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How many Minimates do you need?


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Recently I've been considering just how many minimates I need in my collection. There are a variety of reasons (lack of enthusiasm for current Marvel product, bagging and seeing just how many I have, lack of storage, etc.) but mostly I realized that with any reasonable amount of display space I'm likely to have in the future only a relatively small portion of the collection is ever going to be displayed. A minimate display can be pretty dense, but I personally prefer a little more space than the stacked rows that some people like; something a little closer to how DST shows off minimates at conventions. Rotating characters through displays is an option but I've found I rarely do that. So, basically, I'm trying to approach buying new minimates with a thought to what display they would eventually end up in and pass on those that would end up in storage forever. Here are some themes that I think I would try to make space for:

MCU

Pre-Disassembled Avengers

90's X-Men

A-list Heroes, Villains, and Cast: Cap, Thor, Spider-Man, Iron Man, FF

Street Level Characters: Daredevil, Iron First, Punisher, Moon Knight, etc.

Marvel Villains, if they don't fit elsewhere

Alien/Predator/Terminator

Mass Effect

Star Trek

That may not be quite everything; for example I've found I do like classic Avengers lineups in modern costumes so something like that might also find a place, but it covers the main categories. So, does anyone else have similar thoughts? What characters make the cut for you?

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All of them?

Minimates and I have been together my entire adult life. I've considered narrowing down what I buy here and there before. My displays are the same way right now. Not a lot of space, tons of mates in storage, loose, carded, boxed. Every time I try and wind it down a new license shows up that I want, and after passing on a few things out of a "Meh I can get that later" attitude, I am paying for it now trying to gather some early things I missed. It would be easier to hunt down the fewer items I need for a more complete overall collection than it would be to pass on a few years worth of stuff then inevitably change my mind again and scramble to catch up.

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My biggest needs right now are the 90s X-Men, and the good, the bad and the ugly box set. Predator is my next big purchase and the aliens series 2. I have a small area on my desk for displaying my mates, but for the most part, not big enough for dioramas or solid displays. It's just small team poses that I fiddle with while I'm on my PC. I usually just go on binges for certain character lines. Right now I'm on a Spider-Man kick. Should have a few more villains heading my way when I get a response from someone. Other than that, I buy on a whim. No real planning.

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That has been an interesting question that I've had to ask myself recently, in response to life trajectories/goals/financial limitations.

While I certainly don't have display room for most of my collection, I also don't have any real desire to cut back on what I purchase. Sadly, I do need to be more discerning now than when I began collecting a decade ago, so I've had to make the choice to stop collecting all movie mates. I find that my interest is heavily focused on the comic releases, with quite a few other licenses to boot. But my bottom line for collecting is not to display, but rather to feed my creativity. I love to photograph my mates or draw images based off of them, and so I feel that I need all of the ones relevant to my creative process...

Which is just about all of them =P

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I totally stopped collecting all the marvel movie mates after IM, Hulk, and XMOW. Too many civilians when I wanted new characters, and too many characters left out due to short windows for release on them. Even passed on everything from the first avengers. Then stupid GOTG came out and gave a whole wave of characters that didnt have minimates (-drax) and I started grabbing movie mates again.

As for displays I have the following usually (at the moment though they are in storage), I have a single white shelf with attached brackets, then 2 sets of 3 adjustable rack shelves from home depot. The shelves are all different widths, I have a bigger one at the bottom for a big diorama setup, then smaller as the go up. Usually 1 set of 3 goes to all minimates on each shelf, the other set of 3 usually goes to legos and the single is whatever I want at the time. All of them have a good degree of cycling around. The diorama shelf last had the classic avengers lineup (or the earth mightiest heroes cartoon lineup plus the maximoff twins) versus Aim and Hydra but I can easily switch out with Xmen, FF, spidey etc.

middle shelf was often just very cool mates that I liked (Mostly marvel villains) in loose rows just so I get all kinds of display variety.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I once had over 600 Minimates, but unfortunately, I had to sell them. I sold them to Luke. I met him personally. He's a helluva nice guy, he gave me a great deal, and I know that the Minimates found a good home.

So at the moment I don't have any. I do, however, plan on collecting all the Alien/Aliens Minimates and most of the Predator ones (all the characters from the first film, anyway). That will be enough for me.

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Ideally, I think enough to fit in a decent sized shoebox. I've never really displayed them, other than having a few up on a shelf until i put them away (usually whatever the newest batch i just bought). These days there are only a few mates left that i truly want, unless DC comes back, then its a whole new ballgame. I've recently been going thru all my stuff, and got a bit overwhelmed at actually how much i have (the amount of unopened packs is way more than i thought). Trying to separate them all into categories and finding all the missing parts has been a daunting process. Being a customizer more than a collector, once i start looking for the right parts, it looks like a hurricane hit my work area! Once i get complete mates, i plan on trimming my collection by about 75-80 %. Once I get to that point i plan on filling one tote with untouchables (stuff like ares, scorpion, hulkbuster, most of the DC and Thundercats mates) and the rest will be for spare parts and customs. My problem is that i see a part that I'd like to use for a custom on a figure, by the pack, and never get to that part. My closet is full of unopened 2-packs that i don't think i'll ever get to, or open. I do hope the NBX and Muppets do well because i will probably actually display those, and only need one of each out of the ones i like. Except for the swedish chef, because i want to use hit hat for a Purple Pieman custom. I think these will be fun to collect with my kids and nieces and nephews.

I'd be happy to talk to anyone looking to help me get rid of all my excess wacko.pngthumbsup.gifbiggrin.png

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"Just give me all the Minimates you have. Wait, wait. I'm worried what you just heard was, "Give me a lot of Minimates." What I said was, "Give me all the Minimates you have". Do you understand?" yes.gif

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My addiction ,whatever I can find that I want I finally think I'm done then I start collecting another line (damn you walking dead ) I have 2 totes full of mates one is all unopened and the other is overflowing with loose mates ,then I have 2 full shoe boxes with mates I want to display ... and I'm not slowing down either .

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