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Mass Effect Minimates


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On 03/01/2017 at 1:53 AM, CmdrShep2183 said:

Any plans for more Mass Effect minimates? I would love to have Joker and Admiral Anderson! Also Andromeda is coming up!

Andromeda is almost here. Hopefully DST is just waiting for player feedback, before deciding what characters to make.

Also, I'd still like more from the original trilogy.

Saren
Matriarch Benezia
Legion
Joker
EDI
Thane
Samara
Jack
Cpt. Kirrahe
Reaper Soldiers
Geth soldiers
Thorian Creepers
Collector General
Collector soldiers
Blasto Hanar Spectre

How about ships? Or a Mako? Deluxe sets. For both?

ME Trilogy
A ME1 Normandy, with Joker.
ME2/3 Normandy (2x mold use, easy repaint), with EDI.
A REAPER! Sovereign. With Saren. (option parts to make end boss Saren.)
Geth Dreadnought, with Geth soldier.
Destiny Ascension, with the Citadel council.
Collector ship, with Collector General/soldiers
Mako (Clean and Battle damaged), with helmeted Shepard/Liara/Garrus etc. Pyjak?
The Thorian, with Shiala clone, Creepers.
Rachni Queen, with soldiers.

ME Andromeda
TBD
Tempest.

Was any of this considered? Did the line under perform?

 

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Regards Mass Effect 'underperforming'.  In my opinion......... as an older ( the oldest? ) collector of Minimates............... they were great . They were vibrant ,well-made & eventually cheap . I reckon they'd be compatible with many other lines which is also great .

Whether 'Mass effect' fans thought they were desirable is completely unknown to me ........& something I'd like to know.

Did they sell ? Yes . Were they profitable ? Who knows .

I still love Minimates & despite all my griping & cursing I'm massively proud of the collection I have amassed over the years........................however.......if I was cornered I would have to say that 'Minimates' as a brand has underperformed .  That's not how I'd like to leave things so if anybody wants a discussion...start a thread & we'll have an adult conversation about it.:devil:

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I think there was an Ask DST where Chuck said they were not planning on doing anything with Andromeda.

The massive clearance on the blind bags at Gamestop certainly makes it look like the line underperformed. It probably didn't help that it was announced the line was over before the boxset came out, though the lineup in the boxset made that pretty clear anyway. Unfortunately I think there are relatively few video game properties that can move enough volume to support a line of minimates and apparently ME wasn't up to it.

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7 hours ago, buttheadsmate said:

Whether 'Mass effect' fans thought they were desirable is completely unknown to me ........& something I'd like to know.

I'd like to know too. I don't know where merchandising companies get their information from. Is it all based on whether retailers "show an interest"? And if so, where do they get their information? In this age of communication, I'm surprised more companies don't levy the internet in the way Kickstarter does.

Argh, I hate economics. I get it. But damn, I really thought MM could deliver more considering the simplicity of their form. Aliens got me on board in a big way, and that line is doing well, and I hope continues to flourish.

For me, to be honest, Minimates were never my first choice, but the relative lack of ME merch in general lead me to MM as way of fulfilling a somewhat complete representation in my collections.

It amazes and saddens me the lack of merch for such a beloved franchise.

Dark horse did ships, but ridiculously overpriced for the size and quality. And Reapers, the only one I've ever seen is the $300 statue. PAK did a few figures, of which some were terrible (shepard face), the better ones are now very expensive. Big fish did some, which again are expensive after market. What should this tell manfacturers?! There's a demand here. But, if you make crap quality product and/or overprice of course people won't buy it. And then they attribute this to lack of interest!

5 hours ago, stack32 said:

... Unfortunately I think there are relatively few video game properties that can move enough volume to support a line of minimates and apparently ME wasn't up to it.

Then there's no hope for anything!
:(
 

8 hours ago, buttheadsmate said:

... That's not how I'd like to leave things so if anybody wants a discussion...start a thread & we'll have an adult conversation about it.:devil:

I feel like I'm ending on a downer too. I would join that conversation, but I feel it would be pointless. First world problems aye! :)

I need to learn how to start making my own customs, for everything! Only way to satisfy.

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2 hours ago, stack32 said:

The ME figures with high secondary market prices didn't sell all that well when they were new, at least partly because they were mediocre. I hate to say it but manufacturers are probably getting this one right.

I agree, and their mediocrity was their downfall I'm sure. But if people are paying those prices, especially when they're not good, then surely that  shows the demand.
If a company like NECA had made figures, I'm sure they'd of done well.

We'll likely never know. Now McFarlane are making "action figures", more correctly statues, they probably won't sell well again. Because they're not good enough for action figure collectors, who want decent articulation, and neither for statue collectors, who expect better paint apps and scale.

I don't know. Maybe I'm am wrong about it all and they're really isn't enough of a market for ME. Just wishful thing. :)
Just had a bad vibe recently, seems everything is being straggled by the need to hugely profitable. Movies, games, figures.

It is dream of mine (a pipe dream so far) to start making my own customs, for all these uneconomical wants. Hence the name, TooNiche.

Edited by TooNiche
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I'm not a video game fan, so I'm admittedly coming from a place of ignorance, but I just don't think gamers buy collectables that much. It feels like toy companies are always trying to make video game toys happen, and they never really do. But gamers certainly don't seem all that interested in Minimates, as the only video game line that can be called an unqualified success is Halo, and some of the biggest flops in Minimate history came from video games.  I hope Kingdom Hearts breaks that trend.

