Barry’s Blueprints of Hits and Heartbreak

[cylonchaney]

19 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. Would make for a great Kickstarter project (I know, everyone on here has a Pavlovian reaction whenever they think "Minimates Kickstarter").

I really dig what you're saying here.  

An art book would especially appeal to me if the art included art of lines that never were and characters that look good as art but don't translate well to actual Mates. For example, I think "True Lies" would make a terrible wave / boxset but an amazing Minimated movie poster.

[thereasonsy]

Hear hear on the book. Hell I’d love a poster of all these designs. My aggressive stance on vinimates has softened. They have always been beautiful, I’m just sad we didn’t get them all as Minimates. Especially front on views. My personal faves were the Buffy ones and anything that made sense with Minimates scale. 

[Navaan]

Hey Barry, with all these, I have to wonder, any Marvel characters drawn up never even broached? Luna Snow? Lady Bullseye? Elsa Bloodstone? The Wrecking Crew?

[Barry]

22 hours ago, Navaan said:

Hey Barry, with all these, I have to wonder, any Marvel characters drawn up never even broached? Luna Snow? Lady Bullseye? Elsa Bloodstone? The Wrecking Crew?

Nothing I can really think of.  Most comic characters that were planned ended up getting made because there really weren't many external factors stopping them from being made.  Movie characters had a lot more cut because the plans for the movie would change over time, or retailers would want specific characters or actors.  Most comic characters got cut before designs ever began because we'd decide to go in another direction before designing.

There were a few variants of characters designed and not used, but nothing earth shattering.  Generation X Jubilee was one, she was never on a plan.  I just slapped her together because I could.  Scarlet Witch had a more modern comic costume designed (circa 2016) for a potential new Wave 1.  Wolverine as Fang was in maybe 4 or 5 waves and was always dropped in favour of someone else.  The first instance was W47 when it was scheduled for a far earlier position.  He was considered a LOT after that, but it just wasn't meant to be.

Lady Bullseye was on a lot of my own Daredevil wave lists before she was finally dropped as W84 was locked down to be more of a Woman Without Fear / Mayor Fisk wave.  But then I was trying to get a un-themed DD wave made for years, so a lot of characters rotated through that concept before drawing began.  I could have sworn I began to draw her hair, but I can't find it anywhere.  It might've just been a doodle on a post-it that's gone now.

Thunderball DID actually have a design from well before my time.  I don't know if he was on that original design-jam poster from the beginning of the line, but I did find a turnaround for him in the old AA files.  I think when they started on Marvel they designed a whole bunch and then plugged them into waves later, but I could be wrong.  If I find the design again (the old files are a hot mess, but I DO have them) I'll try and post it.  I'm still figuring out what to do with older designs in terms of an archive.

[Strider]

On 8/14/2025 at 4:26 PM, 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").

I would back it in a heartbeat but I don’t know if it would have enough pull outside of the Minimates fanbase at least on Kickstarter. I would think if you made a book of all of Barry’s designs and brought it to the different conventions to sell that it would do well. 
 

If it was ever made it would be right out on my family’s coffee table. 

[Barry]

44 minutes ago, Strider said:

I would back it in a heartbeat but I don’t know if it would have enough pull outside of the Minimates fanbase at least on Kickstarter. I would think if you made a book of all of Barry’s designs and brought it to the different conventions to sell that it would do well. 
If it was ever made it would be right out on my family’s coffee table. 

I'm thinking a book would probably only appeal to people here, unfortunately.  My work never really picked up much traction on Instagram, definitely not enough to sell books unless a publisher is willing to make under 50 copies or so.  I guess that's the bonus of making it through crowd-funding though, there's a lot more of a safety net knowing how many people are committed to it.

My work was really a weird niche thing, even with the numbers of designs and licenses I worked on.  I only ever met people who knew of my work when at a NYCC Minimates meet-n-greet in 2012.  My local comic con never showed interest in me as a guest despite my work being featured in big places, like a mention on the Iron Man DVD, as a joke on Jimmy Kimmel, and an interview on StarWars.com's main page.  My first Minimates design has been hanging on my parent's fridge for almost twenty years though, which is all that really matters.

Here's the Scarlet Witch mentioned in my previous post, along with three others from a potential new series for a new retailer that was never picked up.  It would have been sort of a greatest hits with these 4 being new offerings.

