Barry’s Blueprints of Hits and Heartbreak

[Padrino]

1 hour ago, buttheadsmate said:

 

If anybody's interested the most unsettling TV show that I have ever seen is...& I'm not kidding....is the 'The Handmaiden's Tale' .    I don't see anybody queuing up to produce toys from that show anytime soon.

 

 

that's because it went from fiction to a how-to manual...

[Barry]

24 minutes ago, buttheadsmate said:

I had to smile ( I laughed out loud)  at "Zombie Penny....who was deemed too unsettling "  I respect everybody's views but seriously ?       Forgive me for saying that & I realise that ultimately these are 'toys' but surely the gloves are completely off with a show called the Walking Dead & the majority of the characters are decaying dead folk . 

Oh, I completely understand that!  I've had similar thoughts about similar situations with other licenses.  We dealt with this type of input on a daily basis, often times with comments that felt completely unreasonable, but sometimes there were comments that sparked a bit more discussion.  It does seem bizarre given how we would be trying to adapt a piece of media whose identity can revolve around more graphic elements.  The idea of something from a world like that being dubbed 'unsettling' is surprising.  

That said, I think the person's reaction does make some sense.  A toy of an adult zombie meets with the expected tone of the series, but a zombie child hits differently.  Especially when you consider that these were consumer products meant to sit on retail pegs.  It works for the comic book storytelling as it's contained within the pages of the book, but can seem inappropriate or jarring when translated into a toy form when there's no story context given.  It raises the question of 'what is a toy?', to which I know a lot of people would say 'it's not a toy, it's a collectible', but that raises even more questions from different parties like 'why is something like this considered collectible?'.  It was a girl under the age of 10 with a dead face, lips and eyelids gone, wearing a metal collar with a chain.  It's hard to defend.

Considering too, the following year brought the controversy of the Breaking Bad action figures at Toys R Us.  That easily could have been us with TWD in the form that it was actually released, but somehow we flew under the radar.  I think a dead child in chains might have greatly increased our chance at our own controversy rising.

As I said, I had my own personal struggles with the subject matter, but I completely understood that it was a case of it just wasn't for me.  I didn't project that outwardly on other people, it was something that I had to deal with if I wanted to get paid.  I actually found some fun in trying to diversify the zombie offerings, and enjoyed finding new looks for the human characters for some world building. 

But, when someone expressed discomfort with Penny, I didn’t see it as an overreaction because I understood the types of feelings they were having.  They were probably like me, feeling a bit squeamish about the whole subject matter, but this element was just a step too far for them.  It seems like they're just being overly sensitive, a lot of comments on other licences were definitely that case, but I do appreciate that sensitivity being brought into the discussion because when it would happen (not just here, but in other licences too) it reminded me that even within a piece of media that is more extreme than others, there were still boundaries that hit people differently.  As a designer, and a project manager, those are things I had to consider and weigh even if I didn't agree with them.

[Barry]

8 minutes ago, Padrino said:

that's because it went from fiction to a how-to manual...

I had heard about it, and the novel, but never knew what it was about.  I just read up on it now...  That's...  messed up.  It says something when the Wikipedia article on it defines the genre as "Tragedy", which I have never heard used as a genre title before.

[Padrino]

39 minutes ago, Barry said:

I had heard about it, and the novel, but never knew what it was about.  I just read up on it now...  That's...  messed up.  It says something when the Wikipedia article on it defines the genre as "Tragedy", which I have never heard used as a genre title before.

I'm surprised they have not updated it to "Tragiality" 

[thereasonsy]

4 hours ago, Barry said:

completely respect that decision too.  I am on record in interviews saying that I had a hard time working on this line and only in the latter half became a bit more desensitized to it.  I'm not belittling people for liking zombies and horror either, it's just not something that's for me, and when that person was uncomfortable with Penny I understood why. 

I have never been a Zombie person. It was why I was so disappointed the What If set was zombies instead of the “Avengers”. Always wanted a Captain Carter. 

[Barry]

23 minutes ago, thereasonsy said:

I have never been a Zombie person. It was why I was so disappointed the What If set was zombies instead of the “Avengers”. Always wanted a Captain Carter. 

