Charitymates 4

[luke314pi]

As you might remember, Fujis stepped down after doing an amazing job managing three successful Charitymates events. I think it is a wonderful concept, and I really wanted to see it continue, so I contacted Fujis and got his blessing to pick up where he left off and get the ball rolling again. I have been thinking about this ever since the earthquake in Haiti. I know someone who lived through it, and the stories he has told me are heart-wrenching.

For those who are not familiar with our Charitymates event, here is how it has worked in the past:

MMMV Customizers (veteran and novice alike) donate a Minimate custom based on a theme which are then auctioned off on eBay with 75% of the proceeds going to a specific charity and the remaining 25% going to Shanester to help offset his cost of maintaining our online home, namely the Minimate Multiverse!

The first Charitymates project was called 'Monsters for Blood' - we created monster minimates and chose to support America's Blood Centers. The second project was called 'Manimals for the Animals' - we created anthropomorphic animal minimates and supported the World Wildlife Fund. The third round was called 'The Mind's Eye' - we created famous literary characters and supported Books for Kids.

So for our fourth Charitymates project I ask you:

1) What charity will we support? (Check through the listed non-profit organizations at eBay Giving Works)

2) What type or style of custom Minimates should we create?

3) What will this year's project be called?

I am hoping we can get even more participation this round than last time!

[MINI_MYTE]

I'm in no matter what the charity is. I just wonder if we could do either superheroes (original concept) or supervillains (original concept) this time around. I've been itching for a project like charitymates or some custom contest to surface and give the board customizers something to flex their creativity with.

On Luke's topic of Haiti, how about a charity that helps with natural disaster relief. We could make supervillains based off of natural disasters: Tornado, Hurricane, Earthquake, Volcano, Tsunami, Flooding, Avalanche, Blizzard, etc.

The project title could be called : The Legion of Natural Disasters!!!

Edited March 4, 2010 by MINI_MYTE

[Mattallica]

count me in as well what ever the charity and theme!

[buttheadsmate]

My skills at customising are ...zero ....I'm posting just to encourage anybody sitting on the fence to join in because it is so rewarding. One of my most pleasurable moments here was seeing Reideen grab my GI Raffe .....ooooh matron*.

*English joke

[RaginCajun713]

I'm in, I haven't customized a mate yet, but I'll try for a cause, or at least come up with an idea for one lol. I say we do Susan G Komen for a cure or Save The Children. For Komen, we could make different Marvel Vixens in Pink alternate outfits, like Mystique in Pink instead of white or something of the sort. For Save The Children, we could do TOY STORY or different Disney or childrens story characters. Just Image a Buzz Custom or Woody, or The Incredibles, or even Sully and Mike from Monsters. INC!!! Wow, I just got way to excited about the latter lol.

[NorthRaider]

Kudos for taking the reins this year Luke!

I'm a bit bummed that I couldn't contribute to this project more since I'm not much of a customizer, but if there's one thing I'm vaguely good at, it's brainstorming ideas, and right now I have two humble suggestions:

1. Anybody remember the "It's A Small World" ride from Disneyland with dolls of children from all kinds of countries? What if we did a "Minimates around the world" theme and did customs of different national costumes? People can pick a country, do some research on their national costume and then render it in minimate form, for example the kimono from Japan or the Mardi Gras "peacock" outfit for Brazil... somebody stop me if this sounds too "Miss Universe"

2. Alternatively, I like the idea of paying homage to Fujis by doing a theme he had always wanted to go for:

Charitymates III: History for the Future - supporting The Carbon Fund and we'll create customs of real-life people who have made a positive impact on the world. Mother Teresa, Alexander Graham Bell, Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King, Ghandi, David Suzuki, Al Gore...these are just a few that spring to mind.

