Monte

Took the MiniMates ThunderCats outdoors for another shoot. Hope ya like 'em!

I also played with some of the fun, cheesy new Halloween effects on PicMonkey:

Oh man, Rags is my favorite so far of this series. He looks like he was factory-produced; the design looks somehow inevitable. I dig it! I like the counter-intuitive, understated story, too.

And now I'm wanting to see someone attempt MiniMate customs of Monster High characters.

I forgot about this look! Was it a design, or an animation error?

What a cool group so far! I'm diggin' 'em!

That space pirate group shot is awesome! I love every one of them!

I have this custom that is finished and I love the way the parts came together but I have no idea what to do with her in the way of a biography or even a name.

She is awesome, too! I'd probably make her a vigilante hero from the '30s in the vein of The Shadow or The Spider and call her The White Skull or something. But then, I make most of my characters into 1930s vigilantes these days.

Or you could have her be the daughter of Scareglow. Or a gender-reversed Scareglow.

I can't decide what to think of Slythe.

I think I may not care for him, although I appreciate the expense he represents, sculpt-wise.

I hope you continue with the Oz universe, that's some snazzy stuff there!

Agreed! Aluminum Axe Man is my favorite.

Huzzah! An update!

Whoa! Your Oz universe is really taking off! There are some brilliant ideas and designs here!

Also, it goes without saying but I will say it anyway: Brock friggin' Samson!!! He looks much better than my Sigma Strike Duke with a Syco Sid head!

Please Bengali/Lynx-O/Pumyra...

While we're wishing, give me a Snowman of Hook Mountain. He was my favorite figure back in the day.

It's either Slythe and the Mutants, or Tigra, Cheetara, and the Twins.

I hope for the former, personally. That said, I'll probably go ahead and collect every ThunderCat MiniMate they release.

Wish I had a vintage Cats' Lair.

So, has the second set been confirmed for NYCC, or are we just assuming that because it's the most logical?

Do we know who is set to appear in the second set?

My kingdom for a Slyythe!

For some reason I never received notification of your latest reply. Weird...

I saw your custom on HISSTank, and have been thinking about making my own smaller one (though, sticking with your original design, instead of the albeit awesome Wraith version you made). :biggrin:

This might work:

Dude, do it! That would be awesome! I went with Wraith partly because I couldn't think of a way to do a more traditional version.

Meanwhile, back to the subject of this thread:

I really, really want to see someone pose the ThunderCats MiniMates on the vintage Cats Lair!

Characters currently include: Detective Ruby and K9 Officer Toby, the Depraved Drug-lord of Oz and his goblin guardians Frick and Frack, and Dr. Emmy Raile the Sinister Scientist of the South with her guard the Emerald Enforcer.

I love it! I cannot wait to see them.

For my part, I am working on the world's longest and most unsettlingly earnest Monster High doll review of all time.

Quasimodo doesn't make the team because I've never seen him as a monster.

Interesting. You should create a Quasimodo as a separate entity and make him a rogue "man without a country" type.

Thanks for the info, TENIME.

Also, I agree with you, Sherbertice: the Tank looks rad! It's currently $12 or so at Wal-Mart, and I came THIS close to using my store credit to nab it today. At the risk of sacrificing what little masculine credibility I still have, I'll confess that I spent the same amount on a Monster High doll, instead.

Henrietta Jones: like I told you after watching Indy 4, the movie would have been even better if Indy had a daughter that acted just like him rather than a son.

While I am politely indifferent to Mr. LaBeouf and certainly don't consider him an affront to my existence as do so many of my fellow nerds, I agree wholeheartedly with your suggestion. A daughter for Indy woulda been badass.

Unfortunately, I have no idea where to start crafting a Joe version. The only head that comes to mind is the 25th Anniversary boxed set Baroness, which is bastard-ugly:

http://generalsjoes.com/images/reviews/2007/anniversary/5_Packs/baroness-4.jpg

(The Baroness from the later boxed set is a much better toy, but the face looks too hard and stern and not nearly adventurey enough).

The Aliens/G.I. Joe Rifle: You should have an extra of it since it was in the pile of loot I gave you last year.

Negative. You gave me the Duke that you bought for the gun. You kept the gun itself.

Photo merging: I use a program called IrFanview for all my photo editing needs. With it merging is as simple as choosing the create panorama image and then choosing the images to string together.

