Barry’s Blueprints of Hits and Heartbreak

[Barry]

On 7/29/2025 at 4:07 AM, buttheadsmate said:

the logistical effort (for me) of importing them from the US to the UK was tough , that's a big package if you're theoretically a completist figure collector & I wasn't just buying one of each !

As a former Star Wars 3-3/4 collector, I know this pain.  Acquiring vehicle pack-ins was the bane of my existence, especially because most of them were US retailer exclusives.  Getting a 2x3-foot X-Wing box shipped cross-border just because I wanted 4" of plastic within said box was ridiculous.  When they began making SDCC exclusive pack-ins prior to any kind of online method of buying them at home, I burnt out on paying eBay prices and gave up.  Hence, I am really not a fan of bloated packaging sizes.

 

23 hours ago, cylonchaney said:

I loved all of the Minimate vehicles except the DeLorean and Classic Cylon Raider prototype. I didn't find them a good resemblance. Now KITT and KARR on the other hand. Awesome.

The DeLorean was one of the first designed.  By the time Knight Rider came around I feel we'd ironed out the kinks and had a better feel for the MM vehicle aesthetic.  It would have been nice to be able to revisit the DeLorean with a new sculpt.

 

20 hours ago, DSTZach said:

By the way, I am seeing all of this for the first time. I usually was not looped in until a product was definite. Later on, Barry and Robert were kind enough to share in-development things with me, and I thank them. 

A lot of the time, the unmade figures were very fleeting to the point that I'm finding individual figures now that I'd completely forgot about.  Whole waves getting cancelled were more memorable, and I think more people knew about them internally because they were submitted for licensor approval.  Individual figures I personally might've axed without anyone else seeing the design because I decided to go in a different direction, such as the Cyclops from Wave 87.  That, or they were cancelled and replaced with other characters before a wave was completed and therefore were never part of the submitted package.

For example, I just found Falcone and Mr. Zsasz from Gotham Wave 1 which I had totally forgotten about.  They were completed, then we received a list of studio-approved characters that they weren't on, so we replaced them with Sarah Essen and Black Mask.  

 

[Barry]

More forgotten, unsubmitted fun - Kraven from W77 originally had Spidey's stolen black costume.  It was very large though so it took up too much tooling space, plus I thought it looked like he'd deflated Spider-Man.

[Padrino]

I actually love that deflated Spider-Man!! and that Kraven was excellent!

Thank you so much for sharing these. The two sides of Marvel that I always loved are the cosmic and the mystic sides. Were there ever any plans for a Clea or a Binary or anything in that realm that was unreleased?

[thereasonsy]

13 minutes ago, Barry said:

More forgotten, unsubmitted fun - Kraven from W77 originally had Spidey's stolen black costume.  It was very large though so it took up too much tooling space, plus I thought it looked like he'd deflated Spider-Man.

This and the black cat accessories are my favorite.

[Barry]

2 hours ago, Padrino said:

Were there ever any plans for a Clea or a Binary or anything in that realm that was unreleased?

Binary was on a big list of potentials, but it was really a catch-all character list that we could look at from time to time for brainstorming ideas.  There were brief 'what if' moments about the original Guardians of the Galaxy, but nothing beyond spit-balling.  Not really sure how cosmic you'd consider Cosmo, but he was designed for Walgreens Wave 12 when it was eight characters, but got dropped.  Lobsterman suggested a "Mystical Madness" wave to tie in loosely with Doctor Strange 2 and WandaVision, which I really liked, but it alas was not chosen - Doctor Strange, Baron Mordo, Scarlet Witch, Vision, Sleepwalker, Nightmare, BAF Wong.  

Also, I would like to take a moment to mention Boyd and Lobsterman here who, as some might know but others probably don't, were the excellent painters whose work you'd see in the solicitations.  On top of their outstanding paints, they were regularly available to throw out character ideas, think of alternate parts, find parts I was thinking of that I couldn't put my finger on, and generally were sounding boards for me if ever I was unsure of an artistic decision I'd made.  Their work was always spot on and made us look good, which made approvals so much easier.  It was always fun to make what-if lists with them, especially when they got goofy like the "Sales Death" picks that included the likes of Woodgod and Death's Head.  I considered them 'my team' and I could not have done my job without them. 

 

2 hours ago, thereasonsy said:

This and the black cat accessories are my favorite.

When I found that accessory, I found this Thor from the same wave as well.  I honestly do not remember for the life of me why I slapped this together, but it seems Thor thought the Black Cat accessory was great too.  Someone probably told me to cut the cat and I said "No, moar cats!" or something.  Some days were long ones...

Edited July 30, 2025 by Barry

[Lobsterman]

Awww, thanks, Barry! I will say getting the tap to work on Minimates was one of the high points of my working life, and it's been a privilege to do paints for as long as I have. 

I can't tell you how many times a spitballing session with you two on slack got me through an interminably boring meeting at my day job...  

[elhonez]

3 hours ago, Barry said:

More forgotten, unsubmitted fun - Kraven from W77 originally had Spidey's stolen black costume.  It was very large though so it took up too much tooling space, plus I thought it looked like he'd deflated Spider-Man.

I would like to formally thank you for the production set -- it's one of my all-time favorites, with the tombstone and torso-mountable zombie dirt pile. And of course the Spider-Slayer, my favorite of the BAFs (BAMs?). 

I'll pour one out for Salvador Dalí Spider-Man. 

