It was mid-June in Manhatten and DSTChuck I were are on our way to the offices of Marvel comics (enduring one of New York City’s infamously humid summers in a rayon blend suit and tie). For what purpose would we be on our way to the celebrated House of Ideas and what, if anything, did this have to do with Minimates? Read on and find out!

It was the 2008 Marvel Licensing Summit: where Marvel showcased their plans for the remainder of the year. Names of story arcs and characters rang out during the meeting, just begging for DST product, Minimate or otherwise. “Brand New Day” was mentioned and the name Anti-Venom immediately followed. I thought to myself, “Please let this not be Aunt May wearing the symbiote.”

Ultimate Origins and Ultimatum came next, Chuck leaned over to me and whispered “Hmmm, we never did do any of the Ultimates characters did we… Have to make a note of that”. From then on, Secret Invasion was mentioned as the major story arc that crossed over into all of Marvel’s titles and involved the entire Marvel Universe. Chuck immediately knew this set had to be done, but we had to hurry as time was against us… for the Invasion had already begun. <sinister laugh>

The most highly debated aspect of Minimates is undeniably the line plan. This boxset posed problems very unique to the Secret Invasion. Several ideas were thrown around the office including a more Skrull-centric set that would have included conglomerate Super Skrulls. Though that would have been very visually appealing, such character choices would not have the instant recognition from the casual Marvel fans. We even toyed around with UV and temperature color sensitive paints allowing the Skrulls to morph right in front of you. These options did not generate the effect we were looking for and were also highly cost prohibitive, as cool as they might have been. The solution to line up choices, however, came quiet literally, crashing down on us.

While Chuck thumbed through Secret Invasion #1, the answer to our dilemma came in the form of a ship of Superheroes fom the 1970’s meeting up with their 21st century counterparts. This was the Marvel of our childhood ready to kick the a$$ of the Marvel I knew now. The lineup was a mix of fan favorites and characters we knew we would probably not have the chance to make outside this set.

Our first choice was Phoenix. She had a classic oufit that had the 70’s written all over it. Phoenix remains consitently one of the most requested minimate ever since the Dark Phoenix minmate was released in 2005.

The next choice was Beast. We had always wanted to do this version of the Beast during his tenure with the Avengers but we never found the right set to put him in since any version of Beast we would be doing would have been the more recognizable Jim Lee version. When designing this version of the beast, George Perez’s art work was an inspiration to our Illustration team, including the bandless briefs and slicked hair.

With Wolverine, well… cut us a break guys! We haven’t done a Wolverine since the Marvel Zombie set over a year ago. The first appearance Wolverine from Hulk #181 on the splash page of Secret Invasion #1 quite literally screamed to be done. This Wolverine actually features a couple of new Minimate design features we wanted to try out including a new shin piece that replaces the large bulky unyielding boots of the first early waves of Minimates. This Wolverine features another first - in that the metal knuckle pieces on his gloves are actually sculpted in.

The boxset’s final spot went to Jewel, not to be confused with the singer or the rock star doll from Hasbro. For those unfamiliar with Jewel, she was another hero retcon’d into the Marvel Universe similar to Sentry. Jewel’s character filled the final slot since (as a rule of thumb going forward) Minimates in the 4^th slot are characters we will for the most part, never ever create again in any form. An example of this traces back to the first Minimate boxset of Giant Sized X-Men with regards to Thunderbird.

Lastly, to complete the effect of the Secret Invasion story (where anyone could be a Skrull agent) we included several newly designed Skrull heads for you to randomly create armies of Skrull warriors. The Minimate Secret Invasion has just begun!