Gillbob316

Better Idea: Use a Blow Dryer. My Astnonishing Cyclops (And TONS of other toys in the past, minimates to heroclix to marvel legends) have had stiff, popped open, or awkwardly bent joints, and this is a method I swear by. Blow dryers get'em good and hot, good and fast without reaching a melting point, or getting toys wet. I've had Marvel Legends that came with their hands fastened on backwards (or not at all) before, just softened'em up, popped'em off, and right back on again. This also works good for softening up the paint on painted shut joints. Works like a charm everytime.

--> QUOTE(Donny B @ Oct 5 2006, 11:52 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Okay... you first Personally, I think that qualifies as a withdrawl from both of you. As for me, I adamantly refuse too!

Tell me about it...

6" figures have a bigger market in general than normal figures, and Marvel Legends (and its many sister toy lines) are highly saturated with Spider-Mans, Wolverines, Hulks, Things & Iron Mans. And it does have its fair share of pegwarmers. Characters like Namor, Black Panther, Dr. Strange, Maestro, Vengeance, Sabretooth and lots of other guys who aren't the biggest headliners have been known to collect dust on shelves for quite a while. The figures that sell out are the ones that dominate each shipment, like Wolverine, in any form, or the ones that only come 1 or 2 per case, like Hawkeye and Vision.

I sometimes wonder who they think their customer base is. Are they trying to reach a mass-market and each new X-men line is intended to break that market, for that matter are their X-men lines selling well? I guess I could understand why they kept putting out X-men and Spider-man if there were sales figures to back it up. But I'm willing to bet that their sales in the mass market are pitifully low. That the collectors are the ones really driving the sales and that X-men minimates only account for a small increase in sales. If that small increase is all that's keeping the line afloat I guess we've got to live with more X-men but damnit, I want a Doctor Strange and Namor so I can have a collection of Defenders. I'm pretty sure they've said repeatedly in Q&A's that specialty market minimates take up a relatively small proportion of sales as compaired to mass market. Yes, they realize that we're a key market, but we're not the ones driving the sales, no matter how much we like to think we are. I mean think about it. We get more characters yes, but they sell maybe two cases of 2-Packs of each series, many of which just stay there for months (Who hasn't seen an abundance of leftover crap sets at their local shop? Mine had Rhino vs Grey Hulk marked down to $1 a pack) to a handful of comic book stores across the country vs selling several cases of 4 packs to every toys r us in the country. A case of nothing but Iceman & Wolverine sets would stay stagnant at any comic book store you put it in for months. Wheras they can put one in every target in the US and sell it out in a week or two. Collectors like X-Men, Spider-Man, and all the other stuff. We buy regardless. Kids like X-Men and Spider-man, and coudl take or leave the other stuff. As much as I'm not thrilled about these lastest 3 lineups, frankly they make perfect sense from a sales standpoint. Put Hawkeye vs Namor on the shelf, and we buy it, but an average 10 year old could give a damn. Put X3 Wolverine vs X3 Juggernaut on the shelf, and we all buy it.

Alrighty... When I saw those last 2 entries, to me, they clearly looked like they were done by the same person. They're essentially exactly the same, stylistically, despite being entered under 2 accounts... And the two accounts have very similar sigs... And furthermore, if you right click them and check their original URLs under properties, they're both from the same photobucket account... I'm sorry, hate to be a finger pointer really, but it was my understanding that we were only allowed 1 entry?

I can't say for sure, because I obviously didn't make them, but using my keen artistic eye and whatnot, I'm pretty sure both contained a good mix of both.

Oh trust me, I know exactly what you're saying, and I more then appreciate this wonderful opportunity they've presented. These are just things that weigh heavily on my mind is all. And I fully agree that the prizes are spectacular and the opportunity is wonderfully appreciated. If they suddenly said, "Okay, forget the alternate prizes, they're gone now" I'd still be wonderfully appreciative of this contest they've given us. But is the point of the alternate prize options not to give an option to those who might be less interested in a Maximate, because they may have one already or something to that effect? It is still an art competition afterall, it's not as if the entrants aren't doing some work here too. If anyone else is like me, we all spent days on these entries, and most of us will walk away with nothing. It's not unfair of us to have a bit of curiousity and anticipation about the glory and riches that might be in our futures. Hehe... I feel like a kid a few days before Christmas frankly, looking under the tree, and wondering what could be there. And as we all know, kids full of X-Mas anticipation can quickly end up looking ungrateful, even if they don't mean to be. *Shrug* I was just looking for a little clarification as all. It's not as if I was trying to say, "Hey Ady! Screw your prizes. Give me cash!" I am MORE, far far MORE then anxious and excited about this contest, and I love Minimate Multiverse for presenting it. Heck it gave me a reason to come out of my lurker shadows and make an account. My extreme apologies to Ady, and everyone, if I came off as anything but appreciative of this super wonderful contest. Thank you for this wonderful opportunity, and best of luck to all my fellow entrants.