Edited by hellpop
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50 minutes ago, hellpop said:

the only video game line that can be called an unqualified success is Halo,

 

What about Marvel vs. Capcom? That got several waves and led to them trying (the much less successful) Street Fighter x Tekken.

Plant vs. Zombies hasn't been around as long, but DST's still making them. Didn't the first TRU set do quite well?

Edited by BuffaloDelorean
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Marvel vs, Capcom gave me a few first class Marvel characters that I adore notably Yelopool,  Modok & Dormammu ,a great Dr.Doom & my 2nd. blue Iron Man. There were some other memorable (Capcom included) characters............ enough to keep the likes of me onboard but I have no idea whether M v CC fans loved what they got  .

 

Plants v Zombies is a licence that ....from my perspective......is just completely off the wall ,I love 'em .

Did the first TRU set do well ? It did for me . Try finding a set !!!

 

Street Fighter v Tekken ? "Oh dear oh dear"  would sum up my opinion .........& remember that's what it is....just my opinion.  I have often wondered whether these were aimed at a different market .....as in 'Japanese' market .  That leads nicely into a question from me "WhyTF  aren't  Minimates successful outside of the US?"   

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No more Mass Effect, or Dragon Age. Box Sets didn't sell all that well, I don't believe. People have blamed the packaging for a lack of success at Gamestop, I won't argue it, but sad if that was the case. I think gamers prefer realism and accuracy to the game, for the most part. Obviously there are times they settle, like with hot games that have few options for merch, but otherwise stylization is a hard sell, one that seems to work best with instantly recognizable, nostalgic characters.

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 Normally I'd be sad, but my hype for Andromeda is 0, so at this point I'm merely apathetic. It's certainly a bummer, but Video-Game collectibles never did particularly well. The Japanese imports sell, especially the ones based on Metal Gear, but gamers aren't that interested in figures. Vinyls and statues sell a bit better, 'cause they're seen as decorative items. Oh well, here's to Kingdom Hearts doing better! (no sarcasm, as I really want some classic Disney characters)

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Even though I had little knowledge of and no interest in Mass Effect as a toy or game property, the Minimates grabbed my attention. They are simply gorgeous. Personally, if they hadn't been blind-bagged, I'd have happily paid more for them instead of waiting for them to go on clearance. This non-gaming collector would have made GameStop that much happier with the Minimates brand.

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22 minutes ago, MisterPL said:

Even though I had little knowledge of and no interest in Mass Effect as a toy or game property, the Minimates grabbed my attention. They are simply gorgeous. Personally, if they hadn't been blind-bagged, I'd have happily paid more for them instead of waiting for them to go on clearance. This non-gaming collector would have made GameStop that much happier with the Minimates brand.

What he said .

 

 

....& what I said when I first clapped eyes on them .............

On 12/19/2014 at 2:02 PM, buttheadsmate said:

I've now had the opportunity of seeing these in the flesh & they are stunning ...each of the characters has something special about them . Anybody else notice the innovative feet & hand pegs ? If you knew,forgive me but this is the first time I've seen the two 'ribs' on each of these pegs.

BTW Liara is IMHO the best painted Minimate I have ever seen ....every possible surface has a tampo & she just looks superb .

 

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I think the key with collectibles based on video games, and Minimates in particular, is to find properties that have interesting designs beyond the context of the game.  I bought all the Tomb Raider ones, for example, because they had cool samurais and other neat figures.  I stayed away from SFxT, for the most part, because the characters were way too stylized and specific to the game.  If I were DST I'd go after Assassin's Creed and Bioshock because those are hit games with neat designs that will appeal to more than just fans of the game.

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Back in the day, Minimates had its own style that went beyond the shape of the body. Character art was adapted to a block figure style of illustration which created a uniform look across properties. Then AA basically started rendering musculature than wasn't as blocky to go with sculpted pieces that weren't as flat. Some of the designs looked as if they'd taken art straight from the comic panel and tampo'd it right onto the figure, even to the point where you could almost tell who inked it. Check out the evolution of Hulk's abs to see what I mean.

 

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(Hail Ivan!)

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23 hours ago, hellpop said:

.. If I were DST I'd go after Assassin's Creed and Bioshock because those are hit games with neat designs that will appeal to more than just fans of the game.

Bioshock, YES!
I fired this among others at them in a AskDST message. No response yet. (It was a lengthy message.. :P)

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3 hours ago, JediJohnson said:

Does anyone know the age range of primary buyers of blind bag toys?  Maybe pairing blind bags with a video game rated "M" may have been a contributing factor.

Haven't all blind bags had relatively bad sales/not many people having access to them? 

Like weren't the Alice hot topic stuff blind bags? And the hot topic NBX or something? Idk you'd think DST would learn. I certainly hope the marvel stuff did terrible as well. I'm not certain about the turtles but I'd bet that might be another reason they stopped that. Wasn't there a Series 5 blind bag for tmnt 

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DSTChuck has always been against blind packaging. His sales team talked him into it because that's what they said retailers wanted. 

 

So Kmart got one assortment of blind-bagged Turtles and have passed on Minimates since. GameStop got one assortment of blind-bagged Mass Effect and have passed on Minimates since. That seems like the start of a dangerous trend for the brand.

 

At least Hot Topic got more than one assortment of blind-bagged NBX. 

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Everything about blind-bagging that I thought needed saying has been said elsewhere but Minimate blind-bagging was about as bad as it can get .

Every mistake that could have been made was made & if Chuck was talked into blind-bagging....... I blame Chuck . That said I'll move on.  

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