Most of our work meets the public on a convention table, other toys to the left and right, collectors who already know what a TEQ63 is, and a queue that formed before the doors opened. Launch day for the all-new Nissan Kicks e-POWER was not that room.
Glorietta’s Palm Drive Activity Center. Mall traffic from ten in the morning to ten at night. People who came to sit inside a car and had no particular reason to care about designer toys. Nissan showcased our interpretation of the nameplate, labeled at the event as Kicks by Quiccs, on the floor beside the production vehicles.
That’s a different test than a convention, and a more interesting one.
What a Car and a Toy Actually Share
A car is already a designed object before anyone hands it to an artist. Someone argued over its stance in a meeting. Someone lost a fight about the headlight shape. By the time it reaches the showroom floor, every decision has been made twice.
So the job in a collaboration like this isn’t decoration. Painting a logo onto a good design is the laziest version of this work, and it’s the version that makes brands stop calling.
The actual question we ask is: if this vehicle stepped off the road and onto a shelf, what kind of character would it be?
Reading the Kicks
The Kicks reads young. It’s the smallest and most restless thing in Nissan’s electrified lineup here, and for a lot of buyers it’s a first electrified car rather than a fourth. There’s an eagerness built into it that the bigger vehicles in the range don’t have and shouldn’t have.
That’s what the piece leans into. It doesn’t try to look expensive. It tries to look like it’s about to go somewhere. Same instinct we’ve used on Bulletpunk characters for ten years, posture carries more meaning than detail, and restraint reads as confidence.
Showing Work Outside the Collector Room
There’s a specific thing that happens when you put a designer toy in a mall atrium next to a ₱1.5-million vehicle. Nobody arrives with context. They aren’t tracking drops or checking the secondary market. They see a shape and either stop or they don’t.
That’s a harsher filter than a convention, and a more honest one.
What It Means for Filipino Creative Work
The part worth noting isn’t that we made something. It’s who initiated it. A global automotive brand chose a Filipino street-art and designer-toy practice as a creative lens for one of its most important local launches — and then chose it again, because this isn’t the first time we’ve worked together.
For anyone building a creative career here, that’s the useful signal. The work travels. It just needs someone willing to put it next to something unexpected, in a room where nobody knows your name yet.
The Car, Briefly
For the full picture, Nissan is the better source but the short version: the all-new Kicks e-POWER is the first full generational change since the nameplate arrived here in 2022. It runs Nissan’s e-POWER setup, where a 1.2-liter engine works purely as a generator and an electric motor drives the wheels, good for 136 PS and 280 Nm. New face, new lighting signature, ProPILOT driver assistance, three variants starting at ₱1,499,000.
It launched August 28 to 30 at Glorietta as part of the Nissan Intelligent Mobility Tour. Pricing, variants, and reservations are all handled by Nissan Philippines check nissan.ph or their dealerships for current details.
FAQ
What is the Quiccs x Nissan collaboration?
It’s an ongoing creative partnership between Quiccs and Nissan Philippines that brings designer-toy art and automotive design into the same space. The most recent chapter was a piece showcased at the all-new Kicks e-POWER launch, presented at the event as Kicks by Quiccs.
Is the piece available to buy?
No. It was created as a showcase work for the collaboration, not as a retail release. Any future drop connected to this partnership will be announced on quiccs.com and our social channels first.
Where can I get details on the Nissan Kicks e-POWER itself?
Nissan Philippines is the source for pricing, variants, colors, and reservations — visit nissan.ph or a Nissan dealership. We can speak to the artwork; they can speak to the car.