SDCC 2013-Discussion Thread

[Kostisfire]

found a couple of better shots of the aliens minimates. Posted them in the SDCC Photo thread

Thanks frot he pics! They look gorgeous! If they manage to release them before 2013 ends these xenos will take the minimate of the year awards for sure!

[Shogi]

Very Excited for the Aliens mates, sounds like the extra parts in the Pulp Fiction sets may be a deciding factor for me to buy them

[MisterMiracle]

Those Aliens look great! I've never seen the movies (well except for AVP) but I will definitely be buying these.

[winkerbean]

Previews exclusive 2 pack?

[Shogi]

Better come with a sword and a blowtorch

[MrClean]

Cool - looks like Newt comes with her doll's head.

[undeadpool]

Anyone know if the mmhq is still going on at taste and thirst?

[monkeycrumb]

Alright! Here's a few tidbits as others here have asked and a few more I thought to ask Chuck (and one q from Zach) from Sunday - I'm sad I missed the Saturday panel, but I was tied up with the Press room. If only Tom Hiddleston was still wearing his costume when he came over to do press! Oh well.

Per both Zach and Chuck, both denied there was another "big line" that was pulled from announcement prior to the panel. They looked at me like "WTF are you talking about?"

Closer inspection of the Newt prototype shows it is a child-sized body, but boy that hair is big! nice dolls head she's holding though!

Universal Monster minimates are not coming back not enough sales. (I did not take the time to discuss the fact that offering the same items in both markets unchanged without accessories is not good for overall sales). Also, no further Munsters planned.

Lost in Space: Color version should be coming, Chuck doubt's they will do anything other than "the boy" and the robot again, states "no" to a family box set anytime soon, but while he didn't say never, he didn't sound hopeful. Also, Jay & Silent Bob were sold out at DST's booth by Sunday, LiS still had plenty to go around!

Jay & Silent Bob: Expect some "less than retail friendly" versions or accessories!! (Per Chuck!!) We talked about J&SB Strike Back, but he also mentioned Clerks 2, and refernced that Clerks 3 the movie was coming soon. we did not discuss Dogma, sorry, but this all came from my asking for the "Porch Monkey 4 Life" Randall from Clerks 2!

Aliens: Basically planned for release NEXT YEAR for the 35th anniversary push for Alien (1979)!! Grrrrrr! I can't wait! Also, he wasn't 100% locked down but sounds like a mix of 2-packs & box sets. Not yet sure on TRU.

Star Trek: still "waiting to see how wave 1 sells". Chuck referenced how well TOS sells, seemed lukewarm on the old "TNG wave", to which I reminded him there was only 1 pack total of TNG and it was sold out fast. I'll not hold it against him since it was the final day of an exhausting SDCC. But he did say it will likely be "Legacy" going forward, and again not to expect all of the crews due to "it would take forever" at this rate.

[cdubya]

Thanks for the insight Monkeycrumb! It's a shame the wait for Aliens will be so long though. I was hopeful that they would be out, successful, and gearing towards an Alien (boxsets please!) announcement by next year.

[CountDestro]

To add to the view askew mates, if I can remember right, at the panel Chuck said Dogma was under a different studio that they didnt have rights to. But I also think he said something about in the past being able to get things like that worked out.

[karamazov80]

Closer inspection of the Newt prototype shows it is a child-sized body, but boy that hair is big! nice dolls head she's holding though!

Appropriately so. She put the guys in Poison to shame with that 'do.

Edited July 22, 2013 by karamazov80

[monkeycrumb]

Forgot to Add:

I asked Chuck about Planet of the Apes (yeah, the classic, but Chuck referenced the upcoming new movie as well). He basically said that they already did the Mego style versions, and he felt like Kubricks already covered the brick sytle well enough. I mentioned their involvement with Fox, and Chuck said their next goal would be Predator IF it made sense and IF the property was available. He said maybe one day down the line, *maybe*.

