Minimates Central

2015
10.08

Days of Future Past SDCC Exclusive Box Set

Category: Marvel, Other / Tag: builder, mboxcc, X-Men / Add Comment

Days of Future Past is one of the best known X-Men stories of all time. While the original story arc only lasted 2 issues (The Uncanny X-Men #141-142), it’s repercussions have been felt through the x-universe ever since. It is also the inspiration behind the 2014 film, X-Men: Days of Future Past. While a wave of minimates based on the film has also been released, this San Diego Comic-Con exclusive box set celebrates the original source material.

Packaging

DST have their Box Set packaging style nailed down pretty well now. This is the standard lay-out for a 4-figure box set. Most of the recent box-sets feature the concept art for the “lead figure” of the set on the top of the box. In this case, it’s Wolverine with his trademark ‘Days of Future Past’ grey streaks. The box also features the SDCC logo above ‘Future Kitty Pryde’, and the branding of the comic book in which the story first appeared (‘Uncanny X-Men’) across the front of the packaging.
A Little bit of an observation regarding the names on the package: ‘Future Kitty Pryde’ is perhaps not completely accurate. For the purposes of the story, her future self was known as ‘Kate Pryde’. It’s not a deal breaker – but I’m sure some eagle-eyed fans will notice.
The original and iconic comic cover art featuring Logan and Kitty cowering in front of the ‘Apprehended Mutants’ poster wraps around the box as well, which is a nice touch. The two-packs once sported this kind of sublimated imagery on the boxes, and i kind of wish they still did.
The back of the box has the usual posed photograph of the minimates included and a small passage of text that explains how each of the characters included are related to the story.

The Figures

Future Wolverine

So – we probably need to get one little detail out of the way first: this box-set appears to be a 100% parts re-use affair. That being said, DST have done a pretty good job capturing the icon looks of most of the characters.

Wolverine’s hair piece works well enough with the addition of some grey paint streaks at his temples. Frankly – there are so many wolverine hair-pieces to choose from in DST’s catalogue that they’ll almost never need to sculpt another one. No complaints here.
The figure falls down a little bit in the choice of jacket. Having a look at the comic cover that this minimate is modeled after, we see Logan wearing a brown, waist length jacket with fur trim around the collar and lining. It’s a bit like a pilot’s bomber jacket.
This figure comes with a repaint of the jacket we saw used for the Street Fight in the The Wolverine movie wave. It’s a nicely sculpted piece, but it’s a thigh length jacket, with a differently shaped collar. It’s definitely not the jacket he’s wearing in the comic book that this figure is meant to be based on, and it’s noticeably inaccurate.

The figure has brown gloves on with clawed hands. On the lower half, he’s wearing black, shin-high painted boots, blue pants and a brown holster on his left leg. The holster mirrors the comic books cover, except that on the comic he had a gun in it. His pants were also brown on the cover, rather than blue. In DSTs defense, his pants are actually blue on the pages inside the comic – so this part is actually source-accurate.
As a figure on its own, it’s not by any means a ‘bad’ minimate. However, as an interpretation of a pretty classic and iconic look, DST have fallen short on this one. This is the 53rd Minimate of Wolverine that DST have produced. I feel like any new Wolverines that come out should be huge improvements on older releases, or be accurate representations that we haven’t seen before.
And the weird thing is – they *do* know better. If we take a look at DST’s Marvel Select figure of DoFP Wolverine, they’ve got his jacket, pants and holster down perfectly. The minimate version suffers from working with the parts re-use limitations, and it shows.

Wolverine comes with no additional accessories. There is a small space in the packaging for a hand gun, but I understand that it was pulled before production as DST opted to use a different holster which would not accommodate the piece.

MMC Score – 6 out of 10

Future Kitty Pryde

Kate Pride’s look on the cover of the DoFP issue is a one-off. Her now well-known orange jacket & pink pants don’t actually get seen anywhere within the pages of the book. Inside the comic itself, she actually wears a dull green jump-suit and a power inhibitor collar, like the rest of her captive mutant comrades. DST have managed to give us both looks in the one figure.
Kate has a particularly worried look on her face. I squeal with joy any time that DST give us female minimates with animated facial expressions that fall outside the range of ‘smiling’ or ‘seductive’. This look perfectly captures, in minimate form, the horror Kitty is showing on the comics iconic cover.

She comes with alternate arms, legs and an alternate hair-piece so she can be transformed from ‘front-cover kitty’, to ‘old lady Kate’ as she’s seen inside the book. Her jump-suit has the ‘M’ logo on it, to indicate she’s a mutant, and she’s wearing yellow shoes & a yellow collar around her neck that inhibits her powers – both of which are pretty true to the comics. If i had to nit-pick, they seemed to be wearing boots, rather than shoes in the comic, but I can let this one slide. Her alternate hair-piece looks to be a re-use of the one issued with Aunt May, but it works perfectly. This is a case parts re-use done right.

