TMNT Minimates - it's official!

[DSTZach]

Not themed Turtles, per se, just faces and accessories, but some cool accessories, if we make them all. Their bags might be a little more full this time around.

[Shogi]

Not themed Turtles, per se, just faces and accessories, but some cool accessories, if we make them all. Their bags might be a little more full this time around.

Oooo a kusarigama for Mikey will probably get me to buy another one

[MisterMiracle]

C'mon pizza accessories, Slash and Ice Cream Kitty!

[arnim zola]

Just went to tru looking for marvel tru 19, and so many aisles are empty. Walk onto th tmnt carcass aisle, and found another mutagen Leo by himself. 5 for 5.

[Shogi]

C'mon pizza accessories, Slash and Ice Cream Kitty!

QFT Yes, these three accessories NEED to happen (Also technically that Slash would be a pre-mutated mutant and could be one of the hints for wave 2 )

[Additup]

I'm hoping for battle faces (angry with white eyes), alternate weapon forms like the spear for Donnie, and maybe the egg smoke bombs with a teleport base.

[TENIME_art]

He was Spike before he mutated into Slash.

[hellpop]

So if anyone is looking for Mutagen Leo, I found a set yesterday. I'm willing to trade it straight up for Kraang; and that's the full, unopened set, including the Foot Soldier. PM me if interested.

[Minimate-Maniac]

Changed Shredder up a bit.

[Captain Paco]

I happened upon a Kmart today and found a partial strip. I only bought two of the seven there. I got Krang and regular Michelangelo. Took a chance with the Mikey. What I left behind were two Leonardo's, a Raph, a Shredder and a Donatello. This was in Morton, IL.

[MisterMiracle]

I found more TMNT Minimates at Toys R Us today. 0-4 on Mutagen Leo. I'm glad there are generous members here so I don't have to worry about that anymore.

Also, I found the new Playmates Turtles that feature mix and match action. Is everyone jumping on this bandwagon now? Is this really something that kids are into? I'm seeing it with a lot of different lines now but I can't see kids being super excited about making amalgams of 5 different figures.

[arnim zola]

Pretty nice pictorial here:

http://news.toyark.com/2014/12/25/tmnt-minimates-series-1-high-res-gallery-147184

Im pretty tempted to set up an account there so I can message them every time they have some misinformation on there about minimates. They put up the xmas eve vision teaser from tru 19 and said it was from a tru exclusive AOU wave, then with the turtles their negative comments about the blind bags isnt helpful, and could lead people to boycott for the wrong reasons, I.E. "They just made blind bags to make us spend more money, I'll show them and not buy anything."

Maybe im taking it a little more seriously than I should be but I wish people would try to understand how stuff works before complaining and inadvertently persuading others about issues they dont understand.

Knowledge is power, even when its a lack thereof.

[Mnemosis]

Welcome to the Internet. Here's a set of electronic balls (like liquid balls, but better), an overinflated sense of privilege, and... please... we ask you to check your civility and journalistic integrity at the door. No need for them mucking the place up.

[arnim zola]

I see what you did there.

[Turtle]

I've been boycotting this license because of blind bags since long before this article. I think that review did a good job of pointing out how good the figures look and that they have very good play value. But, seriously, blind bags suck and are a very real turn off. This line looks very nice, and I've been tempted to grab the TRU arts, but I just can't. I know I'll want all of them eventually, and I just can't do blind bags. DST actually lost a built-in customer on this, so I think it's a perfectly fair thing to point out in a review.

[bigvis497]

I don't see any misunderstanding or misinterpretation in that Toyark article. It's well-written and professional which is more than I could say for most toy reviews online. The writer doesn't like blind bags and they have every right to voice their opinion, I don't see how they're misleading anybody with their comments. In the same article they're praising a lot of aspects of the line. If a review doesn't have anything to criticize and everything's 10/10, then it's not a review I'm going to take seriously.

