How long does a custom figurine take?
Updated
Most shops that make a figurine from your photo publish 2 to 5 weeks from order to delivery. Those are estimates. We timed our own orders. Across 33 delivered orders placed between 27 May and 26 August 2026, the median was 17.4 days from checkout to the door, which is 12 working days. Nine in ten arrived inside 22 days, and the slowest took 34.
Making the figurine is the short part. Half of the figurines made on Nendo since 1 July 2026 went from picture to 3D model in 5.1 minutes, and to a real print price in about 7 minutes. That is measured on 432 runs.
Printing and shipping take up almost all of the wait. About 6.6 days pass before the parcel is with the carrier, and then it spends about 10.3 days in transit. Customs took under an hour for nearly every parcel.
How long each stage takes
These are our own timings, read from our database on 17 September 2026. Each row says what it was measured on. Medians are the middle value, so half were faster and half were slower.
The steps before you order are fast. The picture is redrawn, a 3D model is built from it, the print file goes to the printer for a quote, and a real price comes back. That takes about 7 minutes. If you change the figurine, a new model takes about 4 more minutes.
| Stage | Typical | Slowest tenth | Measured on |
|---|---|---|---|
| Picture to a 3D model you can spin | 5.1 minutes | 7.2 minutes | 432 runs since 1 July 2026 |
| Picture to a real print price | 6.9 minutes | 11.8 minutes | 422 runs since 1 July 2026 |
| One change, then a new model | 4.2 minutes | 5.5 minutes | 117 edit rounds, 31 May to 9 September 2026 |
| Checkout to the parcel reaching the carrier | 6.6 days | 10.4 days | 33 delivered orders |
| Carrier to your door | 10.3 days | 12.8 days | 33 delivered orders |
| Checkout to your door | 17.4 days, or 12 working days | 21.8 days | 33 delivered orders, checkouts 27 May to 26 August 2026 |
Where the time goes
Of the median 17.4 days, our part takes under 10 minutes. The rest is the printer making the figurine and the parcel traveling from China. We can't speed those up.
Customs took very little of the wait. On 34 parcels with customs scans, the median time from the customs scan to release was 56 minutes, and 33 of the 34 cleared inside 2 hours. One sat for 52 hours. After release, the last leg to the door took a median of 2.4 days. No parcel had a hold, damage or return scan.
Destination made little difference. US orders took a median of 16.7 days and EU orders 17.7 days, on 13 and 20 orders. With so few orders, we can't say one is faster. Every delivered order so far went to the United States, the Netherlands, Germany, Belgium or Portugal, so we have no number for anywhere else.
| Destination | Typical | Middle half | Slowest tenth | Orders |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| United States | 16.7 days | 16.5 to 18.5 days | 19.8 days | 13 |
| European Union | 17.7 days | 15.1 to 18.6 days | 23.1 days | 20 |
| Everywhere else | No delivered orders yet, so no number |
What other shops promise
We read the published times on 20 shops that sell a custom figurine on 17 September 2026. Nineteen publish something, one publishes nothing at all, and six of them give a number you cannot turn into an arrival date because the transit time or the make time is missing.
Six start the clock when you approve a preview and not at checkout, so the days you wait for that preview aren't counted. Four give two different production times on two pages of their own site. None of them publishes a measured time. Every number we found was an estimate, and so was ours until we started timing orders.
| Shop | What the page says | When their clock starts |
|---|---|---|
| 3D Portrait Lab | Most orders arrive within 2 to 3 weeks (10 to 17 business days): preview, 3 working days of production, 7 to 12 business days of shipping | At your proof confirmation. The same page gives the preview as both 24 working hours and 48 hours |
| SnapFig | 10 to 15 business days to make it, plus 7 to 15 business days of shipping | At preview approval. The page never says how long the preview takes |
| Figuro | 2 to 4 weeks from design approval, including design time of 3 to 5 days and production of 7 to 10 days | At design approval, although design time sits inside the same window |
| JuJuBit | Six stages listed: modelling 3 to 5, printing 5 to 7, transit 2 to 5, customs 1 to 2, delivery 2 to 5 business days | At the order. Two other pages give processing as 7 to 10 and 8 to 12 business days |
| PrinYou | About 3 to 5 weeks in total | After a review step, with no breakdown |
| RepliToy | Preview in 24 hours, ships in 6 to 17 days, production 5 to 14 days | At approval. The same page also says 5 to 10 days, and labels 6 to 17 as both days and business days |
| SketchToToy | 2 to 4 business days to prepare the model, 3 to 5 to print, 1 to 2 to deliver, about 6 to 11 in total | At your approval and payment. Netherlands only |
| Doodle2Life | Created and shipped within 7 to 10 business days, plus 5 to 7 business days of ground shipping | At the order |
| Fins Studio | Delivered to your door in around 10 days, with a model emailed for approval within 48 to 72 hours | At the order, in calendar days |
| Hero Forge | Up to 4 weeks from order to ship out, then 4 to 5 business days in the US or 7 to 10 international | At the order |
What adds time
These are the things that added time on our orders.
