Marvel Minimates Series 50: The Reality

[Gillbob316]

I guess in general I've been more excited lately about getting new characters like comic Aunt May, Lang Ant-Man or Maria Hill than Masterson Thor or AoA Sinister. But, looking back a bit, hound Rachel Grey, WWII Wolvie, trenchcoat Thing and the various Angels and Archangels were pretty great. And going way back, old school variants like frosted Iceman, crystal Emma, Invisible Woman, Stealth Iron Man, Black Spidey... those were some of my favorite mates for a long time. So I don't know, I like both.

I like making lists of things, and your post just inspired me to do this for no good reason, lol...

Series 1 - Black Elektra - Sensible variant. Liked it okay. Red is more iconic, but it works.

Series 2 - Black Spider-Man - Makes perfect sense. Iconic. Had no problems.

Series 3 - Visorless Ultimate Cyclops - The very definition of a useless variant. As if Cyke walks around visorless. Hated it.

Series 4 - Unmasked Daredevil - Kinda useless. What then was a variant, today is just an alt-head pack-in. So kind-of a waste.

Series 5 - Unmasked Doom - Starting to sense a theme of unmasked lame. Kinda neat, but still one I didn't really need, lol.

Series 6 - Stealth Iron Man - I've never been a huge fan, but does seem a logical variant. And at least it's not "Unmasked Iron Man"

Series 7 - Chameleon as JJJ - Look everyone, the same figure, with an accessory we neglected to give you in the main pack!

Series 8 - Invisible Invisible Woman - FINALLY! Variants are getting useful & sensible again! lol... best since Spidey.

Series 9 - Diamond Emma - Never really made sense that she's in the White Queen outfit while Diamond form, but I appreciate the effort.

Series 10 - Spider-Woman - Probably the best variant so far imo. Gets us two characters for the price of one for the first time.

Series 11 - Frosted Iceman - Arguably better than the main figure. Not a huge difference, but a neat one nonetheless.

Series 12 - Raft Sentry - Kinda never liked that he represents a look we see him in for like 10 minutes.

Series 13 - DOFP Wolverine - Not really a Wolverine we needed severely... there were better options given the lineup. Beast or Kitty.

Series 14 - Dark Phoenix - Makes sense I suppose... wasn't nuts about the look on Jean, but that's not Diamond's fault.

Series 15 - Transformation Johnny Blaze - I'll let you know when pigs fly and I get one, lolz...

Series 16 - Bearded Thor - I never really felt I needed him. But at least he's fairly different looking from normal Thor.

Series 17 - Transformation Venom - I never like figures like this... that are so specific as to represent ONE MOMENT. Hated it.

Series 18 - Mary Jane - Decent. I liked that we got Gwen and MJ, though always thought Gwen would've made more sense as the variant.

Series 19 - Archangel - One of my favorites. Good use of variant. One of his most well known non-death looks.

Series 20 - Vision 2.0 - Okay I guess. Nice to have the double character, though I think we all wanted a non-phased Vision 1.0 too.

Series 21 - Mark II Iron Man - Never got why he was a variant for Rhodey. But makes sense to be included so... alright. lol.

Series 22 - General Ross - Makes sense. Ross & Ross. Gets us another character. No complaints.

Series 23 - Mark II War Machine - We all know the glaring problem here. Rhodey never should have been the variant, sales or no sales.

Series 24 - Tarantula - Don't see why he makes sense as a variant for Kraven, but gets us another character, so I'll take it.

Series 25 - Bolt Face Iron Man - Always seemed kinda useless to me. Same figure, slightly different mask. Could have been packed in.

Series 26 - Special Ops Sabretooth - Makes sense, but kinda boring.

Series 27 - WW2 Ultimate Cap - Decent. You see the look alot, and it's fairly different from the main figure.

Series 28 - 1st App. Sabretooth - It's Okay. Don't hate it. Classic Sabretooth look. Would have preferred Psylocke/Revanche

Series 29 - WW2 Wolverine - Never really liked him, but he is much different from the main fig. Too similar to movie version though.

Series 30 - Ultimate Spider-Woman - Seems kind-of out of left field. Don't see why we needed her. As good a choice as any I guess.

Series 31 - 1st App. Angel - Makes perfect sense with the boxed set. Loved both Angels. Fiasco not-withstanding.

Series 32 - Goliath - Makes sense, but I always felt he was done cheaply. Yellowjacket looked much better. Execution was meh.

Series 33 - Hound Rachel - Makes sense and was done well. Great that we got classic Rachel and Modern, to suit both tastes.

Series 34 - Selene - I know why she was the variant, but like Rhodey, I feel Jean should have been. Better than the main fig, imo.

