Are you a fan of old school video games from the 80's and 90's? And if so, do you love action figures too? If so, this new Kickstarter may be of interest.
Piko Interactive, a Texas company who hold rights to a number of video game licences, are planning to launch an action figure division, Toyetico, with a kickstarter now underway to fund their first figure(s). The launch figure will be Switchblade from the 1989 Core Design video game. The base figure for the kickstarter will be the main character Hiro, with plans for other key characters if the team at Toyetico exceed their base kickstarter target. These include ManSnake, Cresthed, Reptilon and Flamehog.
The figures are designed with 9 points or articulated and are sculpted in a retro style akin to the much loved retro licences such as Playmates and Toybiz. Assuming the team can reach their goal the first figures will be with backers in the 4th Quarter of 2019.
Checkout the kickstarter campaign here, and read on for the full press release
"Abstract – Retro gaming character to lead new Piko Interactive toy line.
Thursday May 30th, 2019 – San Antonio, Texas – Piko Interactive, a company that holds rights to video game properties such as Glover, Shadow Madness, 40 Winks, and many more is launching an action figure line. Toyetico is the subsidiary that will handle taking video game characters from Piko properties into the real world with custom action figures. These figures are 100% original and created in a similar fashion as other action figures gamers grew up with. The first title in this new toy line is the Gremlin Graphics action game, Switchblade.
Under the ownership of Piko Interactive, Switchblade has seen a port to the Atari Jaguar and the Sega Genesis consoles. This is a common occurrence for Piko when they acquire the rights to titles, they begin work on completing any incomplete portions of a game then put in development ports to other platforms. Piko Interactive has also embraced the digital marketplace as well as continuing to support physical releases. The Switchblade toy line will feature Steam keys for a copy of the game included in the package.
Originally developed by Core Design (Tomb Raider, Rick Dangerous, Wolfchild) and published by Gremlin Interactive (Top Gear, Body Harvest, Zool) Switchblade saw release on many platforms and garnered a cult following within the gaming community. Toyetico’s Kickstarter for the new Switchblade action figure line starts with the protagonist from the game, Hiro, with stretch goals allowing for expansion of the line to include enemies.
Switchblade’s Hiro figure features nine points of articulation as well as a similar size to familiar action figure lines of the 1990’s such as Toybiz, Playmates, and Hasbro. This gives the Toyetico line of toys an instant familiarity for fans and collectors. Each action figure will ship in standardized packaging – blister pack on card with graphics depending on how well the Kickstarter performs (if additional enemies are unlocked then graphics on all cards could change significantly).
The minimum funding goal is $8,500 which will pay for 1,000 figures to be created. Creation of those figures requires tooling and factory setup. Estimated delivery to backers is fourth quarter 2019.