AdyCarter Posted January 10, 2007 Share Posted January 10, 2007 61 of your burning questions answered by our good friends at DST, Kudos to Matt and the guys for this! Alpheon: 1) Is the 3-inch body officially dead? That is, no longer in production, not being used for any upcoming projects? We never say never, but beyond the DC Minimates using the 3†bodies for some of their larger characters, we do not have plans for the 3†body. 2) Are you planning on having a hand in the production of any Blank Series coming soon? By series, I mean a run of promotional blanks. It’s been discussed, but we’ll have to wait and see. 3) Why the choice to make the GSXM Wolverine/Iceman packs fill entire cases? That was a special case for a quick shipment to Target. Future cases should consist of multiple two-pack styles. Luke314pi 4) If the X3 wave is very successful, would you consider making a second X3 wave? Anything is possible. Shanester 5) Is there going to be any Summer 2007 Con exclusives? We have a couple in mind, but we’ll have to wait and see. Amazing.JL 6) Are we getting any new minimate licenses for 2007? Definitely! In fact, we announced one today on our web site. 7) How is SFII Series 2 looking? We have a plan to get them released, but we’ll have to wait and see if everything works out. 8) How about Star Trek mates? You should see news on these very soon. 9) Anticipated release for Rocky minimates? (My suggestion, don't wait too long!) These will be released this summer. 10) Apparently there are 4 Cylon elf models. One leader (Chrome-Downloaded Cylon), One Bloody, One battle damage, and One regular one. Can you confirm or provide the exact line-up? Is there a regular model with guns? How many of each were produced? We don’t release production runs, but you can rest assured that we only planned two versions, bloody and regular. 11) What was the criteria for distributing the Cylon elves? It seems even retailers that buy a ton of minimates did not receive one. Is it all up to Diamond Distributors? Some were sent by DST, and some were sent by Diamond Comics and some by Art Asylum. 12) How are the sales of Battlestar Galactica minimates going? Modern Cylon Assortment, Classic Cylon Assortment, Series 1? Both Cylon assortments are completely sold out. 13) According to the press release, DST stated that there will be 500 cases of each Cylon Assortment (Classic/Modern). How come on the bottom of the cases, its says you have XXX out of 450? Were there not enough orders placed? 500 cases were made. The “1 of 450†sticker was placed over the “1 of 500†sticker in error. TBT! 14) Are we going to see a return to comic characters as opposed to Movie Marvel some time soon after Xmen and Ghost rider? I love all minimates but I prefer the comic to movie ones We have several comic-based Minimates coming. 15) Are you going to be at all the usual shows next year? - yes we are going to stalk you and make you repeat the same answers over and over We announce which shows we will be attending in our E-Spectrum newsletter ,but expect a pretty full schedule and please stop on by! 16) Are we going to get news on who's in BSG wave 2 soon or are you waiting to see if they are successful before going ahead with wave 2? We will show waves 2 and 3 for Toy Fair in February. 17) Will there be more limited run single packed 'army builder' type figures? - from what I'm hearing on preorders the Cylons are selling fast. Never say never, but we do not have more planned for Galactica. 18) What is the single best part of making minimates? do you get the biggest buzz from seeing the designs, picking the characters, seeing the finished product etc. Lots of different things can excite us about a project but I think getting a full line plan worked out then seeing all the prototypes together for the first time and seeing the universe created is lots of fun! 19) What's the one question that you always hope we ask but never do? How is it you can keeping coming up with all these versions of Spider-Man and Wolverine?? 20) Same as above in reverse: what is the one question people always ask that you're sick of hearing? When are Star Trek Minimates coming out OR when is Thor coming out. Deadpool 21) Why not do a whole "let the fans vote on who is in a Marvel Minimate wave" thing? We’ve tried fan polls in the past, but it’s difficult to combine fan-wants with real-world limitations. 22) Are the BSG ships still going to be released? If you’re referring to the mini-flyers, we’ll have to wait and see. 23) If Street Fighter gets a Wave 2, and it does well, could we see even more? Anything is possible. TM2 Dinobot 24) Long shot here, but how about branching out into Japan (and here) by picking up the license for The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya? We have lots of plans for Minimates over the next year, but so far we haven’t discussed the Melancholy. 25) Build-a-figures? Yes? No? Maybe so? Maybe-so, but leaning toward No. 26) Exactly how heavy is the fan interaction and input with the Minimates lines? Do y'all actually listen to us? We’ve seen the polls and are aware of fan wants. 