[MisterMiracle]

I wasn't a fan of the blind bags at first but I was able to find everything I needed without too much of a hassle. Would I have bought more if I could be 100% sure what I'm buying...Yes. But did they sell more to kids getting into Minimates for the first time...probably. I'm thinking they got more new buyers than pissed off older collectors with the blind bags.

[Mystery Man]

I'm in the same boat that Turtle is, almost.

I'd like to get the but I'm too "meh" to burn down the roads trying to find them all. Were they easy to get, I'd have them by now.

[Valo487]

I could understand the way you guys feel a little more if it weren't for the non-blind bag sets at Toys "R" Us. I guess if you're completist that's only a small comfort, but to boycott the entire line because of the variants that are only available in the bag seems a bit extreme to me when these are so good.

[dr baghead]

arnim zola, on 26 Dec 2014 - 11:01, said:

then with the turtles their negative comments about the blind bags isnt helpful, and could lead people to boycott for the wrong reasons, I.E. "They just made blind bags to make us spend more money, I'll show them and not buy anything."

So what *IS* the point of blind bags then?

I don’t mean to throw shade here, but you had several people hunting down Kraang for you and ended up with two, maybe you’re not in the best place to judge how sucky blind bag hunting can be, not everyone has that kind of support system.

To someone who doesn’t know the strips have a set order or has trouble sussing out the contents of bags (the key chains make that REALY hard to do by the by) the only options for Kraang are buying bags they THINK might be Kraang (and having bought a Mutie Mikey I thought was a regular Donnie, let me tell ya, nothing sucks more then spending nearly $6 on something you don’t want when you thought you had the one thing you were after) OR spend $20 on eBay, and when Kraang can end up costing $12+ (assuming you guess wrong only once) you start saying “f**k this!” a lot more then you say “hells yeahs turtles!”

I mean, take a look at this:

Edit: this should be a link to a video, but it won’t post it, so go to youtube and add:

/watch?v=0HyofXDpT64

to find it.

Pixel Dan is a well known toy reviewer (or at least well known for his closeness to Mattel) but he:

-Doesn’t know the Mutagens are One Per Case

-Doesn’t know about the Mikey/Raph switch up

-Doesn’t know the case pack out

-Doesn’t know how many bags are in the box

-Doesn’t know what Mutagen turtles are out now and misleadingly says “I think all four might have variants” which is going to confuse his viewers

-Doesn’t know the bags come in a set order** so we’re forced to watch him open the doubles and be stumped by it

If someone “in the know” is soooooo clueless, what hopes does Joe Four Color have when he finds a box at this LCS, unaware these existed until he saw the box let alone aware TRU sells them in two packs, and over come by nostalgia just wants Raph, his favoritest turtle, to put on his dashboard? He’ll pick up a bag and feel a shell and think “sweet! this ones a turtle... but is it Raph?!” and after feeling a couple more and realizing the turtles feel pretty similar if you don’t know what you’re looking for it turns too “pretty sure this one is Leo... but these three have small tubes on their backs that could be sai holders... are these sais or nunchucks?!” they bite the bullet and buy what they’re 90% HAS to be Raph, and get ffffffuuuuuuuuu they WERE nunchucks! He just spent $6 (this is the one LCS that doesn’t add a crazy mark up) on f*cking Mikey, his least favorite turtle... does he spend another $6 on the one he also thought might be Raph? ARE YOU KIDDING?!?! He’s not spending another $6 on what might be ANOTHER MIKEY, F this!

**also, the LCS boxes having a set order... as soon as store owners find out about this (it only takes ONE assh*le bragging to them about how easily they got mutagen Raph) they’re gonna start scrambling the contents before they put the boxes out, so enjoy first try Mutagen Raphs while they last...

TL,DR: Blind Bags are fun if you want a random figure, but if you want a specific figure they suuuuuuck, so the Toyark article isn’t wrong to make a HUGE point about how much it sucks, especially since they do post a lot of good pictures AND mention the 2-packs as an option.

Edited December 27, 2014 by dr baghead

[Valo487]

I guess to me it just comes off as a bit unnecessary for them to lament the blind bag approach so much when they offer an alternative that allows you to get exactly the one you want for the most part. It's not like mates are the first line to employ this approach, they didn't invent the blind-bag idea.

