DSTZach

Yes, Storm is the short pack. Unpacked it myself! At first I figured Skrully was going to be the short, but now after seeing how amazing Storm looks, it makes sense why her and Jilly are the lesser.

I actually guessed Storm would be the short simply because the Skrull is a dude, and a potential army builder. We tend to play it safe with the female characters and make fewer of them. Hence, more Skrulls. Although Storm and Jill are arguably more famous than Viper and Kl'rt.

And who is the 4 in the case? Wolverine or Spidey? Did that get mentioned earlier? I try not to bug the home office too much, and it's always safer to see what actually made it to stores. :biggrin:

I picked up the Skrull yesterday at my LCS, but they were already out of the Storm set. The Skrull is nice, so nice that I might pick up the other set they had. I was a bit surprised Storm was sold out though, and more than a bit disappointed. Looks like a very nice 'mate.

Well, people have been asking for that Storm. And she IS an Avenger now. And she DOES come with Jill Valentine, the star of a mega-popular video game. And she might be the two-per-case in the assortment. (Confirmation, anyone?) So I'm not TOO surprised. But I hope you find one!

Yes, please look into it, and let us know what stores they went to, so we can all go out and give them a stern lecture on selling TRU exclusives before the street date.

Hey, check your local stores, because you may already be a winner. But I saw a TRU set at Forbidden Planet in NYC on Wednesday. (I'll let hellpop share his location.)

So far that's all I've heard. I am hoping these are isolated incidents.

Zach when can you show us the mate of the dragon thing at the end of the trailer? :tongue:

...Yeah, that surprised me as well. I thought Bay's Dark of the Moon was attacking.

Zach, where are those Maria Hill Minimate pix?

Keep checking Marvel.com... :biggrin: ... ...

Man, you guys don't allow too many emoticons, do you.

You sure your LCS isn't just scalping and doesn't want to admit it? Mine openly does it, some shops aren't very willing to admit to it.

Looks like a couple of TRU cases went to specialty in error. No scalping that I know of. Trying to see how widespread it is. Anyone else sees this, PM me.

Some of the guys on that list make Stiltman look like an A-lister.

Whoawhoawhoawhoawhoawhoawhoawhoawhoawhoawhoawhoawhoa.

Stiltman's not an A-lister!?

I...I feel so lied to...

I use Stgilt-Man in the new Marvel strip, and I don't think we used him in a decade of Twisted ToyFare. What a waste.

I've never seen someone advertise another company's product for them on a forum before.

Here's a sortable MU checklist, with a separate visual guide by year. Actually very well done. Rivals the Database in terms of sortability. But I don't have time to count.

http://www.itsalltrue.net/?page_id=10987

But the point is taken; I counted only five out of twenty characters in that slideshow that haven't already been done as Minimates (well, seven if you count different costumes): Nighthawk, Puck, H.E.R.B.I.E., Patriot, Hercules (costume), Mandarin (costume) and Kang.

And we showed how many that haven't been done as MU figures? Brood, Longshot, Dazzler, Box, Kree Sentry, Rhino, The Serpent, Odin, Mokk/Gargoyle, Sin/Skaadi, Miles Morales Spidey (new alter ego/costume), Ant Man II (new alter ego/costume), Flash Thompson Venom (new alter ego/costume), Vindicator (gender change), She-Venom (gender change), Worthy Thing (costume), Mighty Spidey (costume), Mighty IM (costume), Mighty Hawkeye (costume), Rogue (costume), Iron Man (costume), Brood Wolverine (costume kinda), plus 3 pieces of Hulk art that have not been made as MU.

Not counting movie figures, some of whom could pass for the comics (Gwen, Curt Connors, Uncle Ben, etc.) OR extra costume parts on Colossus and Dazzler, I get 10 new + 3 new alter ego/costume + 2 new gender + 7 new costume + 3 pieces of art showing new costumes. Out of 38 shown, I believe.

Zach, I don't think the problem is in rehashes of previously released characters per se, but rehashes of the same 6-12 characters over and over in a short period of time. Yeah, I know, these are the core Marvel characters, and they have to be rereleased in order for the line to continue. But when we get, say, Captain America just two waves after the previous one, or two Thors in the same wave, that's when we get pissy. It's not the rehashes, it's the spacing between rehashes, methinks.

I think we need to be given a little Avengers leeway while the Avengers are literally the hottest property on the planet. Looking back, the first seven waves were REALLY light on Avengers: Hulk in Wave 1, Cap in Wave 5, Iron Man and Hulk in Wave 6 and then nothing until Wave 12! But we did a LOT of X-Men in that time, because they were a lot hotter, mainly because we had one movie hitting in 2003 and another hitting in 2006. And those movies were nowhere NEAR as big as Cap, Thor, and the Avengers movies. I think after this glut you'll see the Avengers take a back seat to other teams and solo heroes. Mostly.

