Mirymate

It worked like this- Electro got a power boost, though it was implied it was more of getting past his own lack of confidence, and was using his powers at riddiculous levels. Spidey tried to stop him and got his head handed to him. So he took the inevidible between battle break, which Spidey's enemies have been giving him since Amazing #1... the Real Amazing Spider-Man #1, he created the insulated armored suit. He tried looking for help to, but as Parker luck would have it, the FF, Avengers, and X-Men were all out of town and only X-Man (yeah, the AoA Nate Grey character, which lets you long time guys know exactly when this happened) answered the call. Good guys win, bad guys lose, IIRC the suit was trashed anyway and never reconstructed. So like portable genetic inverters, magentic field disurpters, and web cannons, it's essentially another one-shot Web-Head big idea that he improbably whipped up between fights.

They make gummy-mates now? Seriously, so what you want, T, is for MiniMates to try and compete with Playmobile and Legos. Gotta be honest, I don't see the lego town stuff or Playmobile stuff exactly flying off the shelves. (of course, I don't see much flying off the shelves that doesn't end in "gon" but that's another issue). I'd love some army guys, cops, and thugs to interact with the MiniMates, but I'm not sure that segment of the market is strong enough for another major player, especially one only offering figures only without the sets that Playmobile and lego offer. (although I did see a Playmobile Roman Colloseum, complete with lions and a victim. Oh the wacky fun you can recreate with that one!)

Well now that the sting of being too late has worn off I did want to say a heart felt thank you to DST Matt and company. I cannot ever remember in my all collecting years a more enjoyable wave reveal. I thank you for your time and creativity. And good luck topping it.

In truth, agree with you 100%. But I really, really hope we're both wrong. And I'd bet dollars to donuts that AA/DST is hoping the same thing. If only cause they hate losing money.

Actually shouldn't it be a Doom v. Energy Beyonder for a 2 pack? In a perfect world you'd have Cpt Monica, Storm, Molecule Man, and Ben Grimm in the set, a Doom v Energy Beyonder 2 pack, followed by a Secret Wars 2 boxed set with Disco Beyonder, Puma, Dazzeler, and Rachel Summers Phoenix.

But are we not getting a set with what amounts to one descently known Spider-villain, (in name only) a civillian version of a well known Spider-villain, a long time third stringer, and the man who was once ? I'm not going to pretend my idea isn't dicey, but IF this T-Bolts set works out and does well, I think that opens the door to other villain team sets. Or just split the difference, throw out Destiny and add a battle damaged Wolverine. Don't think they've made that one yet.

A boxed set is the answer, really. The Brotherhood is an important part of the history of Marvel's most popular team. And, with the release of the Thunderbolts set, we now have precedence for an all villains boxed set. So what we need to do is put in bug in DST's ear that we want a Brotherhood boxed set for next summer's convention season. Which Brotherhood? Probably the best known grouping overall is Mystique's first one so Blob, Pyro, Avalanche, and Destiny. Yeah, I know, nothing sells toys like blind old woman in shorts and thigh highs. But Raven's been made already, and while making one of her more modern outfits is probably in order, they have already produced her in the costume she was wearing when the attacked the Senator. Sorry, Toad, but you're on your own.

I guess. I keep forgeting this is suppossed to be a TRU thing, not the usual small market exclusive. From that stand point, I guess having both a popular X-Man and a Spidey would be a better thing for the masses. Darn masses.

When's the cut off on this going to be and the lineup foramlly announced. And can we find 60 more people to vote for Dr. Doom before then? (seems more reasonable than trying to find 150 to vote for Ben Grimm) Okay, 6... 6 more people to vote for the Disco suit. It's not a first choice, but it edges Spidey out of the set. (I can not believe I am encouraging voting for the guy who plagued every title I read for a whole year with pointless appearances, annoying the frak outah me back in the day.)

Well I've got an 8 year old and a three year old that would make happy. Logistically... dear Lord. What, one wave per series for 10 plus series? What do you do for the years they've had more than 6 Rangers? And that's happened at least twice the the last 7 series. Which really is all I know, from Ninja Storm up to the current, oddly post-apocolyptic, RPM. Didn't pay any attention to these guys until my friends and I started having kids. But I would imagine we have members here that grew up with them and have the same blind-eye remembrance of them I have for Space Giants and Ultra Man.

