DocVicVonDoom

OK, now I've gotten the shipping e-mail. Dr. Strange, Namor, Hulk, Valkyrie, and Web-Armor Spidey all in the same package!!

I still haven't gotten my shipping e-mail yet, just the "shipping soon!" e-mail.

sure Doom has obtained it and Doom shall assist you in your query, not because of your paltry request, but because it suits Doom's master plans to do so. The Scarlet Spiders unmasked at the end of Avengers: The Initiative 7 are none other than Von Doom bravado aside, I hope this helps you out

Yeah it is pretty much a rip, but it did give me an excuse to order the Defenders set from AFX and thus get it quicker than waiting for other stores to get theirs after the fact. Unfortunately, they inexplicably didn't put the Defenders (or practically any other) minimates into the Holiday special... whatever. Luckily, my mom was complaining about needing some bookends and she loves Harry Potter so I picked up those Harry Potter bookends that they had offered. Still, I'm not too happy about the nearly 13 bucks in shipping I had to pay, but it'll all come out in the wash.

Hey, I'm just curious, what are the chances of the possibility of Avatar: The Last Airbender minimates. I think it is a series popular with a wide-enough age group to make minimates worthwhile. Also, I think the designs of the characters lend themselves well to the 2-inch goodness that are minimates. This is especially true since the M. Knight Shamalan directed films will likely keep the momentum for the show's popularity rather strong. Just a thought. Thanks for taking your time to answer our questions.

Amen to that. They'll come out when they come out, I know it's a little frustrating, especially when you have them pre-ordered, but there are so many things to enjoy in life... When the mates come out, we'll be giddy and ecstatic... then we'll be frustrated by the wait we'll have to endure between waves 16 and 19 & 20 (no offense to people looking forward to Ghost Rider and Spidey 3 movie-mates). But it's all part of the game.

Thanks to DST's awesomeness in the newly announced waves 19 & 20 covering nearly half of my old list, it's time for an update: * Molecule Man * Impossible Man * Blink (AoA/Exiles) * Psylocke * Nova (Frankie Raye) * Maximus the Mad (yeah, longshot I know) * Gambit * Tigra * Wasp * Kang the Conqueror * Six-armed Spider-Man * Weapon X Wolverine (w/helmet) Fun Fact (UPDATE!): the only characters we need to recreate the Secret Wars now are: Captain Marvel (Photon), The Wasp, Enchantress, Kang the Conqueror, Klaw, the Lizard, Molecule Man, Titania, Volcana, The Wrecker, Bulldozer, Piledriver, Thunderball, and the Mohawk version of Storm

Now that I think upon it, I wonder which one is the variant mate for this set: obviously one of the 2 Kirks or 2 Spocks in this line of 7 characters, but does anyone have an inside track on which one? Just thought I'd ask.

OOOOH yeah... Slave Kirk, from that planet that just so happens to be an exact duplicate of Earth, only with the extrapolation that the Roman Empire never fell.... yeah that's believable and not full of holes, as well as that insipid pseudo-Christian message at the end... still all in all not a bad episode, especially compared to the following episode: Assignment: Earth.

I have heard a rumour through my LCS that Bruce Timm's Batman Beyond Universe is being incorporated into the DCU proper, I'm not yet sure of the veracity of this, nor what form it might take. (Be it one of the 52 universes created as a result of Infinite Crisis and 52 or whether it is legitimately Batman's actual future) The point of this is (and not to raise any hopes) if this true, there might be legitimate potential in the future that Batman Beyond minimates could feesably come out in future lines. I'm curious as to how they might be recieved and who better to ask than the most knowledgable collectors of minimates, the patrons and caretakers of the good ole MMMV. Batman Beyond (Terry McGinnis), Old Bruce, Blight, Shreik, Inque, Curare, The New Royal Flush Gang, The Jokerz (The better version from Return of the Joker and the JLU episode Once and Future Thing Part II) are all great designs in my opinion, and this rumour allows me to dare to hope that it might be a possibility, and for all those who are skeptical that they might not be popular enough to be made into minimates: Ambush Bug & Ma Hunkel Thoughts? Opinions? Wanna tell me to shut up?

I could be wrong but one of them looks like Ambasador Sarek of Vulcan, I think his son might be someone of relative importance to the Star Trek series.

I was hoping for Mary Marvel's new black outfit from Countdown, but I'll take what they give me. White would have been awesome too though.

