What Was threeA

ThreeA, also written 3A, was a Hong Kong collectible toy company built around the art and characters of Australian artist Ashley Wood. It was founded in 2008 by Wood and Kim Fung Wong, sold mainly to collectors through its own Bambaland store, and closed in 2019.

What threeA was

ThreeA developed and sold designer toys, along with posters, books, prints and clothing, based on characters and paintings usually created by Wood. The work was split between the two partners: Wong handled wholesale and production, while Wood designed the figures and handled marketing. The name joined threezero, Wong's own company, with the first letter of Ashley. That link is why the two brands are often confused, but threezero is a separate company that still operates under its own name.

The first threeA release was Bertie MK1, a World War Robot figure, and its quick sellout on Bambaland showed that collectors would buy expensive art toys online directly from the maker.

The core lines and scale system

ThreeA built a set of distinct worlds, each with its own look, drawn from Wood's comics and paintings:

• World War Robot (WWR), with robots such as Bertie, Armstrong, Bramble, Caesar, Ankou and Large Martin
• Tomorrow Kings and Tomorrow Queens, soldiers made for war against the robots
• Popbot, based on Wood's comic of the same name
• Adventure Kartel and the World of Isobelle Pascha

The company is best known for its 1/6 and 1/12 scale figures. The smaller 1/12 figures are the "portable" range, marked with a circled P on the packaging, so World War Robot Portable becomes WWRp. Larger and non-scale pieces appeared too. ThreeA also made licensed figures, including a 1/6 Master Chief for Halo, Metal Gear REX for Metal Gear Solid in collaboration with Konami, and Transformers and Destiny figures.

Bambaland, 3AA and the end of threeA

For most of threeA's life, Bambaland was the main place to buy its toys. The company was known for unusual sales tactics: surprise sales, very long preorders, and preorders announced before any photo of the toy was shown. Its 3AA membership club ran from 2009 to 2018, giving members a store discount and member-only figures, and many exclusives and colorways were sold only to members or during short sale windows.

In July 2019, Wood announced that the era of 3A was coming to a close. Bambaland and the WO3A store stopped taking new preorders from August 1, 2019, threezero took over the existing licenses such as Transformers and Destiny 2, and it undertook to fulfill the preorders already placed. Wood and Wong went their separate ways, and in 2020 Wood started a new creative team called Underverse.

For collectors, this means every threeA figure now comes from the secondhand market. Knowing the lines, the scale marks and the fact that exclusives were often member-only helps identify a figure and judge how complete it is before buying.