TRU WAVE 12

[Mirymate]

Very, Very cool.

[buttheadsmate]

All I see is a black blank with flesh arms with a single tampo on the face & a 2-colour tampo on the front of the torso .

Sorry GH I respect your opinion but that is not pure awesomeness

That is Crossbones & it is harder to find a picture of him which doesn't show him towering over just about anybody with his mask clearly showing THE WHITE STRIPE GOING OVER HIS SKULL LIKE A CROSS.

Crossbones .....Get it? cross.... bones.

I could do better myself ,I really could.....& what does that say about this ?

It's OK,it'll do,I'll buy it bleh bleh bleh.

[Twisted Two-Face]

All I see is a black blank with flesh arms with a single tampo on the face & a 2-colour tampo on the front of the torso .

Sorry GH I respect your opinion but that is not pure awesomeness

That is Crossbones & it is harder to find a picture of him which doesn't show him towering over just about anybody with his mask clearly showing THE WHITE STRIPE GOING OVER HIS SKULL LIKE A CROSS.

Crossbones .....Get it? cross.... bones.

I could do better myself ,I really could.....& what does that say about this ?

It's OK,it'll do,I'll buy it bleh bleh bleh.

But...but he still has the heavy vest chest piece to be both modern and classic!! D: I'm going to use the modern look (relying on finding him, though), but i'm glad classic fans have this option too. Quite frankly, i'm glad he actually gets a small arsenal; nothing Deadpool sized, but he really doesn't need that many either haha.

[Mystery Man]

I check TRU.com several times a day for these. With them showing up (once) on ebay, I'm wondering how much longer a wait it's gonna be.

[Lobsterman]

Maybe the Galactus set was in stores November and this wave was December?...

[DSTZach]

I shot him without the vest because I knew people were hating on the vest. But I took another shot of him WITH the vest that looks even cooler (and which I'll post later), so I'm hoping people will be happy either way. ...Well, not buttheadsmate.

[Mirymate]

That is Crossbones & it is harder to find a picture of him which doesn't show him towering over just about anybody with his mask clearly showing THE WHITE STRIPE GOING OVER HIS SKULL LIKE A CROSS.

Crossbones .....Get it? cross.... bones.

Actually, it was the Red Skull that called Brock Crossbones before the b/w mask. Mercenary Brock Rumlow was hired by the communist Red Skull to kill Arnim Zola, or at least prevent Zola from reviving the original Skull. Known as Frag at the time, Rumlow was the only one of the mercenary assult team to survive. Impressed by "Frag"'s tenacity and spirit, Schmidt hired him to be his new right hand man. Schmidt told Brock he would answer only to Crossbones from that point forward. As in Skull and Crossbones. Those wacky Nazi comedians. Crossbones first costume was little more that a black tank top with a two bones in an X on it, a mask with a skull pattern on it, and whatever else he happened to be wearing. The more distinctively patterned mask and flak jacket came later.

[karamazov80]

. . .I'm hoping people will be happy either way. ...Well, not buttheadsmate.

Take that, Butthead(smate)!

[DSTZach]

. . .I'm hoping people will be happy either way. ...Well, not buttheadsmate.

Take that, Butthead(smate)!

Not meant to be a dis -- it sounded like his issue was with the mask and the height as well as the torso. Do you dislike the bulky vest as well, buttheadsmate?

Let me know what you guys think of the Thor shot I posted. I have a whole 42/12 gallery I'll put up next week.

Edited November 12, 2011 by Zach Oat

[dj87]

just for whatever record that exists, I really like the look of Crossbones, and will be displaying him minus the jacket piece.

Excited for these, just a shame they gave all the good figures to TrU, and once again... speciality has to make do with the junk.

EDIT - just wanted to make sure I didn't come across as a Debbie Downer. wave 42/ TrU 12 are all gorgeous looking mates, I just have no interest in dodgy Thor variants, whilst remaining v.excited for important new villains... and Balder.

Edited November 12, 2011 by dj87

[Turtle]

The junk? I think 42 is one of the better waves this year and wave 12 is an excellent companion. Everything looks great to me so far. Crossbones looks great with and without the vest. I think I prefer the vest look, but I was really hoping his chest would look like this. I will try to find some belt piece to give him a little more height, but otherwise I am really excited for Crossbones.

[ImABarRoomHero]

I like Crossbones. I like Ike.

[Mystery Man]

. . .I'm hoping people will be happy either way. ...Well, not buttheadsmate.

Take that, Butthead(smate)!

