic swords.

Brad, you know whow they do vac-metalized gold when you go to a shop. We talked about it. Thhey use the orangish-gold clear coat, which if done too heavy, really sucks.

But such gold toys do NOT appear to have been done that way...

 

[WarpedScale]

From what I was reading, it said that toys and kit are injection molded and then the parts that are to be chromed are dipped into a special solution that dries quickly, and that for gold it's a 2 dip process.

Here I always thought it was done in the mold, like when self-skinning foam skins due to the pressure of casting.