DSTZach

HUZZAH!

Wow, you picked those all up for other collectors? Out of the goodness of your heart?

Just shot these from packaged samples. Dormammu also comes with fireball hands, and Trish also comes with gun. No energy attack for Morrigan.

Buy Universal Monsters Minimates that aren't the Phantom, so the line continues? Show them off to all your UM-loving friends? Given the time and the support, I expect the line to continue apace.

Here you go:

I'll try to share a packaging pic tomorrow. Sorry that step got skipped on this set.

Sorry, I was trying to make a point, at the expense of your feelings. I apologize. I think two-packs get a lot of lesser-known characters out there. My favorite C-lister Minimate is and always shall be Stilt-Man. Thank you! I will take credit for that. And while we certainly asked ourselves, "Will he still be around next summer?" when we decided to do him (it seems like he will), we aren't going to rule out a cool character look just because it was short-lived. Heroes Return Iron Man was not a long-lived armor, nor was the armored Captain America. Just saying.

At least one that I know of.

Now I'm REALLY confused. Apologies if I offended anyone.

I haven't been in the industry THAT long. I joined in 1999. I kinda left in 2008, and came back this year, but I was writing a book about toys for much of that time, so I guess that counts. And I am not involved in character selection or line planning. I have been told what has and hasn't worked, and I have a vague sense of what they're trying to do with each year's line plan. Oh, I get it. I know that you guys want Falcon, Winter Soldier, Commander Rogers and Baron Zemo. (And Kang, always Kang.) And while only 95 people have voted, and only 30-35% of respondents even voted FOR these characters (Commander Rogers isn't even a voting option, that I can see), I know that cross-section represents a real desire from collectors. My last rambling post was only the end of a long, pointless back-and-forth about how that SPECIFIC Cap-pack would probably never happen -- I would bet that all of those figures will eventually get made, just in separate 4-packs or two-packs or what have you. What do I look like, a comic book villain? I made it happen two weeks ago. Just kidding. But yeah, nobody's actually asked me how many of those are already coming out in 2012.

I promise to dress 1/3 as cool as I dressed in 2003, and have 1/3 the hair.

You should Ask DST! Put the bug in DSTChuck's ear.

Am I invited?

Are we wrong to pay attention to the X-Men? Character-wise, the X-Men take up at huge chunk of the universe, and have legions of old and young fans, thanks to the first successful Marvel film franchise. Also, keep in mind that there are still more X-Men titles than Avengers titles -- I think there are 12 X-books now, thanks to the Schism! Not positive about Avengers title numbers, but pretty sure it's less than that. And I think discounting Cap and Thor sets as Avengers sets simply because they're popular enough to also have their own titles seems false, especially if you're counting EVERY TEAM that has mutants on it as X-Men. So I'd count Heroic Age, Classic Heroic Age, Cap Through the Ages, Thor Stormbreaker, Heroes and Adversaries (three Avengers in there, mind you) and Iron Man 2 as Avengers box sets that have appeared since 2009. And keep in mind that the two-packs (and single packs) being released were dominated by Iron Man in 2010 and Cap and Thor this past year. So 35, 36, 39, 40 and 42 have all been focused on Avengers, not to mention TRU 6, 7 and all the movie waves save XMFC. That's a lotta Avengers! Sure, there were an X-wave or two, as well, and some X-Men mixed into some of the other waves, but some Avengers (Secret, New or otherwise) were mixed into those, too. Pretty sure development on the Curse set started before the series concluded, if not before the first issues even came out. And the set was done with collectors in mind, assuming the new vampire versions of Wolvie and Jubilee, plus an updated Blade and the first Marvel Dracula, would be more welcome than re-hashes of the major players of Siege, most of whom had been done before. Unless you wanted tangential characters like Red Hood and the U-Foes, in which case, see above. Hardcore fans of anything represented at the show -- video games, anime, samurai swords, etc. -- can still be casual comics fans. Also, cool parents who bring their hardcore comics-loving kids to the show, or curious kids who come with their hardcore parents. And by choosing the most popular characters -- Rocket Raccoon's Saturday morning cartoon notwithstanding, Thor is more popular universally -- we're more likely to get a casual comics fan's attention. Making a character who has no toys simply to get a sale from that character's superfans is a gamble. And it's a gamble for a retailer to buy, too.

