Xevoz arrived in 2004 following Stikfas, a line of action figure kits distributed by Hasbro but allegedly created by a team out of Singapore. While Stikfas required stickers, cutting, and sometimes paint to get a desired look out of them, Xevoz were designed to be ready to be a variety of things right out of the box using the Stikfas construction and numerous new, larger pieces. As such, these were aimed more at kids than their ancestral toy lines, and were available at places like Wal-Mart, Toys "R" Us, Target, Kay-Bee Toys, and online stores like Entertainment Earth and D&S Sci-Fi Toy World-- eventually. By the beginning of 2005, this line was long dead.
Orignally hitting stores in January of 2004, the line had a tumultuous first year with its erratic nature at retail-- this lead to its not seeing a second year. At first, it seemed the line would be only appearing at direct market venues and Toys "R" Us but eventually wormed its way into other stores, only to be pulled from most Target stores that summer and blown out of numerous Wal-Marts around the same time.
Unlike Stikfas, Hasbro actually made a loose storyline for the creatures inhabiting Zeotopia, a map of which Hasbro put online and it looks vaguely like Earth. The planet is populated by six distinct races, the purposes of which were more or less unexplored due to the fact that for most of the first year, the storyline was limited to the back of packaging and the Xevoz Web Site.
Instead of a simple, two-way conflict like Autobots and Decepticons this line opted for a six-way tangle with a number of races duking it out for total supremacy. The characters under each faction follow a similar pattern in that Neo Sapiens are humans, Hyperfuries are based on energy, fire, and the like, Meta Beasts are animals, Biomecha are cyborgs or robots, Sectoids are insects, and the Unnaturals are the living dead. The blurbs appearing throughout the line and issue #0 of the comic book hint that there are some allegiances in the toy line, with the Unnaturals, Sectoids, and Biomecha all trying to take out everybody else. As this area is less than fully developed, it might be in your best interests to do some exploring and reading on your own to try and wager a guess of what these are supposed to be. Two new factions, the Reptosaurs and Arcasters, were added at the tail end of the line and had one toy from each-- the Fire Drake and Rune Slayer, respectively.
While this is all well and good, the thing that will matter to most toy fans is that these are nice, customizable, super-posable figures. If one figure's initial configuration is iffy, rip the head off of another kit and slap it on the neck, and presto-- instant new toy. Xevoz also includes the wry sense of humor that made Stikfas so much fun, as a lot of accessories are included with sets that seem almost silly with their inclusion. Some examples include a teddy bear head (Snuggly Goodness), a snowman noggin (Holiday Cheer), a chain saw (Mecha-Slice), a rooster head (Rooster Caw), and many, many more. Heck, there's even a "kick me" sign that comes with the Quick Slinger figure that-- believe it or not-- plays a role in how the game aspect of these figures works.
Like most toy lines, Xevoz wasn't given a normal end, it just faded away. The final five releases in the line saw extremely limited distribution-- Hasbro sat on it until it was eventually sold overseas and via closeouts. As such, if you're still in need of these items, there may be a good chance they will show up in some non-store channel on the cheap. The interest in the final figures was so high that it was fairly common to see price tags of $100 or so for the Hyper Guardian, Infil-Traitor, and Frankenpunker figures. To put this in perspective, these figures should have cost about $6.99-$8.99 in stores.
The line featured 25 unique sets in its first year which, including two-packs, brought the grand total up to 30 figures-- not bad for a one-year wonder out of Hasbro! To further push the line, a carry case was produced that also tied the game in a little bit, but ultimately the toys never received the blessing from the Gods of Retail that they needed to survive-- Wal-Marts only ordered them around the middle of the year, and the few large size Targets that supported the line did so near the end and in many cases cleared them out nearly immediately. Toys "R" Us stuck with the line for the long haul, as did Entertainment Earth as well as other online stores. While American kits did show up in Asia, these sets were not known to be marketed widely overseas in foreign language boxes.
Due to the quickly growing size of the line and our getting a late start putting this site together, this section is and will most likely always be a work-in-progress. Feel free to poke around to see some photos and other information before the reviews come up, and if you have any questions, comments, or additions, let us know!
Additional information: Hasbro's Xevoz.com has a number of online games and additional information on the storyline for this line, and they also have a page with instructions in PDF format. Also, there's a forum called Xevolution where fans do the forum thing.
Pages last updated May 27 2005.
