Inspired by the monsters, robots and folklore of Japanese culture, creators of sofubi — soft vinyl toys — have taken their original plastic creations to new heights.

DAN ORLOWITZ

Staff writer

It’s a cold afternoon in mid-January and, inside a factory operated by Maruyama Toys in a quiet residential area in Tokyo’s Katsushika Ward, Cory Privitera is making sofubi (soft vinyl toys).

In a cramped workspace surrounded by machinery and long sinks, the 33-year-old begins by laying out a series of square plates onto which molds of various shapes and sizes are affixed.

Behind one sink sits a pile of dozens of other molds, some of which are decades old and can still be used today.

Into these vessels he pours odorless liquid vinyl seasoned with enough glow-in-the-dark powder to cause it to shimmer slightly as it enters the mold. After a few minutes in a vacuum chamber to remove any air bubbles, the molds are relocated to a chemical bath that is 200 degrees Celsius. Following a brief period of “cooking,” surplus vinyl is poured into a container for reuse, while the mold goes back into the bath until the material is fully set.

After a few seconds of cooling down in a water bath comes the “pull” — Privitera yanks seven individual pieces of Wild Hunt, a noseless skeleton of his own creation, from the mold with a pair of heavy-duty tongs. The parts will be trimmed of extra material, assembled and eventually sold, either online or at one of a number of events around the world dedicated to sofubi and other products belonging to what is known as the designer toy scene.

He tosses the parts into a box filled with dozens of others before beginning the process anew.

“The sculpt and wax are done by hand, the joints are made by hand, things are fitted and plated, and every toy is pulled by hand,” Privitera says. “(A lot of) people had a hand in making this thing. It’s super cool to see an idea come to life. It was an illustration and now it’s a thing, and it was done by people, not machines.”

The method is nearly identical to the one used more than 60 years ago, when sofubi were first commercialized and Maruyama Toys opened for business.