No! It's surprisingly easy to ignore! I can see how not knowing whether your favorite character will make it into the next wave of Marvel Mates might drive you crazy, but not knowing which completely unknown licenses will someday be made into Minimates? I guess if there was a license you REALLY wanted, and you hoped it might be included, I get that. You could always lob a license at me and I could think about ruling it out, but why not sit back and relax, resting easy in the fact that Minimates aren't going anywhere, and new frontiers await you?

Looks like it... http://www.comicspro.org/content.aspx?page_id=586&club_id=843470&item_id=1812

Maybe the set would do well at specialty, or maybe retailers would really want it to have an actual Cap in it, so they can sell it to kids who don't know Commander Rogers. And we've made plenty of Avengers sets for specialty, and there will be plenty more -- I would think any chance for us NOT to do an Avengers set at this point would be welcome. But we can't ignore X-fans, who still exist, sometimes in sad child form. Do you mean con ticket prices are too high, or con box set prices? If the former, I think not only are there plenty of casual Minimate fans (and even non-fans) in attendance, there are also casual comic fans in general -- they may not fly there, but they'll go to local cons. And they both will shell out the money for a Minimate set with their favorite character or storyline, which is why we usually include a popular character; choosing a set of characters based on how random they are, hoping it will catch a geek's eye, seems like a big gamble. Especially with kids, because chances are a kid's favorite character belongs to none of the groups you mentioned. I think the Deadpool Corps set would have done great at specialty, not because it's odd, but because DP is really popular. Galactus would have been great anywhere -- cons, specialty, etc. -- it just happened to come about through a partnership with TRU.

Unless you're telling me we need to make the Wrecking Crew, in which case you're preaching to the choir, I assume you're saying some MU two-packs are all B-list. I know there's a new wave out with, like, Gambit/Sinister and Moon Knight/Ant-Man, Wonder Man/Quicksilver and Heroes for Hire, but OTHER THAN THAT... But seriously, all I was saying that, other than those dudes, MOST of the two-packs that have come out had at LEAST one of the following dudes in it: Spider-Man, Captain America, Iron Man, Thor, Hulk, Mr. Fantastic, Thing or Deadpool. Some of them even had two of those guys, and the remainder had Hawkeye, Storm and Doom as their big guns, none of whom are slouches. Sales of this new wave may refute my claim that that you need that big gun in every pack, but I still maintain the differences between the two products (MM and MU) make them largely uncomparable.

They showed that? Wow, they did: http://www.cooltoyreview.com/TF2010/DST/image114.asp Fingers crossed.

C2E2. Doing a thing there.

I have not heard anything about sales preventing production on a new wave, but I suppose we will see what the retailer reaction is at Toy Fair. I believe we talk to Toys "R" Us this month.

No worries! If it helps, I've found that putting things in quotes helps indicate a layer of removal from what is actually being said. Also, typing in all caps with typos and random numbers mixed in, and/or ending sentences with "/sarcasm". Apologies to all if I sometimes don't pick up on the nuances of boardspeak.

Welcome to the 'Verse, fatcow! 5. There will be new Minimates lines announced in 2012. DC is not one of them, unfortunately, but hopefully we'll be able to entice you to collect some of our other current offerings, as well as lines.

Didn't we just talk about these in the Q&A thread? We've batted some ideas around. And we did pirate promo mates, too, which means our promo giveaways have increased exponentially of late -- if you mean UNIQUE promo mates, those are a tougher sell. Buttheadsmate voted against retailer promos -- anyone else feel strongly?

YOU. No, please question my delivery dates. If Minimates show up early, everybody wins. For the most part.