The Toy, the Concept and the Making

Despite the difference in production as we transition from the smol Sirius to the big one, we want to deliver the same experience as that of our artisan keycaps. As such, we have made the big decision to mold, cast and paint Sirius - Toy Exosuit ourselves at the Artkey Studio through and through. Which means, no other parties are involved or outsourced during any phases of production.

And just like our artisan keycaps, our first Designer Toy is made entirely by hand. From the early steps of designing the toy to assembling the parts, our fingerprints are all over it.

(Technically, no fingerprints are on the toys, as we wear gloves, but you get the idea!)

Casting BIG

For Sirius - Toy Exosuit, we decided to make the toy using resin throughout, same as the process we do with artisan keycaps.

This approach, however, entails difficulties during the production process.

Preparing the mold for casting can take up to half a day of work and said mold needs perpetual tuning and refining even during the process of casting to ensure no residuals or artifacts can disrupt the process.

The difficulty doesn’t cease at this step, however. As we mix multiple types of resin, it can take from 8 hours to 2 whole days for the resin to dry.

Even with such thorough prepping, casting BIG can yield a failure rate at approximately 30%. Bubbles and discoloration can occur after the resin is cured and in such cases, we have no other options but to do it all over again.

Pick Up the Brushes

Once the resin dries up and hardens, the formation of Sirius - Toy Exosuit is complete, and after this, come the brushes.

Every part of the toy is hand-painted with not only dexterity but also patience and care of the artists.

Different from resin casting, paint may come off during everyday use or in contact with other surrounding objects. For this reason, we put on a protective coating on the Big Sirius.

We use two types of coating, one is for the body of Sirius and the other is used for the visor and the cloud base, everything to make sure that the aesthetic values are not compromised by this act of cautiousness. ;)

Here’s something I dug up during writing: one layer of coating may take around 3 to 4 hours to dry up, which totals to 24 hours to put on all the layers sufficient for the toy.

The Assembling of Sirius

In theory, we can deliver Sirius - Toy Exosuit in parts and have you assemble yourselves, an experience we think worth having. Each part joints with the others quite effortlessly.

However, this entails some inevitable drawbacks, such as scratches, risks of damage.

Be that as it may, Sirius is attached to the base using magnets, which means you can remove Sirius from the cloud base to admire then put them back together safely!