stack32

Agreed, the Marvel half of those sets were very strong even without a lot of new characters. I would think Capcom fans would be used to disappointment by now.

Is there anyone who wouldn't acknowledge the difference between pre- and post-Disassembled Avengers? That's a pretty clear dividing line for legitimate reasons. I think the main problem with minimate Avengers is that even the teams that are close to complete have members spread across such a long time so some of the figures don't work that well together. Wonder Man, Vision, and U.S. Agent come to mind as having particularly outdated figures. We are going to be SUPER off-topic in all these threads with so long until there's more Marvel product.

I received the SDCC set yesterday. Overall I'm a bit disappointed. The Spider-Man figure is what you'd expect though I think the paint coverage for the eyes is slightly worse this time and I noticed the missing blue in the costume more. The accessory hands don't fit well at all. I was able to get the burger hand to fit in the arm most of the way and cover the gap with the web shooter but the hand with the cup won't fit even halfway in. I can see paint getting scraped off and plastic deforming so there's no way it's going to work without trimming the peg. Toomes is better. Mine has paint scraped off the front of the leg, like sometimes happens when you try to remove a boot piece, and the contrast between the dark blue paint and white plastic underneath is very noticeable. I suspect that won't be a common problem. If you have the head from the Vulture minimate and few extra parts the included chest, jacket, and arms are easy to turn into another figure. And, of course, the stands fit the feet poorly again. It would be really nice to get this issue resolved.

I think the Wish List thread is place we should feel free to go crazy and not have the burden of trying to make business sense out of what we'd like. You want to share your deep need for a Master of Vengeance minimate? Go for it!

After reading a review of Hasbro's SDCC boxset I could go for more Thor villains. Ulik, Malekith, and Bor are featured in this set. I wouldn't mind a comic Hela and Executioner either. And, of course, who could forget the Wrecking Crew?

Looks more like red and gray. How come it seems impossible to get thwip hands for Spidey but a figure like that can get a dedicated hand sculpt?

Truer words have never been typed. That should have been an all-time great boxset but instead every one of those characters needs a redo because the quality was so poor. As for Superior Foes, I think they would definitely be packed with Spider-variants. Speed Demon would need a new figure. Shocker should be easy enough, it would be great if he came with an extra crotch cover (or whatever you want to call it) with a Thunderbolts logo. My only fear is that any of the foes would end up like Beetle: The unique parts of the costumes simplified so they don't need new tooling. Instead of really good minimates you end up with a set of figures that's mediocre. I do like the Silvermane as a BAF idea, that would be perfect. Kraven is very worthy of an update and could be much improved with a sculpted vest. Hydroman could also be so much better with a water base. In general I'm surprised with how old most of the Spider-villain minimates are. You'd think at least the Sinister Six would be in the rotation regularly but it's mostly been Green Goblin, Doctor Octopus, and Venom. I guess that's the result of having very few Spider-Man waves, which seems odd as Chuck always says he such a big Spider-fan.

I'm really surprised Abomination hasn't been remade yet, he would seem to be at the top of the list of necessary remakes. You could easily pack him with someone like Doc Samson to offset tooling costs. Maybe DST doesn't have faith in Hulk characters?

While they are significantly different there a number of similarities, and if we're talking about character selection I don't think any of those differences actually favor Hasbro. Plus, the line is the biggest name in Marvel action figures so it's going to influence expectations of fans of other lines. What's most notable to me is that 8/10 of my minimates wishlist have been made my Hasbro, most of them in two scales. I think it's very unlikely DST is going to match that in the next few years and we're not talking about hugely obscure characters or versions of characters, the 2008 GotG make up a sizable chunk of that list. And, yes, that's a totally arbitrary measure but I think it does say something about how the two companies approach their business. Also, Hasbro won't give me nonsense about an animated version being good enough for a comic character so they've got that going for them too. If you favor the X-Men though minimates are definitely the way to, no one is going to beat DST on love for the X-Men.

