Points of Articulation

Rustin Parr

As hard as it may be to believe, Art Asylum's Marvel Minimates line has been running a full decade, now. The Minimates are joining a very exclusive club, because very few toylines have that kind of longevity: off the top of my head, I can only think of Hasbro's Star Wars (1995-present), DC Direct (1998-present), McFarlane Toys' Spawn (1994-2008), and ToyBiz's X-Men (1991-2000). That's some good company!

Anyway, the first three series of Minimates (which were based, loosely, on Marvel's various movie properties at the time - Daredevil, Spider-Man, X-Men and Hulk) all came out at once. In fact, they came out today: July 9, 2003. Today is the 10th Anniversary of the Marvel Minimates line, so we decided to celebrate by comparing some of those 2003 releases with their modern counterparts, to really demonstrate how the line has changed over the years. Enjoy!

That's quite an evolution, isn't it? And with Series 50 on the horizon, the line doesn't show any signs of slowing down any time soon.

We took these pictures from The Minimate Database, a fairly useful resource that goes all the way back to the beginning. We took the pictures without permission, because they don't seem to have any contact info on their page. To make up for that, go visit their site and look around.