Action figures have long been a perfect compliment to comic books, since every kid (or kid at heart) has that natural desire to act out adventures with their favorite heroes off the drawn page. Every so often, a unique style of figure comes along that breaks the mold, so to speak. Each Saturday, Donny B will be showcasing various offerings from Art Asylum’s take on the ‘block figure’, with a weekly spotlight on Minimates.
In addition to hundreds of comic book licensed Minimate releases, Art Asylum has also gives us several waves of Star Trek Minimates.
Unfortunately, this particular license only lasted 5 waves, which is arguably because of their marketing tactic. The first 3 waves were made up completely of characters from the original Star Trek series, and it wasn’t until wave 4 that fans were given anything from a different series. The one Next Generation pack we were given was Captain Picard and a Borg Drone, and in wave 5 we were given Captain Sisko and Gul Dukat from Deep Space Nine.
Apparently, the thought process must have been that TOS (The Original Series) was the most recognizable character lineup of the entire franchise (and had these Minimates been released after the latest movie, that would have inarguably been the case), but it’s apparent that fans felt otherwise. At the very least, the average customer drew the line at 5 different versions of each main TOS character (they even started getting into movie variations, which showed a considerable age difference in the actors. And the one boxed set that was released as a supplement to the traditional wave-style releases was a complete lineup of the main cast from one episode where Kirk traveled to an alternate “mirror” universe – where evil counterparts are apparently characterized by having goatees).
Regardless of which series sells the best, Art Asylum clearly couldn’t make fans want 5 waves of TOS characters. For years, fans called out for a complete set of TNG (The Next Generation) characters, but sadly, those fans were only teased with a small taste of what could be.
Still, that tease was a well received one, as Captain Picard is revered by many Star Trek Minimate collectors as one of the best made releases of all 5 waves.
Behind the Image:
This was part of a set of images that I did all at once, including the Street Fighter image from August 28th’s article. As part of that set, I made this photo with the exact same simple technique – I lined up a computer screen with an image on it (in this case, the Enterprise D from the Star Trek: The Next Generation tv show) and placed the Minimate in a pose in front of the screen. Short, sweet, and to the point, with no photoshop editing required.
On Ebay: Star Trek
The head design of MiniMates stands out as especially strange when you look at a bald character.
Comment by Doorman — October 17, 2010 @ 11:19 am
The 4K Mi Drone is priced at roughly Rs. 31,000.
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