Edited August 17 by Barry

[thereasonsy]

2 hours ago, Barry said:

I'm thinking a book would probably only appeal to people here, unfortunately.  My work never really picked up much traction on Instagram, definitely not enough to sell books unless a publisher is willing to make under 50 copies or so.  I guess that's the bonus of making it through crowd-funding though, there's a lot more of a safety net knowing how many people are committed to it.

My work was really a weird niche thing, even with the numbers of designs and licenses I worked on.  I only ever met people who knew of my work when at a NYCC Minimates meet-n-greet in 2012.  My local comic con never showed interest in me as a guest despite my work being featured in big places, like a mention on the Iron Man DVD, as a joke on Jimmy Kimmel, and an interview on StarWars.com's main page.  My first Minimates design has been hanging on my parent's fridge for almost twenty years though, which is all that really matters.

Here's the Scarlet Witch mentioned in my previous post, along with three others from a potential new series for a new retailer that was never picked up.  It would have been sort of a greatest hits with these 4 being new offerings.

These are uncanny Avengers! They are beautiful. I love your folks still have your artwork. It’s very sweet.

[thereasonsy]

4 hours ago, Barry said:

There were a few variants of characters designed and not used, but nothing earth shattering.  Generation X Jubilee was one, she was never on a plan.  I just slapped her together because I could.  Scarlet Witch had a more modern comic costume designed (circa 2016) for a potential new Wave 1.  Wolverine as Fang was in maybe 4 or 5 waves and was always dropped in favour of someone else. 

Sweet Christmas these would have been epic. Fang and Gen X were on my wish lists for decades. Did you ever design them? 

[buttheadsmate]

I'd be honoured to invest in any book that could appropriately(licensing etc). be produced .   

 

Dibs on your parents' fridge & what's hanging on it . 

[minifigvig]

the jimmy kimmel comment got me digging! if you’re like me and didn’t see the celeb section of barry’s site, check it out

https://basement24.com/celebrity-photos

[Padrino]

20 hours ago, buttheadsmate said:

I'd be honoured to invest in any book that could appropriately(licensing etc). be produced .   

 

count me in!

[elhonez]

@Barry was a Tiamat Vinimate ever considered for the D&D line?

[ApexPredator]

I wanted an updated comic black panther for the longest time 😩😩😩😩

[Barry]

On 8/17/2025 at 5:15 PM, thereasonsy said:

Sweet Christmas these would have been epic. Fang and Gen X were on my wish lists for decades. Did you ever design them? 

Yes, though a lot of Jubilee was reused pieces and art from Uriel's work.  It looks like I just drew the new tampo elements.  I forgot about X-Babies Wolverine too!

On 8/17/2025 at 5:52 PM, buttheadsmate said:

Dibs on your parents' fridge & what's hanging on it . 

I will let them know they need to find new accommodations for their milk!

 

On 8/18/2025 at 9:49 AM, minifigvig said:

the jimmy kimmel comment got me digging! if you’re like me and didn’t see the celeb section of barry’s site, check it out

https://basement24.com/celebrity-photos

In putting together my new site that page went unlinked by mistake.  I've added the gallery to the "Press" section as well, but I'll leave this page linked as is so people can see it here.

 

1 hour ago, elhonez said:

@Barry was a Tiamat Vinimate ever considered for the D&D line?

It was mentioned briefly, but more in jest due to the high cost it would have been.  If Ghidorah was nearly impossible, two additional heads were not going to happen unfortunately.

[cylonchaney]

When Minimates make their triumphant return, X-Babies needs to be a thing! 😍

[thereasonsy]

9 hours ago, cylonchaney said:

When Minimates make their triumphant return, X-Babies needs to be a thing! 😍

I agree!!! These are so great. Thanks for showing them @Barry! Did you know how they were going to be used?

[BCDX97]

So many great designs.  Thanks for sharing so much with us!

[hellpop]

My idea for a book is more similar to the type of sketchbooks that artists do; for example, Steve Rude does a self published sketchbook every year, and I don't think copyrights are ever a problem. Heck, Zach just did one for his photos (which everyone should buy)! I think the bigger issue would be ownership of the designs themselves, since they were not created independently. Anyway, I think there's probably enough toy and design fans to raise enough funds for a print run though Kickstarter. Maybe talk to Blake Wright, who produced the Toys That Time Forgot books? Could be a special edition focusing on just Minimates?

[Barry]

14 hours ago, thereasonsy said:

I agree!!! These are so great. Thanks for showing them @Barry! Did you know how they were going to be used?

Wolverine was the only X-Baby designed, and just a front view.  I put him together just to see if would work, he never was scheduled.

