Day 151

Day 151: May 31^st

3 inch Minimates

When minimates first came out Art Asylum had them in the 3 inch scale as opposed to the now standard 2 inch size. They had a variety of properties from the classic Star Trek to Rock and KISS. My first ever minimate was Gene Simmons from KISS. It took some time but I did manage to track down all of them during my slight obsession in having all things minimate. I have since downsized my obsession and thinned out my collection keeping only the stuff I really want/like outside of the main lines of minimates I want to collect. Out of this whole shelf I have 7 still and would like to get a few more back but they are getting a bit tougher to find.

Day 150

Day 150: May 30^th

Marvel Minimates Poster

This poster is light years ahead of the original Marvel one they did, which I still love but now that I have this new one I don’t feel so bad about selling the old one! I have several minimate posters that will get showcased here. DST got permission to give away this poster at conventions last year and it is awesome! They have included a smaller version packed into the Marvel minimates but it is awesome to have a full sized version of it. I plan to have it framed in my study/office/toy room one day!

Day 149

Day 149: May 29^th

Sundays with my Son

Not much to say. I like it is great that is it. Go away ghost.

Day 148

Day 148: May 28^th

Minimates Comic Book by Winkerbean

A few years ago I began dabbling in making minimate stop motion movies. It was a lot of fun and I began writing a script for a new one while working on gathering props and such for it. Well the script kept getting bigger and bigger as the ideas just kept coming and I wasn’t sure what I was going to do since it was far too big for a stop motion movie. About that time Minimate Multiverse member Winkerbean started posting pages from a comic he was making with minimates. Needless to say I was hooked, his ideas were awesome, the props were great and I loved the idea! I began talking with him about his work and got some great ideas and information about the process he uses and started work on my own. When the chance to get my hands on an actual copy of his first comic came up I jumped on it! I look to it whenever I feel bogged down in the process of my own work and it always gives my imagination a little boost to help me with what I am working with! He is by far one of the biggest influences in my minimate comic work!

Day 147

Day 147: May 27^th

Artmates Project

Before Luke brought the Artmates idea to his store a friend of mine and myself had an idea to custom some blank minimates in styles inspired by different artists. While he did up the minimates I designed the logo art work for them. We are still planning to go ahead with the “Jackson series” of them possibly this summer so stay tuned for more info on that!

Day 146

Day 146: May 26^th

Future Soldier

Despite what the package says this is very much Kyle Reese, it says so on the name tag on his chest! I love all the neat pieces he came with but most of all the backpack that has removable canisters! Very cool DST, very cool.

Day 145

Day 145: May 25^th

Hunter/Killer Tanks

For as much as I loved Terminator 2 I cannot recall these tanks and have not gotten around to watching the film in awhile. I do however enjoy both versions of these tanks that we got in the first round of minimate vehicles. I have some nice plans for them in my comic project and can’t wait to get to that part!

Day 144

Day 144: May 24^th

Doctor Octopus

We got a Doc Ock minimate waaaaay back early on in the days of minimates and he was alright, but this one not only buries that one but builds a house over it! Some people had issues with the new arms and getting/keeping them attached but I never had that problem. I love the sour puss face too!

Day 143

Day 143: May 23^rd

Vulture

The Vulture is one of Spider Mans classic villains and I am all too happy that we got him as a minimate. Back when I started collecting toys, the Spider Man animated cartoon was on and the toy line had the more revamped modern looking Vulture in it. I was not a big fan of this look and much happier with this look. I can even over look the slight off colour that the wings are. The clock is now ticking as to when these wings get reused to give us a Falcon minimate!

Day 142

Day 142: May 22^nd

Sundays with my Son

The hero jail guard I had said his name was green aim trooper. Well I bet the guard was sleeping, Jack got out.

