Lost in Space

[MisterPL]

Poor robot's dome. Was it really that hot in San Diego? Holy crap.

(Hail, Ivan!)

[monkeycrumb]

Poor robot's dome. Was it really that hot in San Diego? Holy crap.

(Hail, Ivan!)

Thankfully, none of mine look like that! Looks like a bad pull from the mold.

[Mystery Man]

No "full cast" of LiS is a bummer. I wish we'd known that going into this so my hopes wouldn't have been exceedingly raised. I mean, there's not really a good way I can think of that the news could be broken before the SDCC set was released. It's just really disappointing to see another series not get the full treatment of characters for whatever reason.

[MisterPL]

Something tells me the license was sought after by someone who's only exposure to the property was seeing robot toys. Which is kinda like going after the Star Trek property to do Kirk product.

Can't they at least put out some other Minimates designs to gauge retailer interest? Has anyone seen anything regarding the electronic B-9 Robot that was mentioned in the initial announcement?

[DSTZach]

Electronic items take a LOT longer to develop. The Minimates were always presented to me as something to do in the meantime.

And I don't know Chuck's experience with the show, but as someone who never watched it growing up, I think comparing it to Star Trek is overstating it. It obviously doesn't have the pervasive pop-culture presence of Trek, as the movie and TV pilot proved. It draws heavily on 1950s sci-fi, and while that genre certainly has its fans, I think Trek's content and aesthetics have proven to be far more timeless. A better comparison might be getting the Knight Rider license and only making KITT. We made KITT and KARR with the humans that made sense, and that was it.

Consider the Minimates a bonus. With the number of full lines in development, I don't think we need another.

[DSTZach]

Oh, and Ivan -- can I send you a non-melted B-9? That photo is... unfortunate.

[minimadman]

Oh, and Ivan -- can I send you a non-melted B-9? That photo is... unfortunate.

Another example of you being a hell of a human being.

[Ivan]

Oh, and Ivan -- can I send you a non-melted B-9? That photo is... unfortunate.

Nah, don't worry about it. I've got another one on order already. New photos should make it into the next update. The Minimate really doesn't look bad in person. I only noticed the droop when I started editing the photos, but by then there wasn't much I could do. Thanks.

[MisterPL]

A better comparison might be getting the Knight Rider license and only making KITT. We made KITT and KARR with the humans that made sense, and that was it.

Consider the Minimates a bonus. With the number of full lines in development, I don't think we need another.

I'd agree with your Knight Rider analogy if that show had an ensemble cast. Lost in Space was billed as "Space Family Robinson" and while it had its break-out stars like any other show, it wasn't just "The Adventures of Robot B-9" any more than Star Trek is "The Captain Kirk Action Hour." (Although The Shatner might disagree.) But I know what you mean.

There's a LOT on DST's plate right now. I appreciate that. My wallet appreciates that. I don't collect every line of Minimates but DST offers plenty to keep me interested. (Marvel, Walking Dead, Star Trek, Thundercats, the upcoming Aliens, Tomb Raider...)

It's just that when a company looks at a license, they generally look at how much mileage they can get out of it across product categories they offer. In the time it takes to develop that one electronic SKU, I imagine DST could probably get out two 4-packs of the entire cast and be done with it. Unless of course DST wanted to leverage the vehicle aspect of the property and offer the Jupiter 2, the Chariot, and maybe even a Minimates Chariot with an exclusive figure or three.

[monkeycrumb]

Zach, are we still getting a B-9 Robot minimate in Color??

I do see this line as a "bonus". I'm thrilled we have what we have. I would be just as thrilled to get a Forbidden Planet Robbie the Robot 2-pack some day as well. But the greedy part of me wants it all, and wants every main cast member and toyetic-design alien I can get. So while I'm always willing to pine for what "might have been", I am incredibly grateful for what we have as well.

What really stings is the fact that Minimates are almost an afterthought to all the other product DST produces. I enjoy a lot of DST's stuff, but Minimates are the only ones I'm passionate about.

