User:Klee film/sandbox

Stikbot is a 3.25 Inch tall (8.3cm) plastic animation toy developed by Zing Toys in 2015. Stikbots have blocky shape with bellbottom-esk limbs connected viva 3 small bungie cords which allow for satisfiing posing. Instead of hands and feet Stikbots have suction cups allowing for them to stick to most flat surfaces just as glass or smooth tables, marble etc. This allows for them to stay up and stand up on a lot of surfaces which is a major bonus in contrast to other figures which famously need to have a stand or magnets to be held up for extended periods of time. For the animations to be captured, Stikbot as developed their our app Stikbot Studio (Also know as Zing Studio).

= Pre-Stikbot (PS) History = The UK a toy company by the name of Frog is claimed to have made the first ever Toy model kits made. They made toy models of planes that you would have to build yourself from the 1930s up until the 70s. Throughout these years many other model kit companies popped up until 1979 with the release of Gundam. These were Mecha model kits made from Japan that went with the manga and anime about these futuristic fighting robots piloted by their pilots. And one area that Gundam's really scored in was that they were model kits of these robots that you could build and they were able to move with lots of articulation and overall they were a huge success.

And so as the years went on more and more model kits came out that weren't just vehicles, they expanded to other groups like action figures or statue model kits, now these figures were quite niche. Model Kits were already not the most common hobby so a subgroup of this would always be somewhat unknown and get less attention. So lots of companies would make stuff, but even if they were well liked they may shut down due to poor sales. But then in the 2000s as the internet became more widespread these companies had started to find themselves a place in the world, Companies like Stikfas Pte. Ltd which made simpler Model kits made for not only playing with but also stop motion animation and webcomics which were very popular with the rapid growth of the internet these became more prevalent. Back to Stikfas this company would try out many different toy brands such as M Bears and Cuboids. But then the company would eventually create Stikfas which while revolutionary were too ahead of their time, and with lots of controversies surrounding the creator in the end it did not work out. And by 2008 the company stopped producing toys. This was however around the time of Zing Toys inception.

= Zing's History Up Until Stikbot = While Some of the details are not fully known, sometime around 2006 Oz West INC. an Australian Toy manufactory branched out to the US by creating a, for lack of a better term, "Subsidiary," Company know as Zing or Zing Toys. Zing toys throughout the late 2000s and early 2010s would mainly buy older toy patents or licenses and try to rerelease them. One of their major successes were a toy bow and arrow also known as, "The Zing Bow." And Wethead an older toy their got the rights to and repackaged as their own which they found major success with.

Then sometime likely in 2013-2014, Someone by the Name of Steve (we still do not know their full name) seems to have pitched the idea of Stikbots to Zing around this time.

= 2013-2015 (The Start of Stikbot) = Sometime in 2014 Stikbot's went into a prototyping stage in which some factory's tested tons of possible color combinations of String and plastic till they landed on the ones they wanted.

Eventually in 2015 they started airing Stikbot Ads on Tv and the same year they came out in stores such as Toy's "R" Us, Walmart , Target , etc. in multiple countries. However the major push for the brand was when the Stikbot Central Channel was created. The main idea of Stikbot which not really any other company/toy had done successfully prior (even Stikfas), was having the major content and appeal of the toy being created by the community virtually through animations. While Stikbot Central, the now main official host of all things Stikbot would do a lot for the brand, it would could not be done on the same scale without the community creating the content it did. As the YouTube channel started uploading mainly short a few second long skits, the view counts would go down and up for a bit either between 5000 views to even half a million they started to find their audience with shows like, "The stikbot show." A short fully animated talk show where our host is a transparent green stikbot named, “Stikbot.” The show would have a mixture of pop culture references and some actual events while interviewing trending characters whether that was, “steve?” from Minecraft or, "Bendy," from, "Bendy and the Ink Machine ,"

The Stikbot Show is one of the shows that really helped bring Stikbot to a wider audience with fun entertaining content for the fans or as stikbot would call them, “Fanbots.” Now it wasn’t only just the stikbot show that they made videos on, Stikbot was still doing lots of random skits at the time but while they still did these it's clear that the stikbot show had a lot more, “presence.” So this helped them make more shows and branch out. One of the things their branched out into was the 20 Thousand Dollar Contest.

