Battle Beasts Minimates Desmodius - NYCC Exclusive

I don't know how I'm going to get mine yet since I can't make it to NYCC, but Diamond Select Toys announced Battle Beasts Desmodius - a black bat, based on the former Toys R Us exclusive mold.  It's a mere $6 if you get yours at New York Comic Con in October, and you probably should get one for me too.  (Or somebody.)  
It's nice to see something new for this line!  The last new release was a 2-pack in 2016.
Read more about Desmodius here.

Toys R Us Battle Beasts Discount - $3 Per 2-Pack

New figures are on the way, but existing Toys R Us Exclusive Battle Beasts 2-Packs are $3.00 at select (if not all) stores. At my local store the shelf tags were still full price with the regular price tags - the discount was only visible when you scanned them.

The exclusive set with the moose and bat were gone, but the others - with the bugs, ram, snake, and walrus - were all present. Considering you may never see $3 Battle Beasts again, I suggest picking some up now and/or finishing up your sets while they're cheap.

Review: Onell Design Glyos Armorvor Infection Action Figure

There's a prolific sculptor, molder, and maker of toys known as "TheGodBeast" who is best known for making very small runs of very impressive things. He's prototyped numerous designer toys, created fully-realized figures based on sketches from years earlier, and lately he's become particularly well-known in Glyos circles with custom heads and other parts. The Armorvor Infection has some nifty history behind it. Mr. Beast (also known as Marty Hansen) worked on the creation of this mold as the molder, with Jason Frailey having sculpted it and Matt Doughty having designed it. The "Infection" color has been used for numerous special-edition figures in the past as well as hand-cast resin pieces, plus the red just happens to match clear red Outer Space Men figures and a pair of recently released figures at Onell Design: a Crayboth, and an Exellis. Wow, that's a lot of exposition.
[ READ THE FULL REVIEW ]

Two New Armorvors Incoming from Onell Design

Not one, but two new Glyos Armorvor action figures are coming this month! One will be released on Friday, the other is exclusive to C2E2.

Soon to be sold online at Onell Design, the black and red Reydurran Mimic Armorvor will be black with red highlights.  It will be $8, and sold out before you remembered you forgot to buy one.  Limit 2.

It will be joined by TheGodBeast Exclusive C2E2 clear red full-production not-a-custom Infection Armorvor, which will be a mere $10 and come in absolutely beautiful packaging with great art and a swell card inside a plastic baggie.  It's limited to 3 per person.  If you're in Chicago, go to C2E2 and grab one.  (Get two, I'll want one too and as far as I know there won't be a mail order option for certain just yet.)

TheGodBeast himself will be on hand selling matching custom hand-cast heads you can swap out for this one, so bring some extra coin to buy a few of those.  They're awesome!

Battle Beasts Minimates - Toys R Us Exclusive Wave Revealed, Names Too

If you're anything like me, this is the moment you've been waiting for!  This is as close as the Battle Beasts Minimates will be to the mass market this year, and not only do they look great, but for the first time that I've seen - they have names!  Check out this awesome group shot.

Individual 2-pack pics, information, and names are after the cut.  (It's a lot of stuff.)  I hope you're excited... because MOOSE.

Diamond Select Toys Reveals New Battle Beasts on Facebook

  While it's a well-known fact that Diamond Select Toys will be cranking out some Toys R Us exclusive Battle Beasts Minimates in a few months, we haven't seen too many of them until Diamond posted a couple of them to Facebook.

To the left, the (as-of-yet) unnamed Bat, which will come packaged with a companion Moose figure.  Sadly depriving the world of a moose-and-squirrel set, these Beasts will both be exclusive to Toys R Us and from the look of things, ain't half bad.  I mean, its got a sword!  That's a plus.  I dig the fangly dude.

