Kirby

Different, and not for me, but cool. And as noted - they have Thor. Minimates do not. PS - FU Shanester; HLJ rocks.

When I got a Tony The Tiger Kubrick, I was all like 'cool.' When my friend got a big pink elephant Kubrick, he was like "WTF?!" He wanted Smacks. Now is his chance.

More waiting... Oh well. No big.

After reading everyone's opinions, I think I'll stick to not having one.

I'd be down. Visibility is HIGH in both the US and UK, so the time to strike, if ever there were any, would be NOW. I'm somewhat torn between how I would like tis sort of thing packaged. I like the thematic elements, but would equally be satisfied with blind-boxing, because that route generally makes army-building more accessible. If you have non-blind single-packaging, then you have to weigh in how to balance out the 'heavies' (The Doctor, sidekicks) with the generics (Cybermen, Daleks, Guy-covered-in-mud Guys, etc). Blind-boxing is advantageous in that you can be more 'off' with the ratios, and still get away with it, as long as you don't stick the most desired character in a 'rare' slot (just ask Palisades! oh, wait...). Even within sets, I think themes would be good, such as restricting a particular wave to a particular Doctor. Start with modern(most visible), then go Baker(most well known), and after that it is up to you.

Tower filed chapter 11 a few years back. This is round 2. Tower has been cutting back on non-audio materials since their previous bankruptcy. Though, this is makes it really tempting to pick up the 50" Qee - what a deal, especially on shipping!

This is Diamond orders - there is no mass market. Diamond = Direct market (comic shops and the like). Mass market would be whatever is sold to Target or TRU. Yes - Morrigan has been Capcom's poster girl off-and-on for the past decade. She's been in all of the 'vs' games, and just look at how much the Japanese put her into gashapon sets. She's everyone's favorite succubus! Gamestop (which now owns EB) had a change in management and put the edict out. I remember that it was around the time SOTA Street Fighter round 2 came out, because they would only sell by the case, by preorder only. They have refused to put any figures on the pegs since then. I'm still hoping something comes through. I think I might check with my FLCS and double-check that I was down for a case again.

I'm close to calling shenanigans here. I'm trying to find the press release, but I recall Diamond making a big deal about the SF'mates getting record preorders. All I can find are top sales from march 2006 and top sales from april 2006. Look there - SF mates outperformed Dark Tide! I am thinking that DST was 'hoping' for more, and these did not live up to THAT. Which is ok. That shouldn't necessarily mean that the line was a failure or that it 'went wrong' - it just means that one set of numbers didn't match up with another. And for those who are putting the blame on Darkstalkers need to stop. Just because someone here doesn't know the characters/franchise doesn't mean they are not known. In fact, Morrigan is arguably more popular/recognizeable than Chun-Li and Cammy. To base your argument on that is more fanboy-ism than anything else. The problem is the market. It is in a major decline. The target audience can't even find these beacause EB/GameStop refuse to carry toys. The synergy isn't there. I don't think there was any retail support outside of what Diamond was able to ship. This isn't limited to minimates, but the industry as a whole. SOTA is going the sideshow route and having to sell directly off their site instead of going through retail channels. Heck, something like that would work here. What 'went wrong' (can you tell I don't care for the title of this thread?) is that sales didn't meet expectations. I bought a case from my FLCS, bought out all the variant from the nearest GameCrazy, bout multiples of the Diamond and AFX variants. I did my part.

PH34R TEH PUZZEL! Yeah, the red ones. All identical. Only Rock and KISS had variance amongst the pieces.

I cannot believe that these are 'done' already - they had record-breaking preorder sales, and sold through very well. DST is exploding right now, in terms of what they are doing compared to even a year ago. Hence, some things will seem to take longer between releases. I can understand why DST is doing things is batches (or 'bursts' would be an appropirate word) - when they get to the factory and start cranking things out, it would be cheaper to do a couple of runs in a short period of time instead of having to halt and re-start production. So until we get nigh-monthly releases of minimates, things are going to be sporadic.

Uno Mas

I've switched sides.

