TMNT Minimates - it's official!

[DSTZach]

I don't know if it's line-wide. I assume so, but we'll see.<br /><br />So your store has not gotten in Walking Dead Series 5? How many stores are we looking at? I have not heard of this.

[CBMM1]

So your store has not gotten in Walking Dead Series 5? How many stores are we looking at? I have not heard of this.

He's not the only one that seems to be having this problem Zach. One of my TRUs got in TWD wave 5 but both have had zip zilch nada of anything else. (Marvel 17, 18, Tomb Raider, etc.)

[undeadpool]

can their hands turn? im a little worried about pose-ability

[MisterPL]

So your store has not gotten in Walking Dead Series 5? How many stores are we looking at? I have not heard of this.

I honestly don't know if they're not getting them or if I'm just consistently missing them. What I do know is that:

• I was told my store was "not eligible" for Battle Beasts or Tomb Raider so now I'm wondering if that's extending to other lines
• The number of pegs on the TRU planogram for Minimates has dwindled significantly
• Now more than ever I'm relying on TRU.com to get TRU exclusives

I don't know if it's a local thing or what. I just know that this situation has been like a cold, wet blanket on the hot sex that was my Minimate collecting. And if I can't get the TRU waves, I'm not going to bother with the LCS waves. I know there's nothing DST can do about it and it might just be my store. I just wish these exclusives were available in greater numbers online.

can their hands turn? im a little worried about pose-ability

I was going to ask the same thing. It looks like they do turn but I welcome verification.

[TENIME_art]

I think they all look amazing.

The design of the Nickelodeon ones lend themselves well to the cylindrical heads. Their snouts and cheeks aren't too far out from the rest of their heads in the animation.

I never saw the sculpted ones, but these look perfect to me. *shrugs*

[Cappy]

I haven't seen this answered: to my eye, the turtles are all the same size. Any variations you may think you see are due to camera lens perspective.

I will say that I was expected sculpted heads, but after a long and lustful viewing in the booth, the cylindrical heads work just fine. DST's challenge will be making the other animal characters blend with this aesthetic.

[JediJohnson]

I haven't seen this answered: to my eye, the turtles are all the same size. Any variations you may think you see are due to camera lens perspective.

I will say that I was expected sculpted heads, but after a long and lustful viewing in the booth, the cylindrical heads work just fine. DST's challenge will be making the other animal characters blend with this aesthetic.

From the pictures they look like they have had a few too many beers with their pizza. In person do they look like they have beer bellies? thx

[rabozza]

I think they look amazing and i'm pretty stoked to get them!

[elmeaux]

I like the heads; the sculpted bandana masks make them work for me.

[tones]

Actually TRU's clearance sale made it impossible for me to find the most recent Marvel series in their stores or online. If it wasn't for the generosity of this board, I wouldn't have Marvel 18. I'm happy for those who through sheer luck managed to find them but TRU's distribution seems to have missed the northeast in many cases.

He's not the only one that seems to be having this problem Zach. One of my TRUs got in TWD wave 5 but both have had zip zilch nada of anything else. (Marvel 17, 18, Tomb Raider, etc.)

^this, I'm in the Northeast as well and while my TRU got Marvel 17 & 1 case of TWD5 there has been nothing else, no 18 or Tomb Raider. I got the Winter Soldier and Thor sets off Amazon so I'm good there but was looking to buy multiples of the TRs.

but back ot, the Turtles look awesome, definite buys. glad to see Walmart get back in the game. any chance Target will join them?

[MisterPL]

Sculpted bandanas are nice but I wish the eyes were at least inset. I don't like how they look with them being printed on the bandanas.

And maybe the sculpted feet could help give them slightly different heights?

[VulcansFury]

I strongly dislike the heads. I also agree with MisterPL on having the eyes inset, just like the recent Iron Fist. My enthusiasm has been tempered by the cylindrical turtle heads.

[DSTZach]

Battle Beasts and Tomb Raider shipped to TRU in smaller numbers, so apparently not every store got them. Marvel, I don't know what's up there, but circumstances may have made Series 18 a bit of a hot item.

Not sure why not getting TRU figures would make you not want the LCS figures, but to each their own, I guess.

[MisterPL]

Not sure why not getting TRU figures would make you not want the LCS figures, but to each their own, I guess.

Because I'd like to COLLECT THEM ALL! Some of us are like that. We take the packaging copy very seriously.

Maybe the smaller production numbers combined with my store's (weaker?) sell-through made my store ineligible to stock Battle Beasts and Tomb Raider Minimates. It's just frustrating when a TRU exclusive can't be stocked at every TRU. I thought retail exclusives were supposed to drive traffic to all stores, not just select locations. Again, not blaming DST at all, just venting.

As for Turtles, has there been any thought about including variant masks with different expressions? Maybe I should Ask DST.

[dr baghead]

So if anyone wants sculpted heads for their turtles:

http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_sacat=0&_from=R40&_nkw=lego+ninja+turtles&_sop=15

This seller has a set of all four lego turtles plus Splinter (who we’ll probably need too since he’ll look odd with a cylinder head) and a worthless Shredder that usually sell for $5-$7 with free shipping.