 

4 hours ago, hellpop said:

My idea for a book is more similar to the type of sketchbooks that artists do; for example, Steve Rude does a self published sketchbook every year, and I don't think copyrights are ever a problem. Heck, Zach just did one for his photos (which everyone should buy)! I think the bigger issue would be ownership of the designs themselves, since they were not created independently. Anyway, I think there's probably enough toy and design fans to raise enough funds for a print run though Kickstarter. Maybe talk to Blake Wright, who produced the Toys That Time Forgot books? Could be a special edition focusing on just Minimates?

I've considered all formats, but I would want to make sure the details are 100% ironed out before attempting anything.  There's factors about my work that makes it different from the examples above, so I need to figure that out first.

[Nessex]

GAH! I would have been ALL OVER these if they got made. Especially that Jubilee. I'm already thinking about there I could source alt heads and arms for Monet & Husk. 
She looks great!

[nandoninny]

@Barry -- these have all be so much fun to look at.  thank you for sharing -- 

that jubilee reminds me of a question i've had for a while -- the original jubilee had the 1 head with a different face on each side.  i know there was at least one or two other figures like that but the bulk of the different facial expressions just came with 2 heads.  any insight into the reasoning that you can provide?

[Trekker 42]

10 minutes ago, nandoninny said:

@Barry -- these have all be so much fun to look at.  thank you for sharing -- 

that jubilee reminds me of a question i've had for a while -- the original jubilee had the 1 head with a different face on each side.  i know there was at least one or two other figures like that but the bulk of the different facial expressions just came with 2 heads.  any insight into the reasoning that you can provide?

Oh yes I would love to know that. 

 

[Barry]

3 hours ago, nandoninny said:

@Barry -- these have all be so much fun to look at.  thank you for sharing -- 

that jubilee reminds me of a question i've had for a while -- the original jubilee had the 1 head with a different face on each side.  i know there was at least one or two other figures like that but the bulk of the different facial expressions just came with 2 heads.  any insight into the reasoning that you can provide?

I’d forgotten that the original Jubilee was one of the double-sided heads.

As usual, it all came down to cost as tampo printing is expensive and prone to errors.  Each color is applied separately and with every added color the risk of misalignment increases.  When that happens, the piece has to be scrapped and started over.

For Jubilee’s two faces, they were two hits of black, two of white, two of red, and one of pink for a total of seven tampo hits on a single head.  Split across two separate heads, that becomes three hits on one and four on the other.  Aligning three or four colors is far easier than seven and if there’s a mistake on the first hit of the second head, the first head is still salvageable.  With a double-sided head, the second face isn’t treated as a new start.  It still counts as the fourth or fifth hit (depending on which side you print first) because you have to align the start of the second face directly opposite the first face.  All of this is made more difficult because it's on a cylindrical surface.

You might think you could solve this by rolling the tampo around the head so each color is only applied once but rolled tampo is much harder than straight-down stamping.  For example, if you print white first and then black, the alignment will probably be fine on the first face but by the time the stamp rolls around to the back, the black won’t line up with the white. You can see this issue on plenty of Spider-Men with just one hit of black tampo, where the webbing on his head doesn’t line up in the back.

In the end, it’s easier and more cost-effective to split the faces onto separate heads.  Plus, I believe it looks nicer in the packaging to present the second face as an accessory especially for figures that wouldn’t otherwise come with extra parts.

A smaller reason was what happened the first time we tried it with Gul Dukat.  No one realized the head had two faces, and when the factory accidentally packaged it with the Damar side forward, fans assumed it was a downgraded, poorer likeness compared to the promo shots.  We ended up writing a blog post on the Art Asylum site explaining it, letting people know to swap one of the faces on their Dukat duplicates in the two Sisko sets to make an extra character.  That confusion was something we wanted to avoid happening again but really it came down to cost.

[nandoninny]

wow!! thank you for that very good detailed explanation, @Barry !!

i'm an accountant so i understand this driving the logic and detailed answers to my nerdy questions like this make my day!

thanks again!

[Padrino]

42 minutes ago, Barry said:

A smaller reason was what happened the first time we tried it with Gul Dukat.  No one realized the head had two faces, and when the factory accidentally packaged it with the Damar side forward, fans assumed it was a downgraded, poorer likeness compared to the promo shots.  

wait, what? Lol, I legit had not idea it was double sided until right now. I never looked and don't remember it being mentioned before. (either that or i totally forgot)

Edited August 21 by Padrino