Urban Saboteur

Hi, Being that my knowledge of certain characters history and the Marvel Universe is pretty sparse I was looking through my Minimates this morning, I was going through them when I came across my Magneto & Cyclops Minimates. I only have 1 version of Magneto, and because there had been so many released I didn't really pay attention to which version it was until this morning. The two versions i have of Cyclops are the Ultimate Version and the Darktide version, i've noticed that the Darktide Cyclops uniform is black with Yellow x's on, which is similar in style and design to the Phoenix & New Wolverine 2pack. So my questions are, Is Darktide a storyline that ran in the Marvel Universe and designed certain characters to be really angry? I ask because alot of them have teeth showing on the minimates, I thought I might have Darktide Wolverine but he's just got a regular grin, so he's the two pack New Wolverine that came with Phoenix. Secondly, if Phoenix came with Wolverine as 'New' Wolverine, why isn't Phoenix referred to as 'New Phoenix'? Is there a Magneto that is considered 'Classic'? I have this Darktide version which was won off ebay, I do like him, but if I remove his helmet i think it was stuck down with something, it's left red marks on his face where his helmet used to be, whilst it's not noticeable at all with his helmet on, I know it's there. As always I'm hoping someone can shed some light, maybe offer up a small summary of what Darktide Is/Was, and why I should have these characters. I really only want the characters in classic uniforms, at least thats how this all started, I mean i currently have 2 Cyclops Minimates and neither of them look like the Cyclops I remember as a kid I do like the Classic Wolverine I have, although I suspect when I get Wolverine from Wave 28 he'll become my default. Thoughts? Opinions? Rich

Wow! Bravo on that one, i thought some of those characters are individuals? Just by chance will you be offering any up for sale? I've been piecing together some customs of late and i really need: 1x Grishnakh. 1x Gandalf. when you put together the bulk cost of what you paid it works out to be a fantastic deal per minimate, so very well done. :biggrin: I've pm'd you about the two guys i'm trying to get, save spamming this thread. Rich

I take it with the Lake being frozen you wont be holding any Winter Classic Hockey games per-chance, they could play for the annual Minimate Cup! Shame that, cos i'd of liked to of watched it, you could of hooked up camera's and offered livestream from the event. :biggrin: It's great that the lake has filled out so much, and i'd been waiting on a lake picture update as you know. Awesome!

You recently compared Street Fighter II/Darkstalkers minimate variants as walking into a minefield? Were you referring to the blind packs and colour variations, when you said it? The two Bison's you've provided pictures of are interesting, especially the change in logo design on his cap, thats not just a colour change like the Demitri example it's a design in the symbol, one has the shadowloo skull/wings the other does not. Everyone will have to forgive my enthusiasm, I really do like Street Fighter and so the thought of purpose made variations existing was News to me, just by looking on Minimate Database as a newbie you'd think there are only two M.Bisons, player 1 (red) and player 2 (Grey), the others just look like re-releases, and as you've stated these differently made variations aren't covered on Ivan's site. As for before, I wasn't intentionally pinpointing the debunking of the factory thing on you, or trying to, just merely accepting there are people more knowledgeable in this area than I am, because you'd mentioned it, it made more sense to refer back to what you said. Anyway, I think having looked at P1 and P2 on the characters I have available, and looking at the database i think your post earlier sums up how i feel about these releases. I do like the M.Bison with the skull/wings symbol, I might have to hunt him down :biggrin: Rich

:laugh: Awesome!!

Ah ok :biggrin: Does that mean all the Minimate Street Fighters released in TRU 4-packs have alternative colour schemes? I guess they must do if the paint apps and processes were different, it be funny/strange if Demitri was the only minimate in the entire SF line to go through this change. Anyway, just as if for full confirmation, and i suppose if anyone else is as interested in these as I am i've taken two photographs of Demitri this morning, one of them a full figure shot stood next to each other and the other shot is a close up of the heads. I'll also be updating my toyblog to confirm updates on all my projects which includes a little bit about the colour differences in Demitri. It would be cool if we knew someone who could explain why there was two different processes, they changed it because it didn't look right? I can't quite fathom out why a manufacturer would change process that produced high quality figures in colours then alter the process? My pedestrian brain tells me it would be a seperate factory, but you've since debunked this, i'm also assuming the TRU ones came at a later date, (just based on what Punisher said below) so having released the much 'Paler' Demitri first, they went ahead and changed the process to make him more vibrant and fleshy in appearance? Running that decision against his character the Paler demitri whilst looks more bland actually suits his vampire like appearance, so to make him more fleshy/peachy doesn't really make alot of sense. I can only think the change would be to make him more vibrant in the hope of selling more of him? Going back to what Punisher said about the quality of paint apps and stuck joints, so far i've not had any SF figures suffer any of these problems, maybe I just lucked out on the ones I bought? Rich

As from my first post

http://images.wikia.com/marveldatabase/images/c/c0/FourFreedomPlaza.jpg This is it. Yeah I probably wont be doing a huge number 4 like that all round the outside. I suspect this will be a challenge enough as it is I'm going to try and keep it to the skyscraper image seen in my first post and obviously try and get it looking like the Original Baxter Building. Rich

http://www.minimatemultiverse.com/index.php?showuser=33 I honestly didn't think his username was Ivan, i thought you was referring to him on first name terms and didn't think. all in good fun i'm sure, i have so much to learn here still with you guys. haha. Back to my earlier question: Why do you think this is? Is it a factory quality thing? Did the ones at TRU release in the 4pack have a different factory early on and it didnt make up to standards?