Not meant to be a dis -- it sounded like his issue was with the mask and the height as well as the torso. Do you dislike the bulky vest as well, buttheadsmate?

Let me know what you guys think of the Thor shot I posted. I have a whole 42/12 gallery I'll put up next week.

I was really looking forward to the "First Appearance" Thor, but seeing that his cape has the shoulder pads attached is kind of a bummer for me. I dislike when the sculpted parts get in the way of the movement of the figure underneath. As in, Thor unable to raise his hands above his hand to use Mjolnir, y'know?

That honestly is my only real complaint with some minimates that come out. Other than it, it's just the usual "Please seriously make Kang" type stuff.

[buttheadsmate]

What can I say? I appreciate that that there appears to be a rationalisation of the processes involved in producing Minimates,that said,one of my favourite Minimates is Symbiote Spider-Man which is a black blank painted white. My issue isn't necessarily with Crossbones per se ,my issue is with the gradual erosion of the attention to detail on some Minimates. I am probably the unlikeliest Minimate fan on God's earth but I just can't sit back & say to other kindred souls that everything is fine & dandy because it ain't . In this instance I believe that Crossbones should have had the top of his head painted & a torso extension,tiny details that would,in my mind,transform him from OK Minimate to a KO Minimate. A similar looking Minimate would arguably be DC Bane http://www.minimatedatabase.com/figure.php?i=286&n=Bane (thankyou Ivan).I spend far too much time yearning for the good ol' days of DC 'mates for good reason & I'm pretty confident that the reason they bit the dust was that they were too expensive to produce.

As for the vest Zach, I think it helps & I appreciate your response .

[dj87]

The junk? I think 42 is one of the better waves this year and wave 12 is an excellent companion.

I couldn't agree more about TrU wave 12, I'm just not so excited about wave 42's 42billion Thors in awful outfits.

As for 'one of the better waves this year', I think I'm inclined to agree, given that we get Zola. For more, 41 was the best this year my some margin, Shadowland and the movie waves weren't too sexy.

S'all just opinions n' what not, all is well.

[hellpop]

@BHM: I'm surprised that you feel that way about Crossbones, since you're always flying the flag for more simplicity in Minimates and bemoaning how much all the detail and sculpted parts have distracted from the basic, clean Minimate. I would have thought you of all people would be loving basic 'Bones.

@Bob: Surely you can't be referring to the Spiffy Walt Simonson designed armor as one of those awful outfits. Surely!

[Twisted Two-Face]

The problem i have with Wave 42 is the fact that there are....FOUR different variations of Thor, FIVE if you include Wave 12. That's....insane. Don't get me wrong, i love Thunderstrike, the Masterson-Thor design, and Armored is a neat variation, but i don't need all of them to drop at once.

I'm most excited for Secret Wars Cap, and that's kind of sad really.

[Mirymate]

@Bob: Surely you can't be referring to the Spiffy Walt Simonson designed armor as one of those awful outfits. Surely!

Um that was the MMMV'er formerly known as bobafett, not Bob, who changed his name to avoid confusion. Unless of course dj87's first name is in fact Bob too in which case I think all attempts at avoiding confusion have epicly failed.

@BHM- I will not argue with you that Marvel mates have not declined in quality. The good news is it's still not down to where it was say the Rogue/Mystique pack days. Would I have been happier with better paint apps? No doubt. But I think you hit the nail on the head with expense being the issue. I strongly suspect that if you looked at the rise in the price of oil, you'd see a matching correlation to the decline of detail on minimates. Which then brings around the question of what you would rather have a fewer minimate per year of higher quality apps, or the present number at the present level of quality. And that is a question that you will not find consensus on, I'm afraid. Personally, I'm just glad they remembered/ could put the crossed bones tampo on at all. I had visions of a blank chest piece under the vest. >shrug<

[Bob Harris]

@Bob: Surely you can't be referring to the Spiffy Walt Simonson designed armor as one of those awful outfits. Surely!

Wasn't me. He just looks like me right now.

:tongue:

[Dio]

Wave 11 is:

- Fantomex / Mr Negative (TRU Exclusive)

- Betsy Braddock / Nightcrawler (TRU Exclusive)

- Wave 41 Bulky Hulk / Iron Man

- Wave 41 Green Goblin / Unmasked Spider-Man

Pix from Toyfair 2011

(Credit to DIO for some of the pix! )

Hopefully this TRU Wave 12 will tie in with Series 42, meaning a Thor/Cap comic book wave.

The funny thing is, over the weekend I sculpted the face I was going to use for my Beta Ray Bill custom....

I'll post pix when I get home from work.