The only reason why the What If set was from the Marvel Zombies episode was because it was easiest to make with minimal new parts as they were just zombified pre-existing MCU designs.  I was able to fit Scott Lang's Head's cape and jar and Wanda's hair into another tool being prepped at the time.  Anything else would not have fit unfortunately.  If we'd had full tooling, there was brief (like, 5 minute) talk that Guardians of the Multiverse could have been the set, but I probably would have made it the more unique characters from Season 1, and less episode-themed:  The Watcher, Captain Carter, the Hydra Stomper, Strange Supreme, Ultron, and Scott Lang's Head.

[Padrino]

1 hour ago, Barry said:

The only reason why the What If set was from the Marvel Zombies episode was because it was easiest to make with minimal new parts as they were just zombified pre-existing MCU designs.  I was able to fit Scott Lang's Head's cape and jar and Wanda's hair into another tool being prepped at the time.  Anything else would not have fit unfortunately.  If we'd had full tooling, there was brief (like, 5 minute) talk that Guardians of the Multiverse could have been the set, but I probably would have made it the more unique characters from Season 1, and less episode-themed:  The Watcher, Captain Carter, the Hydra Stomper, Strange Supreme, Ultron, and Scott Lang's Head.

Man, I loved Strange Supreme's costume!  That would have made a great minimate!

[Trekker 42]

The Watcher, in any form, is one of the biggest gaps in the Minimate line. Wish we could’ve gotten him.

[thereasonsy]

7 hours ago, Barry said:

The only reason why the What If set was from the Marvel Zombies episode was because it was easiest to make with minimal new parts as they were just zombified pre-existing MCU designs.  I was able to fit Scott Lang's Head's cape and jar and Wanda's hair into another tool being prepped at the time.  Anything else would not have fit unfortunately.  If we'd had full tooling, there was brief (like, 5 minute) talk that Guardians of the Multiverse could have been the set, but I probably would have made it the more unique characters from Season 1, and less episode-themed:  The Watcher, Captain Carter, the Hydra Stomper, Strange Supreme, Ultron, and Scott Lang's Head.

Soooo… the line up I wanted 😂 I hear you on the expense. Whose hair was Wanda’s going to be? 

[FightTheDead118]

Ah those Walking Dead figures are sick. On a sidenote the Walking Dead minimates have been my mental image for how these characters look in color for so long, that whenever the Deluxe release of the comics colors certain characters in different ways it irks me for some reason. Like Winter coat Dale is one of my favorites from this line, and a big part of that is his cool blue jacket, and then the comics make it brown!

 

Edited November 7 by FightTheDead118

[Shanester]

13 hours ago, Trekker 42 said:

The Watcher, in any form, is one of the biggest gaps in the Minimate line. Wish we could’ve gotten him.

Agreed.  We have Galactus minimates and no The Watcher?!

 

Thanks for all this insight Barry. I thought I knew about a lot of the behind the scenes stuff, but I was wrong.

[Barry]

On 11/6/2025 at 10:23 PM, Trekker 42 said:

The Watcher, in any form, is one of the biggest gaps in the Minimate line. Wish we could’ve gotten him.

We tried to get him in a few times, namely Wave 82, but it just wasn't meant to be.

On 11/7/2025 at 12:08 AM, thereasonsy said:

Soooo… the line up I wanted 😂 I hear you on the expense. Whose hair was Wanda’s going to be? 

Wanda's hair was always new.  The Femme Fatales Medusa hair tooling was not able to be used since it was too old, and we needed the hair, if it was 'at rest' to cover half her face, so it was newly designed.

On 11/7/2025 at 8:41 AM, FightTheDead118 said:

Ah those Walking Dead figures are sick. On a sidenote the Walking Dead minimates have been my mental image for how these characters look in color for so long, that whenever the Deluxe release of the comics colors certain characters in different ways it irks me for some reason. Like Winter coat Dale is one of my favorites from this line, and a big part of that is his cool blue jacket, and then the comics make it brown!

 

I did a lot of research to make sure I wasn't stepping on any pre-determined colour scheme's toes, whether the character be featured somewhere in colour, or if their hair colour was mentioned somewhere.  I tried to make sure characters didn't all look the same, and used the cues of black & white colouring to determine if the colours were intended to be very bright, mid-range, or dark.  I got some grief from longtime TWD fans for colouring someone's hair the wrong colour (I forget who).  Evidently it was said to be light coloured in a novel or something, but in the comics it was always coloured to look dark brown or black.  I really forget who that was though.  The licence was from the comics though, so that's what I always went with.  And if they were indeed shown in colour anywhere, then that became the 'canon' look.

