NorthRaider

Holy crap, 26 Minimates in under two weeks!!!

Got the following very recently. I am now virtually poor:

-DCD Supergirl/Bizarro on eBay. (A small part of the paintjob on Supergirl's cape is ruined, though. Dunno whether this can be fixed somehow)

-BTTF 1 box set, DCD Blackhawk/Sgt. Rock, SM3 Black Spidey/Gwen Stacy at the same LCS where I got my first mates

-THIS epic set from two guys in our local toy collector's forum:

Yep... am pretty happy right now.

I haven't read the other books in a while so I can't quite vote yet. However I HAVE brushed up on my Deathly Hallows, and I don't recall Sirius particularly being a jerk in that book. Perhaps you're referring to Lupin?

Having said that, I found the deaths of

Lupin and Tonks

jarring for me since it was never mentioned exactly HOW they died in the Battle of Hogwarts, so your imagination starts to take over. It would have been really horrible if it turned out

Bellatrix killed Tonks

or something.

Sotty to burst your bubble but... Search Lupin in this article. That's a post-series interview by JK Rowling and a lot of questions are answered.

And as for Sirius being a jerk, I'm mostly referring to his treatment of Kreacher. And seeing his death in the movie was a lot less heartbreaking than in the book for some reason.

Thanks for the link! (Aww, man.. I knew it.)

Sirius's mistreatment of Kreacher has actually been brought up as early as Order Of The Phoenix, which is why it didn't immediately occur to me when you brought up Deathly Hallows. Personally though, at first I still didn't believe Sirius mistreating Kreacher was a good-enough reason why he deserved to die, since that was all basically just a natural side effect of Sirius going against the grain of his insane family (whom Kreacher is staunchly loyal to). But wow, when I first read Goblet of Fire I never would have imagined

would have such huge bearing on the whole plot.

And I still hate the way Sirius died. There's just something about painless death that's plain creepy and wrong.

I'm a bit of a boardgame geek and IMO HeroClix did two things wrong...

Firstly and probably the most important is they made the game blind boxed collectable, so people ended up having to buy way more than they should to play the game, let alone get a full set of figures. In theory this is great for the company as they make more money but it drives all but the hard core gamers with cash to burn away!

Kinda reminds me a bit of those blind box Asian figures.... Kubricks I think they are called. Though not the same in size of number of figures per set, more like buying a pack of cards.

The blind-box strategy is also very popular with designer vinyl toys like Qee and Kidrobot's Dunny. I can honestly relate from personal experience that going down THIS collectible road is just about as fun as walking through a minefield, but designer vinyl companies probably did this because it is their idea of attracting impulse buyers.

With HeroClix though the blind-box move is very questionable indeed, since we're talking not just about collectors but also gamers... I certainly do feel for the completist gamers sifting through all those darned Secret Invasion booster packs and not get a single Skrullectra. (Wait, did I get this wrong? I know nothing about how HeroClix chase figures are marketed.)

I feel really sad now that another cool niche product like HeroClix is suffering. The fact that toy companies and big store chains these days would rather stake their money on something like Superhero Squad than on HeroClix or Minimates kinda pisses me off.

Has anyone tried to make a hulk custom from the Killer Croc DC minimate? That should be the scale since the hulk is larger than any normal hero in the marvel universe. The Killer Croc figure repainted would work nicely.

Or not... just kidding, that's not half bad. Not custom of the year, but not bad

Nifty idea... love that goofy grin on the Hulk's face

I'm personally tempted to participate in this. However since I'm a newbie with zero feedback living in a remote Minimates-scarce land I might not be eligible. I guess I'll just stand back and see who gets European tobacco this year

Surely this whole hulk size issue is moot... here is my solution...

When looking at your minimates put the hulk a lot closer to you than the others... perspective will do the rest

T.

I'm guessing this can also work if you want Wasp smaller...

Recently, Harry Potter has had an reemergence in my household. So I wanted to tralk about one of the greatest contributions to recent literature and the movie adaptations that have come from it.

So here is how I voted to get the coinversation started:

Best: Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

Worst: Harry Potter and the Chamber of the Secrets

Best Movie: Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

Worst Movie: Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

In addition to the poll, there are two questions that I wanted to put out there without a poll question due to the sheer number of characters:

What is the best character of the series?

(My answer is Lord Voldemort)

What was the most tragic death?

(Mine was Sirius, until I saw what a jerk he was in Deathly Hallows, then it switched to Fred Weasley. Fred had me in tears, literally.)

So... what's yours?

I haven't read the other books in a while so I can't quite vote yet. However I HAVE brushed up on my Deathly Hallows, and I don't recall Sirius particularly being a jerk in that book. Perhaps you're referring to Lupin?

Having said that, I found the deaths of

jarring for me since it was never mentioned exactly HOW they died in the Battle of Hogwarts, so your imagination starts to take over. It would have been really horrible if it turned out

or something.

