All your miscellaneous questions get answered in this week’s Q&A! Come on in!
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With the holidays fast approaching, it’s important to remember how lucky we all are. For starters, none of us are vampires. (Presumably.) Secondly, we haven’t had our body parts harvested for scientific experiments. (As far as we know.) And thirdly, we all have internet connections, which means we can all enter the latest giveaway from Diamond Select Toys! This time they’re giving away a monster-themed prize package, including an exclusive box set and some rare prototypes!

The grand prize winner will receive:
- a Universal Monsters Legacy Series Box Set (exclusive to Hastings and RedfordFilms.com)
- a set of Universal Monsters Series 2 prototype test shots (Dracula with wolf, Frankenstein with table, and the Toys “R” Us-exclusive Bride)
- a pair of Herman and Grandpa Munster test shots in preliminary Select packaging

One runner-up will receive
- the Toys R Us-exclusive Series 2 Frankenstein and Dracula
- a test shot of Grandpa Munster in mock-up preliminary Toys “R” Us packaging

Simply like this post on Facebook, Tweet #DSTXmas on Twitter, or +1 this post on Google+ before Friday, December 16, and you’ll be entered! (Contest not open to the legions of the undead.)

Everyone already knows that Minimates make great stocking stuffers, but what if you have a lot of Minimates, and want a fun new way to show them off to your friends and relations? Well, we’ve got an idea — why not trim the tree with them? Due to the interchangeability of Minimates, it’s actually pretty easy. Here’s how you do it:

1. Remove the Minimate’s head.
2. Clip the loop end of an ornament hook onto the exposed neck peg. (In a pinch, you can also unfold a paper clip into an S shape, and wrap the smaller end around the peg.)
3. Place the head back on, as well as the Minimate’s hat or helmet.
4. Bend the hook/clip upwards, so the hook can be seen over the Minimate’s head.
5. Place on tree.
6. Repeat.

At about $7 for a pack of two, that’s cheaper than most ornaments, and you can show your love of Marvel Comics and movies, Capcom games, Halo, Ghostbusters, Back to the Future, Universal Monsters, Star Trek, Battlestar Galactica, pirates, fireman, policemen, SCUBA diving and much more! Beat that, Hallmark!

Get regular Minimate updates on Facebook and Twitter! And check out all of our Minimates offerings here!

November has started, and now we’re in that uncertain time between the end of Halloween and the beginning of the Christmas season. Since it’s hard to get TOO excited for Thanksgiving, we’re going to keep Halloween going for a little while longer! How, you may ask? Well, Series 2 of Universal Monsters Minimates is out at Toys “R” Us stores now, and we’re going to give you the chance to win a full set! How do you win? Simply find the Diamond Select Toys page on Google Plus, add us to your circles by Nov. 21, and we’ll pick one of our followers at random! It’s that simple!

When you first shivered at the sight of the Mummy, cowered in fear from the Wolfman and felt the cold, clammy hands of the Creature from the Black Lagoon, were the monsters in bright, vibrant colors? No, of course not — they were in black and white, and they still are to this day! That’s why Diamond Select Toys has made this exclusive box set of black and white Universal Monsters action figures, which we’re calling the Legacy Series. It includes the Mummy, the Creature, and the Wolfman just as they were intended to be, and Imhotep willing, always will be. No fan of the original monster movies is going to want to be without this set! Available exclusively at the following retailers now!

Redford Films: http://www.redfordfilms.com
Hastings: http://www.gohastings.com

Get regular DST updates on Facebook and Twitter! And see all of our Universal Monsters figures here!

Who says monsters have to be scary? The Munsters are back to tickle the funny bones of a whole new generation in a new line of figures from Diamond Select Toys! These specialty-market-exclusive “Select” versions not only come in more deluxe display packaging than their Toys R Us-exclusive counterparts, they also come with bonus pieces in addition to their regular accessories. Buy all three figures, and you get all the parts you need to build Grandpa’s electric chair! Check out the packaged shots below, then look for them at online retailers, specialty stores and in your local comic shop in October!

Get regular DST updates on Facebook and Twitter! And pre-order Munsters Select here!

Halloween is fast approaching, and we wanted to do something special to celebrate. (Well, something more special than release a ton of awesome monster-themed action figures — we’re already doing that!) Then it hit us — we want to see your Halloween costumes! Specifically, we want to see you dress up like your favorite Diamond Select Toys action figure! We’re going to have four categories to enter, and four big prizes for the winnners!

