Marvel Minimates Field of 64, Anyone?

[hellpop]

So, as even the non-sports fans among you know, March brings with the the NCAA tournament, and with that comes the obligatory "[fill-in-the-blank] field of 64". Well, while looking over some of the ones out there this year, I thought it might be fun to do one for everyone's favorite longest running Marvel Superheroes toy line. So here's how this works, for the uninitiated: 64 Minimates are selected to compete for the ultimate Marvel Minimate championship. 'Mates are divided into four regions of 16, with each 'mate within the region seeded 1-16. Ones play sixteens, twos play fifteens, and so on. Winners move on, until we get to our final four, where we'll declare the winners of each region, leading to the big championship game. Whoo!

So, let's start by nominating 'mates to "play". For the sake of our sanities, I think we should limit one Minimate representative per character (I mean, there's enough Iron Men alone to fill a field of 64, amiright?), which means we should pick the best Spidey, Wolvie, Cap, ect. That also means we need to decide "best" means best overall variation of a character (like, say, Hulkbuster Iron Man), or best version of the character's definitive look (like, say, classic Heroic Age Iron Man). And, also, unless someone can convince me otherwise (or wants to take this bloody idea off my hands), Marvel Movie 'Mates are excluded.

And then there's the seeding; I've got a pretty good idea who will be 3 of the 4 one seeds, but I'm curious whom y'all would pick. I've also got a couple sixteen seeds in mind, but remember, one 'mate per character, so if we go Battle-Ravaged Spider-Man, that's the only Spidey in the field.

So, you guys in?

[Mystery Man]

I nominate Dr. Strange. :biggrin:

[buttheadsmate]

Get past the 'best version of...' bit first

Great idea though.

I need to say that whilst I agree on excluding movie 'mates....no argument no hassle.... I feel that most are unfairly maligned IMHO.

[hellpop]

Get past the 'best version of...' bit first

Great idea though.

I need to say that whilst I agree on excluding movie 'mates....no argument no hassle.... I feel that most are unfairly maligned IMHO.

To your first point: Not necessarily "best" but "most representative" then. I won't be choosing to use figures like Hulkbuster Iron Man or World War Hulk, not as a quality judgement, but because they don't represent the character at his/her most recognizable. In the event of characters that have had multiple looks, well, I'll probably just choose my favorites.

To your second: Excluded simply for the sake of convenience. I ran through the Database last night and put together a list of 64 'mates/characters I'd like to use, and I also decided not to use Zombies or Ultimates. So, strictly 616. I'm even leaning towards not including army builders, because they take up slots that should rightfully go to characters with a personality (and Shatterstar! :tongue:). That said, it's still pretty hard to come up with a list of 64 'mates and not leave some important characters out (at one point I had a list that included Mariko but not Wolverine ). So I'll probably end up excluding characters that don't have a "definitive" Minimate in my eyes (Cyclops, for example. Ugh, I already know that the X-Men people will be complaining about who's missing...).

Oh, and Mystery Man: I wouldn't worry.

[Bob Harris]

Very nice idea which sounds a lot like that.*

Anyway, I do feel obliged to nominated W28 Deadpool.

____

*: I only mentioned this so prominent because of that.(x)

(x): I only mentioned that because I really like you.

Edited March 10, 2012 by Bob Harris

[MINI_MYTE]

I nominate Galactus from the Heralds boxed set.

[hellpop]

Bob, I can't see your fist link, so I don't know what this sounds like, but I assure you it's far superior.

Will Deadpool make it our of the always competitive Mutant group into the field of 64? Only time will tell....

[vbpanizzi]

How about we use the number of mates of each character be the seeding. AKA Since Iron Man has the most variations He is a 1 seed. So the 4 characters that have the most variations are the 4 #1 seeds. We can continue this trend for all of the characters down to the 15 and 16 seeds which can be the one offs, and thus represent the cinderellas.

[hellpop]

How about we use the number of mates of each character be the seeding. AKA Since Iron Man has the most variations He is a 1 seed. So the 4 characters that have the most variations are the 4 #1 seeds. We can continue this trend for all of the characters down to the 15 and 16 seeds which can be the one offs, and thus represent the cinderellas.