Also without a name as of yet for the character, this brown Scorpion will also be exclusive to Toys R Us, with the other version going to comic and specialty shops.  It looks pretty fantastic in the up-close shot, and I'm happy to see critter mini-figures at the toy stores that aren't Littlest Pet Shop for once.

...having said that, LPS had an exclusive giraffe for the toy giant.  Here's hoping synergy strikes again and Diamond sees fit to make a Battle Beasts Minimates Giraffe for the chain!  Great stuff, here, be sure to follow Diamond on Facebook for more stuff more often.

Review: Diamond Select Battle Beasts Minimates C2E2 Giveaway Black Alligator

 I totally missed this Battle Beasts Minimates figure when it first came out, as, well, nobody was reporting on this stuff much. The Black Alligator was distributed at Chicago's C2E2 by Diamond Select, and for a while was one of very few figures in the line. Only 4 were made prior to 2012, and they were all repaints of the same basic mold. The funny thing is that the mouths are opened at different angles, so they each are slightly different in terms of their expression. I appreciate this.
[ READ THE FULL REVIEW ]

Review: Diamond Select Battle Beasts Minimates SDCC 2012 Vorin & Zik

Before I got Vorin and Zik in my hands, I thought what we were getting was old molds with new paint-- I was wrong. While mostly cobbled together from existing parts, Diamond actually gave Vorin a new torso mold so it isn't the same as the previous 4 one-color promotional versions of the figure. And for this, I am happy. This item was a Diamond Select Toys exclusive, which means it was available to their clients-- so some online stores had these for preorder, and a few other stores at the show had them at their booths. I like this. I'd like to see Hasbro and Mattel do this, mostly because I think it does a bang-up job to discourage scalping and flipping at the show, plus it makes things easier for the rest of us.
[ READ THE FULL REVIEW ]

Toys R Us Exclusive Bat vs. Moose Battle Beasts Minimates

If you were in meetings for most of the weekend in San Diego, you may have also unfortunately missed the Comic-Con 2012 Minimates panel.  Thankfully, the great folks at Toy Ark captured the whole thing and now you can see all sorts of exciting things.

The big takeaway for you guys: Toys R Us will get a Battle Beasts Minimates 2-pack of a moose and a bat, recreating the ongoing struggle that takes place in nature every night.  Both sport weapons and look like they're going to be fun and just ugly enough to be awesome.

Battle Beasts Packaging: Minimates SDCC Exclusive

Some supremely snazzy Battle Beasts Minimates Packaging has been revealed by Diamond's own Zach Oat at the Minimates Multiverse board.  Nice!  It's got a monster logo and big character art of the three main characters, plus a big colorful Minimates logo.  There have been numerous styles of packaging for the Minimates over the years and I gotta say I'm digging it.  Visit their board for more!

You'll be able to buy these at Comic-Con in San Diego this week or, failing that, you can order yours online at Entertainment Earth.

SDCC 2012 Battle Beasts Schedule

Also from the Art Asylum Blog, here are the dates to write down for San Diego's Comic-Con International in a few weeks.

Thursday July 12, 2012 - The Diamond Select Toys booth #2607 will be handing out 200 promotional Battle Beasts Minimates figures.  (This will repeat each day of the show, so get there early.)  A contest for a Battle Beasts Guitar and Case will be ongoing as well.  The Exclusive Vorin and Zik 2-pack will also be on sale.

Friday July 13, 2012 - The Diamond Select Toys booth #2607 will host a signing for the IDW comic book with Bobby Curnow (writer) and Ulises Farinas (cover art).  Free posters will be available for signing, and the SDCC #1 comic variant will be for sale.

Saturday July 14, 2012 - Minimates Panel at 1:30 PM, meeting room 8.  While nothing specific is confirmed, it is expected that new figures will be shown here, possibly in addition to items already on display at the booth.

More surprises generally pop up along the way, so stay tuned for more as we have it!

Free Battle Beasts Minimates Coming to San Diego Comic-Con

We now know Diamond Select will be giving away 200 Battle Beasts Minimates figures per day at San Diego Comic-Con!  How do we know?

