tones

hey Luke, I ordered and received 1 each of the ice sled and blast off stands last week (really fast shipping btw) and just wanted to let you know how awesome they are! I am extremely happy with them and will be purchasing more soon. :biggrin: Great job!

I'd also like to throw my hand up in favor of the Magneto base, BAMF stand, the crater and a rooftop...hell, who am i kidding? I'd take everything mentioned can't wait to see what you've got coming up.

is the Tuxedo guy the one with the fez? i need that, fez's are cool

so happy to hear that these are still on the table.

i think the longevity of the line is the reason for the much requested Mummy mates being paired with the "out of nowhere" (at least I don't remember hearing anything about it previously) Hunchback mates. Don't get me wrong, I'm looking forward to them both very much. But I think that pairing the Invisible Man and the Phantom of the Opera will help these get picked up next year as opposed to an alternate mix, say Hunchback and Phantom. that pairing might not fly with TRU next year. But we've all been drooling over the Mummy mates for so long you know those will do well and help move the Hunchback too.

If you had to put these in order of strength of popularity and "cool factor", IMO it would have to be The Mummy, Invisible Man (expecting a clear Invisible Man mate here ), Phantom, and Hunchback (sight unseen of course) which is probably how I'd rank the movies as well. That said, the smart thing to do is pair #1 with #4 and #2 is with #3 by default. I think that makes sense...or am I rambling again?

but yeah, the year long wait is excruciating!

Hi all. I just found this topic and figured I'd join in.

My wife and I received a home brewing kit for Christmas and just made our first batch last weekend. Luckily, we have 2 good friends who have been brewing for 1 and 5 years each and have been extremely helpful. We made a 5 gallon batch of a Canadian Ale (from a kit) and can't wait to see how it turns out. I figure we'll go the kit route a few more times to get used to the process and then move on to trying a more crafting approach; picking our own ingredients and creating recipes.

A local brewing supply store just sent out a newsletter announcing they will have hop rhizomes soon, so I'm planning to pick one up (not sure which strain yet) and attempt growing my own hops too. I've had a blast so far and can see myself getting heavy into this as a hobby...maybe even as much as Minimates

that's good to know. thanks, i just ordered one :biggrin:

That's not a bad idea! I am actually going to be doing some work on my shelves in late January, so while the minimates are down, it would be a good time to make a quick video. Plus I have one or two Doctor Who customs finished that I haven't taken pics of yet, and a half dozen more that are in various stages of completion.

I have several of the micro figures, with the intention of converting them to minimates. The Cybermen heads work well on minimate bodies. My kids also have several of them that they play with. Here is my 10th Doctor with the character builder Tardis:

love the Dr Who customs Luke, can't wait to see your latest.

question on the TARDIS, did you modify the doors on the one in the photo? the preview pic i've seen shows them as a one piece design, opening inward. which is the reason i haven't ordered one, but i must say it does look great with the minimate.

thanks

it does sting a bit...hey, now that Zach is here on MMMV we should drag him into this tread

dunno what good it could do but it can't hurt right? other than the stinging of course

They're not happening.

I'm sad, too.

what a horrible thing to say. LOL :sad:

it sucks that Underground toys has their heads up their butts about Dr Who merchandise, I've tried to like the Character Building mini figures but IMO...they suck. The Time Squad was ok for what it was, but they dropped it pretty quickly (or at least the US distributors did).

I wonder if they ever actually revisited the prospect of Dr Who Minimates, as they told ToyFare (see my letter and the response below from 2008) or if the crappy "bite-sized" figures we ended up with were already in the works.

The cry for help:

Hi Guys,

Back in February there was an online article by Zach Oat about Doctor Who MiniMates. Fast forward to July, and now the line is not such a sure thing. I can't seem to find much info on why the line's not happening. I was hoping you might be able to glean some insight on the subject, as well as give those of us interested in the line some ideas on what we could do to convince Diamond Select, Art Asylum, Underground Toys and the BBC (and anyone else involved) to go ahead with production.

A petition at ipetitions.com/petition/whomates/index.html has been created by a fellow fan, for anyone who would like to help out.

Help us ToyFare, you're our only hope!

Tony Marchisio

(email address withheld)

The response:

Your only hope? My God.

Bad news: because of Underground's newly-signed commitment to Star Wars products and rising costs of production in China, the Who MiniMates have been back-burnered for the time being.