No words... should have sent a poet!

I've got one: Screamer a.k.a. Elsie Manning, a British sorceress with a taste for punk-style clothing. She was one of the wizards chosen at the Temple of Three, in which Dr. Strange was victorious in combating the Ashanti and achieving the title: Sorcerer Supreme. She appears only in a few panels of the graphic novel, Dr. Strange/Dr. Doom: Triumph and Torment.

Ocean Master is Aquaman's Eeeeeeevil brother Orm, following his attempt at stealing Aquaman's trident and usurping Atlantis' throne, and getting his ass handed to him by his brother, Orm decided the best way to take over Atlantis would be to don a goofy looking suit and challenge Aquaman with his own psuedo-trident... though it seems to have done little to curtail the subsequent ass-handings that Aquaman has given him.

DCD does not fail to impress me yet again. If they could have asked me to choose one Titan, from all of the incarnations of the team, it would have been Starfire, no question. I'm very pleased with the look of the figure, very in keeping with the George Perez style. The bust size is, as mentioned, a little on the small sized, and I noticed that all of the paint on the front of the torso piece appears to be a little off-center, so hopefully these two issues will be limited to the prototype and be corrected with the market release. It only makes sense to package Starfire with Nightwing, and I am gratified that they did not just repackage the C3 Nightwing (which I admit I procured on eBay) because, for me anyway, this new Nightwing is different enough to still be interesting. Also for display purposes, those of us with the 2 different Nightwings can have one with the Teen Titans (whenever the rest of them get released) and one doing solo Bludhaven stuff. Also, I noticed that they are packaging Dick Grayson together with Starfire and not with the recently released Barbara Gordon Batgirl figure, or a new Oracle figure. I read into this as a Starfire/Nightwing 'shipper' and as someone who thinks that the attempt of a relationship between Dick and Barbara was a little overblown in the recent and admittedly well-done Nightwing Annual. Just an observation as to how linked the characters of Starfire and Nightwing are, and how it would make much more sense to put them back together in the comics... but I digress. As for the Flash, I'll quell the debate right now: If you want this new Flash to be Wally West, then he's Wally West; if you want him to be Barry Allen, he's Barry Allen; if you want him to be Bart Allen, for whatever reason that might be, he will be Bart Allen. The beauty of the Flash costume is that it all the incarnations are similar enough that the man inside the suit is almost incidental. In that I already have a C3 Flash, for example, to me this will be Barry Allen, so that I can have Wally, Barry, and Jay Garrick all together. But if anyone isn't so fortunate as to have found a C3 Flash on eBay, or even during the original release, then this Flash IS Wally West... beautiful, no? Gorilla Grodd pairing is both natural, and a little unexpected because of the difficulty inherant in translating simians into miniature action figure form, but I for one am impressed and pleasantly surprised. I'm very excited about Clayface, he's another one I just did not see coming, I thought for sure that Two-Face, Poison Ivy, Ra's al Ghul, even the Scarecrow or the Mad Hatter would be released before Clayface, it just occured to me that they might try and release as many human-looking batman villains before they got into the more monsterous ones... but again I am pleasantly surprised. A new Batman.... meh, it looks nice and all, but as many others have mentioned, Bats seems to be suffering from Wolverspideritis: the condition by which excessive unnecessary variations on the same theme of a single character are produce ad nausiam. But I'll still buy him just to get Clayface. After Starfire, the minimate I'm most eager to get is Lobo, words fail me to describe the depths of Lobo's awesomeness... the hook which appears to be his accessory in the prototype figure, should almost certainly be attatched to his wrist chain in the final release. And then there's Ambush Bug... I'm sure there are a number of people looking forward to his release... I do not number myself among them. Either I'll just break down and get the two pack when it comes out and just suck it up, or I'll wait a bit and see if anyone's selling Lobo alone here or on eBay, like I did with Batman (OMAC? Seriously? no thanks), and like I plan to do with Red Tornado (whom I like well enough, but not enough to be saddled with Ma Hunkel, just my opinion). So there's my stand, long-winded as it may be.

