arnim zola

I didn't see one, but do we have an appropriate thread somewhere for discussing misc Diamond Select lines without having to create a new one just for Pacific Rim?

I'd buy one. Especially if it was Tony the tiger.

Last year had a few significant events for me that changed everything for the positive. And again after my little Zolette would allow me the time, I could finally start applying myself to some customs. Here is my start for the year.

And the Overlord of Evil

The most Powerful Man in the universe

I finally got to take some new pictures and can bring this gallery closer to an up to date status. I don't like to post WIP pics until I'm finished, and I didn't want to post anything new when my older mates had sub standard pics. SOOOOO here we go.

The first clear shots of Blackheart and his detailing. One of the first customs I made after a ten year hiatus playing music. 

There is a very cool version of Blackout from after my fave era of Ghost Rider books, this mate of him is a nice representation until I get closer to filling out a Midnight Sons style shelf.

Deathwatch was the driving force of villainy behind the first stretch of 90's Ghost Rider books, and a rival to the Kingpin. Commonly appearing in a business suit, his costume is much more toyetic.

Marvel's Scarecrow had such an iconic look. He fought Ghost Rider on several occasions as well as Captain America and other heroes. 

The Orb is one of the classic Johnny Blaze Ghost Rider baddies from the 70's. He rode a bike, I believe he was in a rival stunt show, and he was disfigured under the big (o) helmet. (sorry if you thought he legit had a big eye for a head.)

And finally the Water Wizard was another of Johnny Blaze's baddies from the original series. 

5 hours ago, Gillbob316 said:

He showed a John Wick select toy... I believe he said John Wick minimates and maximates would also happen down the road, but no pics or anything.

I have no idea what this returning license could be or is. He showed a new specialty 4 pack of Nightmare Before X-Mas minimates, but I wouldn't call them "returning" (though a 4 pack is kind-of a new thing for that line).

As mentioned, I did miss the first 5-10 minutes of the panel.

Was the NBXM boxset including the harlequin demon and the fountain we saw at toyfair or was it something totally different?

Panel recap?

So wave two from the panel is?

8 hours ago, DSTZach said:

The only things under wraps at Toy Fair were the Ant Man 2 Box Set, which is embargoed; The Predator, which is being revised; and art for a Wick Minimate. Maybe I'll show that last one at the panel, but I will not allow pics.

I put Animated 9 in the case today. I can now tell you the NBX MM on display will be a Box Set, which I did not realize at Toy Fair. Kingdom Hearts Vinimates Series 3 is new, in that it is not 2D cutouts.

I dropped the ball by not checking on exhibiting Infinity War Series 2 for Walgreens, but I will show it at the panel. I won't show the TRU exclusive 2-pack until I know where it will be offered.

Thank you, I didn't know the embargoed properties were there or what was awaiting approvals, but I was hoping there were some kind of retailer exclusives that were not shown (because thats not what Toyfair is for) that we'd be able to see. NBXM being a boxset, I really hope those keep going and we keep getting new mates. After the panel if pics dont surface can you tell us the walgreens lineup for IW, and the Tru 2-pack? 

Those KH series 3 vinies did look very cool, looking forward to anything halloween based.

8 hours ago, DSTZach said:

Character variety on what for Pacific Rim? No Minimates on deck right now, figure line has no repeats... D-Formz have some variants? Is that it?

Kingdom Hearts, your problem may be solved, as at least a couple of character repeats may never materialize, depending on whether we find someone to buy our TRU Series 1 inventory, and if TRU Series 2 is ever made. In other words, we're up the creek on the Timeless River sets, which means you are, too. So that's fun! ??

Godzilla has been discussed. Only licensing changes affected our previous deal. We actually may see a couple of old MM properties come back, but we'll see.

