Captain Paco

Okay, I just got back from my local TRU (Bloomington/Normal, IL). They usually get their trucks on Thursdays. I am not sure if they actually got it today or what. I got to the store about five minutes prior to openning. I was the second customer in the store behind a lady who went to the baby section as I heaed directly for the action figures. I was sort of surprised to find Wave 18 but it had been picked over already. So apparently they get their truck earlier or something. Anyway, I was able to get me one Wolverine/Drone, one Shield Winter Soldier/Hydra Trooper, one Cap/Falcon and two Thor/Absorbing Man. They were each $3.98 and I left two Thor/Absorbing Man packs on the peg. I am going to try to call them later to find out when they get their truck for sure and then plan my trip for next week (weather permitting as we are in the middle of an new subzero polar bubble and it is awful.)

I plan to run to my local TRU (Bloomington/Normal, IL) on Thursday to see what is left and what may have come in. This store typically gets its trucks on Thursday and that is when I typically find new mates. Last Thursday I got Tomb Raider mates so I am hoping this Thursday that I may find Marvel TRU wave 18. Not sure how I will pay for my find but I will snag what I can. But at this point I am not sure I can get extras to ship but will see what I can do. Happy Hunting.

Macross....opinions are all that are being given here. I personally think we have enough TOS mates and that the other Treks need their due. I was only offering MY OPINION about waves that could be offered via specialty stores if TRU does not have Trek mates in the future. If TRU does offer mates then we could mix things up with TOS mates as well. I have customized as many of the crew members as I am capable for TNG, DS9 and VGER so if we never get official mates for them I am fine but I would always want official ones if I can get them. I think Mates could do fine without TOS crew member but Aliens would sell for sure. Again this is all merely free opinion and speculations. I would like to set the first officers of each series get a minimate version. I mean we got Seven of Nine merely because of the sex appeal and popularity of that character. Santos, I do like your idea for boxed sets but I am not sure about getting yet another Picard unless he was in the Rescue Uniform (all black when he was captured and tortured by Cardassians) or the way he appeared in the episode "Tapestry" which could have the parts to make him as both the fresh LT. and then as the science officer in a blue uniform. I think maybe their could just be specialty store/retailer boxed sets. 1) a variation of Picard, LaForge, Data & Troi 2) Kirk in environmental suit (maybe even a transparent version as he was phasing in and out of dimensions), Mirror Scotty, Uhura in gold uniform as seen in very early episodes of TOS (maybe 2 episodes) & a TOS Klingon other than Kor 3) Riker, Dr. Crusher, Worf (with parts for a DS9 uniform) & O'Brien (with parts for a DS9 uniform) 4) TOS Romulan, TNG Klingon maybe Gowron, An Andorian & a Bolian (or a set of four aliens which I think would sell decently) 5) Mirror McCoy, Dr. Boyd (from the original pilot of TOS), environmental suit Chekov & a generic TOS red shirt (with a second head and hair for army killing, I mean army building) 6) This should be a set of DS9 with maybe Jadzia, Bashir, Quark and Morn. 7) This could be a Mixed set with say Chakotay, T'Pol, Xindi-Primate & Kazon Again, this is just ideas of mates that have not been made or have no other version in minimate form. Kirk and Spock have been over done and so if they need to have TOS in them to sell, then focus on other main characters and aliens and let Kirk and Spock sit out a few.

Well, I would love a set of Ultron/Wolverine and Thor/Absorbing Man and even the Winter Soldier. I plan to get the Wave 54 from Luke so I will get everyone else. I have paypal and would love it if they were at the clearance price (and with the coupon if possible). Then I have to ask what happens after the Clearance Sale ends at TRU, will they go back to full price or remain at the lower price just not with a coupon since it expires tomorrow? Will all TRU's just ship out the remaining minimates that were on the Clearance sale? & if they ship them out where will they go?

Luke, I like the idea of you starting your own toy line, I will support you as I can but this type of figure is not in my realm, but I loved the Garbage Pail Kids. I love the ideas that have been coming in. I do like the Kid Kneestone name over the Kidney Stone name. However you have a large realm to go several waves as you can have two eye monsters and two ear monsters. Also you have all the germs and bacteria that live in the human body that could take form as well. I like the Toothfairy one, as you can have a tooth with a tootoo and wings but have a club or nasty weaopon of sorts and then have it wearing a patch over one of its eyes and maybe show it had a cavity at one time. I read Missle Toe and pictured a big toe with a missle launcher. I think you can have a successful run with this line. I may just have to break down and buy a set if they do come to reality because they are growing on me. Just remember that Garbage Pail Kids had two versions of the same image. Which is why you can do two eyes, two ears and so forth...... Good Luck

