Ivan

Necro-tastic! I haven't posted this up on Minimate Labs yet, but I'd like to share my entry for the Walking Dead Minimates video contest. (Ooh, new board turns youtube links into embeds. Neat. 1080p is available.) It's not all I wanted it to be but I had to make a few sacrifices to meet the deadline. It also appears a sound effect or two got dropped somewhere in the process. Oh well.

Good thinking, I might just make a stop at the local Disney Store on my way home tonight. I could use some adoration, even if it is just from Kotis. <EDITED to add following> Just saw this line in Ask DST #193: DST CHUCK: To date, we have never held a direct license with Disney, so not right now but you never know. It's not in an answer to a Minimates question, but that "To date" clause is something to think about. Maybe I won't try to brave the Disney Store tonight.

Ah Runepp, I remember that story. I wonder how many others do too?

Aww, if we got a Minimate Mercury capsule the smile on my face would be near impossible to remove. As for the license, I'm still half expecting 20,000 Leagues. It seems to fit the parameters and hasn't been ruled out as far as I can tell. <Edited for poor grammar.>

Time to bring out the hook? I wanted to make three of these, but I just can't get Peter's hat to look right in silhouette.

What we've got here, is a failure of happy thoughts.

This animation was too short to throw on youtube, so I just turned it into a gif instead. It's an extended version of that last render I posted. Here's the 1.7MB animated .gif hiding behind a link because, well, it's a 1.7MB animated gif. (Cropped and scaled down from the original 5MB.) Gehound, your shots could easily be used as storyboards for a full animated piece. The motion and intent is always clear. You've definitely got a knack for it.

Red doesn't like it when you don't play by the rules. No weapons. I really liked this particular shot Geohound: It really gives a sense of motion. The transition to the spinning hammer was great too.

I enjoy these every week. I want to play too.

There's a larger version at the source. Large image at Marvel.com

No worries boyd. I needed something productive to do at work, and crafting the query really hit the spot for me. (Weird as that sounds.) I've always thought the 'character' page was sparse and release information seems like a good addition.

Oh, looks like I misread your intent here. You meant physical, print-'em-out-feel-'em-with-your-hands-in-the-real-world type backgrounds. Not bits-n-photons-makin'-pretty-pictures type backgrounds. Sorry about that, I'll go back to my hidey-hole now.

Well, there is the official one. But for a pinned thread it doesn't get much attention. EDIT: removed non-relevant external link of crass self promotion.

That's definitely doable. Release dates are currently tied to packs and series but I could craft a query to extend to figures. Let's see... Captain America March 4, 2010 World War II October 9, 2010 Suspended Animation October 9, 2010 Armored October 9, 2010 Reborn October 9, 2010 Captain America (Classic Heroic Age) December 6, 2010 Captain America (Modern Heroic Age) October 9, 2010 Looks right to me. I probably won't have a dedicated page to do this, but it will be integrated into the existing character page. Depending on how resource-intensive it is.

Er, yeah... sorry about that. Things were pretty fubar there for a while but normalcy is returning. All I can say is there will be an update with new Minimates before the revamp is done. No ETA on either though.

Iron Man is the only Minimate I cuddle with at night.

Oh my. Me wantee.

Is a flood really necessary? You guys remember Lee Burns, right? "Flash Thompson Venom! Flash Thompson Venom! I'm going to post three paragraphs full of exclamation points proclaiming my love for a Flash Thompson Venom." Sure he eventually got what he wanted but at what cost? No one wants to be Lee Burns. ...unless you do. ...then you have my pity.

More photos in the AA gallery. I'm looking forward to a more prototype heavy version at SDCC '13... Although I can't imagine where it could go, nor what it would cost. So if there is a C2E2-only event planned, an early heads-up would be nice. I don't want to have to make any last minute flight reservations. Here's another offer of assistance should you need it.

I speak with no insider knowledge but I'd bet those pack pairings are from an early list from DST. It could have been the most accurate they had at the time and never got fixed. It's not like there's anyone physically looking at the packages and entering them into the system. Info comes from purchase orders, packing lists, product numbers. It's run by little ones and zeroes, little bits of data. It's all just electrons. Was anyone able to get the 20% off to work? None of the exclusions seem to apply. But I couldn't get the discount despite exceeding the minimum purchase value. (Currently waiting on a response from customer service though.)

Thanks boyd for the confirmation. I've just notified AA/DST. They probably won't see it until Monday, so everyone has two days to replenish their Viagra stockpile.

Has anyone noticed any weird spam showing up on the ArtAsylum.com website? For example when hit the latest blog entry it looks like this: There's a chunk of code in the source that hides the spam using Javascript. I usually browse the web with Javascript disabled (masochistic, I know) so the spam shows up for me. It doesn't look malicious, just there to boost search rankings. <div id="hideMe"> <p>Subsequent on our spam, spam, spam, eggs and spam</p> </div> <script type="text/javascript">if(document.getElementById('hideMe') != null){document.getElementById('hideMe').style.visibility = 'hidden';document.getElementById('hideMe').style.display = 'none';}</script> It's possible this isn't AA and my system is infected. So I thought I'd get some independent verification before bothering DST..

You know what ol' Jack Burton always says at a time like this?

Whoa, thank you all for the feedback. It's a lot more than I was expecting. I appreciate it immensely. This is just the first step in a larger design. It will definitely have the Minimate Database text on it. As much as I like the MMDB abbreviation, it's really only recognizable to folks around here. It's nice how much of the feedback matches what I was thinking. (I guess I'm not totally insane.) The first one works well but is a little unbalanced. The symmetry of the second one improves that, but I'm not sold on backwards letters. I like the joined MM of the third, but it reads as Minimate Contraband. I guess I didn't delete the fourth one as thoroughly as I thought. Everyone has their kink. The one thing I didn't see before is the faces in the DB. Now it's all that I see. Thanks again everyone, I'll keep tweaking it. EDIT: I forgot to add... Does it remind you of any other franchise logos or anything? Something about it seems familiar to me but I can't place it. I don't want to be infringing anything.

Feedback Request: In working on the DB revamp, I've decided I need a new logo/masthead. I've been playing around with the typography portion a bit and I'd like to get some outside opinions (as the inside voices are getting surly.) I'd love to what you guys think works and what doesn't. Much obliged.