Loved the 1st Pacific Rim, saw the new one last weekend and really liked it. So for character variety I was actually talking about the select figs for once. The proto kaiju showed off at NYCC and TF looks fantastic and insanely better than what bandai is putting out for the movie kaiju wise. Problem for me is Neca didn't finish all the main kaiju before their license period ran out, though financially PR was a great property for them. And DST doesn't finish most line ups, its a couple of display pieces mentality. This movie has 4 important kaiju and that's it, and if DST intends to get through them all then great I'm all in. But 2 waves of select robots covers a great deal of robots and the first kaiju on your list looks great but is easily the least impressive of the ones in the film, its also the smallest. Is DST willing to go bigger and bigger on each vinyl kaiju release even with the rising price point? That's the only way to make them, and if DST isnt going to make them, then the audience for the toys is not going to invest. Right now it looks like its on a path to be done after the first kaiju comes out since all the jaegers are coming out in the first two waves and there will be nothing else available to put out and support sales. Really hoping for some positive news here.

Kingdoms hearts, everyone is hoping for the best for you guys and how to move forward without a TRU type business available going forward. Can this be a point where DST revisits a direct to consumer effort on your website to some degree? Product wise we've seen some cool new ideas come out of DST products before, everything is changing in the industry and without some crazy new business moves the remaining big retailers out there are going to continue to brush off DST products. Just don't bring Digger back, that's too crazy. 

Dude I have been hoping this Godzilla sequel would bring that conversation back around for a long time. This is good to hear even though it doesn't mean anything yet. Thank you for this one bright spot on this otherwise bummer of a weekend.

I saw pics this morning of non marvel cases. No new mates shown, no new kingdom hearts or Pacific Rim items shown yet. John wick figure was there.

I know it's early Saturday and they can add to the cases over the weekend but damn. I was hoping something under wraps from toyfair would be on display.

Can someone go blast dst about character variety on Pacific rim and kingdom hearts, and ask Chuck if they will try to get Godzilla back since there are a couple of big legendary films coming out soon?

But especially the character variety, and especially Godzilla.

Would new generation be the period where Bret Hart, Shawn Michael's, British Bulldog, Razor/Diesel, etc came in? Or would they fit in earlier?

I agree on the possibilities. Peter Pan was done to go with an anniversary release of the movie, so they've already missed several like opportunities there. Not sure why Disney hasn't asked for more exclusives for their store like Pan. 

But I can say I have a few of those you mentioned in various stages of design/fabrication!

I really didn't realize there were sooooo many already.

Iv'e been wanting to do this for a while, and I believe she is on the list of the next ten customs.

I dont remember that at all, and I religiously follow the different cons for new toy reveals. I'm going to look for that, but from what I understand Jafar is in the games, the first one even so he shouldn't count towards Zach's comment.

Edit: 

After some research, I did find a pic of the Select prototypes for Jafar and Maleficent, as well as some characters mentioned that we havent seen yet. The lineup for the first wave of selects was supposed to be:

Maleficent/Mickey, Sora/Roxas, and Axel/Jafar

Swapping some out for army building characters is neat and there have been a lot of reviews where that was an exciting selling point, but eliminating two disney big bads is curious. ZAch, are these two at t he mercy of the ever changing list of characters that are flipping back and forth between available for use and not? And how does such an agreement work, in general terms. I would think the license entitles you to the characters falling under that license, if its a split license and Square is being themselves like usual I can understand a limited set of their characters, but with SO many disney characters in game one I dont understand why they would hold/withhold again and again.

It also makes it hard to fully get behind a line with such uncertainties. It's obvious from our discussions that I like variety of characters, and less costume variants at the expense of other characters (leaving tooling out of the equation for a minute). I support every line that has the possibility of longevity so we get the most out of it. Nightmare was concerning at first but swung around in a big way. I'm excited for all the characters shown here so far but with no antagonists really talked about except grunts I'm having Mass Effect deja vu. Whole first wave with one bad guy who never fights anyone. Little help?

Zach refresh my memory please, you say you showed off movie characters and FF characters but are currently limited to in game characters. Did the pics of the movie characters get shown? Which movies were mates shown for?

Also I would have figured you were only allowed to make KH mates with that license. What kind if situation allowed for you guys to make and show Disney movie mates without being allowed to make them? This isn't a situation I've ever heard of.

who is that?

a. I'll Agree to that.

b. That is a good point, but i still think wieghed against the variety of characters limited by tooling over a short time, that there is still some discovery to be made on how to ionize those customer impulses. I'd like to continue pushing the lack of mutants, especially since other companies have used their tooling for a single mutant only once or twice, BUT I will concede this as minimates are my fun collectible produced in low numbers and inexpensive, and not an insanely sought after mainstream collectible with the audience to justify whatever you feel like throwing at them. 

d. I was about to say I wanted that Plankton but I was thinking of Gary who was canceled (release him), so now I need to find that 4 pack because I missed Plankton straight up.

e. Yeah I don't know what to say about the walking dead line. I liked the first half of the series I read, and I liked the first half of the show, and I liked the mates. It just had too many competing niches going against it.

con exclusives, my bad I was thinking of the other spidey since I had just seen him on Luke's March Madness sale the other day and he was fresh in my mind. Only if sales thought they could sell them huh? Interesting. And that was a while back so I might be remembering wrong, but I think that's what happened. So how serious is this "but we may be light on MM exclusives going forward." you talking con, DST, retailers in general, is the sky falling?

9 hours ago, youbastards said:

So by that logic, since TRU 25 isn't at my store and I can see people are selling them on eBay, then TRU 25 is "sold out", got it.

This seller is selling at least 30 of them for almost 1/2 the price of the original MSRP at SDCC, and just a few weeks ago this set was being sold for $7.99 on Amazon Prime.  These were liquidated by the case in large volume to the after market when AFX "closed for remodeling".  It did not sell out in any sense of the term.

https://www.amazon.com/Exclusive-Avengers-Ultron-Marvel-Minimates/dp/B010JAWJXG/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1521144629&sr=8-1&keywords=age+of+ultron+minimates

 

 

No sir, thats not how logic works. Your store not having them doesn't count if its in a chain. If the chain of stores doesn't have them listed online, or in the majority of their stores with maybe a handful floating around the inventory across the chain, then that would constitute a sell out. 

Sounds like AFX offloaded a good chunk of stock of that set to another seller. It was AFX's SDCC exclusive right? DST doesn't have it in stock, AFX doesnt have it in stock, no one related to its MSRP/creation has it, I think that counts well enough to be called sold out. Whatever the status now, It did not stay available for too long when it came out unlike alpha flight. That would be an example of an item that is technically sold out by definition, but leaves a bad taste in the mouth to actually say that sentence. 

And Thank you for the link good sir, I did not pick up that mostly meh set but I did really like that ultron. Just not $26 like him. Is AFX still closed? I never heard about that.

7 hours ago, stack32 said:

Well, if AFX had them then as far as DST is concerned it did sell out. I wouldn't call it a good box set by any means but from DST's perspective it could still be considered successful. The same would go for TRU 25, it's not in DST's hands anymore.

You know Ive heard a lot of retailers talk about when certain merchandise doesn't perform well they actually ship it back to the vendor and get their money back to some degree. I dont hear that it happens often, but its a thing. I believe I heard (or read) Luke say once that his spiderman boxset exclusive was out of stock because sales had slowed/stopped and the remainder got shipped back to DST. 

It's interesting because with all the problems with Alpha Flight, it stayed with them. Maybe it was part of their exclusive set agreement? If I haven't ran Zach off yet maybe he can shed some light on this part of the business?

My 90's Ghost Rider got the additional detailing he needed at the time, and his own head instead of reusing another. This was a while back.

Here is his head

Then after mini Zolette raising hiatus, I was able to finish a scratch version of what Iv'e wanted from a ghost rider for years.

Here is his current look, and the way he should come out of the box.

The flames come of pretty well here

I have several things I want to do to improve my 90's Dan Ketch Ghost Rider, a few of which will require some Alan Moore level sorcery. I'm looking forward to getting some of my new parts and supplies in so I can finish this Ghost Rider and have the Ultimate Dan Ketch figure. Enjoy!

awesome!

I love Bret Hart, But I'd really love his black and black outfit with the pink highlights. So same as yours but the black chest piece. A shawn michaels from WM 12 would also be epic.

Sorry, But barnes and nobles is currently being set up to dive bomb into a worse doom than TRU by its executive team. They are literally milking the last of its money for investors while putting up the face of fixing the issues, but they are not remotely concerned with trying to fix the brand and revitalize the chain. They Are Next.