Tell me about some of your favorite Minimate memories! Four folks will get $25 gift cards to Luke's!

[Navaan]

HELLO!

I know plenty of folks are rightfully concerned or frustrated, but just because Minimates are, at the least, on pause right now, does not mean the toys vanish, that we can't still make new ones, and certainly have good memories of them in stores!

So let's spread some joy and some good fun and vibes. 

I would like to host a simple contest; just reply to this thread with some things about Minimates that you recall, that made you happy. Share some good memories, some good cheer.

Friday, I'll write down everyone's name in a website randomizer, like names from a hat, and pick four for $25 gift cards to @luke314pi's wonderful store.

[Padrino]

When my nephew was 5 (he's 18 now), he was afraid to perform in his kindergarten graduation ceremony. I gave him a Spider-Man minimate to keep in his pocket. He said after he wasn't scared because he had his own superhero with him. He still has it sitting on his bookshelf (yes, I let him keep it, lol).

This is but one of the million reasons why I love these little figures and why I'm heartbroken by all of this. 

[Trekker 42]

I’ll throw out a couple just because I think they’re both delights. 
First, walking into Toys R Us one day in 2003 or so and finding on the shelf a little set of Minimates from The Lord of the Rings. These were my favorite films I’d ever seen and, at the time, I hadn’t discovered Minimate Multiverse and had no idea this line was happening. I’d recently been converted to Minimates and getting some from my favorite films (still to this day my favorite actually) made my soul soar. The fact that this line alongside Godzilla are missing some of the most crucial characters from the series will be the two great unforgivable sins of DST. 
 

The second memory is recent. For the longest time I had been missing a crucial Minimate in my collection: the original Symbiote Spider-Man. I still believe no Symbiote Spidey remake has come close in quality to this original with the pure black and white, no extra blue highlights… it feels very striking. Last year I walk into my local comic book store and there on a table of clearance items was the two pack of Symbiote Spider-Man and Venom. I looked at the owner “Andy what the fuck. How long have you been holding out on me!?” He had no idea it mattered to me. Anyway he gave it to me for free. Gap, delightfully, filled. 

[buttheadsmate]

Trekker's Symbiote memory is great & that Black Spidey remains one of my all-time favourites . I'll just say that my 'craziness' for buying multiples of minimates started with that pack .  

 

 

[cylonchaney]

My favourite Minimate memory is when there used to be a company that made them and sold them.    

[Trekker 42]

16 minutes ago, cylonchaney said:

My favourite Minimate memory is when there used to be a company that made them and sold them.    

ow

[minifigvig]

i’ve got one!

Around ‘04-‘05, I was in the 6th grade and as part of our typing/formatting lessons we were going to be sending a “professional” e-mail to a company of our choosing. I was already crazy for minimates, so I wrote to DST.

I got an answer back, and the gamma hulk/leader 2-pack along with it! 

[buttheadsmate]

8 hours ago, buttheadsmate said:

Trekker's Symbiote memory is great & that Black Spidey remains one of my all-time favourites . I'll just say that my 'craziness' for buying multiples of minimates started with that pack .  

 

 

....& that led to the Canadian Wal-Mart 'tongued' Venom pack which for God-knows-why led me to further 'craziness' of multiple-buying which led to the eventual acquisition of all the Anglo/French 'Canadian' packaging variations then the Spanish C3 sets, the French LOR packs &  just about every damn irritating variation that exists .

Good memories ? I'm not so sure 

[luke314pi]

I obviously won't be entering this contest, but my best Minimate memory is definitely C2E2 2014. For those of you who weren't there, it was not only where we unveiled our Deadly Foes of Spider-Man exclusive, but it was also the biggest MMV get together so far. We rented out a hotel meeting space and people brought in customs and Minimates to trade. Chuck and Zach came and chatted with fans. We had posters custom made with the Deadly Foes set and milestones from our store. It was an amazing experience that I will never forget.

[buttheadsmate]

It was just as you have said Luke . Incredible .    

[Chooch]

I don't know about favorite, but the most memorable/odd thing to me was that Minimates had Shopko exclusives.  I was in a bigger city by then, but Shopko was my local toy store growing up so I have a fondness.

[nandoninny]

i remember the first minimate i bought (i had received the free handout back in the art asylum days at NYTF (was it 2000?) and i thought they were really well made).

i won a $25 gift card to spencers (don't remember how) and went to the mall to go see what they could have that i'd want.

i went and got the angus young mcfarlane figure and i still had some funds left over.  i was a HUGE rob zombie fan back in those days (my first concert was white zombie with melvins and babes in toyland) so i used the extra funds on the rob zombie.  

typical drug story, the first hits are free and after that -- YOU PAY!

