TMNT Minimates - it's official!

[Navaan]

5 hours ago, DSTZach said:

If by "tepid reaction DST has had to the suggestion" you mean me saying in these forums that it would be a good idea, but a hard sell, then I wouldn't put THAT much value in my responses. I love the Joe line, and I love Tele-Vipers, but I'm just being honest, and I am not the final word. I have pitched it to the higher-ups, but all of our suggestions need to get through not just them, but the sales department. After the sale, we'll see how the new Skybound Mates do, maybe army builders will happen at some point. But it is widely seen as a diminishing return, as the characters get less popular/iconic/recognizable, army builder or no. 

I did pitch a Foot Soldier army-builder, but got a similar response. I think Mondo Gecko may be a bridge too far. 

I do hope you take no offense; I have no right to tell you how to take my commentary and feedback, of course, but I suppose I should explain that it didn't feel well received.

Regardless, I'll be very happy to purchase anything Joe related to get more characters, more parts, into my collection.

But if you get a troop pack, of Vipers, Troopers (with swap out female chest and mask head), Crimson Guard (with swap out female chest) and BATs (with laser and claw hand options), I'm in. Like, if that was 40 bucks, I would be in for ten, myself, alone. And yeah, I know, that doesn't justify it, but in the Joe community, I am hardly a big spender.

Still, I worry I am taking the thread off topic!

[SCW]

The salesperson or whatever higher up that thinks another version of Snake-eyes will sell better than an army builder has a fundamental misunderstanding of the property and the collector market.

I’m shocked that Mondo Gecko is considered a hard sell too TBH. Although he only appeared a few times in the vintage toon, his figure was popular and he’s existed in pretty much every other era in some capacity. 
 

I’d buy pretty much any more TMNT in this style though… except for more of the turtles. 

[thereasonsy]

On 3/15/2025 at 3:25 PM, Navaan said:

Personal opinion...

I think with longstanding brands, you need to go after what was THE hit version of the brand. Not trying to be insulting, but while GI Joe ARAH may not have sold as much as you would have hoped, I could have told you for free that the Action Soldier stuff would not get a lot of traction. If you feel you need to tie in current GI Joe to get more sold, fair enough, but I can't help but look at all the dozens and dozens of posts about army builder packs and all that, and see the tepid reaction DST seems to have to the suggestion/request. I am dropping about 600 bucks to make BATs, Vipers and Soldiers. That's 600 bucks I would have rather given to DST for actual packs. And I am nothing like the guy on HISSTank who has 2K BAT figures, or the dude who gets dozens of Crimson Guards, or etc. 

Re: Mutant Mayhem? Unless you plan on getting these to mass retail or drop bins for things like local comic stores, no, I would doubt it. I may buy some for parts, but if you want me, and I have to presume a lot of folks like me keyed in to the Minimate brand/classic versions of TMNT would prefer things like Usagi, Triceratrons, Ray Fillet, Mondo Gecko, Mona Lisa, etc. from the 90s cartoon or even the video games.

Personal opinion, again.

This would be what I am referencing. Granted this board is not the epicenter of the Minimates community, it has been a constant bask for army builders that have been ignored. After 5 years of multiple posts on here and other social sites it seemed there was a specific reason as to why being more the Licensor than DST because after hearing the outpour of asks it seems off not to make one. 
 

I have no idea what Mutant Mayhem is. 

[Shanester]

14 hours ago, thereasonsy said:

...Granted this board is not the epicenter of the Minimates community...

I am appalled.  😅

[DSTZach]

19 hours ago, thereasonsy said:

I have no idea what Mutant Mayhem is. 

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem - Wikipedia

It's the highly regarded, high-grossing 2023 animated film. Not bad at all. Arguably the most recognizable version of the Turtles out there right now, and the style used for the current animated series, Tales of the TMNT. Worth a watch. 

[nandoninny]

great movie with a kickass score by trent reznor!

i actually had no idea it was called mutant meyhem.........

[Swarm198]

On 3/15/2025 at 8:03 PM, DSTZach said:

After the sale, we'll see how the new Skybound Mates do, maybe army builders will happen at some point. But it is widely seen as a diminishing return, as the characters get less popular/iconic/recognizable, army builder or no. 
 

Why would an army cause a character to get less recognizable or iconic? If someone sees a single Foot soldier, they might not even recognize it. I feel like seeing the Foot Clan represented as a clan would be more iconic.

As others have said, this sounds like a fundamental misunderstanding of the property.

Are these the same people that approved dozens of Wolverines, Deadpools, Iron Men, and that recent “Oops All Spideys” box set? Did that diminish their popularity?

[DSTZach]

1 hour ago, Swarm198 said:

Why would an army cause a character to get less recognizable or iconic? If someone sees a single Foot soldier, they might not even recognize it. I feel like seeing the Foot Clan represented as a clan would be more iconic.