Day 141

Day 141: May 21^st

Battle Ravaged Spider Man

Another of my little action figure favorites are the battle damaged characters. In the comics the characters often can get pretty beat up in their adventures and their costumes can take a real trashing so its fun to be able to have that in the toys too! I think this stems from my love of playing with the toys, making up and acting out stories and taking photos of them which I still do to this day! This minimate reminds me of one of my favorite Spider Man toys from the Toy Biz line when the 90’s cartoon came out so it’s hard to call it down despite the production flaws that plague this one like they did the Black Cat also in this box set. I love all the ripped costume details and the fact that they gave him and exposed web shooter was brilliant! The included web line and the return of the web grabber was another great idea!

Day 140

Day 140: May 20^th

Black Cat

This is the second Black Cat minimate we have gotten. I am undecided as to which one I prefer since there was some production issues with this one that hinder it from being a full on better minimate than the first. The flesh colour on the chest seems to have been applied far too lightly as the base body colour pushes through. Overall I enjoy the other additions like the fur collar, the extra fur trim pieces on the arms and legs and the one thing I haven’t noticed anyone else mention – the fact that her feet have a more detailed part especially around the bottom edge, giving the impression that they are a more rugged use footwear, better suited to her adventures. A nice little touch to help off set the poor production quality.

Day 139

Day 139: May 19^th

New Mutants Wolfsbane

This is the look of Rahne Sinclair in her transformed Wolfsbane persona. While she also has the ability to transform further into a more complete look wolf most writers have preferred to have her be in this mid way look. I think DST did a great job with this minimate, although I would have liked to see them use the hands and feet designs that they used in their Wolfman minimates as they would have added a bit more pop to the look.

Day 138

Day 138: May 18^th

New Mutants Rahne Sinclair

Here is the second bonus minimate in this box set. In the same manner that they used to give us the powered down da Costa DST uses the idea of putting in Rahnes head and hair to be swapped onto Karmas body and voila! An alternate look for Sinclair! I love the idea but am not entirely sold on the face; at this point in her life Rahne should have a softer, more innocent look to her facial expression.

Day 137

Day 137: May 17^th

New Mutants Karma

On the surface I look at the minimate as the lackluster one of the set. I fully admit that is based on my limited knowledge of Karmas abilities and what else they could have done with her as a minimate. From a technical standpoint the minimate looks good, the uniform is dead on while the face/hair work close enough for me.

Day 136

Day 136: May 16^th

New Mutants Roberto da Costa

Here we have a great example of DST thinking about maximizing the use of the New Mutants box set. Since da Costa isn’t always in his powered up Sunspot mode we can now have him in a powered down uniform look as well. Using Cannonballs body and the extra head we can have the alternate look for him, great idea DST!

Day 135

Day 135: May 15^th

Sundays with my Son

The trooper is a little blurry I know sorry it is the set up. I love this ghost rider! I wanted two A.I.M troopers except one’s hand is missing. Ghost rider’s weapon is not the right one!

Day 134

Day 134: May 14^th

New Mutants Sunspot

I am a sucker for clear/translucent minimates, heck even toys in general. I love the way they can capture certain looks and this one is a great example. Many will nitpick the fact that Sunspots powered up look is more reversed with it being more dark than translucent I love the way this one looks.

Day 133

Day 133: May 13^th

New Mutants Cannonball

I can honestly say I was surprised when DST did the New Mutants box set and follow up TRU set. I didn’t realize how much love there would be for the old team of rookie mutants. I have not read a lot of the old books but know most of the characters and roughly the timeline. I have enjoyed where the Cannonball character has grown to throughout the years and it’s nice to have a large portion of his first X team in minimate form.

Day 132

Day 132: May 12^th

Classic Heroic Age Thor

This is probably the driving force minimate of the box set, the classic look of Thor! This trumps the previous minimate of his classic look with no contest! There is no bulky chest piece, his face isn’t all squished looking, no clunky boots and the clincher is Mjolnir – this one is sized better and the best part is that it has the face inscription on the side! Big points there for DST and the attention to detail!