I have to agree that Chamber of Secrets was a fairly silly book. But then again I'm a sucker for anything laden with esoteric detail. As for Best Book right now I'm torn between Goblet of Fire and Deathly Hallows, but that scene in Half-Blood Prince with

was definitely harrowing, not to mention

!

Best Movie: probably Prisoner of Azkaban. It's tempting to pronounce the first two movies the worst, but when you consider how much the franchise has literally matured over the years and the almost "kiddie" vibe of the first two is forgivable.

Forget Wicker man! National Treasure all the way! ;P

Seriously, though. i was going to buy one Nick Cage set just for the purpose of NT and NT2 customs. The rest could have burned, for all i care.

I would have bought Wave 15. I want my own Ghost Rider, and I would've found a pretty interesting use for Caretaker's shovel.

I'd like to see:

More Zombies

Marvel: 1602

Yes and yes. Especially on 1602. That was a great series. Hell, I'm bored so I'm going to make 1602 waves (I've been doing this all day.)

1602 Wave One:

Stephen Strange/Sir Nicholas Fury

Murdoch/Thor

Rohaj/Virginia Dare

Variant: Murdoch/Donal

Wave Two:

Carlos Javier/Werner

Enrique/Otto Von Doom

Sister Wanda/Petros

Variant: Enrique bearded

Wave Three The Four from the Fantastick

Grimm/John

Sir Richard Reed/Susan

Black Widow/David Banner

Variant: Hmmm... Don't know here. Maybe replace David with King James?

Wave Four The New World and others:

The Spider (W/addable clothes and removable mask Peter Parquagh)/Hulk

Lord Iron (AKA The most badass character next to Enrique)/Dougan

Numenor/Shakespeare

Variant: David banner wwith Shredded clothes

1602 Box Sets:

Javier's Witchbreed:

Robert Trefusis

Scotius Summersile

Hal McCoy

"John" Grey

The Four who are Frightful:

Wizard

Medusa

Trapster

Sandman

So... would you buy these waves/box sets?

Ooh... I'm down with Elizabethan mates!

FYI, what about a minimate of Uatu the Watcher?

Welcome back MMC! You've got a LOT of reviews to catch up on. Lookin' forward to 'em!

Ghost Rider - The only hiccup here would be the SFX. If they can't get the skull to look right on a TV budget they shouldn't do it. Here I think it would be a brand new story with a new Rider (not blaze or ketch). I think they should explore the whole "Spirit of Vengence" angle. It should be, almost, like an Incredible Hulk syndrome. The rider has no control over the vengence. It would even be cool if the rider was a NYPD Cop. During the day he is tracking a killer who keep murdering "bad" people, but even though they are bad, murder is the not the answer. Turns out at night, he turns into Ghost Rider and he is the one taking out the vengence on those victims. So he is actually hunting himself and as the series progresses he finds out that it's actually him. In fact, it would be interesting for the audience not to know it for a while either. Let them believe that there is a Ghost Rider taking out vengence on Murders and Druggies and there is a Cop chasing him down. Let them invest themselves in that story and then, with the main character learn the truth. If it's written well, I think it would be a sweet series! You could even call the show "Vengence", as noone knows who Ghost Rider is, lol.

Barring Ghost Rider's "success rate" crossing over into the mainstream (remember Wave 15?), this one at least sounds promising. A non-canon reimagining of Ghost Rider would (at least in theory) be a effective way to give the character new appeal. My only issue here would be that it might seem too The Crow-ish to carry out the good-guy-hunting-himself-down angle.

I'm gonna see if I can post pics of my own modest collection next week, am kinda expecting an epic haul after pending transactions with a couple of guys from our local toy collector's forum...

As it stands now, my collection consists of exactly 31 'mates, including one horrifyingly-overpriced LOTR Sauron and one accident-prone Marty McFly.

Space Ghost:

Nice! I've always liked Space Ghost, but never considered a mate before.

keep up the good work.

Whoa! Space Ghost looks just too wicked cool as a mate! And I've always enjoyed his shows (both the original cartoon and Space Ghost: Coast to Coast). I'd DEFINITELY buy that!

Anybody here remember Tropic Thunder?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k7imoiUCCWY

The weirdness never gets old.

I personally preferred the trailer for "the Fatties." Oh, what Eddie Murphy has become

More U.S. perceptions of the British:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X3IfjClAo78

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XwdMj4_OCVY...feature=related

Funny, I thought the girl in the Orbit ad was Australian.

And holy crap, the flatulence in that Fatties trailer was so over-the-top it was epic.

