There are AI toys, companions and robots everywhere at CES this year, but amid the crowd of plush and shiny emoji eyes, two stood out to me. Both Hammetts and Baddio are betting that the boom of collectible figurines is about to come back with an AI-powered vengeance, giving us the chance to talk to sports stars and superheroes from our desks.
The basic concept of both is this: take a beautiful statue and stick it on a smart base with a speaker, microphone, and maybe a glowing ring or two of light. Then use the accompanying app to power a basic LLM chatbot based on the statue, so you can talk to Albert Einstein about relativity, or Darth Vader about crushing dissident forces, with a few fun words and a joke or two.
Furthermore, the two startups I met this week are different. Ollie is the more established of the two. It already provides its AI-powered BuddyOS to several other toy companies, but now it wants to create its own devices. With this in mind, it’s launching Hamlets, Funko-esque figurines with RFID chips in their bases, which become interactive AI characters when placed on an accompanying stand.
Ollie intends to launch Hemets on Kickstarter later this year, starting with three statues: Einstein, who talks about science and creativity; Zara, a tarot reader who offers advice with a hint of mysticism; and Chandler, a bold choice of name for a toy that “brings the dry, sarcastic charm of a ’90s sitcom character,” seeing a 2023 death Friend Star Matthew Perry.
The company wants to create its own toys for creative control, and CEO Hai Ta predicts there is a market boom ahead, with imitators and rivals likely to arrive. He sees a future with Ollie’s own line of Hamets IP, as well as licensed characters and celebrity likenesses. In short, he wants to create the next Funko Pops, but make it AI.
Baddio CEO Yijia Zhang sees things differently. He doesn’t want to replace the Funko Pops, but rather create a platform that can sit alongside them. In fact, he doesn’t even have Funko Pops in mind, but Nintendo’s amiibo. Zhang describes herself as a Nintendo “superfan” and Baddio is her attempt to get more out of her own amiibo collection.
Instead of selling figurines, Baddio is launching a stand it calls the AI Pod, with a slot the exact size of a standard amiibo base. The pod uses the same NFC technology as Nintendo’s figurines to recognize specific characters, and Baddio will also sell its own NFC-equipped base on which you can place Funko Pops, bobbleheads, and (of course) Labubus, with plans for a larger pod capable of supporting larger figures.
Since existing idols do not come with chatbot personalities, Baddo developed an app to create a character for each idol. Take a photo and give the character a name, and the app’s AI will analyze it, bringing out backstory and personality. It’s able to recognize existing IPs, so it knew Stitch was a cartoon alien, and Mario is a plumber with a suspicious Italian accent who yells “It’s-a-me!” Likes to say. And it offers accurate pronunciation, allowing you to choose a voice from a library of different sounds, including sound samples that match copyrighted characters. Zhang is quick to emphasize that this is all provided by the community, not the company, clearly hoping this is a loophole that will keep the notoriously litigious Nintendo away.
Zhang’s background is in AI – he was once a software engineer at Google, working on Google Assistant, and currently heads the AI and platform team at Plad. Perhaps this explains their focus on building an AI platform and base rather than designing new toys from scratch. But he says it’s also about taking advantage of the fact that people already have a “deep connection” with their collections, which will be missing from new toys or new IP.
Once they stand up and start walking, Hammetts and Baddio feel alike. Both emphasize fun, light-hearted interactions with AI avatars — “Tell me a joke” remains everyone’s favorite demo question — though Zhang says Baddio’s hybrid ChatGPIT/Gemini AI stack can be used as a full AI assistant, just with a little more character. That’s not an option with the Hamlets, who are each designed to do one thing well, with specific idols planning to chat about movies, or cooking, or K-pop.
It’s still an open question whether there’s a meaningful market for AI toys and chatbot companions, but pairing the technology with collectibles is the most solid case I’ve seen so far.
Neither Hamets nor Budyo have any involvement from Funko, who has his own problems to deal with – just two months ago Investors warned There was “substantial doubt” over its ability to continue operating due to slowing sales and tariff cuts. Will we see a desperate Funko turn to AI for its salvation, or will its inaction provide an opportunity for a new company to take over this space? Either way, it’s clear that interactable collectibles are coming – and soon.
Photography by Dominic Preston/The Verge