27) THANK YOU for the Marvel line. It got me into Minimates. There's so many things you can do with it. Please don't let it die. We’ll do our best. 28) Convention exclusive blanks. Where have they gone to? We took 2006 off, but 2007 is still undecided. 29) Any chance of a Minimate Multiverse exclusive? (you guys knew some one had to ask it) Other forums have approached us about exclusives, but the numbers required usually prove too much for them to handle. 30) Will Minimates now be pumped out faster and cheaper than before? Will we the consumers see any kick back from any said change? Yes, no and sometimes. 31) Any chance of any more IndyMates? I would truly love to see more IndyMates, with new figures. (Arwen from Sojorn, Mermin from Cavewoman and Jane from Painkiller Jane are names that jump to mind) Also, what was the deal with this last set? Witchblade, one of the most anticipated figures was a total cop-out. The molded parts were nice, but her paint applications were shoddy at best and her physical issues of joint structures were horrible. They extended not only to her but to the rest of the figures as well. The prototype images indicated something quite different then what we got. Magdalena showed full removable swords. The parts used are wonderful, and I'd desperately love to see a Witchblade repaint done right. Mayhaps in a Witchblade meets Wolverine crossover 2 pack? We do not have any plans for a second assortment of IndyMates. 32) Can you guys reuse parts from the LOTR, DC and Cereal mate lines, even though you guys don't own them? It all depends on which molds are being used at which times by which factories, but that’s the idea behind Minimates. 33) The actual DVD that came with Darktide was awesome. Any chance of a longer Minimate movie? Also, what's with the package variation with big chested Juggernaut? Right now there is no new movie in production BUT its something we'd love to do again. IF demand had been there we had hoped to do a movie wave of figures. 34) How about some 80's lines? GI Joe, He-Man, Thundercats, Star Wars and Transformer Minimates? Enough said. Some of those licenses are not available and others have been pursued. We’d love to do all of them. 35) There have been a LOT of quality control issues lately. Parts that don't move, snap off, etc. In the past, I'm sure a major concern has been shoplifting. But now you guys are having serious problems with the actual figures themselves. I'm wondering what steps y’all are taking to correct/prevent this? We have offered replacement Nightcralwers already, but we do have staff dedicated to quality control. 36) Seeing as how many people have reported legitimate breakage of their minimates straight from the box, I'm wondering if y’all are going to do a replacement campaign? Perhaps if there are any broken minimates from was 12 & 13 (some one correct me if I'm wrong, this is the latest and when problems started right? --TM2) and up, people can send them in and you can replace them? I don't know if that's doable or not. It's something to seriously think about. See above. If you get something from DST that you consider to be “defective,†just bring it to our attention and we’ll do our best to resolve it. 37) I have an idea for a Marvel Minimate. What about a Stan Lee signature edition Minimate? Marvel's most famous writer, idolized in minimate form, with a random amount of them autographed. It's something to think about. Minimates of real people are difficult to execute, but it’s a possibility. 38) What are the chances of a deluxe box set? Something like an army building set or screen capture sets? A great one I can think of would be the Sinister Six, with nice packaging with 6 of Spiderman's villains attacking him. Exclusive accessories could be included such as the Goblin Glider or Carnage's tentacles. You could even go so far as a repaint, such as the Hobgoblin. While a bit more expensive, the window would hearken back to allowing collectors who like to keep their collection MISB to still be able to display it. If you threw in a accessories or even a repaint or 2, it would be a way to reuse old molds and make more money. We do have more box sets planned. 39) When is there going to be an “Ask DST†panel at a convention? Will you be doing more of these “Ask DST†threads? We will be doing the Ask DST thread as long as there are questions left to answer. As for conventions, stop by and ask away! We’ve already done some at conventions in the past. MisterPL 40) And how about completing the Minimate Mego homage and offering Planet of the Apes 'mates? We do not have the Planet of the Apes license. Lurch77 41) How did the Mass Market 4-Packs do (SFII, Marvel)? Will we see more? More are planned. 