[DSTZach]

Minimates are absolutely not an afterthought to every property. Sure, they can never be the ONLY thing for each property, due to that whole problem where they don't cost a lot of money (we have to sell a LOT of them to meet any licensing costs, so we supplement with figures, banks, vehicles, etc.), but they're usually the first thing we think about for any license. I'm actually not even sure what else we're doing for the Kevin Smith license -- I believe we'll be doing other products, but right now it's just Minimates. With Aliens, the Minimates are definitely taking precedent, although we are developing the other stuff, as well.

And making a Minimate vehicle OR an electronic vehicle is actually an enormous undertaking, so we don't go into that lightly. Notice how we try to get as much mileage as possible out of each tool? I doubt we would have found homes for as many variants of the MM shuttlecraft as we did the MM Enterprise. And we needed to, since it wasn't at TRU. So it's not just how much time we have, it's whether we think we can sell enough to make it worth doing. I don't know what variants might be possible, but I don't know if Chariot or the Jupiter is distinctive or recognizable enough to sell itself -- they'd be great Minimates vehicles, but that doesn't always translate to sales.

I've been surprised by the success of certain products we've done, and not surprised by others. The 1/6 LiS stuff doesn't seem to be burning up eBay, and I think the belief is that completing the LiS cast would be a hard sell, given the number of women and children. If the two-pack had caught fire at SDCC, I'm sure we would have looked into it. But I believe we're still working on putting out B-9 and Smith in color.

[Shanester]

Sounds reasonable Zach, but I don't want reasonable. I want a Minimate LIS Chariot and Aliens Drop Ship.

[MisterPL]

Sounds reasonable Zach, but I don't want reasonable. I want a Minimate LIS Chariot and Aliens Drop Ship.

Seriously. It's like they're trying to run a business! I want my toys, damn it! <---- (40-something toy pirate)

[MisterPL]

I've been surprised by the success of certain products we've done, and not surprised by others. The 1/6 LiS stuff doesn't seem to be burning up eBay, and I think the belief is that completing the LiS cast would be a hard sell, given the number of women and children. If the two-pack had caught fire at SDCC, I'm sure we would have looked into it. But I believe we're still working on putting out B-9 and Smith in color.

Keep in mind that – like you said – you've got to sell a lot of $9.99 two-packs at conventions to make your guaranty. You'd have to sell fewer $21 four-packs at retail and I suspect the margin on those is slightly higher. I know it's twice the development as a two-pack but we're not talking about a lot of new sculpting and tooling either. Some characters could probably even share tampo art.

Besides, wook at dose puddins! Such an adorable, Minimates-worthy cast!

[DSTZach]

I don't think we're worried about the guaranty, I think we're worried on minimum order quantities, which are the same for a two-pack as for a four-pack. If we don't sell half of them, then the line is pretty much a loss.

And we used the sales of that two-pack as a gauge. I imagine we'll have another two-pack at some point, so we can always revisit, but I would not hold out hope.

[Shanester]

So, bottom line is that the LIS 2-pack did not do well? Why black and white, just out of curiosity? Cheaper? Of course, I know the earlier seasons were filmed in B&W, but the latter were not. Not a criticism, just a curiosity.

[MisterPL]

Actually only the first season was filmed in black & white. The other two were in color. (What's funny is that Robot and Dr. Smith didn't even appear in the original pilot.)

A black & white SDCC exclusive doesn't seem like a fair barometer for this franchise. I know that con is brimming with pop-culture geeks but it's also possibly the most saturated point of geek merchandise and consumers on the planet at one time. There's a lot of competition for that $10 assuming all attendees even know about the 2-pack. Besides, not everyone goes there to shop and not every Lost in Space fan goes at all. I'd wager most LiS fans didn't attend.

I wouldn't really expect any black & white sets to do well and if they did, you've got an anomaly on your hand.

And while 1/6 LiS figures might not be burning up on eBay, that's probably because no one's ever offered the entire family before. You'll get a lot more collectors interested if you give them something more to collect.

[DSTZach]

We did the black-and-white set because we wanted to debut the line at the show, and we knew we wanted to do color at some point, but we didn't want to limit the color release to a con exclusive. Now, when and if we do a color version, we can offer it to everyone everywhere.

