2020 may be in the rearview mirror, but the global pandemic certainly is not. With this year’s cancellation of the New York Toy Fair, that left the Toy Association no choice but proceed with the first-ever all virtual TOTY awards. And while it didn’t have the same feeling as years’ past and left us jonesing for the annual plastic spectacle at the Javits Center, we were still happy to be able to experience it at all.
Before we get into the one piece of controversy from the award show, I wanted to shout out this year’s inductees into the Toy Hall of Fame – something that is always a part of the TOTY proceedings.
It was really great to see legendary heavy-hitters from the industry like Steiff, Rowland, and Killgallon who have contributed to lasting toy legacies like Steiff plushes, American Girl Dolls, and the Etch-a-Sketch [respectively] get recognition.
Onto the “controversy.” So McFarlane’s highly-anticipated, record-breaking, Kickstarter Spawn made the list, even though few have actually laid hands on it. Yes, at the time of writing this we are told that they have passed customs in the US and will beginning shipping out any day and YES – Dave and I are both beyond excited to get our hands on it. That being said, we’re both on board with it not winning the Action Figure of the Year award that went the one of two ways it should have; that being with Spin Master’s Batman figures, or with the #thankyouheroes line from Fisher-Price (which is where it landed).
Spawn did take home the People’s Choice Award to which we say, “fair.” No doubt an exorbitant amount of people voted for it, pushed by a campaign run by McFarlane Toys and due simply to the buzz the figure has been generating since May.
Below you can find the full list of winners from the show as well as a link to watch the presentation in its entirety.
Well wasn’t that something? The first of the virtual cons that ACTUALLY felt like a proper con – there were panels with interesting guests, product reveals, musical guests, and no technical mishaps to speak of. Since we’ve all been in the clutches of a global pandemic, many have tried to recreate the energy of a Con with varied degrees of success – Hasbro on the other hand has been doing with great success since they introduced Fan First Fridays a few months ago, culminating with the success of this past weekend’s event. Here are 5 highlights (in no particular order) of Pulse Con 2020.
The Guests
Often times getting to hear the inner workings of things from industry luminaries is part of what makes cons so special – Pulse Con was no exception. Whether it was hearing Frank Welker and Peter Cullen tell stories from inside the Transformers recording sessions (and of course, doing the voices live), Ernie Hudson talking about doing the Ghostbusters films, or a special musical performance (social distancing style) from Tenacious D, Pulse Con had a wide array of special moments to enthrall watchers in between the wallet-crushing product announcements. Speaking of…
Product Announcements and Preorders
Whether it was the Ecto-1, a look well into 2021’s Marvel Legends and Star Wars figures, the shock drop of Drizzt and Guenhyvwer, GI Joes, Power Rangers, or Transformers, there was no shortage of new products announced – and then made available for preorder same day. Most were available via hasbropulse.com and were easily obtainable – of course the store exclusives on Target and Walmart sold out almost instantly (sorry Joe fans).
The GI Joe Team
The Marvel Legends Team
Hasbro giving us a look into the future of products is always fun, especially when it’s the product designers themselves doing the talking. Big thanks to all of their hard work in making these awesome products.
Connecting with Fans
The #toycommunity is a massive online community that’s growing every day and Hasbro did not ignore that. Throughout the course of the two-day event, they took questions virtually, did live polls, and showed off toy photography (like you see above) and even crafted an entire “Mean Tweets” style segment cherry-picking some of the more, “flavorful” comments around the Marvel Legends product. This kind of engagement from a brand as massive as Hasbro is a great move – it makes the heavy-hitter seem more approachable, reachable, and shows that they’re listening. The virtual world is the ideal environment to tackle this too – given the disconnect our current world is forcing upon us.
Honoring Legacy
Two words: Mark Boudreaux. The legendary toy luminary retired from Hasbro earlier this year after giving us decades of incredible products – and even making something so iconic it eventually became canon. Twice during Pulse Con, Mark was given special segments detailing his Star Wars vehicle work and then his work on the Real Ghostbusters. It’s incredible to hear from someone as important as Mark, and I love that Hasbro took the time to really honor his legacy.
Crowd Funding
What do the Razorcrest and Heroquest have in common you ask? Three things actually. They are the next two Haslab projects over at Hasbro; they were both announced at Pulse Con, and they were both full funded in less than 24 hours. Yes you can safely back the 30″ x 20″ x 10″ Vintage Collection 1/18th Scale Razorcrest from the Mandalorian for $350 and join countless others enjoying the relaunch of HeroQuest for $100 knowing that you’ll get your product. With the exception of the 1:1 scale Cookie Monster (that can no longer even be found on the site) HasLab has been a great success for Hasbro bringing fans gargantuan products like Jabba’s Sail Barge, Unicron, and the Sentinel before.
Grab your Hasbro products on hasbropulse.com or start re-living Pulse Con 2020 below on YouTube!
