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First hand news from SDCC


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Thanks Storm 1:08 and all others who provided the info from SDCC. Very informative and nice points of view. It's great to know there will be quite a few TRU waves coming out this year and next. Time to get my rewards card ready.

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A HUGE THANKS to Ivan, Storm, and everyone else who shared their minimate news with us. My wallet is not as 'thankful' though. :P Can't wait for all the new mates. Here's hoping for TRU BSG, GB third waves. I buy whole waves so the Angel issue is moot for me.

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A couple of more tidbits:

  • Chuck did mention that he got a reaction earlier to the amount of minimates this year. The person said something like the best thing about minimates this year is that there are a lot of them. The worst thing about minimates this year is that there are a lot of them. Chuck didn’t know how to respond. He knows there are a lot and he did mention something interesting. Normally, the specialty market gets 2 waves at once. He was considering making it 1 wave at a time to help ease up on this flood.
  • Not directly minimate related but I heard rumors that SDCC next year will have limited Preview Night passes. First 1300 or whatever to sign up for 4-day passes get into preview night. When I pre-registered, there were two 4-day options: one with preview night, one without preview night. Oh, and the 4-day prices were $100 at the show. Last year I paid $65 for the early price and it was, I think, $85 for the standard price.

These are the bits that struck me most. Wow, a couple of Minimate myths (like the DST Chuck-Spidey fetish) busted right there!

Chuck does like Spider-Man. He just is in favor of only comic book variants. That took me off guard until he pointed the rationale of Scuba Spidey. If Scuba Spidey appreared in a comic, it's a possibility. But the Scuba Spidey's we have seen in other action figure lines, well, we assume they aren't.

To me, one of the bigger things from the info Chuck gave is TRU seems to like Minimates so they seem to be there to stay for awhile. What a mixed blessing.

Minimates still seem to be a small thing for TRU, from what I gather from Chuck.

So, Bullseye/Moonstone is less rare than the variant pack from a regular series, but not a common pack?

Yes, that rationale seems correct. The first part was mentioned by both Chuck and Matt. Second part wasn’t directly mentioned so I assume that is the case. Again, we don’t know the official numbers from the specialty market or TRUs order numbers so we don’t know how low below a common pack it is. Could be 90% of the specialty market common pack for all we know.

Also, when wave 3 came out, there was also some wave 2 stuff restocked too. So my observation is that TRU is spreading them out and not putting them out all at once.

Here's a question for anyone that went-did AFX run out of their keychains?

AFX advertised as having 5 giveaways per day with 100 handouts each time. If they saved any, it probably wasn’t for the general population...

So, were all the Minimates displayed (particularly the new announcements like X-Factor or Series 32) listed as 2009 releases? Did we see anything with a 2010 date?

I don't normally pay attention to release dates as things may change, but I don't remember anything off the top of my head that wasn't late 2009. I actually was surprised that DSTMatt was able to recite all the release dates for all the Marvel stuff in under 3 seconds.

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Wow. I started off on page 9. Let me just say FRAT.

There were some very good points here. There was also an awful lot of griping. It may be deserved. It may not be. I think Nervous and Lobsterman win this thread though with their excellent comments. And Storm takes the cake for a bulletined list of info.

I realize now why we do the Hunt Mate contest after SDCC. It calms us and helps us focus on what is important about minimates.

Bonus question this year: Take a picture of your Hunt Mate with a Bullseye/Moonstone 2 pack. ;)

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Getting to this late, I realize, but I feel like I should have my little say as well. And if it's FRAT, then so be it.

Should I be apologizing for wanting a character made really bad?

We all have favorites that we want to see made, don't we?

I'm perfectly happy with all the new stuff we're getting, don't get me wrong. Just because it isn't Kang (to me) doesn't make it shit. There are plenty of other characters I'm glad we're getting, like Black Bolt. I'm dying to get ahold of the Captain(s) Marvel, Goliath, Yellowjacket and Black Panther.

