Ivan

I just wanted to share a couple of my recent (questionably successful) Minimate related ventures into the Print On Demand (POD) world. I'm curious to see what you guys think. About a month before SDCC this year, I decided I wanted to have a Minimate T-Shirt that I could show off in meatspace at the convention. My only experience in this area was a screen-printing class in high-school, but from what I remembered, it seemed that my Minimate wallpapers would be well suited. (Of course the POD companies don't silk-screen unless you are doing a large run and want to pay setup costs. ) After some searching and comparison, it seemed that the only option available was printing on light colored shirts so I settled on customink.com. And a little while later this arrived in my mailbox: Pretty nice results I think. The only problem is it's a white shirt. Nothing wrong with white, I just prefer dark shirts. Jump forward a couple months and I see a promo for printfection.com, and they say that they print on dark shirts. Excellent! After some transparency tweaks and creative masking I sent in an order. They actually have a helpful forum on their site, and through it I discovered how they print on dark shirts. It's a two step process where they lay down a white layer then the color layer. This made me a little apprehensive, as the image I chose has a ton of transparent gradients. Here's what came back: The Minimate didn't turn out nearly as green as I wanted and the there is quite a color shift on the horizon line. Overall it just looks washed out. Not bad, just not exactly what I wanted. On the plus side it's much better than I feared. If I do anymore, I'll either stay away from transparent gradients or super-saturate the colors. What do you guys think?

Heh, I wonder if the $167 order (all Minimate lovin') I placed on Tuesday will have one of these included. Probably not, like most things in life timing is everything, I guess. Well, I suppose I can finally pick up a few of those Trek figs I had been putting off purchasing. (Ssshh don't tell anyone.) And who couldn't use another set of BSG Wave 2 with some Street Fighter filler? I have a feeling AFX has a tonne (oooh, metric) of these and they'll be put up for sale eventually. But I just don't have the cojones (oooh, Spanish) to risk it.

Hot diggity! Thank you Kirby. Your updates are always appreciated.

I found this one interesting given what was said in DST Spectrum #54. I wonder, does that mean Wave 4 won't have any TNG? Or are they hitting DS9 or Voyager first? Or does somebody have old info? EDIT: (Guess I should have checked for new posts before submitting, huh Rad?) So no more zombies. I'm glad we at least got what we did though. I wonder how small the window was.

Sure, sure. Torment the guy with the librarian-related disability. Basically it's the bottom of the packs and the associated UPCs that are different. Target: Wave 9: The only other minor difference I can see is the extra carriage return between "Blade" and "2 Inch Mini Collectible" on the Target version. Target left, Wave 9 right: TBT, amusingly enough the list was actually in alphabetical order originally. But I figured I'd move 'communist' to the end for maximum impact. Damn dirty Ruskies!

The link of which you speak. People can have all sorts of interesting tendencies whether they be pugilistic or paranoid, empathic or communist. How did I get stuck with librarian tendencies?

There are some Minimate related dates in the Community History wiki page. I pick November 1. Mostly because it's fun to say "McSqueeb." McSqueeb. MCSQUEEB! McSqueeeeeeeeeeeeeb. McSqueeb.

My version does have the logo on the left side: I'm not sure if the feet are logoed on both sides though. (I don't let Rocky come to work with me anymore.) I'll check and update tonight. [uPDATE] Errr, or I'll just refer to Tim's post above.

I never really had a 'Minimate slump' so I can't speak to that matter directly. The only advice I can give is to play with your Minimates. Pose them, make quick-customs, take pictures, use them as a creative outlet. It's too easy to get into the "Gotta have what's new" trap, then it gets to a point where it's not fun anymore. The original Spider-Man Minimate from Wave 2 is a damn fun Minimate, and he's what, four years old? Iron Man, Ryu, Sauron, Cap... how can you get bored? For those of you bored with MMMV, Hamster Wolverine says hi. (Shamelessly stolen)

Well, at the bottom of the Pop Box site says "AVAILABLE 4TH QTR 2007." I don't put a lot of faith in that of course. It used to say "AVAILABLE FROM JULY 2007 ONWARD" and "AVAILABLE FROM MAY 2007 ONWARD." Not to mention that the other products on their homepage have seen the same rolling availability dates. On the plus side, a few of those products are now available. But I do not trust to hope. It has forsaken these lands.

