For over a decade, Diamond Select Toys has been dominating the mini-figure market with their highly collectible, heavily customizable, pop culture saturated Minimates toyline. These two-inch scale figures have been made for a large number of top shelf brands over the years like Marvel Comics, Ghostbusters, ALIEN, The Walking Dead, Lord Of The Rings, and whole lot more! This year at New York Comic Con 2015, Diamond Select Toys held their annual Minimates Panel where they talked about all of their new products for the upcoming year, and Team ScienceFiction was on site to bring you all the biggest news on one of the smallest toylines!

While our friends at DST talked about everything coming our way this year in the Minimate line, we are going to focus on the big new announcements including new lines, new series of old favorites, and some fun new surprises!


The X-Files

This year Fox is bringing back ‘The X-Files’ to television in a big way, so what better time is there to bring ‘The X-Files’ to the Minimate world? DST has announced we will be seeing a few new ‘X-Files’ products from them this year, by way of a Minimate 2-pack based on the upcoming reboot featuring an older pair of Mulder and Scully, plus several figure 4-packs based on the classic television series.

The first figure 4-pack lineup has been revealed to contain Classic Mulder, Classic Scully, The Cigarette Smoking Man, and fan favorite monstrosity, The Flukeman!

Outside of the standard two-inch Minimates, fans are also being treated to the new four-inch scale ‘Vinimate’ two pack of Classic Mulder and Scully! Vinimates are DST’s new vinyl figure line that feature larger Minimate styled vinyl figures that are posed statically (although they have a ball-joints head for neck articulation) for display.

The Muppets

We get our first real look at Series 1 of DST’s ‘Muppets’ Minimates, which is set to include Kermit, Miss Piggy, Scooter, and Fozzy! We are also getting Specialty Store exclusives of Gonzo with Swedish Chef, as well as a variant ‘The Amazing Gonzo’ with ‘Batter Damage’ Swedish Chef.

Toys R Us will receive a variation of the same wave, minus the aforementioned Specialty Store exclusives, and with a few exclusives of their own added in! TRU will receive exclusive Minimates of Bunsen and Beaker, as well as a special ‘Lab Accident’ variant set!

DST also revealed the all Series 2 lineup for the first time! The Specialty Store assortment is set to include fan favorites like Animal, Dr. Teeth, Rolf, Reporter Kermit, Crazy Harry, Manah-Manah, Statler, and Waldorf!

Once again, Toys R Us is getting their own variation on the assortment, which is also set to include Animal, Dr. Teeth, and Rolf, but will also have exclusive Minimates of ‘Black Tie’ Kermit, and the whole crew from the ‘Pigs In Space’ segments!

Marvel Comics

Earlier this year we saw the launch of the Walgreens Exclusive linen of Minimates based on the Marvel Animated Universe! We have seen some of our favorite characters already in Wave 1 and Wave 1.5, but now DST has revealed the all new lineup for Wave 2! This new wave will include Marvel Animated versions of Iron-Man, Black Widow, Thor, Thanos, Iron-Spider Spiderman, Taskmaster, Drax, and Gamora!

Back in the regular Marvel Comics Minimates line, we’ve got the upcoming Series 64, which is based on the recent ‘Secret Wars’ storyline! This wave has two varying assortments, split between Specialty Stores and Toys R Us. Both assortments include Old Man Logan, Maestro Hulk, Ultron, and Iron-Man 2020. The Specialty Store assortment also exclusively includes Howard The Duck, Dazzler, Captain Marvel, and Thor; while the Toys R Us assortment includes the exclusive Spider-Gwen and Iron-Spider Spiderman.

If you’re a fan of ‘The Merc With A Mouth’, then you’re going to be super excited for the recently announced Marvel Minimates Wave 65, which is going to be completely Deadpool themed! Each set includes a variation of Deadpool, as well as a supporting cast member from Deadpool’s history! We can look forward to ‘Marvel Now’ Deadpool with Copycat (who is disguised as Domino!), ‘Secret Wars’ Deadpool with Siryn, ‘Mascot’ Deadpool with Bob, and Zen-Pool with Cable!

Indie-Mates

For comic book fans who want something outside of Marvel or DC, Diamond Select Toys is premiering Indie-Mates! While DST assures us that the name of the line is subject to change, this new comic book themed line features characters from several different publishers, each in their own specially designed packaging! We are getting Minimate two-packs including Tony Chu and John Colby from ‘Chew’, Shadowman and Ninjak from the Valiant Comics Universe, Cassie Hack and Emma from ‘Hack/Slash’, and Giraffe and Hammerhead from ‘Battle Beasts’!

ALIENS

In space, no one can hear you scream! But with the new ‘ALIENS’ Minimates sets, you might scream just a little out of pure excitement! Diamond Select Toys has revealed the upcoming Series 2 assortment, which will consist of four figure two-packs including Hudson with Vasquez, Jumpsuit Ripley with Newt, Pvt. Frost with a Burning Alien Xenomorph, and a chase figure set of Pvt. Crowe with an Attacking Alien Xenomorph and Eggs!

DST also showcased their two Deluxe Minimate ‘ALIENS’ sets, which are both from the films iconic climax! One set includes the Alien Queen with a standard Alien Xenomorph Minimate and battle-damaged Bishop! It also includes fun accessories like a Facehugger, x2 Eggs (Open and Closed), and a Xenomorph Newborn!

