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If sales are as good for the army dump as I believe they are, then DST is well on the way to approving an Alien Queen.

Because let's face it; if a debut offering of army-builders and three lesser known characters performs that well, they'd be fools not to offer the most iconic creature from the film. It's just a matter of time and execution.

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I agree with you MisterPL.

I don't know about the dump case but I'm thinking it has everything to be better than the previous dumps. Just because the "main monster" is in there, not only regular soldiers as in the IM, Thor and Captain America cases.

Obviously the "more conservative" collectors maybe prefer the boxsets but the dump cases will perfectly complement the boxsets. NECA show us that a lot of different Aliens and Marines always sell well.

The only perhaps about the Queen is the tooling. Maybe she needs a lot of new parts and this can be a problem...

But I'm really excited with the line and have faith in DST!!!

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I believe if you go back far enough the question has come up in the thread before, but I'm just going to state again, I don't want to see them try to make a Queeb out of the standard minimate body. If they can't make one that's truly in scale, I would almost rather they not even bother. Not out of negativity or anything, there's just no way you can make an acceptable Queen out of a 2 inch body.

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The question might be, "Is there a way to make a decent Alien Queen out of existing 2-inch body parts?"

I can see stacking two torsos together somehow to get some additional height. Not sure if the main arms and legs could get away with simple extensions but the secondary arms could. The head and tail obviously need a new sculpt.

It'll be a feat but if it's done right, it'll sell.

Then the question becomes, "How much are you willing to spend on a decent Alien Queen?"

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No, the question is always "How determined is DST to get a Queen to production, in either 2" scale or larger?"

They can make it happen in any scale, if they feel the work and tooling is warranted. If the Army Dump or other ALIEN/S sets under perform at retail, that commitment will weaken.

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The Aliens Dump will be a sell-out if it is produced in the same numbers as previous dumps . Longevity of the Aliens line ? That my friends is a different animal ......squeezing the pips out of any Minimate line has, IMHO, not always worked in the manner hoped for .

Edited by buttheadsmate
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From what I've read, the Army Dump exceeded expectations. If that's doing well, the 2-packs should do just fine.

The only problem I see with the Alien 4-pack is the same as always; some collectors will hold out to see if DST offers the rest of the crew because they want it all or nothing. Which of course affects sales and lowers the chance another set gets made. Why DST doesn't offer two sets the way they did with Alpha Flight I don't understand. Or offer the first set with pics of a second set on the back of the package as a sign of good faith. Anything to nuture collector confidence.

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The Aliens Dump will be a sell-out if it is produced in the same numbers as previous dumps . Longevity of the Aliens line ? That my friends is a different animal ......squeezing the pips out of any Minimate line has, IMHO, not always worked in the manner hoped for .

Just ordered. Thanks Luke!

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Longevity of the Aliens line ? That my friends is a different animal ...…

I've always seen Aliens as a very finite line. It's one movie with a lot of army-builders and soldiers but it's certainly not Marvel or The Walking Dead. This isn't a line with no end in sight.

Across the entire Alien franchise we're only talking four films with small casts and not all of them very popular. DST could extend it to include Predator flicks and maybe Prometheus but even that's another license agreement, I believe.

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The Aliens Dump will be a sell-out if it is produced in the same numbers as previous dumps.

All the other Army Dumps were solicited as limited editions with the production numbers announced...the Aliens Dump has never been numbered to the best of my memory.

Longevity of the Aliens line ? That my friends is a different animal ...…

I've always seen Aliens as a very finite line. It's one movie with a lot of army-builders and soldiers but it's certainly not Marvel or The Walking Dead. This isn't a line with no end in sight.

Across the entire Alien franchise we're only talking four films with small casts and not all of them very popular. DST could extend it to include Predator flicks and maybe Prometheus but even that's another license agreement, I believe.

Yeah, expanding the Aliens license to the other movies, and adding the Predator license (including AvP) would be a great way to give the license more longevity.

The AvP movies may be crap, but Hot Toys has proven time and time again that merch from those movies will sell. Predator fans want any and all incarnations of the various versions of the monster. He'll, they can sell $200+ dolls of Predator monsters from the end of Predator 2, that were only in the movie for 30 seconds.

