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Alpha Flight Minimates!


Jay Tigran

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Yeah, Alpha Flight's really a lesser team in the grand scheme of things, and probably won't connect with many comic fans who either weren't aware of it in the '80s, aren't Canadian, or just aren't hardcore John Byrne fans (though all comic fans should be IMO). Plus, no Wolvie, Deadpool, Spidey, or Iron Man to move sets. But the figures are fantastic, so this is an exceptional deal.

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180 degrees from Alpha Flight? What's in the opposite direction of Alpha Flight? Alpha Flight are from Canada... 180 degrees from Canada (if you're in the Us where Zach is) would be Mexico & South America.... So we're looking at Latino Marvel character.. OMG - IT'S A GIDEON BOX SET!!!!!woot.gif

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This year's Marvel exclusives are pretty much 180 degrees from Alpha Flight.

Because last year was the year for fan service, so this year is dedicated to casual collectors? Or because fan service is a terrible, terrible seller and you're never going to do that again?

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I'm a pretty casual Marvel fan and I loved the Alpha Flight Minimates. Fun character designs and it's terrific to be able to get the whole team in two sets. If I wasn't saving up for so many upcoming 'mates I'd be taking advantage of the half-off sale myself.

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I think you guys are jumping the gun a bit on declaring the Alpha Flight sets a failure. Just because AFX sold off their inventory to Luke doesn't mean anything, other then that they were looking to clear it out from their warehouse. Luke also has their old Thor: Stormbreaker inventory, which you can get for an even better price. Hell, you can get a case of those for about a $130 discount (and yes, I know it's a year older).

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The two AF sets hit me right where it counts: "classic" bronze age, no character redos and the team wrapped up quickly. It definitely got me more excited about minimates than I'd been in a while. Really, it's the stuff like this that keeps me buying.

Edited by elmeaux
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180 degrees? So it will be a box set that starts 4 fan demanded teams? And then no team ever sees completion? Got it. ;)

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I think you guys are jumping the gun a bit on declaring the Alpha Flight sets a failure. Just because AFX sold off their inventory to Luke doesn't mean anything, other then that they were looking to clear it out from their warehouse. Luke also has their old Thor: Stormbreaker inventory, which you can get for an even better price. Hell, you can get a case of those for about a $130 discount (and yes, I know it's a year older).

It's been selling for reduced prices at various outlets (Amazon for sure) for months. I'm not sure failure is the right word, but it certainly suggests that DST is right to be cautious about boxsets without a major character to carry them.

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I think you guys are jumping the gun a bit on declaring the Alpha Flight sets a failure. Just because AFX sold off their inventory to Luke doesn't mean anything, other then that they were looking to clear it out from their warehouse. Luke also has their old Thor: Stormbreaker inventory, which you can get for an even better price. Hell, you can get a case of those for about a $130 discount (and yes, I know it's a year older).

It's been selling for reduced prices at various outlets (Amazon for sure) for months. I'm not sure failure is the right word, but it certainly suggests that DST is right to be cautious about boxsets without a major character to carry them.

Sadly I have to agree with this. I am a die-hard Alpha Flight Fan but it is hard to get two sets out for this classic team when they can't carry a series. Look at the X-Force team set with Psylock etc. That thing sold out like gangbusters even though it was mostly repaints. THe ALpha set had masisve tooling to it and is a peg warmer in NYC.

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I would find it very interesting to know how many people just bought 1 of the 2 packs .....my belief would be that most people who bought anything bought both.

Apart from Sasquatch.... who ,for me, was a great disappointment (sorry!) ....& maybe Snowbird I don't see too much new 'tooling' in the 8 figures & let's be clear that Aurora & Northstar are very very similar ....er..in many ways.sleep.png

I liked the sets but when I get my.... ' let's see how they made money on these'.... head on. I probably sound like I'm knocking the products that I love....I'm not . What I have accomplished over the years is some understanding as to why certain 'mates get made & some don't &,to a degree, why certain Minimates fly off the shelves & why some linger . I have the luxury of being allowed to speculate continually without too much fear of DST contradicting me publically,I would love it if they did & then we could be sure!* I do however think hard before I give an opinion about something fairly serious.....Alpha Flight sets were. IMHO, comparitively cheap to produce & I guess (it's all an inspired guess) that once 2000 of the sets were sold then AFX were home & dry & could sell of the remainder to other retailers . One thing I will say about AFX is that they love Minimates as much as any collector of them & much of the more obscure sets come from them purely because they'd like to see them made & "to hell with a huge profit" .

The Alpha Flight sets sold & they made a profit ,most of us were happy with them ,I moan ,the world keeps turning.

*Please note that my comments are those of a forum member & pure speculation , my intention is, as always, to promote discussion without attempting to draw out or bait any other member into divulging 'sales' information . I'm being totally serious.

Edited by buttheadsmate
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And now for something completely random.

sasheadline.jpg

I'm gearing up for another project for minijeff and whipped up this Daily Bugle headline as a practice / tease. Enjoy!

Edited by MINI_MYTE
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I know what youn mean about Sasquatch, BHM. Sometimes I look at him, and he just looks too round, if that makes any sense?

Nice work, Myte!

I think Sasquatch turned out as best as he could. Some characters no matter how cool they look just don't translate well into mates, in my opinion.

Sasquatch has huge shoulders which kind of slope around his head that make it somewhat hard to fit into the Minimate aesthetic. You're going to lose/limit articulation no matter which way you go with the design. The version we got looks perfectly comic accurate, you're just very limited in how you could pose him. If DST went the other way and gave us a neck that could turn, I don't think it would look as good as what we got. In summary, I think DST did the best job they could with the design.

I'm curious to see how characters with similar issues like Man-Thing or Guido would be done.

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I myself found Sasquatch weird. He's not a bad figure and he looks really nice on the shelf but the piece used for his long arms looks strange. A way that the could have done it would be this: Instead of the chest piece to be one with the shoulders i would keep it just as a chest piece. Then i would add the bulked up pieces on the shoulders (the ones used for hulk, thing,etc) but make part of them bigger and stylize them to fit with the fur. That way you get both the shoulder piece and you don't restrict any articulation. Sure, they are more of bulked up arm pieces but they would help the figure be in armony with the whole design. I might snagg another set from Luke to try this.

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