Chuck then asked me if I was aware of their website And told me they did Q&A's! I told him that I was well aware, and that I was NOT Lee Burns Chuck was gracious with answering my questions, and man was it fun to pick his brain! Shame I couldn't take longer, but I had things to see and stuff to buy.

This was the most crowded Sunday at SDCC I've ever seen. It was still jam-packed, and just a plain pain in the butt to navigate the dealer's room. I regret not making it to the wings place to get my Hot Wings Merck, but my feet weren't up for it Saturday, and I was certain they were out by today. I feel for you guys who want to make it out to see the show but have never been. It's incredibly difficult to see anything due to the cramped quarters and people *constantly* bumping you. I think I'm growing to actively dislike SDCC.

[battlecat]

Wow, thanks for gathering all that extra info for us monkeycrumb!

The fact that some Kubricks were made seems like a silly reason not to do a classic Apes set, it's never discouraged them from pursuing Minimate licenses before.

[cdubya]

I would love to see classic PoTA, but in all honesty I think it would only be slightly more successful than LiS due to a shrinking fan-base(though I'd admittedly buy the Hell out of them if they tried!). Besides, without horses the line would seem like "GhostRider-without-a-cycle" all over again. Predator, however, must happen. The time is right, the fan-base is sizeable (and incidentally connected to the Alien Universe), and once fans realize that NECA (awesome line BTW) won't be able to deliver all of Dutch's squad because of likeness-rights, DST will have a whole new group of 'mates fans...guaranteed.

Edited July 22, 2013 by cdubya

[hellpop]

Okay, so now that it's all over, some general SDCC thoughts:

-I know there's been some complaining that there weren't a lot of surprises from DST here, but I really like the way DST handled things this year, and generally how they do. We are rarely caught completely off guard, good or bad, and I appreciate that. We saw a ton of new stuff, but Zach had greased the wheels for it so we knew what to expect. That's fine with me. I don't care that the panel didn't feature any new info; I'd rather have it all out in the open from day one, unlike what some companies do.

-All the Marvel stuff looks great. We're getting a nice mix of new and old characters and costumes right now. Lots to look forward to.

-Aliens, Tomb Raider, and Battle Beasts all look incredible. Amazing design work going on, stuff that's really pushing the Minimate boundaries. These are not properties that I would naturally buy (I generally stick to superheroes only), but these are figures that demand to be bought.

-Not sure how I feel about Pulp Fiction or Sin City. I haven't seen PF in years, and while I liked it quite a bit at the time, my feeling is that it hasn't aged very well (my general feeling about Quentin Tarentino). With this and the Kevin Smith stuff, I feel like DST is going down the "modern cult classics" road, and I don't know how well that will work out. They certainly don't feel very timely. But if they reach a new audience, more power to 'em. Sounds like the Clerks exclusive did very well, so that's a good sign. And if this leads to Fargo or Big Lebowski Minimates....

-As for Sin City, I didn't care for the movie, and I got over Frank Miller years ago. I think DST should try very hard to make these "tweeners" that can pass as either the movie or comic figures.

-Monkeycrumb's report that there were still plenty of Lost In Space sets makes me think that line is DOA. Since the guys stated at the panel that the don't plan to do anything but a color set of the figures already released, I have a feeling we might never hear about LIS 'mates again.

-If you haven't looked yet, you can get both Merk promos for under $30 right now. So no excuses!

-I said, when we started this thread last week, that I felt that Minimates were the most stable of the toys I collect (the others being Hasbro's Marvel and Mattel's DC stuff). I'm afraid that appears to be prophetic. Minimates are in a really good place right now, firing on all cylinders. I think it's a great time to be a Minimate collector!

[karamazov80]

Yeah, perhaps the best news is simply the fact that Minimates are consistently being produced, Marvel seems to be going full steam ahead (may be hard for some to imagine that there were fears years ago that Marvel Minimates might end!), cool new licenses are being explored--some will probably succeed more than others, but DST is testing different kinds of waters to hopefully find another hit. Sometimes easy to miss the forest for the trees here.

