Diamond Declares Bankrupcy

[cylonchaney]

5 hours ago, buttheadsmate said:

I am no expert . 

That said, I believe that a court-appointed bankruptcy trustee would have the powers to sell any of the remaining assets of the Diamond 'empire' .  So...in theory some company could step in and buy just 'Minimates' .     

 

How much did you offer?  Now we'll really find out how many Minimates can fit in a barn.

 

[Padrino]

12 hours ago, Strider said:

Or if more along the lines of what I originally thought would go down, NECA gets it and starts putting out Minimates for all their different licenses.

This would be cool. And given some of the oddball items that NECA makes (Ben Cooper Halloween costume figures?), I can see these fitting right in. 

[buttheadsmate]

1 hour ago, cylonchaney said:

How much did you offer?  Now we'll really find out how many Minimates can fit in a barn.

 

The elephant in the room ...which I have always alluded to in this thread ....is the distribution & promotion of the brand . I would dearly like to see some new entity take over & I sincerely believe they will .  As much as I love Minimates however I am skeptical as to where they will be sold ?   I have mentioned it several times before but I'll say it again , DST often seemed to go out of their way to make Minimates 'elusive' or 'exclusive' , I lost patience with it years ago & much of my fun of collecting Minimates soured .  I know I wasn't alone .  

I have also been intransigent  in my belief that Minimates would one day become recognised for what they are ......a superb toy .   

[FightTheDead118]

I think McFarlane would be a good and realistic pick. They’re always experimenting with doing weird stuff like this, and have a Marvel license, along with a million others (unfortunately about to lose their DC one though)

Edited December 16, 2025 by FightTheDead118

[elhonez]

I actually don't think NECA would be a bad place for MMs to live. They have a tendency to "go deep" on licenses which I appreciate.

If Mattel owned the brand, then you'd see broader distribution (and MOTU MiniMates!). Not saying that's anywhere near the realm of possibility, but I can dream.

 

[THE_CRIPPLER]

I have always wondered what was keeping Minimates out of stores like Walmart and Target (except for their-blink-and you-will-miss-it short run they had). Surely there is more appeal in Marvel Minimates than in Skibidi Toilet toys that I see at Walmart just sitting on the pegs. Distribution seemed to be a big hurdle for them over the years. I wonder if they would do better these days if they tried again to get them into stores like Walmart and Target.

[buttheadsmate]

I wish I had the answer to my question "where will they be sold" , I haven't .  All I do know is that the US market for toys is $40* billion a year, so somebody is selling toys somewhere .   As you may or may not be aware I am an atypical toy-buyer , I doubt that 10% of my collection has been purchased in the UK from an UK seller whilst 90% has come directly from the US & Japan.  99.9% of my collection has been delivered to me, I can't recall the last time I walked into a toy-store. 

I researched my figures for my post & I am very aware of fake news... but I choose to believe it  but it seems that online toy sales in the US are projected for 2025 to reach a staggering $30* billion .

I avoid politics on this forum , do your own research or just use your eyes & read .....your toys are made in China , 1% of the toys sold on the US market are made in the US * .   I leave it to you to draw your own conclusions whether toys are a safe-bet for investment at the moment . 

* forgive the asterisks but I'm sure somebody'll say that this or that is incorrect , so my figures are based on Google research & undoubtedly inaccurate .

Asterix the Gaul BTW is one property that CEO buttheadsmate would demand to be made into minimates.

I still hate this thread.

 

[Shanester]

I would buy Asterix Minimates!

So, like BHM and many others, I have been after Minimates since the beginning and I have been most fortunate to have had discussions with many of the "movers and shakers" at DST and Art Asylum before that.  I have always felt that Minimates were something DST was behind promotion wise, but once you have a good talk with the folks who produce a toy like Minimates, you learn a lot about business decisions that over power the collector instincts.

We all know shelf space is at a premium and stores want not only what will sell, but will make them money.  I was often told that the profit margin on Minimates was small. As collectors, we have high hopes and dreams of licenses and lines that would be amazing, but then Mr. Business would come in and dash our hopes.  License holders couldn't justify the margin, stores couldn't justify the margin.  Then, lines would not sell through well and get discounted and move to clearance.  I really thought box sets would move the line to a better position but then folks scoffed at $30 and $40 price points. I sure did.

I have always felt that Minimates were born for Comics Shops and Specialty Markets. This is part of the reason distribution was often dismal.  Promotional Minimates were hard to find beyond the secondary market.

Access via a shop like Luke's really helped with acquisition but I guess the ship was already sinking at that point and I don't think it was because of Minimates.  Minimates just went down with the ship.

[Padrino]

uuuuhm, is this a good thing?

https://bleedingcool.com/comics/diamond-comics-partners-with-enesco-to-create-diamond-select-brands/

[buttheadsmate]

1 hour ago, Padrino said:

uuuuhm, is this a good thing?

https://bleedingcool.com/comics/diamond-comics-partners-with-enesco-to-create-diamond-select-brands/

I'd seen that & my reaction was ....is this a good thing ?   

