Hasbro's Selfie Series Figures Just Aren't There Yet
Hasbro’s “Selfie Series” line of create-your-own action figures wants to give the world its own toys in an unprecedented scale. There have been print-your-own heads for ages at this point, but the combination of Hasbro’s scale as one of the world’s biggest toymakers and the whole host of IP it licenses make it a potent force in the market. But is it worth the asking price just yet? It depends.
The Selfie Series recently launched exclusively in the United States through Hasbro’s Pulse app, letting users scan their heads into a 3D dressing room to turn themselves into, for example, The Mandalorian’s Din Djarin, Tom Holland’s Spider-Man, or G.I. Joe’s Scarlett, with basically every figure line in Hasbro’s portfolio of six-inch action figures represented. But a lengthy wait time, a $60 asking price—that’s two to three times the price of a typical Hasbro figure—and a clunky app interface can make trying to get yourself as a Stormtrooper or a Power Ranger risky business.
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To see how the figures looked in-hand, Hasbro recently provided me with a sample figure custom made due to the regional restrictions of its app. Some selfies and a few weeks waiting for it to arrive in the UK, and it’s here—click through to see what we think of the line and its potential.
The Box
Each Selfie Series comes in a similar, but customized box based on whichever body you choose for the figure. Like many of Hasbro’s more recent figures, it’s plastic-free packaging, but unlike them, the box can actually be used to display your figure—it’s easy enough to slide off the cover and actually see your figure inside, rather than it being entirely covered in cardboard and wrapping material.
Red Squadron’s Latest Addition
Naturally, because I’m me, I picked the X-Wing pilot Luke Skywalker body from Hasbro’s Star Wars Black Series as my base. Other options include Din Djarin/The Mandalorian, Princess Leia’s Hoth gear, and a Stormtrooper from the galaxy far, far away, but Marvel, G.I. Joe, Power Rangers, and Ghostbusters all have available figures, with several gender-presenting options.
The Selfie Series Adds 10 Pounds
Okay, so, the positives: Hasbro did indeed successfully capture that I am a miserable prick—side by side with one of the multiple pictures I had to take of myself for the printing process it captures my expression, or lack thereof, well. The eyes and nose are pretty good, but everything else about the headsculpt on Selfie Series figures is especially soft—especially head shape. Presumably this is to save having to actually sculpt head shapes and jawlines of differing definitions, but still, don’t expect it to look too flattering.
Full disclosure: if you want to have a more expressive figure, at least with the app you can go through the process multiple times and see an approximation of the end result as a 3D model, something I did not have access to for review. I am pretty miserable though, so this is quite accurate.
Accessories Included...
Every Selfie Series figure comes with at least one accessory—in the X-Wing pilot’s case, the standard Rebel DH-17 blaster. I purloined a Red 5 helmet from my Black Series X-Wing Pilot Luke because, well, why not?
... But There Really Needs to Be More Options
That said, it would be really good if Hasbro let you choose more options and accessories—not just options from its already-made figures like more weapons, but things to personalize your figure like hats or, in my case, glasses. I look weird without my specs, and alas, not even the recent Retro Hank McCoy’s glasses would fit on my figure’s diminutive head.
Size Matters
Speaking of diminutive: the head of my Selfie Series figure is really small. This is in part down to selecting the X-Wing Pilot body—this is a sculpt that Hasbro has been using since the very first wave of the Star Wars Black Series Line in 2013. This doesn’t just mean it’s not as articulated or as detailed as more recent Hasbro figures, it also means it’s very small, and out of scale with either most modern Luke Skywalkers (here’s a comparison with the Yavin Ceremony Luke and 40th Anniversary Snowspeeder Luke that shows just how small the X-Wing pilot body is).
Next to more recent figures from the company regardless of line—like the Animated Series Peter Parker and George Lucas Stormtrooper above—it almost looks like a different scale, but it means that the head is reduced to match. Get a different figure and you’ll likely get a different sized head to better proportionally fit.
Like, It *Really* Matters
But this also means that one of the better benefits of the Selfie Series—that you can remove your custom head and put it on any of Hasbro’s other 6 inch figures—is really going to make your mileage vary. I tried putting my head on a Marvel Legends Spider-Man, a G.I. Joe Cobra Viper, and a Black Series Obi-Wan Kenobi, and it either didn’t fit, or just looked comically small. I’m fairly tiny, but I’m not that tiny.
Conclusion
So ultimately, is getting your own Hasbro Selfie Series figure worth it? Only if you know its limitations. Spending $60 is a lot for a figure that doesn’t look as good as Hasbro’s licensed likenesses on normal figures, and doesn’t have anywhere near as many accessories, on toys that range from $25-35 usually. If you’re a die-hard Hasbro collector already, there’s the obvious thrill of being able to put yourself alongside the rest of your collection, but you’re just as likely to be frustrated at the lack of options for bodies or further tweaking potential.
Maybe down the line Hasbro will open up the Selfie Series to include more bodies to choose from, more options for custom accessories, and that simply as time goes on the facial scanning and printing process will get better. As a gift for a kid or a family member who’s not as nitpicky about toys as you might be, it’s a nice surprise. I’m pretty satisfied that I can hang out with Luke and Wedge as a Rogue Squadron recruit, but in general, for now it’s probably worth waiting to see how Hasbro grows the line as it makes it available in more and more markets.
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