DSTZach

Not seeing a ship date on these, but that doesn't mean anything. They should hit in the next month or so. 

7 hours ago, minimateship said:

i adore the Palz reviews on his site, an early block figure exposure (obviously they're a lil old now!)

I have always had trouble navigating his site, but I did a search and found a ton of (very old) Minimate reviews. I have reached out to him about revisiting the line 20 years later. 

7 hours ago, minimateship said:

a Poppies judge! quite the flex there Mr Oat was psyched to see some mate's represented on the ballot there this year

How do you think they got there?  

2 hours ago, youbastards said:

Does DST provide anything to Michael Crawford?  That guy is the original toy review site and still gets a lot of views.  He’s started posting videos of his collection, it is insanely cool.  I think he lives like 20 minutes from me, I should try to reach out to him and meet up.

I talk to him, I'm a Poppies judge. I don't think he would do Minimates.  Not really his type of product. But I guess there's no harm in asking. 

Reached out to the Full Force Podcast, as well as a couple more vloggers YB recommended. 

12 hours ago, youbastards said:

Zach, the YouTuber I mentioned earlier got the package I sent him and is going to do an unboxing.  He’s big into the retro stuff and loves the VHS packaging,  Check your email.  

THanks!

17 hours ago, Navaan said:

It was in a Fan Club exclusive! They had a Hologram Megatron. I have that thing, somewhere...

Funny, they didn't let us...

18 hours ago, elhonez said:

I think many potential buyers aren't seeing them at all. 

It's a problem of exposure, I'm pretty certain. I haven't seen any Joe sites, or general toy sites for that matter, with free review samples in-hand doing features on these. A new line needs a big push!

You can see some of the sites I supplied here:

(121) gi joe minimates - YouTube

And here, if you skip all the Luke videos  :

Find 'joe minimates' on TikTok | TikTok Search

There are not a ton of active Joe sites, but I have requested product for Hisstank, so they'll be diving in soon. 

New vendor would not be for Marvel, but I'll keep everyone posted. 

16 hours ago, Swarm198 said:

Well we've been waiting on the animated X-Men wave since October of 2020, so I think I'm gonna have to disagree with you there.

I meant from when we offered a set to release would not be faster. It's currently six months or so. The 84 reveal obviously happened too early, but once we offer it it will be six months. Announcing the X-Men series was WAY premature, since Walgreens dropped out after I announced it. I get too excited for this stuff, and tend to spill the beans too early.

That said, the X-Men set is one of the ones we had talked about offering online, in whatever format, but it is not yet on the schedule for a specific date.

13 hours ago, Mattallica said:

well if this is the end for the gi joe line at least we got Dr. Biggles-Jones🤪

Should have been Megatron!

11 hours ago, THE_CRIPPLER said:

The Adventure Team and Super Adventure Team sets should be some sort of con exclusive. Series 3 and 4 should have been released before these were even considered. If DST cares about the sales of the G.I. Joe Minimates why would they not release series 3 and 4 first. They are going to easily outsell the Adventure team sets and shouldn't DST want that? Are others at DST even aware of all this negative feedback over the choices for release? 

I think I've gone over this. We have no idea if GI Joe Wave 3 would outsell the Adventure Team. It's anecdotal. So we are offering these FORMER EXCLUSIVES mainstream, to see how they do. Maybe Series 3 will become an exclusive, who knows. 

11 hours ago, THE_CRIPPLER said:

99% of us G.I. Joe Minimates collectors can see that, yet DST seems to be blind to that fact. We of course will buy the Adventure Team sets because we are Minimates fans, but you all are really messing up on this line (between the lack of advertising and the characters released so far).

I get it, we duplicated characters, but where are you looking for advertisements? We have advertised to retailers, in Previews; to toy collectors, in ToyCollectr; and to kids, in Archie comics. We also do online ads, on FB and the Diamond family of websites. We can't advertise in Entertainment Weekly for a $40 product we make less than 5000 of. 