As a whole, I think SDCC gave us some nice surprises, even if some mystery "big" announcement didn't happen. The Ghostbusters and Aliens stuff we've seen are most exciting to me personally, but I'm also interested in several of the nifty new Marvel guys we've seen, and Pulp Fiction.

[Kostisfire]

Some general SDCC thoughts from me as well:

-The Marvel stuff are exceptional as always. I can't find a single flaw! Okay, i can find one! Superior Spidey 2.0 should have those silver or red (depending on the artist) thins on his arms but oh well! The fan service in the cap wave is tremendous! While i would have liked some more spidey villains instead of the venom/nova repaints i can live with them. I bet we'll see more spidey minimates next year.

-Battle Beasts is again awesome! It's sad taht we won't see more beasts at tru but oh well. Now, i'll have to buy some extra beasts from luke to paint! I need a beast army!

-The ghostbusters look awesome! I missed all the previous gb mates so i hope they release some stuff from the idw comic. I will hunt down some ghosts but i'd liek to see some more gb goodness.

-Tomb raider is a really big surprise! While at first it looked quite good, now with all these molds it looks even better!

-Invincible is a line i'd like to see move forward. Who knows, it might lead to more image lines down the road. The walking dead didn't have anything new but series 4 is quite exciting!

-ALIENS. WOW! What can i say about ALIENS? It's my most anticipated new line! Normally i don't army build but i'll buy a couple of these xenos! I just hope we do get predators and more aliens down the road. The dark horse comics are a goldmine!

-As far as pulp fiction and sin city are concerned i might pick them up when i see them in hand.

Overall a great showing for DST!

As for other companies:

McFarlane has completely abandoned Spawn and is making figures with limited articulation. Way to go Todd!

Hot Toys skipped arkham city and gave us more iron men! Yay (said everyone sarcastically)!

Play Arts had a great showing! I loved the aliens figures!

I'd have liked to have seen Booker from NECA but oh well. The ALIENS and Predators figures look excellent!

-

[monkeycrumb]

One thing really concerned me about my talk with Chuck: He seems to think that every "failure" is due to lack of interest in the license, NOT the presentation! (MY impression of our talk, NOT his words!)

His blaming of the Universal Monsters not selling well doesn't take into account the many problems that line had: serious lack of "perceived value" that lines need - lack of accessories & extra parts, plus the figure distribution was cannibalizing sales between markets! The Mummy sets sold spectacularly due to the sarcophagus and the lack of repeats between markets. Add to that the public complaints about quality on the TRU website product reviews - this line was notorious for parts falling off (Creature being the biggest offender here)

As for Munsters, not every minimate collector collects vehicles! And it's so sad because that car was incredible. But again we miss out on getting the rest of the family, when one box set would be an easy sell, and two box sets would be do-able.

I was surprised that LiS was still so abundant on Sunday. It was hands down my most anticipated set, and I am not a fan of the show. I just love seeing classic designs made into minimates. The only thing stopping me from buying every one they had was that they were black & white instead of color. I have to admit, carded the B-9 Robot isn't as impressive due to the arm positioning in the package makes the body kinda flare out and look silly. It's once you open the package and position his arms the way they are intended, this is one spectacular minimate!

Again, with Lost in Space especially, nothing says dated, old property like releasing it in black & white! I love the Robot, and I want to really love the Doctor Smith figure, but in B&W, he doesn't really "pop" like he should if you want to sell product.I really hope they don't short change LiS's future based on the convention pack sales! Even a lot of collectors here said they would pass on B&W mates.

As for Chuck's statement about the POTA Kubricks, I really didn't have time to get into a detailed discussion with him regarding all the other properties they've done that have had Kubricks (Aliens!) I guess he wasn't impressed with their Mego-style sales they did a few years back. I hate the Mego style, sorry! And the price point is hugely different! I would have picked up a few Mego-styles at the Minimate pricepoint!

I know I'm not privvy to the financial details that Chuck is, but I really feel they are abandoning concepts too quickly, and throwing out the baby with the bath water instead of really looking at why they didn't meet their projected goals.

