DSTZach

1. Probably frosted flakes, or any frosted variation on a flake or cluster. 2. Bacon and bacon. ALso, onions and pickles/relish.

I don't believe non-costume-specific pieces would be restricted like that, especially when it's the same character, but maybe Ask DST? Sometimes, the old tooling is simply not available any more, and retooling it is not possible due to space in the tool.

Sorry I missed this, this seems like an Ask DST (Ask Chuck) question. I assume it's because they're not part of our existing license, and have to be licensed individually, but I could be wrong. And if so, it has to have some pretty hot buzz (or high viewership) for us to commit to multiple categories (can't be just Minimates) for a TV show, especially one that is mostly or all civilians.

We revealed 76 in advance so we could gather orders from retailers and customers. Walgreens committed to these waves a long time ago, but there was no need to advance promote until they were close to being on sale

I believe there are micromates. I am not sure about an alternate head.

Icon Heroes is still owned by the same person, I believe, only AFX was sold. I do not believe we have done any exclusives with AFX since then, not sure why, but if Icon asked us to make Minimates for something, or we could sub-license from them, we might still. Maybe. I'm sure it would depend on the license. After Alpha Flight didn't do so well, we tried more mainstream comic sets (Wolverine, AvX, etc.), then we tried Movie sets. The thinking was that the SDCC audience is increasingly a mainstream audience, and therefore a mainstream-appealing product might do better. But maybe there's a balance we were missing. Obviously, Adrian Toomes could have been a more exciting character, but we needed the wide releases to be exciting, too, and we only have so many choices of characters and variants in the very early planning stages. I like the set, personally.

To be fair, the Vision set was really a Scarlet Witch set, a frequently fan-requested character and the only version of her we made that year. Vision was just to keep her company. Then that scene got cut. Sigh...

How have you not bought all of the Tommy Wiseau Minimates? As far as I understand it, every store should carry them, so if they have NO Minimates, and are not simply overstocked, you should definitely check and see what's up.

If that was the case, I don't see how being in drug stores is any different from being in toy stores or comic stores -- distribution issues notwithstanding. Especially since they have a halfway decent toy aisle and far more locations. SKU numbers show a store what to order, but I believe the UPC codes are still unique. I need to re-watch Reindeer Games! Talk to managers. I've had at least one guy successfully ask one to request an item in from another store to their store. Another manager told me he would look into it and got more in. They've all been spotted now, so we know they exist.

Sorry, I thought my first post implied no MM, but I guess I didn't want to lead off with bad news. (For con-goers, not for the line in general.) We'll have MMs for sale there, I believe, but no exclusive, sorry. Obviously we were choosing the wrong exclusives the past few years, as sales were not encouraging. ANd as has been said before, they're a low-margin item. Making the smallest amount, and selling an even smaller amount, is not particularly profitable, and sales make the show possible for us. Maybe we'll have some of the TRU releases, in case you have not picked those up yet. Maybe an exclusive at NYCC...? Working on something, we'll see. Plenty of regular releases coming, writing solicit text for the first Sonic box set.

I talked to the DST sales rep for WG, and he says Series 8 is doing well. So it is getting out there in enough numbers to register as "selling." I also passed along the concerns here. Walgreens is actually going to be expanding their selection, so hopefully that triggers a change in availability. I guess since Series 9 is out we'll unveil Series 10 at SDCC! I know people are kinda down in this thread about finding everything, but it's got: One hero we've done several times but gets complaints almost every time. One anti-hero/villain we've done several times, few complaints. One hero and one anti-hero we've done a few times, both likely welcomed. One hero and one villain we've only done once. Two villains we've never done, both pretty cool. One GOTG set, one Spidey set, two Avengers sets.

75 was a concept that required little new tooling, but I think the concept was the driver, not the cost. TRU Series 26 will ship this year, through other channels, and while that one may have been tooling-conscious, it has seemingly been well-received, for the most part. 76 certainly has some new tooling in it, and a wave I'll announce at SDCC has a LOT of new tooling. We've found another home for comic waves, so hopefully that means more will happen there to supplement what comes out at specialty.

My addiction started when I had to shoot every Marvel Minimate made to that point in different poses and environments for a price guide and realized they could hit EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THEM.

When more were made for alternate distribution, the micro colors were changed. I honestly forget which is more common, or even which color went where. Whatever the rarer one is, it was the one given to employees, I believe. They seem less likely to part with them.