Series 35 - Happy Hogan - Nice they included him, but like most guys in suits... *Yawn*

Series 36 - Classic Mandarin - I could have done without him, but I guess if you're an IM fan. Would have preferred modern Dynamo.

Series 37 - Trenchcoat Thing - Decent. Iconic. Little lackluster, but no major complaints.

Series 38 - Classic White Tiger - Great choice. Gets both White Tigers out there at once. Good Call.

Series 39 - Jane Foster - Oh look, another ho-hum Civilian variant in a movie wave. I get it... but they're getting pretty boring.

Series 40 - Peggy Carter - WHAT'D I JUST SAY!?

Series 41 - AoA Sinister - I was happy to round out the AoA sets with him. Not like we needed another Spidey/Hulk variant anyway.

Series 42 - Bearded Thor Redux - Makes sense as Thunderstrike's variant, but we were in a serious Thor overkill around then.

Series 43 - Aunt May - Makes no sense as JJJ's variant, but I don't think anyone complained. They were both great figures. Thumbs up.

Series 44 - Scott Lang Ant-Man - Great Choice. Though why did he not have shorty feet like the Pym Ant-Man?

Series 45 - Maria Hill - I was surprised Hill was the variant, and not the spare Chitauri. Anyway, nice to have her.

Series 46 - Movie Aunt May - Truthfully I don't like Sally Field's look for her, but I'd think Ben should have been the variant.

Series 47 - Brood Wolverine - Not my cup of tea, but fits the wave and the army builder quite well.

Summing up...

High Points - New characters (Spider-Woman, Aunt May, White Tiger, Tarantula, Scott Lang) and very iconic alt looks for the same character (Archangel/Archangel, Angel/Angel, Spider-Man/Spider-Man, Marvel Girl/Phoenix Rachel)

Low Points - Boring movie civilians & girlfriends, Slight differences that could have been pack-ins (Unmasked anything/Bolt Face), Variants that should have been the main figure but weren't for stupid corporate sales reasons (War Machine, Selene)

When I put them all down in a list like that, I really do realize that alt characters are some of my favorite and most well-liked variants. (Provided they aren't the main character's girlfriend or civilian buddy in a Marvel Movie, lolz).

I'd like to see more of the high points and less of the low.

So I once again re-iterate that I think Siryn would be a great choice for Banshee.

Edited June 15, 2012 by Gillbob316

[MINI_MYTE]

But both movie Aunt May and Uncle Ben were evenly packed per case (x 2 sets each) and neither were labeled 'variant". So which one get the designation? Just putting that out there.

[hellpop]

Going back to the numbers on T-Bolts, something that has to be considered:

MANY Marvel books ship twice monthly. When they give you the totals for a month, they are telling you how much money that title made in the month. If it shipped twice, that means it really has half that readership.

Sorry, but that's inaccurate. Diamond's shipping numbers reflect the number of sales per issue, not per month. When 52 was selling 85,000 copies, that was per issue, not divided by four. Also, Marvel's double shipping policy is a fairly naked ploy to boost their market share and average units sold. Thus, the double shipped titles are all among their best sellers; it wouldn't make any sense to double ship a title selling 18k an issue, as it would actually hurt their bottom line. Rest assured, if Thunderbolts had actually been selling 9k a month, it would have been cancelled long ago, as that's well below the cancellation threshold, even in this day and age.

[buttheadsmate]

Gillbob's comments on the variant figures would ,in most circumstances, mirror my own ....an excellent summary.

[DSTZach]

Maria Hill was not supposed to be the variant, the General was. It was a factory error due to an assortment change.

And Aunt May was going to be the variant in 46, but then we decided that we wanted people to be able to get both in equal numbers.

Trying to figure out a cool variant for this series based on what appears to be winning -- luckily, pretty much everyone has a logical variation. We'll let you know.

Edited June 15, 2012 by Zach Oat

[Kostisfire]

Zach,can you tell us how GR is doing?

[DSTZach]

Zach,can you tell us how GR is doing?

Very well!

[Lobsterman]

Can you... tell us how all of the others are doing?

[Kostisfire]

Zach,can you tell us how GR is doing?

Very well!

I guess he's a lock then.Sweet!!

[DSTZach]

Can you... tell us how all of the others are doing?

Average! However, that may be due to to my averaging their individual success rates. Individually, they're doing very well, so-so and awful, depending on the character.

Does that help?

[Lobsterman]

I supposed I walked into that one.

As did the statistician who drowned in an 8-foot-deep river, and whose last words were "but it was only three feet deep on average!"

Can you tell us who is doing awful?

Edited June 15, 2012 by Lobsterman

[TM2 Dinobot]

So, what you're saying is... if they don't win... they will lose?

[monkeycrumb]

Can you... tell us how all of the others are doing?

