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Old 08-27-2017, 02:39 AM   #581
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Originally Posted by drag0nfeathers View Post
I've had a full case preordered of the retros since they went up. I'll be really bummed if they cancel them.

Also, if anyone is looking they're is a translucent SDCC2017 Donnie in package on ebay for $10.49. I already got mine off ebay last week to complete my set for a BIN of $25. Had to have it.
http://www.minimatemultiverse.com/in...cial/&page=121
They're officially cancelled
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Old 08-27-2017, 03:11 AM   #582
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Was really looking forward to these.
I guess the title of this thread should now be "TMNT minimates its not happening!".
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Old 08-27-2017, 02:22 PM   #583
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Well that just sucks...
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Old 08-28-2017, 03:08 AM   #584
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Well that just sucks...
Diamond Select Toys is notorious for cancelling their products. It's become a joke amongst those of us that have watched it happening for years. It has been going on since they started with Buffy. Battlestar Galactica was next, it continued to happen repeatedly with Star Trek, and now I am not at all surprised that TMNT has joined the ranks. DST's slogan should be "Our toys will give you blue b@#*$" because DST will tease you and then get up and walk out of the room. They depend on pre-orders for manufacturing but do not bother to take into account the reputation that precedes them. At this point anyone who has been with them since Buffy or Star Trek, isn't even going to waste the energy to pre-order anything because it's too often pointless. Eh, at least their consistent I guess.
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Old 08-28-2017, 07:24 AM   #585
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Luke told me not too long ago they were still scheduled to come out in October. I haven't heard anything about them being cancelled. Is that purely speculation or is there any proof?
"TMNT is done, sorry. No Classic Series 1 or 2."

Unfortunately, there is the proof. Apparently there weren't enough preorders for them.

We're hoping that maybe box sets can still happen. I mean they were able to get several box sets out of properties like Thundercats and Gotham so Classic TMNT should be a homerun here.

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Old 08-28-2017, 07:31 AM   #586
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And to quote DSTZack "100/200 more preorders would've made all the difference" .... that's some grade A bullish¡t. My LCS always orders 2 cases minimum. They've sold through almost all their Nick Minimates. I don't pre-order because they always get them & hold me a set or 2.

I mean it's Classic TMNT and the only time I actually saw these solicited was NYTF. I mean, did y'all advertise these outside of Previews & NYTF because 95% of consumers don't ever see that stuff. Classic TMNT sells itself. Especially how nice these 2 waves looked.

It's Lord of the Rings all over again. Weak. Blue balls.
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Old 08-28-2017, 09:47 AM   #587
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Diamond Select Toys is notorious for cancelling their products. It's become a joke amongst those of us that have watched it happening for years. It has been going on since they started with Buffy. Battlestar Galactica was next, it continued to happen repeatedly with Star Trek, and now I am not at all surprised that TMNT has joined the ranks. DST's slogan should be "Our toys will give you blue b@#*$" because DST will tease you and then get up and walk out of the room. They depend on pre-orders for manufacturing but do not bother to take into account the reputation that precedes them. At this point anyone who has been with them since Buffy or Star Trek, isn't even going to waste the energy to pre-order anything because it's too often pointless. Eh, at least their consistent I guess.
Glad to see another DST veteran (and yes, it is a war) typing what I usually have to be the one to type. Lulz. Their business model is solely, SOLELY, based on preorders from retailers and has been for years. They can't see any other way of doing business. Arguing with them about it is futile, and once they declare "it's canceled" the likelihood of any amount of complaining, persuading, campaigning, etc being successful is about 0%.

It's actually OK with me. Why do we need these when we got all those awesome Mega classics, including Mirage even? We never did get a classics FW Casey, but you could custom one pretty easily I think with the 3 other Caseys (4 if you count the 2k3 based series) they've issued.

I don't get why Minimates still have such a big following. The quality is nothing to write home about by today's standards. Actually pretty bad if you ask me. I think it's a case of people being in too deep after all these years to see the forest from the trees. They still haven't fixed that problem where one leg seems longer or more weirdly molded than the other. Still!
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Old 08-28-2017, 06:58 PM   #588
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I don't think that will do anything since they'rd already cancelled
They're not "OFFICIALLY" canceled until DST tells the retailers. So if you PRE-ORDER NOW, as I mentioned in my post, there's an outside chance that DST will rethink their decision to cancel them.

So we have until DST tells retailers to pull pre-orders, which they haven't done yet. So we could realistically save this set before it gets canceled if you PREORDER NOW!