Okay, I have been rethinking the issue of Star Trek future waves, if we get them. So Wave 2 could be all first officers and just in the chance there is not a TRU wave I have only decided to give ideas for Specialty Waves. So Wave 2 1) Riker in TNG Uniform with a Bolian, 2) DS9 Kira with Vedek Bareil, 3) VGR Chakotay with Kazon, 4) ENT T'Pol with Xindi Primate (possible variant could be Movie Riker (with alternate unbearded head & Romulan) Wave 3 1) Data in TNG Uniform with TNG Klingon, 2) DS9 Jadzia Dax with Morn, 3) VGR Tuvok with Neelix, 4) ENT Tucker with Xryillian Female (who made him get pregnant) (possible variant could be Movie Data as seen at the end of First Contact -partially borgified (with parts to make him as normal version) with Zephram Cochrane) Wave 4 1)LaForge in TNG Uniform with Pakled, 2) DS9 O'Brien with Rom or Quark, 3) VGR Paris with Kes, 4) ENT Reed with Phlox (possible variant could be Movie LaForge- without his visor and Movie Deanna Troi) Wave 5 1)Troi in TNG Uniform with Lwaxana Troi, 2) DS9 Bashir with Leeta the dabo girl, 3) VGR Kim with Vidiian, 4) ENT Hoshi with Suliban (possible variant could be Movie Crusher with Ru'afo) A bonus box set could be Worf in TNG Uniform (with Movie Uniform parts), Odo, EMH and Mayweather. We have the whole TOS crew and thus resources should be used for those crew members that never got officially made. We could have an alien box set of TOS aliens: TOS Klingon, TOS Andorian, TOS Salt Vampire, TOS Apollo or TOS Lincoln. Just my thoughts

Decided to try my local TRU out as they typically get their trucks on Thursdays. They had one remaining Star Trek 2pack and that was only because it was ripped open so it was on clearance for only a $1.90. So I got it. Then they had just gotten a new case of Marvel wave 16 which was on clearance for $4.98. I got one Capt. America/S. Witch and 2 of the Phoenix Pair. Then they had gotten a case of Tomb Raider which were not on clearance, but I got the TRU exclusives that I saw (2 each of the Storm Guard set and the Scavenger Set). All that was left was about four of the Lara/Scout and four of the BD Lara/Armored Scavenger sets. They still had 9 packs of the Daredevil/Kingpin set and 2 packs of the Gwen/Dr. Connors. And apparently they also just got another case of the SFvT as they now had three pegs completely full as well as a peg half full. They also had 7 pack of mates from the Wolverine movie (thee of the prisoner, three of the suit and one of the Yukon). I did not get any more of these as I am not keen on having that many Wolverine mates to begin with. They also still had a few of the Marvel TRU17 which were at the $4.98 price but it was only the Hawkeye/Black Widow or Spidey/Electro which I already have all I really want at this time. I was really hoping to find Marvel TRU18 at clearance pricing but I guess I will not find that at my local TRU anytime soon. I did use a 30% off coupon. I may go back after work and get another Capt. America/S Witch if they still have one as well as a NOW Hulk/Iron Man. I may also get one of each remaining Tomb Raider packs merely to part out in my customizing. Just thought I would share, and again my local TRU is in Bloomington/Normal, IL. (about two hours from Chicago and St. Louis) They were completely out of Walking Dead minimates.

Liney, I hope it is okay but I really liked your Star Trek Salt Vampire decals. I printed off a set for a protoype figure I am hoping to make. I appreciate your talent in the decals. If I can get the right look I am after I will print off a set on quality stock for application. I will post the final product and give you credit in my posting. Thank you for your decal designs.

Having the additional parts would be sort of along the same idea as some of the Marvel minimates. Hulk with the extra parts to make Dr. Banner, Thing with the extra parts to make Ben Grimm, RoboHulk with the extra parts to make the Gremlin robot, The Extremis Soldier with parts transform him into a different soldier. I do see your point, Onyx_6 in fewer waves means less money for DST, but happy customers means more sales of the waves that are released. Then they could do say Worf in TNG uniform with extra parts to make him in his DS9 Uniform. Dr. Julian Bashir with extra parts to make the EMH from Voyager. I am only saying that DST could help the collectors/fans out but there are still lots of options to keep the waves going with the aliens and movie specific or episode specific characters. Like we got Archer and the Reptilian Xindii and so there is always Tucker with the alien that got him pregnant. Reed with a Mammalian Xindii, Mayweather with a Rigelian or such, Hoshi with Klaang the first Klingon on the series, Phlox with Soval and there could be extra parts to make Soval a different Vulcan character. Just ideas as there are lots of possibilites to keep waves going but the more they give us the better off we can all be.

