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Battle Beasts Minimates


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If we didn't re- use parts, this wave would likely not exist. We have conservative expectations, so we have to keep new tooling within certain parameters.

I completely understand your point and I'm not surprised how amazing they look. Even properties that I don't particularly care I often end up picking up because they're too good to pass up or they have parts that will make great customs. What I am surprised by is that, with the exception of the bear, each new character only gets a new head or head and body combination.

However, considering Anubis' whole point was the fact that he was wearing the Dread Weapon boots, it seems a strange change to make when re-using the Moose/Giraffe lower leg in solid silver plastic would have been a closer match rather than human boots.

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I fear that these will be a hard sell to comics shops, unfortunately. Not necessarily to patrons of comics shops, but the guys that place the orders. They just don't seem to want to risk ordering 'mates that aren't from known properties. Can't blame them, I guess. We have to hope that the preorders from Luke, BBTS, AFX, and other online retailers are strong.

I'm sure you guys are going to explore every option to keep these alive. Box sets might be a good way to go, as some retailers seem more likely to support them since they can order them individually. Might I suggest partnering with one retailer to make these a store exclusive? Would there be enough orders to make that possible? Could you do them one at a time, and bagged, like the old Web Armor Spider-Man? Or... could you guys use these as the start of a Minimate Collectors Club, and mix in some Pirates and Max guys as well? Just throwing some ideas out.

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I placed my order for a full set of the eight figures from Luke as well as an extra bat/cobra set and robin/jackal set.

I like the nod to Batman and Robin but I really like the Robin as it looks like a great addition to the line.

The Jackal (Anubis) looks like the poorest figure in the line-up but I love the head. I made an Anubis for a custom line I had worked on and I would like to see fi this figure will work in that line as well.

The Cobra looks nice and I hope the tail is a little different from the Rattlesnake in more than the missing rattle-end.

I like how the Giraffe has reused the leg parts from the Moose. The Bat looks like the previous Bat only themed off of Batman for coloring.

I do with there was a Cheetah and when we do get that animal, how compatible would it be to make a hybrid with Cheetara for a female version?

Can't wait for wave three.

If there is a Wave Three, I would love to see a nod to Wonder Woman and Superman in the set. (just kidding, as not sure what critter would work for either of them.)

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Toyark put up some great photos of series 2 Battle Beasts, with their weapons. I was very pleasantly surprised by the Giraffe's accessories. I love the spear and shield. Between that and the neck armor on him, I am getting a very African/Zulu feel to him, which is really working for his character design. The more I see of the wave, the more the Giraffe has unexpectedly become my absolute favorite. He may be becoming one of my favorite BB minimate right behind the original Gator.

http://news.toyark.com/2014/02/17/toy-fair-2014-diamond-select-toys-minimates-117816

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The first series sold out eventually, but it took much longer than we thought it would. If orders are lower for Series 2 than Series 1, we might have to consider the possibility that there is not sufficient demand. Fingers crossed.

So did the Toysrus one do so well due to the store ordering low amounts; because the two toysrus stores by me were sold out of them in about week or two.

I never got the exclusive set.

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If you don't have any interest in this line, but plan to buy either Godzilla or TMNT MInimates, keep in mind that Battle Beasts are a great line for anyone who wants Godzilla or Shredder to fight a pitchfork wielding cow!

I'm banking on a High Evolutionary needing some Knights of Wundagore.

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I noticed that the Cobra has the Rattlesnake's tail including the Rattle. What is up with that? Couldn't they modify the mold to not have the rattle on the cobra?

I still like the figure. I did order a second one so I can use his tail and swap it out with my custom Medusa mate I made.

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I noticed that the Cobra has the Rattlesnake's tail including the Rattle. What is up with that? Couldn't they modify the mold to not have the rattle on the cobra?

I still like the figure. I did order a second one so I can use his tail and swap it out with my custom Medusa mate I made.

Sculpting a piece isn't too terribly cost prohibitive. However, making a mold is pretty expensive. And you can't really make a changes to a mold, instead you would make a new mold. Even though you may just want to make one small modification, such as removing the rattle on the snake's tail, while that may not be much in the way of sculpting, that is going to be an entirely new mold, which would cost DST a lot of money. From the looks of it, they are trying to extend the use of a lot of different tooling from series 1 to help recoup costs form the mold making process, which toy companies do all the time, by reusing parts in different arrangements, along with a small number of new parts, to create a new character.

If they had to make a completely new mold of a rattle-less snake tail, then my guess is we would have just seen a different animal all together rather than a new mold of a piece that incredibly similar to another mold they already have paid for.

I did notice the rattle on the tail, and that may bug some people, but I'm fine with it. I already know I am getting two full sets of these guys, so I may just have to remove the rattle and sculpt a new snake tail tip on the second Cobra.

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I realize that molds cost money and I am still a fan of the Cobra but it just caught me by surprise to see the rattler on the tail.