The second Deluxe Minimate set from the ‘ALIENS’ line includes Ellen Ripley in the Power Loader Exo-Suit, as well as a Battle Damaged Alien Xenomorph, a Facehugger, x2 Eggs (Open and Closed) and a Xenomorph Newborn!

Predator

Diamond Select has a plethora of awesome new Minimates coming our way in their all new ‘Predator’ line! So far we’ve seen two full waves of Minimate Blind Bags, plus an assortment of two-packs!

In the first Blind Bag Minimate assortment, fans can hunt for Billy (Predator), Cuchillo (Predators), Edwin (Predators), as well as both masked and unmasked versions of the Jungle Hunter Predator, and Open and Closed Mandible versions of the City Hunter Predator! There is also a special Infared Vision Predator in the mix!

For Series 2 of the Blind Bag Predator Minimates, we’re getting quite a few more human characters! Characters you can hope to pull from your blind-bag include Blain (Predator), Mac (Predator), Hawkins (Predator), Peter Keyes (Predator 2), Noland (Predators), and a special ‘Stealth Mode’ Predator!

In the upcoming Predator two-pack assortment, we have both a Specialty Store assortment, and the Toys R Us Exclusive assortment to look forward to! In the Specialty Store assortment, fans can expect to find two-packs including Mike Harrigan (Predator 2) with City Hunter Predator, Dillon (Predator) with Masked Jungle Hunter Predator, Dutch with Jungle Hunter Predator, and a special case variant of Muddy Dutch with Open mandible Jungle Hunter Predator!

The Toys R Us Exclusive assortment is set to include Dutch with Jungle Hunter Predator, Unmasked City Hunter Predator with Masked Jungle Hunter Predator, and Battle-Damaged Dutch with Battle-Damaged Jungle Hunter Predator.

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Kevin Smith fans rejoice! We’ve got a bunch of awesome ‘Clerks’ and ‘Jay & Silent Bob Strike Back’ products from Diamond Select Toys in the last year or two, but now they’ve announced that they have acquired the ‘Mallrats’ license! We were told to expect several Minimate four-packs from the film, with the first set including Brodie, Rene, Jay, and Silent Bob.

We can also expect to see some Kevin Smith themed Vinimates vinyl figures. A two-pack is heading our way of Kevin Smith in his infamous ‘Fatman’ hockey Jersey alongside Jason Mewes.

Godzilla

With the smashing success of the first two ‘Godzilla’ Minimates box-sets, it comes as no huge surprise that we are getting a third box-set in the series! This new Minimate set includes Burning Godzilla, Rodan, Megalon, and two Mothra Larva! Hopefully this series will continue to do well and we will see more in this line further down the road.

The Nightmare Before Christmas

With the holidays fast approaching, there’s no better time to show your appreciation for the iconic ‘Nightmare Before Christmas’! It’s one of those perfect holiday films that’s great anytime between Halloween and Christmas, so this line is hitting during that perfect window! There are quite a few assortments coming our way from the ‘NBC’ line, so here is the rundown!

There will be a Hot Topic Exclusive Series 1 assortment, including a few hard to find characters you can’t get anywhere else like The Clown with the Tear-Away-Face, Bug-Leaking Oogie Boogie, and Glow-In-The-Dark Reindeer! Other figures in this Blind Bag assortment include Jack Skellington, Sally, Doctor Finklestein, Oogie Boogie, and The Mayor.

For those of you who aren’t into Blind Bags but want to get a few main cast members, fear not! Toys R Us is getting an assortment of two-packs that will include Jack Skellington with The Mayor, Sally with Doctor Finklestein, and a pack of two Elves from Santa’s Workshop!

Series 2 of the ‘NBC’ series is also set to launch with Blind Bags, and will include Santa Jack, Santa Claus, Jack Skellington, Pumpkin King Jack Skellington, Sally, and The Easter Bunny!

Toys R Us is also set to get their own special assortment of Series 2 figures, once again in a series of two-packs. This wave will include Pumpkin King Jack Skellington with Zero, Santa Jack with The Easter Bunny, and The Wolfman with Mr. Hyde.

Back To The Future

Last, but far from least, Diamond Select announced plans to revitalize their ‘Back To The Future’ Minimates line! We will be seeing several new Minimate four-packs in the next few months, the first of which is based on Hill Valley 2015! The Hill Valley 2015 set includes Marty McFly Jr., Marlene McFly, Griff Tannen, and Marty McFly Sr. (Complete with two neckties!).

After that we can expect to see a Hill Valley 1985 set, which will bring us a new ‘Waking Up’ Marty McFly, Car Wash Biff Tannen, Author George McFly, and Needles! This set isn’t due out until next spring.

DST has also announced that we are getting new releases of the Delorean Time Machine from all three films! We are getting updated versions of the standard Time Machine from ‘Back To The Future’ and the Flying Time Machine from ‘Back To The Future II’, both of which will be followed up with the all new never before released Rail Ready Time Machine from ‘Back To The Future III’!

There are quite a few other ‘Back To The Future’ Minimate items coming our way in the next year, including more four-packs from all three films to look forward to!


It’s going to be a great year for Minimate fans, with a veritable cornucopia of new Minimates coming our way from across a mountain of fan favorite brands! Be sure to stay tuned to ScienceFiction.com for all the latest Minimate news!