On 11/7/2025 at 12:05 PM, Shanester said:

Agreed.  We have Galactus minimates and no The Watcher?!

Thanks for all this insight Barry. I thought I knew about a lot of the behind the scenes stuff, but I was wrong.

Some characters really just fell by the wayside, especially if a theme wave didn't make sense to have them included, or if there was no other media tie-ins to push the character (especially for big-box retail waves).  Watcher really could have made sense at any time I suppose, since he's theoretically in the shadows behind any storyline, but he was tough to get included at times.

You're welcome!  I think a lot of what I'm telling now is new news because it was more my personal day-to-day experiences.  We had a very early push for behind the scenes info when the Asylum blog was active, but that was eventually dropped and we never really looked back.  Anything I'm sharing isn't anything that couldn't be told over the years, it just happened that it wasn't.  I do hope it's provided some insight as to why things were done the way they were done.

[buttheadsmate]

Barry , a Minimate ,any Minimate is actually 'put together' by a person ? 

I know the answer but I just want to know the answer  

 

 

.....& Soylent Green ...what's that made of ? 

[cylonchaney]

4 hours ago, buttheadsmate said:

Barry , a Minimate ,any Minimate is actually 'put together' by a person ? 

I know the answer but I just want to know the answer  

 

 

.....& Soylent Green ...what's that made of ? 

Why is it called Soylent Green when it's made of Purple?

[buttheadsmate]

6 hours ago, cylonchaney said:

Why is it called Soylent Green when it's made of Purple?

That's down to the Mexico Filter .

11 hours ago, buttheadsmate said:

Barry , a Minimate ,any Minimate is actually 'put together' by a person ?

In my first week as the new CEO of the Phoenix Minimate Corporation I will insist on visiting China to meet the people who manufacture & assemble the Minimates . 

[Barry]

16 hours ago, buttheadsmate said:

Barry , a Minimate ,any Minimate is actually 'put together' by a person ? 

I know the answer but I just want to know the answer  

.....& Soylent Green ...what's that made of ? 

Yes, they were.  Even the tampo was hand-stamped, meaning it was applied by a machine that held the aligned piece, but the machine was manually operated.  It wasn’t like the recent LEGO assembly line video where the parts are automatically rotated and the neck tampo was scanned to ensure the arms were in alignment.  This is sometimes why some errors were made, I'm sure, but over time they really got the process down pat.

I did find it funny (and maybe a bit frustrating, as it was for posterity) that the Minimate Database seemed to get all the weird misaligned tampo samples.  I would personally see dozens of samples, some of which were final retail sent via the DCD Warehouse so they weren't hand-picked specifically to show me, and never saw the errors that are featured on the Database.  

Although I never met the people involved in person, I regularly communicated with several of them.  They were all fantastic to work with, and were genuinely kind and thoughtful people.  I often told them to congratulate their teams on jobs well done, and tell them how happy I was with their work.  We’d talk to each other to solve production issues or find ways to streamline processes.  They were always quick to answer questions and often suggested design adjustments to make certain details easier to produce.  They taught me a lot about the process and how decisions were made, which helped me think differently and grow as a designer.

The sculptor was a funny guy.  He'd always come up with these great one-line assurances when I asked for a change on something.  It wasn't just 'OK', it would be 'we were half done before you even asked!'.  He once travelled to NYC for a trip.  He met with Robert but was disappointed to not meet me, not knowing until he got there that I lived in Canada.  He told me after he'd have to stop by some time.

Our correspondence was personal too.  We’d wish each other well on birthdays and holidays, and I reached out when I heard they’d been hit hard by a monsoon.  They were very appreciative and kept me updated on how they and their families were doing.  When my son was born, they sent me a care package of clothing from everyone at the factory, which really meant a lot to me. 

One person emailed me out of the blue one day just to say she really enjoyed working on our projects and with me.  I replied, but never received a response.  I later learned she had passed away from a brief illness.  Evidently, she had continued working because she was happy doing what she did and it kept her mind off what she was experiencing.  That one really hit me.

