Barry’s Blueprints of Hits and Heartbreak

[cylonchaney]

3 hours ago, Barry said:

For instance, I wanted everyone in the Spider-Verse set to come with a pointing finger hand so you could create your own Spider-Man pointing at other Spider-Men memes, but it would have required pulling out a tool from 2013, then running that tool five times for each singular box set to get a hand for each of the five characters.  It starts to add up for a part that consumers wouldn't even consider including, therefore it's something that isn't missed for not being included. 

That would have been so fun!

[Chooch]

That Sunspot and Warpath in Capullo costumes is awesome!

 

Did you ever design a Capullo costume Feral?  Or Liefeld versions of Warpath and Siryn?  Admittedly, Warpath is incredibly similar to Thunderbird, maybe beefier.

[Barry]

1 hour ago, Chooch said:

Did you ever design a Capullo costume Feral?  Or Liefeld versions of Warpath and Siryn?  Admittedly, Warpath is incredibly similar to Thunderbird, maybe beefier.

Sorry, no.  I recall them all getting tossed around as possibilities, but they didn't go further than that.

[Barry]

Mass Effect Wave 2:

N7 Promo Blank:

Alternate 4-Pack, still would have included Husk:

Miranda was repurposed into the existing 4-Pack with reused parts.

The original 2-Pack wave 1 line was not designed, but planned as Male Shepard & Husk, Female Shepard & Geth Trooper, ME1 Ashley & Saren, ME1 Kaiden & Benezia, Garrus & ME1 Liara, and Wrex & Tali.

Wave 3 (as blind bags) most likely would have been James, EDI, Legion, Morinth, Jacob, Kasumi, Zaeed, and Javik.  Although I could see a couple of those being replaced with lead character variants.

Other characters on my short list if the line had continued as 2-packs:  Anderson, Hackett, Dr. Chakwas, Kelly, Diana, Kai Leng, the Collector General, the Shadow Broker, and the Catalyst.

I still think these 'Mates are some of my best works, and some of the best the factory put out considering how complex they were.  The character designs really work well in the Minimates format, and I still find it disappointing the line ended so quickly.

[Navaan]

1 hour ago, Barry said:

Mass Effect Wave 2:

N7 Promo Blank:

Alternate 4-Pack, still would have included Husk:

Miranda was repurposed into the existing 4-Pack with reused parts.

The original 2-Pack wave 1 line was not designed, but planned as Male Shepard & Husk, Female Shepard & Geth Trooper, ME1 Ashley & Saren, ME1 Kaiden & Benezia, Garrus & ME1 Liara, and Wrex & Tali.

Wave 3 (as blind bags) most likely would have been James, EDI, Legion, Morinth, Jacob, Kasumi, Zaeed, and Javik.  Although I could see a couple of those being replaced with lead character variants.

Other characters on my short list if the line had continued as 2-packs:  Anderson, Hackett, Dr. Chakwas, Kelly, Diana, Kai Leng, the Collector General, the Shadow Broker, and the Catalyst.

I still think these 'Mates are some of my best works, and some of the best the factory put out considering how complex they were.  The character designs really work well in the Minimates format, and I still find it disappointing the line ended so quickly.

I would have bought so many of these.I am a giant Mass Effect fan. I'll have to take pics, later, but I've made the following customs;

Joker

Anderson

Kaiden

James

Steve

Traynor

EDI (light ball)

Jack

Jacob

 

If I ever win the lottery, I am rebooting Minimates just for the rest of these...

 

And getting Cyberpunk done. ^-^

[cylonchaney]

1 hour ago, Barry said:

Mass Effect Wave 2:

N7 Promo Blank:

Alternate 4-Pack, still would have included Husk:

Miranda was repurposed into the existing 4-Pack with reused parts.

The original 2-Pack wave 1 line was not designed, but planned as Male Shepard & Husk, Female Shepard & Geth Trooper, ME1 Ashley & Saren, ME1 Kaiden & Benezia, Garrus & ME1 Liara, and Wrex & Tali.

Wave 3 (as blind bags) most likely would have been James, EDI, Legion, Morinth, Jacob, Kasumi, Zaeed, and Javik.  Although I could see a couple of those being replaced with lead character variants.