Eh? I didn't take those pictures.

[stack32]

I think we (mostly) understand the need to keep costs down, but the omission of some details hurts more than others. Crossbones not having the stripe on his mask continue over the top of his head is a bigger deal than some other 'mates not having detail on the backs or sides of the figures. I guess I at least have a chance to fix this myself. I'm just glad it looks like Crossbones doesn't have a hole in his head.

[Pete]

Pointless holes in the head are the biggest letdown and i imagine, are one of the easiest for DST to rectify.

[Mystery Man]

I think we (mostly) understand the need to keep costs down, but the omission of some details hurts more than others. Crossbones not having the stripe on his mask continue over the top of his head is a bigger deal than some other 'mates not having detail on the backs or sides of the figures. I guess I at least have a chance to fix this myself. I'm just glad it looks like Crossbones doesn't have a hole in his head.

For me, the omission of some details on back/sides of figures is just as crummy. I can kinda understand not doing it on EVERY Spider-Man that's been made since there are so many. But on the other hand, if the "partial webbed" Spider-Man is somebody's first Spider-Man minimate, I could see them being disappointed at the lack of detail on the one they picked up when they see other ones that are "better".

On characters who'll likely never be made again, the lack of detail with a simple black line to continue the appearance of a boot is really frustrating to me. It just seems lazy not to include it. I give you the Black Panther or classic White Tiger. While White Tiger has a little more detailed boot detail, I'll admit, the figure of Moon Knight DID get the kind of attention to detail I'm asking for.

Regarding the plethora of Thor's and Captain America's we're getting with TRU 12/WAVE 42:

-The Thor's feel like distinct enough representations to me that I'm glad to have them. Sure, I'd have preferred 100% to get some non-Thor supporting characters/villains instead, but at least the level of design is such that it shows they aren't just "throw away" figures.

-The Captain America's, though, I have kind of an issue with. The "Civil War" Cap is a nice, bright figure... but something I'd expect in a re-hash 4-pack as a primer for new minimate fans, like what was represented in the "Heroes" 4-pack from a few years back. The "Secret War" Cap is, to me, a lovely poke in the eye. It's a nice looking figure, but now it stands alone as a representation of a storyline that thus far no other characters have been made for. So that's one more "team" that will eventually need to be filled out. Considering that this "team" is almost entirely composed of characters we've already gotten multiple versions of (Daisy Johnson being the only "new" figure that could be made), it's a bummer. Because future slots in a series could be given to these characters while the much-touted Kang, Falcon, Black Knight, et. all continue to remain unmade.

[battlecat]

The "Secret War" Cap is, to me, a lovely poke in the eye. It's a nice looking figure, but now it stands alone as a representation of a storyline that thus far no other characters have been made for. So that's one more "team" that will eventually need to be filled out. Considering that this "team" is almost entirely composed of characters we've already gotten multiple versions of (Daisy Johnson being the only "new" figure that could be made), it's a bummer. Because future slots in a series could be given to these characters while the much-touted Kang, Falcon, Black Knight, et. all continue to remain unmade.

The impression I have is that the decision process is more like:

-"What Spider-Man should go in this allocated Spider-Man slot?"

-"How about Secret War Spider-Man?"

...rather than:

-"Should we have Secret War Spider-Man or Kang in this completely unspecified slot?"

But who knows. I'll also be less than enthused if we get all the Secret War costumes, they're a bit boring.

[Mirymate]

-The Captain America's, though, I have kind of an issue with. The "Civil War" Cap is a nice, bright figure... but something I'd expect in a re-hash 4-pack as a primer for new minimate fans, like what was represented in the "Heroes" 4-pack from a few years back. The "Secret War" Cap is, to me, a lovely poke in the eye. It's a nice looking figure, but now it stands alone as a representation of a storyline that thus far no other characters have been made for. So that's one more "team" that will eventually need to be filled out. Considering that this "team" is almost entirely composed of characters we've already gotten multiple versions of (Daisy Johnson being the only "new" figure that could be made), it's a bummer. Because future slots in a series could be given to these characters while the much-touted Kang, Falcon, Black Knight, et. all continue to remain unmade.

Civil War Cap suffers from a bad name. From Zack's description, he sounds more like "Motorcycle Riding Cap", but since they can't make a motorcycle for him they can't call him that. But "Secret War Cap"... yeah, still not feeling it. If you absolutely had to make a Cap in black for that spot, the unused Captain design for CATtA would have been a better choice. (not as good a choice as Falcon or Winter Soldier, but lets not beat that carcass down to the hide)