Well that depends on which version of the episode "Arena" you are watching. Paramount has been airing (well technically they sold television stations the rights to air) "Remastered"/"Special Edition"/"Let's Bilk The Trekkies" versions of various Star Trek episodes. (Coming soon to HD-DVD at a store near you!) These new episodes have been altered with new special effects such as CGI starships, enhanced CGI Glowing-Energy-Aliensâ„¢, and shorter skirts (via CGI). One of the more controversial decisions was to alter storylines. For example, the original theme of "Arena" was how Kirk was able to overcome the unnamed Gorn captain's brawn by using only his wits and whatever he could find on Cestus 3. Ultimately defeating the Gorn, he was still able to maintain his humanity and refused to take the Gorn's life. This proved to the Metrons that humans were not the savage, warlike people they thought. The execs at Paramount decided that this storyline was far too complex for the new, younger, hipper crowd they were trying to attract. So they decided to "sex it up a bit," "add some T'n'A," or "slam the poodle" by making the Gorn female. Trek is replete with green females so they figured no one would mind. The new storyline centers around how the Gorn (I think her name is Trixie now) is trying to explore her sexuality. Kirk and Trixie are still trapped on Cestus 3 by the Metrons, but instead of fighting each other with styrofoam rocks, ad hoc cannons, and pointy things, they just end up rubbing decon gel all over each other and drinking Jägerbombs. At one point Trixie gets fed up with Kirk continually steering the conversation to old episodes of "Who's The Boss" and she takes off for some "alone time." (She preferred "Mr. Belvedere" anyway.) Just before cutting to commercial you see Trixie open her purse and pull out her "Silver Friend" and smile. Of course if you're watching the original episodes that aired in the sixties, it's just a Universal Translator.

Excellent. The mind-reading-device headpiece is removable. Thanks for the scans maxcarnage.

Thanks for the link Samwise. Anyone else a little disappointed with the guitar? Granted most Minimate accessories only have one or two paint applications, but I think the guitar needs more. It seems like an accessory from another toy line. Hopefully this is just the prototype and there will be a few more paint-apps on the production version. On the other hand, I wouldn't want to sacrifice paint-apps on the Minimates for paint-apps on the guitar. It's too bad I don't have a Myspace account* or I would have posted a similar image from the Scavenger Hunt Contest. (*And won't until Emperor Rupert makes it mandatory.)

Thankfully I don't. Don't get me wrong, I have my share of obsessive tendencies. (Did I double-check to make sure the stove was off before I left the house this morning even though it hasn't been used in six months? Yep, good.) A lot of the things I do just make normal people scratch their head and ask "Why?" (Did I lift my car-door handle at least three times after locking it just to be sure? Yep, good.) Most of the time I can't find an acceptable answer, acceptable to them or me. (Did I only step on the colored tiles in the office lobby this morning? Yep, good.) But it doesn't cause me any anxiety if Minimate heads don't line up with Minimate masks. (Can't push "skip" when the MP3 player is in "random" mode because that might mess up the algorithm.) Sure, I'll make sure they are in the same general direction when I put the mask back on. (Volume controls have to be on an odd number.) I mean you can't have the mask on backwards. (Plenty of other people record how long they urinate and then graph the results over time just to find interesting patterns.) That's just wrong.... and weird.

Anyone know the price of this set at Hot Topic? The only thing that will get me into that store is bargain priced Minimates.

Count me on the "DST Loves Me" list. Both a Hunt and Cylon Minimate arrived in today's mail.

Some do, some don't. My loose blue one does, but both my loose red and green ones don't. EDIT: After checking my packaged blanks, I've found red, green, and yellow (in addition to the blue above) that have the copyright text. These packaged ones all have the Wizard World sticker, so I'm not sure if the non-copyrighted versions came from San Diego or Toy Fair.

Looks like DST just posted images of both the Back to the Future and '24' boxed sets. Here's the direct link to the blog post. Apparently both will be out in September. Yay. Nice, open, window packaging just like the Rocky set. Footpeg on Marty's skateboard, and look at the altenate Doc Brown headpiece! I wasn't expecting that, but I like it. It's odd that it includes another head though. Hopefully the device isn't permanently attached to the head. I want to be able to stick it on other Minimates. Aquaman wants you to make a donation to the Coast Guard Youth Auxiliary.