 

Also, if the POTA Heston had come out, then Soylent Green would have actually been made of Minimates.

[buttheadsmate]

Great stories Barry & thank you for confirming what I thought I knew   but the way you have answered my question is superb .  Thank you.

The intricacies of tampo-printing must be immense yet it is one area of Minimate customising that is surprisingly undeveloped IMHO .   

 

 

[nandoninny]

damn, Barry's story reminded me of when i worked with folks in China.  they'd wait up for me to get to the office and even though it was 8 or 9 PM for them they'd ask if i had finished my coffee before we'd get down to business.  I am glad to hear i'm not the only one with such a good interaction with folks there.  i wish i'd kept up with my main contact there.  he was always a pleasure to work with.  

[thereasonsy]

11 hours ago, nandoninny said:

damn, Barry's story reminded me of when i worked with folks in China.  they'd wait up for me to get to the office and even though it was 8 or 9 PM for them they'd ask if i had finished my coffee before we'd get down to business.  I am glad to hear i'm not the only one with such a good interaction with folks there.  i wish i'd kept up with my main contact there.  he was always a pleasure to work with.  

I have always had great experiences working globally with China. Seems like a common theme. I am actually meeting up with one of my old vendors in Sydney of all places in a few weeks because we’ve kept in touch throughout the years. @Barrythese stories are touching and thank you for sharing. 

[thereasonsy]

Since I feel like getting my feelings hurt, Barry, did you ever design the rest of StarTrek like DS9 or more importantly TNG?

[Barry]

25 minutes ago, thereasonsy said:

Since I feel like getting my feelings hurt, Barry, did you ever design the rest of StarTrek like DS9 or more importantly TNG?

There was a Wave 6 for the first 2" line designed, but I only did supporting design work and colouring.  It was The Borg Queen (incomplete and repurposed into Legacy W1), TWOK Chekov, Data, Khan (redesigned into Legacy W1), TWOK Terrel, DS9 Worf, and First Contact Worf.  There was also a Jem'Hadar started for Wave 7, but was also repurposed for Legacy.  No Legacy Wave 2 was ever designed.  There was also the 50th anniversary bridge crew which I've shown here before.  They were painted an on display for a Toy Fair.

There were also TNG designs from before I worked at the company.  They appear to be concepts even before Minimates were started, prior to the original 2" and maybe even 3" lines.  The base body design is not quite correct, so I think these might have been an exploration of what could be done with the brand while they were still cementing what the base body looked like.  I have not gone through all of those files though because they are a hot mess, but they do exist.

[Trekker 42]

Oh that would be fascinating to see. The process for designing Minimates in the early days. What could the body shape have been? What articulation points were considered and dropped? Could we have gotten something more Lego like or constructable figured like Blokees? I’d love to know. 

[buttheadsmate]

Somewhere  I have some early proto 'mates that don't fit the norm , I may have put pics in my "pictures you don't want to see " thread ..?  I'll check.

1 hour ago, Trekker 42 said:

Oh that would be fascinating to see. The process for designing Minimates in the early days. What could the body shape have been? What articulation points were considered and dropped? Could we have gotten something more Lego like or constructable figured like Blokees? I’d love to know. 

The elbow & knee-joints define Minimates .  I'm pretty sure ( I know )  that palZ hugely influenced the Minimate design.  

Over the years ,my 'collecting' of Minimates led to many 'whys' .why are minimate feet separate pieces (?) would be one. It's very handy (pun intended) but interchangeability of Minimate feet between characters is not paramount...is it ?

The weakest point of the Minimate design IMHO is (are) the hands , why why why Delilah???  

Random thoughts above.

[Trekker 42]

2 hours ago, buttheadsmate said:

 

Over the years ,my 'collecting' of Minimates led to many 'whys' .why are minimate feet separate pieces (?) would be one. It's very handy (pun intended) but interchangeability of Minimate feet between characters is not paramount...is it?

I actually find the separate foot pieces help in posing them dynamically. And sometimes I like to dress someone else in, like, Apocalypse or Onslaught armor and the separate feet work well for that. 

[cylonchaney]

A Minimate should never judge another Minimate unless he's walked a mile in his ...

Also, it allows arms to be used as skinny legs for certain characters. Muppets Pepe the Prawn for example.