I just got mine today. The paints absolute sh*t but I was gonna have to color match to the minimate bodies anyway so that’s okay, but if you want an easy kitbash it’s not worth it. (although for just turtle heads and a splinter it’s WAAAAY cheaper then buying lego sets for just the well painted parts)

Here’s how they look on minimates:

(various sizes used since I have no clue how much bulk the shells add)

Edited May 6, 2014 by dr baghead

[Trekker 42]

My guess is that Donabeasto will be the most accurate as far as size.

[goods4life]

I am not a huge Turtles fan but I have fond memories of the movies and cartoons as a kid so I will snag them just for the fun of it. I already have zombies battling Borgs might as well have Turtles doing something maybe a face off with some Marvel characters.....

[DSTZach]

Not sure why not getting TRU figures would make you not want the LCS figures, but to each their own, I guess.

Because I'd like to COLLECT THEM ALL! Some of us are like that. We take the packaging copy very seriously.

And the LCS assortment is part of that all. So if you buy the LCS assortment, you're halfway there. Then you just need to get lucky with the TRU assortment, or, God forbid, wait until they're more widely available. It would be ironic to finally find the TRU assortment and not be able to find the LCS.

I realize Minimates are so great you want them right now, I just don't understand the "now or nothing" attitude.

[MrClean]

I think minimate mousers packed with these would be cool. I've been getting some of the Lego TMNT sets minus the figures for cheap on ebay just to have some nice pieces to display the minimates with.

[Additup]

Those would be cool accessories for the (fingers crossed) series 2. There are a ton of characters from the Nick show that i hope they make, like Chris Bradford, Xever, Kurai, Newtralizer, Splinter, Casey Jones... Hopefully this first series proves popular. I know I will probably pick up multiples of the foot and at lease one of each turtle.

[MisterPL]

I realize Minimates are so great you want them right now, I just don't understand the "now or nothing" attitude.

That's funny since I'm the last collector to subscribe to the "now or nothing attitude." Patience has almost always paid off for me. The one consistently notable exception has been Walking Dead Minimates. I've managed to collect the entire line up until the 5th series with varying degrees of frustration, far more than any other line of Minimates I've collected.

So I assure you it's not a "now or nothing attitude." It's just that this line wasn't that much fun for me to collect from the start, beginning with the hard-to-find TRU exclusive Glenn from Series 1 right up to TRU's oddly scarce Series 5. So if you're looking for someone to blame, talk to TRU about their reluctance to put more exclusives online or making only certain stores "eligible" for Minimates. I'd have been more than happy to buy them if I could walk into a store and buy them or order them online.

[DSTZach]

When you say "I can't get the TRU Minimates right now, so I'm not going to buy the LCS assortment," I guess I interpret that as "now or nothing." Otherwise you'd buy what you CAN get now, and buy the rest later. Right? I wasn't trying to paint anybody as an extremist.

Two sets are heavy-packed, and two sets are made in smaller quantities. That's just how the line is planned out. The first series did much better than we anticipated, and Glenn and Shane turned out to be TV fan favorites, so the exclusives sold out quickly. Series 2 had the pet zombies, and turned out to be the same story. But Series 3 and 4 I didn't think posed many problems. And Series 5 seems to have just been caught up in the Minimates reset at TRU. I don't think their rarity represents a new reality for stores or online. I assume more will turn up at some point, but two sets will still be more rare than the others.

As I said in another thread, if you get no enjoyment out of collecting a line with what you would consider regular problems, then you have to do what you have to do.

Edited May 8, 2014 by DSTZach

[goods4life]

When you say "I can't get the TRU Minimates right now, so I'm not going to buy the LCS assortment," I guess I interpret that as "now or nothing." Otherwise you'd buy what you CAN get now, and buy the rest later. Right? I wasn't trying to paint anybody as an extremist.

Two sets are heavy-packed, and two sets are made in smaller quantities. That's just how the line is planned out. The first series did much better than we anticipated, and Glenn and Shane turned out to be TV fan favorites, so the exclusives sold out quickly. Series 2 had the pet zombies, and turned out to be the same story. But Series 3 and 4 I didn't think posed many problems. And Series 5 seems to have just been caught up in the Minimates reset at TRU. I don't think their rarity represents a new reality for stores or online. I assume more will turn up at some point, but two sets will still be more rare than the others.

As I said in another thread, if you get no enjoyment out of collecting a line with what you would consider regular problems, then you have to do what you have to do.

other people can quit more for me wahahahahaa!

[The Vox]

I can't quit you Zach!

[hellpop]

I can sympathize with ya, PL. My first action figure love was Justice League Unlimited, but eventually it became so hard to collect that the line lost all appeal for me. I can remember getting a new set in the mail, which I'd bought on eBay for three times the retail price, and feeling really unenthusiastic while opening the box. When collecting becomes a chore, something's not right. Eventually, I decided to sell off most of my collection (I kept five figures I just didn't want to part with, including the only SDCC Exclusive I actually bought at SDCC) and made a pretty nice little profit off them. Recently, we moved to a new house, and I have a new space to display my figures, so I busted out the JLU guys I had left (this includes a few that were put up for auction and didn't sell). I decided to add a few of the figures they released after I stopped collecting, just some favorites like Blue Beetle... and Firestorm... and Blackhawk... and Eclipso... and now I've bought a few dozen more figures, including several I'd owned before. They are actually a lot easier to get now that they aren't in stores.

Totally off-topic, though. I suspect, after talking with Chuck and Zach, you aren't going to have any trouble finding the Turtles anywhere.