Custom molded duck FAQ
Minimums, lead time, tooling, shapes, sizes, safety, and the things we do not sell. If your question is not here, email quack@nashducks.com and a person will answer it.
What is the minimum order for a custom molded duck?
Two thousand pieces per size. Each size needs its own dedicated set of electroformed brass molds, so a program in both the 2-inch and the 3-inch is 2,000 of each. Every Nash Ducks duck is sculpted and tooled from scratch for one client, and that tooling only makes economic sense across a real run. If you need fewer than 2,000, a from-scratch mold is the wrong tool and we will tell you so.
How long does a custom duck take?
Ninety days from approved artwork to delivered ducks. The shop time breaks down as roughly 16 to 18 working days from clay sample to an approved PVC pre-production sample — clay sculpt, silicone mold, mock-up, colored mock-up, wax sample, then ten days in the electrolytic tank growing the master and production brass molds — plus about 45 working days for the production run. That is around 61 working days of real shop time, which is where the ninety-day calendar comes from. We do not quote a shorter calendar than we can actually hold.
Do you sell logo-imprinted or stamped stock ducks?
No. We do not pad-print, stamp, or decorate off-the-shelf duck bodies, and we do not resell catalog ducks. Nash Ducks only makes fully custom molded ducks. If a printed logo on a standard yellow duck is what you need, a promotional distributor will serve you faster and cheaper than we will.
Do you supply ducks for duck races?
No. We do not sell race ducks, weighted racing bodies, or numbered fundraiser flocks. Our program is custom sculpted collectibles, not commodity race hardware.
Does the shape have to look like a rubber duck?
No. We mold duck-like collectibles in essentially any shape you can sculpt: mascots, characters, animals, vehicles, product replicas, or something nobody has a word for yet. If it can be sculpted and pulled from a mold, it can be a Nash Ducks piece.
What sizes do you produce?
Three. The 2-inch mini is the dashboard size, the one people hand off at events and tuck onto a Jeep, and it suits badge clips, table scatter, and blind-box style programs. The 3-inch regular is the retail size, with enough presence to sell off a shelf or anchor a gift set. Jumbo runs up to roughly 8 to 10 inches for centerpieces, retail hero pieces, photo ops, and executive gifts, and is quoted per project. Size is the single biggest driver of per-piece cost, and the 2,000-piece minimum applies to each size separately.
How much does a fully custom duck cost?
One all-in per-piece price, with nothing billed separately. A 2-inch mini runs $3.50 per piece and a 3-inch regular runs $4.85 per piece at the 2,000-piece minimum, landed in Nashville. That single number covers the design and hand-sculpted clay original, the silicone mold, the wax master, the electroformed brass master and production molds, plates and setup, your approval samples, multi-pass paint, safety testing, and customs. Price breaks open up at 5,000 pieces and up, jumbo is quoted per project, and outbound freight from Nashville is quoted separately. Every project gets a written quote.
Who owns the mold?
The tool is built for your shape and held for your reorders. Once it exists, repeat runs skip sculpt and tooling entirely, which is why the second order on a shape is dramatically cheaper than the first.
Where are the ducks actually made?
Designed in Nashville, Tennessee and produced in China. The sculpt is developed and art-directed here; the clay original, the electrolytic tank, the brass molds, and the rotocasting floor are at our dedicated molding partner overseas. Nash Ducks runs the whole program from Nashville: we develop the sculpt and revisions, hold both approval gates, ship you the physical colored mock-up and PVC pre-production sample to sign off on in hand, and coordinate paint, packaging, and freight. You deal with one company in your own time zone from concept art to delivered pallets.
Are your ducks safe and compliant?
Yes. Production runs use lead-free, phthalate-free vinyl and non-toxic paint, and are tested to U.S. children's product safety standards even when the audience is a room full of executives.
Can I send AI-generated artwork as reference?
Absolutely. Every clay original is sculpted by hand, so your reference art is exactly that — reference. Our sculptor is reading shape, proportion, and character, not tracing a file, which means an AI-generated concept, a napkin sketch, a photo, or a full character sheet all work equally well as a starting point. Send whatever communicates the idea. We will hand-sculpt the original and send you a physical sample to hold and sign off on before any tooling is committed. One thing that genuinely helps: give us Pantone references for the paint colors wherever you can. Paint is matched by hand too, and a Pantone number removes all the guesswork about what shade of yellow you meant.
Do you sell to the public?
No. Nash Ducks is B2B wholesale only. We work with brands, agencies, licensors, event producers, venues, hotels, attractions, universities, sports properties, and nonprofits. There is no consumer storefront and no single-piece retail.
Still have questions?
Send them to quack@nashducks.com or start with a quote request — the form takes about 60 seconds.