DSTZach

I meant to post this earlier -- I did in the Battle Beasts thread -- but Digger had nothing to do with the Gold Vorin. I asked for a run of Gold Vorins because I wanted a painted Vorin to give to the Minimate-uninitiated at the Versus World event, which was for Battle Beasts AND Agent 88. It was not meant to be a special toy for special people, just a means to an end -- education and hopefully interest. (I chose to make the blue Vorin, because I thought it looked cooler, if harder to read as a character.) We were not trying to create rare items, we just made what we thought we needed for the people attending the event. Despite concerns about the toys' recipients, I think both will eventually find their way to the secondary market in greater numbers.

Happy B-day, Jeff.

Same for me. I will just keep all my DST Beasts just in case of I change my mind in the next few months. I wish the line all the best. It's just that it is not for me. Not for you due to the look of the line, or due to not getting a gold Vorin? Honestly curious.

Well NR is not around as much as she used to be and we've yet to train an assistant archivist/super-searchologist to magically produce links to other older posts the way she can. You don't know how much you depend on something like that until it's not there. Thanks... wait... that was another clue wasn't it... hmmm... wait, wait, my bad. I think he was just being sarcastic that time. nothing to see here... or was there.... No, I'm really constantly shouting "DAMMIT!" at my screen whenever you guys magically guess exactly what the next box set or series breakdown or even license is gonna be. Granted, the next person then goes miles off course, but still having even one or two people predict our plans is pretty amazing.

Yeah, items rarely get moved up. But MvC3 should be next week, and Fear Itself should arrive in August.

Both of those fights were awesome.

Its uncanny how you guys can suss out exact plans based on just a few clues.

Happy birthday, Shanester. Thanks for making this board possible.

I had a long reply that I lost, but the gist of it was that I respect BHM's dedication and investment, and if he ever couldn't get something I would gladly try to get it for him. But accusations of fake edition sizes and intentionally overlooking the fans are just not true. That said, if I'd known painting a Minimate gold in an attempt to make Battle Beasts into a more viable brand was going to make people angry, I wouldn't have done it. Hopefully more Vorins turn up online.

Nope, Reed comes with Puppet Master, Sue comes with Moloid. Reed and PM might come with a suit jacket they can share. Not sure.

That was from you? Awesome. I need to show it off here, and a T-shirt I got in the SDCC thread. I believe the board now has a few to give away, we shall see how said board decides to distribute said Vorins. It's not 100, but it's something. I would keep an eye on the contest thread.

Yeah, the offer is generous, YB, but even 100 wouldn't be enough for you guys. And you'd get a flood of people joining the forums to get the free one, creating multiple fake accounts, edging out the old guard, double dipping at the show AND on the MMV... It would be madness. Also, we give them out at shows (and the exceedingly rare party) to increase interest in the line. We'll make sure attending Multiversers are taken care of as best we can, but we make these unpainted, monochromatic variants so it's NOT a crucial item for collectors. If they cause this much bad blood, and we have to add a couple hundred (or more) onto the production run just to keep existing collectors happy, then we might just not do them, and we lose a cool promotional device. We gave everybody at the booth the blue one, which is cooler, in my opinion. But I didn't think the grey one was festive enough for the event -- it served a very utilitarian purpose at the retailer summit.

Shanester, as much as I love this community, it can only spread the word of Battle Beasts so far. The people who were at this party don't read toy blogs, don't visit our Facebook page, and don't get exposed to any of our normal marketing channels. I'm not saying our guest list was all that, but we were trying to introduce Battle Beasts to a different group, with different interests and different contacts. I wish we'd had time to produce more fully painted ones, because that would have been ideal, but this was our best option. Sorry it's become such a kerfuffle. I'm sure more will make it out there for purchase.