- A change to your figurine. A new model takes about 4 minutes, and you can do it before you order.
- A picture the AI filter refuses. You find out in about 2 minutes and can upload another one. That happened on 3.2% of uploads since 9 May 2026.
- A part too thin to print. The printer checks the file before it starts. Three of our orders came back in August 2026 over parts as thin as 0.43 mm, and the printer needs 1.0 mm. We redraw the part thicker and rebuild the model, which adds a day or two.
- Holidays and customs. Our working day counts don't remove public holidays, and one parcel in 34 sat 52 hours at customs.
How we measured
Times come from our own database and from the carrier's tracking scans, read on 17 September 2026. Checkout is the moment the payment lands. Delivered is the carrier's delivered scan. Nothing here is about any one customer.
The delivery numbers come from 33 delivered parcels to 5 countries, mostly the Netherlands and the United States. That is a small sample from few places. Customs times are carrier scans and not customs records. Parcels also clear in batches, so the 34 parcels are not 34 separate cases.
| Data | Source | Count | Dates |
|---|---|---|---|
| Picture to model and to price | Our generation records | 432 runs | 1 July to 17 September 2026 |
| One change, then a new model | Our version records | 117 edit rounds | 31 May to 9 September 2026 |
| Checkout to door, and each leg | Paid orders with carrier tracking | 33 delivered orders | Checkouts 27 May to 26 August 2026 |
| Customs | Carrier scan events on tracked parcels | 34 parcels | 27 May to 17 September 2026 |
| Other shops' published times | Each shop's own pages | 20 shops, 10 shown | 17 September 2026 |
Common questions
How long does a custom figurine take?
Most shops publish 2 to 5 weeks from order to delivery, and bobblehead makers publish up to 10. Nendo orders took a median of 17.4 calendar days from checkout to the door across 33 delivered orders, which is 12 working days.
How long does Nendo take to make the 3D model?
Half of the runs since 1 July 2026 produced a model in 5.1 minutes, and 95 in 100 were done inside 10 minutes. A real print price follows about 2 minutes later. That is measured on 432 runs.
How long does shipping take?
Two shops that print the same way we do publish 7 to 12 and 7 to 15 business days of shipping. On our 33 delivered orders, the median was 10.3 days from the carrier's first scan to the door. Every parcel so far left China with YunExpress and was delivered by a local carrier.
How long does customs take?
None of the customs authorities we checked publishes a normal clearance time, and one shop estimates 1 to 2 business days. On our 34 parcels with customs scans, the median was 56 minutes from the customs scan to release. 33 of the 34 cleared inside 2 hours, and one sat 52 hours.
Do Nendo orders arrive faster in the US or in Europe?
About the same. US orders took a median of 16.7 days and EU orders 17.7 days, on 13 and 20 delivered orders. With so few orders, we can't say one is faster.
Does changing the figurine slow things down?
It depends on the shop. One bobblehead shop we checked says every change adds 2 to 5 business days. On Nendo, a change and a new 3D model took a median of 4.2 minutes across 117 edit rounds, and you make it before you order.
Can I get one by a specific date?
Order about four weeks ahead. Nine in ten of our orders arrived inside 22 days from checkout, and the slowest took 34. One shop we checked advises ordering 6 to 8 weeks before the date.
Why do custom figurine shops publish such different times?
Most published times are estimates, and shops start counting at different moments. Six of the 20 shops we checked start the clock when you approve a preview and not at checkout. Six publish a number you can't turn into an arrival date.
Sources and downloads
- U.S. Customs and Border Protection, e-commerce. US rules for parcels bought online from abroad. Checked 17 September 2026.
- GOV.UK, tax and customs for goods sent from abroad. UK rules and how long a held parcel is kept. Checked 17 September 2026.
- Your Europe, shipping and delivery. EU delivery rules and import charges. Checked 17 September 2026.
- 17TRACK. The tracking service whose carrier scans we time deliveries from. Checked 17 September 2026.