Day 90

Day 90: March 31^st

Meggan

This was one highly demanded minimate, as was the whole box set based on the Excalibur team. Overall I dig the minimate, some minor paint issues and the hair seems a bit overly large but it still works for me.

Day 89

Day 89: March 30^th

Hand Ninja

Here is another great idea for an army builder! Other than the obvious reason for my liking the Multiple Man army builder I figured the Sentinel was going to be the definitive army builder example. Well DST proved me wrong there! The two looks for the Hand ninja make it very hard not to want a lot of them to have an army in each look! I love that they come with a pile of weapons too!!

Day 88

Day 88: March 29^th

Classic White Tiger

While I have never read anything about this character I am still impressed with the simple yet effective look of this minimate. After doing some reading/research about this character I see that the simple look was perfectly matched to who he was, either way another nice minimate to the collection!

Day 87

Day 87: March 28^th

Suspended animation Captain America

When the results of the TRU.com voting for the contents of this set were announced I was pumped for this particular minimate especially since it was the one I had voted for. It is an icon look for Cap and the partial ice block was an amazing idea for an accessory. I think the pulled down mask was a great bonus feature as well!

Day 86

Day 86: March 27^th

Captain America Reborn

Playing out of the same Reborn miniseries as the WW2 Cap minimate, this version is considered by many fans to be the pretty much perfect minimate of Captain America. There is not much more I could add to that idea, this is a great looking minimate!

Day 85

Day 85: March 26^th

Armored Captain America

This version of Cap showed up in the 90’s when they decided that the super soldier serum was destroying Caps body and he needed this suit to move/function. I honestly have read very little Captain America comics but this sounds pretty lame. Since they made the minimate I am more tempted to find the story arc(s) it is from and read them however.

Day 84

Day 84: March 25^th

WW 2 Captain America

Part of the Captain America: Through the Ages box set this version of Cap has a look pretty consistent with how this era was shown in the Reborn miniseries, aside from the shield. I had not read the miniseries until recently and have to say I thought it was great! I found I liked this minimate more than I thought I would, the colours, bulky chain mail top piece and the helmet I really dig! There is a second helmet that does not have the chin strap but I find I do not enjoy that version very much at all.

Day 83

Day 83: March 24^th

Betsy Braddock

Another TRU exclusive minimate this version of Betsy has her in one of her older costumes. Some collectors quipped about the mistakes of representing her powers in a modern way when they were not used in this manner when she wore this particular costume, personally I figure if it is that big a deal then I will take the psychic knives off her wrists and she won’t use the energy katana. I was already planning that to go to one of her other, more ninja-esque looks anyways!

Day 82

Day 82: March 23^rd

Lockjaw

This minimate is a lot of fun all on its own! This marks the 3^rd time DST has made a four legged dog type minimate; the first being the classic BSG character Muffit, second the Ghostbusters Terror Dogs(2 versions) and now the Inhumans resident teleporting canine Lockjaw. I dig how they pulled this one off, pure win here!

Day 81

Day 81: March 22^nd

Gamma Hulk

This is our second run of a translucent green Hulk minimate, the first one going waaaaay back to wave 6 paired with the Leader. I like the updates of the bigger chest piece and the bigger hands (mostly)…it just adds a bit more bulk to the minimate over all.

Day 80

Day 80: March 21^st

Hulk Buster Iron Man

Now this is one huge minimate!! I know loads of people don’t like the use of lots of sculpted parts over the core minimate body but this minimate could not be possible with out it! As an extra bonus this big guy has paved the way for some bigger and bulkier characters on tap for this year’s release.

Day 79

Day 79: March 20^th

Modern Heroic Age Iron Man

This is the one minimate from this box set that really sells the set. This look is based off his latest, ‘bleeding edge’ armor, which is a sleeker more streamlined armor. The only thing that detracts from this look is the slip over mask; it is just too bulky for this look. I fixed this by swapping out the head for the head on the Hulk Buster Iron Man, since the head under the big mask of the Hulk Buster looks perfect. The proof is in the pudding with the pictures I think!

