Hasbro, a global play and entertainment company, has collaborated with the Formlabs Factory Solutions team to bring Hasbro’s Selfie Series – a first-of-its-kind endeavor to use 3D printing to create customized action figures, manufactured at scale – to life.
“The Hasbro Selfie Series started years and years ago when we realized that our fans wanted to become the heroes in the stories that they loved,” said Brian Chapman, Head of Global Design and Development at Hasbro. “To the fan, we’re delivering one figure. There’s nothing mass about it. You’re going to get the figure you want, with the hairstyle that you want, with your face on it. You are becoming that action figure.”
In partnership with Formlabs, Hasbro is offering fans a chance to digitally transform themselves into the action heroes and heroines they see on-screen, and imagine themselves as part of these stories. “From an X-Wing pilot, morphing into a Power Ranger, silently stalking Cobra as Snake Eyes, or swinging through the New York cityscape like Spiderman, fans can indulge in the ultimate consumer experience with the Hasbro Selfie Series figures.”
Formlabs and Hasbro worked together to develop a custom resin that enabled a diverse range of colors for skin and hair tones. Beyond the aesthetics, the material had to be skin-safe and durable – meeting Hasbro’s standards for its action figures. The result was based on Formlabs’ Tough 1500 Resin, a material that produces prints that simulate polypropylene parts in terms of stiffness and strength.
“We needed a strong partner like Formlabs to say, ‘Hey, look, we’re into it just as much as you are. We’re invested. We’re going to make sure you have the right materials, the printers, everything’s qualified, and we can run at scale’,” said Patrick Marr, Senior Director of Model Development at Hasbro.
In terms of manufacturing mass-customized products – 3D printing was the obvious best option for Hasbro, as traditional manufacturing cannot scale at an affordable price to meet the demand for such products.
“Ten years ago, 3D printing was not in a place where it could reliably be used in these high value, high customization types of jobs, but we’ve gotten there. We now have the reliability and the precision that we need to participate in manufacturing,” said Dávid Lakatos, Chief Product Officer at Formlabs.
The process to turn yourself into an action figure looks like this: First, you download the Hasbro Pulse app (initially available in the US, UK and Germany), scan your face, select your hair color, and pick your preferred action figure. This entire process is complete within the Hasbro Pulse app. Next, the custom configuration is sent to the Hasbro print factory – where the head is printed and assembled with a standard/off-the-shelf action figure body. Finally, your customized action figure is shipped to you. This product offering is reportedly priced at $60 (plus tax).
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