G.I. Joe Minimates!

[Strider]

34 minutes ago, HellfireSamurai said:

@DSTZach If you know/can disclose; what might the odds be of us getting the Red Ninjas? Just wondering before I go searching out all the Hand Ninjas I can find. Also is there a chance of a pack in accessory of Snake's wolf Timber?

Snake’s wolf would be an awesome accessory. Shoot I would buy it as a stand alone minimate release even.

[WookieFodder]

13 hours ago, DSTZach said:

we ship them halfway around the world

I'm glad i live within the 50% radius

[MisterPL]

15 hours ago, DSTZach said:

... we ship them halfway around the world...

... and Luke ships them the rest of the way. ??

[DSTZach]

7 hours ago, HellfireSamurai said:

@DSTZach If you know/can disclose; what might the odds be of us getting the Red Ninjas? Just wondering before I go searching out all the Hand Ninjas I can find. Also is there a chance of a pack in accessory of Snake's wolf Timber?

I am not sure what our position is on army builders YET. Or animal sidekicks, for that matter. 

[THE_CRIPPLER]

1 hour ago, DSTZach said:

I am not sure what our position is on army builders YET. Or animal sidekicks, for that matter. 

Army builders for G.I. Joe would sell better than any other G.I. Joe 4-pack you make. I guarantee it. A 4-pack of Cobra Troopers, Vipers, B.A.T.s, and Crimson Guard would easily sell out. A second wave with an Iron Grenadier, Cobra Eel, Snow Serpent, and Alley Viper would too. You could even make more army builder sets. Cobra had plenty of other troop builders like Tele-vipers, Hydro Vipers, Grey Cobra Troopers, Red Ninjas, etc.

[THE_CRIPPLER]

On 10/15/2021 at 7:31 PM, Swarm198 said:

This is so stupid it’s almost painful.

So there was a FCBD set that was obviously planned for May (since that is when FCBD was). I’ve had this set preordered for months.

And now I’m supposed to get excited to buy all four of those same figures a second time if I want Duke, Baroness, Destro, etc.?

DST has got to be the worst toy company.

You must not collect toys from Hasbro if this has you upset. The G.I. Joe Classified figures have been out for about a year and a half. We have received 4 different Roadblocks, 3 different Cobra Commanders, and 5 Snake Eyes (6 if you count the Fortnight one coming out) 3 Scarlets, and a few other repaints of figures.

[HellfireSamurai]

2 hours ago, DSTZach said:

I am not sure what our position is on army builders YET. Or animal sidekicks, for that matter. 

Alas my hunt begins for the Hand then for stand-ins until further notice. Also; if by chance Shipwreck is on the slate at some point;**nudge**nudge** maybe just repaint Redwing in parrot colors **nudge**nudge**

Loving what we got so far & looking forward to seeing what we end up getting. Thank you & everyone else at DST for the work that goes into getting us these products.

Edited October 18, 2021 by HellfireSamurai

[DSTZach]

While a certain segment will buy army builder sets, they do not have as broad appeal as main characters. It's a trade-off. 

[Navaan]

So, I will say this...

These figures caused me no end of headache.

I originally asked my LCS to order them, and they forgot. By the time I reminded them, turns out, it was after the order cut off.

Attempted to order them from TFAW and BBTS, but both gave me a limits warning, so I ordered one from the former, two from the latter. 

Whelp. Last Thursday, I get a notice that my 'overnight shipping' was being prepped by TFAW, and I was charged $40 for overnight shipping I *did not* order. I sent e-mails, asking to cancel as I never meant for $40 in shipping, but got no response until end of day Friday, effectively brushing me off as 'oh, you just ordered the overnight shipping,' when I did not. Queue Monday, when, no surprise, it still is not here. $40 for overnight shipping that takes five days. Okay. Sure. Yeah.

Meanwhile, my comic store DOES get them in Friday, day after TFAW overcharges me... but marks them up. Hard. Knowing they are now hard to find, they jot the price up. Whatever, I can at least go get them and cancel my order with BBTS. Go pick up two (at that time thinking, well, if I was going to be overcharged and I got TFAW's 3rd Friday), I might as well just say 'eff it' and deal with the $40 loss and keep the toys.

I open one of the packs, as was planned. Storm Shadow's arrows are bent, one at 60 degrees. Snake-Eyes' visor is chipped. Cobra Commander's helmet is bent, as is, badly, Snake Eyes' sword. I am decent enough making customs, so I fix all those issues, save the arrows. The worst, despite my boiling efforts, cannot fix it well enough, but as I was going to use old black arrows, anyhow, eh. Did not care, is fine.

Did care about the fact that there was a booger *inside* the packaging, though. But just tossed that away, no ultimate foul, I suppose.

