Spending a couple of hours doing a wee bit of research on the web, I’ve learnt quite a bit that I’m sure many here would care to know. Hence this new series of articles, titled "Figurine Science" that will talk about the lesser known and perhaps more factual aspects of this hobby.
For the inaugural article on FS, I shall explain the commonly used materials and their properties. I’m sure for the non-science/chemistry students, terms like PVC, ABS probably mean just various types of plastic. But what exactly are these and why is ABS used for bases while PVC for the actual figurine?
Before we start, when we talk figurines, everyone bandies about a few terms. "Resin", "PVC", "Polystone", "Coldcast" mainly. And I am not a chemical engineer so any mistaken information here I would gladly correct if someone in the know points out.
What is "Coldcast"?
Basically, no heat is applied when the material is set in the mould. By mixing two types of liquids, a tough plastic compound is formed.
Cold Cast for the win!!
Polystone
Polystone is the common name for Polyethylene, just another plastic. But there are two main types, High and Low Density. High density is used for the figurines. Polystone offers good resistance to moisture, impact, heat, sunlight, cold and has good rigidity. I mean good compared to PVC. Everything here is compared to PVC.
Polystone distorts of about 80 degrees Celsius. It is not that ductile, lighter than water, and can be moulded, machined, and joined together using welding (difficult to glue). It’s a thermoplastic as well, meaning it can be heated and reshaped and cooled. This is easy to mould and rather durable. The higher heat resistance and rigidity also means figurines do not lean or distort, or worse, start degrading in sunlight. But for this added quality, polystone figurines are more expensive than PVC ones and the selection is a lot less.
Unlike PVC which is more ductile, Polystone does BREAK because of the higher rigidity. So shipping overseas is a bit more of a risk for these. Use EMS at all costs.
And yes, it’s also known as polyethene, the plastic bag. So people who have been fooled by the fancy name, please hang your head in shame.
The bottle cap there is probably polyethylene.
Poly Vinyl Chloride (PVC)
PVC is one of the most common plastics used in the world. It’s quite similar to rubber and the toughness/malleability of PVC is dependant on the plastisers added. More plastisers = more softness, since they straighten out neatly the long macromolecular polymer chains into neat rows. Some figure collectors complain of an oily film after a while and I would think this is due to the plasticisers migrating to the surface of the plastic. Small plasticiser molecules are pretty mobile and after a period of time, they accumulate on the surface to produce a oily crud.
This is also why PVC tends to get a bit crappy and brittle after a long time. Oh yeah these plasticisers are quite toxic too. And if you have a fire at home, dump your figurines at them to extinguish it, since the chlorine produced retards the flame. Btw, some plasticisers are thought to reduce the quality of MAN SPERM.
A very large percentage of the figures sold are made of PVC. From gashapon, trading figures to 1/6s, these are mainly PVCs. Cheap material cost, easy of moulding, ductility (it won’t break much, just bend) are the reasons why it is used.
Never leave them in the sun. Ultraviolet rays produce free radicals on PVC, chlorine free radicals, that combine to form chlorine gas and the material is decomposed. The sun also heats them up and PVC distorts at a temperature of 60 degrees Celsius. Being a thermoplastic, you can actually heat it up and bend it, then cool for it to maintain that shape.
PVC, due to the addition of chlorine atoms which have a pretty high molecular mass compared to C and H, is heavy for a plastic.
Not Junk!! But still pretty cheap.
ABS (Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene)
ABS is commonly used for the bases of figurines. It’s pretty recognisable, just think of LEGO blocks. That’s what they are made of. ABS has good impact strength and is not really flexible but rather stiff. These properties plus the glossy surface make it a suitable material for figurine bases. Interestingly, unlike all the above, ABS is not a compound but just a blend of 3 types of plastic.
"ABS is an amorphous thermoplastic blend. The recipe is 15-35% acrylnitrile, 5-30% butadiene and 40-60% styrene. Depending on the blend different properties can be achieved.