And even if they do end up canceled, we're no worse off than we are now. So why not preorder now and try to save the line?
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Old 08-29-2017, 12:00 AM   #589
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i don't know why anyones's surprised. There are only two types of minimates. Marvel and cancelled.
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Old 08-29-2017, 08:04 AM   #590
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Originally Posted by NoPressApril View Post
Diamond Select Toys is notorious for cancelling their products. It's become a joke amongst those of us that have watched it happening for years. It has been going on since they started with Buffy. Battlestar Galactica was next, it continued to happen repeatedly with Star Trek, and now I am not at all surprised that TMNT has joined the ranks. DST's slogan should be "Our toys will give you blue b@#*$" because DST will tease you and then get up and walk out of the room. They depend on pre-orders for manufacturing but do not bother to take into account the reputation that precedes them. At this point anyone who has been with them since Buffy or Star Trek, isn't even going to waste the energy to pre-order anything because it's too often pointless. Eh, at least their consistent I guess.
How does reputation factor into it? Retailers know what has sold, and if they do not see inventory moving -- or do not get any pre-orders for it -- they will not order more product. And if the retailers do not order the product, then we have no way to sell it to customers, besides through our website, which currently only services the US. More pre-orders would definitely have helped, although anything offered in case assortments generally needs strong retailer support to happen.

Buffy ran for years before some of the later figures were offered and not ordered. Same with Star Trek. TMNT might have continued to follow the modern series if TRU had continued to order it, but with TRU not as interested in TMNT items any more (ANY TMNT items), we decided to try a different tack for comic shops. Unfortunately, the orders simply were not there. Maybe it has to do with modern TMNT Minimate sales at comic shops, or all TMNT sales across the board, but no one is sadder than we are.
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Old 08-29-2017, 08:15 AM   #591
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And to quote DSTZack "100/200 more preorders would've made all the difference" .... that's some grade A bullish¡t. My LCS always orders 2 cases minimum. They've sold through almost all their Nick Minimates. I don't pre-order because they always get them & hold me a set or 2.

I mean it's Classic TMNT and the only time I actually saw these solicited was NYTF. I mean, did y'all advertise these outside of Previews & NYTF because 95% of consumers don't ever see that stuff. Classic TMNT sells itself. Especially how nice these 2 waves looked.

It's Lord of the Rings all over again. Weak. Blue balls.
Diamond Select Toys did not make Lord of the RIngs Minimates, FYI. Art Asylum designed them for Play Along, who also did the C3 line, before DST bought Minimates.

And yes, we promoted them to hundreds of online toy and comic and TMNT news sites, we didn't just show them at NYTF and in Previews. Maybe we needed to do more. I don't know that classic TMNT is an automatic best-seller, although I certainly hoped, and obviously not everyone is a fan of Minimates.

Glad to hear your store sold through two counter displays (?) of TMNT Minimates each time. We have had mixed reports, and I assumed that was part of the problem here. But a large part of the issue was that TRU was cutting back on TMNT, which means that comic stores needed to really be on board to make these happen.
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Old 08-29-2017, 05:22 PM   #592
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How does reputation factor into it? Retailers know what has sold, and if they do not see inventory moving -- or do not get any pre-orders for it -- they will not order more product.
After having been burnt so many times by DST in the past I flat refuse to pre-order anything from your company. Why set myself up for yet another fall? Why sign up to spend months with my fingers crossed hoping that this time you will actually follow through with the product you've shown? Why jump through hoops and beg your company to take my money? And I am not alone in feeling this way. THIS is where reputation factors into it. Simply put, DST cannot be trusted. Now when DST releases something that does interest me I purchase what is made when it is made. This saves me the heartache of another Seven Of Nine Borg wave, Judge Wave, Deluxe Willow Wave, Chapel/Rand wave, Admiral Cain wave, Crush Drusilla, Sanctuary Faith, and now minimate April O'Neil.

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And if the retailers do not order the product, then we have no way to sell it to customers, besides through our website, which currently only services the US. More pre-orders would definitely have helped, although anything offered in case assortments generally needs strong retailer support to happen.
Yes, let's talk about your online store. There was a time when if a Buffy figure couldn't find an exclusive holder DST would take it as their own exclusive and sell it via their online store. This gave the appearance of DST actually having faith in their product, why not do this with these classic TMNT minimates? For that matter Star Trek Voyager is getting a resurgence in popularity thanks to Netflix right now, why not offer that Silver Seven Of Nine figure (without the pointless expensive alcove) through your website? I appreciate that you are on this company's payroll Zach but DST has disappointed myself (and others) many times and for many years now. You cannot just expect us to forget that fact.

