hellpop

Yeah, I like the prompts. And it gives me a good excuse to take a day off.

I'm skipping today, since I'm not a video game guy, but I'll be back tomorrow.

For anyone looking to make the Starjammers, here's a few recipe tips: -Ch'od is actually pretty easy, as a Pathfinder Goblin head on any number of Hulk bodies will fit the bill. -There's a skunk tail from the Peter Pan Minimates that works perfectly for Hepzibah, with a little glue. From there it's really just parts matching to get the look you want, since there are plenty of white female faces (I recommend Lady Death) white hairpieces, and yellow female chest blocks. -Raza is probably the toughest, since there's not going to be a face that matches him, but the Retro X-Force Cable chest is a perfect match for him, as is the Championspool ponytail.

Love ‘em.

Deathlok is arguably the most important Marvel character yet to be made, and Constrictor is one of my personal all-time favorites. Super excited to get both. This wave looks like a big win so far.

Fwoosh has a couple leaked images of Roadblock and Scarlett from the 6" GI Joe line, and I dunno what they are thinking. Rather than making them look like the classic Joes, they've gone with redesigns that make them almost unrecognizable. I think they've completely misunderstood the audience for this line; it's surprising, since they've done such a good job with Star Wars Black and Marvel Legends.

Apparently Hasbro is finally offering a 6" GI Joe line, so that will probably be the dominant collector news.

Cool! Sorry for the miscredit. My other artistic skills are even worse than my customizing, so that's as far as I'll be participating. But I do have some cool Minimate- compatible pieces to pull out, so I may get a little creative that way.

Luke did, I believe. His feed is where I first saw it. I'm gonna try to participate, though I suck at photos. But it's a chance to put up some customs I've had sitting around that fit the categories, so why not?

Personally, I think that "real" people Minimates plays away from the strength of the figure, and I'm not a big fan. A lot of the figures are fairly drab and not really eye-catching. I agree with BHM that figures in costumes like the Ghostbusters are a better sell. Aesthetically, I think comics and especially animation translates best to Minimates, and if I were DSTHellpop that's more what I would be focusing on.

Not to beat a dead horse, but AFI posted a DST Toyfair sneak peak, which includes no Minimates: http://www.actionfigureinsider.com/new-york-toyfair-sneak-peek-from-collectdst-black-widow-it-star-wars-and-more-nytf/ Always liked this emoji.

I think the biggest problem Minimates face is just general apathy. Big retailers aren't interested in a niche toy line that's been around for so long. Smaller ones have moved onto other things and don't want to give them another try (possibly because they still have old dusty sets on their pegs). And even at DST there just seems to be a general lack of urgency to try new things and innovate with the figures. To me, this is a real shame because I think Minimates are far and away the best specialized toy. The design is much better than any other minifigure, and unlike Pops or other stylized toy (including Vinimates), they aren't static. I don't really know what the answer is; obviously Toys R Us going out of business was terrible, and I don't know if Minimates will ever recover. But it seems to me a toy that's worth saving, and that with some innovation it could get people interested again. Just because Minimates aren't fresh and new anymore doesn't mean they can't be exciting.

AFI (yes, they still exist) posted some shots of this with Playskool and Lego figures. Looks pretty tiny: http://www.actionfigureinsider.com/hall-of-justice-funko/

Someone killed his dog.

Still holding out hope that the movie-only villain is Batroc.