 

Edited July 21 by nandoninny

[jettstorm]

The middle of 2007 saw my wife and I purchasing our first and so far only home. She had just gotten a very good new job and I was 10 years in to what i thought was a career job. I had been bit by the Minimate bug initially with the Lord of the Rings sets. I was buying Stikfas to customize characters at that time and suddenly I see these Minimates with licensed characters I always wanted so I jumped in. The DC C3 line was the biggie though when it hit. I bought everything, multiples of everything. I'm such a DC nerd and it was something I was so excited about. I wasn't even collecting the Marvel sets at that time.

Anyway, back to the middle of 2007 and due to her job change initially and our house purchase I had cut back on all of my toy collecting for most of the year. Keep in mind the DC two packs started that year and by this time were up to wave 4 I believe. Now I had been dying inside knowing these had come out and I had held a couple of packs in hand at my local comic shop but put them back to save money. So 2 months after we move in I get laid off from my job, I'm feeling pretty low and start looking for a new job. During this time my wife while trying to cheer me up asks to read some of my old comics with me so she can learn about some of my favorite characters and stories. My two favorite stories were Death and Return of Superman and the Batman run of Knightfall through Prodigal Son. My Favorite characters are Nightwing and Batgirl. So we sit and read comics in the evening together. She starts noticing my DC Minimates on the shelves and sees the C3 Batman, Superman, Nightwing, Robin and she asks where the rest of the characters are that weve been reading about together. I tell her that they've released some but I didn't buy them because of her job change and the house and now losing my job.

Flash forward a few weeks and I have an interview with a really good company one morning so I get dressed in my nicer clothes and head off to be weighed and measured. After what i felt was an interview that didn't go as well as I hoped I come home and my wife greets me at the door. She tells me I'm probably just being too hard on myself and that the company would be lucky to have me. She says to come in the kitchen because she just made lunch. I walk in and on the table is the entire first four waves of DC Minimate two packs. I'm in shock. She tells me she went down to the comic shop and saw the newest wave 4 and it had Batgirl, Bane, Cyborg Superman and Steel and she just had to get it for me. She started talking to my comic guy and he told her he could get the other 3 waves if she was interested. So apparently she went back a week later and picked up the rest. My wife is amazing and it was just the pick me up i needed in that moment. We sat and opened them together and I even let her have the Batgirl figure kiss my C3 Nightwing because shes a girl and does things like that...I also got the job a week later and still work there today.

Three kids later and almost 20 years of marriage and I'm reminded every time I look at my Minimate shelf how much i love those little figures and also how much my wife loves me. My wave 7 Nightwing eventually replaced my C3 on the shelf but he stands side by side with the Batgirl figure with his arm posed like its around her and her with that smirk on her face that reminds me of my wife.

Edited July 21 by jettstorm

[Navaan]

1 hour ago, luke314pi said:

I obviously won't be entering this contest, but my best Minimate memory is definitely C2E2 2014. For those of you who weren't there, it was not only where we unveiled our Deadly Foes of Spider-Man exclusive, but it was also the biggest MMV get together so far. We rented out a hotel meeting space and people brought in customs and Minimates to trade. Chuck and Zach came and chatted with fans. We had posters custom made with the Deadly Foes set and milestones from our store. It was an amazing experience that I will never forget.

I was JUST considering snagging all the C3 sets...

[buttheadsmate]

jettstorm wins .

[Dave]

The set that got my obsession started the ultimate x-men

[jettstorm]

8 minutes ago, buttheadsmate said:

jettstorm wins .

Hah, not trying to win. Just love telling that story. People that meet her don't understand how much she supports my nerdy side. 

Edited July 21 by jettstorm

[buttheadsmate]

jettsto

11 minutes ago, buttheadsmate said:

jettstorm wins

jettstorm's wife wins 

[Trekker 42]

2 hours ago, luke314pi said:

I obviously won't be entering this contest, but my best Minimate memory is definitely C2E2 2014. For those of you who weren't there, it was not only where we unveiled our Deadly Foes of Spider-Man exclusive, but it was also the biggest MMV get together so far. We rented out a hotel meeting space and people brought in customs and Minimates to trade. Chuck and Zach came and chatted with fans. We had posters custom made with the Deadly Foes set and milestones from our store. It was an amazing experience that I will never forget.

God I loved that damn box set. Lots of alt looks, piles of accessories, and still the definitive Ock, Lizard, and Sandman. (I kinda like Maximum Carnage's Carnage a bit better...)

