Barry’s Blueprints of Hits and Heartbreak

[Padrino]

1 hour ago, hellpop said:

Sorry, I am a bit late to the party, but I would absolutely be interested in a piece of Minimate history like this! I'd be interested in unreleased figures from any comics related properties, especially DC. But my single most number one want would be the comic book Spirit, which was announced and never released! Losing that set broke my heart.

that Spirit set was gorgeous! that was a sad cancellation 

[Shanester]

On 1/14/2026 at 12:38 PM, Padrino said:

Where do you find them? I only ever saw one set advertised on ebay.

Years of digging them up and the occasional Ebay auction. I have met some sellers in China that let me know when they uncover anything Minimates.  I have been doing this for many years and my best sources are just a few people I know or have known.

[Scorpion]

Was any art made for the characters that didn’t win the Marvel Wave 50 poll?

[Padrino]

21 hours ago, Shanester said:

Years of digging them up and the occasional Ebay auction. I have met some sellers in China that let me know when they uncover anything Minimates.  I have been doing this for many years and my best sources are just a few people I know or have known.

Thanks! 

[Barry]

Thanks again to everyone chiming in.  I'm making my way through some boxes and I'm prioritizing items that have more interest, but there's still a long way to go.  I also don't have as much of the 1st shots anymore (and as I mentioned in Luke's Q&A, people will hate me for this...) I threw out a lot of unpainted samples some time ago as they were not holding up.  We had no use for them anymore.  I kept unreleased ones amongst some others though.  Painted samples though are another thing, I have all of those still, and in multiples in most cases.

 

21 hours ago, Shanester said:

Years of digging them up and the occasional Ebay auction. I have met some sellers in China that let me know when they uncover anything Minimates.  I have been doing this for many years and my best sources are just a few people I know or have known.

I'm always curious to know how people got their hands on items over the years.  I'm sure there's probably some sources that I would recognize the names of.  I know too that a lot of factory dumpster diving happens, as it does with most toy-producing factories.

 

40 minutes ago, Scorpion said:

Was any art made for the characters that didn’t win the Marvel Wave 50 poll?

Unfortunately, no.  It would have been far too many characters to pay for design work to be done in order to have them go unmade.  Werewolf Cap did get one, but it was never coloured up.  If I remember right, it was because he was in the far lead until the 11th hour.  Some characters ended up happening anyway, but those were designed with their corresponding waves as we decided to do them.  Mojo was the only one who actually had some design work done prior to the poll.  He was originally in Wave 47 for a long time, but was dropped mid-way through the design because of the amount of parts.

The Captain America Through The Ages poll did have the other two designed, and were shown on the TRU website at the time.  I'd have to dig those out.  I don't think I posted this before (at least, I can't immediately find it), but here are the results of the Wave 50 poll:

 

ROUND ONE - Total Votes 11,519

Ghost Rider Danny Ketch 21.84%

Cyborg Spider-Man 14.96%

Werewolf Captain America 13.56%

Savage Grey Hulk Bulked-Up 12.35%

Team X Wolverine 10.6%

Iron Man 2020 10.3%

Mutated Extra-Rocky Thing 8.5%

Hydro Armour Iron Man 7.89%

 

ROUND TWO - Total Votes 9,785

Songbird 17.57%

Commander Steve Rogers 14.89%

Winter Soldier 14.7%

Banshee 14.1%

Modern Luke Cage 11.39%

Modern Falcon 9.85%

Gladiator (Shi'ar) 9.54%

Black Knight II 7.96%

 

ROUND THREE - Total Votes 6,947

Onslaught 22.1%

Baron Zemo II 19.25%

Bulky Apocalypse 17.79%

Mojo 11.14%

Bulky Abomination 8.62%

Vengeance 8.35%

Wrecker 7.2%

Baron Strucker 5.56%

 

ROUND FOUR - Total Votes 4,127

Nova Corps Centurions 22.66%

Classic Madrox The Multiple Man 19.53%

Stepford Cuckoos 18.17%

HAMMER Agents 9.89%

Mandroids 9.69%

Mindless Ones 8.43%

Warwolves 8.26%

Dire Wraiths 3.37%

[Shanester]

I really wanted that Werewolf Captain America...