[Padrino]

2 hours ago, buttheadsmate said:

I'd seen that & my reaction was ....is this a good thing ?   

I mean, I guess this news could be seen as hopeful but home decor was not the direction I thought this would take 🤷‍♂️

Edited January 12 by Padrino

[buttheadsmate]

https://icv2.com/articles/news/view/61503/diamond-holds-nearly-50-million-publishers-consignment-inventory

The 4th paragraph is the most-telling ! 

[Padrino]

On 1/29/2026 at 6:59 AM, buttheadsmate said:

https://icv2.com/articles/news/view/61503/diamond-holds-nearly-50-million-publishers-consignment-inventory

The 4th paragraph is the most-telling ! 

yowza

[Padrino]

I don't quite know what to make of this. 

https://www.enescobusiness.com/diamond/

"Who This Site Is For

The Diamond Select Brands Retailer Site supports:

• Existing retailers ready to place orders as usual
• New accounts exploring our product catalog for the first time
• Retailers looking for some guidance when learning a new site"

Are they looking for brands and affiliates? Are they a retail website? Are all of the old licenses gone? What do these chotskies have to do with Diamond? No mention of Minimates. Do they still own the brand? Are they still part of the catalogue? So many questions.

[Padrino]

looks like Diamond was at NYC ToyFare this weekend. They seem to be back in "distributor" status. Found a few vides of NECA but none of the other booths (at least not exclusively). No minimates mentioned in the videos (although some of the videos had some vocal fans asking about them). Here's one:

 

[Strider]

I guess the fact that people are still asking form them is a good thing.

[nandoninny]

i remember writing the company when they first acquired diamond but never heard back.  time to write again maybe?  i'm also really curious on mcfarlane's decision to now come out w/ his own version of block figures for spawn.  they kinda look bad though.......and i hate saying anything bad about daddy todd

[Padrino]

3 hours ago, nandoninny said:

i remember writing the company when they first acquired diamond but never heard back.  time to write again maybe?  i'm also really curious on mcfarlane's decision to now come out w/ his own version of block figures for spawn.  they kinda look bad though.......and i hate saying anything bad about daddy todd

I did the same. Heard nothing. Like screaming into the void. 
 

where did you see the spawn figures? I bought a set of the Batman blockees. I liked them but customized molded plastic to make the figures I want limits my interest so I don’t know if I’ll by buying more. 

[nandoninny]

instagram - toyfair coverage.  let me see if i can find a screenshot or something.

https://toynewsi.com/14-61914

see pic 11

[Chooch]

I thought for a second about getting the Spawn 'not-mates', but then saw they're in blind boxes.  F that.

[Padrino]

Meh. I am in agreement with your hatred of blind bags. Blockees have the same model.  May wait for the ones that I want to hit ebay and buy them then.

[cylonchaney]

1 hour ago, Padrino said:

Meh. I am in agreement with your hatred of blind bags. Blockees have the same model.  May wait for the ones that I want to hit ebay and buy them then.

Me three. I refuse to support that sales model. Not even if it would bring back Minimates.  

[Liney]

I've dipped into a few things with blindbags - but only when there's some kind of code to work out what you're getting, or when there's multiple ones I'd like vs those I wouldn't.

 

Its never ideal. So I often resort to ebay

[Trekker 42]

5 hours ago, cylonchaney said:

Me three. I refuse to support that sales model. Not even if it would bring back Minimates.  

Blokees at least makes their blind boxes in a way that, if you buy a case, you’re guaranteed every character. There are chases that you might have to eBay but if you buy the case you’re not hoping to god you get Megatron this time instead of the third Sunstreaker. 

[Navaan]

1 hour ago, Trekker 42 said:

Blokees at least makes their blind boxes in a way that, if you buy a case, you’re guaranteed every character. There are chases that you might have to eBay but if you buy the case you’re not hoping to god you get Megatron this time instead of the third Sunstreaker. 

This is how I bought BlindBag Minimates in the past. While it is expensive, it got the job done and not like I was hurting for parts, after.

20 hours ago, nandoninny said:

instagram - toyfair coverage.  let me see if i can find a screenshot or something.

https://toynewsi.com/14-61914

see pic 11

Holy crap. Well. Not a fan of Todd's attitude on some stuff, and copying  Minimates down to a T while they are in limbo sure is a choice. I will need to see how they look next to legit Minimates.

16 hours ago, Chooch said:

I thought for a second about getting the Spawn 'not-mates', but then saw they're in blind boxes.  F that.

I am sure, much like Blokees, they will be on eBay for reasonable prices. It is usually 10-20 per Blokees to get the non super rare ones.

7 hours ago, cylonchaney said:

Me three. I refuse to support that sales model. Not even if it would bring back Minimates.  

Like I said above, I would just buy the full set, since I would, any ways. But I also recognize that is dumb with my money, and not everyone can or would want to do that.