Hot Wheels motorcycles for MiniMates

I wanted to see if there were Hot Wheels vehicles that would fit in with the scale of MiniMates. Of course, the only vehicles that had a chance of working were the motorcycles vehicles. Since Hot Wheels are made based on size in the packaging rather than actual 1:64 scale, the smaller the vehicle, the bigger the scale when being made into Hot Wheels.

First off, Nova is riding the Honda Monkey Z50. A strange bike to be sure. It is a goofy bike, so it looks okay being on the small size. The really nice thing about this bike is that it has flat tires, so it can stand on it’s own. This bike can easily be a background piece to a diorama, and it would fit in just fine.

Captain Marvel is riding the 4 Wheeler. This one I was pretty sure was going to be too small, but it was part of a Parks Department set I had, so I figured I would give it a try. It is too small. She can ride it okay, but quad bikes are generally a whole lot bigger than this. Definitely a kid’s size for the MiniMate scale.

The UNSC Gungoose from HALO was really the bike that got me thinking about Hot Wheels vehicles working in this scale. The seat seemed narrow enough to fit the sitting pose of the MiniMates, and it seemed to be quite big. It is a whole lot bigger than the 4 Wheeler, and it’s bulk is helped by the rubber wheels. Silver Sable is sitting on the back for cover. It actually works quite well. It is another vehicle that looks good sitting as a prop piece.

Luke Cage is riding the HW450F. This dirt bike is about as perfect a scale match as you will find with the MiniMates. The only problem is that it cannot stand on it’s own. You will need to find a way to assist the stance. A wire behind would probably do the trick.

This was a fun experiment. The dirt bike (HW450F) works the best for scale, and at only $1.00 a piece, you can outfit a whole squad for not much money. A bit of paint, and you are good to go.

The UNSC Gungoose is a good choice too. They are a bit on the pricey side, since they are a part of the Entertainment series with metal parts are real rubber wheels. I would not expect to see a whole bunch of versions of this vehicle to come out. But the machine guns on the front, and seating for two make for a story all their own.

The hunt will continue for the best accessories to find to make dioramas even more dynamic.

New Wolverine and Phoenix – Marvel Minimates Wave 6 (2004)

Two teammates just hanging out on the street corner.

In the second year of the Marvel Minimates craze that has lasted for 15 years now. It is fun to look back the the beginnings of the line. Not many lines can boast a run like this, but we are 75 waves in, not including all of the exclusives, including 25 special movie waves at Toys R Us, 25 regular exclusive waves at TRU, and 8 waves at Walgreens. And that is just Marvel. There was a short lived DC line that was great and countless other properties that were tried as well.

“Hi Mary Ja-* Sorry, wrong redhead!”

All in all, Diamond Select and Art Asylum have really made a great set of figures, and it has given me one of the best scales (2 inch) to play with when diorama building. Lots more to come!

Negative Zone Spider-Man and Jack ‘O Lantern – Marvel MiniMates – TRU 25 (Toys R Us Exclusive)

Diamond Select seems to have no end to the Spider-Man costumes to choose from. They are popping up at Walgreens and Toys R Us in their exclusive lines all of the time. This time around for Toys R Us is no different. We saw an early costume, Spider-Armor, and now the Negative Zone outfit, where the suits colors bled away leaving black and white. Once again being a team-up in the 2-pack of a Spider-Man and a foe, this version comes with Jack ‘O Lantern.

I like the Negative Zone suit. It is very simple, but has a lot of style with the simplicity. It seems to fit right in with the black and white of Noir Spider-Man. He comes with a base that looks like he is traveling into or out of the Negative Zone. This is probably one of the biggest accessories a MiniMate can come with.

Jack O’ Lantern feels like a reimagining of Green Goblin. He even has a platform to fly around on. I do like the flaming head.

And let’s not forget about pumpkin bombs. Hmmm, seems very similar to another guy we know. He is fun anyway.

I am really happy with this set overall. For me, Peter and Chameleon is the best 2-pack of the wave. The versatility of the figures to make Peter/Spider-Man and also Chameleon/Mary Jane is pretty cool. Beetle is a well done figure with those nice big wings. Spider-Armor Spider-Man and Negative Zone Spider-Man are easy choices to make, since they are just simple paint apps. No extras needed on those. And we round out Wave 25 with Jack, a funny figure to be sure.

Sigma 6 Vehicles in scale with MiniMates

If only I could time-travel back to 2006, I would have stocked up on the small scale Sigma 6 G.I. Joe vehicles. I loved that line, and I have most of the larger 8 inch figures, but I skipped most of the smaller vehicles. I am kicking myself now that I can see that there is not a lot of difference between the 3 inch Sigma 6 figures, and the 2 inch MiniMates.

Not only were there a number of vehicles that came out that would work for pretty close scale, but there were also a couple of Mechas. And, since Mechas are a made-up vehicle, the size can be off for the scale to still work. In this case, the Iron Hammer is a great example. It is a big vehicle that can fit into the scenes with the MiniMates. Better yet, it has a cockpit that can fit a MiniMate. That can’t always happen with the strange dimensions of MiniMates, but when it works, you do NOT want to pass it up.

Interestingly, there were a lot of vehicles from Sigma 6 that were repurposed into the standard 3 3/4 inch G.I. Joe line. So, if they can go up in scale, I can go down in scale. That means, keep your eyes out for other vehicles that fit the bill. If they are not a standard vehicle, they may very well fit into scale.

Aside: I was having fun today, since I made 6 more explosions, I wanted to see if I could make it look like the windows were being blown out of the building. I also made a smoke trail for a missile. I think they are very convincing, and I am looking forward to my next project. What that is, I don’t know yet, but I am sure it will be fun.

In an effort to up the dynamics of my photoshoots, and give a little extra something to play with. Yesterday I glued cotton balls to my newly acquired battery-powered tea lights.

Today I added paint with an airbrush. Light coats of black around the whole ball, building up the dark layers on the outside. Then I added red, followed by orange, and finished with yellow. I dusted the colors across most of the explosion, save for the top that I left nearly white.

I made four to start, and see how it went. #1 is a short pile of cotton balls. #2 is the same as #1, just pulled up a bit more. #3 has added cotton balls on top for added height. And #4 has two tea lights inside for a wider explosion.

One of the goals I wanted to have was to be able to move them around, stack them up, or whatever the scene needed. I stacked them up, and the explosion is HUGE! It worked better than I hoped.

And now we get to blow up the Marvel/TMNT crossover team. One of the other goals I had hoped to be able to do was have the buildings explode. I used the tall #3 explosion, and it looks like it is rolling out the door, and then the other three look like the explosion is carrying across the street.

Oh, I am definitely doing more of these. This is great for MiniMates scale. It will be a bit small for Marvel Legends scale without stacking them up. So, I am going to need a few more of these explosions.