11 hours ago, THE_CRIPPLER said:

The Review Spot is another Youtube channel that would do reviews of the G.I. Joe Minimates if you sent him some sets. I know he has done some Minimate reviews in the past. I think he even reviewed the first G.I. Joe box set. Do a search on Facebook and join the G.I. Joe fan clubs and show pics of the Minimates to garner up more interest. I'm sure tons of G.I. Joe fans have no idea that G.I. Joe Minimates even exist. Heck, they even went out and bought those lousy Lego knockoff G.I. Joe sets until people realized that they were complete garbage.

I sent the MInimates to Review Spot, most likely. I send him a lot of stuff, but he also buys a lot of stuff. I'll see if I sent him Series 2. I also join a lot of fan clubs on Facebook, but I'll see if I can find a good Joe one. I post on the Minimates fan groups, of course.

11 hours ago, THE_CRIPPLER said:

G.I. Joe vehicles would also help sell this line. People are currently 3d printing huge G.I. Joe Classified sized vehicles because the vehicles are just as important as the characters in the line to many. I've stated before that G.I. Joe fans are pretty fanatical and support the products. Unfortunately you can't expect them to support the G.I. Joe Minimates if they don't even know that they exist. 

Vehicles are a tough sell at the numbers we do. If a major retailer was involved, sure, but I don't know how much a vehicle would cost at specialty numbers. $100? You really have to amortize that tooling.

16 hours ago, fwoosheyman said:

not that I don’t find it entertaining but I don’t think a company employee engaging in a “comments war” with customers on a fan board is the best thing. 

It's a discussion. I mean, sure, I flamed out on Thereasonsy, but it's that time of year again, I guess. I seem to have one of these every 12 months or so. Let's get this over with...

14 hours ago, thereasonsy said:

DST used my image without my consent, and I chose to block that too.

What are you talking about? Honestly would like to know. 

14 hours ago, thereasonsy said:

If that makes you feel a certain way, last I heard you have a camera, access to the toys, and the logins to the DST account. You can shoot and make content to promote your brand and have it automated—just like me. Since you are a brand account, simply get your posts approved and scheduled into your favorite third-party scheduler or natively in the app. You can do it in batches or every day. Again, it’s your job. You figure it out.

Fans have a lot more freedom than we do. For instance, I can't shoot pictures of Marvel Minimates and post them on DST social media without getting them approved by Marvel. I can't mix Minimates of different brands without getting a stern talking-to from both licensors. That's why I try to work with fans to get content out there, in the form of influencers shooting photos. I have a long list of people who shoot for me, and more and more of them are getting into Minimates. Which is great. We even share them sometimes, as fan work. 

14 hours ago, thereasonsy said:

Let’s chat March Of Minimates. I don't need to get the company involved because, frankly, you should have been doing this on your own instead of engaging in back-and-forth on a message board all day.

Believe me, I'm starting to regret it. ;). I do NOT do this all day, just enough that people know I'm here and listening, to the good and bad, passing along ideas and opinions to the powers that be. I just take things a little personally, sometimes, because I'm passionate about it. Which is why, most of the time, I am on here at night.

14 hours ago, thereasonsy said:

If you knew how to actually market and how to do a giveaway, you would realize involving DST would have made it have a different set of rules that would have been a change to an already launched activation. You can't change the rules midstream. You didn't reach out until AFTER the first week. There are laws for influencer marketing, and there are laws for giveaways. Just because you don't know them doesn't mean I don't. I followed them to the letter, and it was a very successful month. Thanks for your interest in it. I'm glad to see that you are finally doing it next year instead of having others do the labor.

You're right, I should have reached out before March happened. And I will not do it next year. I will instead coordinate with my social media team and make sure that we do another Minimates photo contest, far away from March. We did one for the 20th anniversary, and I will try to make it annual. 

14 hours ago, thereasonsy said:

I don't work for you. I'm not going to give you or DST, a company that makes revenue, a complete promotion that costs over 50K to execute for free so that you can do whatever it is you want to instead of doing your job. If you wanted to hire me as a consultant, no thank you, you wouldn't be able to afford me. I did it for the community of FANS.

