3 replies to this topic

[PSlulitt]

All right, so as everyone knows, the third series of figures was mysteriously never released, aside from a handful given away as premiums in cereal, restaurants and the MIMP video game. Thanks to some eBay sellers in South America, the rest of the monsters from that series have been named (though two--Catarenha and Jabalius---have no mention on Google other than a dozen or so MIMP-related sites), though we don't know the number or point value for any of them, since the stickers and trading cards on which they're depicted seem to go for a fortune and whoever owns them, presumably, is not a member of any online MIMP communities, as far as I can tell.

Having said all that, there are a few unusual things about the monsters that were released that I'd like to get some thoughts on:

The monsters that were released are numbered 73-81 and have point values in decreasing value from 30 to 20, except #81, Blemmyea, which jumps back up to 25 points.

Firstly, I find it odd that Blemmyea is worth 25 points and not 20 or even 15, in going with the numbering scheme. You'd assume he would be worth as much as or less than #80, Jimmy Squarefoot, who is worth 20 points, but for some reason he was bumped back up to 25. I've noticed on my figure that the "25" seems a bit off-center and I'm wondering if the point value was altered for some reason when it was given away with the video game--it doesn't make any sense, but it's a thought.

Second, the value of the monsters, too, is a bit strange; typically, you'd have maybe three or four 30 pointers, then four or five 25 pointers, and so on, but the figures seem to depreciate in point value much more rapidly than, say, series 2 and 4, which were also made up of 24 monsters.

So as if series three wasn't mysterious enough, now there's even more to consider. Were the figures just hastily assigned point values and numbers so they could be released as premiums? That is, maybe the figures we know of now were meant to be spaced out differently, and when the line was canceled Matchbox just chose the few that were going to be given away and numbered them in ascending order to make it easier for kids to keep track of. What do you guys think of it all?

And yes, I know I have too much time on my hands! But these are the questions that keep me up at night...

Edited by PSlulitt, 12 June 2008 - 12:40 AM.

[PSlulitt]

Well, I know that Big Boy's restaurants gave away Abominable Snowman figures in purple and yellow, but only having the purple one myself I can't be sure if the yellow one is bright yellow or the yellow-orange one you're referring to.

[asator]

ANOTHER Series-3 anomaly:

Look carefully at the photo below, of Sonric's Mexican MIMP figures. Notice anything unusual about it?
[attachment=12718:figures_...Blemmyea.JPG]

This is a lot of Sonric's Mexican MIMP figures... yet it contains a Blemmyea figure!!!

This raises an important question: did Sonric's produce a Blemmyea figure? On one hand, the fact that Sonric's produced a specially-sized "Monster Mountain" designed to hold all 48 of Sonric's "mini" versions of the Series-1 figures leads me to believe that they wouldn't have also created any Series-3 figures. Yet, on the other hand, the 24 Argentinean figures are all Series-1 except for "Scorpion Man" - which is Series-2; perhaps this is a precedent for cross-series figure production.

Typical blue Blemmyea seem to me to be a darker shade of blue than this Blemmyea depcited with the Sonric's figures - which appears to be a lighter blue. But different shades of the same color can be hard to determine from photographs, and - moreover - the lighting and other photographic factors can cause colors to vary widely.

Having said all this, my best guess is that this IS a Sonric's Mexican Blemmyea in a unique lighter-blue color. But this conclusion itself raises additional questions:
1) Was this Sonric's Mexican Blemmyea available in other colors, like the wide range of colors for each Sonric's Series-1 figure?
2) Were any other Series-3 figures made into Sonric's figures?
3) Were any figures from series besides Series-1, and possibly Series-3, made into Sonric's figures?

Hmmmmmmm. "Curioser and curioser."

A member here won this auction. They said it was a regular #81 and not a sonrics figure.

[asator]

That's sad, Asator. I was really hoping that there were Sonric's Series-3 figures. Wouldn't it be cool to find Series-3 figures in clear, black, transparent-yellow, etc.?

I still think that Blemmyea looks like a much-lighter blue than a normal blue Blemmyea, but I'm not going to accuse them of being mistaken when they have the actual figure "in-hand". I'll have to take their word for it.

Very disappointing.

It is dissapointing. I had the same idea that you did when I first saw that auction back then. I thought, "A Mexican #81?" When I saw that the winner was a member, I contacted them to inquire if the figure was a regular #81 or something different, also to see about trading for one of the other figures in the lot. When the packaged arrived they told me that it was indeed a regular figure. I mean, they could be wrong but its a member who knows what they are talking about so didnt think twice about it. I feel wierd saying who it is on the open board, (I try not to assume that all collectors are ok with everyone knowing what they have) but I could see if they could take some photos or whatnot, do some comparison.