228 replies to this topic

[Dan]

Rad, the 'wings' on Iron Man's back are air-brakes, he uses them to quickly, well brake in the air. In the film he uses them while evading the F-22s.

[Danny]

A hum-drum civilian that gets a 5, probably is not the "average" Minimate. To me, the typical Minimate is probably more like a lesser, but decent Marvel comic character like, for instance, a Hawkeye or Rogue--a figure that has flaws, but is still much more desirable than one of the "24" guys to the average Minimate fan. But neither of those characters deserves a 5 out of 10, IMO.

Well both of your examples (Hawkeye and Rogue) got 6s. Maybe that's our average!

Having a scoring system in place has kinda affected how I view Minimates. Because I've been reviewing for so long whenever I open a set I tend to automatically assign each figure a score in my head there and then, and I very rarely change it whilst writing a review.

But for all this talk of marks and averages and baselines... I guess I wouldn't get too hung up on scores per se. I've always placed more emphasis on the text and the pictures. For the promo ones I didn't even score them because it didn't feel right.

[Rad]

Rad, the 'wings' on Iron Man's back are air-brakes, he uses them to quickly, well brake in the air. In the film he uses them while evading the F-22s.

Thanks Dan, like I said in the review I couldn't remember what they were for, just that they were there. So I had to say what I saw. I bought that DVD late last year and still haven't gotten around to watching it.

[karamazov80]

I bought that DVD late last year and still haven't gotten around to watching it.

I don't know if you saw this in the other thread, Rad, but there are actually Minimates in the special features

[Rad]

I did see a link to youtube a while back which had Jon Favreau (I think) playing with Iron Monger and saying it was the best toy he'd seen. Is that the clip K80?

[karamazov80]

Yep, that's the one. I think he was reviewing prototype pics or something.

Edited by karamazov80, 23 June 2009 - 07:06 AM.

[karamazov80]

I just read over the review Danny posted for the Endoskeleton, and I really like the fact that we get two different perspectives on this figure. As he posts in the review, some will like this figure, others (like myself) won't, and just one negative review might not be fair to the figure.

Edited by karamazov80, 07 July 2009 - 01:00 PM.

[Danny]

I'm glad you see it that way! The modern Cylons also had two reviews (one from me and one from Rad) and for an army-builder figure like that is useful to get different perspectives.

I understand completely why you didn't like the Endoskeleton, but I found the look grew on me.

Hopefully it also comes across that I had a great time taking pictures for the whole review

[Twisted Two-Face]

Okay, so i'm really irked by the Hulk Movie Wave reviews. They really just don't seem all that far. Not to say that you are in any way a bad reviewer Rad; i usually love your reviews over there and find myself agreeing to them. But suddenly they seem really, really biased. I mean, it started with the Iron Man Wave, when you seemed so awestruck by the perfect-10 suits of armor that the civilian mates seemed like cheapo garbage and wastes of plastic; they were also VERY good mates!! Now we get to the Hulk ones, and the latest has me irritated the most; specifically it's the Hulk one. You list everything YOU hate about about the figure just based on it being a minimate. You say nothing along the lines the playability (which they have LOTS of) or even accuracy to the movie. You just hate the way it looks. That is all well and good; i totally understand that we all have that certain mate that is just ugly as hell, but this isn't one of them.

Like i said; please don't get me wrong. Usually you are such a great reviewer. It just seems like you really let go of your professionalism here, and that isn't too good when you're writing a review.

[Punisher]

IMO, if there isn't a set template for a review (like at Michael Crawford's Review of the Week), the reviewer can say, and do whatever they feel to get your opinion across. Rad isn't advertising, or trying to get you to purchase it, he's just stating his (biased ) opinions.

Personally, I thought the wave sucked. It had three OK figs (Banner, Emil, and Abomination) and one decent one, the variant.

[Rad]

TTF I appreciate your thoughts and take no offence. But I still think the Hulk moviemates are appallingly bad.
Go and read the latest one again, you'll see that where possible I'm actually quite complimentary about the Banner 'mate, but I haven't given it a huge score, and that's because it's just a very plain minimate. That's why I always make the crack about dull minimates having nice feet (attempting to deflect Danny's assertion that I"m a minimate foot fetishist!)

[Danny]

I guess this goes back to reviewers "being a fan" or not. There have been some reviews on MMC where someone is a fan of the property that the figure is from and perhaps the score is adjusted slightly higher. But the Hulk wave is the opposite. It's generally acknowledged as being a sub-par wave by the Minimate community, and it wasn't exactly high on the list to review, but it needed doing, so Rad stepped up and did it even though he wasn't enthused by the Minimates themselves.

I don't think you can call Rad "unprofessional" for not liking the Hulk wave, at least he articulated very clearly what he didn't like, and more importantly WHY he didn't like it. If the review was just "This Minimate sucks", then obviously that's not helpful, but it wasn't, and that's why I went with it and put it up on the website. I thought it may be a controversial review, and that's not really a bad thing. It is bad when a review is controversial for the sake of being controversial but that's not what Rad's doing.

