Overthinking Comics

Hasbro Fan Fest was a streaming event on Hasbro Pulse’s streaming channels on Friday, April 9, 2021. This event was very similar to a previous fan event that Hasbro held last year. This seems to be Hasbro’s substitution for convention appearances. In many ways, this is essentially like a string of panels that would be held at conventions, and there were a lot of reveals. There were six segments, each dedicated to a different action figure line.

The first three were Fortnite, Transformers, and Power Rangers. I am not a fan of any of those lines, so I mostly skipped these. However…

The Auto-Transforming Optimus Prime is pretty rad.

For a whopping $700, you get a whopping giant Optimus Prime that is computerized and motorized so that it transforms on its own, moves, talks, dances, flexes, and all sorts of other awesome things.

This is pretty darn cool, and I thought it was worth a mention.

After that, my favorite action figure property…

G.I. Joe

They first announced a Snake Eyes children’s mask, so they can dress up as their favorite ninja commando killing machine! Don’t forget the ninja sword accessory! You can also use the mini-bo-staff that breaks apart into lethal sais! Once your child is armed to the teeth, you will need the bandoleer to hold their lethal armory of destruction. Make your child the most lethal child in your neighborhood!

There is a new line of child’s 6-inch figures. It looks like the articulation is reduced, but they do have some nice details. These figures are not for me, but they do look nice. The Snake Eyes looks like a fairly typical take on Snake Eyes, the Stormshadow, however, looks like a hybrid between Stormshadow from the previous movies, and the Arctic Missions Stormshadow from the classified line.

The Night Creeper looks great, very true to the original figure. If this design were put on a Classified style figure, I would like that figure quite a bit. The red ninja is essentially a port of the Classified figure into this new line. Scarlet has some bright color applications,

They also announced some figures with motorcycles, for some ninja motorcycle action.

Now, Classified!

Stormshadow has an interesting off-white color finish to him, and a fairly nice “fully loaded” ninja design. Stormshadow comes with an alternate head to show off the actor’s likeness.

All of this wave of figures captures the likeness of the actors, and all of these designs are based on the characters from the movies. They look pretty great, and the lineup consists of Snake Eyes, Stormshadow, Baroness, Scarlett, and a new character, Akiko. I have never been too much of a fan of action figures based on the movie versions of Joes, so I may pass on these all together, but they are nice looking figures. I hope they sell well, paving the way for more Joes based on the classic toy versions.

Considering that I was expecting that Major Bludd and Alley Viper would be announced as dreaded Target exclusives, I am fairly happy.

Marvel

They started reviewing their retro figures, showing us the Wave 1 and 2 figures, then announcing wave 3 of Bullseye, Gray Hulk, Invisible Woman, Cyclops, Ant Man, and Vision.

They also showed more of the Walgreen’s exclusive Quasar figure, which looks pretty good as an addition to the cosmic team.

Now, and all new wave! The classic Ultron with the awesome energy leaking from his mouth was already announced, but will be in this wave. They also announced a very green Vault Guardsman, and a hologram Iron Man, which isn’t actually a hologram, but is instead a translucent blue Iron Man. There is also a stealth version of Iron Man, a classic suit, but in metallic dark blues to give him a darker look.

Also in this wave is a Riri Williams Iron Heart version of Iron Man, which is a great addition to get this modern iteration of the character into the line. One great thing about the Riri Williams is that she has double pinless knees and elbows, so she can also bend her arms more than the typical female figure. They added Dark Star from the Winter Guard to the line as well. The Build-A-Figure for the wave is Ursa Major, so if you want a big furry bear, this is the wave for you!

If all of that wasn’t enough Iron Man, they also announced a 90s version metallic Iron Man. So, I hope you like Iron Man. Seven figures in this wave, so get your Iron Man going.

Enough Iron Man, so they also announced an armored fat-Thor from the end of Endgame. He’s got cool energized hammer and axe, and he’s got his big old belly, so this is the fat Thor for you.

Then, they teased an Age of Apocalypse wave with Sabretooth! Excellent! They had one wave in 2020, and it had some cool figures, but also some second stringers. There were some very notable characters missing from the wave, and hopefully this wave will fill that out. This is one of the waves I am most waiting for, so I am happy to get the tease.

Star Wars

I am a sucker for cool Star Wars figures, let’s see what they reveal…

First off is some sort of creepy life-size Grogu figure, that moves and talks and performs all sorts of life like actions.

Next they jumped to the Vintage line. I have avoided this Vintage line, which I am happy for, because these figures look great! They had a Luke Skywalker in his Hoth gear, Han Solo in his Endor gear, and Admiral Ackbar! Finally, they finished the wave with the Emperor’s Royal Guard, in their fantastic crimson gear.

They are bringing some characters from video games into the Vintage line. The first of these is a heavy Battle Droid from Battlefront 2. Next is a Shadow Stormtrooper from Force Unleased. After that they showed us a Scout Trooper from Jedi: Fallen Order. Finally, they revealed a Purge Trooper from Jedi Fallen Order. These are some great looking figures!

Ok, Black Series!

General Lando was first, with his look from the latter half of Return of the Jedi. Ooooh… next up is an Aura Singg. That would look mighty good next to my Cad Bane figure. Also, a member of the Bad Batch crew, Tech. They revealed Zero from the Mandalorian, the nasty killer robot that went on that one adventure.

Also, Koska Reeves! That is a great figure to add to my Mandalorian team along with Bo-Katan. That will go on the pre-order pile.

Have you been missing some Blue Squadron from Rogue One? Looks like we are getting a Blue Squadron X-Wing fighter added into the Vintage line! Very cool! It is a Target exclusive, oh no! Good luck everyone!

Lastly, they are bringing back a figure from the archives of the Vintage line, and fans will get to vote on which they want to have reissued.