14 hours ago, thereasonsy said:

Lastly, I don't owe you any explanations as to why I do anything, since you are not my spouse, friend, or employer. The only interaction we have is that you work at a company where I spend a significant amount of money each year. That's it. However, you are a brand representative who has repeatedly spoken poorly about a customer on a public forum. Additionally, you have harassed other people about me even though I have made it clear that I do not wish to have any contact with you. This behavior is not a good look, sir. Seriously, yikes. 

I never asked for an explanation. But a DM after I reached out would have been nice. Even if just to say, "No thanks."

You're right, you put together a great event, that lasted a month, and you spent money out-of-pocket to finance the prizes. We'd probably have to pay somebody a lot of money to do that. I guess I just wanted to be involved in some way, personally (which is why I shot for it) as well as professionally (which is why I offered to supply prizes, late). Sorry to have bothered you, or tainted what should have been a great celebration of Minimates. Still curious about the image thing. DM me if you want.

11 minutes ago, Navaan said:

They do. Britt and Jericho tho both usually come out with jackets.

The Bucks will have removable jackets. And Orange Cassidy and Mox in Set 2 will also have removable jackets, I believe. 

11 minutes ago, Navaan said:

Me? I want to know WHERE ARE THE CHAMPIONSHIP BELTS? That one set gas three of the six men's world champions AEW has had, and one of the seven women's champions, and no belts!!!

They are coming!

On 4/17/2023 at 10:09 PM, Navaan said:

That... sucks. Did you offer them a Ringside Collectibles exclusive paint scheme or something? THAT gets their eyes, trust me. They have exclusives of -1, Excalibur, Tony Schivone, JR and Aubry Edwards, plus all the team and memorable matches.

I believe we had exclusive sets set aside for them, ASSUMING they would want to get on board. Pretty sure that was communicated to them, if not by me then by Sales. Oh, well -- I just sent a couple of sets to the owner, maybe he'll check them out. 

On 4/17/2023 at 10:09 PM, Navaan said:

Might not hurt to reach out to Toyark, Toynewsi, Wrestlefigs, and if you really want, SquaredCircle on Reddit.

I'm on the wrestlefigs message boards regularly, but I am sending out a press release today to about 350 toy and wrestling news sites. We'll see how that does.

Not sure why the cover and interior don;t line up. May just have been how the pics worked. 

I won't quote YB because holy cow. But I find it so strange when a list of failures includes a line that ran for eight series, plus box sets and TRU waves (TWD). That's a success. Ditto Aliens, NBX and 201X TMNT. Successful lines. Not every line lasts forever. 

More later. 

9 hours ago, thereasonsy said:

Youbastards gets it. And I stand in a glass house when I say this: it’s exhausting that the majority of the brand support comes from FANS and not the Company itself. Hire a bloody marketing consultant and a PR agency because this has passed pathetic into laughable. Happy 20th.

This from a person that tries to get the hype going on Minimates on Instagram but blocks the company rep and refuses to get the company involved? Hey, all, I tried to provide prizes and publicity for March of Minimates, but "Minimated" did not respond to my outreach. I still can't see their posts. Un-effing-believable. I'll do it myself next year.

8 hours ago, buttheadsmate said:

I'm sure that none of us bears DST any ill-will but I think the chickens have come home to roost .

YB, I think BHM just called you a chicken.

20 hours ago, thereasonsy said:

Over the years I would say there were a few DST “exclusives” like Westworld where a figure was an “exclusive” but then released to another store just “slightly different”. Hell, I have two “exclusive” Vampire Willows from toyfare in two different packages from two different stores. Not to mention the number of LCS that got burned by the TRU same figure debacles. 

I... thought we were talking abotu Minimates. THAT SAID I have no idea what Westworld figures you are talking about. We did two Walgreens exclusives that were absolutely not available anywhere else. The rest were not exclusive. Vampire Willow may have been a shared exclusive, I forget, I was at ToyFare but I didn't do the deal. As far as TRU vs LCS goes... both outlets got exclusive figures, I don't know which you're specifically talking about. 

