monkeycrumb Posted October 24, 2011 Share Posted October 24, 2011 I want a couple of extra Fez hats to customize Sallah from Raiders of the Lost Ark and for Matt Smith from Doctor Who. Of course, I promise not to get upset if I go through the time and expense to make those 2 customs, and then DST chooses to do official releases with full lines for those properties! :biggrin: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
luke314pi Posted October 25, 2011 Share Posted October 25, 2011 I have to wonder if we will see any Universal Monsters Minimates in 2012? Diamond had to clearance out the Wolfman and Creature 4-packs. TRU has sat on the 2-packs from that series for over a year. And just based on the numbers from our own store, the Dracula and Frankenstein sets aren't selling very well either. If other stores are in the same boat, Diamond might have to clearance out those sets as well. If Dracula and Frankenstein can't sell, what hope does the Invisible Man or Phantom of the Opera have? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
groundhog7s Posted October 25, 2011 Share Posted October 25, 2011 If that's the case, maybe we'll see an Invisible Man giveaway at a con next year similar to how Unification Spock came out after Trek died. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
winkerbean Posted October 25, 2011 Share Posted October 25, 2011 Or we may not see an invisible man! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
youbastards Posted October 25, 2011 Share Posted October 25, 2011 (edited) Luke - plan for a UM order from me later this week, as well as Curse of the Mutants. Are you getting the Series 2 Vehicles and Femme Fatales this week? I would love to see one last series with the Mummy and Invisible Man, but would be happy with a single boxset release either at LCS or TRU, whichever has the better history of UM sales. The civilian characters are nice to have, but by no means crucial to the line. Van Helsing, Renfield and Igor (which we didn't get) are the only UM civilians that are really well known for the most part. To me, the Frankenstein and Dracula sets' lack of any accessories was a real downer, some cool items thrown in there may have helped sell those. Some bats for Dracula, Frank's lab equipment, anything. The lack of accessories tells me that DST wanted to produce these as cheaply as possible. A final boxset with Mummy, Invisible Man, Phantom of the Opera, and the Hunchback of Notre Dame would be great! Edited October 25, 2011 by youbastards Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lobsterman Posted October 25, 2011 Share Posted October 25, 2011 I have to wonder if we will see any Universal Monsters Minimates in 2012? Diamond had to clearance out the Wolfman and Creature 4-packs. TRU has sat on the 2-packs from that series for over a year. And just based on the numbers from our own store, the Dracula and Frankenstein sets aren't selling very well either. If other stores are in the same boat, Diamond might have to clearance out those sets as well. If Dracula and Frankenstein can't sell, what hope does the Invisible Man or Phantom of the Opera have? That's sad to hear. I think your store is a bit of a bellweather for Minimate sales; if this crowd isn't buying, I'm not sure who is. The TRU sets at the stores I go to (eventually) sold through, but a lot of them ended up on clearance first. I'm frankly surprised TRU rolled the dice on them for a second year; I assume it's because they figured the heavy-hitter combo of Frank and Drac would sell better than Wolf and Creech (which, so far, appears to be true). I'm not sure they'll be interested in dropping back down to b-list monsters like Mummy and Invisible Man for next year... I'm a bit more hopeful that a 4-pack with all monsters would sell a bit better, but maybe Minimates just aren't UM fans' cup of tea (and classic monsters aren't anyone elses...) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
boyd Posted October 25, 2011 Share Posted October 25, 2011 Sales just aren't great for the Universal Monsters, sadly. Last year my local TRU got two boxes of the Universal Monsters, and they've still got Creatures & Wolf Men hanging around on the Clearance pegs. This year they only got one one box of the most recent wave of Monsters, but they're down to one pack (I might have helped by buying half the box....). Hopefully the line goes out strong next year - I'd love to see an all-monsters box set like Youbastards suggests. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
luke314pi Posted October 25, 2011 Share Posted October 25, 2011 Luke - plan for a UM order from me later this week, as well as Curse of the Mutants. Are you getting the Series 2 Vehicles and Femme Fatales this week? I would love to see one last series with the Mummy and Invisible Man, but would be happy with a single boxset release either at LCS or TRU, whichever has the better history of UM sales. The civilian characters are nice to have, but by no means crucial to the line. Van Helsing, Renfield and Igor (which we didn't get) are the only UM civilians that are really well known for the most part. To me, the Frankenstein and Dracula sets' lack of any accessories was a real downer, some cool items thrown in there may have helped sell those. Some bats for Dracula, Frank's lab equipment, anything. The lack of accessories tells me that DST wanted to produce these as cheaply as possible. A final boxset with Mummy, Invisible Man, Phantom of the Opera, and the Hunchback of Notre Dame would be great! Yes we are. I agree that a monsters 4-pack might be a fitting way to end this line next year. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