I agree with Politician, if they included more alternate heads we could make more crew members with fewer sets needed and it would encourage sales of the figures as people like me would be getting multiple sets to make the alternate characters. So we could get LaForge with alternate head and hands for Data. We could get Dr. Crusher with alternate head & hair for Troi. We could get Worf and then have alternate head for Barclay. We could get Commander Shelby with an alternate head for Ensign Ro. We could get Yar with an alternate head for a generic female crewmember. There are a large number of mates that could result from alternate heads and hair and fewer waves would be needed in the future. Then if we get a Klingon, they could make an alternate head to give us both TNG and TOS versions of the race. We could get an Andorian then an alternate head to make a Bolian. Then maybe we could get Quark with alternate parts to make an different Ferengi (Brunt or Rom). I would really hope this is a way we can get the characters we all want and more aliens in the process.

Thank you, youbastards. I went back to TRU today and I noticed that all the remaining Walking Dead mates were cleared out. I realized I forgot to mention they had a few Star Trek Legacy Mates yesterday. I got one Kirk/Khan and one Sisko/Cardassian. I left two Kirk/Khans on the peg. And today all the Star Trek mates were cleared out. Oh and they had at least two maybe three cases worth of Street Fighter vs. Tekken in the store as well. Today they still had TRU 16 and TRU 17 mates but they were thinned out. I got one more package of Iron Man/Hulk and then added a Wolverine/Reaper. I got a Gwen/Connors and then I grabbed two Daredevil/Kingpin packs. I got a coupon in my e-mail yesterday after I had been to TRU for 30% off which is why I went back today. So they have maybe a total of six cases of Minimates left in the store if you combine all that is left. Since they are having this clearance sale, I suspect they will not stock new Minimates until the current stock of old ones is gone, So no sighting of any TRU 18 Marvel nor any other new waves of mates. Well, better get back to my other chores. Take care.

I finally had the chance to get to my local TRU (Blo/No, IL). I found two Gwen/Connors, 12 Daredevil/King Pin, 2 Dexter/Dreadlock Zombie, 1 Carol/Pole Zombie, 1 AvX set(Phoenix Cyclops, Phoenix Killer Iron Man, Scarlet Witch, Protector), 1 TaskMaster/Nathan Spencer, 1 Sentinel/FA Ryu, about 5 sets of the Wolverine mates, and a variety of TRU 17 (no Nova/Venom packs left) and a couple of TRU 16 (no Phoenix set nor Capt. America/Scarlet Witch packs). I ended up getting one set of the Wolverine mates, The Sentinel/FA Ryu, Taskmaster/Nathan Spencer, a Hawkeye/Black Widow, two Rescue Armor/RoboHulk, a Carol/Pole Zombie, a Hulk/Marvel Now Iron Man and the AvX box set. All the sets were $3.98 each and the box set was $9.98.

These are already posted on eBay for sale but are not released until "Late June 2014". I can't believe someone is selling things on eBay this far ahead.

I know I am behind the times, but I really like your desert lizard and falcon. They are very nice and I would have thought DST released them as they look so official. They are the perfect mates to go with your repainted snake which I also really liked. I will be looking forward to your future customs. Thank you.

I can't wait for a Second Wave of Star Trek Minimates. I hope we get some of the characters that are very hard to customize and some that we have been asking for over the years. I would love to see Worf and Odo as well as An official Andorian, an official Romulan and maybe the Salt Vampire and maybe even some Movie characters (Dr Carol Marcus or Dr David Marcus-Kirk's son). This news is good but I will not hold my breath as I am sure my local TRU will not carry them or if they get them it will be late and I will have found them elsewhere. I just hope we do indeed get a Second Wave and that it does well enough for a Third Wave to come out.

I really like your Aquaman and Martian Manhunter. I have all DC minimates except Flash, Manhunter and a few of the non-main characters. I wish I could afford C3 Manhunter and Flash on eBay but my dreams will come true someday. Thank you for sharing your custom JLA mates. Made my day.

As always, I really enjoy your customs. Really LIKE the Thunderian customs as well as your Area 51. Thank you for posting them.

I just purchased this set today at Walmart.com and have it shipped to the store for pick-up. I likely will never attend SDCC even though I really would like to one day. I never really saw the attraction to Deadpool and so I was never really after him in a minimate form before. Now I do have a few and I ordered the Thor-pool, Capt. Ameri-pool and Cable-pool from eBay for not too much dough. I am really after the parts for more customs and this Deadpool set seems a generic way to go for what I am looking for. I should be able to pick up my set at Walmart on Friday from what I was told. Thank you for posting that this set was available at Walmart.com. I do think it is very interesting that they sell minimates via their website but not in their stores. Have a great day.