Other characters on my short list if the line had continued as 2-packs:  Anderson, Hackett, Dr. Chakwas, Kelly, Diana, Kai Leng, the Collector General, the Shadow Broker, and the Catalyst.

I still think these 'Mates are some of my best works, and some of the best the factory put out considering how complex they were.  The character designs really work well in the Minimates format, and I still find it disappointing the line ended so quickly.

Here's a high compliment for you. I'm not even familiar with the source material and I would have bought these. They're gorgeous.

(I believe it's a video game franchise but not sure. LOL)

[Navaan]

1 hour ago, Barry said:

Mass Effect Wave 2:

N7 Promo Blank:

Alternate 4-Pack, still would have included Husk:

Miranda was repurposed into the existing 4-Pack with reused parts.

The original 2-Pack wave 1 line was not designed, but planned as Male Shepard & Husk, Female Shepard & Geth Trooper, ME1 Ashley & Saren, ME1 Kaiden & Benezia, Garrus & ME1 Liara, and Wrex & Tali.

Wave 3 (as blind bags) most likely would have been James, EDI, Legion, Morinth, Jacob, Kasumi, Zaeed, and Javik.  Although I could see a couple of those being replaced with lead character variants.

Other characters on my short list if the line had continued as 2-packs:  Anderson, Hackett, Dr. Chakwas, Kelly, Diana, Kai Leng, the Collector General, the Shadow Broker, and the Catalyst.

I still think these 'Mates are some of my best works, and some of the best the factory put out considering how complex they were.  The character designs really work well in the Minimates format, and I still find it disappointing the line ended so quickly.

Re-read this, and nitpicky, but I gotta say, not the way I would have formatted those two-packs! Liara and Benezia, Garrus and Tali, Ashley and Kaiden, Wrex and Saren all make MUCH more thematic sense.

8 minutes ago, cylonchaney said:

Here's a high compliment for you. I'm not even familiar with the source material and I would have bought these. They're gorgeous.

(I believe it's a video game franchise but not sure. LOL)

Yessir, and easily my favorite for the longest time, if not now (Cyberpunk has it perhaps actually matched or finally beat). 

Think 'choose your own adventure Star Trek' but MASTERFULLY TOLD (up to a few issues, but as a complete package, in the Mass Effect Legendary Edition, I argue it is the best video game trilogy of all time).

Mass Effect 1: Commander Shepard (your created character) is tapped to become the first human SPECTRE, a special agent representing the Citadel Council, the government for allied alien races which humanity looks to join. Your mission; find Saren, the first rogue SPECTRE, as he attacks human settlements. With him are the Geth, a hostile robot race who follow Saren as a prophet when he claims to have found an ancient ship, Sovereign, belonging to the mythical machine race, the Reapers, set to return and wipe sentient life from the galaxy at the apex of their civilizations.

Mass Effect 2: You've saved the galaxy, but the job isn't done; the Reapers are coming, and the whole of the galaxy doesn't believe you. When your ship is ambushed by the Collectors, a hive-mind race that takes samples and people from across the stars, you die... only to be brought back by Cereberus, pro-human paramilitary terrorists, and their leader, the Illusive Man. You make a deal with the devil, as the Collectors begin to attack and abduct entire human colonies, the trail leading to the Reapers in a suicide mission past the galaxy's center.

Mass Effect 3: The Reapers are here. As they assault the entire galaxy, seemingly with the help of Cerberus as the Illusive Man looks to try and take the Reapers for mankind's grab for power, your one hope is the Catalyst, a device started, but not completed, by the Protheans, the last race to fall to the Reapers. Your decisions over the games come back throughout this final campaign; who have you loved? Who have you betrayed? Who have you saved? What have you lost? Who has survived, till now? Will they make it through the end? Will you?

[FightTheDead118]

2 hours ago, Barry said:

Mass Effect Wave 2:

N7 Promo Blank:

Alternate 4-Pack, still would have included Husk:

Miranda was repurposed into the existing 4-Pack with reused parts.

The original 2-Pack wave 1 line was not designed, but planned as Male Shepard & Husk, Female Shepard & Geth Trooper, ME1 Ashley & Saren, ME1 Kaiden & Benezia, Garrus & ME1 Liara, and Wrex & Tali.

Wave 3 (as blind bags) most likely would have been James, EDI, Legion, Morinth, Jacob, Kasumi, Zaeed, and Javik.  Although I could see a couple of those being replaced with lead character variants.