Last edited by NoPressApril; 08-29-2017 at 05:39 PM.
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Old 08-30-2017, 01:43 AM   #593
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I was really looking forward to these, very Disappointed They join the many other cool cancelled MiniMates, such as Spongebob series 2 and the Kelloggs characters
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Old 08-30-2017, 06:56 AM   #594
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After having been burnt so many times by DST in the past I flat refuse to pre-order anything from your company. Why set myself up for yet another fall? Why sign up to spend months with my fingers crossed hoping that this time you will actually follow through with the product you've shown? Why jump through hoops and beg your company to take my money? And I am not alone in feeling this way. THIS is where reputation factors into it. Simply put, DST cannot be trusted. Now when DST releases something that does interest me I purchase what is made when it is made. This saves me the heartache of another Seven Of Nine Borg wave, Judge Wave, Deluxe Willow Wave, Chapel/Rand wave, Admiral Cain wave, Crush Drusilla, Sanctuary Faith, and now minimate April O'Neil.
Sorry, your earlier post was confusing. I thought you meant the good reputation of the toy line would help sales even if retailers did not support an item later in the line. As far as OUR reputation, obviously, we are aware that we've cancelled items in the past, which is why we don't offer anything unless we think it will be ordered in high enough quantities to make it. WE want to avoid cancellations. Even if orders for an item are low, we will often order more (usually, we are required to by production), and hope that it will sell through re-orders. Simply breaking even on our investment is fine by us if it helps the line overall. So for us to cancel an item, orders have to be very, very low -- unsustainably so.

And most of the items you mention came at the tail end of lines that had long, productive runs. Every toy line has later, unproduced items, it is not unusual, the only difference is that we offer and promote them to independent retailers (and consumers) in a more public way than larger companies who may be selling directly to mass retailers.

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Yes, let's talk about your online store. There was a time when if a Buffy figure couldn't find an exclusive holder DST would take it as their own exclusive and sell it via their online store. This gave the appearance of DST actually having faith in their product, why not do this with these classic TMNT minimates? For that matter Star Trek Voyager is getting a resurgence in popularity thanks to Netflix right now, why not offer that Silver Seven Of Nine figure (without the pointless expensive alcove) through your website? I appreciate that you are on this company's payroll Zach but DST has disappointed myself (and others) many times and for many years now. You cannot just expect us to forget that fact.
The Seven of Nine PVC we made is much larger than the original action figure we offered, which is where the cost comes in -- the alcove is just a printed backdrop. And orders for a non-poseable figure in that line are not required to be as high as for a fully articulated action figure, is my understanding, due to the manufacturing process. Regardless, orders for the Borg line of figures were definitely below where they needed to be back then, and while we have a Borg Select action figure in the works, I don't see a broad Voyager toy line in our near future.

As far as offering the TMNT online, I certainly have faith in being able to move some of them through the store, but only in box set form, not as an assortment of 12 2-packs. (We usually don't offer individual 2-packs that are part of an asst.) If we decide to re-package the figures to interest different retailers, that might be an option.
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Old 08-30-2017, 07:20 AM   #595
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As far as offering the TMNT online, I certainly have faith in being able to move some of them through the store, but only in box set form, not as an assortment of 12 2-packs. (We usually don't offer individual 2-packs that are part of an asst.) If we decide to re-package the figures to interest different retailers, that might be an option.
[Whispers] If you make them...we will buy.

#1 = Leonardo, Michelangelo, Donatello, Raphael

#2 = Shredder, Splinter, Casey, April

#3 = Bebop, Rocksteady, Baxter Stockman, Krang

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Old 08-30-2017, 04:15 PM   #596
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As far as offering the TMNT online, I certainly have faith in being able to move some of them through the store, but only in box set form, not as an assortment of 12 2-packs. (We usually don't offer individual 2-packs that are part of an asst.) If we decide to re-package the figures to interest different retailers, that might be an option.
A box set sounds great to me, they display better than carded J-peg figures anyway. I intended to order a sealed case to have two sets, one to open and play around with and one to keep sealed for display in my collection. Instead, I will buy two box sets. Come on April minimate!