Thanks for the replies guys. Why do you think this is? Is it a factory quality thing? Did the ones at TRU release in the 4pack have a different factory early on and it didnt make up to standards? Or is it something else? I'd imagine this variation in colour will bring up questions to any newcomer in the next few years, they'll essentially do what i've done and check the database, none of the images there show properly the colour difference and they'll probably come to this forum to ask the same questions I have. I think it's rather cool, to have a different colour, cheap or not, i mean it's good its not a knock off at least it's a geniune release. I'm definately going to be keeping him for this colour variation purpose alone, even though he's essentially P1 coloured Demitri. Does Ivan still frequent the forums and what is his username on here? Rich

Hey Guys, So I recently won a lot of 7 Minimates on ebay: I bid on the lot knowing that by winning i'd get doubles of the Demitri (Turqoise) & Morrigan (Pink/Black), but i was okay with this as I was really only wanting it for the Akuma, Evil Ryu, Lilith and P1 Morrigan anyway. :tongue: As always after getting them this morning I went through the process of adding them to my Minimate Gallery on flickr, once i'd finished I wanted to return to the Demitri (P1) in blue that i got from this lot, the first reason for this was that even when i opened them up from their envelope and checked them, instantly i noticed his hair was a different colour, so having already noticed i decided to retrieve my other P1 Demitri from my small storage box (where i keep them for the time being). I placed them side by side and noticed several differences in the two figures. I decided then to look on Minimate Database, this would be a good start. Having done a search for Demitri it tells me he's been released 4 times in the SFII / Darkstalkers Series. Demitri on MMDB He was released twice in Series 1, in a two pack with Morrigan and a two pack with Lilith. He was then released in a box set with Akuma, Evil Ryu & Morrigan, then Finally released in a blind pack. Having looked at these four none of them display the same colour properties as the one I have before me, here is the original Demitri that I got in late December last year; Demitri P1: Here is the Demitri that I got in the lot of 7 this morning; I haven't actually done a clear shot of them side by side yet, it's late here in the UK and i didn't want to take it using artificial light, but i'll be able to do side by side comparison shots tomorrow, if it's needed. Out of the two figures I've noticed the one from todays lot has: The colour of his hair is Lighter Brown than the original. The colour of his flesh is peachy as opposed to the original which is pale. The colour of the inside of his cape and boots is cherry red as opposed to a more orangey red in the original. The colour of his actual outfit is also a different shade of blue. Finally, and this is the standout difference is that the head/face design appears to be printed in two different colours? His eyes and brows are blue whilst his facial features like the face lines and mouth are black. It probably isn't that noticeable in the pictures i've offered up so far, but i'm hoping tomorrows side by side will be able to show it more clearly. So what are your thoughts? Is this something already known to the Minimate collecting community? Is the one I have here a cheap knock off designed to look like the original but made in another factory somewhere? Or is this something made purely as a chase figure? The reason i posted up is to draw attention to it and obviously see if it is a knock off/fake or not, and secondly because i thought if it was a variant or chase i would of noticed it in the database it would of been catalogued by them already? Rich

Is that a Pony in the bottom left? It looks like a pussy cat. Thanks Miry :biggrin: I think that is very true!! yesterday I got this in from ebay UK for £5. I wasn't planning on actively hunting the classic grey n blue Batman but because it was still boxed and only cheap i thought i'd get it. My minimate roster is looking very awesome now Rich

What's that? Is it a spin-off or something? Rich

Do you have a Picture of the older one with the four-sided 4's? I'd imagine it will be modern, similar to the source images I posted above in my original post. I've been working on some customs just recently, i've already got floor space for the Baxter Building but can't afford to substantiate both building projects at the same time, because of this it will probably be on LDD for a bit, at least until i've finished the batcave model in its physical build completely. I could of put the order in for the final brickbuild on that but i chose to improve my minimate roster and spent the $ on that this week. I should have some more screen prints of the ground floor lobby and shop when i finish it in the next couple of days or so. EDIT I actually have two images to share now. These are floor plans of the ground floor lobby. So although the outer walls look similar to the dummy floor design (which essentially it is) the interior will obviously be more detailed.