[Chooch]

1 hour ago, buttheadsmate said:

jettstorm wins .

Agreed.

[Navaan]

1 hour ago, jettstorm said:

The middle of 2007 saw my wife and I purchasing our first and so far only home. She had just gotten a very good new job and I was 10 years in to what i thought was a career job. I had been bit by the Minimate bug initially with the Lord of the Rings sets. I was buying Stikfas to customize characters at that time and suddenly I see these Minimates with licensed characters I always wanted so I jumped in. The DC C3 line was the biggie though when it hit. I bought everything, multiples of everything. I'm such a DC nerd and it was something I was so excited about. I wasn't even collecting the Marvel sets at that time.

Anyway, back to the middle of 2007 and due to her job change initially and our house purchase I had cut back on all of my toy collecting for most of the year. Keep in mind the DC two packs started that year and by this time were up to wave 4 I believe. Now I had been dying inside knowing these had come out and I had held a couple of packs in hand at my local comic shop but put them back to save money. So 2 months after we move in I get laid off from my job, I'm feeling pretty low and start looking for a new job. During this time my wife while trying to cheer me up asks to read some of my old comics with me so she can learn about some of my favorite characters and stories. My two favorite stories were Death and Return of Superman and the Batman run of Knightfall through Prodigal Son. My Favorite characters are Nightwing and Batgirl. So we sit and read comics in the evening together. She starts noticing my DC Minimates on the shelves and sees the C3 Batman, Superman, Nightwing, Robin and she asks where the rest of the characters are that weve been reading about together. I tell her that they've released some but I didn't buy them because of her job change and the house and now losing my job.

Flash forward a few weeks and I have an interview with a really good company one morning so I get dressed in my nicer clothes and head off to be weighed and measured. After what i felt was an interview that didn't go as well as I hoped I come home and my wife greets me at the door. She tells me I'm probably just being too hard on myself and that the company would be lucky to have me. She says to come in the kitchen because she just made lunch. I walk in and on the table is the entire first four waves of DC Minimate two packs. I'm in shock. She tells me she went down to the comic shop and saw the newest wave 4 and it had Batgirl, Bane, Cyborg Superman and Steel and she just had to get it for me. She started talking to my comic guy and he told her he could get the other 3 waves if she was interested. So apparently she went back a week later and picked up the rest. My wife is amazing and it was just the pick me up i needed in that moment. We sat and opened them together and I even let her have the Batgirl figure kiss my C3 Nightwing because shes a girl and does things like that...I also got the job a week later and still work there today.

Three kids later and almost 20 years of marriage and I'm reminded every time I look at my Minimate shelf how much i love those little figures and also how much my wife loves me. My wave 7 Nightwing eventually replaced my C3 on the shelf but he stands side by side with the Batgirl figure with his arm posed like its around her and her with that smirk on her face that reminds me of my wife.

Hey man, I run the r/Nightwing reddit on my reddit account, NaytNavare.

Any chance you wanna go there and share the story? It's a great story.

[jettstorm]

Yeah, I will check it out. I appreciate the invite, Im a huge Nightwing fan. My oldest sons middle name is Grayson actually. I don't know if its a great story but its one that means a lot to me on many levels.

[elhonez]

@jettstorm what a moving story, thanks for sharing that.

My partner is... less enthusiastic about my hobby, but at least tolerant. And I've largely shielded my kids from my obsessions, but recently when they discovered a MiniMate and got very curious, I gifted them a few for fun (my son is 6 and my daughter just turned 4). As a result, I've learned a few things.

1) MiniMates are waterproof

At least, to a point. My son loved the Gamerverse Iron Man so much he brought it with him on lots of adventures, including hiking with us outdoors near a stream. Iron Man had many adventures in that stream. #HydroArmor

2) Yep them parts are gone

They're pretty cavalier with hands, feet and dismantling the Mates. Chips of the ol' block! But they also don't seem to care about the imperfections. My daughter particularly loves her now-slipperless Ghost Spider, who she used to call "Ghosten Spider," because she's adorable.

3) Lego branding is mighty

Somehow even in my children's relatively media-cloistered environment, they know Lego and they (at first) intuitively understood MMs to be Lego figures.

My son is presently obsessed with the female Doc Ock from Spidey and Friends, so you can guess what his next surprise MiniMate gift is going to be.

[Padrino]

On 7/21/2025 at 1:21 PM, buttheadsmate said:

jettstorm wins .

💯

[Padrino]

On 7/21/2025 at 1:32 PM, buttheadsmate said:

jettsto

jettstorm's wife wins 

True true