Yikes, all. My comments notification was tied to my old email and I only got them today! Everything should be fixed now and I’ve removed comment moderation. You should be able to post comments freely. So sorry everyone!

I, Magneto, supreme ruler of Minimate Headquarters and almighty Homo Superior, command you to heed my Review of the Missing. In this review I will demand the creators make my loyal henchman, Toad!

Why Toad has not been created in Minimate form remains beyond my comprehension, and it angers me greatly. I demand minions!

Was I not promised a Toad toady long ago? How dare the creators spurn me with their wicked lies! These aspersions will be punished…

Although it remains obvious, I announce my desire for a Toad Minimate because he remains a quality lackey. When a master says jump, a slave should jump. And my Toad jumps very high.

I grow tired of this witless banter! Make a Toad Minimate, or face the awesome wrath of the Master of Magnetism!

Occasionally I veer off topic to cover something arguably related to Minimates. In this Off Topic I talk about the current exhibit at the Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art.

Yesterday I went to see the current exhibit at the Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) called Masters of American Comics. I was very excited because the advertisements featured the work of Jack Kirby who co-created with Stan Lee such Marvel mainstays as The Hulk, The Avengers, and The Fantastic Four. The exhibit runs through March 12th, so it ends about a week before the Wizard World Los Angeles convention kicks off.

I had a lot of high hopes for this exhibit. Imagine comic book artists finally getting the respected art treatment in a contemporary museum! I couldn’t wait to go.

Unfortunately, the exhibit turned out to be a bust. While it did feature a lot of work by Jack Kirby and other early comic book artists, I found the entire exhibit to be very boring. The work displayed was primarily ink or pencil panels. Some were lettered, and none were colored save for an occasional reproduction of a Fantastic Four cover.

After viewing the exhibit I left thinking about the comic book art which inspires many of the Minimates I collect. The art form has grown and morphed so significantly (movies, merchandise, appareal) over the years that a sterile museum really doesn’t give it justice. Comic book art is so alive and vibrant, a boring museum just isn’t the proper place for it.

So if you find yourself in Los Angeles in March, I recommend skipping the MOCA exhbit and instead going to the Wizard World Los Angeles convention. Leave the sterile elitist museums to the Michelangelos of the world.

The “Eight Questions” column appears regularly at Minimate Headquarters. In it I interview minimate customizers and other fans of minimates. This interview is with Slipperyduckie, maker of the custom Archangel pictured here.

1. When you first started collecting Minimates, which one was your early favorite?
Spider-man. No question because it looked spot on and perfect, and it still does.

2. Of all the custom Minimates you’ve ever seen (or made), which one do you like the best?
I really like my New X-men Archangel I made. I was totally inspired by the poster for the new Darktide movie coming out. Plus hes always been one of my favorite characters.

3. Do you own a Santa Spidey?
Yep. I was lucky enough to buy one off Toywiz along time ago.

4. Which was the most difficult custom or custom design you’ve ever made?
My New X-men Archangel was pretty hard to make since I had to do the sanding and super glueing for the Pocket Superhero Hawkgirl wings he has. Then I had to make the silver parts on the chest really precise since it was using a really fat sharpie for it.

5. If all of the Custom Minimates in the gallery fought all of the official Minimates, who would win and why?
The customs probably since they would outnumber all of them. Plus they’re are like two different versions of each custom character.

6. If you could have one new character made into Minimate form, which would you choose?
I would say Archangel, I love mine but I would like an official one made.

7. What is the most you would pay to get an official Minimate 3 pack containing WonderWoman, Green Lantern, and Aquaman?
Maybe $20 because I love all those characters. Besides, it would be a miracle to see anymore DC minimates made.

8. Batman or Wolverine?
Batman, I loved the character ever since I saw him in the old cartoon. He has all the gadgets and skill, and he would probably find a way to outsmart Wolverine anyday.

Yesterday our heroes, JP1000 and Fake Gold Spidey, were trapped in Karaoke hell by the terrible sound of a singing Gorn. Thankfully, our heroes were rescued today by series of lucky events.

After a hundred and twelve grueling sets, Gorn was forced to give up the microphone to the next singer at Open Mic Night. But the next singer turned out to be no singer at all, but instead a superhero-to-be: Prototype 401k Man!

Prototype felt the urge, as he often does, to tell the crowd about the benefits of saving for retirement. As it often happens in office conference rooms across the country, everyone in attendance fell into a deep sleep.

Fake Gold Spidey was the first to awaken. “JP1000,” he said groggily to his sleeping friend, “wake up.”

Seeing him awaken, Protype approached. “What a beautiful paint job you have,” Prototype said. “Please tell me how you got to be painted so colorfully!”

Fake Gold Spidey looked at him. “I’ll tell you on two conditions. First, you help me get my friend, JP1000, out of here. And two, you never, ever tell me about my retirement options again.”

Prototype beamed, “That’s a deal!”

The daring duo of JP1000 and Fake Gold Spidey faced a terrible enemy today in the form of a singing Gorn. Lured into the nightclub by the offer of free beer and buffalo wings, the two heroes decided to take a short break from their quest to find the spring.

Little did they know, it was open mike night at The Big Sound, and a ruthless enemy planned to sing. After a few moments Gorn approached the stage. He tapped the microphone three times and said, “I’m gonna sing this one at my audition next week. I really think Simon, Paula, and Randy will send me to Hollywood after they hear this.”

The sound was excruciating. Never before in the world has such an awful sound been heard. JP1000 and Fake Gold Spidey grabbed their ears in pain. “For the love of all that’s holy and good, make it stop!” cried JP1000.

“Oh my God,” yelled Fake Gold Spidey, “I think he’s going to beat box now!”

Will our two heroes survive? Can anyone stop Gorn?

Action Figure Express is offering pre-ordering of another Street Fighter variant set. With so many variants, I’m losing track of my ‘mates!

The above picture is from their website. It looks like our Street Fighter minimates will be packaged as above. Something to watch for in the stores!

The secret got out yesterday, as Iron-Cow Productions announced their involvement in the creation of Battlestar Galactica Minimate and vehicle prototypes for the new line. We should soon see more pictures and updates on their website and at the New York ToyFair. Way to go Matt, the figures look great!

Check out the announcement here!

Diamond Select Toys announced yesterday the acquisition of the X-Men 3 movie license. This allows DST to produce Minimates based upon the characters of the upcoming movie. Speculation has these figures being the next wave of Minimates. Sounds like great news to me. Read all about it here.

More Darktide Minimate pictures are now available courtesy of the United Kingdom Toy Fair. View them here.

Oh, yea. And the Battlestar Galactica Minimates are pictured here!

Issue #103 of Toyfare featured a funny article about bootleg Spiderman toys made in China called Spader-man. The article got me thinking about whether any bootleg Minimates have been made. I haven’t seen any, but some collectors believed that the infamous Clear Spiderman Minimates were bootlegged.

However, the Clear Spiderman Minimates seemed to have been some production tests run by AA. You can read about them in Google’s cache here. Unfortunately the picture was pulled so newbies like me are left to wonder what they looked like.