The world of UFC collectibles just got shaken up in the best possible way thanks to a new partnership between UFC and Stancé, and they are kicking off the new partnership with a super stylish collectible of The Notorious one himself Conor McGregor. Stancé specializes in collectibles that stand apart thanks to the distinctive style and beaming personality they imbue in their products, and it’s all the brainchild of Stancé founder Shaun Sakdinan and artist and designer Tracy Tubera. They have combined their talents to create something for UFC fans looking to add something unique to their collections, and McGregor is just the beginning of what promises to be a special line. ComicBook had the chance to sit down with Sakdinan and Tubera and talk all about the partnership and what’s coming for the line, which makes a big introduction with its first entry.
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Perfect Timing
Sakdinan has been in the toy world for close to 20 years, and actually previously worked on the Round 5 UFC figures back in 2008. “It was me and a couple of friends that started the company with Randy Couture. We were there at the right time, but maybe a little bit too early,” Sakdinan said. “A lot of the buyers were like, ‘No, we’re not going to support fighting.’ But you know what? We ran with it. We partnered with Randy. Around year two, I had another idea to do puzzles and I decided to sell my shares, and I left that company. So I ended up doing all this stuff you see behind me. They’re called 4D Puzzles. We had Star Wars, Warner Brothers, huge licenses into Costco. Then last year, I sold my company to Spin Master, and I just found myself gravitating to what I love, which is UFC. I was always in the back of my mind wanting to get back into the game, and at that point, it was just ironic. I woke up one day after a night looking for ideas and I was like, Man, I should just contact UFC.”
That led to a promising conversation and a quick 12-page proposal. “And then they had their meetings and they realized that coming from a fan perspective, this is something that the fans want. This is something that they don’t have, and they were willing to give us a shot,” Sakdinan said. “So at that point, I felt that we were moving forward, so I started looking for different types of designs. One of my good friends, Jason, who’s from the toy art world looked at one of the designs that I liked and said, ‘No, no, no, I’ll help you out.’ And within five minutes he sent back Tracy’s contact information on Instagram. I was like, ‘Wow, this is… I was like, you know this guy.’ Jason was like, ‘I worked with him before and I always admired his stuff.’ Immediately I started messaging Tracy and we started working together. The truth is, I never looked beyond Tracy after that referral. I knew that Tracy was the guy and the style, and when I found out he’s a big UFC fan, that was it.”
It was a no-brainer decision for Tubera as well, who is a massive fan of the UFC “To add on to what Shaun said, yeah, when he contacted me and told me what his idea was and where he wanted to take this brand and this collectible company, I was like, ‘Yes, I’m in.’ Just because like you said, one, I’m a huge MMA fan, love the UFC, and I felt as if it was perfect timing because the market now understands designer toys and that’s where my background is,” Tubera said. “I do a lot of designer art toys and just like how you were saying before, a lot of people nowadays are looking for something a little bit different than your standard look for toys, and my art style is somewhat unique.”
“So I felt as if that timing was right, the timing for the UFC having a little bit more mass appeal, it was perfect timing. We both felt as if no one was doing this idea in collectibles for MMA, so I thought it was just a great idea. Again, when you’re passionate about an IP or just a topic, then you tend to do really good work in a sense because I love MMA and just everything about it. I love all the fighters and how they all have unique personalities, and I really want to push that a lot with everything we’re printing out, especially with that Conor figure, is just pushing the personalities and giving these collectibles such a unique look that when you see it, you want it. You want to just have it, especially if you’re a big fan of designer toys and the UFC,” Tubera said.
A Premium Collectible with Personality
All of Stancé’s collectibles will include a 7″ x 9″ inches collectible figure with a magnetic display stand, along with a signed illustration print and a collector’s box. There will also be a standard version and limited variants, including the Gold variant (limited to 200), black variant (limited to 200), and the red glossy variant, which is limited to just 25. The standard version is also limited, but to a larger number of 300, and each future collectible will also feature some special variants at launch.