My second LCS set, though, I planned to keep in package.. until my friend, staying over as he is having issues with his girlfriend, is staying over. He picks up the box, from the top, 'what are these,' and... based on how he handled the top, the packaging tears down the back. *Badly.* 

So hey. Opened those up, and now my 'non-customized' ones are on my GI Joe comic shelf.

But hey. I waited since 2005 for GI Joe Minimates. Frustrated as I am, *worth it.*

[Navaan]

But alright, something more fun. My customized Joes;

Snake-Eyes
Scarlett
Flint
Lady Jaye
Barrel Roll
Roadblock
Stalker
Doc II (Doc Purpleheart in my Joeverse)
Helix
Tunnel Rat
Spirit
Cover Girl
Beachhead
Dusty
Joe Canuck
Valkyrie (as an American son of a Canadian x American marriage, felt I needed to honor one side's homeland, you know?)
Firewall
Torpedo
Sparks
Snow Job
Wet Suit (this one kinda sucked, did what I could, went for later versions)
Shipwreck
Mayday
Blackbird (Raven from the old cartoon series, liked the turncoat female Native American Strato-Viper story)
Noble Steel (my Steel Brigade character)
Tripewire
Varona
Thunder (aka Thunderblast)
Salvo
Shooter
Duke (I liked the Spytroops era look, kept the short sleeves with the patches for added decal)
Bombstrike
Dialtone II

A lot of them are great, many not perfect. But I am happy with them.

 

Ignore the others in the back, personal characters from a book I am writing. These were taken from my progress room. Still working on Jinx and Kamakura, then done with the Joes, unless I want to deal with Dawn Moreno.

Edited October 19, 2021 by Navaan

[Navaan]

And here we have the Cobras...

Cobra Commander
Baroness
Destro
Storm Shadow
Zartan
Firefly
Major Bludd
Blackout
Dr. Knox
Tomax
Xamot
Munitia
Zarana
Buzzer
Torch
Ripper
Burn Out
Road Pig
Heartwrencher
Night Adder
Mad Monk
Overkill
Crimson Asp
Flying Scorpion
Guillotine
Demming (from the old cartoon)
Lt. Clay Moore (another cartoon character I enjoyed)
Sei-Tin
Night Creeper Leader/Aleph (probably my best one)
Interrogator (one of my oddball favorites; I went with his Plague Trooper look)
Big Boa (pretty proud of this one)
Wild Weasel
Ghost Bear
Raptor (my Joeverse is an updated white collar criminal and hedge fund crook and master hacker with eccentricities)
Scalpel (mine kinda sucks)
Copperhead
Four bad Vipers
Two Red Ninjas



Plans in place for Shadow Tracker, Tombstone, Mindbender (never liked him, but eh, needed), Crystal Ball and MAYBE a version of Vypra. Ideas for Gnawhyde and Zandar, too, but kinda debating if I care enough for the two of them.

[MisterPL]

14 hours ago, THE_CRIPPLER said:

You must not collect toys from Hasbro if this has you upset. The G.I. Joe Classified figures have been out for about a year and a half. We have received 4 different Roadblocks, 3 different Cobra Commanders, and 5 Snake Eyes (6 if you count the Fortnight one coming out) 3 Scarlets, and a few other repaints of figures.

But that's Hasbro. This is Minimates! You didn't see Marvel Minimates getting launched with two different Daredevil figures, four different Spider-Man figures, and a pair each of two different Cyclops and Wolverine figures--

?

Never mind.

[WookieFodder]

You forgot Sgt Slaughter! Also, playmobil provided Timber. 

[Navaan]

42 minutes ago, WookieFodder said:

You forgot Sgt Slaughter! Also, playmobil provided Timber. 

 You know, that Sargent slaughter idea isn't bad

[elhonez]

Wow, that Timber looks like a dire wolf next to SE. It works though 

[Swarm198]

On 10/18/2021 at 6:23 PM, THE_CRIPPLER said:

You must not collect toys from Hasbro if this has you upset. The G.I. Joe Classified figures have been out for about a year and a half. We have received 4 different Roadblocks, 3 different Cobra Commanders, and 5 Snake Eyes (6 if you count the Fortnight one coming out) 3 Scarlets, and a few other repaints of figures.

Those are all single packed. So, collectors can just choose which one they want and ignore the rest. They don’t have to buy the same figure twice to get new figures.

[Swarm198]

13 hours ago, MisterPL said:

But that's Hasbro. This is Minimates! You didn't see Marvel Minimates getting launched with two different Daredevil figures, four different Spider-Man figures, and a pair each of two different Cyclops and Wolverine figures--

?

Never mind.

“Different” being the key word here. Plus, those were all released at the same time so that consumers could purchase what that they liked best.

They didn’t release a product, wait for consumers to purchase that product, then release new product packaged with the original product for consumers to purchase a second time.