I just thought you guys should know I did turn up to the live blog, but about 5 minutes in it stopped sending my comments, i was typing stuff out but it wasn't sending through or showing up either so i left. It was nice to see the reveals of the Select figures and the couple of minimates I did see were very nicely done. Rich

They have "The Room" in Greece? I think that I saw an ad for it at tv when I was little. I often search old movies at the net and I stumbled upon the room. It was,hmmmm...so bad it's...uhm....worse than bad. Anyway this time here in Greece do you know what we watch? Instead of doctor who,bigbangtheory,chuck and all the other great shows our channels play the same films over and over,like old black and white Greek comedies,Spidey 1,2,3,old dramas,Sweeney Todd and generally we watch movies from 2009 at least three times every year. God bless the torrent sites. I'm sure its no worse than the horses crap the UK calls 'Quality Tv'

I got Battlestar Gallactica as a wildcard entry in my dvd presents at christmas, just sat down and watched it tonight and i have to say i really enjoyed it :biggrin:

This very point was raised on facebook with me by two of my friends, as they asked me "Why are you only building Marvel buildings and no love for DC?" I said "Well i've just spent a hefty chunk of money on the Batcave, which surely has to qualify for love of DC?" LoL. I also mentioned that i will run the projects alternatively between the licenses, so I built a DC building first then a Marvel one this time with the Batcave. I'll switch over to DC again on my 3rd build and so on. Forgive me for my noobness questions, i know i've looked at this before in the past and i'm familiar with the Watchtower but refresh my memory? Rich

Thanks guys! I'm still learning, i noticed the light cast in through the living room window, and the fact it was at such an angle on the floor, this coupled with the 16:9 mode which i'd never used before today made this a fantastic, worthwhile learning experiment for me personally. I don't know why but even though i know in advance these are just toys, collectables, figures, i love cinematic shots like this one, i just wish i could do them more consistently! Rich

I was quite pleased this morning, I had about an hour or so to experiment and i finally took a shot using 16:9 picture mode. In the 4 years or so i've had my camera, maybe longer i'm not sure i've never used this feature, I have to say i'm really pleased with how it turned out. :biggrin: Dante - Shadows Rich

ABC 'Poison Arrow'? doesn't matter if you can't think of anything, just a request. Poison Arrow - ABC

Your next 'love' picture could you do something with ABC 'Poison Arrow' :biggrin: I've really enjoyed all your shots from the mini-bar and shots from the heart so far Rich

Hey, Seeing as though the voting closed 3 days ago, Original Vote thread I decided that i'd put all the WIP and updates in this thread. Since there was enough discussion and thoughts about this building and why it got so many votes it made sense to have all the progress stuff seperately. I've attached images which have served as inspiration and reference points for this build, I can continually come back to these as a resource, particularly in my final designs and actual physical model. I guess the great thing is that i have more images of the Baxter Building than I did of the Batcave, having said that i still think this one will be more an engineering challenge simply because of the amount of rooms and detail i'll be going into when i get into the top 5 floors. What has been decided so far The physical Model will be 10 floors high the ground floor will have a small lobby and hopefully a visitor shop floors 2, 3, 4 and 5 will be dummy floors (see image below) floor to ceiling height per floor would be 8 bricks high, 1 brick = 1cm the building will be built on 32x32 stud baseboards Here is a screen print of what the dummy floor will be designed like, This design process will be repeated for floors 2,3,4 & 5. So that it will look like a skyscraper on the outside, the level of detail inside will be minimum to cut down costs, most of the detail will be put into the final 5 floors which is occupied by the fantastic 4. I'll have some more screen prints to share soon. I stopped work on this project to resume work on the Batcave, aside from 1 bricklink bulk order is almost finished :biggrin: and so i can return to design work on this. My next step will be to figure out the ground floor lobby and floor 6 which is where Roberta and the Fantastic 4 Reception will be. Rich

Having today received my MvC3 Fate of Two Worlds Series 1, I decided to review them with pictures, you can read my thoughts if you want to here: Life of Plastic Alternatively you can read it on my personal blog (link in signature), any feedback. questions or discussion on my own opinion of Series one can be kept to this thread. Hope you like the pictures, if you have any solutions or ideas for the known issues i've highlighted then post away! Rich

The MvC3 license only covers the SF players in that game, and it looks like we're getting to all of them by Wave 3. Hopefully, we can get back to the SF license in the future, but not through MvC3. All of them? Does that cover cameo appearances as well? I have to ask. Dan, Ken and M.Bison, according to the MvC3 Wiki have cameo appearances in the game, if it's not to be then it is what it is, i'd still enjoy getting other capcom and marvel characters from the line and the fact you've hinted at DST showing an interest in other videogame license is exciting, obviously i can't speak for everyone but it's exciting for me. Especially when i am looking to add to my minimate roster with characters i dont yet have. :biggrin: Rich