[MisterMiracle]

I think that the only thing that people can complain about with the blind bags are the switch up with the bags (Mutagen Raph and Mutagen Mikey). I went to a local comic shop last week and one of the guys that worked there had bought most of them himself trying to get a Mutagen Mikey. If people that work at comic stores aren't aware of the switch, I'm afraid that there might've been some parents trying to get get a Mutagen Mikey for a stocking stuffer this year and swore off the line entirely after finding it impossible. (And before anyone jumps in and says that we knew this information, I know that we knew this information. The casual fans have no idea though because there was no sticker on the box or bags saying there was a mix-up).

Other than that, between people on here, the strip breakdown, these being sold at TRU, and sellers on eBay offering Mutagen Raph at a decent price, I was able to get everything I needed. So while I was initially against the blind bag idea, I'm ok with it now.

Edited December 27, 2014 by MisterMiracle

[Zak Katz]

I think that the only thing that people can complain about with the blind bags are the switch up with the bags (Mutagen Raph and Mutagen Mikey). I went to a local comic shop last week and one of the guys that worked there had bought most of them himself trying to get a Mutagen Mikey. If people that work at comic stores aren't aware of the switch, I'm afraid that there might've been some parents trying to get get a Mutagen Mikey for a stocking stuffer this year and swore off the line entirely after finding it impossible. (And before anyone jumps in and says that we knew this information, I know that we knew this information. The casual fans have no idea though because there was no sticker on the box or bags saying there was a mix-up

This was DST's plan all along to boost sales Mwahahahahaha... just a joke...

[Mnemosis]

I... have a hard time imagining a parent SPECIFICALLY trying to find a Mutagen Mikey lol

But I agree... that mix up is the worst part of all of this, because no one WITHOUT our knowledge has any way to prepare themselves for this.

I, personally, don't dig blind bags. But the largest retailer stocking these is carrying standard two packs through which all main characters will eventually be available. IMHO, DST has done a fine job offering the best of all worlds

[arnim zola]

Lots of interesting perspectives here. Ive been following behind the scenes toy now for a really long time so I have a good understanding of how the business works from the toy companies side to the retailers side and why things happen the way they do. I also collect and know lots of collectors and have seen how habits and bias develop over long stretches of time based off available information.

So I never said they were purposely misinforming, or anything of the sort. Toyark is on my regular news site rotation. I love when they post minimate anything because they usually don't cover minimates like that. I didn't say the article was poorly written, I am merely concerned that the overly negative attitude towards blind bags (which he has a right to dislike) could have an affect on picking up new collectors. WE know that DST didn't ever want to do blind bags in the first place, and that retailer pressure led to this decision, on the other hand its netted us new retailers and helped expand the line. WE know this and Im fine with that. It was just the negative connotation affecting casual collectors that perhaps i took a little seriously.

So I'm grateful for the krang assistance, and I'm happy to have help take a mutagen mikey off your hands Dr B and of all the toy sites Iv'e been to, this is the only one where I trust the support system enough to do trades. And I myself wasn't complaining about the blind bags or about others complaining about them, But I have been collecting the lego minifig blind bags since wave one, and that was and still is without a support system.

So maybe ive been doing it longer than others but for blind bags of anything I can figure it out and my success rate is high. If it was blind boxes like kubrick or Funko minis, Id be upset too but I dont collect those for that reason. I didnt consider the key chain causing issues for kmart peeps feeling bags up. The Knex mario stuff is a bag wrapped in a slip of paper inside a bag, so It is definitely difficult with stuff in the way.

I also didn't consider that so many people tackle these blind bags blind, I know I want this fig, I know this is whats unique in the contents of that bag and I don't stop til Iv'e felt those specific contents. I want a variant raph, I know that I have a 1/3 chance if the case contents are mixed up and I accept that I have to possibly pay for 3 blind bags total to assure I have him. Thats acceptable to me considering what I used to deal with for toybiz marvel legends chases.