Good news: the company says they plan on renewing the Who license and are optimistic you'll see bite-sized versions of the good Doctor in the coming years. "We could have executed some limited releases in 2008, but it wouldn't have done this opportunity justice," says Underground's Robyn Morgan, "so we are going to revisit Doctor Who MiniMates next year and in 2010."

Please add your suggestions, and I'd love to hear Zachs thoughts

There were soldiers in the first Wave of MAX, and we're hoping to bring them back -- in a cool new deco -- in Series 3. You may have seen our Black Ops and Arctic Mission designs for that series, and those are currently on deck as well.

The APC is going to be a nice piece of military equipment -- our first two colors are police blue and arctic white, but an olive drab or camo repaint in the future is possible. We showed a MAX helicopter a while back, and as far as I know that is still in the works. And I've been pushing for some realistic-colors MAX jets (grey, maybe a camo) and will continue to do so, but we may be shelving that vehicle for a while after four paint schemes. So bust out your grey spray-paint, cuz the black ones are on sale.

By the way, you can tell DSTChuck (the Director of DST) what you want in Ask DST: http://www.artasylum.com/question

I'm sure he'd be thrilled to get a bunch of MAX or Pirate Raiders questions -- specific requests like military paint, and not just a wish list of wizards, knights and what have you. It will take us years to become Playmobil.

Thanks for responding Zach. I did buy multiples of all the MAX offerings, including the soldiers and am anxiously awaiting wave 3! The APC will be a multiple purchase as well, including an extra white one to stand in as a Land Ram for my Classic Battlestar Galactica mates :biggrin: I don't think I ever saw the helicopter, but that would be great. And, after seeing Ivans pic I'll definitely be grabbing a couple more jets (gotta find a red one for another idea I have too).

I'll be sure to to post to Ask DST soon. Thanks again!

what about a "fall guy" truck and the "Coyote" from Hardcastle and McCormick

I think you're the only other person I've ever met that's heard of Hardcastle & McCormick. Usually I get blank stares when I mention it and had started to wonder if I had imagined the whole show.

Don't feel alone - I remember it as well. I was a big fan of the theme song. I used to rock out to it before bath time Sunday nights.

I loved Hardcastle & McCormick, and would happily purchase any and all related merchandise

Like this perhaps?

Yes please.

Ivan, that. is . AWESOME! yes, that's exactly the kind of thing i'm talking about. :biggrin:

Nervous, great suggestions on the fantasy side. while I meant actual NASA Astronauts & Soviet Cosmonauts, Flash Gordon is a wonderful idea. Makes me want Buck Rogers mates too

I was intrigued by a couple of posts in the Marvel Army Builder topic that got my brain going. Since I didn't want to derail that topic I brought it here.

The original posts:

I'm just staggered that no-one is suggesting WW2 Wehrmacht ....recent Captain America comics (spin-offs mainly)have been bloody awash with them . Funny how you rarely see him fighting the Japanese .....odd that?

I'd love generic WWII soldiers, whatever flavour.would Cap have had a chance to fight the Japs back then? I suppose he doesn't have the existing 'conflicts' he has with Hitler's boys.

I really like the idea of generic military Minimates. They would fit nicely into the MAX line, a good in-house property for them. And they could do vehicles, fighter jets, biplanes, helicopters, tanks, jeeps, a motorcycle w/ a sidecar would be AWESOME! Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, Coast Guard of different eras and countries would be very cool.

By the same token, I think Astronauts and Aliens, Cowboys and Indians, Knights and Wizards and the like would be great additions as well. I could see the MAX line becoming something like the "Playmobile" line for us, IE a vast array of different venues. How about Roman and Greek gods. Revolutionary and Civil war soldiers, You could recreate Custer's Last Stand, the Battle of Bunker (Breeds ) Hill, The Alamo, the moon landing...could you imagine a Minimate lunar lander? :biggrin: Maybe these could even be expanded into sets instead of just 2 packs.

So, what do you all think? Have I gone way out there or would anyone be interested in this sort of thing? Please add your suggestions, and I'd love to hear Zachs thoughts

I'd like to see 4 packs of 1 "army" type. Hellfire, SHIELD, Skrull, Kree, AIM, Hand, HAMMER, Hydra...armies that warrant leaders and females get one of each, maybe a battle damaged one too. Have a couple different heads/hair to add even more variety.

for example; a SHIELD 4 pack w/ Maria Hill, 2 Agents and 1 Officer. Add in a Sharon Carter head/hair and 1 or 2 ethnicity variant heads and some appropriate weapons/gear. I know I'd buy at least 2 probably 3 sets. If this kind of set was timed to release at the same time as a wave including a new Nick Fury and a comic Dum Dum Dugan, they'd fly off the pegs.

