Everyone is the hero in their own stories, they say. Now, for an introductory price of just $59.99, you can be a superhero—thanks to a creative partnership between toy giant Hasbro Inc. and 3D-printing innovator Formlabs of Somerville, Mass.
Hasbro Selfie Series allows fans to create 6-inch collector-grade pieces using the program. It was first announced at San Diego Comic Con in July. [152.4 mm] Based on characters from television shows and comics, the action figures are modeled after them. G.I. character costumes were among the first offerings. JOE, Ghostbusters and Power Rangers are some of the first offerings. There will also be designs inspired by Star Wars characters.
“We have done extensive research to truly understand the fan’s ask for a personalized product, and the team has done a fantastic job at making that dream a reality,” said Brian Chapman, Hasbro president of design, development, and innovation. “The innovation on this proprietary technology is truly remarkable, and we cannot wait to give fans the opportunity to add themselves to their collections.”
3D Customization
With additive manufacturing (AM), this program will usher in a new age of customization in consumer entertainment. But the toys aren’t just kid stuff; the process promises to revolutionize a range of consumer products.
“Formlabs printers are ideally suited for this endeavor as they offer the ability to print with a custom resin, enabling a range of hues for hair and skin colors without any hardware upgrades to Hasbro’s existing Form 3,” explained Gary Rowe, the company’s head of business development.
According to Formlabs, the digital fabrication platform includes high-performance printers, software and materials that allow any company to create a scalable manufacturing process that allows mass customization and mass production.
For the Selfie Series program, Hasbro operates more than 30 Form 3 SLA printers and runs specialized versions of Formlabs’ PreForm and Dashboard software to integrate the 3D-printing company’s programming interface into its own manufacturing processes.
This fall saw the start of consumer orders. At first, only the United States was available. It takes around 45-60 days to print and deliver the customized figure after a customer has placed an online order.
Getting Started
Hasbro has been exploring 3D printing for over a decade. But, like other consumer products companies, it determined there wasn’t a business case for mass-production customized products at the time.
“Ten years ago, 3D printing was not in a place where it could be reliably used in these high-value, high-customization type of jobs,” David Lakatos, Formlabs’ chief product officer, acknowledged in a joint video about the Selfie Series. This has all changed. ”We now have the reliability, the precision that we can participate in manufacturing.”
Launched in 2011 by a trio of MIT graduate students, Formlabs has continually improved its AM technology—and made it more affordable—to help it expand from industrial to consumer applications. In recent years, for example, the company has teamed with industry partners to make 3D-printed earbuds, customized men’s razor handles, jewelry molds, ventilator parts, and false teeth.
Hasbro started working with Formlabs in 2014, using the company’s 3D printers to rapidly prototype action figures. However, the toys company had larger plans. This was fueled by customer demand to create custom products.
“We applied that prototyping knowledge to ensure we could deliver the quality our fans wanted,” explained Patrick Marr, Sr., Hasbro’s director of model development. He said the company has created custom “one-off” figures to support product development and specific corporate initiatives for years.
Advanced Facial Scans Meet AM
Marr pointed out that the project revolves around two technologies being combined. “The first piece was identifying the right additive manufacturing (AM) technology to deliver finished parts that met our aesthetic and quality standards.”
After considering a variety of AM companies, Hasbro selected Formlabs due to the high quality of its stereolithography printers (SLA), and versatile resins. According to the partners, SLA resin-based printing allows for smoother, thinner and more visible layer lines (as low at 50 micron thickness), that look almost like an injection-molded part.
The other major enabler was smartphone technology. These include the introduction of depth sensors that make 3D scanning easier and photogrammetry technology, which creates a 3D model out of still images.
Face scanning is done through the Hasbro Pulse mobile app, which enables the company to remotely capture a user’s likeness quickly and easily. Marr explained that the system can be used with Android and iPhone phones, as well as compatible with multiple versions.
“When we first saw the scanning technology come in, we knew there was an avenue there. … All of a sudden you could see there was a bridge between the prototyping stage and the production stage,” Marr added.
“The team did a tremendous job developing a process that captures our fans’ likeness and projects onto our proprietary head buck,” he continued. “From there, the customer can adjust their detected skin tone, choose their favorite figure, decide on a hairstyle and color, and add any facial hair to capture their true self. The app seamlessly leads the consumer through the entire process showing each step in amazing 3D renders.”
The team worked on all aspects of the infrastructure, tools, processes, and processes needed to produce at scale. “Every aspect of the production process and fixtures had to be designed, developed, and tested before we could implement them into our production process,” Marr noted.
Make a Superhero
The goal was to produce a custom figure that matched the quality, or was better, than Hasbro’s existing off-the-shelf, mass-production action figures. They had to look real and be extremely durable.
To get the job done, it required constant testing, innovation, collaboration, and experimentation. The Selfie Series was “definitely one of those projects that brought together many great minds across multiple departments to solve,” Marr said.
“We understood very well how to produce at a small scale,” he added. “I would say most of the time was centered around creating a system that worked at scale. Every aspect of the file handling, automation, part tracking, sorting, and assembly had to be figured out.”
For example, the material had to be skin safe and durable, meeting Hasbro’s high standards. The partners used Formlabs Tough 1500 resin as a template to create a proprietary material that allows 3D printing of parts with the same stiffness and strength as polypropylene.
“Selfie Series required a material with the right quality surface finish, high resolution detail, the right skin color match, and mechanical properties,” Rowe said, “yet would still have a high toughness without being too brittle—these action figures are designed to be played with.”
Hasbro 3D-prints the heads at its micro-manufacturing plants around the country. This allows it to be near customers and scale up production according to demand. The process can print 25 different heads at once.
After they’re printed, the customized heads are painted—including eyebrows, eyes, lips, and teeth—polished, and complete final post-processing. They are then paired with the appropriate offhand, injection-molded body.
The hair pieces are pre-manufactured—users can choose from more than 50 styles. Glasses and other accessories currently aren’t available as part of Hasbro’s process but buyers can have them printed separately elsewhere on their own.
What’s Next
Rowe says that Formlabs has been able to benefit from the Hasbro program in more ways than just toys.
“Hasbro Selfie Series is one of, if not the first example of, mass customization with 3D printing. Formlabs is enabling companies to create unique and customized products in tech, healthcare and dental, and other sectors.”
The action figures are the beginning of “a wave of mass customization that will become mainstream in the coming years as companies recognize its value,” Rowe envisioned. “Personalized products can engage consumers and can even provide benefits such as improved patient outcomes when used in healthcare and dental applications, and Formlabs’ affordable and versatile 3D-printing solutions are enabling this wave.”
This customization will likely be extended to other products in the future, including shoes, glasses, and golf clubs. This would enable buyers to specify various parameters—fit, shape, weight, material, texture—to meet their needs and usher in a new era of practical applications for 3D printing.