And I get that it's getting them all at once that bugs you guys, but I hope you'll all bear with us while we attempt to ride this set of giant coattails take advantage of this marketing opportunity. Two Thors in one wave was an experiment, one that seemed to do well, but one Captain America every two waves is NOT bad, especially when there's two MORE waves coming to Toys "R" Us at the same time with no Caps in them at all. I'll remind you of the kid who wanted a Wolverine, but couldn't find a Wolverine, and it made me the kid sad. Think of the children.

I think where the debate lies is in the definition of "a bit". One man's bit is another man's wide gulf. And there a matter of perception as well. Right now, MU has or will soon make a lot of the characters a lot of us have been waiting to see in minimate form. So when you guys annouce a wave like 44, which is mostly old characters in new suits, it looks like minimates are falling behind.

And you guys can debate that all you want! Your wide gulf is our bit, and our bit may be the difference between the line's success or failure, but not in the direction that you think it does.

I think perception is most of it. MU is getting you guys antsy, but MU is playing catch-up with us. I won't be the ninth guy to rattle off 50 characters we've made that MU hasn't, but someday I'll add up the numbers in my spare time. (Someone here actually calculated the number of unique characters in Marvel Minimates once before, I need to look it up.)

But I'll pit our Toy Fair showing against MU's any day:

Maybe I'll just derail threads from now on. Here's the Best of Cyclops set I want to see:

And the suit-wearing one would have the flip-up sunglasses:

Also, I want this guy:

I share Battlecat's sentiments. Zach came in here like the fellow collector that he seems to be, who just so happens to work for the company that makes these bad boys. I suppose our behavior is gonna change a little just because of who he is, what he knows, and what he might be able to do, but I personally haven't noticed a significant change in boardie behavior one way or the other across the board.

Oh, good, so this is normal. :biggrin: In that case, I hope my presence here will eventually heal this great rift between those who voice their issues and those who have no complaints. For I am a uniter of men.

BUT I still think we make a lot of new characters. The ratio of new to "re-hash" (be it new costumes or needed re-dos) may have dipped a bit, but I think that's simply a sign of the line's age, as well as the sheer number of figures being produced. And I still think we're competitive, ratio-wise, with other biggish lines.

That said, I feel for completists, and while I have never been one strictly speaking (I'm missing some Muppets, Simpsons and TB Legends, but I have 95% of them), I can certainly understand their frustration sometimes. But I imagine that frustration must be the same for pretty much any line that puts out this amount of product at this many different retailers. Star Wars and Transformers completists must be rich or crazy or both.

sure you did 13 other fucking times. make someone new for the love of sweet aunt pauline

See, THAT'S the kind of response I expected when I said we were making another Cyclops! Not this "I love Cyclops" stuff.

Cyclops sucks. No matter how you dress him he looks the same.

I think you meant "No matter how you dress him he looks awesome." But don't worry, I seriously doubt this one Cyclops is going to spoil all the new characters we're doing for you. Or it will, probably.

those are great..... but why make a Spider-man if you're not going to do it right. As far as I'm concerned if you don't put the web pattern all the way around just don't make it.

Unfortunately, the cost of tampo printing makes four-sided printing on each leg not cost-effective. We'd essentially have to retire Spider-Man as a character.

Of course, we could always do more like this:

http://www.minimatedatabase.com/figure.php?i=44&n=Ultimate+Spider-Man

What's going on with that giant revolver? Did they not even trim the flash off of it?

Still waiting for my case to come in, but if anyone else notices this flashing issue, please let me know.

I apologize if my presence here has made it less okay to express opinions. I may try to address them, to suss out how, exactly we're screwing up, but I'd hate to see strife caused simply because people don't want to offend me. Message boards are foor opinions; it was like that when I was on WUMB, it's like that today. (No, I haven't reallyy been on message boards very long.)

Chosen by DSTChuck, usually in conjunction with our 9-inch PVC statue line of the same name. Hopefully we'll get to do more of these, in the meantime the specialty waves of MvC3 and SFxT are pretty heavy on the lady warriors. (Also, Marvel 13.)

Oops - sorry. my bad. i thought i remembered reading that someone had come across design sheets for various un-released minimates, and must have assumed it was you since you work there. Apologies.

Might have been me, I just don't remember that one. I sent Kratos to one winner, and I just found a Shi supporting character, I think. Marvel ones, I would need the Database at the ready to tell if it's one we did or not.

Isn't Wave 44 meant to be that for the Avengers movie? After Thor/Cap only split one comic wave, I wasn't really expecting much more this time around.

Don't expect another Avengers wave besides 44, but there will be more Avengers ancillary product with new characters, yes.

BTW, if you haven't already, you guys really should think about doing a wave with Avengers vs X-Men branding.

Good idea.

And keep yeah, the pattern has generally been about one dedicated comics tie in wave per movie when able. (enough qualifiers there?) And 44 matches up with 45 almost character to character.

Except for half the figures in the wave being different, yes. Yes it does.

So I'm hoping for boxed set goodness. Someone promised I'd be so impressed I'd forget Titania. Still waiting.

Who's Titania?

