Stikfas are fantastic toys, requiring imagination and some time to appreciate fully. Japanese manufacturers, not being ones to sit down in the face of competition, have created their own Stikfas-equivalents. The main company to watch out for is Atelier Sai. They have several toy lines in the wings right now that look fantastic (and are sans horrible official fiction to ruin it). They have a couple of interesting lines, the most being BJPM and Gene Block.
BJPM stands for “Block Joint Plastic Model”, and consists of many different kinds of model kits, ranging from 300 yen (2.50$) simple kits to 10 dollar transforming kits. There are also kits which solely consist of joints, which are incredibly useful for when one wants to try to expand his creation without buying new kits. They use 5 mm joints (approximately the same size as the standardized Transformer hand). They also look amazing, I would buy these at the drop of a hat.
This doesn’t transform, but it does look amazing. Definitely worth the 9$ it costs.
Fan support is pretty strong for the line. Some fans are working on making a BJPM board game. Others have made amazing things out of BJPM; just check out the anime figures this Japanese blogger came up with.
Geneblock is another similar toy type, a bit more upscale and concentrating more on the super robot toys. The types available are exservant, extrooper, Fsoldier, and FORCEUnit, all going on sale this December. Subsequently, a “Geneblock Variable Type” kit will be sold as well; it is basically a Fsoldier which can transform into a tank sans removing all sorts of parts that is usually needed for something like this. The last one makes my mouth water, the picture is below.
I heard that the creators of Stikfas are going to be spending more time on other lines while letting Stikfas rest on its laurrels. I’m not convinced that this is a good idea, considering the quality and price of these toys…
