Custom Minimate Resources at the Minimate Factory

BrickArms Blade Pack Review

June 17, 2010 – 4:58 pm

I am a big fan of all the cool weapons and accessories that BrickArms creates. I had high hopes for their Blade Pack which was released last year, and it did not disappoint. The pack includes their 5 blade weapons, the Combat Knife, Machete, Rapier, Dadao, and Damien Blade, in 4 different colors: silver, dark gray, gunmetal, and black. This adds up to a total of 20 weapons, which gives you a ton of options for display.

The quality of the weapons is very high, and they feel just like lego weapons. There are no tooling marks or obtrusive mold seams to be found. The plastic is very strong, and the only sword with a risk of breaking is the thin blade on the Rapier, and that is only if you bend it more than 45°. To make these weapons, BrickArms actually uses an injection molding machine to inject hot ABS plastic (the same plastic used by lego) into the weapon molds with over 90 tons of pressure.

The weapons are designed for lego figures, so the handles are too large for minimates, and need to be trimmed. To do this, I set my hobby knife along the bottom of the sword’s hilt, and I start cutting into the plastic about 1/16” vertically. I keep cutting upwards until I meet the hilt and the piece either falls off neatly, or needs a little horizontal cut to make it come off. I do the same thing on the other side of the sword. Sometimes it takes a few tries to get it the right size for a minimate hand. And sometimes you will leave little white scuffs on the plastic, but these are almost always covered up by the minimate hand. Here is a diagram of this:

In the photos in this post, I tried to pick out existing minimates that would really benefit from these weapons. However, I am mostly interested in them for customs. Just think of the countless sword-wielding characters from comics, movies, and television shows that we don’t have in minimate form! The knives can also be trimmed and modified for specific weapons, like Shatterstar’s sword, which I did not originally make from BrickArms weapons, but if I were to remake him, I definitely would! Also don’t be shy about adding some blood on the blade for certain characters, like I did with Jason Voorhees (also not originally a BrickArms weapon).

Overall I think the Dadao is the most difficult sword to find a use for. It seemed to work alright for Kraven (pictured below), but the Machete would probably be a better fit for him. Perhaps a Prince of Persia custom?

I am not completely unbiased, as I do sell this pack in my store in both the normal version and a special trimmed version for minimates. However, I loved BrickArms weapons long before opening the store, and I really think they make the best mini-weapons out there. The next time you need to track down a sword or a knife for a minimate, why not give them a shot? I am very glad that I did.

Our next update brings a ton of new free decals! Stay tuned!

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By Luke314pi | Posted in recommendations | Tagged brickarms, reviews | Comments (0)

Hulk No Want Puny Arms!

May 28, 2010 – 8:35 am

With every new Hulk Minimate release, collectors hope for an update that would make his arms look more in proportion to the chest and waist pieces added in recent years. Starting with Ultimate Hulk, he was even given larger hands, but his puny upper arms remained. Today I wanted to present three possibilities for DST to fix the puny arm problem. Some of these have been discussed before over at the Minimate Multiverse, but I wanted to keep this all in one place, along with some crappy diagrams that I drew on my iPod.

1. Sculpt a new arm!

This option seems to be the option that DST is most likely to pursue. They have given Shadowcat and Storm sculpted arm details, so why not Hulk? And since some of the Hulk chest pieces have sculpted pectorials, sculpting some basic arm muscles doesn’t seem like too much of a stretch. Of course, DST would have to engineer the arm/chest piece combo so that it didn’t affect the articulation too badly. But I have faith that they could do it! (The drawing above shows the arm with the Ultimate Hulk hand attached.)

2. Use a slip-on piece!

If DST doesn’t want to do a new arm sculpt, they could always give us a slip-on arm piece with the sculpted muscles. My quick sketch shows the underlying arm with dashed lines (and the Ultimate Hulk hand again). This would be a great compromise for people who prefer less sculpted parts. You could have your Hulk any way you like him.

3. Go crazy and modify a 2.5″ Minimate arm!

The option that might look the best proportionally with the big chest pieces is to use an entirely new arm from top to bottom that has a thickness similar to the 2.5″ Minimates. It would be easiest if these used the same size shoulder peg. In this drawing, the large hand would be part of the arm itself, similar to how the Iron Man movie minimates have sculpted legs and boots.

Those are my top three choices for getting a better Hulk. Feel free to post any other ideas!