But have you actually seen Steel Magnolias? It's a great movie about six hard-drinkin', hard-rockin', hard-partyin' Southern chicks who are all hotter than a billy goat in a pepper patch! They're not all equally hot, some are better than others to be sure. But you wouldn't turn any of them away because they got sharp knees or nothin'. The movie starts out with all the girls in some beauty shop comparing sexual conquests. The stories get lewder and more obscene as they progress. It was like they were competing for the most erotic story. Then suddenly one of the girls faints and has to be taken to the hospital. I thought that was an odd turn, but hey, I'm no filmmaker. It turns out the girl who fainted doesn't have any money or insurance, and she needs some super special brain surgery to survive. So the rest of the girls get together and plan out ways to raise money. First they all get jobs in the local bar, where they can call the shots and use their female attributes to drive the patrons crazy. You know, twirling liquor bottles and dancing on bar stools and such. Unfortunately, poor investments and unwise business decisions outweighed all the incoming titillation money and they were unable raise the capital they needed. The friend's condition was worsening so they had to turn to less conventional means... a calendar! They hired a flamboyantly homosexual photographer to take strategically obscured nude photographs of the girls. But when the film was developed at the local drug store, the helpless clerk mixed it up with the film from a Russian secret agent. You can guess what happened, they ended up with a calendar of nuclear energy plant photos. Understandably, these did not sell well, but they did arouse the suspicion of the federal authorities who arrived in black helicopters. With a lot of flirting and giggling they were cleared of all espionage charges. But those charges should have been the least of their fears. While the girls received the spy's photos, the KGB received all their naughty calendar photos. At first the Russians didn't know what to make of them. "Is this what Americans do in their nuclear facilities?" "That doesn't look like a radiation suit to me." "Oh my, what is she doing with that depleted uranium rod?" And so on. Further investigation was clearly necessary, so they sent a team of six hunky secret agents to find out what was going on. Somehow the girls found out the Russians were coming, so they all hopped on their Harleys and start riding west. They make it through two states before the Russians caught up and huge firefight ensued. The girls' shotguns were no match for the Russian uzis and rocket launchers and the rolling battle came to a halt in a shopping mall parking lot. The girls made it in to the nearest clothing store and used mannequin limbs and display racks to disarm the Russians. Eventually it's all hand-to-hand combat except the Asian girl (Oh, didn't I tell you? One of the friends is Asian.) knows kung-fu and she's jump-kicking and hiiiiya'ing all over the place. Something explodes and the whole mall caught on fire. They fight they're way through the flames to the Bath and Body Works store. They then strip down to their skivvies and apply large amounts of lotion to each other for protection from the harmful UV rays being emitted by the fire. After about twenty minutes of lotion application someone notices the propane store across the way. They decide that fire and propane make a bad combination and they start running (in slow motion) toward the food court where they encounter... a group of ninjas! I won't go any further because I don't want to spoil the ending for anyone. But it's a great movie and definitely well worth a rental.

Steel Magnolias

Huzzah, my prize pack has finally arrived. I actually received a UPS InfoNotice for it last Friday, but there was no way I could get it until today. It made for a rough weekend. My prize pack included: an iPod Shuffle (my first venture into the land of Apple audio players), a Promo Minimate Pack (surprisingly no blanks), Wizard and ToyFare subscriptions (to come in the mail later) and a $100 credit at the DST online store (hmmm, wonder what I'll spend that on?) Here's what was in my box (minus the bubble wrap and letter): Nothing extraordinarily rare like a prototype or a test shot, but it's nice to have a Santa Spider-Man I can open. And I'll get to see what all this iPod hullabaloo is all about. A big thanks to Matt, Mike, Esti, Jaycen, Chuck, Donna, and everyone else at DST that put this together. It was fun.

Perhaps a different angle... But I admit, I could be wrong here. In a town of 15,000 people there could be two people with the same name who both love hentai. Google Maps for the overhead shot. Microsoft Virtual Earth for the angled shot. (sorry 'bout the threadjack you_will_forget)

Be careful what you wish for: Mmmmm, fresh identities.

The rules are pretty loose around here on image posting. I think the board software is setup to rescale images if they are too large. Welcome to the board.

Presenting Vitali. One of Kirk's many personalities. Need more 3 inchers