hellpop Posted March 19, 2013 Share Posted March 19, 2013 Dragonball might be a stretch, I agree, but G-Force/Gatchaman would be look pretty great. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TM2 Dinobot Posted March 19, 2013 Share Posted March 19, 2013 Yeah, my issue is more with how stylized cartoons translate to mates I guess, it's not really anime-specific. I never thought they'd be able to capture the Disney "look" either, and the Pan mates kind of confirmed that for me (YMMV). I agree the main T-Cats worked great (I wasn't as big on how the mutants translated), but if you look at the cartoon's character models, they're drawn pretty much as realistic people, once you look past the colors/outfits. Using a Dinobot favorite as an example, I can't really picture a Sailor Moon minimate looking "right", that's all. The bigger animes that come to my mind, like Bleach, One Piece, DBZ, all have their own stylized looks like that. Something more "realistic" like Akira, I could totally see it. I agree. After Pan I've really started re-thinking my wish list. I still enjoy Sailor Moon, but it might not translate well as Minimates. Although if they stuck them in the girl's section... And while we're on anime anyways, I'll just say this. It's 8 years too late, but I'd kill for some Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya mates. Not gonna happen, won't even bother asking, but they'd look outstanding and I'd buy them all. I will ask this though. Zach, can you put a bug in Chuck's ear once again about 007 Minimates? Pleeeeeeease? I know they're not on the horizon, but the demand is still there, and Skyfall did great. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kostisfire Posted March 19, 2013 Share Posted March 19, 2013 I'm not a big dbz fan (i haven't even seen a whole episode) it's just that the designs are cool and could sell.It's not the most popular show on the planet though it has some kind of fan following.Heck,i'm not that bummed that it's not in the cards,there are other stuff to look forward too and to wish for it just would have been an excuse to get new transluscent energy/power pieces and cool hairstyles.Power Rangers are still going strong though and i wouldn't mind minimates out of that either.Though if i had to make a top 10 wishlist here's how it'd be (in no particular order): 1)Dr Who 2)Dc comics 3)Disney comics/movies/videogames all in one 4)Nintendo Minimates 5)In-house monsters line-tie with spawn 6)Mass Effect-tie with elder scrolls 7)Gears of War 8)Metal Gear Solid 9)A Halo continuation (or at least a halo 4 chief as a promotional fig like they did with alice) 10)Star Wars movies/comics/games-tie with indiana jones Look,i may get over excited about something but if i had to make a top 10 list this would be it.I like dbz,i like power rangers,i like tmnt,i like gi joe but these are my top ten licences. ...You should probably watch an entire episode of DBZ, Kostis. Not the new edited stuff, the OLD stuff. Where fights last three to four hours in real time. It's not for everybody, and while it was once the most famous anime in America, but that day is past, and even anime is not the phenomenon it once was. It's also not necessarily a good fit for Minimates. I agree that the designs still have appeal, and the action figures still have their fans, and that is why there are still companies making them. In Japan, yes, but everyone sells globally nowadays. A friend of mine who's a big dragonball fan lend me all the episodes (uncencored) in a usb (dragonball+dragonball z+dragonball gt) so i'll probably have seen all 500 something by the end of the summer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SlushyFrog Posted March 19, 2013 Share Posted March 19, 2013 I hadn't even thought of Avatar: The Last Airbender. I would totally buy those. It pissed me off when Mattel never made any figures of the female characters, which was ridiculous considering how integral they are to the show. The mention of Kaneda made me think of Sunshine. I really liked that movie. I would buy those mates, but I guess they might just look like a bunch of civilians. I think you could make the same argument you're making for DBZ, Kostis, with Avatar: the Last Airbender or Naruto. Those are the current anime series that are big with kids here right now. I also wonder if there's any interest in the classic Anime that was translated and aired in syndication in the US in the '80s. I'm thinking, of course, about Star Blazers, Voltron, and G-Force. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hellpop Posted March 19, 2013 Share Posted March 19, 2013 I will ask this though. Zach, can you put a bug in Chuck's ear once again about 007 Minimates? Pleeeeeeease? I know they're not on the horizon, but the demand is still there, and Skyfall did great. No need for that... Chuck's said many times that Bond's his dream property, so they're clearly always on his radar, but the studio (MGM, right?) isn't interested. I think he went so far as to say they aren't interested in action figures of any kind, which seems silly to me considering that they almost couldn't afford to make Skyfall, but what do I know? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