[hellpop]

So much goodness here! I just remembered something I've always wanted to ask about. I heard once some talk that Children's Television Workshop approached you all about doing Sesame Street Minimates around the time that you were doing the Muppets; did that ever go anywhere? Did you ever reach the design stage?

[Barry]

19 hours ago, hellpop said:

So much goodness here! I just remembered something I've always wanted to ask about. I heard once some talk that Children's Television Workshop approached you all about doing Sesame Street Minimates around the time that you were doing the Muppets; did that ever go anywhere? Did you ever reach the design stage?

That one's news to me!  If it ever happened, it didn't reach my ears.

Unrelated, here's the Cosmo mentioned above, plus others cancelled from Wave 12.  It would have been Cosmo & Howard, Thor & Yemandi, MIles & Prowler (who was released).  Miles was meant as a complementary figure to 11's Peter, but he was replaced with his costumed version as it'd been 3 years since the last one.

[minifigvig]

Howard! now that’s a duck who really looks like he’s been trapped in a world he never made

makes me think of Zdarksy’s Reed Richards commenting on his power of “being agitated”

would love a classic blue, but i know how the mouse feels about that look

[Trekker 42]

I never liked these animated show minimates much, (only ever bought two: Man Thing and Kamala Khan since we didn't have them otherwise) but I would've had to get that Throg.

[hellpop]

We almost got Throg?! 

[hellpop]

3 hours ago, Barry said:

That one's news to me!  If it ever happened, it didn't reach my ears.

So what I had heard was that, at a con one year, the Sesame Street people saw the Muppets Minimates and were like "hey, we should talk about our Muppets". But it must not have gone any farther than that.

[Lobsterman]

5 hours ago, Barry said:

Unrelated, here's the Cosmo mentioned above, plus others cancelled from Wave 12.  It would have been Cosmo & Howard, Thor & Yemandi, MIles & Prowler (who was released).  Miles was meant as a complementary figure to 11's Peter, but he was replaced with his costumed version as it'd been 3 years since the last one.

 

Oh yeaahhh... I should finish this guy. 

 

 

[cylonchaney]

24 minutes ago, Lobsterman said:

Oh yeaahhh... I should finish this guy. 

 

 

😍

OK. Minimates have to get resurrected so we can get this!

Edited July 31, 2025 by cylonchaney

[buttheadsmate]

I have a kennel .            Far away.

Far kennel  ! *   

* old English , say it quickly .

Whilst I continue to enjoy the 'what we might have hads', I'd still want (licenses allowing) the original Howard ...the only one that fits the bill.

[cylonchaney]

7 minutes ago, buttheadsmate said:

I have a kennel .            Far away.

Far kennel  ! *   

* old English , say it quickly .

Whilst I continue to enjoy the 'what we might have hads', I'd still want (licenses allowing) the original Howard ...the only one that fits the bill.

That would be just ducky. You quack me up with your puns bhm.  

[thereasonsy]

10 hours ago, Lobsterman said:

Oh yeaahhh... I should finish this guy. 

 

 

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!! DOGGY!

[buttheadsmate]

On 7/29/2025 at 4:25 PM, cylonchaney said:

Another option would be to sculpt the legs onto the motorcycle and then you just put a minimate torso on it.  Some toy lines do similar with horses. The figures legs go inside the animal and there is a saddle and legs sculpted on the outside.

 

I've got to dig in on 'Motorcycle legs'.   There are so many 1/24 & 1/25 scaled die-cast bikes available that a vast number of Minimates could use them .    I'm no customiser but I have thought about a solution several times & one idea I had was a modified crotch-piece with extended-outwards 'balls' which would allow a more bow-legged gait .   

[nandoninny]

12 minutes ago, buttheadsmate said:

I've got to dig in on 'Motorcycle legs'.   There are so many 1/24 & 1/25 scaled die-cast bikes available that a vast number of Minimates could use them .    I'm no customiser but I have thought about a solution several times & one idea I had was a modified crotch-piece with extended-outwards 'balls' which would allow a more bow-legged gait .   

I started working exactly this but never got past the measurements.   

[Barry]

19 hours ago, hellpop said:

So what I had heard was that, at a con one year, the Sesame Street people saw the Muppets Minimates and were like "hey, we should talk about our Muppets". But it must not have gone any farther than that.

Strange, yeah, I'd never heard anything about it.  

 

18 hours ago, Lobsterman said:

Oh yeaahhh... I should finish this guy. 

I completely forgot we even got that far with him!

 

Here's more animated characters:

 

 

[Padrino]

On 7/30/2025 at 11:17 AM, thereasonsy said:

This and the black cat accessories are my favorite.

amazing stuff! Love that Cosmo and that Bro Thor. These animated figures are fantastic!

[Trekker 42]

27 minutes ago, Barry said:

Strange, yeah, I'd never heard anything about it.  

 

I completely forgot we even got that far with him!

 

Here's more animated characters:

 

 

Who’s the brown guy?

[Barry]

10 minutes ago, Trekker 42 said:

Who’s the brown guy?

Black Dwarf from Thanos' Black Order.  He was instead called Cull Obsidian in the MCU.

[Padrino]

 

1 hour ago, Barry said:

Black Dwarf from Thanos' Black Order.  He was instead called Cull Obsidian in the MCU.

was there ever a design for Super Nova? I have no idea if she was in the animated show. I had stopped watching by then.