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SF II / Darkstalkers Minimates Different Demitri's?


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Hey Guys,

So I recently won a lot of 7 Minimates on ebay:

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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:

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Here is the Demitri that I got in the lot of 7 this morning;

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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

Edited by Urban Saboteur
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As marvellous as it is Ivan's Database doesn't actually acknowledge the 4 pack characters as being different which they undoubtedly are. That's not a criticism ,let's face it they're the same characters produced in a different way . Many of the early TRU Marvel characters differ subtly from their supposedly identical LCS counterpart ,I recall Ivan acknowledging this but not actually listing them ....probably for the best.

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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. :lol:

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

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http://www.minimatemultiverse.com/index.php?showuser=33

:lol: I honestly didn't think his username was Ivan, i thought you was referring to him on first name terms and didn't think.

:blush: 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?

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The TRU ones were overall much better IMO. The regular releases broke constantly due to stuck joints with paint in them. Also a lot of them were missing paint apps/ paint was slopped on messily. These showed up in sets on ebay dirt cheap years ago and buying them for fodder i never received a set that didnt have crap paint apps, and stuck or broken joints.

Also the colors on them were much nicer. The lcs releases were pretty dark/dull compared to the TRU which were alot more vibrant. Especially skin tones. Compare M. Bison and Ryu especially.

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I don't think it's a question of quality more like a change in how Minimates are made. Example:the 4 pack items utilise flesh coloured plastic heads whilst the earlier ones had plastic that was painted flesh colour....I'm generalising but you see my point ? I was convinced a while back that there must be more than one factory producing Minimates because of the dramatic variations in quality that we were experiencing....this theory has been officially debunked . Ultimately Minimates are a business & production costs are affecting the way they are made ,apparently mouldings are relatively less expensive than tampos so I guess that the Street Fighter 4 pack might even have been an experiment to find out ......who knows?

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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. :lol:

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.

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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

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I'm beginning to feel like someone who might get a bit-part in 'The Big bang Theory' ......Sheldon's Uncle perhaps?

Let's continue the geekcon Rich shall we ........

It's been some while since I've looked at my SF stash & I shall indulge your inquisitiveness BUT my reply as usual is just my opinion,I stress that because I've not blessed with special insider knowledge..... when I speculate I generally say so !

e.g. I didn't debunk the 2 factory theory ,someone (was it Chuck?) did so in one of the interviews on 'Portrait of an addiction' recently.

Looking at the original figures compared with those in the 4 packs they are all discernibly different ,different enough for someone to actually realise after very little examination. I think that we can safely say that this isn't news but I wasn't aware until now that the differences were so distinct. M.Bison for example is shown in the Database with each version having a peaked cap with a gold coloured flash above the peak ,on the 4 pack version he has a very definite badge on the peak. That's not conjecture it's a fact post-638-0-67231700-1328450749_thumb.jpg post-638-0-61764500-1328450776_thumb.jpg.

The blind-packed figures are of course another area altogether & are often dismissed as mere head-swaps .....not by me I treasure mine.

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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? :unsure:

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.

As marvellous as it is Ivan's Database doesn't actually acknowledge the 4 pack characters as being different which they undoubtedly are. That's not a criticism ,let's face it they're the same characters produced in a different way.

I do like the M.Bison with the skull/wings symbol, I might have to hunt him down :biggrin:

Rich

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The blind packed figures were ironically designed in the US,made in China & sold exclusively in Japan . I've been asking the question "do Minimates sell in Japan?" ever since. They're not the easiest Minimates to obtain but they do appear on ebay & they I'd concede that you have to be a complete completist nut to make having them worthwhile . The blind guys are identical to the earlier versions as far as I can see.

I enjoy your enthusiasm it inspires me to actually look at stuff in a way I have never done before ,OK I'm not an SF fan but they do have a certain charm :thumbsup:

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It's from the 4-pack.

Like previously mentioned, they had tampos on colored plastic, as opposed to tampos on painted plastic like the initial releases. I also agree that this makes them much better quality than the original 2-pack ones.

The 4-pack Chun-Li is probably the best one from that entire series, IMO.

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They're not the easiest Minimates to obtain but they do appear on ebay & they I'd concede that you have to be a complete completist nut to make having them worthwhile .

Or a complete nut fullstop? :lol:

I think I might just qualify under rule 2 bullet point 4 :blush:

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Looking at the original figures compared with those in the 4 packs they are all discernibly different ,different enough for someone to actually realise after very little examination. I think that we can safely say that this isn't news but I wasn't aware until now that the differences were so distinct. M.Bison for example is shown in the Database with each version having a peaked cap with a gold coloured flash above the peak ,on the 4 pack version he has a very definite badge on the peak. That's not conjecture it's a fact post-638-0-67231700-1328450749_thumb.jpg post-638-0-61764500-1328450776_thumb.jpg.

This one is a surprise to me. I'm going to have to venture into the catacombs to retrieve one of the 4-packs and set up an M.Bison photoshoot.

There probably isn't any grand reason for the different colors or the paint vs. plastic production. The first is price, one way is cheaper than the other and DST has to make cost/quality decisions to hit a certain price point. The other reason is that the factory may not always do what they're told, due to negligence or trying to boost their margin however possible. (Take this for what it's worth. Like others in this thread I have no insider knowledge of the toy business.)

And Urban Saboteur, I'm sorry to hear the Minimate Database does not meet your expectations.

(Nobody tell him about the different torsos or knee constructions.)

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Looking at the original figures compared with those in the 4 packs they are all discernibly different ,different enough for someone to actually realise after very little examination. I think that we can safely say that this isn't news but I wasn't aware until now that the differences were so distinct. M.Bison for example is shown in the Database with each version having a peaked cap with a gold coloured flash above the peak ,on the 4 pack version he has a very definite badge on the peak. That's not conjecture it's a fact post-638-0-67231700-1328450749_thumb.jpg post-638-0-61764500-1328450776_thumb.jpg.

This one is a surprise to me. I'm going to have to venture into the catacombs to retrieve one of the 4-packs and set up an M.Bison photoshoot.

Good Idea :tongue:

And Urban Saboteur, I'm sorry to hear the Minimate Database does not meet your expectations.

That's okay, I'm used to people disappointing me by now, *sigh*

however you can make up for it by doing that M.Bison photoshoot and coming back on here and updating me when its finished. ;)

Cheers.

Rich

Edited by Urban Saboteur
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