.

The packaging is the same as nearly all the promo blanks, being a clear baggie with a sticker on the back with some blurb on it. It’s a tried and tested method of packaging blanks which works. The Red Cross Minimate has an excellent piece on it describing the good work the organisation does.

This is the second black blank to be released, after the hard-to-get 2005 Retailers Summit promo blank. Black has been a much-requested color for blanks but I’m not so sure. It’s certainly not as dynamic as the translucent Emerald City Comic Con promo blanks, but maybe that’s an unfair comparison. The blank is featureless apart from the Bad Apple Comics logo. The logo takes up most of the space on the chest block, with the apple core at top then the writing underneath. It’s dark red with a small white outline and for me it doesn’t “pop” off the Minimate enough. If they had used just the core, it would have looked OK because the core has a lot of pale yellow/white on it which makes it stand out against the black, but the red writing of the “Bad Apple Comics” isn’t clear enough against the black despite the white outline separating it. Perhaps a lighter colored blank would have worked better with this one. 

Like all of the recent 2″ promotional Minimates, this uses a body that hasn’t yet made it to retail (except for the IndieMates set). The Minimate has a hole in the head, the torso hole is hexagonal, the torso peg is longer, and the legs have the reversed knee joint connections. Ace customiser antacost pointed out to me that the hands are different in this set and the Emerald City Comic Con promos, and I hadn’t spotted it. The hands are the same, the change concerns the posts that connect the hands into the wrist sockets. Normally the post is straight, but on these blanks the post is “stepped”, tapering off towards the end of the post. I guess that’s to try and help the hands stay in the sockets. You might just be able to see the slight tapering in the pics. It’s not really noticeable unless you look for it. 

Just a note about the joints in general – normally promo blanks have some of the tightest joints around, my Santa Spidey is still as solid as a rock – but the promos in this set are quite loose. 

Like the recent Emerald City Comic Con promos, this blank has no copyright information printed on the back of the legs or pelvis piece. All the previous promos have had some copyright information, but there isn’t anything printed on the back of these Minimates at all. I have no idea why the promos of 2006 aren’t getting copyrights printed on – maybe the factories botched it and they were all supposed to have it? 

Just like all the other promo blanks, the Bad Apple Minimate has no accessories. 

Overall, this is a blank that doesn’t quite work to its best, with the loose joints and indistinct logo being slightly problematic. As part of the set of 2 Minimates, it’s certainly the inferior one in my view.

The other promo blank in the set is the white American Red Cross blank. There have been several white blanks released before, including the Toyfair blank and the Free Comic Book Day blank, but the color really suits this one because of the organisation it represents and the logo it has. The large red cross on the chest block looks fabulous and is obviously such a visual, eye-catching image of the red cross on the white background. It’s an image we are all used to. Underneath, in tiny but still clearly legible writing, are the words “American Red Cross”. The whole look is very pleasing. 

Like the Bad Apple Comics promo, this blank is created using the latest Minimate body with all of the refinements. Again, it has the “stepped” hand posts. Also like the Bad Apple Comics promo, the joints are quite floppy and loose – if you take a look at the image of it in the baggie above, see the position of the legs. Compared to the usual solidness of promo Minimates, this came as quite a surprise. 

This blank also has no copyright information printed on the back of the legs or pelvis piece. This would certainly distinguish it from the other white blanks which all have some copyright information printed on the back. 

Just like all the other promo blanks, the America Red Cross Minimate has no accessories. I would have loved some medical accessories – an in-scale stretcher, or something – but I know that would have raised the production costs too high. 

Overall, this is a blank that looks very distinctive and unlike most blanks could conceivably be used in play with other Minimate lines as a medical robot or something. Highly recommended because of the cause it celebrates and contributes to.

Review and pictures by Danny Mills

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