monkeycrumb Posted October 25, 2011 Share Posted October 25, 2011 I see far more X-Men First Class warming pegs than I do Universal Monsters at TRU. To be fair, I've seen many lines clearanced. IIRC, the BTTF 3 set was clearanced out, yet we still got the 25th ann. set. TRU has clearanced GB several times, yet they kept ordering further waves! My hope is that TRU at least made enough profit off the UM waves that even after clearancing out the remaining packs, they still made enough profit to be willing to continue. As I mentioned above, the best bet is to mix movies in the boxsets. Although I really want that Mummy sarcophagus they've shown off already, and I'd love a Mummy boxset as I mentioned above. But yeah, lack of accessories also hurt this line. Same with too many civilians. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
buttheadsmate Posted October 25, 2011 Share Posted October 25, 2011 (edited) It can't ever be denied that whether we like it or not Medicom has been often 'been there & done it' & you'd have to be pretty discerning to spot the difference with what they released years ago & what DST are giving us now . Series 2 of Medicom kubricks gave the kubrick collector these ............ whilst the first series had already given usthem 2 versions of The Invisible Man & a rather lame Mummy . The Minimate line failed miserably in the lack of accessories .....the kubrick line had an operating table for Frankenstein & his monster whilst Dracula had a coffin. It seems that some lessons were learned from Medicom whilst some important details were ignored. Edit: excuse the fact I'm talking as if this line is dead ...I hope not because I like them ....but there definitely needs something special to bring them back from the dead. Edited October 25, 2011 by buttheadsmate Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
youbastards Posted October 25, 2011 Share Posted October 25, 2011 I ask this in all honesty, do members here buy these because they are fans of the "movies" or because they are fans of the "monsters"? I buy them because I love the monsters, but honestly, it is tough for me to sit through the old films. Sure, I respect them for what they were at the time, and I admire Lugosi, Cheney, etc., but in the long run, I suspect that more people buying these are fans of the monsters themselves than the movies they appear in, if that makes sense? In other words, I could care less about being able to reproduce scenes from the films. I would rather have more unique monsters to terrify my other Minimates. The Angry Villager is one of my favorite 'mates this year, right up there with Logo Ghost. Had he been packaged with a B&W Bride of Frankenstein instead of the same one from the boxset, that may have helped boost sales of the Frankenstein box set, but as is, there is only 1 new character in that boxset (civilian) while Dracula at least has 2 new characters. It's these kinds of decisions that has me puzzled over this line, from the way I perceive the UM "brand". Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dj87 Posted October 25, 2011 Share Posted October 25, 2011 I can't, in all honesty, remember if I've even seen any of the old universal monsters films. I am, however, a big fan of classic monsters, and think they look great together. I'm a big fan of the Dracula and Frankenstein novels, so I'm very pleased to have the likes of Dr.F, Mina and Van Helsing (I think I'd have liked Johnathan in there somewhere as well... shame). The likes of Dr.Reed and Larry Talbot don't interest me in the slightest, but I'm happy to buy them for the monsters. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
buttheadsmate Posted October 25, 2011 Share Posted October 25, 2011 I watched 'The Creature from the Black Lagoon' recently for the first time . I would never have bothered but for the UM Minimates & the fact that there was going to be a bird in a white swimsuit somewhere or other. I wasn't disappointed in the movie or Julie Adams in her swimsuit ,OK the dialogue was a bit lame but the film stood the test of time IMO. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