Doom has to weigh in on this villain question. First of all the whole question of "heroes" and "villains" stems from an entirely relativistic point of view.... I mean if I oppress and maintain a state of terror over... let's say the citizens of Latveria, with my... purely hypothetical... blindly obediant army of killer robots; would that make me a villain.... Don't answer that. Seriously though, it is time there was appropriate villain representation in the Marvel line. That being said, I'll throw my two cents in, both in what I would like to see from the next two lines, and how to make them, like Latveria's answer to Fox News: Doom News, Fair and Ballanced. Wave 19: Avengers Wave 2: Electric Boogaloo * Ultron/Vision * Kang/Hawkeye * Giant Man/Wasp * Variant - Ant Man/Wasp While not as exactly ballanced as I might have implied above, this wave is chocked full of characters we want, with 2 high profile villains, and 2 characters (ok 1 character and a head) which will have already been produced in zombie form, and if they want to be even cheaper, substitute Black Panther for Hawkeye (I don't know if DCD and DST can share pieces or how that works... but I would think painting Green Arrow's accessories purple would make Hawkeye an easier product to release) Wave 20: HULK WANT MORE 'MATES * Abomination/Powerhouse Hulk * General Thaddeus "Thunderbolt" Ross/Doc Leonard Sampson * Big Brainy Leader/Rick Jones the variant could actually be a number of choices for Mr. Jones: * Rick Jones as Bucky OR * Captain Mar-Vell (you know since they had to switch places in the Negative Zone) OR they could just pull what they did with the Sentry and have a long haired variant and a short haired standard Assuming, for whatever reason, we do not get a Powerhouse Hulk in the Defenders pack, one needs to come out, and who better to pair a big-chested Hulk with, than a big-chested Abomination. Thunderbolt Ross is such a mainstay of the Hulk Universe: heroic, but not a hero; villainous, but not a villain: just a man with a job to do for Uncle Sam. And who doesn't want a long-green-haired Doc Sampson minimate to round out the rest of our favorite gamma powered friends and foes.... and just think, whenever DST gets around to releasing X-Factor Minimates, we can have Doc psychoanalyse all of those nutballs.... especially Quicksilver. Everyone knows the key mistake for the last Leader minimate was the chice of the "big forehead" version of Sam Sterns. Since its release, I have been hoping that DST would remedy their mistake and release a new version with bi-lobed, veiny, brainy goodness... and preferably a better facial expression. Rick Jones is a key normal human character for not only the Hulk franchise, but for Captain America, Captain Mar-Vell, and of course, the Teen Brigade <crickets chirp> ...... anyone..... ok forget the Teen Brigade, my point is still valid. Also at the rate that the Marvel 'mates are coming out, wave 20 should be just in time for the new Incredible Hulk movie, now's the time to plan on jumping on that bandwagon, even if DST doesn't (as I pray they don't) make this a Hulk movie wave, just as they did with Hulk and Daredevil in wave 1. In any case it would be better than waiting for months after the movie is fogotten and the DVD is collecting dust on our shelves <cough Ghost Rider cough X3 cough Spider-man 3 cough> sorry, must be coming down with something. *EDIT* Having just seen Boyd's new custom Brainy Leader and Doc Sampson minimates, I stand even more firmly by what I have written... they are simply awesome, and I suggest everyone go and check them out.

OK Looks, like DCD seems to be paying attention and forces me to knock off two of my characters, so I'll replace Starfire and Lobo with... * Two-Face - One step closer to a full Arkham Asylum * Deadshot - Everybody's second favorite DC assassin Furthermore the new Clayface MM that we've seen looks suspiciously similar to the B:TAS Bruce Timm design of the character, the first to look more like his animated counterpart in a long line of comic-style interpretations... this gives me much hope for characters like Mad Mod (Murakami's style in the Titans animated series would be a far more aesthetically pleasing and relevant choice), Dee Dee (I still say direct market fans would appriciate a whole Batman Beyond line or boxed set), and A.M.A.Z.O. (whose comic version, quite frankly, sucks, and would be easier and cheaper to "mini-fy" in the Bruce Timm JL/JLU style)

Just a guess, anything's possible from DCD now Two-Face/Poison Ivy Black Canary/Zatanna Raven/Dr. Light (Dr. Arthur Light/the bad one) Modern Martian Manhunter/Solomon Grundy

Say, is it just me, or would this wave have met with much more approval if it had been comic versions of Mephisto and Blackheart, different comic versions of Ghost Rider and Johnny Blaze (maybe Danny Ketch variant), and even comic versions of Roxanne and the Caretaker? Personally I would have been much more excited about awesome fiery demon Mephisto, instead of Peter Fonda (no offense to Mr. Fonda)... or would Mephisto and Blackheart, in their comic book forms, not make suitable looking minimates? Opinions?