Do you REALLY think that everyone buying the Thundercats or Battle Beasts are fans of those properties? Or maybe a good portion of those sales are due more to the quality & presentation? Do you think that a Universal Monsters line overflowing with accessories and limited to one market wouldn't do just as well?? (Likely the license was an order of magnitude more expensive, but still, cut the profit margin a little slimmer and it should have been done like Thundercats!)

I just didn't care for the "we already went there" attitude, when there was room for improvement in several aspects. How much better would a Creature From The Black Lagoon do if he had the double-ring-pegs to keep the feet / etc from falling out do in TRU reviews? Limited to only one market and packed with unique characters and accessories? Give it 3-5 years before trying again, but it's still viable at market.

I really hope that Chuck understands that not all fault is due to the consumers. Tell me LiS wouldn't have sold better in color. Even the hot line of Walking Dead had that B&W Dale set that's still pegwarming at Lukes & my LCBS!

[karamazov80]

So Battle Beasts is a success?? I thought the opposite based on some of the ridiculously low prices certain sets went for on eBay. I think the really successful Minimates walk a line of being really attractive toys, and being from franchises that the geek demographic likely to buy Minimates will be into. Universal Monsters, Munsters, and Lost In Space may just be a bit too old for the core Minimate audience. My interest to those is a bit lukewarm because of that. But yeah, I've never been a fan of black and white Minimates in general because they just look dull. Unless you're talking Morpheus and Death from Sandman or something, I want some color!

And one minor note--the Kubricks only released two "Aliens" sets to my knowledge--one that had 3 aliens, the Queen, Ripley, and the Power Loader, and one of the 400% Alien aliens repainted to be a warrior. All their other stuff was from Alien. So, Medicom never tackled the marines (to my dismay).

Edited July 22, 2013 by karamazov80

[battlecat]

I would love to see classic PoTA, but in all honesty I think it would only be slightly more successful than LiS due to a shrinking fan-base(though I'd admittedly buy the Hell out of them if they tried!). Besides, without horses the line would seem like "GhostRider-without-a-cycle" all over again.

Personally, I think pop culture awareness of POTA is way, way higher than LiS. And while Minimate horses would be great, I don't think they're that core to the main Apes characters -- I mean, with Ghost Rider the bike is part of his power set, and part of his name even. Even the Eastwood mates being horseless didn't ruin that line.

And I'm not a Apes superfan or anything, but I do think a set or two would really sell.

Edited July 22, 2013 by battlecat

[groundhog7s]

Without sounding rude, your thoughts on Chuck's opinion of things is pretty much how I think also monkeycrumb. I think with any job that you have where you are making decisions about what the public wants, whether it be through media, merchandise, food, whatever, that there is a tendency to lose perspective of the publics mentality. Whether that translates to studios thinking it's a great idea to make a movie like Green Lantern or whether it's DC not seeing a market for more Minimates, it's just a matter of people making decisions and being out of touch with their fanbase. My fear is that is too much the case in most toy companies and that it's starting to affect DST. I think hiring someone like Zach has helped them tremendously with how things are marketed and how they as a company relate to buyers, but am unsure how much influence that has in reverse when it comes to feedback of what line/products would be marketable or why certain products failed. And I say all of this knowing that anyone from DST might read this and also know that it's not my job that's affected by whether or not this stuff sells. I just wish there was a way for there to be more interaction for Chuck to guage what's really wanted or if there's better ways to present the product. I know I've said it before, but the interaction that Palisades Toys had with their fanbase was amazing and it truly showed in how successful some of their lines were (yes, I know they're no longer in business, but it sounds like it was a completely different set of circumstances that led to that and had nothing to do with listening to their fans). Just adding my $.02.