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By Luke314pi | Posted in Uncategorized | Comments (0)

4 iPod Apps for the Minimate Customizer

May 11, 2010 – 6:43 am

This is going to be a bit of an odd update this week, but I tend to write about what I am passionate about at the moment. I received a iPod Touch for my birthday back in late February, and I was surprised to find some apps that were helpful with Minimate customizing. I am going to take a look at 4 apps today, along with a few bonuses at the end.

miniDraw

This app is the most directly useful for customizing, because you can design complete Minimate decals, and email them to yourself to print out on decal paper (or soon on white polyester film, which I have grown to love dearly). This app has a set of vector drawing tools that is similar to the basic functions of Adobe Illustrator. You get a pen tool that can create shapes of any size and color. The anchor points and curves of these shapes can be edited anytime. You also get tools to clone, mirror, and scale your shapes. You can have several layers at once, and the RGB color selector is a beautiful thing. The basic version of this app is free, and includes all of the tools listed above. The full version is $6.99, and gives you a few more pen tools, plus the ability to export your files as an SVG which is editable in Illustrator. For those of you who have read this far into this update, I am going to give you a preview of my upcoming Alien Decal Kit, which was partially designed in miniDraw:

This program definitely has a learning curve, but I highly recommend checking out the free version. It comes with a tutorial video that is a must-watch. Let me know if you try it!

Adobe Ideas

Adobe ideas is another vector graphics program, although it is more focused on loose sketching than precise drawing. I have used it to sketch out ideas for my Alien Decal Kit and upcoming dioramas. You get a pencil tool, eraser, and move tool, and that’s basically it. Once you select your pencil you can choose your size, opacity, and color. Then you simply start drawing. You can manage different layers, which makes coloring your drawings a snap. It can email you a vector file that can be imported into Photoshop or Illustrator. And best of all, it is completely free. This app has a really nice user interface that makes everything simple and enjoyable. Give it a shot!

Magic Touch

This is a photo editing app that had the best features I have found for the lowest price. It is $0.99, and for me it was a dollar well spent. It has many of the same tools as other photo editing apps, such as image resizing, cropping, rotating, and color management. But where this app really shines is the touch-up tools. You get a clone stamp and smudge stick, as well as spot touch-ups of brightness, contrast, hue, saturation, and color dodging and burning tools. Plus it can handle large images where many other apps automatically resize them to a smaller size. When I am in a hurry I just dump all of my unprocessed Minimate pictures onto my iPod, and get them ready for posting when I have time throughout the day. I have also used it to touch up some of my packaging designs. And if you have an iPhone I think this app would be even better for taking quick pictures of your customs, as you have a built -in camera.

Google Docs

I am a big fan of lists. They help me stay as organized as possible with everything I have going on right now. I keep several running lists in Google Docs, and their iPod/iPhone version is great for editing these lists on the go. For Minimates, I keep lists of my upcoming commissions, the customs I want to do for myself, decals I need to design, and just ideas in general. The only problem with this app is that it requires an internet connection.

Bonuses!

Here are a few Minimate backgrounds pre-sized for your iPhone or iPod Touch, modified from the posters on the Art Asylum web site:

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By Luke314pi | Posted in recommendations | Tagged decals, ipod | Comments (0)

An Open Letter to Diamond Select Toys

April 16, 2010 – 5:16 am

Dear Diamond Select Toys,

Ever since you first debuted Minimates back in 2003 there has been an interest in the Minimate community for blank Minimates that are readily available for purchase. Through this blog and through Luke’s Toy Store, I have received weekly requests and questions about this very topic (including one that arrived as I was writing this letter). A simple search of the Minimate Multiverse reveals numerous posts on this topic, and if the archives of the old Art Asylum message board were available, I’m sure even more posts could be found. These posts and emails come from all corners of the toy universe, from veteran collectors to customizers to new collectors who have never even purchased a Minimate before. The interest is definitely out there.

The main reason that your customers are clamoring for this type of release is for customizing. I know that your company has recognized and supported the customizing community in the past. I am certain you can understand the appeal of having blank Minimates in popular colors such as white, black, and flesh-colored. It not only speeds up the customizing process, but it also makes customs look closer to official Minimates.

Aside from collectors who are looking to customize, I have also had requests from parents who would like to be able to create Minimates with their children. As a parent of two boys, I can completely relate to this request, and I would love to be able to give my older son a blank white Minimate and some colored permanent markers and see what he comes up with. Presenting Minimates as not only a toy item, but also as a craft item could open the floodgates up to a whole new market of customers.

During the initial high sales period of Hasbro’s Mighty Muggs line, their blank Muggs were very popular. I know many people who started collecting Mighty Muggs solely because of the blanks. Other toy lines have had similar successes with blank figure offerings.

Customizing is not the only reason for the interest in blank Minimates. A common feeling in the collecting community, which again I am sure you can relate to, is that the basic shape and style of Minimates is visually appealling within itself. A blank Mimimate displays these attributes even better than a character-based Minimate. Consider for example this recent blank Minimate set created by a Minimate Multiverse member named Cappy:

Click to view larger image

As you can see, blank Minimates have visual appeal outside of customizing and crafts. I can’t even imagine all of the creative uses that your current and new customers could devise for these.