 

[buttheadsmate]

30 minutes ago, Shanester said:

I really wanted that Werewolf Captain America...

 

I can't argue with that although TBQH I rarely reminisce about the Werewolf Minimate   The WereCap character as a Minimate could have been great but my memories of the comic story-line are not so great .

I read the WBN comics when they were newsstand -fresh & ,even then, a 17 year-old young 'butt laughed out loud at Werewolf's alter ego's name .  

Jack Russell    

[thereasonsy]

4 hours ago, Barry said:

Thanks again to everyone chiming in.  I'm making my way through some boxes and I'm prioritizing items that have more interest, but there's still a long way to go.  I also don't have as much of the 1st shots anymore (and as I mentioned in Luke's Q&A, people will hate me for this...) I threw out a lot of unpainted samples some time ago as they were not holding up.  We had no use for them anymore.  I kept unreleased ones amongst some others though.  Painted samples though are another thing, I have all of those still, and in multiples in most cases.

 

I'm always curious to know how people got their hands on items over the years.  I'm sure there's probably some sources that I would recognize the names of.  I know too that a lot of factory dumpster diving happens, as it does with most toy-producing factories.

 

Unfortunately, no.  It would have been far too many characters to pay for design work to be done in order to have them go unmade.  Werewolf Cap did get one, but it was never coloured up.  If I remember right, it was because he was in the far lead until the 11th hour.  Some characters ended up happening anyway, but those were designed with their corresponding waves as we decided to do them.  Mojo was the only one who actually had some design work done prior to the poll.  He was originally in Wave 47 for a long time, but was dropped mid-way through the design because of the amount of parts.

The Captain America Through The Ages poll did have the other two designed, and were shown on the TRU website at the time.  I'd have to dig those out.  I don't think I posted this before (at least, I can't immediately find it), but here are the results of the Wave 50 poll:

 

ROUND ONE - Total Votes 11,519

Ghost Rider Danny Ketch 21.84%

Cyborg Spider-Man 14.96%

Werewolf Captain America 13.56%

Savage Grey Hulk Bulked-Up 12.35%

Team X Wolverine 10.6%

Iron Man 2020 10.3%

Mutated Extra-Rocky Thing 8.5%

Hydro Armour Iron Man 7.89%

 

ROUND TWO - Total Votes 9,785

Songbird 17.57%

Commander Steve Rogers 14.89%

Winter Soldier 14.7%

Banshee 14.1%

Modern Luke Cage 11.39%

Modern Falcon 9.85%

Gladiator (Shi'ar) 9.54%

Black Knight II 7.96%

 

ROUND THREE - Total Votes 6,947

Onslaught 22.1%

Baron Zemo II 19.25%

Bulky Apocalypse 17.79%

Mojo 11.14%

Bulky Abomination 8.62%

Vengeance 8.35%

Wrecker 7.2%

Baron Strucker 5.56%

 

ROUND FOUR - Total Votes 4,127

Nova Corps Centurions 22.66%

Classic Madrox The Multiple Man 19.53%

Stepford Cuckoos 18.17%

HAMMER Agents 9.89%

Mandroids 9.69%

Mindless Ones 8.43%

Warwolves 8.26%

Dire Wraiths 3.37%

I just got over the trauma of not getting to have the classic Maddox, Cuckoos, warwolves, wrecker. . 

[buttheadsmate]

Unfortunately we now have the Wrecker & the Mindless Ones  

 

[Barry]

Speaking of the Captain America Though The Ages poll set -- We actually designed 10 versions to use, but ultimately the poll ended up being just 6.  I'm really not sure why that is, it feels like having more would have made the poll more interesting, but it is what it is.  I think maybe sales wanted to guide the poll towards the 'right' figures, but I'm sure if people had more options the unique ones still would have won out.  It wouldn't have ended up Golden Age, Silver Age, and Modern Age all together who relatively look the same.