Thanks! I shall look into it! (I have bookmarked Nervous' Customs, too. Thanks!)

Meanwhile Outback is far from perfect since he still needs "Survival" written on his chest block but I have updated him none the less.

I say thee nay; your version is an improvement over the original design, in my opinion. I'd suggest that adding "Survival" to the shirt would be unnecessarily literal-minded, particularly in light of the fact that you were willing to add that pants-crappingly awesome cloak, which isn't part of the vintage look.

Mangry: When you say my "description didn't do him justice" do you mean when I was telling you about him the other day or my bio I posted with him? If you mean the other day then I don't have to worry but if it's the bio it means I'm going to have to go back and see where it needs improvement.

I was referring only to our conversation from last weekend. Your bios are amazing, man. You should read my sad efforts. Here's an example:

I call him Red Queen.

I haven't fleshed out his background yet.

So yeah, I'm not likely to suggest that your bios are in any way lacking.

As for your updates, Peregrin looks amazing! Where'd the wings come from?!?

And I say again: Outback looks awesome, and the cloak adds a lot of character.

Finally, Ruby is badass! I am seriously considering stealing some of your ideas for my character, Ruby Slippers, whose flesh is black and white. (She angrily notes at some point that it should be sepia). Her steel-toed cherry red Doc Martens are the only part of her that's colorful; even the rainbow on her Dark Side of the Moon T-shirt is grayscale.

I like the idea that Ruby is Dorothy's granddaughter; if I ever get Resident Evil Alice, I may make her Dorothy's granddaughter rather than a contemporary Dorothy. And I love the idea of the OtR drug!

I think your next custom should be the Super Scientist of Oz; that's a compelling idea!

Your creativity is infectious, man!

Thanks, MINI_MYTE!

Good to see you, too, TENIME! Remember this?

Thank you, Mystery Man and Time Traveler!

Thank you for the warm welcome, everyone!

I warned you when we first met that I'm evil incarnate. I still don't know why no one believes me when I give fair warning.

I thought it was a transparent attempt to seem more interesting. How was I to know you were earnest?!?!

Prowlar is pretty good in combining parts and writing background stories. A good reason to hate him.

Finally, someone who understands!

I hope you are not related to Montell Williams, because I've got a major bone to pick with that guy. He has this talk show, presumably tries to help out the disadvantaged of the world, then turns around and shills for predatory lending companies. For shame!!!

Leave my father out of this!

I'm curious as to how well the (lackluster) Bandai ThunderTank will work with MiniMate Panthro.

Meanwhile, my good friend Bill (Prowl-Ar here at the forum) just inducted me into the MiniMate fandom with the generous gift of a complete ThunderCats set, which he even graciously clear-coated for me so I needn't fear the dreaded symbol disappearance.

Anyhoo, I haven't photographed Jaga yet (not least because I unceremoniously donated his cape to Lion-O), and I didn't care for my Panthro photo, but I thought I'd share the photos that did please me:

I'm getting nervous... I remember reading Michael Crawford's review of Sigma 6 Snake Eyes and telling myself, "Hey, I'll just buy Snake Eyes and Storm Shadow and display them on my shelf"; Sigma 6 quickly became the all-consuming passion of my toy hobby, and I'm concerned now that MiniMates might do the same!

Greetings, everyone.

My name is Monte Williams. I used to spam the hell out of the Sigma 6 Central forum back in the day. Now I mostly lurk or avoid forums altogether, but I have a burgeoning interest in MiniMates thanks to that no-account bastard, Prowl-Ar. If you could all support me by agreeing to hate him, I'd really appreciate it.

I've been intrigued by MiniMates for some time because of Prowl-Ar's customs:

http://www.minimatemultiverse.com/index.php?showtopic=9791&st=0

And then I asked him if he'd someday sell or trade me one of his extra Lion-O MiniMates, and the enabling jerk went and gave me the whole ThunderCats set, and now I'm desperately struggling not to develop a full-blown passion for the little buggers.

I look forward to checking out everyone's customs and photos. I've also joined The MiniMates Group at Flickr. (My username is Geek Creek). Here's the group link for anyone who doesn't know about it already:

http://www.flickr.com/groups/734923@N24/pool/with/7820559864/#photo_7820559864

If I do eventually succumb to MiniMate mania, it'll probably be a while before I can really start collecting (I'm unemployed at the moment), so I may mostly lurk here for a while. But again, I look forward to checking everything out.

