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.
AmericanHyena
So here’s the thing–that Gator is a s**t ton of new tooling slipped over a minimate blank body. If ALL the Battle Beast figures resemble that, then
A) the figures are going to have a MUCH wider variety in appearance than standard Mates.
B) the figures are going to be MUCH weightier and have more substance than the average Mates.
I have over two hundred minimates. All of them are in a box except that little gold Gator.
He kicks ass.
Dead Man Walking
Minimates probably interest me less than any formats outside of super-deformed and urban vinyl, so this good news for my wallet.
VENENOR
The sculpted ones are still a possibility, probably dependent on the Minimate version’s success. Besides, this is the debut news after all. Plans for the bigger, detailed versions could be set for down the road.
I’m hoping this line takes off well and maintains. My comics pull-list will now have 2 new additions with this and the MOTU book.
misterbigbo
Too bad they aren’t doing a sculpted line. I loved Battle Beasts as a kid, and partly thanks to their resiliency. That’s something Minimates are not.
Poe Ghostal
Funny, I thought you'd be happy about this, since I know you like Minimates…
I will say that the one Battle Beast Minimate I have (the golden one) is actually a bit more solid than I've found other Minimates to be.
misterbigbo
My collecting tastes seem to change frequently, and Minimates have been off my radar for some time. I feel like that particular aesthetic just ran its course with me. I kept running across QC issues like poor paint and tampo apps, broken joints and wrong limbs, but frankly I just ran out of steam . And room. I did lose my man-cave to my daughter after all!
ridureyu
What? No octopus?
clark
Well…minimates fans can be excited. I picked up a few minimates but for whatever reason just can't get into them. I will still probably get a few battle beasts though, they were the toyline I envied as a kid, because for some reason I just never got any (no matter how many times I put them on a Christmas or birthday wish list).
Maybe if the minimates are a success we can see those awesome sculpted figures down the road?