This viral post about enshittification is fake

[u/dannylopuz]

Why do people keep falling for this?

[u/TalkersCZ]

It could be very well true. (EDIT: I know this specific one is not true, but the point is different)

And I am pretty sure you can find on Alibaba or some similar chinese site tons of products, which are terrible quality.

The thing is, that today you have options in different price ranges.

You can buy a pan for 10USD. You can buy pan for 100s USD.

But you cant expect 10USD pan to be same quality as a pan, that costed 10USD 50 years ago.

Same thing with these soldiers. If you buy 3D printed plastic knockoffs from cheap plastic from China, you cant expect it to be same quality as those before.

[u/Minmax-the-Barbarian → u/TalkersCZ]

I feel like 3D printed solid plastic toys would be much more expensive than traditional molded ones, regardless of quality.

Sorry, that's not to detract from your comment. Very "um actually" of me ☝️🤓

[u/edingerc → u/Minmax-the-Barbarian]

Yep, injection molding on small items is the same way they make plastic forks and such. 3d printing is a much more expensive process.

[u/nothing_in_my_mind → u/Minmax-the-Barbarian]

Yeah, I guess you can't expect everyone to know about production processes.

3D printing is a very expensive method per unit. It makes sense if you are going to be producing a few units.

Those cheapo toys are injection molded. But hold up, expensive toys (like those Warhammer figures, or Lego) are also injection molded. The difference is poorer quality molds, poorer quality plastic, poor design choices, using molds after they have gone through wear and tear, poor quality control after production.

[u/fruitybix → u/nothing_in_my_mind]

In the case of those army men its either getting their hands on ancient worn out moulds, or taking a selection of existing plastic army men and using them to make new moulds as cheaply as possible.

Making injection moulds is a very big up front cost.

[u/Alternative-Cup-8102 → u/nothing_in_my_mind]

Injection molders are also much more expensive than high

[u/TalkersCZ → u/Minmax-the-Barbarian]

No idea how they were produced, s thanks for correction there. 😄

But simply put - you will have cheap mold in China producing it with cheap plastic and with underpaid workforce.

Thats kind of the point. 😄