Hmmm. I like that idea, in that it takes subjective judgements largely out of the equation. The only drawback is that there are a lot more one-offs (and two-offs, and three-offs, and so on) then there are the higher numbers. I mean, Galactus and Dr. Strange are one-offs; seems odd to me to seed them so low (not to spoil anything, but yes, I did plan to seed both of them as ones. Galacus and Strange= this year's Kentucky and Syracuse teams).

[Bob Harris]

Bob, I can't see your fist link, so I don't know what this sounds like, but I assure you it's far superior.

Fixed it.

Will Deadpool make it our of the always competitive Mutant group into the field of 64? Only time will tell....

Nuff said.

[The Geohound]

I humbly nominate Andreas Von Strucker, The Swordsman.

[mcg031]

Here we go how about the scarlet spider!!!!

[Punisher]

I will nominate Ares.

[vbpanizzi]

What about top 8 spots are those characters who have the most figures, and then the bottom 8 are electoral. Thus we get both the Popular and the Favorites an equal chance. I am currently working on the #s part. Unless someone knows a much easier way of looking up this info, or has it accessable.

Edit: If we go just number of mates currently available the breakdown goes like this. Interesting fact I realized while doing this, there has never been a specialty shop (aka basic wave) release of Magneto.

#1s # of variations (not including movie versions)

Spider-Man 37

Wolverine 34

Iron Man 24

Capt. America 21

#2s

Hulk 15

Cyclops 13

Thor 12

Jean Grey 12

#3s

Thing 10

Daredevil 9

Deadpool 8

Angel 8

#4s (obviously it could be debated that Norman or Eric is a 3 not Dp or Angel)

Norman Osborne 8

Magneto 8

Venom 6

Storm 6

#5s (see above argument)

Iceman 6

Beast 6

Dr. Doom 5

Invisble Woman 5

#6s

Mr. Fantastic 5

Spider-Woman 5

Sabretooth 5

Human Torch 4

#7s

Rogue 4

Psylock 4

Hank Pym 4

Elektra 3

#8s

Bullseye 3

Emma Frost 3

Cable 3

Loki 3

There are atleast 2 hangerons that would have to be dealt with

Professor X 3

Namor 3

The other way we could do this is one half the bracket is based on #s and other is determined by election.

Edited March 11, 2012 by vbpanizzi

[nate_studio]

EDIT: Wait a minute.. we need 64 mates? Wow. I updated my numbers below because I originally was thinking we only needed 16 minimates.

Maybe have Spider-Man, Wolverine, Iron Man and Captain America in by default, since they have more iterations by a landslide, and then open the other 60 slots up to election? Or also include Hulk, Cyclops, Thor and Jean Grey by default and just have the final 56 slots for election. Or if you want to cut down on elections, you could even default in Thing and Daredevil, so we only have to start electing for people with 8 and under iterations.

Up to you, Hellpop. I don't know anything about baseketball, but this could be fun to see with minimates.

Edited March 11, 2012 by nate_studio

[hellpop]

@ vbpanizzi: Hey, that works out pretty well, doesn't it? Okay, I think that's a logical way to make up half the field, with the other half being selected from the the one-offs and two-offs (think auto bids vs. at-large). I'm still not convinced that they should be seeded higher, though; you'd be creating a situation where you'd have lower seeds that have the advantage. So I think we should spread things out a bit, with half the seeds at each number being ranked by your numbers, and the other being selected from the "at larges". For example, Spider-Man and Wolverine are ones, and two others are selected to be ones (let's cut the mystery: it will be Doc Strange and Galactus). So we'd drop Iron Man and Captain America down to two, and so on.

My question to the floor is: should the automatic bids be on one side of the bracket, and the at-larges on the other, or mixed throughout? I'm leaning to the latter, myself, since then I can set up some fun first-round matchups.

@nate: I don't want to open the field up to a vote because... well, the whole thing's already a vote. It's like holding a vote to nominate the candidates for your real vote. What sense does a system like that make?

[nate_studio]

My vote : If you have some fun first-round matchups, let's go ahead and start with those.

[hellpop]

Sooo... sorry guys, but I broke my arm on Monday, and while I can type decently enough with one arm, putting all the work in to get this going is a bit beyond me right now. But if anyone out there wants to run with the concept, you have my blessing.

[MINI_MYTE]

Are you okay HP? How bad a break was it?

[hellpop]

Just a fracture of my left (non-dominant) arm. I'm not even in a cast, just a sling. So I shouldn't be on the DL too long. I'm hoping to be ready for my match at WrestleMania this year.