[FightTheDead118]

That Nomad figure is a crazy cut lol, probably would have been the most obscure Marvel figure ever made but it would have been so cool. I actually really like that Cap with the bigger shoulder pads, sometimes I wish there would have been more in between sized characters rather than just blank torso or big slipcover

The Civil War figure was always strange to me, what was the thought process behind putting in essentially an identical figure to one that wasn’t even released 2 years earlier into a fan vote? Not getting that US Agent figure always hurt too

Edited January 21 by FightTheDead118

[buttheadsmate]

Yet again a wonderful insight into "what could have been" , thank you Barry.     

[Barry]

5 hours ago, buttheadsmate said:

Yet again a wonderful insight into "what could have been" , thank you Barry.     

You're welcome.  I have many more stories to tell, but there's so many that sometimes it takes looking through all the art to trigger those memories.  I'd love to do more online chats at some point to answer live questions.

 

18 hours ago, FightTheDead118 said:

That Nomad figure is a crazy cut lol, probably would have been the most obscure Marvel figure ever made but it would have been so cool. I actually really like that Cap with the bigger shoulder pads, sometimes I wish there would have been more in between sized characters rather than just blank torso or big slipcover

The Civil War figure was always strange to me, what was the thought process behind putting in essentially an identical figure to one that wasn’t even released 2 years earlier into a fan vote? Not getting that US Agent figure always hurt too

I liked the big shoulder pads as well, but they really did limit movement.  I think they worked well for Cap in cases because his costume had a natural break where you could make the piece feel intentional.  It also helped from a production standpoint to not have to tampo all of the fish scales, especially on this arms.  Sculpted scales removes a few hits of tampo, which saves some money.

We tried some not-quite-full chest caps on other characters around that time to add bulk without making them look fat but they didn’t always work.  Thor comes to mind, especially the Phase 1 MCU versions after the HUGE wave 33 Thor.  Originally the MCU ones had full caps, but I felt they were far too large and changed them.  There was never a hard and fast rule about who should or shouldn’t be bulked up though.  It was usually a matter of what looked right or how the costume functioned like when we needed an anchor for a cape and attached it to shoulder pads.  I wanted to include bulky upper arms at a point just to give some characters some more muscle with the option to include them left to the consumer, but then you get into double-deco problems which increases cost.  (Paint is probably to biggest problem in all collectibles' pricing, despite what the YouTubers would have you believe...)  Over time I leaned more toward using them for characters who were overall larger than a six-foot human, but that was my own loose guideline and I didn’t always stick to it.

As for Civil War Cap, I know that to a collector releasing a new version of a character less than three years after the previous one feels too soon.  To a retailer trying to sell movie tie-in product to a more general audience though that’s actually a very long time.  The story, while also about three years old, was a major editorial moment that made it into mainstream news.  Someone in sales at a place like TRU who might have only a low to mid-tier familiarity with these characters would probably recognize this over something like Nomad, which likely influenced the decision to include it.  Also, when you’re doing a set meant to cover iconic looks and moments through the ages, this was a pretty big one to leave out.  At the time of designing it, he was still dead, so to have him in his final appearance was a big one.  On the complete flip side, it’s also possible it was included precisely because fans wouldn’t vote for it.  You’d be surprised how often toy companies running fan polls subtly steer the outcome through the options they present.  More voters usually come out to vote than they do to buy the product they voted for, so you have to be very careful in what you offer to make or else you have a big dead stock problem on your hands.

[buttheadsmate]

Your posts often seem to strike a chord with me .  

I've always wanted a Thor with big-biceps & here you are saying ".... I wanted to include bulky upper arms... "    It's rare for me to be bothered about finding approval for my opinions but I am more than pleased !

Wave 33 . The wave heralded the first Sentinel Minimate & regards 'ol'butts opinion & how he can get it absolutely wrong ' I couldn't fathom how a mini Sentinel could possibly become popular? I said so at the time & I was ...er....absolutely wrong    That was 2010 & I was in the midst of my first major collecting 'wobble' purely because I had no idea how I was going to gather TRU waves when I lived in the UK ?    Regards that Wave 33 Thor & Lady Loki pack I had to make a huge decision not to get the contemporary TRU Wave 6 Thor & Lady Loki pack . They're the same figures but the packaging is different .   I'm a packaging collector  so it was a hard decision ....that decision ,once made, was scrapped within 24 hours     I have them all. 

