Vinyl Figure production – Quotes

I have decided to produce vinyl figures of my Little Ninja Panda character.
Firstly, I needed to search for places that will produce them for me, either locally from Japan or from the World’s factory, China.
I searched using the Japanese ‘ソフビ制作’ (soft vinyl production) and ‘vinyl toy production’.
My requirements were:

• Create figure sample from illustrations (front, back and side views).
• Produce 100-500 within my budget
• Keep the molds after production
• Paint the figures

I found a few places online, sent emails and waited for quotes.

Company I (Japan)
– Quantity= 100
– Figure in 2 parts (1x head and 1x body with arms and legs)
– Figure container – clear plastic bag

Company K (Japan)
– Quantity= 100
– Figure in 2 parts (1x head and 1x body with arms and legs) or 4 parts (1x head, 1x body with legs, 2x arms)
– Figure container – clear plastic bag

Company C (Japan)
– Quantity= 100
– Figure in 2 parts (1x head and 1x body with arms and legs) or 4 parts (1x head, 1x body with legs, 2x arms)

Company Y (China)
– Quantity= 100
– Figure in 4 parts (1x head, 1x body with legs, 2x arms)
– Figure container – box (for additional cost)

Company S (China)
– Quantity= 500 (minimum order)
– Figure in 2 parts (1x head and 1x body with arms and legs) or 4 parts (1x head, 1x body with legs, 2x arms)
– Figure container – box (for additional cost)

So, which company did I choose?

I found the production costs in Japan was very high. The mostly expensive part was the mold creation costs. I decided that it made more sense to produce the molds and figures in China.
I chose Company S mainly because they very experienced, communicated professional, asked a lot of questions and was more interested to work with me.
The payment was split into 2, first payment included the sample, mold production and 50% of the manufacturing costs. The remaining 50% would be paid before delivery of the shipment.

First Payment transfer

The first transfer was not straightforward. Sending money from Japan was harder than I expected. I went to several banks, but ended up being asked lots of questions such as is this for personal use? are you planning to sell them? and they needed the invoice to prove the amount.
I ended up going to the Post office and transferring from there.