WuhersStall
Padawan
I've seen this term thrown around a lot and have no idea what it means. Anyone mind educating a noob?
What is a First Shot?
- Thread starter WuhersStall
- Start date
Mr-shifter
Sith Lord
Part of the preproduction process. Once the mould for a figure is made, the test run of figures that comes from the mould are the first shot figures. They aren't always in production colours and don't have coos.
As far as I know, and I am no expert, the moulds would have been created by Kenner. The stages of production would be a wax sculpt. From this a mould would be created and Dynacast hard copies made from this first mould. These would be refined if needed and then a steel mould created from the hard copy. From this steel mould and at Kenner, the first shots would be made. Once the mould was signed off it would be sent to the Far East, along with all sorts of other bits to aid in production. The coo would be added to the mould. They would then go into production. Engineering pilots come out of these production runs and are for quality control.
Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong on any of this by the way.
Gus and Duncan's guide to prototypes is the book for the more curious.
As far as I know, and I am no expert, the moulds would have been created by Kenner. The stages of production would be a wax sculpt. From this a mould would be created and Dynacast hard copies made from this first mould. These would be refined if needed and then a steel mould created from the hard copy. From this steel mould and at Kenner, the first shots would be made. Once the mould was signed off it would be sent to the Far East, along with all sorts of other bits to aid in production. The coo would be added to the mould. They would then go into production. Engineering pilots come out of these production runs and are for quality control.
Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong on any of this by the way.
Gus and Duncan's guide to prototypes is the book for the more curious.
grinchy
Sith Lord
I second the above, pretty much covers it, if you want to find out more about vintage and how the toys were created watch plastic galaxy the story of star wars toys
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Plastic-Gal...qid=1438615261&sr=8-1&keywords=plastic+galaxy
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Plastic-Gal...qid=1438615261&sr=8-1&keywords=plastic+galaxy
I third that 
, great reference material guys
, great reference material guys
WuhersStall
Padawan
Awesome! Thank you very much for all the information, everyone. Love this board.
The steel molds would generally have been outsourced and made in the far-east. The first shot figures would have been sampled from these molds and produced abroad to be sent (by the crate load) back to Kenner for sign-off and assessment.
the 'first shots' which were done at Kenner in the US would have been earlier in the production process, and have more recently been called 'internal first shots' or 'bench shots'.
the 'first shots' which were done at Kenner in the US would have been earlier in the production process, and have more recently been called 'internal first shots' or 'bench shots'.
I think the term bench shot refers to figures that were produced state-side at the mold makers and not internally at Kenner. The term Internal first shot isn't used for bench shots because they weren't produced internally. Internal first shot first came about to describe the use of low yield aluminium molds which were used as an earlier production stage at Kenner however they are generally called protomolded figures after the name of the aluminium protomold.