Just because I want Kang doesn't mean that I think everything else coming out in my opinion is crap, because it's not. I'm happy we're getting Electro and Scorpion and am STILL counting my lucky stars that they're making a Titanium Man.

I don't know if they'll ever make a Kang. I hope so, since he's an important Avengers/Marvel villain and a character that I really would like to see made. If he isn't, then that's tough luck for any fans of the character. But I'm not going to stop buying minimates. The desire that I, personally, have for Kang is part of a joke at this point on the boards. If you guys get so upset about it, I'm sorry. There are things I get kind of tired of reading as well, but I'm not going to get this upset about it. Let's just all be cool. It's not this big of a deal.

Edited by Mystery Man
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I wish I had a laptop so I could have kept up with this over sdcc. Lots of good points here. The way I deal with this is I remember how lucky we are. There is a TRU set with BE and MS that is out there and there is a chance I can have one (which I do), But even at 1 per case, if it wasnt there, then no one would have it. So a possible bullseye that can be gotten in a number of ways, or no bullseye at all.

Plus chuck told me they will never do less than 1 per case, which reminded me of some bad times I had collecting marvel legends and he man figures. Toybiz and mattel used to have chase figures that were different characters, and the only way to get a character I wanted (red skull for example) was to find a figure that wasn't even in every case. So I can totally deal with this, and I have been. He also made it clear that even at one per case, they make way more mates for a run of TRU exclusives that they do for specialty in general. There are a ton of bullseyes out there, they just need to be picked up.

As for SDCC, I got at least 2 of every new mate related item there, with the exception of the red shirt AFX mate (I have multiples of the other 3) and I even got a free dark avengers set for yelling "beverly hills cop" when Matt was giving stuff to people who could name off a minimate license they currently held. The radiation man from thunderbolts is awesome, and Penance has nipple rings. I shipped all my goods back since I had so much stuff (4 giant boxes) so as soon as they get here I will do a huge pictorial of everything but the amazon set, which I don't want to open since it looks so good in the box.

Also, I was the guy who brought up the miniflyers motorcycle that "just happened to catch on fire." And yeah, we need an identify eachother next year.

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Sounds like you had loads of fun at SDCC arnim :)

As far as identifying fellow members in the future, the de facto universal symbol for MMMV seems to be that cubic Bizarro-Earth against a black background (with "MINIMATE MULTIVERSE" in big orange letters to up the recognition factor a bit :P). The armband sounds like a good idea, but only if it'll be worn someplace where it'll be spotted right away like on the upper arm (I hesitate to call it "Nazi-style"). Perhaps an official MMMV ID card of sorts? T-shirt? Secret handshake? Code phrase? (I nominate "Make Kang dammit!" :lol:) A Minimate in the chest pocket? A "Will Work For TRU Bullseye/Moonstone" sign?

This is exciting.

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Identification? Easy .....all true MMMV members have C3 feet.

It's true. That was a rather painful two weeks when we first started off here, what with drilling holes in each other's feet and whatnot. You new guys don't know how easy you have it.

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I've often been the target for a small boring tool.....like yourself :P

I have never been that target for anyones "boring tool" :blink:

However what you get up to is totally fine by me as long as you do it in the privacy of your own home :biggrin:

heh do you think we should let stuff get back on topic now!

T.

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As for SDCC, I got at least 2 of every new mate related item there, with the exception of the red shirt AFX mate (I have multiples of the other 3) and I even got a free dark avengers set for yelling "beverly hills cop" when Matt was giving stuff to people who could name off a minimate license they currently held.

WOW! You were the guy sitting right next to me!

I was too frightened of the panel's steely stares to try to answer the question. Their burning eyes destroyed me.

BATTLE BEASTS!

Excited about this still, seriously.

Especially now that I'm switching over to become Slowpoke Sloth.

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Oh man TBT and BHM, I have'nt heard witty banter like that since the last time I watched Frasier. You have made my wednesday.

