Xevoz: What they are.

Xevoz are posable action figures with a ridiculous degree of customization. Each part can be interchanged with parts from any other figure. Each figure is a archetype: robot, ninja, pirate, zombie, monkey, electric guy, cowboy guy, bug, different bug, dragon and so on. They're based on Hasbro's stikfas line, but scaled up to larger size. They were marketed as an action figure/game hybrid with each figure shipping with a handful of game pieces but most collectors disregard the game.

The figures use a ball and socket joint to connect each piece. This allows each joint a remarkable range of motion. In addition, the average humanoid figure has a minimum of 15 points of articulation and therefore can be easily posed in an expressive manner.

The first wave of figures hit stores in January 2004 and by summer two more waves would be released. Hasbro obviously expected the sets to be a hot commodity, but consumer interest was lacking. Collectors speculate it was the confusing nature of the figure/game hybrid that turned children off. My theory is that most children started with a single figure, but Xevoz require a "critical mass" of parts before they really get enjoyable. The fun of the toy lies in combining the various archetypes, making zombie dragons, and so on. Towards the end of the line's life, the first three waves could be found at a substantial discount at most stores which sparked collector interest and made it cheap to acquire enough sets to reach critical mass.

Currently Hasbro has no plans to continue the line and the production team has been reassigned to other projects. However, it's rumored that molds for a fifth wave of a dozen figures exist. The online Xevoz community remains strong, the forums at Xevolution serving as a focal point. eBay is the primary source of kits now, although two sets are available directly from Hasbro. In addition, the Wikipedia reports wave 4 figures being found in Biglots and Tuesday Morning stores, but my local outlets had none.

A future article will document the custom pieces the author created when no more sets were being produced, including the infamous Barbie Armor.