stack32

Seems to me the problem with the Brotherhood is that the characters are "important" rather than popular. They have a long history of... existing. They're kind of like the Wrecking Crew in that there are various reasons why the group is notable but the characters aren't terribly compelling. And the costumes are pretty bad.

Mocked? Do you really think that's an accurate characterization of Zach's comment? I think there's plenty of room for discussion here but if people disagree they're going to say so. If you take every disagreement or mild teasing as a personal attack then I suppose it's going to feel uncomfortable. And in case I sound sycophantic, I'm completely unenthused about this set. Ultron is a cool design but screams parts reuse, Angela has no business being in the Marvel Universe (blame goes to Marvel, not DST), the Iron Man armor is an awful design (again, blame Marvel), and Nick Fury is a great character in a cool costume that probably makes it less likely that we'll see him in a standard SHIELD uniform. I understand the decisions, but they don't really work for me. And I'll probably have to buy the set anyway for the Fury head.

While that may or may not be true, it is pretty funny in a civilian wish list thread.

One eye is a cracked lense, the other is pretty clearly the webbing showing through the white paint.

Sure, it would be great to have minimates at Target again. It would also be great to have them delivered directly to your home via unicorn. Neither of those is likely to happen in the near future. It's not like DST is keeping minimates away from other retailers to keep TRU happy.

Or they could just end minimates since that would be basically the same thing.

I agree about Ultron's legs; I don't think they mesh with the rest of the figure. They almost work, but not quite.

Is that a SHIELD polo shirt? Casual Friday Nick Fury?

I think the mentality that toy collecting is an "investment" is far more destructive than a few people hoping for re-releases of popular characters. That line of thinking had people arguing that we couldn't get a new version of Spider-Man in his black costume because DST had once released him as a variant.

I'm bummed that there's someone out there who thinks we need more Gambit.

Nope.

I thought the director's cut of Daredevil was a decent film but I don't like this choice at all. I really liked Man of Steel but every decision I've seen from WB since then seems like a desperate attempt to get headlines rather than to build a base that they could seriously compete with Marvel from.

Yeah, after Nu52 and Marvel Now! I think we officially have to put criticism of 90's costumes on hold because we clearly haven't learned anything.

I guess it depends what you're comparing these to. I've picked up Darth Maul and the Sandtrooper and compared to DCUC, MOTUC, or ML they probably could be called amazing. Compared to my personal expectations based on what Hasbro does with the 3 3/4" figues I'd only call them good. I'm definitely not picking up tiny R2 and the human face sculpts just seem too soft for me to get excited about Luke or the upcoming Han.

I'm certainly no fan of Mattel, quite the opposite, but who else could take the license? I can't imagine it would be profitable for Hasbro to try and manage Marvel and DC at the same time and no one else is a big enough player to pull it off. I can't even get excited at the idea of DC minimates anymore because of the NU52. Maybe I'd be able to manage some enthusiasm if they were based on the Arkham titles though.

I did count the Marvel characters from MvC. I counted Heavy SHIELD Agents as a new costume for SHIELD Agents. I didn't count Lockheed as a new character, but I think he would be the only accessory character on the list that might have an impact since I did not count Wave 54. I also counted the SI minimates as the characters they represented and not as Skrulls. I thought the numbers would be a little higher myself. I think, as pk13 mentioned above, that the new characters we have received this year seem to fill holes in the Marvel Universe in such a way that their impact feels larger, or that they're so obscure (Werewolf by Night, Air-Walker) that DST really deserves extra credit for making them.

Correct, I left movie characters off the list. I figured the discussion of characters generally focuses on comics and it made for less data to crunch. While 2013 did come up a little lower than I expected when I started counting, I do think that's not bad at all considering there's three movies this year and Marvel NOW which all eat up potential slots for new characters.