Edited January 22 by buttheadsmate

[elhonez]

When are the Marvel character stickers going to be made available? (Widow, Machine Man, etc.)

[Barry]

On 1/22/2026 at 1:56 PM, buttheadsmate said:

Your posts often seem to strike a chord with me .  

I'm glad they do!  I love talking about the work done over the years, and I love hearing people's perspectives about it from the collecting side of things.

4 hours ago, elhonez said:

When are the Marvel character stickers going to be made available? (Widow, Machine Man, etc.)

This is probably better answered by Luke, but I didn't want to seem like I'd just ignored your question.  Hopefully soon!

[luke314pi]

5 hours ago, elhonez said:

When are the Marvel character stickers going to be made available? (Widow, Machine Man, etc.)

Currently we are working with our printing service to get the color matching right. I expect it will be 3 weeks or so until they are finished and ready for release. 

[thereasonsy]

Seeing these Cap through the ages posts makes me ask a painful (to me at least) question, @Barry were there ever plans for the Inhumans? It looked like we were gearing up to see them in a box set and with the no X-Men (wink) rule but I don’t know if that ever hit you guys as hard as it did other toys. 

[Kotter Comics]

13 hours ago, thereasonsy said:

Seeing these Cap through the ages posts makes me ask a painful (to me at least) question, @Barry were there ever plans for the Inhumans? It looked like we were gearing up to see them in a box set and with the no X-Men (wink) rule but I don’t know if that ever hit you guys as hard as it did other toys. 

This would have been a must-buy for me.

[Barry]

16 hours ago, thereasonsy said:

Seeing these Cap through the ages posts makes me ask a painful (to me at least) question, @Barry were there ever plans for the Inhumans? It looked like we were gearing up to see them in a box set and with the no X-Men (wink) rule but I don’t know if that ever hit you guys as hard as it did other toys. 

Unfortunately, no, there were never any solid plans beyond what we ultimately got, whether for comics, animation, or the MCU.  Comic versions were mentioned briefly in various line plan discussions, but never as fully fleshed-out lists.  It was more just “We could do Inhumans…” and not much more than that.  I remember Crystal being floated around more, but considering we'd never made a comic Medusa, and it had been AGES since Black Bolt and Lockjaw, it felt more like we should revisit them first.

I wasn’t heavily involved with line planning early on, so I’m not sure what the original thinking behind including Black Bolt and Lockjaw in the comic waves was since they were the only ones.  Including Black Bolt and Medusa in the animated waves was my decision, since media tie-ins are always a good opportunity to flesh out worlds and make characters you wouldn’t normally get to do.  Their appearance on that show was clearly meant to line up with the MCU debut and push the characters, so I think if the live action show had been a hit, or if they had returned to Avengers Assemble more, I would have continued with additional characters in the animated line.

As for the MCU, they were briefly discussed, but there was hesitation since it was originally announced as a movie and then shifted to a TV show, which seemed like a possible downgrade.  It was left as something we’d pursue if the show turned out to be a hit…  *cough*

We also never had any restrictions on mutants, so it’s not like we had and alternate plan or replacement for anything.  I am curious though, what made it seem like a box set was in the pipeline?  I’m always intrigued by how these rumours start and take on a life of their own, even so many years later.

I know there was buzz at one point because there was a callout on a design put online that said to reuse Medusa's hair.   (I wanted to say it was Lorelei from The Spirit, but looking at her designs, I don't have one that wasn't a new hair piece.)  At any rate, that was actually the Femme Fatales 'Medusa' character that Uriel came up with which hadn't been revealed at that point, but I remember people thinking it was for Marvel's Medusa.  (Incidentally, his idea was that she was a Water Sylph, which makes a lot more sense for her design, but someone renamed her.)

[thereasonsy]

2 hours ago, Barry said:

I am curious though, what made it seem like a box set was in the pipeline?  I’m always intrigued by how these rumours start and take on a life of their own, even so many years later.

