|
How do I know for sure that Cheap Toys were created in this manner?
There are a few clues: (1) You'll note that each Cheap Toys sculpt has a faint line of excess plastic running around its body vertically. This line indicates where the two pieces of its mold were pieced together. And (2) when the cooled plastic was removed from the mold, the main piece -- in this case the figure -- would still have been attached to the cooled plastic left over from the feeder channel (see above). You'll note that each Cheap Toys figure has a tiny divot on its head or on one of its feet, indicating where it was attached to the feeder channel.
What does this have to do with sculpt and copyright mark variations?
Collectors have noted a number of copyright marking and sculpt quality variations among the figures comprising their collections. It's very important to understand that these variations aren't random. To date, there are two -- and only two -- sculpt quality/copyright marking variations per figure (character). Cheap Toys collectors own numerous examples of each of the two sculpt variations per character. In other words, all of the sculpt variations documented on the pages linked below are backed by numerous figures bearing identical copyright markings and sculpt irregularities. What this indicates is that there were at least two molds per sculpt. For example, there would have been Double Heather mold A, and Double Heather mold B.
As these figures were produced in the thousands, it makes perfect sense that the manufacturer would have wanted at least two molds for each of the ten sculpts. While it's a shame that the two molds obviously were not of the same quality, it's interesting from the collecting standpoint, which brings me to the next obvious question:
Is it necessary to collect each of the ten sculpts in both its variants?
This question is for each collector to decide for him or herself! Collectors will note that some of the variations are more obvious, such as the Double Heather and Adam Bomb variations; whereas some of the others are rather subtle. Perhaps one might only collect the more obvious variations, which generally involve some variation of the copyright markings as well. In any case, it's for you to decide!
|
