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 The New Year is almost upon us (it’s already here for some of our friends overseas) so what better time for reflection; especially considering this past year marked the 10th anniversary of minimates! I’ll share some of my experience over the years, along with taking a look at some incredible contest entries and amazing pictures from the many minimate lines.

 

About nine years ago I walked into my local comic book store not realizing that my toy collection and life was about to change. There on the counter was this little SDCC minimate two pack of Ultimate Spider-Man & Gray Hulk. I hadn’t heard of or even seen minimates before but I had to get this set. I’d never been a full-fledged toy collector before; most of what was in my collection were old toys from my childhood (lots of Transformers, Star Wars & TMNT) and certain toys that caught my eye over the years (lots of Batmans and a few misc Marvel figures). But these little two inches of plastic minimatey goodness was too much to resist. I had to find out more about them and amass a collection of my own.

 

I found my way online to the Art Asylum forum and thanks to Toys R Us and non-stop pestering of my LCS my minimate collection was growing. I was a moderator on the AA forum for a while (thanks to my OCD list-making skills) until the time for that forum ended and we all moved to the MinimateMultiverse. Around 2003 Danny was setting up Minimates Central for all the up-to-date minimate news and reviews. Over the years minimates have expanded to multiple lines: Star Trek, Marvel, LOTR, DC, video games, popular movie & TV shows, Battle Beasts and even a few in-house creations. Also changes have been made to the base minimate body that started out as a three inch figure, had a few lines that tried sizes in between, to now we have the standard two inch base amongst all lines. There have also been vast improvements in details, accessories, and sculpted pieces. So much so that pretty much any body style can be recreated in some way in minimate form. In my opinion, minimates are one of the best toy lines of all times.

 

As we look back over the past ten years of minimates I encourage you to check out some of the history of this line. Art Asylum has a bunch of pics in their gallery along with tons of news over the past years. If you’ve never checked out Ivan’s Minimate Database, you really should, it’s amazing; the Release Calendar is fun to check out too. Minimate Headquarters is another good source for minimate news. Also browse the Minimate Multiverse forum; I still have some of the definitive lists on there that have some neat old pictures and line ups. And if you feel like getting into customizing be sure to check out Luke’s Minimate Factory for tips and ideas. And as always check back here on Minimates Central for reviews!

 

A few months ago we held a contest on the MMMV forum for a 10th Anniversary Minimate Celebration and we had some outstanding entries of incredible customs, cool backgrounds, pics, comic shorts, books, music and more. I’ve included some of the entries on here and be sure to check out the gallery for all the amazing entries.

The contest winner, Fujis, sent me a copy of his photo album and the unofficial MMC mascots (the translucent color blanks) had fun checking out what’s inside with their new 10th Anniversary Blank buddy (we’ll have more pics in later parts).

And good luck getting Hav’s song out of your head, you’ll be humming it to yourself days afterwards, I guarantee it!

 

For all you crafty people out there, you know you want to give this do-it-yourself Multiverse cube a try:

MMMVPDF

Stay tuned for Part 2 where we’ll explore more of our Minimate history, have tons of pics and more. But before we leave, let’s read a page from The Book of Minimates:

 

 

 

 

 

by Lurch77