By the same token, release a Hellfire Guard set alongside a wave with the Club members, or HAMMER w/ a New Dark Avengers wave...you get the idea.

The dump box of singles isn't a bad idea, but between shortpacks and the fact that you're gonna get charged around $6-$8 a pop I think $15-$20 for a 4 pack is a better deal.

On a side note, I really like the idea of generic military Minimates too...(edit, don't want to derail the thread, I'll continue this elsewhere

it does sting a bit...hey, now that Zach is here on MMMV we should drag him into this tread

dunno what good it could do but it can't hurt right? other than the stinging of course

they made the change to limit 1 per order on the crossbones set but i was able to check inventory of balder which is now at 25.

they're still listed in stock as of now (20 left of crossbones & 44 balder ). i've been checking every morning so I ordered the exclusives and came straight here. did anyone notice they are listed as wave 10?

Keep in mind that Sisko wore a Lieutenant's uniform in that episode. You should probably use a Sulu body or arms for him.

would have to use the Sulu torso and arms as opposed to just swapping the arms. the color of Kirk's uniform doesn't match the yellow used for Sulu and Chekov.

that QC Janeway is quite nice. Gonna have to "borrow" that but I don't have a Harley so I'll have to come up w/ something else for the hair. Any suggestions?

I'm still holding out hope that Trek mates can make a comeback. There are tons of characters and variants I'd love to see. Then there's the Shuttle craft/pod, one from each show w/ a battle damaged version could give us 10 total, each w/ a different crew member. Heck, throw in movie versions (like the pod from Kirk's TMP inspection w/ Scotty) and that's gotta be good for a couple more anyway. Then there's always the Captains Yacht from Insurrection and the Delta Flyer from Voyager :biggrin:

To take things one step further, if there was ever a Minimate property that could support and would warrant playsets...it's Star Trek. A Bridge, Transporter Room, Sick Bay and Engineering Room from each show/movie would be amazing and would be the next logical (IMHO) step for Minimates after the vehicle line.

Hey I can dream right?

I'll look into head holes. I think it has something to do with what's in the tool, when we re-use parts. Head-top tampo might be pricey enough that it would cost out more weapons. So maybe he'd get a knife OR a gun, but not both?

Zach, just throwing out an idea here; is there any way that a flat "hairpiece" could be created as a head plug for use on bald or otherwise hairless Mates to cover up the head hole? It could be molded in the same color as the head and painted as needed. A little something like this:

and thanks for taking the time to post here. i know others have said it already but it's very cool of you and greatly appreciated.

still waiting for these to show up in NH. the Marvel section is pretty barren though, only 2 MU and 3 Cap figures there now so hopefully that means a shipment is OTW soon.

my TRU exclusive order showed up Saturaday in a padded envelope. thankfully the postman didn't try to cram them into the mailbox and instead left them in the newspaper hooks for a change. Nightcrawler/Betsy pack still managed to get crushed, but I don't really care about packaging as long as the mates are ok.

Fantomex and Negative are very cool, hope they do a white Fantomex at some point. I can always use another Nightcrawler for different teams (although a AoA/Uncanny X-Force one would've been great here) The only issue w/ Betsy is that her neck and arm pegs seem to be longer than usual. it seems like her head is very high off the shoulders. granted it gives much better range of motion (same w/ the arms) but it looks a little odd.

i really hope the Fantomex/Negative pack isn't too rare. i've got some customs in mind that would benefit from a couple more of them and i always feel bad buying up exclusives for customs.

jeez, i'm starting to get worried about my Fantomex and Nightcrawler order. it went thru at 10am monday morning, well before they sold out, and i'm still getting the "items located in stock" message

thanks, the employees are usually pretty good but i still like to have as much info as possible

not to be a bother, but can someone post the item # from their tru receipt? i wanted to call to see if its in stock at my local before i make the trip. tru.com has the same # for all the wave 2 vwhicles so that didn't help.

thanks

thanks for the tru update youbastards, placed an order for the 2 exclusives. my tru just put out a fresh case of wave 10 so i don't think they'll get wave 11 anytime soon

They never previewed one, but DST confirmed on Facebook that there are no plans for a B&W Bride of Frankenstein.

It's a shame, as that would make a great TRU exclusive replacement for the standard Bride.

that is quite disappointing...i'll have to try to customize an extra Bride to fit in w/ the others. you're right youbastards, it would have been a great way to push the sale of another TRU pack.