I also remembered this interesting tidbit from the panel. A little girl asked where the name minimates came from. Chuck answered that the staff of Art Asylum used to refer to themselves as the inmates of the asylum, and from their refered to their mini figures as the minimates of the asylum. I didn't know that, so if you did, I don't want to hear how you are better than me. :P

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I also remembered this interesting tidbit from the panel. A little girl asked where the name minimates came from. Chuck answered that the staff of Art Asylum used to refer to themselves as the inmates of the asylum, and from their refered to their mini figures as the minimates of the asylum. I didn't know that, so if you did, I don't want to hear how you are better than me. :P

Awwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww.

That's an awesome origin story B) Must be pretty odd explaining that to a little girl though :blink:

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I really don't know where to put this, but here's a photo of all the different Minimates (and grumpy Stay Puft) from SDCC.

haul600.jpg

7 four-packs, a two-pack, and 7 promos = 37 new (to me) Minimates. There's a few other Minimate bits in there from the AFX Express Pack with a Kyle Reese and a Unification Spock thrown in for good measure.

To confirm what Storm wrote, the photos I have of the X-Factor and Silver Age both have 'Late 09' dates on them.

Now I've got to find my old Battle Beasts. :)

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and grumpy Stay Puft

The fact that you have that bank and I don't makes me at the same time want to hate you forever and be your best friend in the hopes that said item will be gifted unto me. Seriously, give it to me. Nah, I'm playing. Or am I?

I haven't really been into the marvel lines, but my buddy is. When I realized the number of mates he got (including a free pack from the panel giveaways), I was like, "Dang, that's a lot of minimates."

And seriously, he got a lot of minimates.

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Plus, have we ever heard actual kid feedback regarding the TRU 'mates?

At the minimate panel at SDCC in the first row was a family of 4 with a little boy (maybe 4 or 5) he had a baggy with the two blanks, GB2 Venkman and GiD Stay Puft whom he would take out and play with as the panel went on.

Since you got free mates for asking questions, everyone in that family asked one and handed the mates to the boy who then ripped them open to play with (he tore a Unification Spock apart and then put him back together... that'd probably make someone here cringe.) When handed a Dark Avengers set he seemed very pleased with Ares, who he had him swing his sword around going "shoowshoow" and pretend to he was getting hit with Hawkeyes arrow... I'm sure the kid had no clue who Ares was, he just liked the 'knight' figure.

.... so if DST needs proof kids like Minimates, they got it, front row, tearing up rare mates, crying in terror when Matt tried to get him to ask a question... just having a ball.

I've also seen a kid leave TRU with:

Movie Wolvie/Sabretooth, Movie Wolvie/Silver Fox, Hulk/Doom, and Wolvie/Magneto sets all at once. This leads me to believe not only do kids LOVE minimates, they're an important part of the TRU food chain. If we collectors are the lions who hunt down and capture the rare 1 per case Bullseyes, then children who want Spider-man and Wolverine are the vultures and hyenas picking at the scraps to ensure a new case can arrive and the cycle begin a new!

And to end the post, a pure speculation:

Kids love Legos, but Legos are expensive.

Kids love Marvel Movies, but 3.25 inch figures or 6 inch figures are expensive.

For a parent looking to augment that hell of expensive Lego Castle set ($99.99!?!?!) with some additional figures, two superheroes for $8 is a steal compared to 1 knight and a push cart for $10 (the cheapest lego set I saw when looking today was $8 for two figures and a little cannon... after that it's $10 and over with 1 figure and mostly bricks)

For a aunt/uncle/grandparent looking for a quick gift a minimate 2-pack offers your child's favorite hero with a villian (or in the case of Iron Man, a second outfit) for less then cost of one Marvel Universe or Marvel Legend or Spider-man Classics or Iron Man figure... with the added bonus a sandwich baggy can hold a small army of minimates to keep your kid quiet in a line or restaurant while a standard figure only 1 or 2 is really transportable.

Well these do not lead to "kids love minimates" it does lead to sales of minimates at TRU

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