(slow soft music)
- Hasbro's Selfie Series project all started years
and years ago when we realized that our fans wanted
to become the characters in the stories that they love.
Fans are a very social group.
They love to celebrate what they love.
They like to get together.
They like to dress up and cosplay their characters.
But ultimately, they wanna be immortalized in plastic,
right?
Fans just kept telling us,
"We want to become an action figure."
I remember at a con years ago,
we did a promo where we said, "Hey,
we'll make the top five fans that win this contest
into action figures."
And it was so huge.
People went crazy for that.
It wasn't until recently
that two technologies came into play at once.
One is a very simple way to scan someone's face and head,
and then a very affordable way to print that head
in a one off way.
And when those two things collided, we said, "Hey
I think the time is now to launch Hasbro's Selfie Series."
- And so we started pairing up the two and looking at that.
Brian had chartered us with, "Hmm,
how can we get this to market at scale?"
You hear so much out in the world
about something that's made custom for somebody,
but it has to be at scale,
it can't be astronomically priced.
We wanted to get it at a price point
that everybody could partake in.
When we first saw the scanning technology come in,
we knew there was an avenue there.
The materials were improving.
All of a sudden you could start seeing that there's a bridge
between that prototyping stage into the production stage.
And so, we looked at all the technologies that are out there
on the marketplace and there's certain strengths
that Formlabs offers that the other vendors do not.
The partnership with Formlabs really evolved around A,
the creation of a custom resin, right?
So we wanted to have a resin that was only available
to us that could cover off all the different skin tones
and hair tones that we would be looking
to put into an action figure, as well as the quality.
We wanted to make sure that we produced a custom figure
that matched or was better than what we currently had
on the market in a production figure.
- It's really a lot of iterative feedback from them
when we do come up with a color formulation.
Do you like the opacity?
Is it too matted?
Do you want it to be shinier?
Do you want this color to be darker?
Do I need a little bit more red in this one?
Together with Hasbro, many rounds of iteration,
we successfully delivered the colors
that they're looking for.
This project had demonstrated
in a very short period of time,
if you have a customer with a very strong,
clear idea in terms of what the product they want it to be
and pair it with a company like Formlabs
with really skilled scientists,
we can really create a customized product very quickly
and bring it to market.
- When we first started seeing the scans
come off the Formlabs printers,
we knew we had the quality down,
we knew we had the skin tones down,
we knew we had something there.
- 10 years ago, 3-D printing was not at the place
where it can reliably be used in these high-value,
high-customization type of jobs, but we've gotten there.
We have now the reliability, the precision
that we can participate in manufacturing.
Where 3-D printing really shines
is making one-of-a-kind products,
from one customer to the other customer,
making small or large deviation
in what exactly they want the part to look like.
- Mass personalization is kind of interesting.
And the way I look at it is, to the fan,
we're delivering one figure.
You know, there's nothing mass about it, right?
It's that bespoke figure that is you,
that you're gonna get in the costume that you want,
with the hairstyle that you want, with your face on it.
So, you are becoming that action figure.
Formlabs has really allowed us to do mass personalization
in a scale we never could even imagine a few years ago.
- Without customers like Hasbro,
we're not getting pushed to really the frontiers
of what's possible with our technology.
With 3-D printing, you have the ability
to literally day-to-day adapt
what you're shipping to customers,
and that's very valuable.
- Hasbro's about delivering these great experiences,
personal experiences, to anybody who wants 'em.
And that's what Formlabs is partnering with us
and allowing us to do.
It's what sets Hasbro apart from our competitors.
We have to find ways to do things differently,
to respond to trends, to fashion, to, you know,
where the consumer, the kids and the families are going and,
and be sure that we have products
that compel and delight them.
And I think what Hasbro's Selfie Series is allowing us to do
is have that ultimate relationship.
It's the beginning of many opportunities
that we'll talk directly with those fans
and deliver the experiences that they are asking us to make.
(upbeat triumphant music)