Other characters on my short list if the line had continued as 2-packs:  Anderson, Hackett, Dr. Chakwas, Kelly, Diana, Kai Leng, the Collector General, the Shadow Broker, and the Catalyst.

I still think these 'Mates are some of my best works, and some of the best the factory put out considering how complex they were.  The character designs really work well in the Minimates format, and I still find it disappointing the line ended so quickly.

Yep just as devastating as I was dreading, especially hearing how far in advance the line was planned, I wonder if the blind bags never happened and they just started with the 2 packs if things would have gone differently 

These really had the misfortune of coming out in the low point of Mass Effect popularity, the series has seen a massive upswing in the last few years, especially since the trilogy got remastered, and of course it was really big while the games were released, but these came out in like 2014 when people were still the most sore about the ME3 ending and hadn’t really developed nostalgia for the series yet

If these had released like 2 years earlier or 4 years later they probably would’ve sold gangbusters, but alas they came out when they did and pretty much went straight to clearance, damn shame

God the character selections are so perfect too, the only thing I would change would be to replace Morinth with Anderson and give him alternate parts to make Hackett, they wear the same uniform

Edited August 12, 2025 by FightTheDead118

[cylonchaney]

25 minutes ago, Navaan said:

Re-read this, and nitpicky, but I gotta say, not the way I would have formatted those two-packs! Liara and Benezia, Garrus and Tali, Ashley and Kaiden, Wrex and Saren all make MUCH more thematic sense.

Yessir, and easily my favorite for the longest time, if not now (Cyberpunk has it perhaps actually matched or finally beat). 

Think 'choose your own adventure Star Trek' but MASTERFULLY TOLD (up to a few issues, but as a complete package, in the Mass Effect Legendary Edition, I argue it is the best video game trilogy of all time).

Mass Effect 1: Commander Shepard (your created character) is tapped to become the first human SPECTRE, a special agent representing the Citadel Council, the government for allied alien races which humanity looks to join. Your mission; find Saren, the first rogue SPECTRE, as he attacks human settlements. With him are the Geth, a hostile robot race who follow Saren as a prophet when he claims to have found an ancient ship, Sovereign, belonging to the mythical machine race, the Reapers, set to return and wipe sentient life from the galaxy at the apex of their civilizations.

Mass Effect 2: You've saved the galaxy, but the job isn't done; the Reapers are coming, and the whole of the galaxy doesn't believe you. When your ship is ambushed by the Collectors, a hive-mind race that takes samples and people from across the stars, you die... only to be brought back by Cereberus, pro-human paramilitary terrorists, and their leader, the Illusive Man. You make a deal with the devil, as the Collectors begin to attack and abduct entire human colonies, the trail leading to the Reapers in a suicide mission past the galaxy's center.

Mass Effect 3: The Reapers are here. As they assault the entire galaxy, seemingly with the help of Cerberus as the Illusive Man looks to try and take the Reapers for mankind's grab for power, your one hope is the Catalyst, a device started, but not completed, by the Protheans, the last race to fall to the Reapers. Your decisions over the games come back throughout this final campaign; who have you loved? Who have you betrayed? Who have you saved? What have you lost? Who has survived, till now? Will they make it through the end? Will you?

My PS3 is still connected and working (as is my PS2).  I've recently gotten back to gaming a little so may have to check this out.

[Navaan]

21 minutes ago, cylonchaney said:

My PS3 is still connected and working (as is my PS2).  I've recently gotten back to gaming a little so may have to check this out.

Do you have Steam and a PC? It was not released on PS3, I don't think.

[FightTheDead118]

3 minutes ago, Navaan said:

Do you have Steam and a PC? It was not released on PS3, I don't think.

The whole trilogy is on PS3, though fair warning those old EA servers for transferring saves barely works anymore, the Legendary Edition is definitely the best way to experience the games but its only on later gens

[cylonchaney]

6 minutes ago, Navaan said:

Do you have Steam and a PC? It was not released on PS3, I don't think.

It was. I looked before I posted. Though I do note FightTheDead118's post.

I'm old. LOL PS3 is as new as I have. I refuse to buy into the generation of microtransactions and server connections required for single player. I prefer to actually own things rather than a rental disguised as ownership. Maybe this game is not for me after all.  