Okay, does that fall before or after the one with Nitro (which is the last one I have). Blasted Tivo. And it's set for reruns and first runs and hasn't picked it up. Boys are gonna be ticked... if I tell them. My bad, Essex.

Okay. Let me say this again. I am not trying knock Pyro. I was just disputing the claim that Pyro and the Mandarin are as recognizable to kids as Sabretooth and Electro. It was not my intention to say that this somehow disqualified Pyro from getting a minimate. There's a generation of comics book geeks that have no idea who Mariko is but we got a mate of her. Yes, Pyro is as recognizable as Lady D, Leader, or Thanos as far as kids go, and they got mates. Heck Thanos is nihilistic Death worshiper, and he got a mate. (although try explaining nihilism to an 8 year sometime) Just FYI, he hasn't appeared in costume yet. He was in the first episode out of costume, but hasn't appeared since. Or let me add the qualifier- If he has, my DVR skipped the episode for some reason and my boys are going to kill me.

I do have some questions though that I pose to the more experienced member of the group. I only have experience Marvel and DC minimates so for you guys that pick up everything this may be a no-brainer. On these design sheets, several parts are listed as recycled that I can't recall seeing before. Can you guy help identify them? On the Vault Guardsman, I dont recognize the boots or gloves. On Spider-Woman and May, I don't recognize either hair piece immediately. I'm just curious where they've appeared before. None of their sheets say they are using any new parts, so they must have come from somewhere. Or is this simply my inexperience at looking at these design sheets show?

Not taking as such, Nathaniel. The 90's cartoon is, well, at least a decade old. It's been in soradic reruns since. Evolution did have the goggles, but a very different costume. (had a lot of grey IIRC) It too is at least 5 years gone. And I haven't seen it in reruns. When you're talking kids, you're hitting about 7 to 12 for this kind of toy. And that's what blizzerd mentioned was kids. So most of them were either too young or not around for those shows. Now there was a the SUper Hero squad and the video game and that helps Pryo more than anything else. But I can only speak for the kids in that age range I know. And over half of them are like my kid, and the sons of recovering comics nerds. And even in that group, I'd say only about half would pick Pryo in costume out of a lineup of other fire themed characters. All that said, kid recognition is obviously not the by all and end all of minimate selection. We've made it to wave 30 as mostly a small scale collector focused line. Given that, it is surprising that Mandarin, Pryo, or yes Kang have not been made. Now as MM's have re-entered the mass market in TRU, kid appeal may re-enter the equation. I'm not knockin Pyro, fellas. I'd love to see one made. But I dispute the notion he's at least recognisable as Sabretooth to most kids in the suit most of us think of him in. That's all.

Not really. Mandarin hasn't been seen in a cartoon in a comics accurate form since the Iron Man cartoon of the early 80's. Not that most would call that whole thing accurate, but compared to the version appearing in the new Nicktoons show its spot on. I certianly would not have picked the new one out of a lineup as the Mandarin. Pyro is different. Do kids know him from the X-movies? Sure. Do they recognise him as the guy in the orange and red costume and big red goggles? Not really. Put Nitro's fire hand and Hydroman's hair on Marty Mcfly in Disguise and that they might recognise as Pyro. And he hasn't appeared in costume in the newest X-Men cartoon either. On the other hand, Electro was in a couple of episodes of Spectacular Spider Man. The look was very different, but the lightning around the head, and general color scheme was the same. And Sabretooth is very memorible from the first movie, even before the current one came out.

Really wish I'd skipped down a few more pages before decoding everything, only to find out conditions may have been met 2 hours ago. Not that it wasn't fun, but now I'm a little bummed.

I can't recall having even seen a Guardsman in a long, long time. IIRC there was a group of "Rogue Guardsman" called "the Jury" that wore variations of the Guardsman armor, but in different color schemes and different weaponry. There might have been one with shoulder cannons. Closest I can think of and then not 100% on that. All in all it's not a bad design even with the cannons. 3 characters I wanted, and a welcome surprise army builder. And on the subject of wings: if they were that happy with the guantlet wings they put on Man-Bat, don't you think they'd have made Sauron by now? Just a thought.

