How Licensed Toys Are Made, From Artistic Freedom to Engineering Control
Not only do the toys require a close likeness to the licensed character, they need to be interactive. Here's how one renowned US manufacturer pushed toy design to an all-new level.
Edited by EE Staff
Cool Stuff
Jun 4, 2026
Games, Film and TV
Toys. They’re so much more than a piece of plastic. They help parents bond with their kids. They build childhood memories. They spark creativity.
Many iconic characters, whether from Disney, the Simpsons, Super Mario™ or SEGA, have had their plastic counterpart made by the same team: the designers at Jakks Pacific, a major US toy manufacturer. Leading the Sculpting department is Eleazar Kim-Carmeli, director of 3D design and sculpting as well as of the creative resources team. Not a day goes by without him using Geomagic Freeform. It’s the most efficient way to design licensed toys that meet the high standards of quality that today’s customers have come to expect.
“Nowadays people want a good product, not just pushing out plastic, whether it’s a 2-inch or a 10-inch figure. What that means for toy manufacturers is that you need the software that allows you to do that—not just easily, but effortlessly,” Kim-Carmeli says.
High Quality Licensed Toys
The first element that goes into making a high-quality licensed toy is likeness. The toy must look like the character from the film, series, or video game that it represents. Every design has to be approved by the brand that owns the franchise before it goes into production. And, in order for customers to be intrigued enough by the design to enjoy playing with it, moving elements are often incorporated. That can include hands, legs, paws, tails, heads, etc. How these elements come together is key.
“I enjoy working on these because of the challenge to make something that not only looks right to the license, but is also playable, interactive, and has great articulation,” Kim-Carmeli says.
Making great toys hinges on having both artistic freedom and engineering control. Plastic toys are essentially small sculptures with intricate details. They’re also mass-produced items that must meet specific requirements defined by manufacturing methods. The first type of design work requires organic modelling and the second the precision of CAD operations. Toy designers need both.
Geomagic Freeform brings together the tools for digital sculpting with CAD, which enables designers to carry out a complete toy design workflow—from brief to prototype—in the same environment, and to ensure manufacturability
Real-World Measurements
The first thing a designer considers when looking at a brief is how to scale. Simply increasing a two-inch figure to six feet or vice versa is not going to cut it. Details can easily be lost or overblown. In addition, if an element is too thin or too small, it won’t come out right in manufacturing. These errors can be corrected in a further iteration, but not without delaying the delivery. Because Geomagic Freeform gives real-world measurements and dimensions, it’s easy to get features exactly right.
Using the software, Jakks was able to create articulated toys that work perfectly once produced. They can set rotational pivots, check clearances for manufacturing, and create a toy that’s fun to play with. While these designs are often very complex, the software itself is easy to use. Kim-Carmeli explains, “When you’re using Geomagic Freeform, you don’t really think about the ins and outs of the program—you’re just working. That’s something that I’ve always loved about it.”
The learning curve for Geomagic Freeform is low. Designers master it in a few days. “I’ve been working in toy design long enough to have seen toys done by hand, with early-stage digital sculpting tools that were very difficult, and with Geomagic Freeform. Other tools that have an esoteric interface or a linear method of working. Freeform is a tool that your designers simply pick up and make things,” Kim-Carmeli says. Below is a video of the latest new features for Geomagic Freeform 2026.1.
Ease of use is particularly important today, especially in the toy industry which is moving surprisingly fast. Designers are asked to produce hundreds of designs a year. Creating high quality designs that work right is what makes the difference, and Jakks creates designs that look right and are manufacturable immediately. With a comprehensive toolkit for design and manufacture, Jakks creative team will continue to shape memorable creatures and characters, bringing joy to households across the globe.
*Images courtesy of Hexagon and Jakks Pacific.
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