Probably why my PS2 is my most played system. Lately it's just quick rounds of Crazy Taxi. That game is fun.

Anyway, sorry for the detour. Beautiful work Barry!

[Navaan]

Super, super fair, and I get you.

I MUCH prefer games on physical, hence the following-

 

BUT if you do wanna get it, I specifically suggest the Legendary Edition, which has the updated Mass Effect 1 (which, admittedly, is slightly archaic in some designs, and bettered with the Legendary remaster and gameplay fixes), as well as the DLC for the games. It is on PC and Steam for $59.99. Once you get it that way, you can turn off auto updates, and launch it from the games, directly, allowing you to do so WITHOUT Steam or needing to be connected online.

[hellpop]

On 8/11/2025 at 12:00 PM, Barry said:

X-Force's Sunpot and Warpath are really the only two I can think of off the top of my head.  I'm struggling to think of teams that we didn't complete.  Not to say that we made everyone, just sometimes my brain is foggy on older releases that never happened since they can be over 10 years ago now.  Also, what sometimes was considered 'complete' in that we got the main necessary cast made was not considered complete by others, such as Age Of Apocalypse.  I believe most sets that people would consider 'incomplete' didn't have additional characters designed that were then cut.  If they were cut, they were most likely cut in line plan form due to a retailer dropping out, or lack of sales interest.  So, no, there was never a full Phoenix Five designed, which is kind of odd to think about.

I did design the Puck hand.  It was specifically included with him because he was often depicted as cartwheeling around, or in group shots, standing on one hand.  It's always great if a part can become reused, and some parts were designed to do just that, such as hair pieces not including sculpted earrings (which I decided on after I found I was tooling new parts just to get nearly identical hair to an old piece just without the earrings), but other times it's just not worth trying to reuse a part even if they're generic enough to do so.

The problem with reusing any previously tooled part is you have to dig out and, depending on the age, clean up an old tool to just use it for one singular piece.  It costs money to do so, so it's best to use multiple parts that come from a single tool when possible, or use the newest version of a part that's similar.  This often informed decisions on what parts were used.  If something was absolutely necessary to complete the look of a figure then the choice was made to get that one piece.  But, if there was a suitable piece that came from a tool where other pieces were also useful for a wave then that piece would win out.

I know that the hand would be applicable to other acrobatic characters, but even characters like Spider-Man are not known for standing on one hand.  There were often 'wish list' versions of designs where everything thought of was included, but then you'd step back and see that a single wave had far too many reused parts.  That, or I could practically hear my factory contact doing a spit-take through the email as he politely let me know to trim it a little before he gave an official quote.  I frequently had to ask myself, "does it really warrant digging out that one tool for that one part?"  Useful?  Yes.  Essential?  No.

For instance, I wanted everyone in the Spider-Verse set to come with a pointing finger hand so you could create your own Spider-Man pointing at other Spider-Men memes, but it would have required pulling out a tool from 2013, then running that tool five times for each singular box set to get a hand for each of the five characters.  It starts to add up for a part that consumers wouldn't even consider including, therefore it's something that isn't missed for not being included. 

Even after Echo needed to be cut from W84, (First Ronin was cut, then Echo all together), there was additional parts that also needed to go - a "Daredevil Dead?" newspaper for Elektra, a "Daredevil's Identity" folder for Kingpin, and two swords and flame balls for Typhoid Mary instead of the included one each.  Echo aside, because she was non-negotiably awesome, were the other parts cool?  Sure.  Necessary?  No.

This is in part why webslinging hands took so long to include.  We knew that if we included them, there was no going back.  Any Spider-Man release without the webslinging hands would feel like they were missing them.  He already pretty much required a webline as well, so that became 3 essential reused pieces for any one Spider-Man, who was already a price problem due to complicated tampo.

