hellpop

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.

If it's true that this wave is cancelled and won't be resolicited, then that's it. This has basically become a Marvel exclusive line for the past few years, and if even Marvel Minimates can't draw enough interest, then they are well and truly done. I sincerely hope that DST tries to rethink and relaunch them; they are, after all, owned by DST so it behooves them to try to reestablish the figure in some way.

Wow, he looks great.

Not after seeing that! Very nice work. I'll try to snap a pic and post it later today.