Thanks, I am rather proud of my choices An Inhumans box-set would be awesome for any of us Dr. Doo...er, I mean Fantastic Four fans. Black Bolt is, of course, a must not only for the Inhumans but also for Illuminati recreation, especially with Dr. Strange confirmed and Namor as very possibly being in the same set, hopefully coming out this year, BB is all we'll need for that grouping. If they limit the box-sets to 4 or 5 though Maximus, Karnak and Gorgon all have a chance like you said, but Medusa could be used in a Frightful Four set, unless they go with Titania. Also, you forgot Crystal, BBDarkhawk, though she would go well in an alternate FF set or two-pack, with FF She-Hulk or She-Thing. Then there's Triton... yeah, I'm cool if they skip Triton.

DocVicVonDoom is an abbriviated form of Doctor Victor Von Doom, the formal name of the Fantastic Four's archnemesis: Dr. Doom (although it is never formally shown in the comics that he actually has a PhD, presumably someone of his genius either obtained one or several from Latvarian Universities (unless there is only one) after becoming king of that country, or otherwise I'm sure was granted one or several honorary PhDs from said univerities (or university) following said coronation.) The Avatar is a nice pic of minimate Doom in front of a great Jack Kirby rendering of Doom .... as you might be able to tell I am a bit of a fan of Doctor Doom's... Let's all hope they pull him off better in FF: RotSS on Friday

Although wave 5 is the best one yet, simply because among other good characters, there are 2 Dooms... Nuff said... however, I have not looked forward to a Marvel wave the way I am Wave 16... there is literally not 1 minimate from the Avengers wave that I do not want... not quite so with all the other waves, wherin there were always at least one or two figures I didn't really want... with the possible exception of Wave 8, of which I have many and would not be opposed to getting the ones I'm missing, but at eBay prices, I'm content with what I have for now.

Ultron/Kang the Conqueror Molecule Man/Enchantress The Lizard/Klaw with a Curt Connors Chase, or perhaps a Connors in mid-transformation into the Lizard Chase This is great on many levels. 1) Ultron and Kang are classic Avengers villains, and with wave 16 coming out in less than a month, we'll see a swelling in the minimate ranks of that team, but with only Loki and Absorbing man really around to pit against them, and both of them are really more Thor solo villains. 2) Enchantress is also known for taking on the Avengers, but, like Loki and Absorbing man also makes a great foil for Thor alone, also there are precious few Marvel villainess minimates available now... off the top of my head I can think of Mystique , Lady Deathstrike.... maybe White Queen, one could argue, and.... that's really all I got... so yeah, equal opportunity and all that. 3) Klaw is yet another potential Avengers villain, who also has ties to the Fantastic Four, themselves in dire need of villains, having only Dr. Doom, Galactus, and Super Skrull to fight against, and also is the nemesis of the Black Panther (who needs to be minimate-ified himself) 4) Molecule Man is one of my personal favorite villains, his distinct "Lightning Bolt" marked face would look awesome on a minimate, he is a character who would also go along well with the FF, but could stand on his own as a cosmic presence, like Thanos, the Silver Surfer, or Galactus. 5) The Lizard is one of the most recognizable Spider-Man villains, and we all love more Spidey villains, and haven't we all been clamoring to see the Lizard in a Spider-man movie since the first one? DST/AA could even do something really creative like they did with the Chameleon/JJJ chase and have a removable Lizard head over the Curt Connors head, or switch them out like the tongue lolling Venom. 6) Perhaps most important to me, if this was released as an all-villains wave, in one wave, it would put us all 6 steps closer to getting everyone needed for Secret Wars reenactment. The only villains needed would be the Wrecking Crew (the four of which would make a better set on their own ala Giant Sized X-men #1 box set) and Volcana and Titania, who weren't summoned to Secret Wars but were created by Dr. Doom (I do what I can with whatever technology is around), and if all of the other Secret Wars characters ever get made, would make a good convention or Target or TRU exclusive 2-pack. so there you have it.

I think the Zombies are a great novelty (just don't think about story contradictions, it'll make your head hurt) and fit very well into minimates, i guess it's the dichotomy of the horrible and the adorable. Most likely I'll get the SDCC exclusives and the 5-pack this September... Though just to be safe, I think I'll keep them seperate from my regular minimates.... just in case.