A bit of a tangent about reused parts, but another example that I've heard frequent complaints about was the new L-bar Captain America shield.  It's not as good as the original one because it's one piece, so you can't have it on a chest harness, or an arm strap, or separate from both for throwing.  I agree with all of this!  But...  every time you need a shield you have to get out 3 parts, or at least two for the shield and the arm strap if the character doesn't have a chest harness.  Over time, those specific parts became old, so I had to tool new parts.  Parts with a hole in them required more space in a tool (for long, drawn out reasons I'm not going to bother to get into...), so both the arm strap and the shield would need that extra space.  Take into account that a newly tooled wave might only have 10 new parts allotted to it, so a new strap and a new shield means one-fifth of the tool is the shield.  Now, with the extra space required for the holes in the strap and shield you take up more room, so suddenly you only get 6 additional parts because the strap and shield are in the place of parts 7, 8, 9, and 10.  Now, two-fifths of the new tool is shield.  On the other hand, a new shield with the L-bar has no holes and therefore is only taking up the room of 1 piece.  Then your wave goes back up to 9 new parts with the shield being part 10.  That's far better for the overall wave, and easier to grab one part for reuse later on.  So, why was it designed to be multiple parts to begin with?  Why not just jump straight to the L-bar shield?  Things, and costs, changed over time.  What was originally a viable way to do things had to be reevaluated to keep costs down.  (Does ANY of this make sense?  I feel like I'm incoherently rambling with red yarn connecting Polaroids on a corkboard here...)

Basically, this is all to say that I know it seems like not including Puck's hand is taking a bit of fun out of a figure, and I do agree with that.  Cuts are never fun to make.  But, if a set is going over budget then the unnecessary elements, or at least ones that will go unmissed by the vast majority of collectors, need to be cut.  Those elements could be old parts, new parts, tampo hits, or paint applications.  Every bit has it's own cost and they all add up in the end.

After all of that, I almost forgot about Sunspot and Warpath:

 

Just wanted to thank you for sharing all this detail. Amazing peek behind the scenes at your thought process. 

[Barry]

Thanks for the kind words, everyone.  They're always appreciated.

No worries on the Mass Effect talk, they're excellent games.  I only knew about them in passing when the license was obtained, so I bought the first game to do some homework and ended up binging the trilogy in no time.  Normally I play a different game in a series after completing one, but Mass Effect is the only time I ever played one series back-to-back-to-back.  I just had to know how the story continued.  It stopped being research and became something I was personally invested in.  My Wrex's death still haunts me.

Vinimates, anyone?  (No, seriously, are people interested?)  The vast majority of them ended up getting made compared to Minimates, but there's still some that never happened.

[Trekker 42]

The designs are great but I've always thought that the Power Rangers ones used the format best as a compliment to minimates. Godzilla too I suppose. I just don't have much use for unarticulated statues.

[buttheadsmate]

The Mass Effect designs are sublime.

Vinimates , I have them all ,some are superb ,some not so superb !  My main gripe* with Vinimates is (was?) their hands , what works with Minimates doesn't IMHO work with Vinimates .  The common denominator of my favourite Vinimates are the ones with 'proper' hands .    

* APART FROM THE OBVIOUS NON-ARTICULATION.

Edited August 14, 2025 by buttheadsmate

[Smashmaster12]

Barry,

Thank you so much for posting all of this beautiful work you did for the line. Honestly, one of my favorite things about toys is viewing behind-the-scenes stuff so this is a genuine treat. With your permission, I'd love to use some of this in a video I'm working on. Or if you have time, I'd love to sit down with you one-on-one for an interview.

Genuinely, there cannot be enough thanks in the world for you and what you do. I have a Minimates poster signed by you (It was for one of the photo contests years ago) sitting in my bedroom and it's one of my prized possessions

[Shanester]

Godzilla Vinimates are the only ones I picked up, although I have a couple prototypes from other lines.

[Padrino]

Barry, these are amazing!

 

I know there was a Buffy line of vinimates produced but was there ever an intention to make a minimate line? Were there ever any designs made?

[hellpop]

I don't know if this is even possible, but I would absolutely love to see an "art of Minimates" book with these designs at some point. Would make for a great Kickstarter project (I know, everyone on here has a Pavlovian reaction whenever they think "Minimates Kickstarter").

[buttheadsmate]

1 hour ago, Shanester said:

Godzilla Vinimates are the only ones I picked up, although I have a couple prototypes from other lines.

Proper hands/claws ....no Minimate-style hands . 

[buttheadsmate]

47 minutes ago, hellpop said:

I don't know if this is even possible, but I would absolutely love to see an "art of Minimates" book with these designs at some point. Would make for a great Kickstarter project (I know, everyone on here has a Pavlovian reaction whenever they think "Minimates Kickstarter").