Day 131

Day 131: May 11^th

Classic Heroic Age Iron Man

For me this is probably the weakest link of the box set. I enjoy Iron Man well enough but this minimate seems very similar to the one or two pervious versions of this suit, counting the variant of that wave. I know the Cap and Spidey fall into that category too but with them there was an instant connection, with Iron Man I look at it and it doesn’t grab me. It still looks pretty nice and the colours work together very nicely.

Day 130

Day 130: May 10^th

Classic Heroic Age Spider Man

Through all the various Spider Man minimates we have gotten I really find this one to hit pretty close to home as the best version of the classic red and blue Spidey. There is minimal bleed over of the colours and I am very happy with how it looks!

Day 129

Day 129: May 9^th

Classic Heroic Age Captain America

In terms of the classic Steve Rogers Captain America I believe this is one of the best looking minimates we have gotten yet. Everything about it seems to be dead on to near perfect. I would have liked to have gotten the pulled back mask piece with this one but thankfully the colours of the pulled back mask from the frozen Cap match perfectly here so I can swap it around if I want.

Day 128

Day 128: May 8^th

Sundays with my Son

Thor Reborn’s face look’s fat!! He he! Lady Loki! Slacker! Loki where! Oh there.

Day 127

Day 127: May 7^th

Free Comic Book Day

As it is the first Saturday in May it has been deemed to be Free Comic Book Day!! This has been going on for close to 10 years now and I have not missed very many. Marvel has even started planning their first comic book based movie to open as close to this day as possible. This year Thor opens on this weekend so Kye and I will go to it after we hit all the comic shops for our loot! Since it is close to my birthday I always use this as a birthday outing for myself and anyone else that comes along. In 2005 and 2009 DST did Free Comic Book Day minimate giveaways which were huge hits especially among the customizer crowds!

Day 126

Day 126: May 6^th

Spider-Thor

Now this was just some silly fun that Kye and I were having while at church Easter Sunday. I had grabbed his Thor minimate on the way out the door in case he got bored during mass. When I was parking the van I saw his House of M Spidey in the van so I snatched that up too. He played with Thor a bit and then gave him back so I put him in my pocket and later decided to have some fun and stealthily managed to get Thors cape and hammer onto Spidey and surprised him with it. He thought it was hilarious and I thought it looked pretty neat too!

Day 125

Day 125: May 5^th

Civilian Thor

While it does appear that Thor will not have an alter ego, or at least not for this movie, he does spend some time not in the whole Thor costume/armour etc so it makes perfect sense that we get this minimate. It does a good job of capturing that look and the best part is the fact that it comes with the mound of rock that has Thors hammer, Mjollnir stuck in!

Day 124

Day 124: May 4^th

I’ll take a brief second to wish you all a happy Star Wars day, May the fourth be with you all! – I love being a geek and having this day being my birthday too yet! Now back to the regular programming.

Volstagg

Part of the fabled ‘warriors three’ in Thor, the portly Volstagg sports a nifty sculpted beard. While it has some issues with fitting on the head properly I still think it’s a great design. I know there are many customizers or just fans in general that look at that beard and think of Harry Potters Hagrid right away!

Day 123

Day 123: May 3^rd

Lady Sif

Part of the Toys R Us Thor movie wave this is a welcome addition to the minimates based on this movie. I am really digging some of the extra detail and sculpting they are putting into the hands of the new minimates lately. I find it really helps make the look more complete.

Day 122

Day 122: May 2^nd

Loki

I love the helmet on Loki, from the Thor wave. It is just so huge it’s hard not to like it! The detail on the minimate itself is top shelf, another great job. I enjoy how they changed both Loki and Thor in final production, as the original designs had bulky armour chest pieces but they look much better without them.

Day 121

Day 121: May 1^st

Sundays with my Son

I love the Tony’s camera shop in the background! Doctor octopus what are you doing slacker!? Where are you Spider-Man?