I may break down and add to my order before they are released but I really like the Cobra, the new Bat and the Giraffe. I do like the the reuse of parts as in the Moose's foot parts on the Giraffe, Vorin's legs on the Cow, Merk's parts on Thrush. Even the feet on the Hammerhead are a reuse of the feet from one of the aliens in Halo. The Jackal's boots are a reuse of parts.

I may try to make a Minotaur from the cow(bull-since it appears to be a male character). The bear is nice and so I may retire the custom bear I made or maybe repaint mine to be a panda or something different. I think the bear could be redone as a polar bear and still look good. Not sure what you can do to make something new from the hammerhead. Now I am thinking if we were to get a second wave that maybe we should get some felines. A lion, the cheetah, a tiger or a lynx.

I would also like to see an Elephant and a Hippo also or a zebra.

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I am hoping for a new version of the original Squirrely squirel, he was my favorite as a kid.

I don't have any of wave 1 in hand (yet) but the pictures I have seen are awesome. Just seeing these in a DST catalog piqued my interest and lead to a purchase.

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The thing i noticed with this wave was how clever and mostly inconspicuous the parts re-use was. With the exception of the bat, every figure looks like a totally new character, and yet so much of wave 1 has been re-used. I'm really impressed with wave 2. In fact, i think i like it better than wave 1.

I waited till wave 1 was convenient to find, but i think i'm going to be pre-ordering wave 2 to make sure i don't miss out.

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The first series sold out eventually, but it took much longer than we thought it would. If orders are lower for Series 2 than Series 1, we might have to consider the possibility that there is not sufficient demand. Fingers crossed.

I've always loved anthropomorphic animals, and this brand reminds me of an old roleplaying game called "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Other Strangeness".

It is too bad DST cannot cross-brand battle beasts with other compatible brands, such as TMNT or Kung Fu Panda (which you don't have, but should look at, since a 3rd film is coming and has a successful tv show in its 3rd season).

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Sculpting a piece isn't too terribly cost prohibitive. However, making a mold is pretty expensive. And you can't really make a changes to a mold, instead you would make a new mold. Even though you may just want to make one small modification, such as removing the rattle on the snake's tail, while that may not be much in the way of sculpting, that is going to be an entirely new mold, which would cost DST a lot of money. From the looks of it, they are trying to extend the use of a lot of different tooling from series 1 to help recoup costs form the mold making process, which toy companies do all the time, by reusing parts in different arrangements, along with a small number of new parts, to create a new character.

If they had to make a completely new mold of a rattle-less snake tail, then my guess is we would have just seen a different animal all together rather than a new mold of a piece that incredibly similar to another mold they already have paid for.

I did notice the rattle on the tail, and that may bug some people, but I'm fine with it. I already know I am getting two full sets of these guys, so I may just have to remove the rattle and sculpt a new snake tail tip on the second Cobra.

Toy companies make changes to molds lots of times. It's called "retooling" I imagine it's cheaper then making a new mold, but still more expensive than just reusing an unaltered mold.

However, in the case of the Rattlesnake tail, you probably couldn't retool the mold since the rattle is already larger than the tail (typically retooling a mold will mean carving out part of the mold, which would make a larger piece of plastic on the toy)

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When you look at the prototype, you can see the rattle is painted gold, to match some of Cobra's other weapons and armor. The implication being that it's an artificial thing he's added to his arsenal, sort of like brass knuckles for the tail. Clever workaround, DST. smile.png

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Wait....... are we nitpicking a rattle tail, on a figure... with a cobra head, that has arms, and weapons, and wears armor?

It's all about accuracy. Out of every cobra human warrior hybrid I have ever seen here in Chicago, none have had a rattle tail. I'm just kidding. I could see how it might bother others, but I think it's fine. Heck, anytime you are making a snake into a humanoid warrior, there are going to be compromises. The original Battle Beast snake is actually quite odd. He has legs, with feet and toes, but he doesn't actually have "arms." Instead, his arms are just two more snake heads. So are there brains in each snake head arm? Do the arms compete with the main head for dominance over the body? Why does he have feet but not hands? How does he actually handle weapons? Now that guy was weirder than this Cobra warrior with a rattle on his tail, and I still loved him. I have over a 150 of the original snake.

Cappy, I didn't notice at first that the rattle is painted to match his armor. Now that I see it, I certainly get a brass knuckles feel to it. That's the way I am going to think of the Cobra now, he gave himself a club tail. Awesome.

0639-snake-battle-beasts3.jpg

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What I always wondered was why nobody bats an eye at the fact that all the beasts are aliens, yet they're based on Earth animals. I get that these creatures need some kind of relate-able component, but I still wonder why it doesn't occur to most people (or maybe it does and nobody really talks about it?) that we're using what we know of Earth lifeforms to imagine what extraterrestrial animals would be like.

but a rattle on the end of a cobra tail is weird ;)

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