There will be plenty of guys at LRG that will always hate Mate Beasts. I can't blame them, necessarily. They've been collecting the same style figure for 25 years and it's all they know of the line. It's not a Marvel entity, for instance, where we've see a thousand toy variations on Wolverine. With the old Battle Beasts Line, there are no variances. There is an absolute beginning and end to the line. So I'm not surprised when people don't like them.
Personally, I can't wait to see what DST does with them. I've been collecting Minimates for year's, and it's been wonderful to see them evolve. They're not just pure blocks anymore, but I think that's the perception most have.