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The Seven of Nine PVC we made is much larger than the original action figure we offered, which is where the cost comes in -- the alcove is just a printed backdrop. And orders for a non-poseable figure in that line are not required to be as high as for a fully articulated action figure, is my understanding, due to the manufacturing process. Regardless, orders for the Borg line of figures were definitely below where they needed to be back then, and while we have a Borg Select action figure in the works, I don't see a broad Voyager toy line in our near future.
Since I have you here I really want to take the time to address this as it has been bothering me for a very long time now. I'm sure you can tell lol. That Seven Of Nine PVC thing was an insult to anyone that actually wanted the original silver Seven Of Nine figure that was solicited, you know the one that actually looked like her with the expensive electronic alcove that made the Borg figures 40 bucks a piece? Those alcoves were never a good idea. To make an entire line of figures that expensive doomed them from the start and those of us that just wanted the figures paid the price. Now you are going to attempt to sell us a generic Borg figure with limited articulation and no pointless alcove while the truly incredible sculpts of the original Borg wave prototypes collect dust in Chuck's office? Am I understanding this correctly? And then you will blame us for not pre-ordering more of this thing. Has the thought ever occurred to you to remarket that Borg wave without the expensive alcoves, as normal carded figures? You have alienated your Trek customers (no pun intended) and it is going to take some effort to get them back. Assuming you want them back. Seven Of Nine IS Star Trek and if I were you, i'd start there. Try soliciting the silver Seven, the plum Seven, and the Borg version of Seven as a wave of 3 regular figures. Retailers might just bite.
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Old 08-30-2017, 06:47 PM   #597
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I wanted 2 full sets as well. One to open and one to keep MIB/MOC. I'm very interested however they're offered. I hope there is some way DST can make this happen. I'd also be more than willing to pay upfront if they were guaranteed to be shipped to me. I'm sure others here would as well.
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Old 08-31-2017, 08:04 AM   #598
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Since I have you here I really want to take the time to address this as it has been bothering me for a very long time now. I'm sure you can tell lol. That Seven Of Nine PVC thing was an insult to anyone that actually wanted the original silver Seven Of Nine figure that was solicited, you know the one that actually looked like her with the expensive electronic alcove that made the Borg figures 40 bucks a piece? Those alcoves were never a good idea. To make an entire line of figures that expensive doomed them from the start and those of us that just wanted the figures paid the price. Now you are going to attempt to sell us a generic Borg figure with limited articulation and no pointless alcove while the truly incredible sculpts of the original Borg wave prototypes collect dust in Chuck's office? Am I understanding this correctly? And then you will blame us for not pre-ordering more of this thing. Has the thought ever occurred to you to remarket that Borg wave without the expensive alcoves, as normal carded figures? You have alienated your Trek customers (no pun intended) and it is going to take some effort to get them back. Assuming you want them back. Seven Of Nine IS Star Trek and if I were you, i'd start there. Try soliciting the silver Seven, the plum Seven, and the Borg version of Seven as a wave of 3 regular figures. Retailers might just bite.
The figures you seem to be talking about -- the Borgified 7 of 9, Queen and male Borg? -- were actually offered at $20 each (in the US, anyway). I believe they SCRAPPED those backgrounds to offer them as an assortment of basic figures. I see an archived, de-published listing on our website offering the set for $20 each. I don't know if that listing was ever opened for online orders, but I'm fairly certain it was -- none were ordered in enough numbers to manufacture. They were before my time.

The "generic" Borg we're making is a fully articulated, fully interchangeable and customizable Borg figure, for $25. If those earlier sculpts still exist, I think this one is better than that male Borg, but I guess we'll see what the response is.

And the Seven of Nine Femme Fatales figure was an well-ordered add-on to a successful PVC line, as opposed to the figures, which were NOT ordered at the end of the Trek figure line. We were happy to get it out there.

I don't know that we've alienated Trek fans, we just haven't been giving them as much to buy. If they don't like a product, that's fine. If they haven't been buying a quality product because they don't like us for some perceived slight, that is certainly unfortunate. There are plenty of new fans who don't even know about those older figures, and they like our stuff, and plenty of old fans who remember, but just want new products. If retailers respond, then they must see a market for the items.
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Old 08-31-2017, 10:29 AM   #599
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Zach, do you see any way for us to get the classic TMNT Minimates set?
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Old 08-31-2017, 11:35 AM   #600
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They were before my time.
Ooookay sorry. I honestly didn't realize that. I can't very well b!*^# you out for something that happened before you. No wonder you have no clue what I am talking about. Again, sorry. Tell Chuck that if he wants to recoup his prototyping cost for that original Silver Seven figure I will gladly pay what it cost him to prototype it, providing that it is still in good condition. It doesn't have to be a total loss for his company. I have to try lol.

Sorry guys for hijacking this thread but everytime DST cancels something that I wanted it triggers me bad. Now Back to the TMNT Classic minimates discussion... i'm sure that's going to end well.
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