They posted about it.

This feature has all of their freebie and panel plans, so now you know the big Minimates panel is Saturday July 14, 2012 at 1:30 PM!

We also know there will be a build-a-Minimates figure section, which sounds like a lot of fun.  Read more about it, here.

Luke's Toy Store Gets Exclusive Battle Beasts #1 Comic Book Cover

Luke of Luke's Toy Store sent along this press release, which, with the picture, pretty much tells you everything.  As I am a lazy man, I copy and then I paste the release for you.

---

Luke’s Toy Store gets exclusive Battle Beasts #1 cover

Luke’s Toy Store will be getting an exclusive variant cover of the new Battle Beasts #1 comic by IDW Publishing. This cover features new artwork by Valerio Schiti, and is limited to only 800 copies. While Luke’s Toy Store normally focuses on block figures such as Minimates, their customers’ high demand for this issue allowed an exclusive edition to be created. The Battle Beasts series is written by Bobby Curnow (Godzilla Legends, Night of 1000 Wolves) and penciled by Valerio Schiti (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Donatello, Dungeons & Dragons: Eberron). It focuses on a group of renegade Beasts who return to Earth to protect the ultimate weapon (and the human who activated it) from an armada of their violent brethren.

On July 15^th, IDW will launch the series with issue #1, and the first full wave of Battle Beasts Minimates will be revealed, which will be at Luke’s Toy Store in late fall of 2012! The first wave of two-packs will focus heavily on characters who appear in the comic, and will have a gameplay element, as well.

Battle Beasts #1 Luke’s Toy Store Exclusive Edition ($3.99, 32 pages, full color) can be preordered here: http://lukestoystore.com/battle-beasts-lukes-toy-store-exclusive-edition-comic/

About Luke’s Toy Store
Luke's Toy Store is a family-run online store carrying Minimates, accessories, and customizing supplies. Luke’s Toy Store recently rebuilt their online store from scratch in order to add over a dozen new features for their customers, include customer accounts, faster checkout, cheaper shipping, customer wish lists, product photo galleries, a new mobile site, and a Luke’s Toy Store news page.

About IDW Publishing
IDW is an award-winning publisher of comic books, graphic novels and trade paperbacks, based in San Diego, California. Renowned for its diverse catalog of licensed and independent titles, IDW publishes some of the most successful and popular titles in the industry, including: Hasbro’s The TRANSFORMERS and G.I. JOE, Paramount’s Star Trek; HBO’s True Blood; the BBC’s DOCTOR WHO; Nickelodeon’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles; Toho’s Godzilla; Wizards of the Coasts Magic: The Gathering and Dungeons & Dragons; and the Eisner-Award winning Locke & Key series, created by best-selling author Joe Hill and artist Gabriel Rodriguez. IDW is also home to the Library of American Comics imprint, which publishes classic comic reprints, and Yoe! Books, a partnership with Yoe! Studio.

IDW’s critically- and fan-acclaimed series are continually moving into new mediums. Currently, Jerry Bruckheimer Films and Disney are creating a feature film based on World War Robot, while Michael Bay‘s Platinum Dunes and Sony are bringing Zombies vs. Robots to film.

There Is Another Exclusive Battle Beasts Minimate...

...for retailers. There's something called a Diamond Retailer Summit and there's some coupon book, and you can get one through that. Does this mean anything to you? I have no idea. But it's a grey unpainted figure, which actually gives you a decent look at its sculpted detail. It looks kind of like a prototype and hey, I love test shots. So check out Vorin the ram, now more opaque than ever!

Take note of the little flame-like pin on his cape, and the lack of toothy crotches. The shield is quite nice too, and a great nod to some of the most expensive Laser Beasts accessories. And the head looks a little chubby, but I like it. It's cute. Now to find one! I'm told I should bug my local comics retailer.