The new Battle Beasts website has gone live. Highlights:

• There will be a new comic from IDW,  written by Bobby Curnow (Godzilla Legends, Night of 1000 Wolves) and penciled by Valerio Schiti (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Donatello, Dungeons & Dragons: Eberron)
• At San Diego Comic-Con, DST will unveil the first full wave of Battle Beasts Minimates, which will be in stores 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. DST will also have an exclusive two-pack of Battle Beasts for sale at the show.

So it looks like the figures will indeed be Minimates in the style of the previous con exclusives, and not the fully-sculpted action figures we saw prototypes of a while back. That’s disappointing, but the Minimates style is very popular with collectors and kids alike, and this will allow Diamond to offer the kind of variety and character selection the original Battle Beasts line was known for. It’s probably a shrewd move.