Hasbro, Somerville company team up to help people turn themselves into action figure toys
SOMERVILLE -- With San Diego Comic Con kicking off out West, Hasbro is ready to give fans a first crack at a newly-unveiled endeavor: "Selfie" action figures.
The Somerville company Formlabs is also playing a big role in making it happen.
Hasbro's Head of Global Design and Development Brian Chapman says movies fans will love it.
"If you're a fan of Star Wars or you're a fan of Ghostbusters or you're a fan of Marvel, you're going to want to be a character in that world."
The Pawtucket, Rhode Island toymaker's new Selfie Series of actions figures will allow people to turn themselves into their own toys.
"You take a picture of yourself ,and we scan your face," says Chapman. "You select your skin tones and your hair style. You pick the character that you want. And then we toyify you!"
Collectors will be able to use the Hasbro Pulse Mobile App to guide them through the process of creating a toy that looks just like them.
The co-founder and CEO of Formlabs Max Lobovsky says his company was able to provide Hasbro with the quality it needed to make this idea work for a wide audience.
"Colors are really important for them," Lobovsky points out. "We have a range of skin tones and we developed a color palette that we developed for them specifically."
Lobovsky says that was not the only requirement.
"Material properties are important. Sometimes 3d printed materials are brittle. Obviously it's not good if you drop your action figure and it breaks. So, we have very tough high-impact resins."
Now, Lobovsky has his own action figure. He tested out the system and was rewarded with his own Ghostbusters figure to show off to his young son.
All of the bodies for the action figures will be a one-size-fits-all model. Fans can choose characters from some of Hasbro's most popular properties like Star Wars, Marvel, Power Rangers, G.I. Joe and Ghostbusters.
Hasbro says this has the potential to be a game changer and could open up a lot of doors.
"I think this technology is going to continually evolve and just like any type of app that you download you can have upgrades," says Chapman. "You're going to see upgrades in selfie over the next few years."
Hasbro says the figures will be in the 6-inch scale and cost around $59 a piece. They will be available to order this Fall