I meant the only woman in poll #2, but the Cuckoos did not fare well in their own poll. I don't believe the line-up of Halo Series 5 has changed, but they do come with a ton of extra parts for customization, which has not been the case with earlier waves. I have packaged samples, Will shoot them soon. And yes, I've been busy. Heading home now, might be quiet for much of the week.

I will check my archives when I get home. BHM, you were the last person I intended to be condescending to. I have great respect for anyone who has been with the line as long as you have. I only meant that experienced Minimate collectors such as yourself know that the occasional rare figure happens (these are not the first, nor the rarest), and that the initial high prices and low availability often level out. I apologize if I sometimes forget my newcomer status to this board. I've been covering DST and Art Asylum since they started up, was there for the launch and fought to get Minimates their first magazine cover, so I feel an affinity for the brand that goes back much farther than my employment at DST.

PM me your address, I grabbed a stack for you. Oh, and wookiefodder, the unnumbered pirate box sets was my fault, too. We handed the boxes out on the last day with figure #4 and I didn't realize there were extra, unnumbered boxes in the stack. After we handed all the figures and boxes out, there were still boxes left, many of them numbered. So the edition number is not BS, that's what we made. Sorry to all who got an unnumbered one. With Alice, I know the factory tends to overproduce so we have replacements and licensor samples, so maybe that's where those came from. And the grey Vorin was given to retailers to get them to order Battle Beasts, not Minimates in general. We have not solicited nor shipped Series 1 of Battle Beasts, so I think it's a little early to call the experiment a failure. I might have a numbered Pirate box at home if anyone needs one. PM me.

I gave a few to my Multiverse contact for a contest here, along with pins and posters. Good luck.

Hi, guys, just wanted to weigh in. The Versus World event was for influential people in the entertainment industry. We wanted to generate some interest in the brand, and giving them a toy and comic seemed like a good start. We were on a budget and a time crunch, so we went with promos instead of fully painted and packaged figures. I wanted a solid one instead of a clear one, to better show off the detail, and that's why they got that one. That's right, I'm the bad guy. Digger had nothing to do with Vorin. (His promo, by the way, was limited to the event because he's still trying to get the film made. It didn't make sense to promote it to fans yet.) I've only skimmed this discussion, but rare Minimates are nothing new. The old-timers know what's what, and completists can't expect to have every item handed to them. Being a completist is hard work, and not for the easily frustrated. This guy is the same as the blue one, just gold, and comes in the same bag as the blue one. Beware of facsimiles, and don't drop mad bank on one unless you HAVE to have it.

Sorry not everyone likes the line-up. Songbird, Zemo and Nova Corps did well here, so I'm assuming many here are happy, but I'm surprised they all did so well on Marvel.com. Spidey, Ghost Rider and Onslaught have big fan bases, so I'm less surprised they won. I don't have all the data in front of me, but some of the polls were close, yes. Commander Rogers was the runner up in poll #2, but I think well see him sooner rather than later.

Still working my way through this thread, but a few things. We did not fix the fan poll. We kept the results secret so they would be a surprise, and because the exact breakdown between poll winners was uncertain, but Songbird was the hands down winner of her category. Unless someone figured out how to beat the system, she has a lot of fans. I don't know how many women are on the Multiverse, but there are plenty of female Marvel readers, and she was the only female character in the poll. (My bad.) And Puppet Master comes with puppets.

It's an X-Men: The Last Stand Juggernaut helmet, and those are the Ghostbusters Theatre Ghost wings. The swords are from four different Minimates. One more for you, Delta:

Not yet, but I should have samples after SDCC.

Yes, this is Stealth Vorin. The retailer incentive. Only one Zik, the con exclusive, I just gave them some extra gauntlets and different wings to show a mini Zik swarm. But I have seen comic art of the character!

These are all early paint and packaging samples. Let's see what shows up in SD. And yes, it's classic, but that doesn't mean modern is more or less likely. Icon Heroes seems to be focused on classic Tcats.

Should be out soon. I've had a carded sample for a while.