Acrylnitrile contributes with thermal and chemical resistence, and the rubberlike butadiene gives ductility and impact strength. Styrene gives the glossy surface and makes the material easily machinable and less expensive." -Designinsite
ABS is more expensive than PVC and is slightly lighter too. Its price is commonly used as the dividing line between common plastics like PVC and more expensive industrial plastics. ABS has a higher distortion temperature at 75 degrees. Its properties are also easily modified by varying the proportions of its components. Its natural colour is an opaque ivory but dyes can be applied.
Tough and strong
I have always thought coldcast was metal.
Very informative. Kudos to you!
Coldcast is just a technique. It can be used on metals as well. But you would know, like mixing resin with bronze powder etc.
Sadly, the only cold-cast resin model I own at the moment is Art Of War’s Casca (Berserk) — which I’ve been meaning to share photos of but haven’t had the time to do so lately. Anyone can instantly come to appreciate a cold-cast’s aesthetic appeal and its attention to detail, so I wish to lay away more for possibly increasing my collection in the future — as depressing as it may seem.
Not just metals, also ceramics. One of my friends has a nice cold-cast porcelain Death figurine.
cold cast berserk kits are expensive man Oo, some are limited in stock too
I don’t own a single non-PVC figure. Costs and lack of selection for the cold cast ones are the biggest factors. And I do notice a strange flatness about these resin ones. Something’s just wrong or different.
PVC doesn’t suck that bad if you take care of it. By the way, about time there’s a blog entry (with an equally pretentious name) about figurine science, because there’s a helluva lot to learn in this area, and there are a lot of experienced people out there that you can tap for knowhow. Maybe a “taking care of PVC” article is in order very, very soon :p
Are you sure that it’s the PVC and not the figures themselves that are causing the mansperm problems?
::rimshot::
What’s the degradation like for PVC figures?
I’m not sure bu increasing the amount of additives would give better weather resistence so its really up to the production companies. I see them making higher quality products these days though and subsequently increasing prices. The oldest figure I have is probably the Megahouse Rukia 1/8, which is still quite lean-free and perfect without oily sheen.
Nice article on pvc figurine care (on SMURFS!).
http://www.mushroomvillage.com/smurfs-article042.html
According to the articles, there are smurfs over 20 years old that are being traded.
I googled for “cold cast resin” and “polystone” and this entry came up as the top result. Excellent.
HI
Great explanation on the different types of materials used for modelling
I have a lot of figure collections and this are made from PVC
often i noticed that some of them when taken out of the box, there is a oily surface form with little dots. Also the color will fade as well
Is there a way to protect this figure
thanks
Melvin
does Acrylic paint stick to PVC as it does to Resin?
1) types of defects in plastic moulding
2) plastic moulding process in detail
Thank you SO much for this article! I couldn’t figure out what polystone was when I went to write my article for Happy Horror. Googling it gave me to a company making countertops which wasn’t much help. I really appreciate you making my research alot simpler!
GlowStormLion
wow very informative!
Thanks, good article, now I know..
Hi everyone, has anyone came across a 7ft Optimus Prime (full standing size) made of Polystone? I wonder how heavy he would be? ANy idea? Thanks
hello
i am interested how polystone is made:) something like reciepe or where i can buy it 
i want to make some sculptures and heard some of guys make polystone at home, where i can get information about it? i’d be very thankful 
Explain to me how exactly this works because I need to lose weight.
Aw, this was a certainly quality publish. In theory I’d prefer to create like this also – taking time and genuine work to generate a great report..
. but what can I say… I procrastinate alot and by no means appear to have anything accomplished.
I was a little disappointed @ the 2 sentence long description of “Cold Cast” but I still got a lot out of it.
free radicals are the number stuff that causes aging and kills our body slowly but surely;:’
free radicals are the number stuff that contributes to aging and cancer too`”‘
Thank you for the info.
From what I been reading burning pvc figure can produce toxic gas.
Thank you so much for the wonderful content you have created! I admire you. Your artical is great! After read it, I think a lot. The content is very exciting and I can almost understand. Please keep going on and continue to add excellent posts. That’s big help for me. You are tops.
Thanks for the very informative article. I am an avid figure collector and this really helped me be more familiar with the materials my figures are made of.
free radicals can really damage your cells, that is why i always take antioxidants “*~
ree radicals can really damage your cells, that is why i always take antioxidants “*~
Could you tell us where to get some of this stuff? I’m tired of sculpey.