karamazov80 Posted March 19, 2013 Share Posted March 19, 2013 Didn't DST get blanket MGM rights years back? Or am I dreaming all this? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DSTZach Posted March 19, 2013 Share Posted March 19, 2013 I will ask this though. Zach, can you put a bug in Chuck's ear once again about 007 Minimates? Pleeeeeeease? I know they're not on the horizon, but the demand is still there, and Skyfall did great. No need for that... Chuck's said many times that Bond's his dream property, so they're clearly always on his radar, but the studio (MGM, right?) isn't interested. I think he went so far as to say they aren't interested in action figures of any kind, which seems silly to me considering that they almost couldn't afford to make Skyfall, but what do I know? I don't think it's a money thing, I think it's a branding thing. Minimates < German automobiles and watches. But yeah, Chuck is on it. Didn't DST get blanket MGM rights years back? Or am I dreaming all this? Can't remember which studios we've done blanket deals with, but pretty sure Bond would not be part of any blanket deal. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DSTZach Posted March 19, 2013 Share Posted March 19, 2013 even anime is not the phenomenon it once was. It's also not necessarily a good fit for Minimates. Please note that I said "not necessarily," and I meant that not ALL anime work as Minimates, due to the wide range of styles. In Akira, everyone has human proportions. With DBZ, there are so many diverse body types and sizes that it would be a huge challenge. And Chuck loves Studio Ghibli, but I could see that being another big challenge. I don't know that I would call Thundercats "anime." when everything is animated overseas, the line gets blurred, but it's no more anime than G.I. Joe or Transformers, no matter who originally designed the characters. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
karamazov80 Posted March 19, 2013 Share Posted March 19, 2013 I'm no anime expert, so I could be wrong about this, but I feel the character designs of the Thundercats are clearly manga/anime-like, while this is not really the case with GI Joe if you look at the figure card art, toys, and comics. And my argument is that I feel the most direct attempt at translating an anime-style characters to Minimates--Thundercats--is a huge success, so I would hope DST would do more figures in that vein. But it is true that there are a broad range of styles used in Japanese cartoons/comics. I think DST has done very well with managing different body types in other licenses (Marvel, Battle Beasts, etc.). But putting that aside, I thought most of the DBZ guys were pretty conventional looking humans, but I'm not a hardcore fan so that could change in some of the later seasons. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
buttheadsmate Posted March 19, 2013 Share Posted March 19, 2013 (edited) My knowledge of anime revolves around what I have seen with many of my kubrick characters & I'd probably sit on the fence as to whether T'cats are anime or not .....if they are then I'd lump in RGB Minimates as being almost anime . I've tried anime movies & with a few exceptions notably Kerberos /Panzer Cop I struggle which is probably good because I'm not really the market am I ????? I do however love some of the anime kubrick lines such as Evangelion & Astro Boy ,just saying. Edited March 19, 2013 by buttheadsmate Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hellpop Posted March 19, 2013 Share Posted March 19, 2013 I think, for something to be anime, it has to have originally aired in Japan. Thundercats, as far as I know, didn't, so I agree with Zach that it ain't anime. But I agree with K80's basic point that it's anime-like, close enough so that you can get a sense to how anime might translate. Also, you guys are overlooking the most obvious anime precurser: Hail Ivan and all that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MisterPL Posted March 19, 2013 Share Posted March 19, 2013 anime: a Japanese style of motion-picture animation, characterized by highly stylized, colorful art, futuristicsettings, violence, and sexuality. I don't think Thundercats qualifies, folks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TM2 Dinobot Posted March 19, 2013 Share Posted March 19, 2013 The TC intro is very definitely anime style. the show itself... not so much. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
karamazov80 Posted March 19, 2013 Share Posted March 19, 2013 (edited) anime: a Japanese style of motion-picture animation, characterized by highly stylized, colorful [/size]art, futuristicsettings, violence, and sexuality.[/size] I don't think Thundercats qualifies, folks.[/size] Funny, that definition actually reinforces my perspective more than anything. Look at Cheetarah! (though I'm sure any violence on T-Cats was pretty tame--like with DBZ, I'm actually a very casual T-Cats fan). The most obvious anime precursor to my eyes is Speed Racer, as I doubt anyone would dispute him. The Mega Man guy wasn't based off a cartoon design, if that is a necessary precondition. But the eyes are definitely the exaggerated anime type. But so are these IMO: In fact, part of why I may think anime is such a natural fit is that Minimates inherently have the exaggerated, large eyes. Edited March 19, 2013 by karamazov80 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
