Liney

I have run into that problem, and I have also tried the hairdryer solution with good results. And as for the edges of the paper, unless you are working with very light colors, I usually just run a black permanent marker along the edges before I apply the sticker. It tends to look very natural, like the black edge is just a corner of the plastic.

Thanks for the advice Luke, it worked a treat.

I also thought I would share this trick I learnt:

Have you, for any reason, tired to mix and match pieces from new and old mates? Due to the changes the waist pegs are different lengths, and the older ones are ever so slightly thicker. This means they don't grip the new torso tight enough and will fall out.

An easy solution to this is drinking straws, just cut one to the length of the peg and slide it on, its pretty snug but a drop of glue makes it stronger. This makes the new pegs just that bit thicker so they stay in the old torso blocks.

Not too sure if this is the right place, and I know this is about an older mate, but either way...

I have now bought three version of the old Kabuki MM and all three have had issues. Mainly regarding pegs, the first had a broken shoulder, the second the left leg peg was snapped, the torso paint was smudged and the arms loose and the third had both legs broken off.

Was this set particularly prone to breaking?

And to give this post a point, what's the worst case of breakage you've had, in regards to the same mate?

*October 14th 2013*

In order to unclutter all my posts in the thread I've merged all my Trek decals into one post which I will keep adding to, and will just post what I have added.

As the Trek line is back, and I don't want lots of Kirk's and so forth, I threw these together. Not sure if the colours are totally right, they were on my printer, if not let me know and I'll add the uncoloured ones.

TOS

Sleeve rank braiding, the yellow/gold matches the above badge colour and both shades of red for engineering.

Captain

Commander

Lieutenant Commander

Lieutenant

TOS - Mirror Mirror

TMP Uniforms

The TMP uniforms are insane, there seems to be loads of variations on colour and departments, so I have tried my best to cover them all...

Class A is basically dress uniforms while Class B are the everyday ones. Commanders wear grey, bridge officers wear beige while everyone else gets brown. Medical are white.

So far I have done the Class A, aside from the medics duds.

Admiral

Command - basically Captain and First Officer

Engineering

Helm/Communications/Navigation

Science

Security & Weapons

Backs

Medical

Sickbay (jacket) and 'medical worksuit for lower ranks'

Variation for Spock, Sulu, Uhura and McCoy

Sleeves

Admiral of Star Fleet, Admiral, Vice Admiral, Rear Admiral

Commodore, Captain, Commander

Lieutenant Commander, Lieutenant, Ensign

TNG Uniforms

These are designed to be somewhere between both of the Picard blocks released, but are closer to the second one. Fronts for both genders and a back. Two variations on Trio's catsuit thing too, just fronts though.

DS9/First Contact Uniforms

Only included one back for all of these, as they all look the same. Added the sleeve bands, which should be the right size.

DS9 - Original Uniforms

At least I think these were the original ones, basically the Voyager ones with a rounded combadge.

Voyager Uniforms

These would also work for TNG I believe. Before they got the coloured chest ones.

*Added 16th July*

Added some female chests to TOS, as I thought the released one was blocky. Correct badges too, unlike the official ones.

Darker shade matches the Rand mate while there are also variations for Uhura and Chapel.

*Added 4th August 2013*

Mirror Mirror uniforms. Fixed the same issue with the gold not showing up. The guides I looked at show the Terran Empire logo as the badge, but the actual episode had different ones I can't find images for.

Added to TOS: gold shirt Uhura as seen in 'The Corbomite Maneuver' and sickbay and engineering crew overalls.

*Added August 15 2013*

TMP Class A uniforms and medical stuff

*Added January 24 2014*

Two variations on Trio's costume added to TNG uniforms

Yeah, from a collector's POV, I would love to see extra heads to make extra characters. Otherwise we clearly aren't gonna get some of those characters. Not sure I see DST doing it, but. . .

I'm not trying to be a pain, but even from a collectors POV, you would still buy two sets in order to display both characters. So wouldn't that be the same as having a variant really?

I never understand the logic of adding additional heads to make other characters.

How do you display them?

Surely to get both characters you would have to buy the set twice to have enough bodies, meaning you would have one of each head left over, which basically equates to buying each of the characters twice.

Why not just offer two different sets?

Wonder if this would work with minimates?

URL: http://pages.ebay.com/link/?nav=item.view&id=111076153833

Looking at the size of the figures I would imagine it would be a tad too big.

Yeah, that's weird we were both working on the exact same figure. CA-RAZY!

Thanks for the plug Liney!

Don't mention it, I like seeing how different people interpret the same character and costume. I'm not wild about the capes that are available, Destiny has a shoulder hugging ones which would kill any arm movement.

Love the She-Thing custom the head suits it perfectly. Your coloured Wizard just makes me want it more!

And after all that a Bingo wings reference!

Thanks, the only problem is that I also like that head for Thing and don't want them to have the same face.

Glad someone appreciates the bingo wings, I have no idea if our friends across the pond use that term.

