Integration

[englishw]

Quote:

Originally Posted by test

Ok so I just won another eBay auction earlier for my 3rd thundercats test shot figure.
I now have...
4" wave 2 liono with gauntlet
4" grune
4" Panthro

I really like collecting these obscure figures but just wanted to fish around for a little more info on them .... They always seem to come from China and seem to pop up at random.

I know a couple of other users "english" lol who also collect these and just wondered what their relevance is within the creation process and also how they end up appearing on eBay (im guessing the seller is often an employee of the company as 2 of my figs are from the same guy who must be smuggling them out of the factory)

Hoping to get my hands on some of the 6 inch test shots but they rarely seem to crop up.

Yeah, you've got it right... employees of the manufacturing company smuggle them out. Test/first shots are simply tests of the mold. After a final sculpt is approved, a hard copy is made. From this plaster or resin hard copy, the mold for the figure is created. First/Test shots are then made from that mold (often before any copyright is added to the mold) to test it. They test the mold for several things, but mainly that the type of plastic they want to use works well with the sculpt and that the joints all work and the figure goes together well. Nobody outside of the company has any way of knowing how many test/first shots of each figure are created, but it isn't many.

I love the entire toy creation process and love collecting these pre-production figures. So far, these are the ThunderCats first/test shots I have:
- 4" Lion-O (wave 1)
- 4" Lion-O (wave 2)
- 4" Panthro (wave 1)
- 4" Cheetara
- 4" Wiley-Kit (with a Wiley-Kat left arm instead of a Wiley-Kit arm)
- 4" Grune
- 6" Tygra

I also would love to get the other 6" figure test/first shots. Maybe when an auction comes up, we should talk and take turns bowing out of the bidding so we don't drive the price up too high ;o) Hehehehe