youbastards Posted March 19, 2013 Share Posted March 19, 2013 There's only one "true" anime series that I want in Minimate form, and 2 boxsets and a couple vehicles would be all you'd need: This was the last anime series I was a fan of, everything I watched since has paled in comparison and I eventually lost all interest in the genre. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
karamazov80 Posted March 19, 2013 Share Posted March 19, 2013 Cowboy Bebop is one of only two "purely" anime TV shows I have followed as much as I could (the other being Golgo 13), and I agree--it is magnificent. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Punisher Posted March 19, 2013 Share Posted March 19, 2013 Minimates of these guys have always been a "grail" of mine: The only anime movie I will ever own Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
buttheadsmate Posted March 19, 2013 Share Posted March 19, 2013 You are obviously a man of great taste Punisher .....like I said in my post I love that movie ,my collection of 1/6th Panzer Cops would grace that 'big boys' 1/6th thread . Your grail is my grail Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DSTZach Posted March 19, 2013 Share Posted March 19, 2013 anime: a Japanese style of motion-picture animation, characterized by highly stylized, colorful art, futuristicsettings, violence, and sexuality. I don't think Thundercats qualifies, folks. I almost wrote "that is the worst definition of anime ever," since there are as many different types of anime as there are manga, but saying it has to be futuristic, colorful, stylized, violent OR sexy actually covers most of it, and what's left transcends genres, for the most part. (Tokyo Godfathers? Grave of the Fireflies?) Our narrow definition of anime at Anime Insider was "animation made in Japan, or made in Asia for a primarily Japanese audience." It conveniently got us out of covering any American cartoons that used an anime style, but weren't made over there, and is probably not much better. And I enjoy the Evangelion Kubricks for what they are, but you have to admit the cast and robots were mostly really thin, and the bad guys were largely floating rhombuses. Minimates might look better, but not much. I'd love Kinnikuman or FLCL Minimates, but it will never happen. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mystery Man Posted March 19, 2013 Share Posted March 19, 2013 There's only one "true" anime series that I want in Minimate form, and 2 boxsets and a couple vehicles would be all you'd need: This was the last anime series I was a fan of, everything I watched since has paled in comparison and I eventually lost all interest in the genre. 100% agreement. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MisterPL Posted March 19, 2013 Share Posted March 19, 2013 I agree that Dictionary.com's definition is ridiculously abbreviated but, hey, that's a dictionary for you. A much better definition of anime can be found on Wikipedia. The format there allows for much greater depth. One of the aspects pointed out there follows my own observation of anime and that's the exaggerated eyes and facial expressions. A colleague and I had a running joke; whenever we'd see something even remotely unexpected, we'd turn our heads dramatically – eyes wide open – and shout "BEAD OF SWEAT!" There always seemed to be a drop of sweat or throbbing vein on a manga character's noggin to get the point across. Anime eyes were influenced by Disney animation. A lot of emotion is conveyed through the eyes so Disney animators drew them nice and big. Japanese animators followed suit and in many cases took it to an extreme. These days there's so much cross-pollenation of art forms, it's becoming harder to classify what is and isn't manga/anime. Nickelodeon's Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles uses manga tropes, as does DisneyXD's Ultimate Spider-Man, but I wouldn't consider them strictly "Japanimation," wherever they're produced. It's a smaller world and influences are all over the place. So I wouldn't classify Thundercats as anime, despite a few shared characteristics. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
battlecat Posted March 19, 2013 Share Posted March 19, 2013 I'm no anime expert, so I could be wrong about this, but I feel the character designs of the Thundercats are clearly manga/anime-like, while this is not really the case with GI Joe if you look at the figure card art, toys, and comics. If you look past the colorfulness (and Panthro's gigantic ears), they don't look that much different from GI Joe or He-Man or other cartoons of the time, at least to me. I just think cartoons with "realistic" anatomy translate better to Minimates, because in cartoons with very stylized anatomy, the look and feel of the characters is so closely tied to that style. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TM2 Dinobot Posted March 20, 2013 Share Posted March 20, 2013 I guess the question should be, are american cartoons like GI Joe, Thundercats, Voltron and Transformers anime? Answer: Sometimes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
groundhog7s Posted March 20, 2013 Share Posted March 20, 2013 I think the real question is, why are we talking so much about anime here when there shall not be anime Minimates made any time soon? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrClean Posted March 20, 2013 Share Posted March 20, 2013 Star Blazers. Minimates. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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