Movies & TV / Columns

SDCC: Hasbro Brand Preview Event Recap Featuring G.I. Joe, Transformers, Marvel, & More

July 21, 2023 | Posted by Jeffrey Harris
Hasbro Brand Preview - Deadpool and Bob Image Credit: Hasbro

The folks at Hasbro were nice enough to invite us out to their special brand preview event for this year’s San Diego Comic-Con, which made a welcome return. It was a great way to start the con out strong for me. The last SDCC Hasbro Brand Preview event I went to was before the pandemic lockdowns, and I have some special memories attending them, so getting to return to this year’s event was very special.

The brand preview event is basically a way to Hasbro to offer a tease of some of their new and upcoming products and reveals for San Diego Comic-Con, while holding back on all the reveals. This is only the first day after all, and they haven’t hit all their brand panels. Hasbro events have always been a highlight of any Comic-Con for me, and this year was no exception. This was a great way to get hands on and a first-hand look at Hasbro’s most exciting brands, including GI Joe, Transformers, Nerf, Magic: The Gathering, Star Wars, and of course, Marvel. Also, we were able to get up close to some really cool items, such as the G.I. Joe Classified Haslab HISS Tank, which is hopefully shipping later this year.

Starting things off with G.I. Joe Classified, the new HISS Tank is truly a thing of beauty. If you’re a toy collector or G.I. Joe fan, this 6″ scale vehicle is literally a dream made into reality. While the HISS Tank is a premium item and no means cheap to back, it comes with four figures, and it is freaking massive. The G.I. Joe brand team members allowed attendees to touch and play with the HISS Tank, and it looks like they hit it out of the park with this item.

Unfortunately, the other figures coming with the set didn’t make it to the event, but the new product shots look outstanding. The G.I. Joe team designers and brand managers are true fans, and you can see that in the Hasbro Pulse livestreams, they really went all out with this set. And it looks like they are doing so again with the HasLab Operation Dragonfly set, which recently was successfully crowdfunded and reached all its unlock tiers. The protoype of the Dragonfly copter is also on display at the Hasbro booth, and it’s also a thing of beauty.

The SDCC Hasbro Pulse convention exclusive figure, Philip “Chuckles” Provost,” was also on display at this event. Now, for this year’s convention, Hasbro did a type of digital, contactless pre-ordering for their hot-ticket convention exclusive items. That means, fans in attendance at SDCC will have to visit the Hasbro Pulse Desk at booth #3212 starting at preview night. There, attendees get a single-use code, which will allow them to visit the pre-order page for the exclusive figures at HasbroPulse.com. Using the code at checkout allows buyers to purchase the exclusive figures, such as Chuckles. Personally, I don’t mind this strategy since it takes away the stress of waiting in those dreaded exclusive item store lines, or worse, having to wait in other lines to get wristbands or tickets to shop at the show floor shops. And it looks like Hasbro has a very good amount of stock of these items, so I believe everyone who attends the convention will get a decent chance to buy these figures if they want them.

Fans of the classic, iconic G.I. Joe 1980s animated series will remember Chuckles as one of the new character in 1987 animated movie. He didn’t speak, but he was an absolute lunatic, grabbing missiles and throwing them in an obstacle course and then riding a chopper into battle underneath its rotor blades. Chuckles is also a fan favorite from the G.I. Joe comic book series, so it’s awesome to see this character fully realized in the Classified series and six-inch scale. What I love about the Classified series is all the detail and visual storytelling they pack into a single figure, and Chuckles is no exception.

A fresh reveal for the preview event was the G.I. Joe Classified Series Cobra HISS Fire Team 788, 110 set. This will be a new three-pack troop builder Cobra set that’s due out later this fall as a HasbroPulse.com exclusive and will be priced at $79.99. This features updates of the Cobra Officer, Range-Viper, and Infantry trooper with new paint decos and 35 accessory pieces. The set includes 11 blast and laser effects, backpacks, officer and infantry helmets, weapons, and more. It will also have a unique package showcasing the accessory loadout, character-specific File Card Icons, and original artwork, to make this a great display piece still in the box. Pre-orders for this set open on July 22 for HasbroPule premium members at 5:00 pm EST. It will then be available for all fans to preorder at 6:00 pm EST. It looks like these figures will also pair nicely with the HISS Tank set.