Day 78

Day 78: March 19^th

Modern Heroic Age Captain America

Here we have another version of the ‘Bucky’ Captain America, with some minor changes of course. I actually find this one to have more than just some minor changes since the changes are all very obvious. First he has a ‘cut out’ mask as opposed to the full face mask of the original, and frankly I love it! He is also sporting an angrier facial expression which is very suited to the character. Lastly the armored part of his suit, i.e. the blue part, does not have the metallic sheen to it that the original had. All in all another cool looking minimate for sure.

Day 77

Day 77: March 18^th

Modern Heroic Age Thor

This minimate is another one that had a similar version released not that long ago, but with just a few minor changes. With this Thor the face is different and the other change was the fact that this one did not have the height extender that the previous one did. That is actually a huge distraction for me with this one since it makes him look really squat and not very Thor like at all.

Day 76

Day 76: March 17^th

Modern Heroic Age Spider-Man

Many people looked at this box set as not a big deal since most of these looks have been made recently already. While we have many variations of Spidey and a lot in the red and blue suit but I like the darker hues of it. What I don’t like however, is the lack of webbing detail on the back of the minimate and the fact that the webbing details don’t go around the wrists either.

Day 75

Day 75: March 16^th

Santa Six

This is another one of those oddity pieces in minimate history as it was done as a in house gift for people that worked for Diamond Select Toys. The exact number of these is debatable but it was not very high. Some would also question the validity of it but since the person I got it from was a former employee with DST I know it’s the real deal.

Day 74

Day 74: March 15^th

Abigail Brand – custom

Now I have come across Agent Brand only a few times in various comic stories but thought she might be a useful addition to my comic storyline I am working on so I gathered the parts. This is the first custom I have done with a decal thanks to Luke and his discovery of a thinner sticker paper. Once I had all that I just needed the green hair, which there was not a lot of selection of. That is until I scored the test shot parts lot and had several green hair styles to work with!

Day 73

Day 73: March 14^th

Test shot parts

In my years collecting minimates I have managed to acquire some unique pieces of minimate history/oddity that fall to the edge of the hobby. Some I have kept and others I have passed along to others who may be more inclined to value the item more than I. There has been a bit of a surge lately in test shots showing up for sale and while these are neat, quirky pieces of minimate history they usually are outside of my price range. I do have a few Marvel error test shots and an unproduced Lord of the Rings test shot but I generally don’t go way out of my way to find them. I did jump at the chance for this lot of test shot parts from the first 4 waves of Battlestar Galactica minimates. I am not a fan of the show – I tried to when the minimates first were announced but it didn’t stick. Anyways, long story short, when I saw this parts lot I went for it mostly for one particular hairpiece for a custom idea I had, but I am sure I will make use of a good portion of the parts in here.

Day 72

Day 72: March 13^th

Luke’s Toy Store Custom News Crew

The reporter and camera man customs from Luke’s Toy Store were a must have set and helped prompt my writing a vital scene in my comic I was having issues setting up in a way that felt right. I had a lot of fun photographing these two and already have ideas swimming around of other places I will make use of them for sure!

Day 71

Day 71: March 12^th

Luke’s Toy Store Custom Mobsters

At fun addition to the minimate family these custom mobsters add some much needed bad guy numbers to the collections. Both of them have some iconic mobster details, just a nod to the source material like that shows the high level of thought that Luke puts into these custom designs he makes for the store.

Day 70

Day 70: March 11^th

Luke’s Toy Store Custom Skeleton Lords

Another set of customs from Luke’s Toy Store; these two skeleton customs feed my fantasy geek side perfectly. The mage has an awesome staff and creepy red eyes glowing in his hollow eye sockets, while the knight has a great amount of detail worked into his look.

Day 69

Day 69: March 10^th

Luke’s Toy Store Custom Security Guards

While sorting through my prop house I came across a batch of Luke’s customs that he is selling in his online store – http://lukestoystore.com/ -and figured since I hadn’t been using them yet that they would be good fodder for the blog! First up is the pair of security guards. Luke did a great job with these guys; they definitely look like two different types of security guards. I know I have plans for them already in various parts of my comic work.