I honestly don't know how their success will be viewed, or what will be the result. I think the performance of our SDCC TF exclusive will have just as much of an impact, if it does well. 

BUT the Adventure Team will be, AFAIK, the next Joe release. And it will be carded, AFAIK. 

FYI, the Adventure Team Commander, according to his bio, is Joseph Colton, founder of the GI Joe team, and the Adventurer is Lonzo Wilkinson, a.k.a. Stalker, so do with that information what you will. 

I personally showed the owner of Ringside Collectibles Series 1 and 2 at SDCC 2022. As far as I know, they did not order it. I do not know the reason. Maybe we can get them to buy some now that it is in stock. 

46 minutes ago, thereasonsy said:

My biggest DST pet hate: exclusive does not mean exclusive. 

Aside from this one example, which happened before my time and I'm sure has a logical explanation, are there other examples? I cannot think of any times we released an exclusive MM/set then offered it somewhere else. 

3 hours ago, thereasonsy said:

I just wish they communicated to the masses better or figured out how to create a rhythm for interested people that aren’t diehards that come here. Finding out we have two sets coming on the same day without much notice is frustrating for fans of the line. 

We have a ship dates calendar on our website, that breaks things down by quarter. I know, three months is a big window, but we can't tell people exactly when they'll be in stores (or in our webstore, for that matter) until they are in our warehouse. International and trans-continental freight shipping is too unpredictable, plus there are warehouse workloads to take into consideration.

I just gave everybody a one- to two-week heads-up, but that may be the best I can do. AEW MM ships tomorrow, MMPR Series 2 ships NEXT WEDNESDAY. So you get to spread out your purchases a little. That said, I'm willing to bet that VERY few people outside of hardcores will be into AEW AND MMPR MM, causing a purchasing dilemma.  

And only hardcores "need" to buy these on release day. Everyone else will buy as they discover them in stores, see ads online or in various publications (Previews, ToyCollectr, and yes, Archie) or see reviews online (I ship this stuff out regularly).

13 minutes ago, Navaan said:

Any chance we can get confirmation of who is still in the pack? Hoping Echo is still safe with her show coming out? I know you said Mary should be clear and good!

I believe we are dropping Kingpin. We made a great Kingpin not too long ago. Don't quote me, we'll all find out next month, I think. 

I don't remember us marketing the FCBD set as being the only place to get those characters. If that was ever presented as a fact, I apologize. I don't know that I knew full details about the carded sets at the time, but I certainly thought future variants of those MAJOR characters were possible. 

And again, this is not a "course correction." We didn't develop these as an alternative to ARAH, but as an interesting exclusive at some point in the line. But with ARAH not selling well, we are TRYING these instead, to see if it is Joe in general, or just ARAH fatigue. Between Hasbro, Ultimates and ReAction, there is a lot of ARAH out there. If they do well, great, maybe we can revisit ARAH at a future date. I certainly hope so. 

BTW, I have corrected an oversight on my part and requested Joe MM for HIssTank. I honestly thought I had sent him Series 1, but now he will have everything. Thanks for the heads up.

On 4/14/2023 at 7:53 PM, Swarm198 said:

Still on the fence about this set. Losing a character doesn't seem like a wise decision, but I agree with others that it definitely shouldn't be Mary.

It's not Mary. And we're trying to make sets more affordable, so unless we cut paint apps or new parts, fewer characters per set is the game plan. The price is going to go down, is my understanding. 

On 4/14/2023 at 7:53 PM, Swarm198 said:

I feel like its crazy to have seen these in October and still not have a confirmed solicitation. DST should look into Kickstarter FFS.

I showed a sneak peek of 84 artwork at NYCC because 82 was out and 83 was on pre-order, and that's traditionally when we reveal the next series. I honestly thought they would have been solicited by now, I'm trying to get them moved up, but I guess sneak peeks need to be spread out more or eliminated.

Not sure how Kickstarter would change anything, aside from making them available to fewer retailers and killing the line entirely. Amazon, BBTS, EE and Luke currently support the line, I don't know how that would change if we went direct to consumer as our primary venue. Also not sure it's faster.