As others have said, this sounds like a fundamental misunderstanding of the property.

Are these the same people that approved dozens of Wolverines, Deadpools, Iron Men, and that recent “Oops All Spideys” box set? Did that diminish their popularity?

We made Foot soldiers, it's not like we said Foot Soldiers wouldn't sell, we just stopped short of an all-Foot box set. It has been discussed, but it just didn't happen, sorry. 

And "all Spideys"... are you serious? I can't tell if you're serious. Do you think making a box set with six DIFFERENT spider-heroes from a popular comic storyline and an even more popular movie was a mistake? They are different characters. The set did very well. 

As far as Wolverines, Iron Men,  Deadpools... I don't think we have made a Deadpool since the highly requested but fairly limited movie version, and before that the comic wave with a Deadpool in every two-pack. Another popular series. Ditto Wolverine, but maybe the Strike Force wave? Iron Man, I can't even remember, maybe Superior? And I don't count Infamous.

But yeah, over the years, we've made a lot of those characters. They're very popular, been in lots of movies, and the figures are constantly being updated and improved upon, acting as jumping- on points for new collectors. Not a contest, but I don't think Foot Soldiers have even been IN the last five TMNT movies. 

[buttheadsmate]

I know very little about TMNT although I have come to like the Minimates a lot.

I know even less about TMNT Foot Soldiers .

I do however have info on Minimate army builders & my info is that most examples of Minimate army builders that were produces as box-sets & dumps  were IMHO produced in relatively limited numbers & catered for a limited bunch of core fans . Several Marvel wave army builders were produced ,in fact all LCS comic-waves from 25-59 had 2 army builders yet contemporary TRU waves didn't choose that option ?  There were some iconic army builders produced in that period but I'm unsure whether it was a marketing success as the 2nd. army-builder was packed with the wave variant (?) Packing the army-builder with the variant set was , to me, odd but how else would it have been packed ?

Most prolific Minimate army-builder must be the BSG Cylons which must have been popular because we kept getting version after version ... I loved them & still do!  However , I have to question whether the FYE Suncoast packs were a success ? I bought literally dozens of discounted sets from an ebay seller ...er...18 years ago & you don't want to know what I paid for them or how many I have  * That incident IMHO may have influenced regular forays into army-building sales ventures. 

So what is my conclusion .....I'm not sure? 

* it has always irritated me that the Red Stripe Cylon is the rarest (trust me) version & should have been the most prolific .

[DSTZach]

BHM has a good point. We have NEVER offered army builders at mass. They have always been offered at specialty, where they are (usually) more limited. I'm sure the counter-argument would be that we should have been offering different army-builders, which would sell in larger quantities, but we'll have to see what the future holds. 

[SCW]

Not to continue to derail this discussion, but I think it should not be a one-size-fits-all concept with army builders. Marvel, while having many army builder characters certainly, is not necessarily an army building franchise overall. So the strategy you use there might be different than you would for another brand.

GI Joe is absolutely an army building franchise. This is part of why there are so many types of troopers, vipers, etc, etc. While there are tons of name characters, most collectors have hordes of non-individual characters who are an evil army that battles the name Joe characters. It would be VERY easy with Joe to make a cobra box set that is literally all army builder characters and people would have bought multiples.

Collectors as a whole I find get annoyed when they have to buy multiples of a name character, just to get multiples of an army builder character. 

TMNT isn't necessarily an army building franchise, though I would argue that most people do want multiples of the Foot and there were certainly a few creative packs that could have been made of villains/army builders that would have made sense and probably would have sold as well if not better than another recolor of the TMNT. Even though they're not truly canon to any particular show, the multi-color Foot from the game are fairly iconic would have made a fun set with no new tooling required. 

I would argue MMPR works a lot like TMNT, where the core heroes are great but having some villains and being able to army build putties would have made a lot of sense. You need 3-4 goons per hero character for these franchises.

As I mentioned before, I really appreciated that DST put a Foot in each box set (would have been nice to have a 4th box set with one more Foot) to at least help the cause and get some Foot out there. That way we had a few different shots at getting Foot. Just spitballing, but imagine a 4th set with Mondo Gecko, Rat King, Leatherhead, Slash and a Foot. That would have been rad. Of course, I still have to buy multiples of the box sets that include a lot of characters that can't be repeated just to get extra army builders.

 

 

[DSTZach]

Once the reorganization is over and the sale is complete, I will definitely be pitching more TMNT Minimates. I pitched a multi-color Foot ninja video game set almost a year ago, because I love the game. And a set with more characters, maybe even wrestling Turtles in a giant Cudley, would be awesome. 

G.I. Joe, the line could have been handled better. Hopefully it will restart (eventually) and lead to army builders.