Minimate Laboratory Playset revealed

[Danny]

Blimey, TRU are buying any old Minimates tat now! I can't believe how bad that picture looks.

$29.99 for that, I just can't see them shifting any. Also it doesn't say what the 2 exclusives are, be interesting to see if they are still security guard and the gator.

[groundhog7s]

It's been listed on their site for at least a month now and it wouldn't be the first Minimate pre-order they've had that never showed up.

[captain_cbecker]

Though in some ways it's not surprising, it sounds like the playset is dead. I'm sure TRU.com just hasn't caught up with the cancellation.

It looks like the corpses of of dead minimate lines like Ghost Rider, Rocky 3, 24 Season 3, Godfather & Beverly Hills Cop now have a tomb.

[NightViper]

And here I got excited that this thread was revived to bring new GOOD news. Back to my corner I go to grumble at everyone who walks by...

[Goober]

Diamond Select Toys still has it listed as a "pre-order" for 02/03/10.

You'd think they'd update it.

Also, does anybody know that the picture they have representing the "playsets" section is?

http://diamondselecttoys.com/store.asp?p=c...ategoryID%3D381

that little map/table thing? I've never seen it.

[McDurg]

i'm pretty sure that's just a different way to configure the set, probably just showing it off a bit.

doubt it'll be coming to TRU too, but even if it does i'm passing on that steep-as-hell $30 price tag. go get a cardboard box from walmart and cut it up/paint it fancy for about $7, screw the "exclusive" mates.

[groundhog7s]

In case anyone was holding out hope that TRU would be the savior of this, the set went to a 'back-ordered' status this morning and has now disappeared off of the site completely it seems. I'm sure we'll see the mates shown some other time some other way, but I doubt the lab will return.

[Mirymate]

Be interesting to know for sure if it was retailer interest or production issues that killed it.

[murderofcrows]

Im really going to show my age, but i remember having a cardboard bat cave from the mego collection when i was a little kid, and i had great fun with it. granted it was 30 years ago...good christ i am old but the lab set really reminded me of it and I for one was really looking forward to it... sad to see it go

moc847

[Mystery Man]

I hope they'll be doing Battle Beasts, but I'm really starting to wonder if they will anymore.

[groundhog7s]

I'm sure they will, but I think they want to make sure they do it right. My only problem was them anouncing the license long before theyknew how it was coming out.

[Mirymate]

Im really going to show my age, but i remember having a cardboard bat cave from the mego collection when i was a little kid, and i had great fun with it. granted it was 30 years ago...good christ i am old but the lab set really reminded me of it and I for one was really looking forward to it... sad to see it go

moc847

I had one of those. Ah, Megos. Batman and Spider-Man zipping out the faux 'cave in' enterance in the big black and red Batmobile. The near constant search for Peguine and Joker's tiny shoes. The heroic mittens! Good times. The laminated cadboard shell of that thing is still intact in my attic so it's not like it was flimsily built. (Batpole, computer and vinyl matt are long, long gone, to where ever Peguine's shoes went) Apparently though, how you build one of those has become a lost art.

[groundhog7s]

Speaking of building those, has anyone else looked at the lab and thought that for $25 they could just build their own?

[NightViper]

I must admit that I never wanted the lab...for the lab.

[buttheadsmate]

I read this earlier & I of course creased up

...........................The company that was producing the playset has folded. Apparently it was a board decision & it had been on the cards for ages .

That's torn it :sad:

[thereasonsy]

Necro threading this one. Did we ever see any more photos of this?

[Barry]

I believe those were the only photos ever released.  I somewhat remember a physical copy being shown at a Toy Fair or other convention, but I think it was literally printed on letter paper.  I had some that I printed myself to examine construction, but they're long gone.  The majority of the artwork was done by Mark Wong, who designed the first wave of Battle Beasts and most of Halo.  I did contribute some work as well, including some coloring and sizing, and I also designed the ’Mates. (The human face was one of my little cameos.)

Honestly, I’m not sure there’s a whole lot to say about it.  If I had to guess, I’d assume it wasn’t released due to a lack of interest.  Launching a toy line without an attached IP is never easy.  This project was a bit of an odd hybrid between MAX and Battle Beasts, and I’m not entirely sure why except maybe to get both out there and see if one concept would stick more than the other.  As far as I know, there were no other links between the two ideas.  This wasn't a G.I. Joe / Transformers situation where they coexist in the same world.  I do know it was intentionally made very generic so it could fit into both series, and potentially into other lines as well.  (In case you needed a high-tech base of operations for Desperately Seeking Susan...)

A lot of people scoffed at the idea of it being 'cardboard' but from what I remember it would have been quite sturdy, more along the lines of a board game board.  It wasn’t going to be thin one-sided packaging stock but when people hear 'cardboard' they tend to picture that, or corrugated shipping cartons.  I always thought “cardboard” was the wrong term. Something like 'durable double-sided game board' probably would have described it better.

The set included different floor boards that could be slotted in to accommodate figures ranging from 2" to 4" depending on placement along with a free-floating Battle Table that could be positioned anywhere.  Based on my files though, the first floor was only about 6" high, so it likely would have felt small for larger figures.  It really was designed with Minimates in mind.

I don’t know how far along it ultimately got since I wasn’t involved at the factory level at that time, but the files I have were not production-ready and those production-ready files would have come from me.  Low pre-orders probably killed it before it was worth finishing.  There were a couple of later discussions about trying to revive it, but I think the end of both MAX and Battle Beasts stopped that from happening.

[nandoninny]

i always wondered about this one and i swear there was another one that was a sewer playset much earlier than this one.  i think it was some kind of statue material.  i can picture it in my head but can't find any pictures.  

here's the link to the EE listing for the lab playset:

https://www.entertainmentearth.com/product/minimates-laboratory-playset-with-2-exclusive-figures/dc73117

 

[Barry]

1 hour ago, nandoninny said:

i always wondered about this one and i swear there was another one that was a sewer playset much earlier than this one.  i think it was some kind of statue material.  i can picture it in my head but can't find any pictures.  

here's the link to the EE listing for the lab playset:

https://www.entertainmentearth.com/product/minimates-laboratory-playset-with-2-exclusive-figures/dc73117

 

Probably the one in this thread:

https://www.minimatemultiverse.com/index.php?/topic/827-resin-display-stand-solicited/page/2/#comment-435282