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We’re back again for more “Best of” picks. This time around we’ll wrap up the rest of the movie lines, select the high scores from the video game lines and also go over the MAX and Fem Fatale lines.

Once again big thanks to Ivan at MMDB for having a great resource for all us minimate enthusiasts.

Not too long after the first Rocky box set came out in 2007, the first Back to the Future box set was released. That same year the Library of Congress had selected the BttF film for preservation in the National Film Registry (coincidence, I think not!). They had some really good character likenesses and to my dismay the creepy looking round heads for Doc Brown. I love that they made a hoverboard accessory and we also got 1.21 gigawatts of minimate awesomeness with mini-Delorean Time Machines! My favorite of the bunch is frosted Mini-Time Machine with Radiation Suit Marty McFly. Marty’s expression is perfect and his suit matches that movie scene perfectly; it even has an 80’s high tech video camera recorder accessory (that’s right kids, back in the old days we didn’t have all this digital stuff, data was recorded on large magnetic tape reels; wow that makes me feel old). I also give the frosted Delorean a slight edge over the non-frosted just because frosting makes everything better (mmmm, frosting).

Next up is the Terminator 2 line full of robots, California governors, heavy artillery and even a vehicle too. If you’ve seen my review of the Hunter/Killer Tanks then you know they’re a must have for T2 fans. The endoskeletons were not quite perfect. I for one wasn’t a fan of those sculpted feet/hands but the base figure was very well done; loved the details and translucent part on the torso. My favorite of this line are the T-1000’s (yes all of them, even the cop ones). I love how they have really unique and perfect for the film body parts like Asylum Assault’s T-1000’s split head and metal arms. But the best has to be the regular T-1000 that is anything but regular. He has a head with a hole through it and an exploded torso piece straight from the movie; it’s just perfect!

Perhaps the most successful minimate movie line was the Ghostbusters line; not only did we get characters from the film but they also branched out into the fan favorite cartoon show: The Real Ghostbusters. Sooo many great figures from this line. All the movie and TV show ghosts are incredible and are totally worth adding to your collection. You have to love that we have a minimate Statue of Liberty, multiple Slimers, multiple Stay Pufts and not to mention minimate Proton Packs are the bees’ knees. My favorite of the movie figures is Louis Tully from the first box set.  He’s a great 2 in 1 figure but the bonus of being able to display him with his human body with the Terror Dog head stumbling around is too much fun. From the RGB line it’s a tight race between the Logo Ghost and Boogieman for the best of the bunch. I like the Boogieman slightly more but I honestly pull out the Logo Ghost more often for my Halloween display. Top to bottom this line gets a gold star for consistently having good quality figures.

Recently DST made minimates based off the movie Expendables 2. Obviously Chuck Norris (Booker) is the best of the bunch.

Facts:

• The Chuck Norris minimate was the first action figure ever created (roughly around the same time as the Big Bang).
• Only one Chuck Norris minimate was made, he’s so fast that he can simultaneously appear in all the TRU box 2 sets.
• DST uses the Chuck Norris minimate to create battle damaged minimates from regular versions.
• Minimates used to be produced in 3 inch sizes until the Chuck Norris minimate cut them down to size.
• If I was able to review the Chuck Norris minimate it would get a score of infinity … tripled.
• If the Multiverse forum goes down it’s because the Chuck Norris minimate sneezed.
• Battle Beasts were created in an effort to find the Chuck Norris minimate a worthy pet.

The past few Halloweens we’ve been getting a treat with the Universal Monsters minimate line. I’m still keeping my fingers crossed we’ll get another round this year. So if you were keeping up with my reviews you know I’m a big fan of the black and white versions; they come out for my Halloween decorations every year. The single best figure of the line is the b&w Creature from the Black Lagoon, it just matches its film version 100%. But the best 2-pack of this line and honestly one of the best of any of the minimate lines is the Imhotep & Sarcophagus set. Seriously if you see this set in the store, buy it! Even if you already have extras, buy it; give to a friend/family member/coworker/anyone, you’ll be glad you did.

For a company that doesn’t do a lot of video game properties, they sure do a lot of video game properties. The first dive into this realm was with Street Fighter II minimates (guest starring Darkstalkers characters).  They had some impressive figures like M.Bison but we were saturated with too many alt colors of the same characters too quickly and unfortunately the line didn’t make it past the first wave. However got to give kudos for the accessories like Morrigan’s Snake Blast, Chun-Li’s Foot Blast and  Ryu’s/Akuma’s Energy Blasts.

Several Street Fighter characters reappeared with the Marvel vs Capcom 3 line. I’ll add the Marvel characters in with the full Marvel review later but we got a great assortment of other video game characters. The best of the ladies is a toss-up between a much improved Morrigan and a lost from the unreleased second wave of SFII Felicia. For the guys, Golden Arthur outshines the rest and is my favorite of all the video game lines. If only we had gotten a Firebrand I could have died a happy Ghosts n Goblins fan.

Venturing into console specific lines we had a wave of PlayStation 2 flagship characters and then a massive line of Xbox Halo figures and vehicles. The PS2 line was short-lived but did produce some interesting figures; my favorite being Clank. The Halo line was very impressive and I give it a lot of credit for thinking outside the base minimate body box for creating characters. That being said my favorite figure is Cortana. It’s hard not to pick her with that cool Holographic Chip base. What I like best of the Halo line is all the Warthog vehicles that were released. You can’t go wrong with getting any of them as they are all outstanding but my favorite is the M12 FAV Artic Warthog. The frost and white paint job put it slightly over the rest of the vehicles.

Now we’ll take a look at a couple of the homegrown minimates lines; we’ll start with the Mobile Action Xtreme (M.A.X. for short) sets. For years minimate fans had been clamoring for civilians, law enforcement and other generic characters to go along with all the super heroes, villain and movie stars. In 2010, they released the MAX line with a whole slew of law enforcement and rescue figures along with interlocking jet vehicles. The big draw of this line was the ability to gear up with a ton of extra accessories and parts. There’s really not a bad set in the bunch and all the figures are really good. So I’d say if you had to pick only one set to get, I’d go for the Law Enforcement set. It’s the set that would best go with pretty much any other minimate line. As far as the jets go my favorite is the translucent blue Tech jet. And not to leave them out but the MAX line did release a few MAX zombies which we would have seen more of but the Walking Dead license got picked up as the go-to zombie line.

Next up we have the Calico Jack’s Pirate Raiders which was another great AA homegrown line that included figures and vehicles. The vehicle was a wonderfully done minimate sized pirate ship done in several versions. I love the details on the regular ship but the glow in the dark ship is the best vessel in the fleet. For the figures again you can’t go wrong with any of them but my favorite is Charles Vanes, he has one of the best expressions/sculpted head you’ll find on a minimate.

Even though the Calico Jack line had an Anne Bonny figure with one of the Pirate Ships, I consider her a part of the Femme Fatale line sort of like the IndyMates 4-pack from long ago. Luke reviewed Alice earlier on and I’ll have a full review of one of the Fatale box sets up soon. But for now my pick for best of the bunch is Little Red. 

So how are my picks so far? I’m sure not everyone agrees but I stand by my choices until proved otherwise. Up next on the looking back posts, Luke will go over a more detailed history of minimate customizing and then I’ll be back to wrap up the “best of” with the Marvel line and also take a look at current/upcoming minimate lines.

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by Lurch77