Imagine for a moment that you are a kid in the latter part of the 1980s. There are great cartoons on television such as GI Joe, He-Man, and Transformers just to name a few. Each week kids would watch those television shows and then pretend to put themselves in the action with the various storylines that accompanied these programs. As seen in the popular Netflix show, “The Toys that Made Us”, We have had an opportunity to go back in time and relive some of those great memories. I don’t know about you but whenever I played with these action figures I always thought about how cool it would be to put myself in the action for once and not just play the role of Skeletor or Cobra Commander. Well, that childhood fantasy has finally come true with the release of the Hasbro selfie series, a toy line that puts you in the role of your favorite action figures.
It was during Comic Con that a select few attendees were able to pre-order the first run of those action figures. I rushed to the Hasbro booth on Thursday morning bypassing some of the other things that I had wanted to see in hopes that I would be first in line. Because of COVID-19, many of the vendors at Comic Con were doing virtual products or offering a much more limited run of exclusives. At the Hasbro booth there were two items available for sale but with the caveat that they were only available online and the third was the selfie series action figure. After I successfully made it to the line and signed up I was given a time slot to return later in the day on Thursday. Once I arrived back from my appointment that was brought into the booth where the process of creating the image occurred. There have been many advancements in the world of 3D imaging and Hasbro shows off the potential of their app in creating a 3D model of a character. I have been real interested in this after having watched many videos and tutorials on how 3D modeling of characters worked in the Unreal 5 Engine. I had originally thought they were using Unreal but later have found out that it’s more of a 3D imaging scanner than anything else. There are many apps available online that also give you some of the same features for creating a 3D model of yourself.
During the scanning process, the individual holds a cell phone with the Hasbro Pulse App running. Then the process starts and the application asks the person to look to their left and right. This took a couple of times from me as I kept looking in the wrong direction and therefore my character model ended up looking weird. To make the imaging even better Hasbro had a special lighting setup so that the character models would come out more clear. This is something that I would invite everyone to try whenever they make their own model.
Once the scan was completed, I was greeted with a prompt showing that the magic was occurring and then my 3D model appeared. You must select things such as your hair color and hairstyle and even a beard if you are into that. After it was completed and the process was over the model was ready to be purchased. The process was easy and quick and I was really happy with the results of that image.
The model arrived at my home in early October, and I was eager to see what was inside the packaging. I was warned that Hasbro was going to be moving towards more eco-friendly packaging and were going to make it impossible to see the action figure inside the package. I know many collectors who have voiced their opinions against this and I really hope that they come up with a solution that’s mutually beneficial for everyone. For the selfie series however, the packaging allows viewing of the action figure. I chose the Storm Trooper because I’ve always been interested in that. In fact some of my first action figures were from Star Wars.
The detail of the model implicitly shows exactly what was shown during the process of creating the image. This is not a mere 3D printed item but more like a genuine production run of a character model and something that I am very excited to have. While it does come in a steep price of $59.99, I am convinced that it is a worthwhile investment to create an action figure of one’s likeness. This is not a paid endorsement or anything I’m just telling you my own thoughts and feelings about this product. It was the one thing that I saw during the exclusives reveal for this year’s Comic Con that I was most excited to witness and partake in. So if you have the opportunity download the Hasbro pulse app and create your model today.
To find out more about the Hasbro Selfie Series, follow this link.
