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Tarot Witch of the Black Rose minimates


LDroome

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The funny thing is that in hindsight, the "badness" of that review gives me the morbid desire to see the Minimates outsell the comic :lol: Hey, I want my minimate Avengers to go into battle against blatantly silly ideas weird-looking antiheroes too! :P

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I especially love the Indie-Mates & have never understood why they apparently bombed. Quality-wise they were flawed but these look superb.

Twisted's comments should be taken seriously & are very valid. I love a laugh & my linking to 'suggestive' pictures of Minimates is hopefully seen as good fun ......whether an official line of Minimates as risque as these is healthy is a matter of opinion . As toys I am not entirely sure they are acceptable .....but are they toys? The eternal debate continues but we are continually told from DST that Minimates are toys . I like them but I like ALL minimates but which sort of new collector is going to be drawn in by these ?

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I don't really see it as a bad move on their part. How many of us here are kids and how many of us are adults? They're just trying to reach a wider market, and in a way, they've done this before. Silence of the Lambs isn't overly kid friendly, but we've got the box set.

I can agree that they probably shouldn't feature this set on any of the kid-targeted marketing though.

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Right, because kids today have absolutely zero interest in serial killers, terrorists, pastry chefs and eighties singers. ;)

Here's a fun game to play: Randomly approach somebody and ask them if Minimates are for kids or collectors' items.

(Actually that's not a bad idea. We should totally get a poll going or something.)

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Ok, heres a bit o news folks...we have a new member named Holly Golightly...she is VP of Broadsword and will post news, updates and pics here for us on these. Here is the quote from my chat with her this morning

"Well tell 'em that when the admin lets me- I'll post and answer questions- BUT I was a Pre-K teacher and am very mindful of manners...sooo no snarky snarky ;) "

so lets make her feel welcome!

Jeff of the Miniacs

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"Well tell 'em that when the admin lets me- I'll post and answer questions- BUT I was a Pre-K teacher and am very mindful of manners...sooo no snarky snarky ;) "

For some reason when I think of the Vice President of Broadsword, I never would have guessed a pre-school teacher. I guess you never know.

I can agree that they probably shouldn't feature this set on any of the kid-targeted marketing though.

Really? I am totally expecting the announcement any day now that there will be a wave of Tarot exclusives at Toys R Us. :yes:

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Well, as a parent, there are things I'd rather my kids not see at TRU. But, you'd have to define what adult collectibles are. TRU carries BSG figures which, really aren't kid friendly, and that's cool. However, if I found a wave of adult movie star figures there I guarentee we would never return.

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Aaaaaaah... fair enough. :)

For me though the distinction between toys and adult collectibles can be a pretty tricky one, especially in a Christian country like ours where people can get so worked up over "suggestive" material that we can't even get Watchmen on IMAX. We can be pretty conservative here, and yet when I walk into a toy store I can see anime figures of sometimes-scantily clad (but thankfully never nude :rolleyes:) women on display, some at eye-level with little kids even. Then again it could be due to how inefficient big-box toy stores can be at micromanaging demographics or something.

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I've given this a lot of thought over the past few days. I find myself still struggling with this concept. Here's some of my issues.

I've never read TWBR. Never intend to. It's little more than pr0n and it has witches, black roses AND tarot cards in the title. That's enough to drive me away.

However, one of my all time favorite titles is Witchblade. Witchblade has the name witch in the title, frequently teams up with the Darkness, the Angelus is a lesbian, and Sarah seems to be wearing racier and racier clothes these days. How do those differ, and why is the former wrong (me never having read it) and the later okay (being in my top 5)?

These are Indy Mates. That makes me SO HAPPY that you have no idea.

These are a borderline adult property indy mate. A lot of LCSs don't carry TWBR, or if they do they keep it in the adult section. Should there really be toys of it? Should I be buying toys of it, regardless?

I don't think they will be, but what happens if these are sold at TRU? I feel that I should complain, because they do NOT belong in a children's store. But that may get Minimates pulled from TRU completely.

It has girl minimates! Yay!

It has pr0n star witch girl minimates! Boo!

I'm not really asking for anyone's commentary on my thought processes here. i just wished to air them, to try and get them straight. I see some of you are also struggling with similar thoughts. I think the best thing for these mates is if they were to be sold on the publisher's website, similar to Charm City Cakes, or some other internet exclusive. That keeps them out of the public eye, and out of the reach of children, but still gets them out there, and would get enough exposure to the target audience. Still, the ultimate question is how would I feel spending my hard earned American dollars on something that might make it more difficult for me to sleep at night?

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That's pretty eerie Dinobot... I was just reading the old Watchmen thread a while back, and that old argument you got into about the comic's critical acclaim came back to me :ermm:

But I can see where you're coming from about the "questionableness" of these mates. In theory I'm supposed to be more embarrassed by these mates than anyone, but the fact that I'm actually excited for these kinda makes me feel like I'm an embarrassment to my gender instead.

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I'm not really asking for anyone's commentary on my thought processes here.

I know you're not asking, but since you posted it seems like fair game.