We've discussed how many new characters we've been getting over the last few years but I've never seen any numbers behind it so I decided to do some research. Below is the number of new characters made each year since 2009 based on the data at the MMDB (Hail Ivan!): 2009: 48 2010: 35 2011: 27 2012: 35 2013: 19 22 (Updated to account for TRU 17) A few notes: -I defined a "new character" as the character behind the mask (Steve Rogers, Peter Parker, Norman Osborn) who had not appeared previously. -I counted Ultimate versions as new characters. If you disagree the main impact would be to knock 6 characters off of 2009. -Wave 23 and 24 released in December 2008 at AFX and 2009 everywhere else, so I counted them as 2009. That does bump up the number for 2009. If you change it to 2008 it would knock another 9 characters off of 2009. -For 2013 I counted everything that's been released so far plus wave 50, 51, and the Zombie box set since it's on the shipping list. -I classified each minimate as either new character, new costume (a new look for a previously made character), or an update (same character and costume that was made previously). A little more data: -For 2009 I counted 104 minimates total, 43 new costumes, and 13 updates. -For 2010 I counted 102 minimates total, 52 new costumes, and 15 updates. -For 2011 I counted 78 minimates total, 40 new costumes, and 11 updates. -For 2012 I counted 89 minimates total, 25 new costumes, and 29 updates. -For 2013 I counted 74 minimates total, 37 new costumes, and 15 updates.

Those 'mates were certainly more recognizable than any of these characters and that set still didn't seem to be a great seller. The chances of getting four obscure new characters in a boxset are very low.

If these pictures are any indication you won't have to worry about the Kree.

What I realize is that those people were likely a lost cause since they had different expectations than any minimate, perfect quality or not, was going to deliver. That's probably why no one has marked the reviews as helpful. I can't imagine they had a noticeable impact on sales, but then I think quality was a much smaller issue than the overall popularity of Universal Monsters, so obviously we disagree.

This post was what I was referring to, Zach. And if you really want to know about bad product hurting sales, how about some of the 1-star ratings from ToysRUs.com citing pieces that constantly fall off? http://www.toysrus.com/product/index.jsp?productId=11873303&prodFindSrc=rv#showReviews "Comments about Halo Reach Minimates Action Figures - LAAG: Arms and legs come off" http://www.toysrus.com/product/index.jsp?productId=11318764&prodFindSrc=rv#showReviewshttp://www.toysrus.com/product/index.jsp?productId=11318764&prodFindSrc=rv#showReviews Comments about Diamond 1001810 Universal Monsters Minimates Wave 2 Action Figures - Franken and Henry: They are very tiny (1 1/2 inches long). They are made up of segmented pieces. When I opened up the packages 2 of the 6 mini mates had pieces that had already fallen off in the package. I had to glue them because their feet wouldn't stay on. My son loves all of the Universal Monsters and loves action figures. He was happy... I was not. They were on clearance when I bought them and I still don't think they were worth that price. Plus I recall another review for the Dracula 2-pack that has similar reviews. And the Creature had it even worse with parts that wouldn't stay on. And yet DST has made claims about poor-selling UM product, when other companies continue to put out UM product, including DST still. You're citing reviews from people that obviously don't realize what minimates are as proof of bad product hurting sales?

I'm afraid Trek is much closer to Halo these days than it is to Marvel, though to be fair besides Star Wars and DC there's nothing that's in the same ballpark as Marvel. I think you could probably break down the comment about bridge crews this way: -You might get the entire bridge crew for TNG. -There's a chance you could get the command crew for DS9. -It's unlikely you'll get the entire bridge crew for VOY. -Just forget about getting the bridge crew for ENT.

It should tell you that Janeway and Seven are short-packed.

I'm interested to find out what my reaction is when I actually see these on the pegs. There has been a positive reaction so far, but it's more like teenage girls at a Bieber concert than an actual reasoned response to the product. I haven't been blown away by the pictures I've seen online so I wonder if those faults will be more or less obvious in person.