This was originally intended to be part of our week long 7th anniversary celebration, but it took a bit longer to cut together than anticipated, but we are still celebrating, so it’s still relevant.

It’s our 7th anniversary, but it’s Minimate’s TEN YEAR anniversary!   I personally am a huge fan of Minimates and have been a collector and fan of them from the beginning, all the way back to the original Art Asylum scale.   I’ve collected all of the Marvel Minimates and most of the other licenses along the way from the Art Asylum days up to the great work that Diamond Select Toys has done with them.  When you think about the sheer number of licenses that have been applied to the Minimates format, it’s almost unheard of, rivaled by maybe only Funko.  Over the past 10 years we have seen Minimates from Lord of the Rings, Marvel, 24, DC Comics, Silence of the Lambs, Terminator, Back to the Future, Knight Rider, Universal Monsters, Desperately Seeking Susan,  KISS, Star Trek, Ace of Cakes, Ghostbusters… the list goes on and on.   Recently they have branched out into in scale vehicles, a playset, a carry case and their own original I.P. with the Calico Jack Pirates, Battle Beasts and their M.A.X. line.  Over the past 10 years there have been hundreds and hundreds of Minimates and the crew at DST has no intention of slowing down!

I’m really proud of this Minimates 10th Anniversary interview with:

• Art Asylum founder, Minimate creator and current owner of Dig Deep Entertainment – Digger T. Mesch
• Diamond Select Toys director Chuck Terceira
• DST’s Marketing Supervisor Zach Oat
• Former Art Asylum designer and current DST Product Development (and Legal Affairs) Robert Yee
• Minimates designer Barry Bradfield.

I love these sorts of interviews.  It’s one of the main reasons why I started AFi.   I love all the behind the scenes and stories of how things came to be and the decisions that get made.  It’s a long interview, but that’s when all the great stories come out, and there are some great stories.  There are even some stories that these guys are hearing from each other for the first time.

So sit back, relax and take a trip back over the last 10 years of our favorite block figure:

There are more stories than just the ones above .  You  check out Chuck, Zach and Digger together again at the Minimates panel at San Diego Comic con.  It will be Saturday, July 14, 1:30-2:30, Room 8