As for the Cyc love, Zach, Scott is one of those characters that despite all the dirrefent versions a lot of us feel his most iconic costume hasn't been done quite right yet. So don't be surprised if there isn't some blow back if that's not the version coming out.

Blowback achieved!

and PETER PARKER BEING DRAGGED BEHIND THE GREEN GOBLIN!!! UNIQUE TO MATES

Nope, Marvel Select did it first.

Can somebody tell how the case is assorted? Are there 2 less of the 2 exclusive packs?

It SHOULD be 4-3-3-2. Waiting for my case to confirm.

Yeah, a seller in TX had 2 of each TRU exclusive for $10 each.

Damn shame some of that sample case ended up in the hands of scalpers. Glad others here landed a set or two.

lol - i didn't mean to give them ideas, but it has been mentioned before that BDJL Cyke was amongst a number of design sheets Zach had seen (which also included Magma & Astral Doc Strange).

When was that said? I've never seen such a thing. And I certainly didn't expect to see such a response to a 13-timer like Cyclops. All will be revealed.

It's already interrupted. Remember, we're getting a wave devoted to the Aussie X-Men, with another two-pack in the TRU wave to round it out. Meanwhile, what Avengers have we seen? ... no one. I know, I know, it's early in the year, and we're going to be getting to the Avengers goodies soon enough, but lets not pretend the X-Men are on some kind of hiatus here.

That X-wave is largely post-Avengers. And we've seen a lot of Avengers slated for spring/summer. We haven't even shown all of them yet. Or were you kidding?

- Colossus (from Wave 47) and Cyclops from... uh-oh, haven't announced that one yet. Soon.

According to the "One Wave in Stores, Next Wave Almost Coming Out and Last Wave Announced" DST policy, maybe we will have to wait for Wave 44 to hit the shelves next month to know the rest of this new line up !!

Toy Fair kind of throws that out the window -- you've got 43 in stores (kinda), 13 due soonish, 44 AND 45 due in a couple months, and you've already seen 14, 46 and 47. Not sure when another full wave will be shown, to be honest. SDCC maybe? But box sets are another story.

hang on...

'if retailers come back to DCD asking for another wave of superstars'

DCD? did you forget who you work for?

Diamond Comics Distributors. It's their baby.

Also, I was thinking about a potential "Best Of" series 2. Not to replace the existing one, but to be offered alongside it. Zach, is that a possibility? I have some wonderful ideas that you guys could use to make them sell for both new collectors and get us old-collector's "asses back in the seats".

I love that people are asking for more of the line some of you were chasing with torches a month ago. Hey, if retailers come back to DCD asking for another wave of superstars, or if we totally sell out of it, maybe we'll do it, but right now this is meant to be an evergreen wave. BUT here's an idea for how build your own Wave 2:

- Black Costume Spidey (from Wave 43) and Bulked-Up Rhino (from TRU 14)

- Smart Hulk (from Wave 44) and Punisher (from TRU 13)

- Daredevil and Kingpin (from TRU 13)

- Colossus (from Wave 47) and Cyclops from... uh-oh, haven't announced that one yet. Soon.

Speaking of the best, I finally got my hands on the 6-armed Spidey/Lizard pack from Wave 37, and it's my new favorite. My first Spidey comic was Amazing 101: first appearance of Morbius, first full appearance of 6-Armed Spidey, and Lizard shows up at the very end. Best!

And, I've just realized my Ironman best of boot is missing its top square thing. d'oh. I don't suppose Zach can help with that? ::cheeky grin::

For now, consider me a last resort. Contact customerservice@diamondselecttoys.com and tell them the problem. We're working on getting more people on customer service duty.

- Z

@mnemosis, I get that you're trying to take me to task for some reason, but I think the fact that every character you listed has been made in other lines pretty much covers it. You could have pulled Spymaster, Gamora, Molecule Man etc. but the only one you listed that is unique to 'mates is Dragged Peter Parker.

No one is saying DST doesn't do great work on the 'mates, no one is saying that the DST guys should be tarred and feathered. In my opinion they're the best I've seen in regards to talking to and not down to their customers. I'm simply trying to show there are ways to make waves that appeal to everyone, without new buyers or long term collectors getting short shrift. I can tell you feel very "righteously indignant" for some reason, but I fail to see how asking for more than one new character a wave is so offensive to you.

I appreciate the kind words, Valo, but I'm failing to see the problem, as well. Most of the waves we put out have three or four new characters. (Not just the Marvel ones, either.) If army builders don't count, I'm not sure why not. If collectors are getting short shrift with this wave (and I predict another mass reversal of opinions upon release), it's getting made up in other places (Wave 43, Wave 13, Galactus). It sounds like you want every wave -- and every two-pack -- to follow the exact same formula, with equal amounts of new and old. I see how you might think that would give us the best of both worlds, but it's just not how we operate.

Maybe I missed it, but what are the C2E2 exclusives (if any)?

I think we're trying to get a giveaway done in time. It's gonna be close. More info to come.