Hasbro is announcing that a number of new Stikfas products will be out before the end of the year, including a green military figure in September, a tan figure in November, and a firefighter, a samurai, and a knight on a black stallion in December. 

 

Part action figure, part hobby kit, Stikfas action figure kits were out on the summer convention circuit this year.  After premiering at Wizard World Chicago, they made their way to San Diego and GenCon, accompanied by their gospel of customized action figures as art form. 

 

For those that haven't seen them, the first Stikfas sku is Alpha Male Military, a 44-piece kit (which we got in a clear, unprinted plastic bag) containing various action figure parts for what is essentially a generic, featureless, 3' black action figure.  The fun comes in using the parts, the stickers, and for the more serious hobbyists, paint to create a unique figure limited only by the imagination.  This $10 MSRP sku is now available through a handful of on-line sources, but is beginning to be distributed through a variety of channels, including comic and game stores, hobby stores, art supply stores, and other non-traditional toy channels.  The ball and socket joints also seem to fit other toys that use similar joints, creating an endless supply of spare parts that can be blended with the Stikfas parts to further customize the figure. 

 

Stikfas was created in Singapore by Ban Yin Jheow and his team, now Stikfas Private Limited, in an unlikely origin story for a toy with global potential.  In June, an alliance with Hasbro was announced, in which Hasbro agreed to manufacture, distribute, and market Stikfas globally. 

 

With a marketing and distribution strategy centered around creating hobbyist buzz, a product range that requires paints and other accessories, plus an important community element in play (what fun is it to customize figures without showing them off?), Stikfas is an ideal product for pop culture stores, perhaps even for the long term.