Three years after The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom reshaped what we expect from an open-world adventure, Hasbro is finally ready to give fans something they rarely get from this franchise: affordable collectibles. The new "Heroes of Hyrule" action figures, hitting pre-order today ahead of the series' 40th anniversary, mark a notable shift in how Nintendo is approaching its merchandising strategy. And for anyone who's ever winced at a $150 resin statue, this feels like a genuine win.
What's In The Box
The set covers the three main players from Tears of the Kingdom. Link and Zelda each stand six inches tall with a solid range of articulation, and both come with alternate hands for different poses. Ganondorf, the Demon King, is predictably chunkier and clocks in at $43 compared to the $28 price tag for the other two. Each figure includes a couple of accessories, though we don't yet know exactly which items will be packed in. Pre-orders go live later today on Amazon and Hasbro's own site, but the fine print stings: first shipments won't arrive until spring 2027.
Hasbro will be showing the line off in person at this weekend's San Diego Comic-Con 2026, and early photos suggest the faces are remarkably not cursed, which is genuinely a higher bar than it sounds. The detail work looks solid for the price point. My only real gripe is the ball joint connection on Zelda's torso making the top half look like a vest, but that's the trade-off for keeping these under thirty bucks.
The Timing Is No Accident
This launch is clearly calibrated around The Legend of Zelda's 40th anniversary, which Nintendo will likely celebrate with the same reverence it showed Super Mario's 35th. But there's a bigger piece on the board: the live-action Zelda movie arrives next year. Hasbro's "multi-year" licensing deal with Nintendo, announced earlier this year, suggests these figures are just the opening salvo. When that movie hits theaters, parents and collectors alike will want shelf-ready product that doesn't require a second mortgage.
The deal also means Hasbro, the company behind G.I. Joe and Transformers, is now the primary action figure partner for Nintendo's second-biggest franchise. That's a significant acquisition of cultural real estate, especially given the current AI arms race reshaping how toy companies think about production, marketing, and even voice contracts for animated properties.
What This Changes For Collectors
Up until now, high-quality Zelda figures have been largely the domain of premium collectibles. First 4 Figures' resin statues routinely run several hundred dollars. Good Smile Company's Figma line offers excellent articulation but at import pricing that can hit $80-$100 before shipping. Hasbro's entry at $28 and $43 represents a genuine tier shift in accessibility. You could buy all three figures for roughly the price of one high-end import, and that math matters when you're building a display shelf on a budget.
For parents, this is even more straightforward. The existing Breath of the Wild statue from First 4 Figures retails at $150, and good luck explaining to a kid why they can't touch it. Hasbro's figures are clearly designed to be played with, which aligns with the company's long history of producing toys that actually survive being dropped down stairs. (Speaking from experience: I owned that Breath of the Wild Link statue. My kids "own" it now, by which I mean it exists in several pieces.)
The Skeptic's Corner
Hasbro has had a rough couple of years. The company recently took a $56 million write-down on its gaming division, and its broader transformation strategy has involved significant cost-cutting, including a frankly alarming attempt to force child actors into signing AI voice contracts, a story that broke just last month. When a company is under that kind of financial pressure, product quality is sometimes the first thing to slip.
The "Heroes of Hyrule" line looks good in promo shots, but we've been burned before by figures that photograph well and fall apart on the shelf. The 2027 ship date also raises questions about whether these will arrive as originally designed or whether cost-reduction measures will have been applied to the production molds by then. Paying now for a product that won't ship for nearly a year requires a certain leap of faith.
There's also the broader question of whether the collectibles market is still booming or starting to cool. The pandemic-era surge in toy collecting has softened, and companies like Activision and AMD have both signaled that consumer spending on premium goods is becoming more cautious. Hasbro is betting that the Zelda brand has enough gravitational pull to defy those headwinds, and it might be right, but it's not a sure thing.
What's Coming Next
The "Heroes of Hyrule" line is the first major salvo in Hasbro's Nintendo partnership, but it almost certainly won't be the last. With the live-action Zelda movie on the horizon, expect a wave of movie-accurate figures, vehicle playsets, and probably a few bafflingly specific items that only hardcore fans will understand. (I am personally hoping for a korok seed display case, though I suspect that won't make the cut.)
The 40th anniversary also opens the door for legacy figures. Would Hasbro cycle back to Ocarina of Time or Wind Waker designs if these sell well? The licensing deal is multi-year for a reason. If this launch moves units, we could see the entire timeline rendered in plastic, from the Hero of Time to the Hero of the Wild. Place your pre-orders accordingly.
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