By now, you’ve hopefully gotten the chance to play with the incredibly detailed real-life heroes of Mobile Action Xtreme (MAX) Minimates Series 1, and are eagerly anticipating the arrival of the Elite Heroes four-pack next week. Well, get ready for more MAX! This fall, Series 2 will hit Toys “R” Us, and not only will you get a second chance to buy the Fire and Police sets, you’ll also get two new sets — Search & Rescue and Undersea Operations! The two Search & Rescue specialists come with a flashlight with strap, a medical kit, a coiled rope and a satellite phone, while the two SCUBA divers come with a scuba tank, a flashlight, a spear gun, a knife with a leg sheath and extra hair. And look for a new MAX vehicle, the APC, to appear in this fall’s third series of Minimates Vehicles!

Check out the pictures below (with a stripped-down figure on the left and the two geared-up figures on the right), and check out more MAX heroes here!

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Back to the Future II Hover Mode Time Machine

With the second wave of Minimates vehicles hitting stores soon, there are a dozen different ways for Minimates to get around, and they certainly do get around in style. Each Minimate vehicle, be it an adaptation of a famous conveyance from television, movies, the newspapers or the history books, takes the original design and adapts it to accommodate the blocky little bodies of multiple Minimates. So how does Minimatization happen? It’s a multi-step process, but we talked to project manager Robert Yee and vehicle artist Mark Wong to find out how much is planned and how much is just a series of happy accidents. (Larger pictures at the end)
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To keep things sailing smoothly in this week of piracy, we thought we’d share some new photos of the Ranger, Calico Jack’s pirate ship, due to hit Toys “R” Us in early July. The ship measures 9 inches from bow to stern, and 9 inches from keel to crow’s nest, and has more movable and removable parts than you can shake a spyglass at. Retractable planks, opening hatches and doors, a removable deck… this is every 2-inch pirate’s dream ride! It comes with one able-bearded crewman and Calico Jack’s trademark Jolly Roger flag (not shown), and has enough space to hold a whole crew of Minimates, plus whatever you can stow in the hold. It’s enough to make even the most cantankerous bilge rat sing, “Yarrr, I be on a boat!”

Minimates get some wheels!!! (and jets and robots)

Those poor Minimates never knew what they were missing.. until now!!!

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