Okay, I am constantly torn away from my hobby by life. On December 20th my wife and I started our Holiday Break from our jobs and spent a lot of time with family and traveling. Thus I was not home to get a lot done for my minimates. I did get to shop some over my traveling and while we were in Panama City, Florida and Stewart, Florida I got to stop at a TRU in each town. In Panama City, I could only find TWD minimates and so I got three packages mainly for parts fodder as I already had all the mates already. Then in Stewart, I found some very cheap mates. I got Odin & Loki from the first Thor movie for only one cent. I didn't really need them but I can always use their parts. I also got Col. Rhodes & a Hammer Drone for 80 cents and a Hydra Flame-thrower & Gabe Jones for for 40 cents. Then I got the only two sets I found for $5.58 (one was Zola & Cap and Armored Thor & Beta Ray Bill.) I have been working on a Black Knight and a few Knights for my King Arthur to go around his Round Table. I am getting a lot of Arthur head as I keep ordering that mate for use of his knight theme parts. Not sure if every knight will have a helmet as I know Sir Lancelot will not. But I hope to have at least twelve knights when I am done. I will also work on getting more pictures of my customs posted as I have promised before, but I will work on it before end of January. (As you can see I did not get my pictures up by the end of January. Life it keeping me busy. However, I have been working on custom knights and so I hope to next week get pictures shot and posted next week. -2/19/14 I am reworking my Witches from my version of Oz, I have made a custom for the current contest that needs to be posted and I have also made a M-113 Salt Vampire from Star Trek thanks to Linny's decal design. I also hope to do a group shot of my Children of Oberon customs as well as updated images of them individually.) Thank you.

I got a set at a TRU in Stewart, FL while my wife and I were on vacation between Chirstmas and New Years for only a penny as well as one set for 40 cents and one for 80 cents. That was my cheapest purchase ever for minimates. I got Rhodes and a Drone for 80 cents, I got Armored Thor and Beta Ray Bill for $40 cents and my set for one cent was Odin and Loki from the first Thor movie. I only wish I had found a larger number of under a dollar minimates because I would have snagged them all up. My wife was very happy for my bargain find and allowed me to get the two sets that were only $5.98 each because I had already spent over $200 at the Lego Store earlier on our vacation.

Luke, I have to chime in and say THANK YOU! I have had nothing but GREAT SERVICE from you and your staff and I look forward to my purchases from your store. I also greatly appreciate your insight on some of my customizing. Without you and your talents, I would not have Mirror Chekov, Mirror Scotty or Mirror McCoy for my custom Star Trek Collection. I hope to be able to place another order very soon so I am glad you are there for me to get my fix on the mates I am not able to find in my area for a lack of LCS that deal with Minimates. I hope you and your store, Live Long and Prosper.

I just got my exclusive Iron Man and Hulk Minimates. The Hulk with Iron Man Armour is not what I expected as it is merely the armour painted on a chest-piece but yet I got him and he is not that bad looking. I am really happy with my Hulkbuster Iron Man as I never got the original version. The Exclusive Iron Man comes with a Tony Stark hair piece. All three come in a hard plastic molded shell and sealed in a plastic bag and each includes a stand to display them on. If I had a nice camera I would snap some images of these mates but I am without a photographic means at this time. The BVCC-Studios Invoice I got with the three minimates, give each an item number. 20142901 - Iron Man Minimate 20142902 - Hulk Buster Minimate 20142903 - Hulk Armor Mini Mate After reading the invoice, I thought we were paying $9.99 for the Hulkbuster and Hulk in Iron Man Armor but the invoice shows the Iron Man was $9.99 and then the others were $0.00. Still not bad for getting three minimates I would not have gotten by any other means. And I have the DVD to give as a gift to a little boy who likes Marvel videos. Just wanted to share that I just got my three Mates from More.Marvel.com.

I just went out and purchased the dvd copy of Iron Man & Hulk: Heroes United merely for the code to get my exclusive minimates. I processed my order and so I am getting three minimates for like $13. I never got the original Hulkbuster Iron Man so I am happy to get a version of him now. I was only allowed one order so that means you have to have multiple codes to get more than one set, bummer. I was going to order a few to try to help out others who likely would pay a buck or two more for them it that meant they did not need to purchase the movie, but I could not. Anyway, I am hoping that I will get a set before the end of January as they say allow 28 days for delivery.

I just found the whole wave at my local TRU today. I got two sets of Spiderman/Electro - 1 had a perfect face on Spiderman while the other has as close to perfect as I could find in the remaining packs. I got two sets of Rescue Iron Man/Robot Hulk. I got two sets of Hawkeye/Black Widow. I got one set of Nova/Alien Venom. The also just got the Wolverine movie wave and got one but the secondary head to make a ninja lost some of the tampo on the tape they used to secure it in the package. That was about all they really had. Not much to choose from.

Hey, I am really liking your finished Deadpool the Kid. Think he looks just as if DST had actually made him. Thank you for sharing. Again, I always enjoy your customs. Have a great weekend!