If you’re going to purchase multiples of this set to display the alternate looks and to army build the sentinels, then Kate’s jump-suit can also be reused for the other female characters in the comic Like Storm and Rachel Summers. A couple of quick head swap gives you a few more members of the cast of DoFP. Unfortunately, Kate’s chest-block will only work for women (or possibly very busty men), so there’s no quick custom options for Magneto or Franklin here. You can, however, make a powered up Colossus, as he does appear shirtless and armoured up in the comic.

If I had to pick on one more little detail about this figure, it would be the lack of a red medi-kit accessory. She’s seen carrying it through-out the start of the comic, and it would have just pushed this figure over the top. Considering all the extra parts DST have given to allow both versions of Kate to be displayed, I think the lack of a medi-kit (which probably didn’t exist in the tooling library anyway) can easily be over-looked.
As it is, this is a solid representation of the source material with a lot of playability and quick custom options.

MMC Score – 8.5 our of 10.

Future Sentinel

These are the Sentinels I grew up with. Or at least, very close to them. When I saw this figure, I was immediately reminded of watching Saturday morning television as a kid to catch episodes of Fox’s animated X-Men series. The figure features the big chunky boots we first saw used for Nimrod back in wave 41, which seems somewhat appropriate for a figure called ‘Future Sentinel’. To make the Sentinels a little taller, DST have added a torso riser around the waist-peg. The torso tampo matches their comic book counterpart perfectly.

The detailing on the head block is beautiful. The lines are crisp and clean, and they very closely mimic the drawings in the comic. DST have even added some mechanical looking details on the back of the head that feature the name ‘TRASK’, which is a nice little easter egg. It’s this kind of attention and fan-service that puts DST ahead of so many of it’s competitors in my book.

If the figure has a downfall, it’s the helmet piece which has been recycled from Marvel vs Capcom Sentinel. While the helmet looks appropriate for the figure, it strays from the classic comic look in that it’s missing row of raised rectangles that run around the helmet at forehead level.

To make up for this, DST have added in a couple of accessories: a translucent orange flight stand, and an alternate, battle damaged face. I’m a big fan of diversity in my army builders, so the alternate face is a very welcome addition.

With a ‘character’ like The Sentinels, who have had dozens of looks in the comics over the years, I feel like having another variation to add to your mutant-hunting, robot army is never a bad thing. And while these guys aren’t 100% comic accurate, they are all of the things i like about minimates: recognisable, brightly coloured, and have some great hidden features and useful accessories.

MMC Score – 8 out of 10

Mystique

Our last comic-inspired Mystique Minimate was released in wave 11 back in 2005, so we were about due for an update. The 2005 figure was was made up of already existing parts as well. In fact 2005 Mystique’s ‘dress’ was a re-use of the loincloth piece created for Elektra back in wave 1, so perhaps it’s unsurprising that this Mystique uses a wave 38 Elektra loincloth as its dress.
The hair is not perfectly matched to the comics, but as far as reusable hair-pieces go, this one is very well suited.
DST have printed Mystiques trademark skull-belt directly onto the dress piece in gold. A sculpted belt would have been nice to see, but this does the job. While the costume is almost identical to wave 11 figure, there is a small difference: DoFP Mystique was drawn with a dress that laced up under her arms, and DST have actually mirrored that in this figure. It’s a small detail, but it’s very much appreciated by this particular collector.

Once again, i’m glad to see hat DST have opted for a face that isn’t happy or sexy. Mystique has a determined, angry look on her face, which mirrors her villainous role in the comics from which this look was taken. Her paint aps are pretty good, although the zig-zag effect on her gloves doesn’t appear to match up perfectly on one arm. She also has a little bit of a paint issue no her belt, however this was not mirrored on the other figures i had gotten. Perhaps it was just a one-off.

An updated Mystique probably would have been welcomed in any form, but DST have included a couple of accessories that make this figure really stand out. She comes with two alternate heads; a Senator Robert Kelly head, and a head that shows her mid-transformation between Kelly and her true, blue self.

Senator Kelly is a character that modern comic readers might not know very well, but he is a civilian character that has had a pretty big role in the x-universe. Although, being a civilian (and given his current status in both the 616 comic and movie universes) he’s unlikely to be given a Minimate of his own any time soon. This accessory is not only great as a bonus for Mystique, but a quick head-swap on any of your suited minimates means you can now have your very own Senator Kelly to campaign for registration of mini mutants everywhere.

All up, this is a great representation of a pivotal X-Men character with some well thought-out accessories.

MMC Score – 9 our of 10.

Have I been to generous? Or perhaps too harsh? Why not vote for yourself below, or comment further over at the Minimate Multiverse MMC Review Forum.

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