As much as people are negative about blind bags, the AvP license would be a great match for blind bags. No humans, just multiple variations of Aliens and Predators.

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I just bought my army builder case, my only wish is that the Xenomorphs were the smooth variety from Alien, I always preferred that design. But I can't complain about getting a small army of Aliens.

Zach, I know you can't give details, but if these do well are Alien 3 and Resurrection definitely on the table, or are they still up in the air?

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From what I've read, the Army Dump exceeded expectations. If that's doing well, the 2-packs should do just fine.

The only problem I see with the Alien 4-pack is the same as always; some collectors will hold out to see if DST offers the rest of the crew because they want it all or nothing. Which of course affects sales and lowers the chance another set gets made. Why DST doesn't offer two sets the way they did with Alpha Flight I don't understand. Or offer the first set with pics of a second set on the back of the package as a sign of good faith. Anything to nuture collector confidence.

Alpha Flight was an exclusive: AFX ordered two sets and bought two sets. If a retailer has that kind of confidence, great. We chose to develop a single set for the first film's anniversary. Doesn't mean we can't do more down the road, but there's one alien in the movie, so a second box set for Alien would automatically have a handicap -- either no alien or a second, probably identical alien.

We decided to focus on the second film, which had more characters, weapons AND aliens, and the movie we were interested in initially. Not sure if Alien 3 and 4 are part of this. AvP is not. Predator and Prometheus would be separate.

Edited by DSTZach
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My point about Alpha Flight was more about dividing the team yet offering both in the same year. I'm not suggesting Alpha Flight's popularity is anywhere near the epic level of Ridley Scott's Alien. Just suggesting a way to get more people to buy that first set and ensure a second.

And I don't see an extra Xeno as a bad thing. It's certainly more appealing than having an army of Kirks.

I understand your point and as I've said before, I'd have sooner offered Ripley and the Alien in two different sets to avoid this issue, but after reading some collectors' preference of having multiples of Giger's original design over Winston's (not to mention the success of the Army Dump), I think there's room in many collections for another Big Chap. Maybe he could have a battle-damaged re-deco and have retracted second jaws.

Then again, I also think there's potential for a third Alien set as well. (Spacesuits!)

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Well, if the Big Chap was needed to anchor the 2nd set, how about a smoky black translucent version, maybe even with specks in it to indicate star reflection as it's blown out the hatch. :)

Although I'd be partial to a glow in the dark version. Just because.

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Agreed about the glow in the dark figure. . .on a more off-topic note, I completed my 1/6 Alien display last night, with Luke's nifty Detolf background:

734925b6-9fa3-49b7-ad34-c7d37db6ea3d_zps

DSC_0154_zps3c329f84.jpg

I might put my Minimates in the same display case.

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Here's a general observation not specifically aimed at Minimates ........ why the hell aren't there more Apollo 11 toys ?????????? Surely this real event deserves more recognition in toy lines ?

I just checked out 'Apollo 11' toys on US ebay & you get under 200 listings ..........many of those feature TMNT . Weird.

Astronauts would be sooooooooooooooo popular.......any astronauts............even cosmonauts .

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I have the Dragon Apollo 11 astronaut. My Mom went into labor when the rocket took off and first nursed me as the astronauts walked the lunar landscape.

Sam, I so wanted to like that Big Chap, but the head and height killed it for me. Plus, I distrust HT rubber.

On topic, the old 18" Alien had glow in the dark highlights, so a GITD Alien would be cool.

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I have the Dragon Apollo 11 astronaut. My Mom went into labor when the rocket took off and first nursed me as the astronauts walked the lunar landscape.

Sam, I so wanted to like that Big Chap, but the head and height killed it for me. Plus, I distrust HT rubber.

On topic, the old 18" Alien had glow in the dark highlights, so a GITD Alien would be cool.

Perhaps it's me ......it usually is .......but your post reminds me of the lyrics of a typical 70's Bowie song......maybe the follow up to 'Space Oddity' or 'Ashes to Ashes' ............biggrin.png

Fascinating stuff Shane .

PM me about this distrust of rubber ......I'd like to share some stories.cool.png

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