monkeycrumb Posted October 25, 2011 Share Posted October 25, 2011 I ask this in all honesty, do members here buy these because they are fans of the "movies" or because they are fans of the "monsters"? I buy them because I love the monsters, but honestly, it is tough for me to sit through the old films. Sure, I respect them for what they were at the time, and I admire Lugosi, Cheney, etc., but in the long run, I suspect that more people buying these are fans of the monsters themselves than the movies they appear in, if that makes sense? In other words, I could care less about being able to reproduce scenes from the films. I would rather have more unique monsters to terrify my other Minimates. The Angry Villager is one of my favorite 'mates this year, right up there with Logo Ghost. Had he been packaged with a B&W Bride of Frankenstein instead of the same one from the boxset, that may have helped boost sales of the Frankenstein box set, but as is, there is only 1 new character in that boxset (civilian) while Dracula at least has 2 new characters. It's these kinds of decisions that has me puzzled over this line, from the way I perceive the UM "brand". I'm not quite sure I follow you. If by recreating scenes from the movies, you mean by including the human characters, then no I don't care. But if you mean by including accessories like gravestones, lab tables & equipment, etc, then YES I want those! I may not be a fan of the movies, but I am of the characters, and those things are iconic enough to want! Yes, it's a big letdown that the TRU Bride wasn't B&W, but I guess that would have been confusing to Joe Q. Public why the villager was not - I would want to keep him as he is! Accessories would have greatly improved sales I'm sure, especially with the customizers! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lobsterman Posted October 31, 2011 Share Posted October 31, 2011 A little something for the UM fans... http://www.theonion.com/articles/treasury-department-releases-new-monsters-of-the-s,26461/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MST3KFan Posted November 4, 2011 Share Posted November 4, 2011 Local TRU near me restocked the series 2 sets as the first time they got them in, all but two Dracula and one Bride of Frankenstein set were left over. Bought Frankenstein's Monster/Dr. Henry Frankenstein set. Just need to buy the Bride one and I'm caught up. I hope we at least get the Mummy to complete the 'Core' UM cast. As far as I'm concerned: Dracula, Frankenstein's Monster, the Wolfman, the Mummy, and the Gillman (Creature from Black Lagoon)are the big focus. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BannersID Posted November 4, 2011 Share Posted November 4, 2011 I picked up Dracula and Van Helsing 2 pack (Drac for my MU stuff) must say he is very well done like the touch of the inside of his cloak being red. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jatta Pake Posted November 5, 2011 Share Posted November 5, 2011 We have to get the mummy. I think DST could get way with a playset on this series. I think Joe public would buy a creepy Frankinlab or vampire crypt. Keep it simple and in budget with the vehicles. the character pack-in could be Igor, grave ghoul. That would get us some cool accessories. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mystery Man Posted November 5, 2011 Share Posted November 5, 2011 We have to get the mummy. I think DST could get way with a playset on this series. I think Joe public would buy a creepy Frankinlab or vampire crypt. Keep it simple and in budget with the vehicles. the character pack-in could be Igor, grave ghoul. That would get us some cool accessories. As long as we get the Mummy I'll be as happy as I figured I could be. If we got Mummy, Phantom, Metaluna and Hunchback it would be fantastic. At least then it'd give these the same longevity as their Kubrick counterparts, with only the Mole Man missing out. Of course, I'd still really like to see the Mummy 4-pack... or at least some way to get that cool-as-shit sarcophagus. And some kind of Franken-lab or Dracu-crypt would be fantastic as well. I think a generic "monster" line would sell and I've mentioned this before. The different movie spooks from Ghostbusters, the zombies, these monsters... it'd be swell to get a generic ghost in a sheet, ghost with chains, a couple of grave ghouls, a devil, a witch, etc. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jatta Pake Posted November 5, 2011 Share Posted November 5, 2011 Here is my photoshopped concept of a Vampire Wolverine face on Dracula. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mystery Man Posted November 5, 2011 Share Posted November 5, 2011 Hey, neat! It's too bad they didn't do a different snarling face to release officially with that guy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Martini World Posted November 21, 2011 Share Posted November 21, 2011 (edited) Anybody else think Dracula will be reused as Grandpa from the Munsters to go with a Draugula vehicle? . . . Also hopes for Lily Munster and Herman's hot rod Edited November 21, 2011 by Martini World Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MINI_MYTE Posted November 21, 2011 Share Posted November 21, 2011 Anybody else think Dracula will be reused as Grandpa from the Munsters to go with a Draugula vehicle? . . . Also hopes for Lily Munster and Herman's hot rod I thought Lily was the only one who wanted Herman's hot rod. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maxcarnage Posted November 30, 2011 Share Posted November 30, 2011 well these are on clearance at tru about $6 so as you go hunting for tru wave 12 pick them up for cheap! i got frank and drac pack just for fun. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joe Hill Posted December 20, 2011 Share Posted December 20, 2011 I'm surprised they are already on clearance, both my local TRUs are sold out. However, the Halo minimates are not moving at all. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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