If you can rationalize and justify something like Witchblade or displaying your enjoyment of scantily clad women here, despite the beliefs you hold (which you also have openly shared here), it would seem rather easy to justify buying these. Just the fact that you are openly questioning whether or not to buy or support something when you announce that you don't agree with most of what it represents says there's not much for you to question.

I only say this to point out what this license will be for a lot of collectors. There really hasn't been a line of Minimates that polarized fans based on moral/ethical opinions and this line will do it. But, I don't think this line is intended for hardcore-Minimate fans as much as it is to hardcore Tarot fans. And those fans no what to expect from this line and would be disappointed if it didn't deliver. Whether or not it's right or wrong won't determine the fate of this line-pure sales numbers will. If there's a demand, they'll sell.

Edited by groundhog7s
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That's pretty eerie Dinobot... I was just reading the old Watchmen thread a while back, and that old argument you got into about the comic's critical acclaim came back to me :ermm:

But I can see where you're coming from about the "questionableness" of these mates. In theory I'm supposed to be more embarrassed by these mates than anyone, but the fact that I'm actually excited for these kinda makes me feel like I'm an embarrassment to my gender instead.

Why would you feel as an embarrassment to your gender when the comics fan base is largely of the female gender as well?

Jeff of the Miniacs

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In theory I'm supposed to be more embarrassed by these mates than anyone, but the fact that I'm actually excited for these kinda makes me feel like I'm an embarrassment to my gender instead.

Actually, I would think being a member here might be considered more of an embarrassment to your gender than anything. ;)

Edited by groundhog7s
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In theory I'm supposed to be more embarrassed by these mates than anyone, but the fact that I'm actually excited for these kinda makes me feel like I'm an embarrassment to my gender instead.

Why would you feel as an embarrassment to your gender when the comics fan base is largely of the female gender as well?

This is news to me :ohmy: Like I said before, I'm not very familiar with this series. I guess it makes a kinda weird sense why it appealed to me so much then: the female characters are pretty badass and liberated, the detail on them is astounding, and really what girl isn't secretly a sucker for the occult? :blush:

Maybe this line might be a good thing after all... If the TRU was what opened Minimates up to kids, then maybe Tarot will be what opens it up to more female collectors!

Actually, I would think being a member here might be considered more of an embarrassment to your gender than anything. ;)

This just makes me even prouder of my love of Minimates, so no chance getting rid of me that way Granny-hog! :lol:

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I'm gonna go lurk for a while till someone needs a Marvel question answered or something... :whistling:

Why is there a hyphen in 'Spider-Man' but not in 'Iron Man' ???

Haven't forgotten you, BHM. Just researching. Only Stan Lee would really know, and he's g a famously bad memory. BUT it seems Stan's every casual utterance on the subject of his co-creation of Marvel characters has been recorded by one geek or another. And since you asked now I'm curious if here's an answer out there too.

Which is my typically long winded way of saying I have no idea.

There's a part of me that wants to say of this book, and Witchblade too to an extent, that if you really want to see half-naked girls, there's a whole wrack of magazines full of real ones you can ogle and skip the thin storytelling. But considering the amount of plastic surgery and PS alterations being done these days, the hand drawn ones are just as real these days. >shrug<

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I wonder if this is kind of a "they're paying for it, so whatever" deal for DST. It does seem like a really left-field license for them to actively pursue. I don't think the... er, adult theme necessarily damages the brand, though. I doubt this would be solicited to, or requested by TRU.

This, the Chef Duff, and Goth Girl do, however suggest that Minimates are becoming nice channel for smaller-scale properties to produce a unique collectible with a (relatively) low cost-of-entry. Probably much cheaper than full-on action figures, and competitive with statues or busts. I wonder if DST is actively marketing Minimates to these smaller companies as such, or if the companies are just randomly popping out of the woodwork?

Edited by Lobsterman
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Actually IIRC the, erm, Symbol Which Must Not Be Named wasn't exactly occult in the aberrant, supernatural sense: it was originally a popular geometric motif dating back from the caveman years, which later developed a special place in the Hindu culture as both a holy emblem and, I kid you not, garden-variety wall decoration. Over time its symbolic reputation grew to the point that it was said to possess magical, good-luck properties... And then some archeologist rediscovered it, and then it was co-opted and misinterpreted as being a symbol for the Aryan race, so... yeah.

Of course I would probably be giving DST too much credit if I said this was the reason mini-Red Skull had no swastikas about him. Probably they were just being politically-correct, and we all know how arbitrary and incomprehensible the notion of political-correctness can be...

(Anyway I just posted because I was just a wee bit weary of the instant association of obscure holy symbols with eeeeeeeeeeviiiiiiiiil!)

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when a Red Skull with an occult symbol on his uniform is taboo .

What exactly are you referring to?

Sieg Heil!

I suppose the argument could be made that the Nazis are just as much a part of history as the occult, but for some reason a Swastika doesn't have the same effect a pentagram has. (to me at least)

GH, your comments left me scratching my head moreso than my own thoughts. Are you saying that if I read Witchblade I shouldn't have an issue with TWBR? Or were you questioning my religious resolve? Is it bad that I have issues with these? I'm confused. For once someone else was less clear than me. :huh:

Edited by TM2 Dinobot
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