Average! However, that may be due to to my averaging their individual success rates. Individually, they're doing very well, so-so and awful, depending on the character.

Does that help?

Zach, since no one thought to ask:

How are *you* doing? :biggrin:

[buttheadsmate]

Can you tell us who is doing awful?

I knew a girl called 'Awful' ......

[Kostisfire]

Can you... tell us how all of the others are doing?

Average! However, that may be due to to my averaging their individual success rates. Individually, they're doing very well, so-so and awful, depending on the character.

Does that help?

I guess poor ol' vengeance is on the awful category,right?

[slipstream]

Can you... tell us how all of the others are doing?

Average! However, that may be due to to my averaging their individual success rates. Individually, they're doing very well, so-so and awful, depending on the character.

Does that help?

I guess poor ol' vengeance is on the awful category,right?

Regardless of how many votes he's gotten, I think it's always fair to say that Vengeance is in the 'awful' category.

[MrClean]

I guess in general I've been more excited lately about getting new characters like comic Aunt May, Lang Ant-Man or Maria Hill than Masterson Thor or AoA Sinister. But, looking back a bit, hound Rachel Grey, WWII Wolvie, trenchcoat Thing and the various Angels and Archangels were pretty great. And going way back, old school variants like frosted Iceman, crystal Emma, Invisible Woman, Stealth Iron Man, Black Spidey... those were some of my favorite mates for a long time. So I don't know, I like both.

I like making lists of things, and your post just inspired me to do this for no good reason, lol...

Series 16 - Bearded Thor - I never really felt I needed him. But at least he's fairly different looking from normal Thor.

Was the bearded Thor variant supposed to represent Eric Masterson as Thor? I just recently noticed the similarities between that one and the new one.

[hellpop]

@MrClean: Yep. And there was a big argument here when it came out, which I hope won't be reprised.

[TM2 Dinobot]

I'm keeping my mouth shut.

[buttheadsmate]

I'm keeping my mouth shut.

It's been an unusual day.

[hellpop]

I'm keeping my mouth shut.

It's been an unusual day.

[Mnemosis]

Going back to the numbers on T-Bolts, something that has to be considered:

MANY Marvel books ship twice monthly. When they give you the totals for a month, they are telling you how much money that title made in the month. If it shipped twice, that means it really has half that readership.

Sorry, but that's inaccurate. Diamond's shipping numbers reflect the number of sales per issue, not per month. When 52 was selling 85,000 copies, that was per issue, not divided by four. Also, Marvel's double shipping policy is a fairly naked ploy to boost their market share and average units sold. Thus, the double shipped titles are all among their best sellers; it wouldn't make any sense to double ship a title selling 18k an issue, as it would actually hurt their bottom line. Rest assured, if Thunderbolts had actually been selling 9k a month, it would have been cancelled long ago, as that's well below the cancellation threshold, even in this day and age.

I know for a FACT Marvel has double shipped T-Bolts numerous times. And I wasn't talking about copies sold but dollars earned. One of the most easily tracked categories online is $/month and that does NOT correct itself for books that double ship. Just sezzin'

[battlecat]

I know for a FACT Marvel has double shipped T-Bolts numerous times. And I wasn't talking about copies sold but dollars earned. One of the most easily tracked categories online is $/month and that does NOT correct itself for books that double ship. Just sezzin'

Okay, but the numbers everyone else was talking about earlier in the thread were the copies sold per issue. In months where it double ships Diamond list the sales for each issue individually.

[hellpop]

I know for a FACT Marvel has double shipped T-Bolts numerous times. And I wasn't talking about copies sold but dollars earned. One of the most easily tracked categories online is $/month and that does NOT correct itself for books that double ship. Just sezzin'

Okay, but the numbers everyone else was talking about earlier in the thread were the copies sold per issue. In months where it double ships Diamond list the sales for each issue individually.

Looking at the sales charts... hey, you're right, they have double shipped T-bolts several times. Well, that seems odd to me, but a lot of things Marvel does seem odd to me.

Like Battlecat said, I assumed that you were picking up on the earlier discussion that included Diamond's shipping numbers. Sorry if I was too critical.

[stegron01]

Can you... tell us how all of the others are doing?

Average! However, that may be due to to my averaging their individual success rates. Individually, they're doing very well, so-so and awful, depending on the character.

Does that help?

Hey Kind of late to the party on this one as I'm a (very!) new member but just wanted to say I love the idea of the poll, so thsnks for taking the time to do it! Apologies if this has been asked already but when the results are known will you just be announcing the winners or will we get to see a full list of who came where in each poll and what percentage of votes they got? I for one would find that very interesting, especially as I'm suspecting my choices won't win. (I'm looking at you black knight, songbird and hammer agents! lol)