Not every reviewer is going to like every Minimate, and you can't expect each review to review the figure purely on its own merits without taking into account other factors. In this case, there are 2 Hulks in the wave. If Rad had given both Hulks a poor score, then you may have a point, but he obviously saw enough in the Battle Damaged one to make it a superior figure to the normal one and score much higher.

In time, if you read enough reviews, you find out each reviewers quirks and likes/dislikes. Rad clearly isn't a fan of civilian figures and his scoring reflects that. I am a fan of "the ladies" and tend to score them higher when they have visible cleavage

As stated before, the reviews are just opinions and I feel it would be a boring site to read if every review was gushingly positive.

[Dio]

I agree with the reviews on the movie Hulk mates, but that's because I think they're ugly and complete garbage except for the civilian mates. Like was mentioned in the review, who would want a grumpy Hulk over a raging Hulk? I think the Iron Man mates deserve the score because they were so well sculpted and have so many details. Of course there are some members that feel that Minimates should be simpler and not have too many details. I passed up the Hulk wave just as I did with the Wolverine Origins wave, and I'm glad my LCS didn't order wave 26 because the owner thought they were crap too lol.

[Shamrock]

I love having reviews of Minimates available, in particular they (and the Database) help when making customs. They give more info than pictures can.

Still, sometimes I find things a bit odd about the reviews. Sometimes factual info on the characters seems off to me, though looking through I couldn't find nearly as many examples as I remember. And also some odd things about what goes into the score, like most recently, being such an excellent figure, should the fact that War Machine Mark 1 has Tony Stark's face (this is accurate) really cut the score almost in half?

Edited by Shamrock, 22 July 2009 - 08:01 PM.

[Danny]

It's more about the fact that they used Tony instead of Rhodey. I loved the armour itself but hate the fact they shoehorned in yet another Tony Stark. I know it's technically accurate, I mentioned that in the review.

Someone has to take a stand against rubbishy variant pack decisions! So, he gets a 5. I'm sure the variant will score much higher!

[TBT!]

It's more about the fact that they used Tony instead of Rhodey. I loved the armour itself but hate the fact they shoehorned in yet another Tony Stark. I know it's technically accurate, I mentioned that in the review.

Someone has to take a stand against rubbishy variant pack decisions! So, he gets a 5. I'm sure the variant will score much higher!

I hate to say it but I think you are way off on this review Danny, Yes there is a little bias on my part as an IM fan but the spymaster minimate is spot on! and deserves more love.

I also think that taking off points from WM because it's "not the version you wanted" makes your review too personal and almost petulant, especially when you know the minimate you are asking for exists in the same wave. Shouldn't you be reviewing the toys themselves and not the politics around line choices?
What next? perhaps you'll dock ultimate Spidergirl points when we get her because you wanted a different spidey? It's a slippery slope.

T.

[TM2 Dinobot]

I agree with Timbo. The personal touch is one thing. But having "Minimates according to Danny" is another thing entirely.

Not saying you necessarily did that. I was just pointing it out.

[Amazing.JL]

Ah hadn't read an MMC review in a while, it was nice to do.

First there really isn't a perfect reviewer of any type imo. All reviews have a level of subjectivity and they makes it unique to the reviewers point of view. I think each reviewers style and fetishes give the review a unique quality and it's good as long as it doesn't affect the scoring too much on a personal level. The scores imo are never really hard scores. let's we forget that these reviews I think are both informational and fun. Everyone is going to have their own opinion on the reviews and the different parts to them.

So my question is, what is the standard? How do you actually calculate the score? I believe that everyone is holding a different standard of review for each minimate. To me I thought the standard was was to review the different aspects of the minimate in question itself and not aspects of the entire wave such as character selection; wouldn't that be like stepping outside of the review?

For me the reviews ususally mostly have been based on 1.) Paint Apps/Decals, 2.) Accessories, 3.) Character Interpretation/Accuracy in Minimate form. Then an Overall Score is given.

[NorthRaider]

Personally I believe the time frame in which the Minimate was released also plays a huge part in the score, which might account for the discrepancy between the older Minimates and the "updated" versions of them. Wave 11 Cable got an 8/10 score though at the time he was released in the middle of the so-called "Parts Reuse phase" and DST had yet to scratch the surface of designing them well... that 8/10 might not stack up as well once the new Wave 32 X-Force Cable comes out.

This discrepancy could explain why some would prefer the 'mates being scored on a curve... however as said before Minimates Central doesn't hold a monopoly on 'Mate reviews. Minimate Headquarters reviews them, and really anybody can review them on a blog or toy site someplace.

If anyone wishes to reassess their opinions on any and every previously-released Minimate it is perfectly within their rights to do so... heck, we can even review the older 'mates for ourselves right here on the Multiverse, it's not like anybody's gonna kill us if we say anything wrong.


.... I hope

[buttheadsmate]

I blew my chance to do reviews but I would so love to do the Secret Invasion box-set . I have never been so disappointed in a Minimate box-set & I doubt if all the figures would get into double-figures even when you added up all my personal ratings for each character. That's surely that's the point though ....I hated them but I'm sure there were people who loved them .....but where?