By Mike HeXt

[Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links.]

Imagine you’re Hasbro and you have the license for one of the hottest player vs player games out there. You produce your figures to look and feel absolutely amazing. They’re fun and you get them in major retailers. Now imagine the line goes to clearance with little to no marketing until it dies as quickly as it showed up.

No, I’m not talking about Overwatch. I’m talking about Hasbro’s Victory Royale 6-inch [1/12 scale] line.

So, what is up with this? Is the line being discontinued aka “rested” by Hasbro?

I reached out to Hasbro and Epic Games, the company who owns Fortnite. Unfortunately, at the time of this article, I have yet to receive a comment from either company, so we are left here to speculate.

In the history of the Hasbro Fortnite line, there has been no marketing outside of Hasbro’s PulseCon, where the talented designer Edgar officially revealed a Wave 4 that was already hitting retail. Other than that, there was no marketing… until March 10th, less than 24 hours after I emailed Hasbro about the lack of marketing, when they (coincidentally?) advertised TNTinna (Ghost), Aerial Assault Trooper, and Punk in an email and on Facebook. Was this a change? Would we see marketing in the future?

One would think since this license was won away from Jazware, there would be much love put into it by the more experienced Hasbro. Unfortunately, we have not seen anything from Hasbro. Instead, we’ve gotten Streamer coverage from YouTube skits by Fwoosh’s Robo featuring various 6-inch Fortnite figures and hints of future releases uncovered by Preternia.com to serve as marketing to the Fortnite community. It’s like Hasbro took this hard work and goodwill for granted and put no effort of their own in for these fantastic figures they crafted.

It is mind-boggling why marketing executives have put in a minimal effort for such high-quality line. Was it Epic pushing a guideline that said no marketing? I don’t think so, as Jazware started using popular Streamers to advertise their 3.75-inch figure line. They have even taken such steps as including digital items with their line. Meanwhile, companies like Marvel and DC comics had taken this step with their Fortnite crossover comics and saw a large return from players who collected or traded the codes.

Where are the main characters in Fortnite lore for Hasbro? There is no sign of Jonesy except a rumor of Agent Jonesy which we may never see. Not even a hint of Ramirez, the original hero of the game. The Seven only got 2 characters. The Foundation was an incredible figure that was supremely over-priced at $44.99 without weaponry. It was marked out of stock on Hasbro Pulse and found at clearance stores like Ross and Burlington Coat Factory for $12.99. The Scientist, another awesome deluxe figure with light up swappable feature, weapons, and other accessories, was a jaw dropping $44.99 as well but is now $15.99 at Entertainment Earth.

Hasbro has done successful crossover properties like TMNT x Power Rangers. So why have we not seen crossover Marvel/Epic characters like Cuddlepool Ravenpool or any of the Epic-inspired comic character designs? This game crosses more universal barriers than Marvel vs Capcom. It should be a toy-makers dream. It could be a collectors dream with every character in one place. The multipack potential is incredible. And now, Hasbro is teaming up with Mattel on some toys in the future. So, in the same type of reach, why can’t collectors see a first-ever Fortnite-inspired Batman vs. Spider-man 2-pack? It would also open a back door to popular characters that would look specular in Hasbro 6-inch Fortnite style.  Imagine Ash from Evil Dead or Predators, or Aliens, or other popular characters we haven’t seen in 6-inch form put into 2-packs with core Fortnite characters. How was this missed?

The game also loans itself to cool vehicles and larger characters. Before Hasbro got the license, Jazware was even working on a large version of the Mech figure from the in-game event. Unfortunately, this and many other items were canceled when the license moved to Hasbro. Jazware did manage to do some of the key characters for Fortnite unlike Hasbro. Jonsey, in his default season 1 look, and Peely made it into the line. They also made it into McFarlane’s short-lived 7-inch line which had even less marketing.

Fortnite prides itself on the diversity of the gliders they put in. Gliders are a key object in Fortnite, as players drop in from the Battlebus every match. Hasbro did dabble in 6-inch scale gliders but the price point was way out of the league of collectors for what was offered. McFarlane offered 7-inch scale gliders that didn’t go very deep but looked amazing and met their price range much better. To no one’s surprise McFarlane even did Fortnite’s dragon-styled gliders like Lavawing and Icewing.

Unfortunately, no company got to do the legendary Hot Ride Glider. This glider is a toy-lovers nostalgic dream. It is a cross between the Thunderhawk from M.A.S.K. and the flying DeLorean time machine from Back to the Future. Collectors would have loved to have gotten a scaled-up version that would have worked as a glider or even as a vehicle itself. Imagine your figures inside and hanging from a 1:12 scale flying car with lights and banging theme song sounds. How could one help sell this item? They could have included a code for the in-game version of it or a recolored variant of it.

But alas, another item we won’t see ever.

The Mech, the devourer, or Hot Ride could have easily been Haslab projects or even stand alone like the 1:12 scale Motorboat which was $76.89 on Hasbro Pulse before being “sold out” and put on their ebay [HasbroToyShop] for $61.61 but is currently down to $40.52 on Amazon.

Vehicles don’t even need to be large. Fortnite does have smaller ones. Hasbro pushed small accessories like a hoverboard aka driftboard, a loot shark, raptors, and arcade cabinets that are popular with customizers and diorama makers. But Hasbro avoided vehicles like bikes, planes, mech suits, cars, and more. McFarlane actually did the Shopping Cart in its 7-inch line.

At the time of writing this, there have been Amazon listings found by Preternia for another new wave, including key character Drift, Sgt Winter, Fade, and Charlotte. Preternia works hard scouring shipping reports and various international versions of Amazon for release information of the Fortnite figures. Any nugget of information he finds, he reports like a one-man marketing person. His clearly loves the line and is trying keep it going, but the orders for this new wave were quickly cancelled by Amazon.

So much potential for this amazingly detailed and fun line gone way too soon. The figures are hitting clearance. Their initial retail price points missing the mark for getting the next generation of 6-inch toy-buyer interested. Is it over for this line?

What is up with 6-inch Fortnite?

Hasbro, Epic Games, and Jazware were contacted with questions and comment but did not answer so we may never know.

About the author: Mike can be found at Mikehext24 on Instagram and @MikeheXt on Twitter.