I'm in, I haven't customized a mate yet, but I'll try for a cause, or at least come up with an idea for one lol. I say we do Susan G Komen for a cure or Save The Children. For Komen, we could make different Marvel Vixens in Pink alternate outfits, like Mystique in Pink instead of white or something of the sort. For Save The Children, we could do TOY STORY or different Disney or childrens story characters. Just Image a Buzz Custom or Woody, or The Incredibles, or even Sully and Mike from Monsters. INC!!! Wow, I just got way to excited about the latter lol.

Cool idea RaginCajun! The toy theme is pretty nifty, although last year we discussed possible problems with copyrighted characters so we all settled on picking public domain characters to be safe. So if we're gonna go for a toy theme then we can try generic toy types like "Rag Doll" or "Jack in the Box" or "Toy Soldier" or "Teddy Bear" and stuff

Edited March 5, 2010 by NorthRaider

[minimadman]

I like the idea of creating heroes, but I don't like the natural disaster villains, it seems a little in poor taste for me.

[Nervous Rex]

I like the idea of creating heroes, but I don't like the natural disaster villains, it seems a little in poor taste for me.

I like a heroes theme as well...the 'disaster blasters' lol

I do also like the idea of peoples from around the world. I'd like to do some sort of native american, or incan/mayan warrior

[TM2 Dinobot]

I'm going to, again, suggest a Crisis Pregnancy Center. And unlike last time, i'm going to simply state it's a NFP corporation that does good work in the community (like most NFPs) and leave it at that.

As for what we should do... I know we do books a lot. And it has to be a public domain character, not a licensed one. And since DST is already doing the monster sets, I think we should do those. Personally I'd like to do The Jungle Book. There's enough characters there that we could all do something out of it. Can you imagine a minimate Nag?

If we did do a pregnancy center, maybe we could do children in books?

[groundhog7s]

I just want to know what makes Luke think he's qualified to organize something involving customs.

And what about historical figures in general? That would tie in people leading others to do greater things (like helping those in need).

[NorthRaider]

As much as I admire the works of Rudyard Kipling (I've been a longtime fan of Rikki Tikki Tavi myself ), I think it's about time we rotated the themes again. We've already done the literature theme last year, and I figured it would be nice if this year we didn't have to skirt the public-domain ordeal again. Something along the lines of the Animals theme where we get to have fun constructing characters whole-cloth would be nice, as would something that allows for a little more visual diversity.

That's why if given the choice this year, I would go with either the "Around The World" theme or RaginCajun's toys theme (just as long as we stick to the more mainstream, "classic" designs and not the too-trendy ones). At least with those themes we can still link them to crisis pregnancy centers or children-related charities, though I do appreciate Luke's idea of donating to a more globally-oriented charity like those that supported the Haiti earthquake victims, and I suppose the current Chile earthquake too (egads, this Revenge of the Ring of Fire thing is getting pretty serious )

[koi-girl]

The Olympics are just over, but sports themed? Minimates on a bobsled would be pretty awesome.

If the theme is "global" than the charity could be Haiti or Chile as an international aid focus. Would the Red Cross take donations?

[NorthRaider]

Here's a sort of tentative list of charities we can donate to. I see the American Red Cross and the GlobalGiving Relief Fund (for the Haiti earthquake victims) listed there already, so at least we're in the right direction.

Sports-themed Minimates... barring the minor concerns about Minimate-scaled sports equipment, this sounds like a cool idea. They already have the colorful uniforms going for them... if I had any customizing talent, I call dibs on rhythmic gymnastics!

[groundhog7s]

Yes, but you know everyone would want to do the Minimate curler.

[TM2 Dinobot]

As much as I admire the works of Rudyard Kipling (I've been a longtime fan of Rikki Tikki Tavi myself ), I think it's about time we rotated the themes again. We've already done the literature theme last year, and I figured it would be nice if this year we didn't have to skirt the public-domain ordeal again. Something along the lines of the Animals theme where we get to have fun constructing characters whole-cloth would be nice, as would something that allows for a little more visual diversity.