I can't speak for everyone, but for me personally, I could really give a crap about the Javelin, all my C3 sets except the Batmobile are still in their baggies, it's Flash and Martian Manhunter that I want. I mean C3 is discontinued now, and neither of them are slated for the DC Minimates sets as far as I know, and until those sets are released we really don't know how well those will do past the first three waves anyway, or if either character will ever see a re-release in those sets. As a Marvel fan, Marvel sets I always buy immediately upon finding them, but I personally, didn't buy a single C3 set (except the batglider because I love Catwoman) until they all started getting marked 75% off at Toys R Us. As such I still managed to get everything from the first series except the Mini-Batmobile, and the 5 mini-flyers who aren't Flash. (Hooray for $10 Batcaves btw) But many sets had grown scarce by then, so I thusly missed the series 2 sets, the Mini-Javelin, the Batcycle & the Batcopter. Soooo... I have pretty much every DC character made except Man-Bat, Robin, and those two. Now, the batcopter I'm not worried about too much, because it just had another wacky Batman variant, so "Meh." (But those go for quite a bit of $ these days too in the hardcore collector market) The Man-Bat and Robin sets still pop up on ebay fairly regularly, so their prices stay fairly low, and I imagine I'll get them eventually. Mini-Javelins however, almost never pop up, and are the only way for some of us who want every character to get Martian Manhunter, and one of only 2 ways to get Flash, the other being the mini-flyer which is just as rare, and was even hard to find when it was still in stores. The last Flash I saw on ebay was a loose one, and he went for $30+. I can only imagine what Manhunter would cost if one ever actually came up. So that's my motivation... in any event... SINCE I'm a completionist, and want them all eventually, I just wonder if a Javelin might be more cost-effective then a maximate in the long run... is all. Which is a shame, considering their original retail prices. If only Javelins could somehow be made cheaply available to the minimate fan masses again. BUT, I've pulled this thread waaaaay too off topic now, so... someone post another entry and get us going again! Hehe...

Javelins do count You win, you can take a Javelin As for where they come from.... You're supposed to say, " They fell off a truck. < _ < > _ > < _ < " Hehe...

So while we're nitpicking alternative prizes again, rather than be vague, I'm just gonna flat out ask... Is a Mini-Javelin C3 set an option as an alternative? (Because those things are hard to come by and go for tons on the secondary market these days. Possibly more then a Maximate. I want Flash and Manhunter. *Cries*) I know you said -any- set twice, so it should be by that description, but what with the rarity and scarceness of that particular set these days, I had to get it confirmed in solid stone, just to appease my ever curious brain. And if so, Where the hell are you getting extra Mini-Javelins that you can just give'm away!?! Hook me up! Gimmie a number! I can't find one for a decent price to save my life. Hehe... Again, I don't know that I'd necissarily choose one if I won, but it's something to heavily consider.

1st off, let me say nice entry to drgn. I really like your customs, their some of the best ones I've seen. I'm digging Mysterio's head. Hehe And now, another question about the contest. JUST because I'm curious... I notice that the original post states that any Maximate Selection can be substituted for any 3 non-variant marvel 2-Packs or C3 Set. I was just hoping you could clarify, or state any restrictions on that statement... Like 1st off, is that any 3 marvel sets, any 3 C3 sets, a combination of any 3 marvel or C3 sets, or any 3 marvel sets or any 1 C3 set. That confused me a bit, because the word ANY is very vague when it comes to C3. Like if it were mini-flyers, I could see where a choice of 3 would make sense, and could be mixed and matched with marvel sets, but if it were a huge batcave, 3 wouldn't really make sense, ya'know? So I assume this meant 3 or 1, but I wasn't sure. 2nd, do you really mean ANY sets, or would a list of options be provided at the winners' request? Because a mini-javelin might just be worth more then a maximate these days... I saw a loose Flash Minimate alone go for $30+ on ebay a few weeks ago... so if one were in the running, I have to admit, it would be tempting... So anyway, I don't know that if I were lucky wnough to win that I wouldn't just take the maximate(s) anyway, but as one of the people saddened by the fact that he'll probably never see a flash or a martian manhunter, I just had to wonder.... Any clarity you could provide would be greatly appreciated.

That's exactly why I jumped on it... hehe...

Just onaccounta I was 1st to jump on it don't means I stoled it.

Being the huge X-Men fan that I am... I really wanted to cheat and do the technically one cover, but really four cover foldout from X-Men (2nd Series) #1... buuuuut, I don't have the time or spare minimates to do that many customs, so I went with what I had on hand. I also considered doing one of the JLA/Avengers limited series covers, but again, same problem. Now, since those were out, going back to X-Men, I decided a cover from The Dark Phoenix Saga would be the way to go, since they're so recognizable, and a big part fo X-Men history. (And I see I'm not the only entrant who went that way, hehe) I kinda wanted to do #131, so I could use Emma, but that again would mean customs that I couldn't manage, so I went with yonder cover, #136, which I felt was one of the most recognizable, and screaming to be made into minimates X-Men covers ever... Sooo... I'm happy with it. I tried to keep the layout as accurate as possible, but as my fellow artists will probably agree, minimate proportions are hard to constrain to the same poses as the images their based... hehe... They're so much tinyer. Hehe... So anyway, I had to adjust some scaling and placement a bit to accomadate. I'm still itching to do more though, and on that note, I have a question... If I make something I like better, would I be able to pull this entry in favor of my theoretically newer and better entry? (Be it an entirely different cover, or a revised version of this one?) Or have I set this in stone as my entry upon posting it? Hehe... Anyway, happy to enter, and I hope ya'll likes it.