Thanks!

Monte

I just went through the whole thread, and it is awesome!

Stream-of-consciousness replies:

I love her belt! Who'd it come with, originally?

As a longtime fan of the metal band, I love Iron Maiden as the name of the gender-reversed Iron Man.

Much of the cleverness of your Marvel work is sadly lost on me, for the simple reason that I have never been a student of the Marvel Universe. That said, while he’s much simpler than many of your customs, there is something about the look of Dakota North that I really like. Ditto Electra Nachios. Also Wildside, who I tried and failed to replicate with G.I. Joe parts. Madison Jeffries looks great, too; not to sound creepy, but her face is pretty.

I may have asked this before, but what the hell were those Dazzler parts before you made ‘em into Dazzler?!? (Never mind; boyd identified them).

Henrietta Jones is the greatest goddamn thing in the history of ever, and I shall have her in some scale someday. I shall start brainstorming kitbash ideas…

Guh. I’d forgotten how pants-crappingly fantastic your MiniMates Badlands is. One highlight of staying in Twin Falls, should that pass: I’ll get my hands on my Sigma Badlands again! Also, MiniMates Paradise is much tougher looking than my Tree Frog custom.

That’s the Sigma Dragonhawk stomping on the Red Ninja, right? How’s the scale on the 2.5-inch Sigma vehicles with MiniMates? I almost nabbed a new ThunderTank to use with the MiniMate Panthro you gave me.

Tech looks awesome! A bit of retrofuture charm but with a modern viciousness… and it’s amazing how vicious these MiniMates can look.

I may have an extra of that gun, should you need it.

I feel like I shouldn’t have to ask this in 2012, but I’m ignorant: how do you combine two photos into one .jpeg file?

Sputnik is unbearably cute. I like Fanatic, too. Any relation to the Sigma custom?

I love Hammerhead! The understated classifications for all those monsters are brilliant.

Who'd the head on the right come with? Is it Tony Stark? 'Cause he's a dead ringer for my lazy G.I. Joe kitbash, Gray Ghost:

He's a two-fisted vigilante in the '30s. That's his sidekick Spooky standing behind him.

Crap, I forgot about your Outback. He’s perfect. DST, get the Joe license and I shall tattoo your company logo upon my forehead!

Mr. Marvel has such a cool pulp feel. He’s like that MOTUC figure, He-Ro, which is to say he looks nothing like him but I get the same fun vibe from both.

Betsy Braddock reminds me of Jenny Sparks, from The Authority. Too cool!

Breakdown! I didn’t know you’d recreated him as a MiniMate. Awesome! You made a Sigma Freefall, too, didn’t you? Hell, I think you gave me a Sigma Freefall, but I might be confusing characters.

Armored Raven is very nice. The Rise of Cobra Accelerator Suit Scarlett body would be a good base for a G.I. Joe version. Hmm… On the other hand, I prefer Peregrine without her armor. Just a cool, simple design.

Add Shauna Cassidy to the holy-shit-that’s-awesome pile

Dude, Tegra is perfect; factory-quality paint and awesome parts. Did you ever paint any of your MOTUC Panthors?

I think Reaper is my favorite design of all the Zombie story characters. I like that long military jacket. Or perhaps Death; whose face is that?!?

Mangry friggin’ rules! Your description didn’t do him justice!

Now then…

Requests/suggestions (to make you laugh at my expense and/or keep you up at night):

1. Any and all Wizard of Oz-themed customs. Moody modern updates, satirical gender-reversed alternates, earnest tributes, whatever lights your fire… after the ideas you shared regarding my Hot Toys Dorothy ambitions, I’d love to see what you could do with the Oz mythos in MiniMate form.

2. Moss Man and Fisto. They’re my favorite vintage Masters of the Universe characters, and I bet they’d look wicked in MiniMate form.

3. The Bionic Six! Or at least Karate-1.

4. Planetary: Elijah Snow, Jakita Wagner and The Drummer. I suspect you never read that comic, to which I say, That’s no excuse!

5. Promethea. See above re: no excuse.

6. Casey Jones. ‘Cause I wanna see one in very possible scale and format. I loves me some Casey Jones.

7. Update this thread more frequently!

Seriously, man, your creativity is inspiring. I’m trying not to let these damn ThunderCats MiniMates turn into a gateway drug, but this thread sure isn’t helping.

Keep it up!