I quite like the idea of a matt-black Stealth Iron Man ,you're right we haven't had one ....yet. I reckoned we had him in blue because that was what I perceived the colour was in whatever format Iron Man stealth was featured in. Correct me if I'm wrong but most toys depicting SIM are much the same colour..... Mate,Mugg & Cosbaby are. I would imagine the blue idea would come from the 'Non-photo Blue' principle which I'll let Google elaborate on My own Minimate Hangar includes the C3 Batman Stealth-Wing which again is a transparent blue rendition, Stealth obviously equates to blue in the Art Asylum. In the real world of Stealth vehicles it is actually the faceted surfaces (flat panels) of the vehicle which

provide the low-radar signature not the colour of the vehicle. It is however true that many Stealth vehicles are in essence 'black' but this is purely due to them being coated with graphite-ferrite microspheres to help absorb electromagnetic waves . I am surprised that one of our customising demons hasn't modded a 2008 SDCC blue blank into a Stealth Iron Man. Maybe they have & now can't find it or photograph it

Wow, I didn't know about non-photo blue and that part about radar-invisible flat surfaces really does make sense. You learn something new everyday!

Although, now something ELSE is bothering me... what about the Owl Ship in Watchmen? Didn't Nite Owl mention that it was radar-invisible thanks to its curved design? Do curved surfaces work as well as flat ones at being radar-invisible or is that just logic-defying comic book BS?

Thanks for your two cents guys. As the Nirvana song goes, "come as you are", right?

Oh, and TM2...

*looks for something to dry hump*

*finds Timbo*

*Runs away before is neutered*

Priceless. :biggrin:

God bless you, MC. The world will never be the same without your bazillion thriller novels.

Interesting solution...

Just a thought, but have you ever wondered if Stealth Iron Man was really supposed to be BLACK (or some other synonymous dark color) rather than that primary-color-blue we've all come to know and love? Surely a matte-black Stealth armor (a la those radar-invisible Fighter jets) logically makes more sense than a garish Crayola blue one?

I keep remembering Frank Miller's upcoming film adaptation of The Spirit, where he mentioned they made his outfit black (rather than the customary blue) simply because that was SUPPOSED to be the original color of The Spirit's get-up, except that the print restrictions in the comics of Will Eisner's time could not accomodate an all-black anything?

And given that comics today are obviously a bit more advanced in terms of coloring, don't you think it's about time we see a Stealth IM armor in the (hypothetically) proper black? Or is there ALREADY a black/very-dark-colored Stealth armor out there that I don't know about?

I know Shanester said that the few female members who frequent this forum are "shy", so I want to pose a question to the guys out there: how do you feel about girl forum members who don't reveal their gender outright upon joining?

I know some have really valid reasons for not saying outright they're girls (what with online predators and all), but given the option would you prefer knowing a new member's gender beforehand or would you be content respecting their privacy? Are you all right with this intended anonymity or would you be more comfortable knowing exactly who you're talking to, thus dispelling the awkward Hey-good-one-man-OOPS-you're-a-girl?!?!! moments?

Just wanted to put this question out there, it's something that's been bugging me ever since I started visiting online forums.

So far I'm up to Chapter 10... May not exactly seem like groundbreaking material story-wise, but to quote another forum post it's kinda like the Citizen Kane of contemporary superhero comics: along with The Dark Knight, Watchmen could very well be the one that started it all.

Seems like any scene with Rorschach in it is 37 kinds of awesome... such a cool, gritty character, easy to see why he's a fan favorite. Personally though I'm struck by how underrated the second Nite Owl was: he may seem like an incredibly dull character at first, but of the "Watchmen" he seems to be the most realistic and humanised of them all.

"The World will look up and shout 'Save Us!' and I'll whisper 'No, Fuckers'"

LOL! Sounds like a bad crossover between Rorschach and Shaft.

Anybody here remember Tropic Thunder?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k7imoiUCCWY

The weirdness never gets old.

Much obliged!

Hmm... Mephisto needs an official minimate! I guess DST can alway can always put him in the obligatory Spiderman: One More Day wave

Maybe if you put frozen Sauron in a hotdog bun, no one will notice the strangeness of the situation.

Touche

It's true that oftentimes DST has changed course midstream. Since the dreaded move from blister packs to boxes, the Marvel line has been filled with packaging that does not accurately display the product inside. Generally, its problems in the mass production that cause any last minute changes to design. Considering a bulk of Deadpool's gear is based on pre-existing molds, I imagine there will be little change in the quantity of his arsenal. And as far as the budgeting is concerned, I imagine we could see a few "part reuse" figures pop up in there, but things seem to have gotten better lately about simple color-swap characters, so I could be wrong. Besides, the preexisting parts library is far larger than it was in the past, meaning more can be made from parts we've already seen than was possible even a short year ago.

And for the record, I have no intricate knowledge of how things operate behind the scenes in this industry, I'm just making educated guesses based on past trends and comments.

That's a reassuring thought! I really can't wait to get my hands on Deadpool and his awesome accessories! I guess I just got a little worried since he seemed to have even more stuff than Taskmaster and Deathstroke combined.

That's one cool Mini-Deadpool!

With all those accessories, you can bet there's going to be another price increase! I'm guessing $9.99 a pack...

Price increase?! GOD FORBID!!!

Even if Shane tries to change it now, the boobies will be in this thread forever.

And in a similar rein, the Political Correctness Police would kill us forever.