[winkerbean]

[monkeycrumb]

Winkerbean, I love that pic! Put an exclamation point at the end and I'd love to wear that as a T-Shirt to ever convention DST attends

Groundhog, thanks. I understand Chuck has to prioritize and do what works best for the company. But yeah, many companies fight over the rights to Universal Monsters, we've gotten a steady stream of products from a variety of companies over the past few decades, but "nope, not enough money in it" according to Chuck. Again, I don't know all of the specifics on license costs, other costs, etc. But I like to think I have a good grasp at why some things fail at retail. The problems with the UM mates could have been solved, but cheaply enough? (I really like to think so, but again I am not privvy to the company's financial details, but minimal tooling compared to other lines!) So, man I don't want to sound negative. But yeah, blaming the license isn't the way for any company to go! And Palisades Palz (or someone similar) already did Pulp Fiction, so why the sudden "it's been done" attitude with POTA and Kubricks? I'd rather he just told me he didn't think it would be profitable enough, but that might not be something any company rep wants to say.

I have enough friends in PR, I know a lot about how the game is played. Which is why I was a bit over-critical on Thief of Thieves, because how many times have we heard how civilians don't sell, such-and-such property won't wok, but suddenly hey, this property is great and we're thrilled to be working with so-and-so!

Even beloved properties can fail if there are disconnects between what the company wants to give us and what the fans are willing to put up with (see Hasbro's recent fail with Phantom Menace product!). From too much or too little different product or production runs, to the quality of the final piece(s).

Same with their previous issues with the first line of Star Trek a few years back. Chuck was quoting sales from that as an indication. It sounds like he blamed other licenses (one TNG pack then one DS9 pack) hurt the strong TOS sales, which is bull. They made bad choices, plain and simple, which is why the all-TOS wave 3 is still widely available at or below cost!

I just hope they look inward as well as outward as to why some lines don't meet expectations. I don't want them making Hasbro-esqe Phantom Menace mistakes. I'd rather miss out on some properties than have them make a company-destroying mistake (like Palisades did, may they RIP!)

But as an opinionated a-hole on the internet, I love to give them my feedback

I agree with Groundhog, Minimates are my most stable toy fix on the market. They are my passion, and I criticize out of love. I just want them to shutupandtakemymoney! Respectfully.

[groundhog7s]

To add to what you said, no one will convince me that the Thief of Thieves set will sell better than a Universal Monsters 4-pack with Invisible Man, Phantom of the Opera, Jekyll/Hyde and a Metaluna Mutant or Son of Frankenstein would. No one will convince me of that. Why Chuck can be confident about one and not the other is a matter of opinion and it is what it is. But, at the end of the day, it's not my job to make that decision so, like you, that's just less money I can send DSTs way (which, I think, is the way my wife would prefer things).

Edited July 22, 2013 by groundhog7s

[monkeycrumb]

So Battle Beasts is a success?? I thought the opposite based on some of the ridiculously low prices certain sets went for on eBay.

And one minor note--the Kubricks only released two "Aliens" sets to my knowledge--one that had 3 aliens, the Queen, Ripley, and the Power Loader, and one of the 400% Alien aliens repainted to be a warrior. All their other stuff was from Alien. So, Medicom never tackled the marines (to my dismay).

I'm willing to bet the entire 2nd wave of BB were designed before the first wave even saw release. DST owns the license and have invested heavily in it. It did seem to sell through well enough at TRU at least. I suspect the low-profit margin properties are being sacrificed in favor of BB (i.e. Munsters, Universal Monsters, further Knight Rider that was mentioned, etc)

Yeah, sorry, I'm not a Kubrick expert, so thanks I do know that block-style Pulp Fiction figures have been done before, but still the whole "it's been done before" attitude would kill the collectables market!

To add to what you said, no one will convince me that the Thief of Thieves set will sell better than a Universal Monsters 4-pack with Invisible Man, Phantom of the Opera, Jekyll/Hyde and a Metaluna Mutant or Son of Frankenstein would. No one will convince me of that. Why Chuck can be confident about one and not the other is a matter of opinion and it is what it is. But, at the end of the day, it's not my job to make that decision so, like you, that's just less money I can send DSTs way (which, I think, is the way my wife would prefer things).

I agree with you 99%!! The remaining 1% is that my wife would expect me to buy her her own set