When you get your Stikfas in the mail they come in a cardboard box, and the figures are un-assembled on what are called plastic sprues. A sprue is just a thin wirey frame that surrounds all the parts of your figure.
The best way to get these parts off of the sprue is to use wire snips. Simply snip the parts off of the sprue, but be careful not to cut off the wrong parts. Otherwise you might not be able to put your figure together.
Once you cut your parts off of the sprue, you can take a sharp exacto hobby knife to further refine your cuts. We recommend this only if you have your parents help if your young - or if you have extremely steady hands. Just cut the unwanted high spots where the sprue connected with the knife to make your Stikfas look nice and clean. You can also use sand paper but it won't leave as nice a finish.
After you have all your parts cleaned, it's time to put your Stikfas together. Just take a look at the instructions included in the box, or on the outside of the clear plastic case. Snap the ball into the socketed parts and your ready to go.
If a part is too hard to snap in, one trick is to fog up the parts in the same way you would fog up a window. Hold the part to your mouth with your jaw nice and wide and go Aaaahhhhh. The steam from your breath helps the ball slip into the socket. If you still can't get the parts to pop into each other, you can sometimes place the socketed part "such as the forearm" on a hard surface like a table top. Now press the ball part into it. If all else fails, find someone who has strong hands to help.
If you want to animate your Stikfas, there is a good chance it will fall over. To prevent this, insert two of our 3mm magnets into the square holes in the feet. All you do is place your magnet on any flat metal surface so it sticks firmly. Then push the foot down over the magnet so the 3mm square hole surrounds the magnet. The accuracy of the hole is so perfect the magnet will not require glue to keep it in place. Now your Sikfas can stand on one foot in almost any position for animating. Just make sure you use an Altoids box or other metal surface as your set floor.
A lot of people like to modify Stikfas figures using Sculpey. Fimo and other polymer clays will work too. Just sculpt over the plastic parts, and then boil them "clay and all" for about 15 minutes. Remove the parts carefully and allow to slowly air cool. Sand and paint your customized parts with acrylic or enamel craft paints. Add hair with lengths of colored yarn, or glue plastic model parts from other kits onto your Stikfas with plastic cement. As long as you keep things light weight you can do almost anything.
Lighting and Animating is the best part of getting a Stikfas. Luckily you don't need a ton of lights since Stikfas are only 3 inches tall. You can get away with having only two desk lamps for all your lighting needs. Set building is also easy since the scale is small. Stikfas are really perfect for desk top animation with just a web cam. They are much lower maintanance then clay figures and you can simply animate and not worry about much else.
We recommend a program like Frame Thief or Stop Motion Pro to animate your Stikfas. They do cost money but you will get better results than using our free Anasazi program. In either case any program will work, and animating Stikfas is fun! If you want to read about the available programs for animation go here.
Watch a simple 6MB animation I made using Stop Motion pro, a fifteen dollar web cam, a G2 Alpha Male and an Omega Military Stikfas figure here.
See the Stikfas figures we have available in our store by clicking here.
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2612 West Blackburn Drive
Springfield MO 65807 USA #636-410-6340
Marc@animateclay.com
2612 West Blackburn Drive
Springfield MO 65807 USA #636-410-6340
Marc@animateclay.com