Del Dragon
The Wales Air Ambulance Trust wanted to get a plush toy made of their mascot, Del Dragon, so he could be sold to raise fund to support their work.
Del Dragon
When Wales Air Ambulance contacted us to make them a plush version of their mascot – Del Dragon – we were delighted to help such a good cause.
As well as providing them with thousands of the small toy we also supplied a full size mascot and both are now busy out there raising funds so that Wales Air Ambulance can continue their vital work.
The starting point with the mascot was an illustration by local artist Picasso Griffiths and with a minor change to emphasise the helicopter blades on his head – he is after all a helicopter dragon, a rare breed indeed – the final toy and lifesize mascot have remained true to this original design.
The challenge was then to make sure we realised the illustration for everyone involved.
As with all our projects, we like to get our 3D team to provide a CGI representation of the design as early as possible. This allows both our design team and the factory to get an idea of scale and shape.
We can also spot any parts of the design that may need specific attention, such as parts that may be too thin or thick and aspects of the toy which may be a hazard to small children and babies.
In Del’s case, there were no major issues to we could move quickly onto the prototyping stage.
At the prototype stage, our design team experiment with different materials and techniques from embroidery, sublimation and screen printing to bring the character to life.
Wherever possible we prefer to embroider features such as eyes and graphic details, as you can see with the Air Ambulance logo marque of helicopter blades on Del’s tail.
With the green chest scales, these were created from a tightly woven material and then sewn on with close-stitch embroidery to create the stunning relief effect.
Once everyone was happy with the prototype, and with the sample now with Wales Air Ambulance, we were ready to progress to manufacturing the final toy. Final details such as a printed polybag with barcode for Point of Sale and the woven tag with the Children’s Air Ambulance logo, were all finalised at this point and we were ready to begin production.
When the toys were ready for delivery, we arranged for half the stock to be sent to Wales Air Ambulance while the remaining half were transported to Amazon for sale online.
Del has already proved a huge success for Wales Air Ambulance, and together with the life sized mascot costumes – which we also supplied – he has been out raising funds and awareness for a very worthy cause.
