January 9, 2026, 9:50 PM EST. Two startups shown at CES are betting on AI-powered figurines to revive the collectible boom. Olli's HeyMates will ship on Kickstarter later this year, starting with Einstein, Zara and Chandler, each a figurine with an AI personality that runs on BuddyOS via a smart stand and RFID-enabled base. Olli aims to own the hardware and software stack, citing a future market of licensed characters and celebrity likenesses. Buddyo, led by Yijia Zhang, wants to sit alongside Funko Pops and Nintendo Amiibo, not replace them. It previews an AI Pod stand that uses NFC to recognize figures and lets users place NFC-enabled bases on which figures can interact through a chatbot. Buddyo has an app to create a character for these AI interactions.
