MisterMiracle

7 hours ago, THE_CRIPPLER said:

So now the bigger question is what is Mister Miracles name in the wrestling biz? Were you always a manager or were you also a wrestler at one point? I have been a wrestling fan since the early 80's and would love to know.

I wrestled from 2002 - 2017 and then switched over to managing.  It was just taking longer and longer to recover from matches as the modern style continued to push the envelope with more of a focus on crazy new moves and less on psychology.  I had 2 WWE try-outs back in the day but didn't get picked up either time.  It was still pretty dominated by big guys up until a few years ago.  (Nowadays it seems like EVERYBODY in the locker room is my size, haha!)  I was never a huge star or anything but I got to wrestle in 5 countries and to share the ring with lots of world champions and Hall of Famers.

Most people I've talked to at shows say this is their favorite match of mine:

 

On 1/12/2022 at 3:58 AM, buttheadsmate said:

Hopefully he'll post here.

[Waves!]

As a guy with 20 years of pro wrestling experience I'd be THRILLED with any AEW Minimates or classic WWE Minimates.  They've done WWE M.U.S.C.L.E. figures and knock off WWE Minimates in the past so I think they'd be down for official Minimates.

I am beyond excited!  MMPR and Mortal Kombat were always high up on my wanted Minimates list.  I haven't bought any Minimates in about 3 years now but these would definitely get me back on board.

I haven't bought any Minimates in probably about 3 years now but I would definitely buy Transformers and GI Joe Minimates.

Does anyone have a purple Donnie laying around?  I've been after that one for years now. ?

Is there a way to do a member search on here?

I noticed that there was a new end cap in the toy department at a local Target that had a bunch of Entertainment Earth exclusive figures.  One of the things hanging on the peg was one of the Big Bang Theory box sets.  It ring up $14.99 on one of the price checkers.

I just can't imagine Rocketeer Minimates doing well if 80's TMNT and Bruce Lee couldn't get enough collector interest.

Well...now we know how cool MOTU Minimates would be!

32 minutes ago, MisterPL said:

LEGO isn’t the issue. Hasbro has the action figure category cornered. 

But...Hasbro makes Marvel figures too and we have Marvel Minimates.  Or was Toy Biz still in charge of Marvel back when Marvel Minimates started and they were grandfathered in?

1 hour ago, buttheadsmate said:

Far more worrying is that BBTS site shows that they've sold out of Bruce Lee Minimate box sets.

Those were cancelled.  They're only doing the Bruce Lee Vinimates now.

18 hours ago, TENIME_art said:

So, these are done? No Knuckles?  

Yeah, it sounds like the Sonic line is already dead.

On 6/6/2019 at 3:41 PM, DSTZach said:

Knuckles would have been in Sonic Series 2, we never got a chance to show the prototype. I think Series 1 was an all-star set, but oh well.  

 

So what is the issue with Star Wars Minimates?  Does LEGO have a stronghold on that license?

3 minutes ago, DSTZach said:

Mario has maybe eight characters: Mario, Luigi, Yoshi, Toad, Bowser, Princess, Wario, Waluigi. Right? Then some generic baddies shaped like things? 

Sonic Heroes has I think 12 playable characters in it plus Eggman, and there are more racers in the Sonic hoverboard game, and I don't think that includes Robot Sonic or Super Sonic or Peaches and Cream. It's a lot of characters. 

Sonic may have more characters...I just think Mario has more recognizable characters.  I'm pretty sure if I were to survey my middle school students that most of them would be able to identify ALL of the Mario characters while they would probably know Sonic and maybe would know Tails, Knuckles or Eggman.

1 minute ago, DSTZach said:

Rocky was a tentpole for JAKKS Pacific, and I still have no idea how that happened. Six or more Rockys, six opponents, two trainers, one wife, one announcer, a referree and some meat? I don't think it could be a tentpole for Minimates. We tried before. 

You're definitely right about that!  I still have that entire Jakks line.  I think the only figure they didn't make was a Clubber Lang in blue.  There are multiple looks for each character though (street, training, pre-fight, post-fight, etc.) which should be plenty for at least a box set from each movie or multiple waves.  I didn't even know Minimates existed back when the original Rocky stuff was released.

On 6/4/2019 at 8:20 PM, Heinous said:

I don't think they're going to pull a Hasbro 

HA!

2 hours ago, DSTZach said:

 

And it's not like we aren't always aiming for tentpoles. Sonic has tons of interesting animal characters, and could have gone forever, but as we can see fans are particular about how their hero is portrayed (cough movie cough). I think Sonic has a LOT more characters overall than Mario, unless you count clouds, plants and bullets.

The only other costumed universes I can think of like Marvel and DC are G.I. Joe and He-Man. Neither will ever happen, I don't think. 

I always preferred Sonic over Mario as a kid but I'm pretty sure all of the Mario characters are way more recognizable than any of the Sonic characters and you could get a lot more mileage out of that license.

 

It's definitely interesting to see how these licenses play out.  I would've never guessed that Nightmare Before Christmas would get as many sets as it did while something like 1980's TMNT or Bruce Lee couldn't even make it to production.