Day 68

Day 68: March 9^th

TRU Street Fighter II four pack

Featuring M. Bison, Chun Li, Ryu and Shin Akuma

Back when these came out I never bothered to hunt them out since I had all the minimates in it from their respective 2 pack releases. Over time I down graded my collection and stopped being a completist. I sold off many side parts of my collection including the SF2 minimates. I was talking with a good friend of mine in the fall and in passing had mentioned I really missed my SF2 minimates, since I had been playing the game a bit on the playstation2. Low and behold a package shows up from him with this 4-pack as a Christmas gift! I had never seen these mates in person and the difference in color between these and the regular releases is mind blowing – these ones look so much better!!

Day 67

Day 67: March 8^th

M.A.X. Tech Jet Pilots

My collection of pilots grew nicely with the addition of another red pilot and another silver one. I now have almost enough for 2 in each jet I have…at least both my red jets now have read pilots. I did some head swapping to give them all different faces at least lol. Since my kids have been watching the Clone Wars cartoon however, I don’t find it that odd to have had all these guys looking roughly the same.

Day 66

Day 66: March 7^th

Star Trek Bridge play set

In my quest for props for comic work I look at pretty much everything to see how close it comes to being a workable scale for minimates. When I saw pictures of this play set filled with Trek minimates and how cool it looked I knew I had to have it! Luckily for me those same pictures were part of the persons post wanting to sell it so now its become part of my prop house!

Day 65

Day 65: March 6^th

Red Battle Beast Gator

So now I have an open Battle Beast minimate. Back on day 34 I posted a sealed Battle Beast promo that I was not sure about opening. This red gator came with the collector’s case from yesterday, making it the first Battle Beast minimate available to purchase at retail. Since my son really wanted one I opened this one for photos and to let him play around with it. I have to admit I am a bit more happy with how it comes together now that I have had a chance to play around with one a bit. I still haven’t opened that previous one but I might now, if for no other reason than to do some fight scene photos of the two of them.

Day 64

Day 64: March 5^th

Minimate Collectors Case

When the first announced these many people figured they would be like the playset, never to see the light of day. Once it got closer to actual release time and more pics showed up it was great to see the project moving along. Personally I was on the fence, I wanted it to be a good thing just because there was some old school vibes to it and would potentially work for storage of my non display minimates, but I was worried it wouldn’t fly because of trying to keep the price reasonable. The case itself is sturdy and the trays inside are way better than I had hoped they would be. Now that I have one I will get more because it is awesome!

Day 63

Day 63: March 4^th

Uncanny X-Force Archangel

This was the minimate I was most looking forward to in this set and it did not disappoint at all! The black and silver color scheme looks fantastic as a minimate! I am really happy they changed the hands they ended up using from the terrible ones they had on the first prototype.

Day 62

Day 62: March 3^rd

Uncanny X-Force Deadpool

At first I figured this set was going to be a write off in terms of how much I liked the minimates. I was only really expecting to like one out of the four in the box set but I have been generally surprised by how much I enjoy this Deadpool. The colors really work and the red eyes really ‘pop’ against the muted colors of the rest of the minimate.

Day 61

Day 61: March 2^nd

Uncanny X-Force Psylocke

Here we have Psylocke in her current uniform from the pages of Uncanny X-Force. This minimate looks not bad; I like the reused hair piece. The biggest complaint I have is with the teeny sword…I have not liked these since they were first introduced as they are too small and flimsy, I had a heck of a time getting this one in Psylockes hand even.

Day 60

Day 60: March 1^st

Uncanny X-Force Wolverine

Despite being a Wolverine fan I can’t help being a bit disappointed with this minimate. The changes they made such as the bigger boots, gauntlets things and the mask do not add improvement to the previously released X-Force minimate. The mask is horrid in fact, I know a lot of the source art as a more prominent nose on the mask but in minimate form it looks like a freakin beak! The new belt looks good though.