[HellfireSamurai]

Well if you want to try that route; the Series 1 & 2 figures are in fact different & new as they have different paint applications than the box set figures. Also for all we know they may get some additional accessories the original release did not have included. Same as numerous other toys that get released as new when it is a minor change. Also Hasbro has released new product with old product numerous times over the years. Just go look through the GI Joe 2 pack sets or a bunch of the various Star Wars multipacks & you'll see that. 

Hell the even the original GI Joe line in the 80's released the original straight arm versions for purchase before shortly releasing the "same" figures again with the retooled swivel arms. 

Also as has been stated, by releasing characters again it gives other people a chance to get them that may not have been able to get the original release without having to go to secondary scalper prices. That alone is more than enough reason to justify it given that it is also some of the characters that rank as the most popular in the Joe franchise.

Edited October 20, 2021 by HellfireSamurai

[thereasonsy]

36 minutes ago, HellfireSamurai said:

Well if you want to try that route; the Series 1 & 2 figures are in fact different & new as they have different paint applications than the box set figures. Also for all we know they may get some additional accessories the original release did not have included. Same as numerous other toys that get released as new when it is a minor change. Also Hasbro has released new product with old product numerous times over the years. Just go look through the GI Joe 2 pack sets or a bunch of the various Star Wars multipacks & you'll see that. 

Hell the even the original GI Joe line in the 80's released the original straight arm versions for purchase before shortly releasing the "same" figures again with the retooled swivel arms. 

Also as has been stated, by releasing characters again it gives other people a chance to get them that may not have been able to get the original release without having to go to secondary scalper prices. That alone is more than enough reason to justify it given that it is also some of the characters that rank as the most popular in the Joe franchise.

I hear what you are saying but I would counter it with the packaging is a sore spot. Environmental concerns to one side.. individual but all together? So if I choose not to open a Scarlett because the mocks seem the same as the release… what then? I have to keep this whole box? Or just have another loose figure running around? You can accept that even though something doesn’t bother you it can bother others. 
 

If we *have* to have reissues, The Snake Eyes, Commander, and Storm Shadow redecos do seem to have variation but it does seem “tight” to have them released in this format so quickly. Commander looks like a easy solider swap and Snake Eyes looks like a different figure. But Scarlett and Storm Shadow aren’t as different and therefore make it more challenging. Especially since Storm Shadow has several different costumes. Scarlett I would have either done a short hair piece to match the actual release, or redecod into a Cover Girl, Glenda, or another figure all together. Is Scarlet more popular? Yes. But could we have gotten her redeco later in the line? Absolutely. It’s what the original line did. 
 

Lastly, I don’t want to be too heartless here but as the youth say FAAFO. We have had MULTIPLE lines cancelled due to low preorders so some people buy more. I personally bought more than I should have because I wanted this line to succeed and I prioritized buying the set instead of other toy lines. If people aren’t willing to invest and preorder, that’s on them. Maybe now they will pay attention and buy the stuff at solicitation time instead of waiting and then the line get canceled. To me, exclusive means exclusive. We have 12 figure slots and we are getting and having 4 figures released as redecos means we are only getting 8 new characters in a line that JUST launched. I get the need for the Commander and Snake eyes as the most recognizable Joes, but the other two slots? Easily could have been a twin in each pack: Tomax, Baroness, Roadblock, Snakeeyes in one. Xamot, Duke, Destro, Commander in 2. 

[DSTZach]

Great Big Boa, Navaan! But Mindbender is CRUCIAL!

Sorry people are not happy. As far as "so soon after the first set" goes, I don't even know when Series 1 and 2 will come out, as we have not solicited them yet, and shipping is taking forever. So at the very least you have these to tide you over until more come out, even if you hate them or simply like the next ones better.  

[MisterPL]

13 hours ago, Swarm198 said:

“Different” being the key word here.

Yes. They're different. Glad you agree.

Besides, it would be foolish to retire a line's most popular character after a single release for a specific event.

[elhonez]

I think it would have instilled more goodwill with fans to introduce more character diversity with the second releases, but I'm not at all opposed to (and in fact appreciate) the alt decos.

I think a key component of getting nostalgia-motivated fans excited about a new format for their favorite characters is demonstrating a commitment to depth. By releasing the same characters twice in a row (albeit with some cosmetic differences), you risk killing momentum and interest.

Ultimately, I'm confident GI Joe is a big enough license to weather this, but I agree with others that these second releases might have been better saved for even slightly later in the line's progression.

[DSTZach]

I agree that we would have risked the line's momentum by limiting the four most popular characters to an event exclusive that sold out quickly. Now new customers have a second chance to pick up the line. This way, the bandwagon is moving slow enough for everyone to jump on before it really gets going.

 

[elhonez]

That's a good counterpoint - some fans might feel like they permanently missed out on those characters if they didn't see them represented in core waves.

[MisterPL]

Considering the next assortments haven't even been solicited yet, I'm not expecting them to hit shelves for another calendar year.