 

I think these would work for well for tentpoles (some are never going to happen like you mentioned though):

 

* Nintendo

* Mortal Kombat

* Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers

* Star Wars

* DC

* He-Man

* GI Joe

* WWE

* Harry Potter

 

You can probably get a least a box set or wave of 2-packs out of these:

 

* Indiana Jones

* Austin Powers

* James Bond

* Rocky

* Horror (Freddy, Jason, etc.)

* Princess Bride

* Goonies

* Home Alone

* Die Hard

* Jurassic Park

* Warriors

* Gremlins

* Rambo

* Dumb & Dumber

* Ace Ventura

* The Neverending Story

* Karate Kid

* Dark Crystal

* Labyrinth

* Captain Planet

* Tick

* Kick-Ass

* Dick Tracy

 

1 hour ago, youbastards said:

Sonic, John Wick, Kingdom Hearts, Bruce Lee, are not long-term licenses.  They are "fill in the gap" products that are offered in conjunction with tentpole licenses to help bring in new customers to a brand.  The Man with No Name trilogy, Platoon, Expendables, Plants vs Zombies are other examples of these types of products.

Think of the other tentpole licenses that were being offered during these products, Halo, BSG, Ghostbusters, Walking Dead, those products helped cross sell the smaller licenses.

Castlevania had the potential to be a new tentpole license, providing the video games were included in the license, but that appears to have not gone anywhere either.  Who wouldn't want to army build fun colorful monsters for their Minimates collection?

Minimates needs a Game of Thrones (too late), Harry Potter (LEGO), Star Wars (LEGO), type of high profile line to bolster the brand and bring back both retailer and consumer interest, and without that type of interest, confidence in the brand is going to continue to be rightfully tested.

Youbastards...you are right on the money.

I always thought a Mortal Kombat or a Power Rangers line would also be great for Minimates.

I think it would be a great idea for DST to try and jump on stuff before it blows up.  As a teacher, I had students talking about Minecraft, Roblox and Fort Nite at least a full year before clothes and toys started showing up in stores. 

I think Minimates are sold at Walgreens and through Luke's and that's about it.  I buy a lot of my action figures from Gamestop and Think Geek since Toys R Us shut down.  I'd love to see Minimates make their way back there.  (I think at one point there were blind bags sold there of a videogame license that I wasn't familiar with .)

I would definitely like to see new licenses and new retailer outlets.  I was really disappointed when the 80's TMNT and that Bruce Lee set were scrapped.

2 hours ago, Mattallica said:

I have been buying/a fan of Minimates since i first bought the Kiss and LOTR ones at Spencers gifts and the Marvel 5 packs at TRU way back in  the day so i  will deeply miss MMs when they are gone, and am not encouraging their demise. it  just that it seems more and more likely based on bad decisions by DST and the market in general

IMO theres Nothing wrong with talking about that rather than burying ones head in the sand, Hell maybe  talking can promote better practices and help MMs endure that much longer.

100% agree.

My first memories of Minimates date back to seeing the LOTR figures and the DC C3 stuff at Media Play. I eventually went all in and started collecting these back in 2006 with Marvel 13.  I have a huge collection after 13 years.  I love these things as much as everyone else on here but I've noticed my Minimates purchases have greatly decreased over the past two years which is probably not a good sign if other hardcore collectors have been slowing down too.

1 hour ago, Freaqualizer said:

Wave 10 is Rocket/Adam Warlock, Ghost Rider/Dr. Strange and Hammerhead and who? LoL. I can’t find the pictures of this wave anymore. 

https://marvelousnews.com/23-23530

Images 59-64

On 5/25/2019 at 2:13 PM, hellpop said:

Saying things like "I don't like these pairings so I'm not buying them" adds nothing to the conversation. But sure, if you want Minimates to die, keep nitpicking.

So, that first comment was directed at me.  I have to disagree with you on that in that I do think it adds something to the conversation.  Look, I love Minimates and I've been collecting them for YEARS...it's just getting harder and harder to justify buying them.  I never said anything about wanting Minimates to die but personally it's a little annoying to have to buy an entire wave just to get the few figures that I'm actually interested in.  Especially now that you can't even find these in stores and you have to pay additional shipping costs on top of having to purchase two sets instead of just one.  We're talking what...almost $25 after it's all said and done for two figures that are maybe slighter better versions of figures I already own?  

I feel like X-Men fans aren't necessarily X-Factor fans but X-Factor fans are probably X-Men fans so you can get away with different pairings and probably sell even more sets since the people that just want the X-Men characters could just buy the set they want and then the X-Factor fans would still buy an entire wave anyways to build their precious Strong Man.

Nice!  I'm glad to see an army builder set that people are excited about.  Hopefully they sell well and this is something that we can get more of in the future!

Cyclops & Havok

Jean Grey & Polaris

Beast & Wolfsbane

Archangel & Multiple Man

BAF Strong Guy

 

This is an easy pass for me, unfortunately.    I would've bought Beast & Archangel if they were packaged together in one set but I don't really think the old ones I already own need updates enough to buy two more 2-packs.  Meanwhile Marvel Legends has been absolutely killing it with their figures (especially X-Men).

The 80's TMNT line had me super excited about Minimates again.

The Bruce Lee set had me excited about Minimates again.

I didn't really buy a whole lot of Minimates for myself in 2018.  I've bought 0 so far in 2019 and it's looking like that might not change.