The 2015 20k Contest
In 2015 at the end of almost every Stikbot video they announced in the end card a 20k Dollar Stikbot Contest. In total the winners would get 20k worth of prizes along with some Cash.

3rd Place: Stikbot Battle
All of the entries but especially, "The Last Stikbot," by Moonshine Animations in this contest would prove to be very helpful in the development of Stikbots. As the theory goes after Zing/Stikbot saw the creations made by people like Moonshine and CokieJam they outsourced stuff to creators like this for series. Some theories even suggest it was rigged just for creators like them to see what they could make so they could get free content.

= 2016 (The Start of Golden Age) = By the time 2015 came to a close Stikbot was still doing quite well, but they still needed something, the thing that would change stikbot forever. On February 13th 2016 the critically acclaimed, Off the grid episode 1 came out. While as of writing this it's still not at 1 million views to this day it has had a remarkable impact on the community and brand. With 72 episodes going across 3 years and in 2022 a sequel series was made to finish the show, it's not surprising that this show blew up. With its incredible, atmosphere, writing, customs (custom figures), sets and characters. To quote TinyTTM, “It has everything.” But we will go back to this when the time is right so for now let's look at some other classic stikbot shows. With stikbots getting into even more into the mainstream some smaller stikbot creators are started popping up, just as they had planned so the community was really start to build at this point. Around this time Stikpets were jokingly teased/announced. A, “Stikpet,” is a stikbot that is a pet such as a stikbot that's a dog or cat or chicken or any sort of animal/pet. Now stikbots had been on the market for over a year now making the community grow quite a bit, at this time so some of the major stikbot creators on YouTube (also now known as stiktubers) were making all kinds of content weather it was about stikpets or their own creations like Stikbot films. Stikbot films, at this time was the most popular Stiktuber, with around 5k subs and also made short skits similar to stikbot.

At this point in stikbots life because their hands were smooth suction cups they were unable to hold anything unless you used some kind glue or putty so to fix this stikbot realized these almost claw like clamps that could attach to the stikbots wrist and then the stikbot could use any item the animator wanted. Just like stikbots older counterpart Stikfas, these were designed to be able to hold Lego pieces along with their own accessories that got released in The Stikbot action packs. Which also got announced to the community, this first line of action packs influenced so many new fans. It was many people's first introduction into the stikbot community. One of the major reasons why this was such a big deal was that it really opened up the possibility's for animations and it was left confined to skits and now the animations could be more theatrical and more like movies. It was sold throughout lots of stores along with the exclusive colors it in. This kickstarted the community once again and at this point stikbots were growing at a rate never before seen by the community, thousands upon thousands of people got into the community this way.

= 2017 (The Year of The Grid) = By 2017 Stikbots had grown a lot. From making hit after hit after hit to now hitting 100,000 subscribers and getting their silver play button. Nowadays a lot of the community regards this period as the middle of, “The Golden Age,” of stikbots. As they kept on growing they kept on outsourcing projects to people such as The Levels, a show about a stikbot escaping a hunger games like escape show where they had to escape, “The Levels.” However Off the grid was still going strong, being the first Stikbot Series to ever get an action pack based on it come out. OTG was now one of the main faces of the brand (in many ways it still is). The fans loved OTG.

The Off The Grid Prequal
On February 18 2017, video was released on the stikbot central youtube channel saying that if they were able to get the channel to 500,000 within the month they would make the prequel to the show tell the origin of striker and all the main characters. By the time the time was up they hit the goal of 500k. And on the stikbot show they said it would start work and then they showed a teaser. However nothing was ever heard of the project since. Later in an interview with Moonshine Animations the creator of OTG, he essentially said that it was just too much to work on and he needed a break. However in following years many members of the community have attempted to make a prequal based off of the original idea of a stikbot war.