Seems like the simplest way would be to create a new "large crotch" slip-over piece with a peg on it; and you could pop the one- or two-piece tail over the peg (or the tail could have a peg that fit into a hole on the crotch piece). Only problem I would foresee is that Lizard will probably come with white lab-coat, so there would have to be a gap in the back for the tail to fit between. Or, there could be a peg on (or hole in) the lab-coat itself. . . I think that really is your holdup on both the Lizard and the Vulture- they haven't figured out exactly how they want to do it. I'd be dollars to donughts there's a ton of design sketches and mockups floating around their office while they try and figure out the most cost effective way to make those two look good. For the Lizard, it's a double debate, since we're not just talking about the tail and lab coat, but the head as well. I'm sure the arguement has been had here on this board and in the AA/DST office about whether or not the Lizard should have a plain round head, or something that denotes the snout. With the Vulture, it's all about the wings. And once they work those out I am sure both the Vulture and the Falcon will be showing up. Until that gets worked out, they'll keep being put off for another wave.

As as Avengers fan, I'm not sure what the X-Fans are complaining about. We've got 3 Avengers villians so far, (Loki, Ultron, Taskmaster) with only one more on the way. (Moonstone) And only one of them is an "Avengers only" villain, (Ultron) the rest are borrowed from members' rogues galleries. And then there's Taskmaster, who qualifies as the Avengers villain everyone else has fought. Radioactive Man and Absorbing Man are Thor villains with a history of taking on the Avengers. Scorpion and Shocker were both briefly members of the third Masters of Evil (they were really hurting for members that lineup) And Rhino and Electro once fought the team together. And really, with the exception of Sinister or Apocalypse, they've fought everybody at least once. But Really we've got Ultron, Loki, Taskmaster, and Moonstone that could be considered primarily Avengers villains. That's it. 33 different Avengers members made or announced. (counting each character only once) 4 bad guys. Just for the curious- Ant-Man/Giant Man, Beast, Black Panther, Black Widow, Captain America (Barnes), Captain America (Rogers), Dr. Strange, Firestar, Hawkeye/Ronin, Hercules, Human Torch (Hammond), Hulk, Iron Fist, Iron Man , Ms. Marvel, Namor, Power Man, Quicksilver , Scarlet Witch, Sentry, She-Hulk, Spider-Man, Spider-Woman I, Spider-Woman II, Thor, Thor II, US Agent, Vision, Vision 2.0, War Machine (Rhodes), Wasp, Wonder Man and Wolverine (who I keeping trying and tring to forget is now on the team)

Well it's not really a Spider-MAN variant at least... And it is a new character... sort of... And I am curious to see the design on this one. Will it have a brand new mask w/ hair piece?

Oh I am SOOOOO loving that idea. So see, there's at least two sales right there.

Apparently the Amazing Bag-Man.

Phoenix (hound costume)/ army builder with Phoenix (dark phoenix colors)/ army builder or Marvel Girl (Rachel) / army builder as the variants I'd pick an army builder, but those seem to be completely indepentant of the wave (barring the Ultimate SHIELD agents in the Ultimates wave). Probably the most approriate one for the wave would be Shiar soldier. I can just imagine their triangle helmets translated onto a Mate's round head.

Okay, so it's settled. We want a modern Nightcrawler, with Corsair Nightcrawler variant. (although I remember his being called "Pirate Smurf" back in the day when Toy Biz made a 5" figure of that design)

The short answer is Takara is a japanese toy company. They made the toys Hasbro rebranded into Transformers 25 years ago. Once Transofrmers took off, they made the Japanese versions. Right now, since they are not bound by US toys law they can make TF's that the US can't or has to modify to bring over in "unnacceptable" ways. (go to any TF board and search for "short smoke stacks", you'll get the idea) In recent times, they re-release US TF's with different, often more extensive and more "show accurate", paint jobs. For this they are praised and Hasbro is evil. I know, I don't get it either. I'm sure TM2 chopperface could explain it, but we're veering off point. Which was it's always fun to find out who the "good guys" and "bad guys" are in any new collector community. Hate to be the bringer of bad news, Valo, but Black Panther is the less popular character that they're hoping will sell better if paired with the Storm in what's probably her best known costume.