Minimate Headquarters

Interview: Battle Beasts

Toychestnews has an interview with Zach Oat about the new Battle Beasts line, exploring some of the behind the scenes stuff from the line’s announcement to the recent unveiling. Check it out over on Toychestnews.

Marvel Series 50: Fan Poll

DST will be celebrating 10 years of Minimates in 2013, and what better way than with the 50th series of Marvel Minimates. In recognition of all the support the collector community has offered the line, DST will be holding a fan poll on Marvel.com, with the top votes finding a spot in the 50th line. Voting will be broken into 4 categories:

Main Assault Team – top stars of the Marvel Universe in new or updated costumes
Support Team – unsung heroes who have stood alongside the top stars
Primary Targets – villains who have never been done or need an update
Cannon Fodder – army builder characters who you’d be willing to buy multiple of

The first category goes up for voting at Marvel.com on May 16th, with the other categories going up for vote each week after. DST will select the variant of the series based on who makes it into the rest of the assortment.

Now would be the perfect time to think outside the box and build a series of characters who would otherwise never see the light of day. If everyone votes Spider-Man for the first week, there will be no second top tier hero to take up slots in the line, meaning 5-6 characters could be all new. Then its just a matter of picking the most off-the-wall characters, the ones who will never, ever see another chance at being produced. Winter Soldier, Falcon, Baron Zemo, Wrecking Crew, we’ll see them all eventually. Dr. Bong, Walrus, Kangaroo, Leap Frog, they have no chance whatsoever! We can bring all of these characters into the toy and collectable world for the first (and likely only) time! (And probably drive the Marvel Minimate line into the ground in the process, now that I think about it)

Not Again?!

It’s being reported that Maria Hill is the variant in Marvel series 45, as opposed to the announced General. Confusing matters further is that neither set is marked as the variant.

Collectors may remember similar circumstances with Marvel series 31 and Silver-Age Angel, although in that case, the set that was supposed to be the short-packed variant was still marked as such, only three of them were included in every case (making it the most widely available short-packed variant ever).

Ships Ahoy: Marvel series 45

Marvel series 45, based on the Avengers movie, will hit shelves today.

You Will Believe a Minimate Can Fly

This just in from Luke’s Toy Store:

Luke’s Toy Store released two new stands today that open up new action poses for Minimate heroes and villains. The Tall Flight Stand is as tall as a Minimate, which allows flying characters to soar over their non-flying companions. Two foot pegs hold almost any Minimate snugly atop this lofty base. The Dueling Flight Stand gives bitter enemies a new way to battle in mid air. Each swirling arm has a strong foot peg at the end of it. Even non-flying characters can use this stand, as most comic book battles involve plenty of jumping and dodging. Both of these stands were designed using 3D CADD software, and then printed by a 3D printer. Each piece is cast in translucent white resin by hand by Luke Porter, who has been making custom action figures for over a decade.

These two new stands compliment the store’s previous releases, the Launching Flight Stand, and the Ice Sled, which are both still available. You can view all of the unique stands made by Luke’s Toy Store, as well as their other Minimate items, at their online store here: http://lukestoystore.com

Ask DST #157: Marvel, Halo, Battle Beasts, more

Art Asylum has the latest Q&A posted, with a variety of questions about licenses DST does not have, plus some Marvel, Street Fighter x Tekken, Halo, Battle Beast, and Knight Rider clarification. Below are the highlights:

No plans for Mortal Kombat, music licenses, Game of Thrones, Smallville, Prometheus, Night Breed, or Masters of the Universe. Smallville falls under the DC umbrella, and Mattel isn’t interested in MotU Minimates.
Disney has no plans to carry more Minimates outside of the exclusive box sets currently. This could change, depending on performance.
Always looking for an excuse for another Spider-Man.
Marvel line-ups always changing based on editorial and movies, but X-Men (as well as Spidey) are always considered in a rotation. The Jim Lee era of X-Men is near complete.
No plans for another Jubilee, but if so, it wouldn’t be a straight re-release.
Current Street Fighter x Tekken plan is to try and squeeze as many characters from the game as they can into three assortments, same as with Marvel vs Capcom.
Morbius has come close to production several times.
Still no to Marvel vehicles.
Halo line ends after series 5. Halo box set 5 will feature a yellow Spartan, and not Miranda Keyes.
DST considering more themed waves like the Death of Jean DeWolff.
Battle Beasts are expected to see a similar release plan as Marvel, with assortments in specialty shops and Toys R Us.
KITT and Michael should be in stores soon.

Ships Ahoy: Marvel, Halo

Marvel series 44 and Halo series 4 hit specialty store shelves today, so make sure you pick some up.

Avengers Assemble at MarvelStore.com

The new Marvel box sets have been announced. Both sets, based on the Avengers will be exclusive to MarvelStore.com (or DisneyStore.com).

Set 1 will feature Captain America, Giant-Man, Hulk, and some guy named Kang (who wants him?).

Hulk, Giant-Man, Captain America, and some other guy

Set 2 will feature Hawkeye, Iron Man, Thor, and Grim Reaper.

Thor, Grim Reaper, Iron Man, and Hawkeye

Both sets will be available for order in late April, which according to my calendar should be any minute now.

Server Upgrade

I’ve been informed that we’ll be having a server upgrade sometime in the next 48 hours, so we may experience some downtime during that time frame.

Apologies for any inconvenience.

Marvel Reveal Coming Soon?

There’s some speculation as to what the new Marvel reveal will be. The only news floating around right now is that Marvel.com should have some form of announcement today.