Right coloured images added for Destiny, I'll stop adding stuff now, promise!

Destiny

Jeff and I must be on the same page when it comes to this kind of thing, just checked The Minimate Cookbook and he has just posted a recipe for Destiny.

I drew her with and without cape. The cape is basically off the new Scarlet Witch. I tried to make her body more realistic, so no huge chest and muscles, as I remember reading somewhere her other power was looking good in lycra at her age.

I never realised how odd her costume is, she was what about 60? That's a lot of elderly lady flesh showing, especially the bingo wing arms. If it were me I would have a sleeved leotard and tights under the boots. But I digress...

Thanks BH, been meaning to try my hand at fixing Storm for ages, not sure how many more I'll do. Yet to try sculpting things yet though.

Thank Nessex, would love to get Wizard and a few other classic villains. Maybe a Frightful Four set?

*Gasp* Only eight pages in and I finally got around to trying my hand at actual customs. Well, printing stickers and applying them to minimates, all of which you can find in the decal thread, if that counts.

She-Thing, made from possible the con exclusive Thing, and a couple of stickers, the belt is one whole piece, which was fun to get on straight. Not sure whether or not to paint the collar on the top on the torso block. Decided against giving her a powerhouse piece, as pictures show her smaller than The Thing, and otherwise she dwarfs characters like She-Hulk. Ignore Thing, he's awaiting a new pair of legs.

Loved this costume of Storm's but the minimate hasn't aged well and a lot of corners were cut, vinyl stickers on front and back and skin painted on her sides. Got one for the face but the hair tends to rip it. Also swapped her feet for some C3 ones.

Hawkeye just got the powerhouse piece replaced by a decal found in the decal thread and a modified one on the back. Quiver glued on the back, forgot to take a pic though.

Daredevil was more a trial run, just updated his chest and tested out the gloss sealer.

Am I right in thinking there was a 3" Q mate mock-up shown, possibly in his judge get up? Or have I just imagined that?

Looking forward to all the Borg, hopefully a large collective can be put together through part swapping.

I'm also with Mystery Man, would love to see a Salt Vampire

Blob looks pretty cool, does the chest piece impede his legs much?

So I've realised I can't drawn bad guys without making them snarl... saying that I really like face on Wizard. Might go back and try and give him a smug smirk, but in my rough designs the eyes and smirk didn't look right.

Did anyone see the design sheets posted on Facebook? They look pretty fantastic. Kirk is shown with an alternate screaming head.

Any chance of a link or something for those of us without Facebook?

I didn't even know there was an ignore feature

So far it seems the general consensus seems to be for classics, so would I be right in saying that in that case people would prefer variants to be modern versions or alternate characters (ie Black Queen Selene)?

Not really sure if this belongs here or not, but couldn't work out where else to post it. Hope here is ok. So anyway, here goes...

When it comes to getting mates do you prefer to them to be in there classic duds or whatever they are currently wearing? Or does it depend on the character?

For example some characters, say Iron Man, get an updated look every few months and already has a few classic mates, so I guess the newer armours are what's wanted.

But what about characters who haven't had mates, say The Wizard. Would you him rather be in his classic chest piece over a leotard look or his newer body suit/armour?

As I'm sure someone will mention variants, how do you pick which is the which?

Just looking for some insight I guess.

Malice and Moonstar are all kinds of awesome, not that the others aren't, but those two in particular rock.

Firestar's mask could do with a little off the sides, but still heaps better than the official one.

Just a heads up, I've updated my She Thing (page 10) decals with darker shading, as it didn't show up too well when printed.

Also here are my improved Storm decals, with better colours to match the original mates skin tone, the old ones are still in here somewhere *I think*. Front, back and face.

Added chest and face decals for Destiny, have included a coloured head decal and one of just her mask. Feel free to try them out.

I know what you mean Bob, though I can't really afford decal paper, or the sealant as I use an inkjet printer.

YB, I forgot about the hairdryer thing. The hairpiece isn't tight, I cant even get it on the head now. I think part of the problem is that it's a big hairppiece which covers most the sides of the head.

Not sure whether this should go in the decal thread or not..

I finally tried my hand at I testing out decals, well, vinyl stickers, and ran into a few issues.

1. As the vinyl sticker paper isn't transparent it has a white edge once applied. I assume I can just paint the edges to match?

2. As the paper is thicker than decal paper it means when you apply it to heads the hair pieces no longer fit, or they do but will rip/crease the sticker. Any ideas on stopping this?

Of course not, but they aren't bad for their size though, assuming they are Lego size that is...

I'll be sticking to 'mates though. As long as they stay away from the new movie stuff.

I may have missed it when skimming through, but just how tall is that beauty going to be?

One doesn't have figures apparently?

Man, do those Kreo figures look terrible.

In terms of likeness I would agree, but aside from the weird shoulder pads and some of the hair I think they look fairly decent. You just have to accept that they aren't Lego or Minimates.