P20 LITTLE BIGMEN
OYO SPORTS FIGURES MAY BE TINY, BUT THEY BRING IMAGINATION TO LIFE.
OYO SPORTS FIGURES MAY BE TINY, BUT THEY BRING IMAGINATION TO LIFE. BY DAVID LEE
Sports figures and toys are nothing new, so what makes the 1.6-inch OYO Sports minifigures different? Is it the gripping hands? The bendable knees? The posable arms and legs?
Maybe it’s all those things.
ey’re certainly built to play with, but they’re also landing in the hands of collectors. Launching roughly eight years ago, these figures include roughly 10-13 buildable pieces. Like LEGOS, they can be positioned and posed, taken apart and built again. OYO Sports figures now carry licenses for all four major sports leagues and players associations, plus many major college licenses that includes figures of former players.
e team rosters go deep, too, even including local fanfavorites. Some NFL teams feature up to 10-12 players, while some MLB teams deliver even more. Legends figures have been added including Hall of Famers from baseball and football.
You can find uniform variations such as home, away, NFL color rush, NBA Statement uniforms, or throwback uniforms. A player’s first OYO figure carries a “First OYO Ever” designation on the company’s website (Oyosports.com). e first-edition production run of a particular player figure is sequentially numbered, although they are not advertised as first runs. Special sets such as All-star figures or Super Bowl and World Series Champion sets are also limited. Some players who are being retired also may receive special numbering. Adrian Beltre has a Final Edition figure numbered to 286, matching his career batting average.
If a figure is numbered, boxes note the production quantity, but the base of the figure carries the actual serial number. Of course, this adds an attractive chase element for collectors. “Basically, we are awarding these early adopters with a sequentially numbered figure,” says Daryl Mckay, OYO Sports President of Sales.
Master checklists are posted on the company’s blog at Oyocollector.com. ey also note which figures are active in production, on hold or retired.“originally, we figured our target would be kids,” OYO Sports CEO Tom Skripps said in a Bizjournals. com video.“as we started selling, about 50 percent of our customers were collectors and adults.”
UNLOCKING IMAGINATION
Tom describes OYO Sports not as a toy company, but as a fan engagement company. One of the coolest ways fans interact with these mini-figures is by creating detailed stop-action videos. Many of these videos incorporate the team fields that include a few hundred buildable pieces. NFL Gametime Fields, for example, include team logos, goalposts and field goal nets, sideline benches, and even water jugs. Fan-created videos can be seen on Youtube and Instagram, complete with synced audio or actual game play-by-play clips.
“It’s amazing to see,” Daryl says of these fan-created videos.“ey started out all organically from the fans.
e fun part is watching fans interact with their own figures in their own way. Imaginations are unlocked.”
OYO Sports is able to manufacture and assemble figures in small to large production runs on a nearly on-demand basis. at’s a major reason why team rosters are so deep. is allows the company to create figures that mean a lot even to a small group of fans. Daryl says that while the obvious national superstars are always popular, it’s fun to see fans gravitate toward their home-town heroes.“we’re able to make figures for each market based on who their fans love,” he says. “We can micro-market each city’s favorite players. As a fan, you want something unique to you and not the same as what everyone else has.”
A major goal for the company is to be able to create any player at any time. e goal is to give fans the ability to build what is truly important to them on a custom basis. is ultimate on-demand customization is already beginning with OYO Me. It gives fans the ability to create their own figure in their likeness, and in their favorite team uniform. An online tool lets you customize the face, jersey nameplate, and even the packaging. OYO Me is currently available for all 32 NFL teams and all 30 MLB teams.
BEYOND SPORTS
Daryl says OYO is always looking to expand where it makes sense. One goal is to incorporate more women’s sports, but also to branch out more into entertainment and culture. A few examples include the OYOJI Emotion Packs that features emoji-like faces. ese are incorporated with sports team figures including interchangeable happy and a sad faces to reflect your current mood about your favorite team’s performance.
American Pride is a new line featuring U.S. presidents such as Donald Trump, Barack Obama, Ronald Reagan, Abraham Lincoln and more. Current presidential candidates and Supreme Court Justices are also included. A series of Bruce Lee figures is being created in partnership with the Lee family.
LATEST AND GREATEST
Here are some of the latest OYO Sports figures to drop on the market, including first-ever figures, players with new teams, or uniform updates. Some of these are sold out on the OYO Sports website, and only available through retailers or on the secondary market: