dr baghead

I know it might be wishful thinking, but I'm gonna hope we didn't see a Brown Costume Wolverine this wave because he needs to come pack with his buddy Jubilee in a future wave... I bet they could even be a TRU pack if Wolverine is there! If his frumpy old man self can sell frumpy old man Hawkeye to kids surely classic Frank Miller-esque Wolverine (do they *need* to be all Jim Lee themed, plus this way he can come with a sword! kids LOVE swords) would sell a character with a yellow coat and pink sparkle hands. that and the logic "maybe Nightcrawler's going to come with Meggan and an updated Mystique with like X-Treme Rogue or something" as well as "Hey! I can use the $14 I'd have spent on those two Army builder packs on something else!" is all that keeps me from boiling over with rage his wave has 2 Jeans (neither I like) and no Mr.Sinister

Someone on the board pointed this out too, the Vault Guard being able to armor up is probably a reference to this figure: http://www.figurerealm.com/actionfigure.ph...=vaultguardsman The attachable chest piece has the same cannons anyway.

Well this is good news, it looks like I don't need to buy either of the army builder sets!

That Rogue (and really this whole wave) is just excellent so far, almost too excellent.... clearly my dream journal needs a better lock on it.

(edit post, Hawkgirl's been claimed) I ended up finding a Power Girl when doing some Christmas shopping this weekend, actually I found 3 and was able to pick the one with the best paint (she still has a nasty gash on her leg though... do they all have a weird mold line running down their outter thigh or is that just mine?)... now I just have to hope they eventually make Martian Manhunter and that Mattel will HOPEFULLY honor all on-line orders for Raven and then I'll actually get the 3 figures I wanted from this line.

The only thing I don't like about that Beast is the choice of the Ultimate Hulk bulky-chest. Beast has never been particularly giant has he? Wide, yes, but never tall... I'm gonna hope that was a mistake on the prototype and the real one will have a movie hulk chest (although the old school Powerhouse chest would probably look better), because then he'll be just fine.

Jim Lee Cyclops, nice! That's the one Cyclops I really wanted, now they just need to make (long list of X-Men edited out) and I can die happy!

I remember my local Target had Colossus/Nightcrawler 2-packs back in the day, I don't know if they had any of the rarer packs like Wolverine/Iceman and Daredevil/Ghost Rider for sure (although I swear I saw a couple) I just remember going into Target and not really being into minimates yet, I'd pick up the Nightcrawler box and say to myself "Gee, $5 is an awful lot for these!" (I know! I'm in the future also!) put them back down and go about my day. also: Angry Spider-woman was rare? I got one on Clearance for custom fodder.

My thoughts on Army Building is it works best as a "V" Example: O___O _O_O_ __O__ where in the O's are figures and the __ is space. I find it's the most economical for shelf space and looks most the imposing. So I have 5 Gorilla Grodds (repainted to be generic Gorillas) arranged like that. Now sometimes those builder figures relate directly to named characters. In that case I arrange them like this if the characters are a true "army": O___O _O_O_ __X__ But if the builders are more of a "bodyguard" or something with a smaller amount I go with this: O_O _X_ Where in the X is the named character (ie-from the army set up X is Nick Fury, and the O's are SHIELD agents. I can't think of any existing examples for "bodyguard", but for me I have the Penguin set up with his two "Kabuki Twins" behind him and Playboy Tony Stark has two Vault Guards with him as well.) If it's a team the builders relate to I like this: O_____O _O___O_ __X_X__ ___Z___ Where in the Z is the leader, X would be second in commands, and the O's are the Goons (My case would be a set of Customs I'm working on of All-Star Joker being Z, one of the X's being that weird unnamed Nazi Chick from ASB&R/DKR and 4 Octopus Goon's to be a celebration of Frank Miller's awesomeness, the other X is Harley Quinn, is even though she's not in any of Frank Miller's Bat-books yet you can't have a Joker without Harley!.... A Sane person's analog to such might be Z= KingPin, X= Bullseye and Jigsaw, O=Random Thugs) And in the case of SUPER large team displays it would go like this: O____________O [Team Display] The example would relate to for example the Hell Fire Club (probably set up in a 'V' themselves with 2 guards flanking them) or Sentinels standing at either side in back of an entire set of X-Men (probably not in a V) So I guess what I was saying was: 5 is ideal for a stand alone army. 4 is ideal for an army with one leader 2 is ideal for bodyguards/implying their presence within a larger group. of course I'm probably wrong about all this.

I think it looks like the Crow, it does look like Joker, but that's because the two of them look similar to begin with... if you want to "fix" it so it looks less like Joker. add some more white paint (looking over images on GIS it seems the Crow's make-up, while not perfectly smooth, isn't as warn as Joker's and the paint level as it is now is imply a Joker level of wear.) and imply his lower lip (Crow and Joker have the smile shape, but Crow has pronounced lips while Joker's just red-traces the scarring)... if you want to really want to separate him from Joker you could paint on the bindings he wears on his wrist and waist, maybe use the Guile Boot decal from the minimate factory or a pair of Blade's legs to give him the chunky boots he wears... and maybe blacken his irisess, Brandon Lee has brown eyes and the all the images of the Crow seem to give him very dark irises, painting the blue brown or even black would really help. I think it works as the Crow though even without any changes... (but on the other side of the coin knowing Gambit is an easy custom into Joker makes him far more tempting to buy.)

They answered my question in latest round of Q&A and said Gooey Peter head "COULD" happen. Could is obvioulsy double speak for "YEAH!!!" or "NOO!!!" so I'm prepared for either crushing defeat or an actual use for that extra "Gooey Ray" I've had lying around.

I'm gonna pass on this entire wave. At $7.50 a pack it's cheaper to order from Luke's Toy Store (after tax I would pay $8.25 at TRU, at Luke's after Shipping on good sized order I paid a little less then $7.00 a pack) so although I want House of M Spidey/Scorpion, Iron/Titanium Men, and Black Bolt/Captain Marvel it's not economical to drive around from TRU to TRU and pay more for the sets. and the two exclusives do NOTHING for me. Good news for other people around here who want the sets (and there must be several, someones buying up all the minimates at my TRU... or hiding them since there's only 3 packs on the pegs now) since there's one less vulture picking at the carcus this time, Good News for me since I hate shopping during the Holidays and I'm deathly afraid of getting swine flu from being in a TRU.... maybe next time the exclusives will be more interesting to me.

I know very little of Drax except he now looks a lot like Kratos, that in the Silver Surfer cartoon he had a robot skull under his face (come on cool decal under that slip off mask) and that he's called "Drax the Destroyer" So I looked it up to see "the Destroyer" was Drax, and it looks like there's two other Drax-looking Destroyers (one's kinda skrullish looking in black and red with a skull on his chest, the other is Draxy looking up grey and red) both of them having more ties to WW2 then Drax.... also there's the Thor villain that Thor-Buster Iron Man is based on. ... point is I learned something new today, and that all these Destroyers look awesome... so need a "Destroyer 4-pack" with the Skrully looking one, the Grey/Red Draxy one, Kratos Drax, and Thor villain Destroyer (who's parts can be repainted for a Thor Buster Iron Man for a TRU pack or something)

Yup

I'm thinking this set is a "we couldn't fit these into a TRU wave" set and the 3rd TRU wave is: -GB2 Egon -Food Belly Slimer -Fat Scolleri -Skinny Scolleri -Viggo with some form of Ghostbuster variant with each (If I had to guess: Slimed Ray with Viggo, GitD Terror Dog with Egon, some form of civilian Winston with a Scolleri, some form of civilian Peter with other Scolleri, and normal plain clothes Louis with Slimer to recreate the scene in GB2 where they see each other in the firehouse.... or maybe Egon will kill two bird with one stone and come with one of the ghost, but I doubt 5 wanted figures will come in 4 packs rather then stretch it out a bit) ALSO: It'd be nice if the new Box Set came with a Gooey Peter Head, if not just Hair Piece. Since they should assume everyone has an extra Ghost Buster body lying around from the TRU sets (everyone should have AT LEAST Egon) that would let everyone complete the set without needing to waste a space for "peter with tiny white goo blob in hair" in the TRU wave or future box set.

you know in the Road Runner cartoons where the Coyote pours a small pile of metal pellets, then covers it with a bigger pile of bird seed, sticks a sign in it that says "Free Bird Seed!" and then glues a stick of dynamite and magnet to a rollerskate? Yeah, that seems like the perfect way to describe how feel about this set! Vulture and Doc Ock are yummy birdseed, you see them in the middle of the road (internet news sites) stop and go, "OH HEY! I want!!!" and then Black Cat is the sign: Largely unneeded but still works towards making the overall package more appealing. (would the road runner have NOT eatten the seed without the sign? he'll eat off the road, but only if a sign says it's free?) Battle Damage Spider-man is the metal pellets, no one wants him on his own but he's hidden amongst the goodies so you take him anyway, and he COULD cause you to explode if the rollerskate doesn't fall apart or stay glued to the Coyote (who I guess represents TRU or AFX or Previews or something, I don't know...) So basically I have no idea why I'm allowed to talk either.

and then I got the leftovers!

They also keep saying "a new Nightcrawler is not planned right now" anytime they're asked... if they planned to start Excalibur with the intent to finish the team wouldn't Nightcrawler HAVE to be on the planned list of characters? so basically as much as I want a new Nightcrawler (a new version of his sister and mother) I bet he's not coming anytime soon and Excalibur is one of those "non-completed" teams. (or more likely a "what do you mean non-completed? Just go find a GSXM Nightcrawler who we felt was still good enough!" teams)

OOOOOOH, right, how they're mishandling the crap out of the singles and 3-packs... I just collect DCUC so I only know how it easy it was to find the Batman/Batgirl and Superman/Clark Kent 2-packs for like $3 way back when

I wish... I've yet to see a Mattel Exclusive at Target not reduced to like 75% off within 2 months of it showing up. (still kicks himself for not getting a $5 Batpod when he had the chance) and yet they still order more exclusives... Maybe it's part of Targets stupid logic "sure we're loosing money on the toys, but the parents of the children buying them will want to pick up some household supplies and that's where we make our money back!... the man-child who buy toys no doubt will want a copy of Maxim, over priced candy, and DVD's that aren't really on sale when compared to electronic specialty store prices and that's where we make even more money back!!"... or maybe Mattel craves abuse and will pay Target back for any money lost from clearance pricing and then be forced to make new exclusives which then cost them more money "Here's your 7.5 million dollars back Target, sorry no one wanted the JLU six-packs.... what's that? you want to order 4 new JLU six-packs, 2 of them being repaints in less desirable colors then the ones you just clearenced? but, but... sigh. Yes Target, as you wish..." Man it'd be awesome if mini-mates at TRU were like Mattel at Target, you don't see them for awhile then BOOM! They get a bunch in for $1, you buy them on the cheap and then they order MORE exclusives which get clearanced out... Awesome.

Since TRU.com reads all non-movie Marvel Mates as one item (BSG and GB's two waves were regarded as two different items) the only way we'll see them on-line is when the remaining supply of wave 1 has disappeared. But hey, they're down to just 2 Hulk/Domination sets and 11 Kravens/Spideys (not as catchy a band name as "44 Kravens") so maybe someday in the near future Marvel Comic waves will appear up on-line, heck if someone wants to spend $97 + S&H + taxes if applicable to clear out their remaining stock we might be able to see WAVE 4 on-line! and then we'll all bitch and moan they shipped them by gluing a stamp on the actual minimates and tossing them in a mailbox, and then we'll have to wait for the 128 Ultimates 2-packs and 73 Spiderman/Electros to sell out before we can get another new wave in.

If someone wants to set up a program where I can dump Menace on someone else I'll sign up for that since she's the only one I don't like. I really like that Thor... if I give him Ultimate Thor's head piece he'll make the perfect Thor until they get around to making an official 'King Thor' like the one from Hasbro Marvel Legends Wave 2 in minimate form.

legless minimates? Isn't there one in the Lord of the Rings series? *ba dum dum* THANK YOU, that's my time tip your wait staff and if you're drink drive fast so you're not on the road as long!!

Um... I don't remember Jimmie Boy wearing a sea shell belt buckle. It's not a seashell (although it looks like one on the minimate) it's some kind of "headdress" looking thing. He wears it in a lot of the promo images, thought I haven't seen the movie (despite being given a bootleg copy when it leaked on the internet, I was just too lazy watch it and now it'd just be better to wait for Netflix to send me the real thing) to know if its actually worn in the film.

Here's a random thought: Would anyone be offended if they reissued with little to no change the existing army builders? Like in 10 waves or so if they put the AIM Agents into the sets would that be a "oh good! two more for my growing army" thing or would it be a "ah f***! I bought 50 Caps/Ironmans to build the army I wanted! How dare they reissue them in a standard release! Now I'm gonna have 52 henchmen which is such a weird number to work with!!" thing? Because that could certainly extend the life of the army builder concept and let those who come in late catch up/those who want an army but didn't want to buy 500 Ironmans will slooooowly over time be able to pick up one pack and eventually have an army.