Hasbro also had two neat Transformers items on display during the event. The first one was the newest premium Robosen Robotics collaboration. It’s an Auto-Converting Robot version of Grimlock, King of the Dinobots. This is the latest item from Robosen based on the Transformers series. They’ve done Optimus Prime and Bumblebee, and now it’s Grimlock’s turn. Now to be clear, these are very high-end premium items. You can transform them using a digital app, and they are priced at $1,699. Grimlock is due out later this fall.

No only can the Robosen Grimlock transform from dino-mode to robot-mode and back, he’s the world’s first dual-form, bipedal walking robot with 85 microchips and 34 small, high-torque, high-efficient servo motors that create a seamless conversion. The figure also has 150+ original built-in audio lines that were recorded for Robosen by Gregg Berger, the original voice actor for Grimlock from the G1 animated series. The figure can also recognize 42 voice commands for hands-free interaction for conversion.

Robosen makes impressive products, and while I can’t afford an item like this, it’s amazing to see it in person. It makes for an impressive display piece to see an electronic, Bluetooth-enabled Transformer.

Also on display at the brand preview event was the new Transformers Legacy Evolution Armada Universe Powerlinx Hot Shot and Armada Universe Jolt. So for fans of Transformers: Armada, you will now be able to get an updated version of Hot Shot, and this time, he comes with a Mini-con from the show. This figure set will be priced at $44.99 and available later this fall. While I don’t love the price, I like that Legacy is providing a Hot Shot update with the Mini-Con, and his release his right around the corner.

Moving onto one of my favorites, the six-inch Marvel Legends series, the Hasbro Marvel team had an early look at the new Detroit Steel figure, which looks insane and like he jumped right out of the comics. There was also the reveal of a new Marvel Legends Lady Hydra agent, which the Marvel team was very mum on and couldn’t say much about. But it looks like we are also getting a Legends lady Hydra soldier.

Of course, fans attending SDCC will also be able to buy the exclusive Deadpool and Bob, Agent of Hydra set, which looks fantastic. The accessories for this set all look perfect as well. The Marvel Legends team, much like the GI Joe team are clearly fans, and it shows with their work. I enjoy when we can get more obscure deeper cut characters, and Bob drew a fan-following as well, so it’s great to see him in the line.

The Marvel team also showed off some of the new Epic Heroes figures and toys for the upcoming X-Men ’97 continuation of X-Men: The Animated Series. These include a new roleplaying Wolverine claw set that looks like something kids would very much enjoy, or some adults for that matter. There’s also a cut dancing Groove N Grow Groot, which does exactly as the name of the toy suggests. It dances and grooves and starts growing. This toy is also based on the I Am Groot animated short series on Disney+. The X-Men ’97 toys and the Groove ‘n Grow Groot are hitting shelves this summer.

Moving over to Star Wars there was some great new figures we could get up close with including the recently revealed Galen Marek set, which looks amazing. There is also new Black Series editions of Ahsoka Tano inspired by The Clone Wars and also Pre Vizsla, which also looks great. Hasbro displayed The Vintage Collection N-1 Starfighter from The Mandalorian and The Book of Boba Fett, and it looks to have an impressive level of detail. It’s priced at $129.99 and will drop later this fall. The Black Series figures of Ahsoka and Pre Vizsla will also be available in the fall.

Stay tuned as more of 411’s San Diego Comic-Con 2023 coverage will continue.

More Trending Stories

article topics :

G.I. Joe, Hasbro, SDCC, Transformers, Jeffrey Harris

More Stories

loading