Obviously, that will be a better gauge than a SDCC B&W set, but we'll see how it does.

[Shanester]

Ah, I see. Thanks for that. I always appreciate you guys looking out for the fans. #buttkiss

[Onyx_6]

For a color 4-pack, in the jumpsuits above, would it be possible to include alternate heads to allow people (collectors) the ability to make the whole cast with the purchase if two sets?

The kids could both be made with the new child arms and legs. Two heads and hair pieces.

Mom and the older daughter could share an adult body with female tampo. An alternate head should cover them since they almost share a hairdo.

Dad and Matt Leblanc's character the pilot could share a body, using different head/hair.

Not having the B&W set yet, would it be possible to hide Smith beneath the robot? Heads are different, obviously, arms too, I think.

All in all, it seems like less accessories than the Deadpool pack and you bill it that people should/could buy two to make everyone.

I just want to see more Minimates!

[SlushyFrog]

If DST is having a hard time getting the Star Trek line continuing, I don't see how LiS will get off the ground beyond a one and done pack of some sort.

[monkeycrumb]

What really grinds my gears is that DST is using the SDCC pack as a gauge to how well Lost in Space sells, when really they need to use it as a gauge to how well Black & White sets sell!

IF we're lucky (and I hope we are) we'll get a color set 2-pack. Now, will we get Dr Smith in color? likely not, as Chuck said he wanted to make "the boy". Okay, great, now the Dr Smith we have won't be compatible since he's b&w. If they remade Dr Smith instead, then it's one less character that gets made in his place.

A HUGE part of the appeal of minimates is in having multiple universes in a compatible scale in a similar format. Making them black & white makes them incompatible and separate. A lot of people will pass on b&w in favor of color, and I'm sure there were plenty of casual buyers that would have bought a color set at SDCC.

I just hate that a license gets blamed for an unappealing paint job.

Look, I get it. DST didn't want to "limit themselves" by doing the signature pack as a con exclusive. But really, they could very well have rereleased the same robot later and nobody would complain about having 2 similar robots. They could have done the 2nd character as con exclusive. But if it were color, at least the series would remain compatible with itself. Instead, now it looks like we'll be lucky if we even get another 2-pack, and instead of having at least 3 compatible characters, we'll only ever have 2 which is disappointing.

Dear DST: black & white sets are very niche, and not a good way to gauge any market!

[Zak Katz]

Why did the Clerks set sell out again??? You need to move on, your rambling isn't doing anything positive. Ask DST, that may actually help you. Like Chuck doesn't know how to do his job? He, at least in my opinion, is churning out Marvel, TWD is doing well, ST looks great, oh yeah then there is TR, and Aliens, but your complaining about LiS. Not everyone can be pleased, but not everyone always complains. Just think is this post really necessary.

[MisterPL]

The Clerks set is the tip of an iceberg. From what I can gather, the LiS two-pack is a tiny ice cube melting in a warm, small soda that is the upcoming electronic B-9 Robot figure.

DST has made it pretty clear they intend to do Minimates based on all the Kevin Smith films except Dogma but they're even working on that. They've said that material from Jay & Silent Bob Strike Back alone could keep them going for years. Consumer confidence should be pretty freaking high for that line because there's enthusiastic intent to move forward.

Compare that to statements made about LiS Minimates before this set hit SDCC (and reportedly Chuck not even being able to recall the name of one of the main characters) and you can see where collector confidence lies.

But of course there's also the possibility that there were more Kevin Smith fans in attendance than there were LiS fans. He was probably even there. (I know Jason Mewes was.) Smith has an ongoing, current media presence while LiS is a nostalgia property for a demographic that probably runs a bit older than the average SDCC attendee.

For what it's worth, if the Clerks set was produced in high numbers and managed to sell out, DST's got another Walking Dead on their hands. Good for them and good for the Minimates brand.

As for LiS, I think the set that Onyx_6 suggested is friggin' brilliant.

[Zak Katz]

I'm sorry that was super negative, I just think all the B&W talk is getting repetitive. I personally don't own any B&W and probably won't, just my preference.