In 2002 a humble little plastic figure called STIKFAS made its appearance in the toy market as a co-branding effort between a Singaporean designer Ban Yinh Jheow and Electronic Arts, for their computer game 'Emperor, Battle for Dune'. The design of the figure was a departure from the industry traditions of the era, and featured ball joints for every of its 15 body parts, making the figure functionally the most pose-able and anatomy-realistic toy of the time.
At a time when the bestselling toys featured heroic or mythical characters, STIKFAS figures came as a generic character, allowing its user the liberty to personalise it through paint, decals, and accessories. It quickly gained a cult following amongst collectors, especially those in the creative industries.
It went on to win numerous awards within the industry, including 'Best Original Concept of the Year' (ToyFare), 'Most Fun and Innovative Toy of the Year' (ToyShop), 'Top 100 Greatest Toys of the Decade' (ToyFare) and even has a comprehensive Fan Book published by Japan's biggest hobby publisher, ‘Hobby Japan’ in 2004.
Even though its design was protected by a US patent (6692332), the philosophy behind STIKFAS’ design was copied by scores of other designers, and started a revolution in the toy industry. Toy collectors started to expect better products from the toy companies, and the degree to which a figure may be posed and articulated became a mark of design and manufacturing excellence.
Today, STIKFAS is no longer in production, but remains the little figure that is the father of the modern articulate action figure.
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Check out the versatility of this classic figure through this exclusive animation made by stop motion extraordinaire Jordan Tseng for the Wonderfactory Play>Create! toy photography exhibition held in Shanghai in October 2018.
Jordan is a professional animator who lives in the city of Taipei, Taiwan, who has been an animator since 2010 when he was in junior high school, constantly choosing to spend his time on taking thousands of pictures rather than on studying for his exams.
He is now a professional stop motion animator who maintains a Youtube channel making great animations for 170,000 subscribers.
Visit his channel at https://www.youtube.com/user/Cavalier849 and on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/cavalier849/
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