That's why if given the choice this year, I would go with either the "Around The World" theme or RaginCajun's toys theme (just as long as we stick to the more mainstream, "classic" designs and not the too-trendy ones). At least with those themes we can still link them to crisis pregnancy centers or children-related charities, though I do appreciate Luke's idea of donating to a more globally-oriented charity like those that supported the Haiti earthquake victims, and I suppose the current Chile earthquake too (egads, this Revenge of the Ring of Fire thing is getting pretty serious )

Foreign women get pregnant just as much as American/European. So I think that qualifies as "global" personally.

I do like the animal idea. Didn't we do that 2 years ago though? I'd love to to a tiger. OH! Or my longest feared predator: the Velociraptor!

[NorthRaider]

By "rotating the themes" I didn't necessarily mean repeating old ones. I only meant that we should shift gears every once in a while so that we don't end up doing the same thing year in and year out.

So... how long until we reach a consensus on what theme we actually pursue?

[jcastick]

As always, count me in for Charitymates!

I'm kind of digging the costumed Nationalities idea but am unsure about which charity we should go with.

Yes, but you know everyone would want to do the Minimate curler.

Yes, your right Groundhog and I'm just going to have to call DIBS if that is our theme!

DIBS ON CURLING!

Edited March 5, 2010 by jcastick

[luke314pi]

Great suggestions so far guys! Just to throw out another one, how about we create a convoy of robots for Convoy of Hope? They are distributing meals to starving people in places like Haiti and Chili right now. Robots are always fun to customize, and there is still a ton of possibilities for each one to be completely unique. Maybe the robots could be based on a country, or intended to fight a specific disaster / ailment.

[minimadman]

Sounds good to me.

[Bob Harris]

As for the charities I really like the idea of supporting the poeple in Haiti or Chile, so NR suggestion "GlobalGiving Relief Fund" and Luke's idea "Convoy of Hope" seems to be good ones.

As for the custom theme, I like the "national costume" and the "real historical person" ideas most so far, but if I find the time to participate, I'm in for anything else, too. Of course.

[NorthRaider]

Great suggestions so far guys! Just to throw out another one, how about we create a convoy of robots for Convoy of Hope? They are distributing meals to starving people in places like Haiti and Chili right now. Robots are always fun to customize, and there is still a ton of possibilities for each one to be completely unique. Maybe the robots could be based on a country, or intended to fight a specific disaster / ailment.

This tickles me pink for some reason... a robot nationality custom mashup sounds just ridiculously splendid!

[MINI_MYTE]

Great suggestions so far guys! Just to throw out another one, how about we create a convoy of robots for Convoy of Hope? They are distributing meals to starving people in places like Haiti and Chili right now. Robots are always fun to customize, and there is still a ton of possibilities for each one to be completely unique. Maybe the robots could be based on a country, or intended to fight a specific disaster / ailment.

I love the robots idea! I've got so many extra IM pieces lying around that are just begging to be mashed together to create some robotic monstrosity.

[groundhog7s]

They are distributing meals to starving people...like...Chili right now.

Mmmmm...sounds good!

My vote is for international historical figure animal-robots that are pregnant. I call dibs on the Irish Virgin Mary-3PO penguin.

Edited March 5, 2010 by groundhog7s

[Santos L Halper]

There's the Clinton Bush for Haiti charity, you could do presidents and political leaders from the past and present.

[Lobsterman]

I'm in no matter what the charity is. I just wonder if we could do either superheroes (original concept) or supervillains (original concept) this time around. I've been itching for a project like charitymates or some custom contest to surface and give the board customizers something to flex their creativity with.

On Luke's topic of Haiti, how about a charity that helps with natural disaster relief. We could make supervillains based off of natural disasters: Tornado, Hurricane, Earthquake, Volcano, Tsunami, Flooding, Avalanche, Blizzard, etc.

The project title could be called : The Legion of Natural Disasters!!!

Err... I like the environmental theme, but "The Legion of Natural Disasters: a Haiti Benefit Project" seems.. well, like ripping the scab off a bit too soon maybe?