If I recall, the talk was around the Medusa hair mould being an expensive piece for a one off and then the rumblings around Gorgonzola being able to reuse a battle blaster foot/leg piece married with basic want. Inhumans have a bit of a diehard fan base (hell I  pleaded for a Crystal figure for over 30 years). 

 

[buttheadsmate]

Gorgonzola slightly more cheesey than Arnim Zola ?

 

 

Edited January 25 by buttheadsmate
childishness

[thereasonsy]

18 hours ago, buttheadsmate said:

Gorgonzola slightly more cheesey than Arnim Zola ?

 

 

Only when shredded.

[Liney]

Barry, one thing I've always been curious about - was there a decision process behind which pieces where cast in white and then painted vs cast in the actual colour?

[Barry]

On 1/24/2026 at 1:36 PM, thereasonsy said:

If I recall, the talk was around the Medusa hair mould being an expensive piece for a one off and then the rumblings around Gorgonzola being able to reuse a battle blaster foot/leg piece married with basic want. Inhumans have a bit of a diehard fan base (hell I  pleaded for a Crystal figure for over 30 years). 

The hair would not have been more expensive unless it was really wild with separate tendrils which would require it be broken down into multiple pieces and then glued together.  The one-piece hair for the animated version was no problem to make, so that was not a factor in not making the team.

Over time, the bigger issue with getting certain characters into the line became their lack of media presence.  From what I saw over the years, prior to big-time movies being made, buyers had far less knowledge of the wider comic universe.  There was much more reliance on the fact that we knew the characters and what would sell.  Cool looking characters could be made if they simply looked cool.  Some buyers were indeed fans though, and would know who deep cut characters were.  I remember one who would make suggestions that I had to Google to visually confirm who they were talking about.  (D'Ken vs Daken, for instance, was the subject of much confusion...)

Early on, when we started the TRU series, I suggested putting the Spider-Man mascot on the packaging so customers who didn’t know these characters could at least see a familiar face.  Grandparents buying a toy for their grandchild didn’t necessarily know the Marvel name yet, but Spider-Man is pretty universal.  The two unknown characters in the package could then perceived as "friends of Spider-Man" and might have a better chance at being purchased.

As the movies expanded, more requests came in for featured characters.  Non-movie characters became harder to pitch.  I’d get notes from sales saying they weren’t interested in a dozen or so ideas because buyers were asking for more tie-ins.

So in the case of the Inhumans, because they appeared in the cartoon, they were an easier pitch to make for that line.  The problem with tying product into a cartoon that was still actively producing new episodes (ie, not retro and playing on nostalgia driven sales) is buyers would want timed releases.  It wasn't enough to delve back into Season 1 characters when they were in Season 2.  Lineplans were often rejected for not being timely enough until I was able to have a meeting with the animation team and find out what future plans were.

Even when interest in certain characters started to slow down a bit, tie-ins were still far easier to sell than deep cuts.  Take Young Avengers, for example, which some people thought was a very fan-driven wave.  That was pitched with the notes that you had Kate from the Hawkeye show, Young Loki from Loki, America Chavez from Doctor Strange, and Wiccan from WandaVision.  It’s not that we couldn’t include characters without media ties, but they were much harder to justify waves built entirely around them.

So, this is all very long winded to say that I knew there were dedicated fans of certain characters out there, but sometimes the cards were stacked against them.

 

22 hours ago, Liney said:

Barry, one thing I've always been curious about - was there a decision process behind which pieces where cast in white and then painted vs cast in the actual colour?

That was a factory decision based on their needs for production and not something I would decide upon.  It was usually based on cost and quantities.  If I had to hazard a guess, you'll probably find that big-box retail characters would use more injected colours than painted because they were produced in much higher numbers.  It would have been faster, less labour-intensive, and therefore cheaper.

It also would have depended on how the colour needed to be applied, how much of the character was that colour, and whether similar colours were being used elsewhere on the figure or wave.  Sometimes though, it would have had to do with production timelines.  If we didn't have paint approval yet and had to start casting parts, they would most likely cast in a white or flesh, then paint them later once we had the approved Pantone.

Edited January 26 by Barry
Made it a little more clear for the line as a whole.