42) How's the rolling stock of 2-Packs doing at Target? Will we see more? The new two-packs are just hitting now. We will keep developing new two-packs for Target as long as they will take them! 43) Since DST has license for Spider-Man 3 stuff, any plans for movie related minimates? They’re doing a Spider-Man 3 movie? We’ll have to look into that… 44) Any plans to package minimates with DVD’s again? A Ghost Rider mini packaged with the movie on DVD would be a good idea to help promote the line (imagine the sales if you got one packaged with the Spider-Man movie) No plans currently. Antacost 45) What was the thinking in the Galactica Series 1 Line-up? Why no Adama in series 1? I'm sure lots of people would rather see the old man instead of Caine. I'm sure that you're trying to save some of the major characters for the later waves, but Series 1 is just kind of "ho-hum", line-up wise. Don't worry, I've ordered these no matter what, just wanted to see what the thinking was. Apollo, Starbuck, Six… how many more heavy hitters can we put in the first assortment? CRISIS Survivor 46) What are the chances of an all villain wave some time soon All-villain… we’ll have to see. As long as there are still good heroes left (and there are plenty), there’s no need to do an all-villain wave. 47) Did Darktide sell as well as you had hoped Darktide has performed very well for us. 48) What’s the one license that you would love to put in minimate form? Star Wars CrazyCylon9 49) Any chances of a Raptor for the new BSG 'mates to go along with the Vipers and Raiders? BSG is what's gotten me into Minimates. Mini-flyers were originally designed, but as earlier stated, we’ll have to wait and see. 50) What are the chances of having a Serenity/ Firefly license and series? Possible for Serenity. The Thing 51) Any chance of Thundercats in mini form? Not any time in the near future. Lobsterman 52) Who does the design for Minimates packaging? I think it could work a lot harder to sell the product, especially considering the stiff competition. Hasbro has made some very aggressive moves in the last couple years toward innovative packaging design that gets attention and showcases the product. Frankly, I think Minimates packaging just gets buried when set next to the competition. I work for a design firm and I’m serious about this. Is there someone I can speak to about pitching the account? Art Asylum designs the packaging. A new style is currently on shelves in Target. Xybot 53) What is the full story about the Resin Display Stand? Is it 100% cancelled or are there other plans for it? From what I've been told, it is cancelled with no plans to resolicit and no plans to make it. 100% cancelled. We tried a variety of promotions and materials, but sales just weren’t there for this… which is too bad. 54) I understand that it might be difficult to get Hasbro to let you produce plastic toys of their characters. You must know that folks would love Joe and TF Minimates. Is this 100% undoable or is it still a possibility? We do not have the license for Joe or Transformers Minimates. 55) I also know that Palisades did Buffy Palz. BUT they are no longer a company ... so can we please have Buffy Minimates? It’s been discussed and we know there is interest. 56) What about your other licenses like Stargate, Serenity and Office Space? Stargate and Serenity seem like PERFECT matches, and Office Space just SCREAMS for a one-off playset. We’ve got a lot in the works now, but those are all possibilities. 57) Just watch: Marvel Zombies vs. Army of Darkness is going to be a HUGE book ... why not think outside the box and do an AOD / Marvel Zombies wave or set? You have the licenses to both and obviously the 2 companies want to cross promote. You'd really knock a lot of people's socks off with an item like that. People like Zombies? Who knew!?! 58) PLEASE get funky with the summer con exclusives … we need some good ‘mates over the summer. (see #5) We’ve got some ideas already… Seanus : 59) Ever thought of making a rare / special minimate which you make from parts in all the other packs. E.g - A Bigger Hulk - so head, arms, torso, legs and accessories come in the packs, so you have to buy all of them to create/build this minimate. Just like the Marvel Legends build a figure - sentinel, mojo etc... and a parts selling service? - that would be cool. Runaways and Young Avengers sets would be cool too! Build-a-figures are not likely any time in the near future. It may be possible do one as long as it’s not any larger than a normal Minimate, but we don’t have any plans to do that right now. Runaways, Young Avengers, New X-Men, Classic New X-Men, Avengers, etc… plenty of teams left to work on. BannersID 60) In the past weeks I've seen a lot of talk about BAF mates packs after a lot of thought I have to admit the prospect of this makes me shudder. any thoughts on a mail away premium fig (buy a wave and send in the UPC's) just curious as to which might be more likely to happen if any Our license does not include large-scale plastic Minimates, so the BAF would have to be smaller… even if it were a mail-in. handsomedevil 61) In addition to the lowered quality, a lot of the characters' costume details no longer wrap around the whole body. How do you justify lower quality and less detail with a higher price tag? We are working to address those very issues as fans see them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AdyCarter Posted January 10, 2007 Author Share Posted January 10, 2007 answer discussion: http://www.minimatemultiverse.com/index.ph...ic=1554&hl= Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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