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Doctor Who... back on?


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it does sting a bit...hey, now that Zach is here on MMMV we should drag him into this tread :yes:

dunno what good it could do but it can't hurt right? other than the stinging of course :)

They're not happening.

I'm sad, too.

what a horrible thing to say. LOL :sad:

it sucks that Underground toys has their heads up their butts about Dr Who merchandise, I've tried to like the Character Building mini figures but IMO...they suck. The Time Squad was ok for what it was, but they dropped it pretty quickly (or at least the US distributors did).

I wonder if they ever actually revisited the prospect of Dr Who Minimates, as they told ToyFare (see my letter and the response below from 2008) or if the crappy "bite-sized" figures we ended up with were already in the works.

The cry for help:

Hi Guys,

Back in February there was an online article by Zach Oat about Doctor Who MiniMates. Fast forward to July, and now the line is not such a sure thing. I can't seem to find much info on why the line's not happening. I was hoping you might be able to glean some insight on the subject, as well as give those of us interested in the line some ideas on what we could do to convince Diamond Select, Art Asylum, Underground Toys and the BBC (and anyone else involved) to go ahead with production.

A petition at ipetitions.com/petition/whomates/index.html has been created by a fellow fan, for anyone who would like to help out.

Help us ToyFare, you're our only hope!

Tony Marchisio

(email address withheld)

The response:

Your only hope? My God.

Bad news: because of Underground's newly-signed commitment to Star Wars products and rising costs of production in China, the Who MiniMates have been back-burnered for the time being.

Good news: the company says they plan on renewing the Who license and are optimistic you'll see bite-sized versions of the good Doctor in the coming years. "We could have executed some limited releases in 2008, but it wouldn't have done this opportunity justice," says Underground's Robyn Morgan, "so we are going to revisit Doctor Who MiniMates next year and in 2010."

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  • 5 weeks later...
  • 4 months later...

Did anyone else notice how huge the line for the Doctor Who panel at Hall H for SDCC was on Sunday?

Doctor Who's popularity seems to have exploded with the general population! I haven't seen fandom like this for a television show since STTNG! (Sure, Lost was big, but nobody ran around cosplaying it and buying all the merchandise!)

Maybe it's time for DST to reevaluate & renegotiate getting into the Doctor Who business?? Seems to me they'd do just fine selling in the US alone, plus it would get them a better foot-hold in the UK.

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  • 2 years later...

NECRO! i know, it hurts (but see my avatar? i don't give up) no.gif

so, LEGO is doing Doctor Who now. Does this open the door a crack for Minimates? The Marvel & TMNT mates show that both companies can produce the same property. The Lego sets may be worthwhile, but even as a kid I thought the figures themselves suck donkey balls. If safety was ever an issue, that's moot now since Lego figures are smaller (and easier to swallow) than Minimates. for Heavens sake what do we have to do to get these done???

Edited by tones
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Underground Toys will perhaps be the stumbling block . They are (or were?) the (sole?) distributor for Doctor Who merchandise in the US ,if they remain so then little will change .

However I am not a marketing expert so things may have changed now that lego has rights to distribute worldwide .

I think there is hope if there is a desire from DST to attain the licence .

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I'm not optimistic that the largest toy company in the world acquiring a license helps DST, but if it caused the terms of the deal with Underground Toys to change I suppose anything is possible. I wonder if US companies would consider Doctor Who a viable property though?

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Doctor Who has become more embraced by US retailers in the last five years than ever. This deal with Lego – if it includes North American rights – is yet another indication of that.

However, there may be concern about saturating the market with similar product. That and I've seen the 4" figures on clearance at TRU. (I wasn't even aware TRU stocked them.)

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Doctor Who has become more embraced by US retailers in the last five years than ever. This deal with Lego – if it includes North American rights – is yet another indication of that.

However, there may be concern about saturating the market with similar product. That and I've seen the 4" figures on clearance at TRU. (I wasn't even aware TRU stocked them.)

the worst part of that is, my 2 closest TRU stores never carried them. I had to drive to one an hour away before I ever saw the 4" figures. also, the fact that TRU was charging $15 for them didn't help, the $10 clearance price wasn't much better.

Might be able to work something out with Barnes and Noble. Doctor Who is one of our most viable products in store and it sells well.

that's a very good point Trekker. B&N seems to move quite a bit of Who product and they've been stocking Minimates as well.

Edited by tones
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BAM! seems to move quite a bit of Who product as well. There's definitely demand in the specialty market and if Lego's on board, you know they're counting on mass market support.

Admittedly though, one doesn't tend to see Lego Ideas product outside of Lego store until it goes into its own full line (IE Minecraft). So it may be that they test how well Doctor Who does there before sending it to bigger stores.

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