“I feel like because this company is a designer art toy collectible company, each piece we want to treat like it’s a piece of art. So especially in the design toy world, the scaling, bigger is a little bit better ’cause then you get to see every little aspect of the style of the design,” Tubera said. “So our standard piece is going to be at a scale, like Shaun said, where you’ll be able to see all the details, which is great. And then as you mentioned before at UFC X, we also showed that we have a 25″ tall version. So it’s like a large-scale art piece.”
“The cool thing, I have one of the samples right here, but we decided to add magnets in the feet, so when it goes on the base, it just clips and makes that sound that you want and it just clicks right into place,” Sakdinan said. “And the flag also comes off as well, so if you wanted to display that without the flag, it’s really nice as well. But the cool thing is, I don’t know if you can see from there, but you have the box which has got Tracy’s artwork on it, and the cool thing is when you open the box, it actually has the UFC octagon on the inside. From memory, in my years in the business, I’ve never seen anyone really do this, but it’s display-ready. It’s done in a very cool way, and it fits on my shelf perfectly. And this is how I display mine in my house, in my office.”
A Varied Lineup
The new line will get things started with Conor, who is a unicorn in the sense that he is a legend of the sport as well as a star who is still currently competing. The line looks to embrace the immense roster of current stars and hall-of-fame legends, so anyone can make an appearance. “From doing Round 5 and watching some of the other big toy companies handle some UFC licenses, you’ll notice they dropped off after Series 2, and they only focused on the popular fighters at that time,” Sakdinan said. “And I felt this brand is going to be different. We are going to focus on not only the most famous but every fighter that we can because we’re enthusiasts. And with Tracy an enthusiast as well, we both want to do every character, every fighter, but over time, of course, by keeping things fun.”
“Yeah, just what Shaun said, the great thing about Shaun and his idea and direction for the brand is that we’re fans. So we’re obviously going to try to put out what fans would want, and that would include current fighters, legends, and as many fighters as possible because we know, especially the great thing about going to UFC X was meeting the MMA community and seeing, like, ‘Hey, who would you like to see?’ And everyone’s answers varied,” Tubera said. “It was from popular guys to dudes who I even never heard of, up-and-coming guys who they fall on the local circuit like, ‘Oh, he just got to the UFC, you should do him.’ So I love that, and I think we’ll take that into account, and we’ll try to get as many fighters as possible.”
“Yeah, Conor is obviously, like you said, a unicorn. But me personally, because growing up with MMA, I would love to do a GSP. He was my guy growing up a B.J. Penn, so those legend fighters I’d love to do. But the up-and-coming guys, I would love to do a Brandon Moreno figure just because I know his personality. He’s a fighter who loves collecting toys. He loves Legos. So it’s like, “Dude, you would be a perfect fit for what we’re doing.” Any fighter out there who loves anime like Adesanya and Max Holloway, both those guys I know they love anime. So I bet they would dig this because my art style is a mix of graffiti with anime, so it’s like I bet they would get it. It’s just things like that I feel as if we can incorporate to the lineup and push those fighters, you know what I mean? Push those guys,” Tubera said.
The Future
Each figure is going to be treated as a truly distinct offering, and that looks to carry to the variants as well. That said, there will possibly be one set of variants tying things together. “I think what we want to do, especially, we really want to lean into the whole designer and art aspect of each figure we put out. So it will be dependent on each fighter. I really want to play up their personalities. So in a sense, our idea is every variant will have something to do with their personality, who they are as a fighter, as a person. So that way, each variant could be, in a sense, very specific to each fighter,” Tubera said. “The one thing that we are thinking about doing that we want to do that could be consistent would be if it’s a current or past fighter that they might get that whole gold-plated treatment because to symbolize the belt that they once held or that they do hold, that might be a constant variant for certain fighters. But besides that, we’re going to try to keep it very specific to each fighter. So it’s very unique.”
“The one thing that we’re going to do for each fighter is try to play off if they have a nickname or not,” Tubera said. “So that would be a clue to what a variant would be. So just pointing that out as a teaser for each guy. So if you have a favorite fighter and he has a nickname, most likely we’re leaning towards a variant would be a play off of that nickname, something like that.”
You can pre-order the Conor McGregor Stancé Collectible right here, and you can talk all things UFC and collectibles with me on Threads and Twitter @mattaguilarcb!
