I saw them in my local comic store and thought they were neat, but resisted buying them. Then in a Suncoast (remember those?) I found the black-suited Spidey variant from Wave 2, and grabbed it on a whim. Then the next day I went back to my comic store and bought the rest.
That was 15 years ago. If you had told me then where I'd be with Minimates today, I would have said "How do you know the secrets of the future? Give me your time machine!".