I have contacted your company several times in the past about the possibility of purchasing blank Minimates in large quantities for Luke’s Toy Store. We definitely have the capacity and the customer base to be able to effectively distribute such a product. Each time I was told that you were reserving blank Mimimates for internal use such as giveaways at conventions. While I do appreciate and collect the promotional logo Minimates that you create, I think that these could exist separately from a blank Minimate release in a plain solid color. The Minimates by Cappy in the image above are similar to your SDCC Minimate giveaways, but those were either difficult to obtain or much too expensive on the secondary market for the non-hardcore collector.

I am urging you to reconsider your position on blank Minimates. I believe a blank Minimate release, whether as a general release or exclusive to a certain retailer, would be greatly beneficial to your brand, the customizing community, and Minimate collectors everywhere.

Sincerely,

Luke Porter
Minimate Factory / Luke’s Toy Store

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By Luke314pi | Posted in deep thoughts | Tagged letter | Comments (26)

Sticker Paper vs Decal Paper

April 7, 2010 – 5:16 am

As much as I proclaim the greatness of waterslide decals on this blog, I will be the first to admit that they are far from perfect. Darker decals become brittle and are prone to cracking. Smaller decals for the upper thigh and forearm are almost impossible to apply and secure. And perhaps most importantly, there is a learning curve for less experienced customizers. Decals take a little bit of practice until you can get it right. So while I continue to use decals for most of my customs, I am always open to new suggestions. Last fall, my friend Timbo suggested that I look into using sticker paper as a possible alternative to decal paper. I have been experimenting with it off and on since then, and I wanted to share some of my findings with you.

The best part about the decal paper we have in the store is that the finished product looks like part of the minimate because it is so incredibly thin. The first time I used waterslide decals, and I pulled the decal off from its backing, I was amazed at how thin it actually was. This feature is hard to find in a sticker product. Stickers are definitely thin, but at the scale we are working at, a minimate with a sticker on it looks like a minimate with a sticker on it. The first stickers I tried were the garden variety full-sheet labels sold at office supply stores, and this thickness was the first thing I noticed.

This type of sticker paper also didn’t work well because whenever I would cut out a decal it would leave a very rough white edge. Decal paper can do this to a certain extent, but it is usually manageable with a really sharp scissors or hobby knife. This sticker paper also didn’t seem to hold the details on the paper as well as the waterslide decal paper did. The end result wasn’t as crisp, and the colors were nowhere near as vibrant. I think this is because the decal paper is semi-glossy, whereas the full-sheet label paper had a very matte finsh.

I tried a few samples of sticker paper brands online, but when each one arrived in the mail I either had the same problems as the full-sheet labels above, or they were so ridiculously glossy that they were unusable for minimates. Two weeks ago I decided to try one more brand. I have had good luck with Papilio decal paper in the past. When I was browsing their site I came across a type of paper called White Glossy Polyester Film. It is intended to replicate professionally printed stickers such as bumper stickers using your own printer. My set arrived in the mail last week, and I was pleasantly surprised by the results.

Even though the paper is labeled as glossy, the sheen wasn’t as intense as some of the other brands I have tried. It definitely has a higher gloss than using decal paper, but this might actually be closer to the actual reflectiveness of minimate plastic. You can compare the two in the picture below:

Click to view larger image

As you can see, the sticker paper is noticeably glossier. You can also see the color difference between the two, despite being printed using the same settings. The sticker paper seemed to absorb more of the color. For future use, I will have to make some adjustments before printing to make sure it matches the minimate skin tone.

If you click on that image and view the larger version you will see that the sticker paper actually seems to hold the details better than the decal paper. It is slightly blurry, but that might actually be preferable to the dot matrix effect of the decal paper.

The sticker paper was easy to apply, and did not produce a horrible white edge when cutting. This brand of sticker paper was also thinner than other brands (probably due to it being labeled as a “film”). Of course, with this type of sticker paper you only get one chance to get it right, whereas with decals you can reposition them after applying until they are perfect.

Overall, I think that this type of sticker paper might be a better choice for newer customizers, or for areas of the minimate body that don’t work as well with waterslide decals, such as forearms. In the next few weeks, I am going to tweak some of the decal kits in the store for use with this polyester film paper, and you will be able to choose which type of paper you want when you purchase each kit. I will also work on getting packs of blank polyester film paper in bulk for the store and offer it for a lower price.

That’s all for this week, thanks for stopping by!

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By Luke314pi | Posted in Uncategorized | Comments (3)