Would you say, an Ulti-Mate? nyuk nyuk nyuk

Sounds fun, but it doesn't totally 'feel' right. Going against it are the choking hazard issue, the Kubricks already having been imported, and the audience that might be aimed for. I could see these in the mass-market (like in cereal boxes or by some similar offer), but with all the safety issues involved, I can't see it happening as regular minimates (maybe if they were fixed-pose ala maximates). Going to the direct market would solve most problems, and could be viable. Sure these mascots are recognizeable, even iconic, but are they a 'hot' property? Not really. But if they find their way into Hot Topic stores, they will sell

Very few Gamestops still carry toys. They have been culling that entire section from their business over the course of the past 2 years. I totally agree with you - the synergy is great, but Gamestop is being very stupid in this regard. I don't think they have carried ANY of the SOTA Street Fighter figures after wave 3 - and even then, they only sold cases by-preorder-only after wave 1; not because they didn't sell, but just because that is what management is dictating.

The story of the Ozzy 'Mates (quick-and-dirty-because-I-don't-save-it-version): Emerald City ComicCon '05 - almost ready to go home. My brother points over to a booth and says "Hey, those guys have minimates." "Yeah, but I already have those - URK" were my words. I spotted them from about 20 feet away, amidst a sea of C3 sets. Some little beauties I had never seen before. The price tag said $15 - I couldn't believe it. I almost felt bad as I was quickly gushing to the lady at the booth, but I handed over my $15 and they were mine! THEN I inquired more about their origin She directed me to my new friends at Silly Gooser (formerly Echo Base), and we had a little bit of discussion. He was surprised they were here for sale, but that was about it. Feeling giddy, we continued our way out, but whilst checking out another booth, I was tapped on the shoulder. It was my new buddy He explained how these were prototypes and didn't want to get his friend in trouble for selling them. I can respect that. So I swore to silence... But a couple months later, I got permission to share them These are really awesome. I have not the courage to fully release them yet, but they look factory-quality. They even come with the Puzzle Pieces! There is even the little insert promoting other AA stuff. One of a kind, and all mine mine mine Here is the pic: http://www.kirb.net/collection/graphics/05...n_ozzymates.jpg

What?! No way - my minimates would never do that - they'd be my loyal minions! We'd go conquer stuff, and they'd get all the Mac'n'Cheese they can eat. That sounds like the greatest time ever. I would stop collecting minimates if, and only if, Kylie Minogue asked me to marry her on the condition that I never buy another minimate again. But then I'd make a Kylie minimate, she'd see the error of her ways, and I could continue to collect.

A long time back, some guys involved with PA were on the Palisades Toys message boards, getting a feel for producing figures. So at least it seems that they are interested. They have such a devoted fanbase, that they would sell very well. Even I want a Cardboard Tube Samurai figure!

Thank you for the heads-up on the scene in Japan. I'm a little surprised that the AFX and Previews "exclusive" variants made their way into the blind-box assortment. The bottom line is that buying one of these cases would have the same number of figures as a US case - but you'd be gaining all the "exclusive" variants as well. I wonder what the ratios are for 1P/2P within the case. I'm also surprised I didn't come across this on the japanese toy blogs. Then again, they mostly focus on bishoujo stuff However, unless they are 'hidden' (not listed on the box), Evil Ryu and Shin Akuma wouldn't be in there.

I have one, and I picked up another for Question on the AA boards, but with those down I can't contact him, so I don't know what to do with it. The box is a little banged up, but everything looks fine. I'm hoping he would contact me, because I really would like to get rid of this extra one.

The thing is that if you consider what was going on in the toy industry as a whole, they make perfect sense. McFarlane toys was at it's peak, and was doing very well producing (drumroll) KISS, Ozzy, Alice Cooper, Iron Maiden, and Rob Zombie figures! Although not 'in' at the moment, they are all popular music icons with very strong fan bases. AA received good opinions for Crouching Tiger, but the timing on the figures was less-than-optimal. Trek also was in a weird place in terms of exposure, but going with TOS was the best way to go at that time. As all these minimates were hitting, the entire figure market was in the process of a recession, and many things changed, not just for AA but for every other company in the industry as well - things started drying up. You have to admit that it is humorous how the Minimates came out at 3" - just slightly larger than the Kubricks. That's America, baby! I don't think the 3" body was 'too large' and led to the downfall of the early minimates. DST handled the Marvel license brilliantly, and to be honest, Marvel is pretty easy to make money off of. The 2" body also is cheaper to produce, so earnings will be more per unit.