AFMcGill

Why would anyone think to do a Thor vs. Wrecking Crew set - a set that is already perfectly rationed and reasoned to exactly 5 figures - and then decide "nah, let's take Thunderball out and put him in a Spider-Man set".

Please note the spikes, the blue lines across the whole costume and the head and inside of the chest piece emblem part being the same colours as the rest of it.

Phil Urich met them too in #2 of his series Hmm, look at that very vibrant purple-y pink this Green Goblin is wearing and was always wearing...

This has been on my mind for a few weeks: This story was (famously?) what was handed to Spider-Man: The Animated Series as the bible for some reason. I'm pretty sure things like Peter and Mary Jane's TAS outfits appear in this, that one "Ultimate Spider-Slayer" Smythe was in this and only this story. There's also Electro AND/or Scorpion. There's that Spider-Slayer on the fourth cover, there's the other Spider-Slayers on the first, second and fifth covers. We already had ONE Spider-Slayer (Silver Age one) and this is filled with other variations. Mary Jane, Aunt May, Flash Thompson, Liz Allan and Harry Osborn (as Green Goblin) all have back-up stories. There's even Peter Parker's long-lost parents (yeah, we're not getting them). We didn't too long ago have Bagley Spider-Man (and Black Cat) though but so far this could fit what little clues we have.

Accidentally making the Goth version for a Deadpool boxset is the only silver lining I can find to this prospect of a comic Negasonic Teenage Warhead.

Deadpool, Cable, Domino, Negasonic Teenage Warhead and Stryfe is my final guess then.

Are these 5 characters that have actually all appeared in a comic or at least a story together?

Black Tom but he would be lame without a Juggernaut and Juggernaut wouldn't match any of the clues.

BEETLE... COME ON BEETLE... IT IS YOUR TIME

Stryfe?

Not sure if people posting on a dedicated Minimate forum are exactly the right batch of people to survey if they like Minimates.

Although I have little insight, was it possible they were balking at the choices rather than the price? I do understand you are talking more generally about retailers than customers but Modern Fantastic Four (already out-dated by time of release) and Young Avengers were catering to people still reading comics which is – as much as people want to deny – far more niche and elusive. You’re playing almost exclusively to fans and collectors with them. I do understand part of handling a license is that the owner is wanting product based on these new or current versions and that it is often unavoidable. Certainly New Warriors is no better a prospect on paper than Fantastic Four but I would say they maybe have a bigger more active fanbase than Young Avengers, or at least a fanbase that collect toys and memorabilia. 90s kids still have nostalgia and sentimentality for physical products. Overall, how different would a six pack of something extremely popular… I don’t know… 90s X-Men… fare against a six pack of the 2015 Young Avengers series that was cancelled within a year or the Dan Slott Fantastic Four?

Nikki doesn't count and Starhawk can only counts with generosity because shifting goalposts is the only way to make things "ok". "Original Guardians" becomes even less feasible when you take it to mean 4 dudes who appeared in a single story that didn't have any ripple until a few years later when they were brought back and half of them entirely redesigned. Speaking of, flimsy argument because to go off the unpopular one-off 4-man team then Vance's original design was an all purple suit anyway and he didn't even get the Cap shield/Cap connections until 1990.

I never said movie versions, I was thinking a comic assortment based on the movie (kinda missing a trick tbh, but it'd be far too late to get sweet synergy with the movie). And there never even was a movie Blade Minimate actually so what do I know.

The idea of New Warriors without one of the members is terrible. Who really wants a New Warriors boxset with a member missing and the vague hope that they maybe might be done somewhere else one day? It'd be torture, and obviously less appealing, to have 5/6 members of a 6 person team in a boxset. Something like a six figure boxset of a whole team is far more marketable, desirable and easier to shift (and maybe even get some crossover attention from people who are simply fans of said team rather than of Minimates) than a boxset of "most of them". "Vance can be done in Guardians" - yeah, are we ever going to get a Guardians boxset?? We're still hinging on ever getting a New Warriors one and you're already hoping for something of even higher niche and unlikeliness to compliment it. And you realise - even if we do someone get both New Warriors and the original Guardians of the Galaxy - you are going to have to drop a member from that team too? And in that case there is zero chance of ever getting back around to getting that missing member because the original Guardians of the Galaxy have very limited interaction with anything else. (If anything, include Vance in New Warriors with Major Victory parts to compensate for a future Guardians boxset and not have to drop a member that way.) Personally, I know it wouldn't happen, but I think boxsets of different amount of figures (when relevant) would be pretty solid. You can one wave have 4 figures then one wave have 6 either with minor price adjustments where necessary or keep a consistent price by making the 4 figure ones equal to 6 with tons of accessories and additional pieces. I think crossover appeal necessitates a boxset that someone outside of Minimates can go "oh, I love ______ and this is cool, they made all of them, I can buy this and have it on my shelf" more than "I like Wolverine so I will get this Inferno boxset". No one not buying Minimates is going out of their way to pick up a boxset of 80% of the New Warriors. Bleh.