The Start of JLG and Stikbot
One of the lesser known things is Stikbot history which may have effected the company majorly was the Joester Loria Group working with Zing and more specificity Stikbot. Essentially in 2017 Zing, "appointed," the Joester Loria Group as an, "exclusive licensing agent." In some of the main articles they later talk about what they plan to expand the brand of Stikbot into, its mainly merchandising. And while some stuff sounds cool like Graphic Novels, they talk about furniture, food, and even wallpaper. A lot of the community who has read this says that it would not fit with the brand and in general be the wrong direction for Stikbot. In the articles written they talk a lot about JLG doing marketing for Stikbot. Coincidently about this time the fans and community thought that stikbot was on a slow decline. Especially at this time animators at Zing leaving, along with the animations trying to be more trendy and overall the community felt the quality was just starting to dip. At this time there was also a lot less marketing.

With JLG's control it is thought this brought up shows like Liz and Dobbi, a new show about 2 stikbots, “Liz and Dobbi,” pranking each other. This show was not really liked by hardcore fans and at this time with animators leaving this is when the community started having to take things into their own hands. In 2018 the rapid growth of the community led to shows like The Outbreak, A fanmade show by Walrus Films, start to take over in popularity compared to some other shows.

= 2018 (The Start of Fizzbuzz) = In 2018 a lot of major animators at Zing/Stikbot had left. Even Moonshine Animations stopped working with Stikbot, meaning there would be no prequal to Off the Grid. His last project for them being, "When Monsters Attack." Overall not much happened this year which killed a lot of hype for the brand. Shows like, "Look animals," came out, which while later praised, Compared to what the community had experienced previously with the other numerous praised shows. You can see why they were a bit more disappointed this time around. With that being said many great things did come out, but not up to the, "broader," community's standards at this time. At this time JLG wrote a handful more articles on how great it was going, however they didn't mention what they had before in terms of plans and products.

The Products of Stikbot in 2018
At the 2018 New York Toy Fair, Zing showed off what is thought to be JLG's push for new products. Like stated prior JLG now working with Stikbot on marketing and product creation likely pushed Zing/Stikbot to expand into new mediums. While some if they came out would have likely been controversial the ones shown off at the toy fair were quiet well received.

The Products shown off were mainly Stikbot Plushies, and Stikbot, "Danglers," (Keychains). However both had an extremely limited release and were in fact not made by Zing or JLG but instead by, "Basic Fun." Overall while the Plushies sold out quickly it was a very limited stock and the Keychains Shelfwarmed at stores, often going on sale for less then $2.50. Now that JLG had been working with Stikbot for about a year now, The advertising had pretty much stopped if not slowed down, and they had created way too much stock of products. While the Stikbot and Stikbot Central were still growing immensely there were signs that stuff was starting to slow down. And eventually while it is not know for sure, likely between this time and 2020 JLG would stop working with Stikbot, either entirely or to the extend they once had.

The Start Of Fizzbuzz
While the exact date of when Fizzbuzz and Stikbot started working together is unknown. And they may have been working with them sense the beginning. It is likely they started sometime in 2018 or late 2017.

Fizzbuzz is an Animation Studio located in the Philippines. They do all kinds of work from Web and App Design to all forms of animations, Such as 2D, 3D, and Stop Motion. Sometime in what is thought to be 2018 they started working with Zing for designs of mainly User Interfacings on Zings websites and store. Eventually they started doing Designs of backgrounds for art on Zings products and eventually Stikbot. By 2018 they designing T-Shirts for Stikbot and the 2 company's were working close in hand and developing a sort of slight corporate cartoony Style.

= 2019 (The Start of the End + Klikbot) = By this time Stikbots were really going through a rough time with the marketing and it became evident that Stikbots were on a decline. However while the official Stikbot Central's videos were not doing as good as they once were the community's videos starting to gain traction showing there was still an interest.

Fizzbuzz & Stikbot Portal
At this time with more people were leaving as the brand was starting to loose traction, eventually they would have to lower the price of the plastic used along with rubber of the suction cups to save money. This all happened while Fizzbuzz was starting to now not only do design for Zing/Stikbot but also start animating for them. While Fizzbuzz had animated some stuff previously for Zing their first series and what their most known for is, “Stikbot Portal.”

This show consisted of Stikbots going to a vending machine and putting in a coin to get a snack or drink and then the Stikbots get transported to a famous character's universe or a pop culture character comes to them (i.e Spiderman, Angry Birds ). While some shows like, "Look, Animals!" were a bit controversial when they came out, separating the fans who had been with the Stikbot brand for a while and new people coming in. But this show did not sit well with most fans, Often saying it felt too much like a corporate cash grab.