Category 1: Universal Monsters
Dress up like any Universal Monsters character who has (or has been announced as getting) a 7″ action figure from DST: The Wolfman, the Mummy, the Creature, Frankenstein’s Monster, Dracula, the Bride, the Invisible Man, the Phantom and the Metaluna Mutant. Re-create the look and costume of any version of the character we’ve shown or made.
PRIZE: The winner will get a set of the Toys R Us AND Select versions of Universal Monsters Series 2 in preliminary packaging, plus a set of the Universal Monster Series 2 Retro figures!

Category 2: The Munsters
Dress up like any of the five Munsters family members: Herman, Lily, Grandpa, Eddie or Marilyn.
PRIZE: The winner will get a set of Herman and Lily unpainted prototype figures in preliminary Toys R Us packaging, plus a painted set of Munsters Select Series 1, also in preliminary packaging.

Category 3: Femme Fatales
Dress up AND pose like any character from our Femme Fatales statue line: Dawn, Alice, Tarot, Little Red, Darkchylde, Snow White, Lady Death, Anne Bonny, Medusa or Bo Peep. (Remember, the goal is to re-create the appearance of the statue, so the outfit and pose must match. See examples here.)
PRIZE: A sold-out Alice Femme Fatale statue, an unpainted Anne Bonny prototype, and our limited NYCC 2011-exclusive variant of Anne Bonny.

Category 4: Minimates
Dress up like a Minimate — ANY Minimate. It can be a blank Minimate, or a re-creation of any Minimate character we make, as long as your head and arms are cylindrical and your chest and legs are boxy. You should clearly be a Minimate, or the Minimate version of whatever character you do.
PRIZE: The winner will get a set of all four Universal Monsters Minimates Box Sets, the first two Ghostbusters Minimates Box Sets, all eight SDCC giveaway figures, a Battle Beast, a Minimates carrying case and an original Minimate design sheet.

OFFICIAL RULES:

- Enter as many costumes in as many categories as you like, but only one photo of each entry is allowed, so make it a good one.

- The photo should show the full costume, from head to toe.

- Entries will be judged on the costume, not the photo, but the photo should be in focus and well-lit.

- Photos can be indoors or outdoors, but no really busy backgrounds. You should be able to tell where the costume begins and ends.

- No photoshopping of photos is allowed. This includes text.

- By submitting the photograph to the contest, you give us permission to publish them on our Website.

- Post your photos on the Diamond Select Toys Facebook wall at http://www.facebook.com/diamondselecttoys between now and October 7 at 9 AM EST.

Start sewing, gluing, stapling, etc.!

Just when you thought you were safe from fictional creatures from movies made long ago, Universal Monsters Minimates Series 2 is here to scare the bejeezeus out of you! That’s right, the tiniest, most adorable monsters ever are back just in time for the spookiest time of the year! This time around, Frankenstein’s monster, Dr. Henry Frankenstein, Dracula, Van Helsing, the Bride of Frankenstein, a Villager, and Toys R Us-exclusive black-and-white versions of Dracula and Frankenstein’s Monster are here to scare and/or smile your face clear off! Check out pictures of the two-packs in packaging below, and look for them at a Toys R Us near you in October!

See the figures in action here, and get regular Minimate updates on Facebook and Twitter! And pick up the four-packs with exclusive female characters here!

Being a monster can be a little rough, especially when you’re trying to live a low-key life in the suburbs. It does have it’s advantages, though — they never seem to age! They look as fresh as they did back in 1966! Series 1 of The Munsters from Diamond Select Toys features good-natured funeral home worker Herman, his lovely wife Lily, and her cantankerous inventor father Grandpa! Hop in your Dragula, roar on down to your local Toys “R” Us this October and check ‘em out! Or pre-order the specialty-store “Select” versions here, and you’ll get the extra parts to build your own electric chair!

Because our Minimates photo contest was so successful, Diamond Select decided to spread the love and invite collectors to participate in a photo contest of a… different scale. Instead of two-inch Minimates, you were now shooting 7-inch-and-up Select figures, and while it was originally pitched as a Marvel AND Universal Select photo contest on our Facebook page, the overwhelming ratio of Marvel Select figures to Universal Select figures was reflected in the entries. (There were a couple of Universal entries, and they were good, so we’re going to throw a purely Universal-themed contest in time for Halloween.) Check out the gallery of entries here (not all of them, but some of the best) and congrats to Ogun Ryu for winning with his blacklight shot of Gambit, as well as runners-up True Believer (for Captain America), Ryan Dickinson (for Iron Man) and The One Cam (for Juggernaut)!

Follow us on Facebook and Twitter for the next contest, and pick up some of the winning Marvel Select models in our web store!