KUALA LUMPUR, May 30 — Inspector Khai and Inspector Sani from Malaysian buddy cop movie Polis Evo 3 have been immortalised in the form of limited edition action figures.
The move is a first for the franchise is in conjunction with the release of its third instalment released on May 25.
Polis Evo 3, helmed by director Syafiq Yusof, made waves by collecting RM16 million in just after four days of showing in cinemas across Malaysia, Singapore and Brunei.
He had also beat brother Syamsul Yusof’s Mat Kilau record which collected RM12.2 million within the same period of showing.
For the debut line of action figures, only a limited hundred pieces will be available for each of the exclusive figurines of Inspector Khai played by actor Shaheizy Sam and Inspector Sani played by comedian Zizan Razak.
The production of the approximately 10-centimetres 3D-printed figurine was overseen by local content creation and hobbyist group, English Speaking Asians (ESA) — with the help of their sub-communities.
What is ESA?
Speaking to Malay Mail, ESA co-founder Adely Ariffin explained that it consists of groups of pop-culture enthusiasts with many sub-communities under them, with the most prominent ones known as the Unity Macroverse.
The Unity Macroverse is a storytelling community where they dabble in creating their own science-fiction story in the form of comics, novels, short stories and more.
ESA is also known for producing their own homemade spin-off slash parody toys.
Most recently, the group ventured into the autism community space named The Spectrum — where they help by taking artworks, scribbles, doodles and other outputs from youth with autism and creating merchandise which includes tote bags, t-shirts and mugs and of course with every sale of the merchandise they made, the royalties will go straight to the contributors.
Behind the Polis Evo 3 limited edition action figures
Commissioned by Astro Shaw Sdn Bhd, ESA has chosen to collaborate with students from Asia Pacific University of Technology and Innovation (APU) along with local hobbyists in terms of designing and painting the action figures from Polis Evo 3.
“What do I think about these action figures? These are sweet man, these are really sweet.
“When you look at the details, I mean they’re not exactly professional grade but considering that they’re pretty much homemade, they look awesome.
“And it ties in very well with what I would also call a very awesome movie,” Adely said.
He added that everything about the figurines are unique as the clamshell has a customised embossed logo on it while both of the figurines are hand-painted by local hobbyists.
Adely shared that they left a little surprise for the first five buyers of each of the figurines who will receive the items with the actors’ autographs.
It usually take ESA around three months to produce a finished product, however, it took them approximately three weeks to complete the first few batches of Polis Evo 3 action figures, thanks to the support from the local hobbyist communities.
The action figures are now available for pre-order at esachannel.com for RM175 each, and they will begin distributing the collectables this June 3 at Amcorp Mall, in Petaling Jaya.
Working with youth with learning and intellectual disabilities
ESA engaged a local pre-employment training centre for individuals with learning and intellectual disabilities, EmployAble Malaysia, to help them with the packaging process.
This is also a way for them to provide a form of inclusion for youths with learning and intellectual disabilities to contribute to society by giving them meaningful jobs.
Shedding light on the packaging process which was handled by the youths from EmployAble known as trainees, Adely explained that he would brief and train the teachers in advance who would later guide the trainees.
A total of six trainees were involved with the packaging process where they were given some blisters to tape the clamshell and the figurine together.
Adely would also be around during the process for quality control as these are limited figures with limited cards with printed serial numbers.
“Taping is the easy part, the scary part is actually when applying the figure on the card.
“It breaks easily if you pressed it the wrong way. Even I went through that before,” he said.
According to EmployAble’s co-founder and trainer, Ivy Philip, the packaging job is part of their tertiary education programme and the trainees are being paid for their work and will receive a proper payslip for it.
The programme uses the sheltered employment and inclusive independent approach as each of their trainees are different.
“Some of our trainees are very independent, they can sit here all day and work. While our other trainees sometimes would need breaks.
“Sometimes when there’s a lot of people, some of them get overwhelmed, so they need their own space and we will give them that. And they actually have been doing a lot of work as well in their own space.”
Philip added that it is a blessing and a big deal for them to be involved in the Polis Evo 3 action figures project as it can help shed light on how the disabled community are also able to function in a working environment.
She added that the trainees are capable of so much more if only the public made the effort to understand them more.
Polis Evo 3 which also stars Sharnaaz Ahmad, Nora Danish, Syafiq Kyle, Farali Khan, Douglas Lim and Fauzi Nawawi is now showing in cinemas.