"Peppa Pig meets Area 51! | Stikbot Portal"
However the final blow this whole thing was when a Stikbot Portal video came out crossing over Area 51 and Peppa Pig. This was due to the Storm Area 51 Event and at this time there was a trending meme was making bad ytps and edits of Peppa Pig episodes. Combining these two properties together got us, “Peppa Pig meets Area 51! | Stikbot Portal.” This is considered to be the, "absolute plummet of Stikbots quality." While this, "plummet" had been going on for years at this point, this is what most of the community points to when saying what to blame. When the community refers to it felling like they just wanted to make money with it this is what they think of, combining two entities that have no ties.

Klikbots Start
Right before all of this Stikbot Portal stuff a handful of Stikbot pilot episodes for shows were made. Showing off shows that Fizzbuzz made. All of them were loved or well received however most got 3 or 4 episodes if they were lucky and all of them were canceled for unknown reasons. At about this time a new product line was announced on Jul 27, 2019 called Klikbots, these were similar to Stikbots but they had more articulation through the use of ratchet joints or as they call them, “Klik joints.” Then to correspond with the launch they made a show with it that’s first episode came out on Aug 17, 2019. At the time the show was met with, “Fine.” Reviews. At this point the quality had changed so much in just 1 year that people were hoping they could just go back to 2018 even if at that time the content was “fine,” to them. However the show along with Klikbot content did extremely well compared to other Stikbot shows which were mainly run by Fizzbuzz. And overall the brand was doing pretty good going into December of 2019.

= 2020 (The Year of The Community) = In 2020 when the Coronavirus or Covid-19 spread around the world, stores of all kinds closed. Stikbots have always been considered an, “In-person Brand.” While their success relied on the internet and their community, they always were connected to being bought in person. So with major retailers being closed, Stikbots were screwed from the start. With the decline in sales of Stikbots and Klikbots they had to stop selling them at most major Retails such as Target or Walmart which lead to further decline in sales. This likely was not good Zing, they had just launched a new line of figures (Klikbots), and it was overall a huge gamble.

Eventually Fizzbuzz would take over all of the animations for the brand. Not only for Stikbot, but they also developed promotional material for other Zing products along with more website design. Meanwhile at this time with the majority of the community of stikbots being stuck indoors along with multiple indoor animation contests made by stikbot themselves, this really let the community thrive. With a lot more free time Instagram Groups, and Discord Servers were made by the fans to talk with another. The community collaborated on massive projects and movies, Such as Lost Dimensions, an huge animator project with over 60 creators, And Defenders of the Stikbots another fan-made movie entirely made on a phone with incredible characters and story. The Community was doing extremely well, but with the Coronavirus and new animation Studio a lot of classic shows ended. While Fizzbuzz would try to bring back Stikbot Centrals previous shows, such as The Stikbot show. These, "Reboots," for lack of a better term, were not too well received. The community at many points was so against the direction that Stikbot was going that multiple times the community created channels to make content that would replicate what Stikbot once had, and give the, "Fanbots," what they deserved. By the end of 2020 Stikbots were on a massive decline and possibly if not for the community they would not have lasted much longer.

= 2021 (A New Beginning) = By 2021 the community was getting used to essentially caring the brand. The Biggest Stikbot animation project came out being, Lost Dimensions 3, which took almost a year to produce, and contained nearly every major Stikbot Youtuber at the time. However while the majority of things were good behind the scenes a large amount of the community who once supported the brand were now talking about and started to leave the community pursuing other interests.

= 2022 (The Return of Stikbot) = In 2022 over half of the top Stikbot Youtuber's had quit or left by this point, so Zing needed to step in. Over the past two years the community had been asking Zing and Fizzbuzz if they were to ever make a Discord server to connect with the community more, which they were severely lacking.

The Official Stikbot Discord Server
So on January 24th 2022 after lots of Speculation The Official Stikbot Discord server was opened. This was MAJOR for the community. There had never been a time in Stikbots life you could be so connected to the creators, now fans could ask questions and they could tease new products, while it had a rocky start it quickly became a foundation of the community.