SCW Posted July 13, 2018 Share Posted July 13, 2018 22 hours ago, MisterPL said: Why not both? Is the Who fandom as fractured as Trekkies seem to be? No, I don't think so, but I think Classic Who is an easy sell. With the first female Doctor on the horizon, there's really no way to gauge if the show will reach new levels of interest or plummet to the bottom of the ocean. And frankly, since Matt Smith's Doctor came on, new Who merchandise has struggled to make that connection with a lot of audiences. Even though there has been a ton of it. Much like Polarboy said, it's hard sometimes to figure out what characters from the new seasons would make good figures to have and often by the time toy companies do, the pegs are clogged with pointless characters. I think if you started with the 4th, you'd see great sales, you could do some other Doctors and villains and eventually work into "New Who" with Tennant and such if need be and by the time they got to the "current" stuff, we'd know if it was a hit and what characters to choose from. Let the 13th get a few seasons under her belt before trying to make characters from that time frame. But as I understand it, they're two totally different licenses as well. And I suspect Classic would work well, even though lots of places want to push what's new and current, I think with Who you should start in the middle and work both directions. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
buttheadsmate Posted July 13, 2018 Share Posted July 13, 2018 Way back when......although I can't recall the actual details......the Daleks appeared in several stories without Doctor Who & were in essence a different license . It's a pity that's changed . Sod Doctor Who & the random 'one-offs' just give me a minimate Dalek . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thereasonsy Posted July 13, 2018 Share Posted July 13, 2018 20 hours ago, stack32 said: DST has an Amazon store? https://www.amazon.com/Diamond-Select/s?ie=UTF8&page=1&rh=i%3Aaps%2Ck%3ADiamond Select I think this is them... if not what a landgrab. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fwoosheyman Posted July 13, 2018 Share Posted July 13, 2018 DST doesn’t have an Amazon store they run like NECA. Amazon itself buys some DST products and the rest is from others sellers on Amazon. The only online store DST has is on their website. No idea how much they sell through but I’ve never heard of anyone using it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hellpop Posted July 15, 2018 Share Posted July 15, 2018 What makes me sad about Minimates is that I think the base figure itself is easily the best minifigure out there. I mean, you look at Megablox figures, and those terrible NBA and WWE ones, and there's just no comparison. Even the classic Lego minifig, while not without its' charm, is nowhere near a Minimate IMHO. But there's no recognition of that, so Minimates often languish next to these other lines. I think that there's a lot of creativity that goes into the figures; the recent Spider-Man/Chameleon set is a great example of that. DST has often been great at figuring out cool little wrinkles to add value to these sets. But at the same time I think the format of product has stagnated a bit; we've basically only seen two-packs and four-packs for years now. I'd like to see some more innovation there. I think that Minimates, unfortunately, often play against their strengths. The best Minimates, almost universally, are those that are colorful and distinctive. Too often, though, we see drab figures of people in normal clothes. Not particularly exciting. I also think that Minimates have been hamstrung by some unfortunate choices in recent years; they got on the Pirates of the Caribbean bandwagon way too late, and movies like Dark Tower and Alice Through the Looking Glass were flops with little demand for product. I wish DST were a little better at identifying properties that might have more long term appeal, but that said I recognize that DST can't always choose what gets made. It's not like they don't want to make Star Wars, or WWE, or Indiana Jones, or Doctor Who, or any one of a number of licenses that could be a real breakthrough. I worry about the future of Minimates. TRU is going to be a huge blow. There's a lot of potential Minimates lines that will never see the light of day without TRU to back them up because the sales at specialty shops won't be enough. Marvel has been the tentpole property for so long that I wonder realistically how long that can last. I think that Chuck has done an excellent job guiding the ship these fifteen years, but I definitely feel like Minimates have peaked. I just hope they are able to settle into a nice level if they are never going to move up to the next one. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MisterPL Posted July 15, 2018 Share Posted July 15, 2018 I just long for some old-fashioned con exclusives, like a vac-metalized Silver Surfer or a flocked Man-Thing. Those might not make sense at retail but would be pretty unique figures for collectors. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stack32 Posted July 15, 2018 Share Posted July 15, 2018 Whenever the "colorful" thing is brought up I think it says more about the commenter's biases than the product. I'd argue that those civilians and alter egos make minimates just as unique as any of their other strengths. My MCU collection is much more extensive because of it. Also, I think I have to defend MB figures a little. Claiming there's "no comparison" to minimates is pushing things a little. The articulation is very similar. The amount of detail, sculpted and tampos, is impressive. If you look at the properties you can directly compare MB has done an excellent job, I'd take their Star Trek and Turtles product over DST's if I had to pick one. They have a different approach but they're still very good little action figures. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