If you're considering the figures themselves as about equal then minimates are much easier to collect. Where Hasbro is killing it right now is character selection and variety. It's not just the obscure characters, though those are great, it's also that they're managing to keep fans of all different corners of the Marvel universe (relatively) happy. It's much less frustrating as a fan when you feel like your favorites actually have a shot at being made.

I suspect the performance of the Capcom side, and video game minimates in general, is the problem. DST knows Marvel characters can hold their own but the previous MvC waves seemed to not do as well despite having a number of excellent figures.

I'm surprised people were actually expecting the BAF concept would mean larger minimates. If there's one thing that's been clear over the last few years (at least since the first bulked-up figure) it's that we're not getting a larger minimate body in the Marvel line and probably anywhere else. Even Hasbro barely does really large characters as BAFs these days. There's a definite drop off in appeal for army builders after some of the most popular (S.H.I.E.L.D, HYDRA, AIM, The Hand, Skrulls) but I hope they can stay a significant part of the line. I don't know why short-packed variants and army builders are something that has to go together though. If secondary market prices aren't a perfect indicator of demand they certainly correlate with it.

They didn't update War Machine last time around so I'd like to see that here. I think you can practically guarantee there are going to be a few characters with nothing different besides the face.

Jaegers and Kaiju as vinimates or a wave of regular minimates would make sense too. Any of those options would be a better idea than making a smaller human figure to fit in a stylized (does anyone want that?) jaeger, that just seems like overthinking it.

I guess that answers our questions about Kenner Predator variants. They're a great way to give us something other than the same figure over and over. I'll be interested to see a better picture of those helmets. I had been going to suggest that DST copy NECA's idea to do a jungle demon Predator but it looks like they already thought of it. I'm down for the briefing figures. That's got to cover all possible Dutch variants, right?

It's the force field base that came with the wave 48 Invisible Woman in blue instead of clear. Thinking about it I'm a little surprised that Shocker didn't make it into this lineup, seems like he would have been a natural fit.

I was wondering that too. Six 2-packs? The Spider-Man variants look decent enough and the villains are pretty cool, I especially like Jack O'Lantern and Beetle, though I'd hoped for a few more sculpted parts for Beetle. Glad they found a way to sneak in Mary Jane, though that hairpiece looks rather undetailed in that picture. Can't say I'm familiar with that particular look for Black Cat. I like Unworthy Thor a lot better than Ages of Thunder, as long as he comes with an axe. I can't stand Gwenpool, but I'll leave commenting on that to Kostis.

I actually checked eBay to see if there were any red Wasps listed because I couldn't remember if it was ever in stores. Variants of that era were a real mess. There was also a Wasp pack-in with a Goliath figure. Another thought on the BAF: If Quake is just a new head and gauntlets on a body we already have are the packs without those parts not going to sell as well? I know I have an extra Maria Hill being used a generic agent that could easily be converted to Quake if I had the gauntlets.

Close, but the Toybiz Moon Knight had a variant too that was technically a different costume. I had totally forgotten about the Wasp variant though.

What line is it where Janet has more figures than Moon Knight? Go ahead, I'll wait.

I doubt the license restrictions are that easy to circumvent. A figure is a figure regardless of how it's packaged.

Sure, but the whole wave has a budget. You can see a big difference between 74 and 75 when it comes to alternate parts and accessories, or the fact that bulked-up characters are included. Would Moon Knight have been better if they didn't have to cost out Daisy? Could someone else have had an alternate look? And Daisy is just a notch above a quick custom. I think a lot of the best minimates have been so good because of the extras and the creativity those extras allow. That's a major trade off for a BAF. I don't think I'd want it to become standard as I much prefer quality over quantity. Apparently I have unusually high standards in regards to minimates though. Good to see Punisher is mostly comic accurate. Looks like a great base to make mods to as well.

That's the other thing, you're basically forcing your customers to go to TRU anyway. If I have to make the trip then why pay the extra money? Maybe for Dark Tower it would work but it definitely did not make sense for Watchmen.

Is this another example of all the characters in the boxset also being available at TRU? That can't be great for LCS sales.

Toyark has pics up, all the same stuff but with a few different angles and lighting.