Great idea , I'm in . Seriously in.  

Regards the 'Pavlovian reaction' ? I'm the same , meringue gives me heartburn .

 

[Padrino]

59 minutes ago, buttheadsmate said:

Proper hands/claws ....no Minimate-style hands . 

Love my glow-in-the-dark mecha-godzilla vinimate!

[Barry]

22 hours ago, Trekker 42 said:

The designs are great but I've always thought that the Power Rangers ones used the format best as a compliment to minimates. Godzilla too I suppose. I just don't have much use for unarticulated statues.

I think these are the best ones as well.  Iron Giant and Stay-Puft too.  I do love the DC ones just because they gave me a chance to work on the brand in the Minimate-style format further than I already had.  Size aside, the Godzilla ones also work better because they weren't trying to look like large Minimates.  They were their own thing.

 

22 hours ago, buttheadsmate said:

Vinimates , I have them all ,some are superb ,some not so superb !  My main gripe* with Vinimates is (was?) their hands , what works with Minimates doesn't IMHO work with Vinimates .  The common denominator of my favourite Vinimates are the ones with 'proper' hands .    

* APART FROM THE OBVIOUS NON-ARTICULATION.

The Godzilla ones seemed to have a following amongst people who otherwise had no interest in the 'Mate brands, so I began to toy with fingered hands on Jet Jaguar, but still within the realm of a ball-shaped hand.  I hate the fist I drew here though.  If it had gone ahead, I would have done another pass.

I initially wanted neutral poses and 5-POA, but lost to that vote.  When I became design lead, I scrapped the fake joint lines as I felt they only added visual confusion.

 

20 hours ago, Smashmaster12 said:

Honestly, one of my favorite things about toys is viewing behind-the-scenes stuff so this is a genuine treat. With your permission, I'd love to use some of this in a video I'm working on. Or if you have time, I'd love to sit down with you one-on-one for an interview.

Genuinely, there cannot be enough thanks in the world for you and what you do. I have a Minimates poster signed by you (It was for one of the photo contests years ago) sitting in my bedroom and it's one of my prized possessions

Prior to my working in the industry, seeing designs was always a highlight for me as well.  It helped me gain interest in working on toys.  I would hope that my designs help someone else find that same path... just as long as they leave a job for me -- I'm still unemployed!

It always humbles me that something I created would have a place in someone's collection.  I'm just me drawing my little pictures, doing what I like to do, so it's a real honour.  I always worked remotely, so I think there's always been a disconnect between my drawing something in my house and then having it appear out in the world somewhere.  I would do an interview for sure, send me a message on my Contact form on my website.  I might not be able to do it until September, but we can figure something out.

 

18 hours ago, Padrino said:

I know there was a Buffy line of vinimates produced but was there ever an intention to make a minimate line? Were there ever any designs made?

No intention that I ever heard about, and no designs either, sorry.  I'm not privy as to why.

 

17 hours ago, hellpop said:

I don't know if this is even possible, but I would absolutely love to see an "art of Minimates" book with these designs at some point.

I’ve thought about an art book for years, but I always wondered if there was widespread interest.  I have a Star Wars figure book, and I've seen the new TMNT one, but those fan bases are huge.  Minimates feel very niche in comparison despite all the big names attached to them.

I honestly don’t understand how some of these unofficial books happen either.  Many, like the early 2000's trend of "The Philosophy Of _____" books are text-only which appears to help them out legally, but then I own a couple of unlicensed guides to the Batman ’66 series that are absolutely packed with photos. 

I'm thinking that the logistics of officially including all these different licensed characters in one place might be a nightmare.  The books I mentioned above were one topic only.  I was once heavily criticized by an individual at a licensor for identifying an extremely generic reused part with a competing company’s character's name, as that was the source of the part.  The design would not be approved until the name was removed from the sheet.  So, while a book is an appealing idea, it wouldn't surprise me if there were issues like ‘our pictures have to be bigger than license X’ or ‘we need to appear in the book before license Y,’ even if alphabetically that doesn’t make sense.  I think it requires a LOT more investigation into how it could be done.

 

17 hours ago, hellpop said:

(I know, everyone on here has a Pavlovian reaction whenever they think "Minimates Kickstarter").

*cough*