arnim zola Posted July 16, 2018 Share Posted July 16, 2018 So I recall there's a new retailer jumping on board that may be announced at sdcc? So I don't EVER recall seeing this before (and again big city/lots of retail), but we were just in a Walmart yesterday and walked past series one of the Kingdom Hearts Vinimates in the electronics section. Not that crap walking dead collector type section by the self checkouts that no one looks at, but a high exposure area. I was excited, by my wife's expression, she... She was not. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Freaqualizer Posted July 16, 2018 Share Posted July 16, 2018 Yeah, I was searching through eBay and saw there was a Walmart exclusive Sora Vinimate. I too wondered if Walmart was the new retailer. It would be great exposure for the brand. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Onyx_6 Posted July 16, 2018 Share Posted July 16, 2018 (edited) I had seen the KH Vinimates and Selects at one Walmart by accident. I have not seen them at 7 Walmarts while actually looking for them. Talk about a retailer with poor distribution. Walmart, in my experience, is significantly worse at distribution than Walgreens or TRU have ever been. Edited July 16, 2018 by Onyx_6 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MisterPL Posted July 16, 2018 Share Posted July 16, 2018 I noticed that over the weekend, too (which is pretty odd since I'm rarely at Walmart). They also stocked Kingdom Hearts Select figures. Happy to see DST getting the business. Hopefully it turns into something wonderful for Minimates collectors, too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hellpop Posted July 16, 2018 Share Posted July 16, 2018 Vinimates seem to be getting into stores that Minimates do not, probably because consumers are more interested in vinyl figures than they are in minifigures. Carrying Kingdom Hearts Select figures is a good sign though. Walmart would definitely not be my choice to carry Minimates (I've boycotted them for several years) but I'm all for anything that keeps the miniflame alive (I just might need some of you to help me acquire the figures). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RedTiger95 Posted July 16, 2018 Share Posted July 16, 2018 Gamestop could be another retailer for the video game licenses we got. They already have the Kingdom Hearts Vinimates there too. Sonic could possibly be there, it makes sense. But they might only want the vinyls. They also own ThinkGeek which we just got one at our mall. Its another hobbyist/collector shop that sells niche figures and toylines. Although they are not as widespread with only 38 locations at the moment. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thereasonsy Posted July 17, 2018 Share Posted July 17, 2018 6 hours ago, hellpop said: Vinimates seem to be getting into stores that Minimates do not, probably because consumers are more interested in vinyl figures than they are in minifigures. Carrying Kingdom Hearts Select figures is a good sign though. Walmart would definitely not be my choice to carry Minimates (I've boycotted them for several years) but I'm all for anything that keeps the miniflame alive (I just might need some of you to help me acquire the figures). I wonder though if Walmart’s price busting may further alienate LCS and threaten the online retailers? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mattallica Posted July 17, 2018 Share Posted July 17, 2018 geez i hope its not Gamestop, as I've heard they are having money troubles and may be headed the TRU route, so it probably is them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gmonkey2k Posted July 17, 2018 Share Posted July 17, 2018 40 minutes ago, Mattallica said: geez i hope its not Gamestop, as I've heard they are having money troubles and may be headed the TRU route, so it probably is them. Well that's not good. I hope that's not true. For personal and financial reasons. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Onyx_6 Posted July 17, 2018 Share Posted July 17, 2018 3 hours ago, thereasonsy said: I wonder though if Walmart’s price busting may further alienate LCS and threaten the online retailers? Select figures were $19.99 and the Vinimates were $9.99. The Select assortment was the slimmer character packs that TRU and Target have gotten, not the 3 packs that go to specialty. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fwoosheyman Posted July 17, 2018 Share Posted July 17, 2018 http://www.actionfigureinsider.com/action-figure-insider-sdcc-panel-living-in-a-post-toys-r-us-world-navigating-the-future-of-toy-retail/ Interesting SDCC panel and Steve the Walgreens buyer will be on it. I hope it gets posted online afterwards. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TENIME_art Posted July 17, 2018 Share Posted July 17, 2018 There are 4 ThinkGeek stores in Indiana, but none anywhere near Chicago!? C'mon, son... We have one of the biggest malls in the country, which I also happen to work near. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
funkguerilla Posted July 18, 2018 Share Posted July 18, 2018 I keep having this crazy notion that the new retailer could be Barnes and Noble. With their expanded toy/hobby section and a desire to reach beyond just print media, it seems like they're the perfect candidate. Not that it's any more stable than Gamestop at the moment, but whatever. Regardless, I guess we'll find out in a few days. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MisterPL Posted July 18, 2018 Share Posted July 18, 2018 BAM! has been carrying Select figures and Vinimates. They've also carried Minimates in the past. With TRU out of the picture (and half a mile away from my nearest store) maybe they're getting back into offering Minimates. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stack32 Posted July 18, 2018 Share Posted July 18, 2018 B&N would help DST keep their streak of getting exclusive product into dying retailers alive. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shanester Posted July 18, 2018 Share Posted July 18, 2018 I have found Minimates at my local B&N for quite some time, but maybe they will take on more product. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fwoosheyman Posted July 18, 2018 Share Posted July 18, 2018 Please not B&N I’m still emotionally scarred from Borders costing us Hogun and Fandral. ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Heinous Posted July 19, 2018 Share Posted July 19, 2018 My BaN closed several years ago. Hope it's not them Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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