Its been quite a while since the Diamond Select Toys scooped up the Battle Beasts rights in 2009. They have released a few variations of an exclusive Crocodile Battle Beast to gain excitement and showed off some new sculpts at SDCC 2010, but thats about it. No plans or announcements had been made.

Recently, however, a countdown site went live at http://www.diamondselecttoys.com/battle-beasts.html. It has been counting down for over a month and will end tomorrow. Tomorrow also marks the beginning of C2E2.

Fortunately for us, IDW broke the news before Diamond Select’s countdown has finished. A new comic fleshing out a new story for the Battle Beasts franchise is on its way from IDW Publishing. Not only that, but they have put up a website showing off some comic art and design art for the ram-like character, Vorin. An exclusive translucent red version of Vorin will be available as a convention exclusive at C2E2. Vorin was not among the new sculpts shown at SDCC 2010.

More info after the jump!
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Action Figure Express will be offering up two exclusive box sets of Marvel Minimates soon. A silver age X-Men box set and an original X-Factor team box set. The Angel for both teams will actually be available in an upcoming wave of Marvel Minimates as both the regular figure and the chase for that wave. Marvel Minimates wave 34 was also announced and paying big respect to the 90’s X-Men in the form of Rogue, Beast, Jean Grey and Cyclops. Also in the wave is Jean as the Black Queen with Selene, the Black Queen as the variant. The troop builder figure (figure packaged with the chase figure and regular version of the chase) will be a Hellfire Guard.

Whats the most important revelation of Marvel Minimate Wave 34 and these box sets? A wave with no Wolverine or Spiderman!

Pictures after the jump!

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News comes via io9.com that the latest issue of Previews shows an ad for Diamond Select Toys’ Marvel Select Iron Man 2 War Machine armor. The ad only shows a sillouette, but there is a zoomed in view of the head (shown above) that is not blacked out. We can pretty much see Don Cheadle’s likeness in the War Machine helmet. This is sure to be just the first of hype for the upcoming movie set to be released on May 7, 2010.

You can see the full page ad after the jump.
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I reported on some leaked control art for Terminator 2 minimates a while back. We have some more details on them now from Minimate Headquarters.

There are two separate assortments to begin. The first is a case of single-packed minimates consisting of 5 different terminators with a rare chase figure of General John Connor. This was the control art that we had seen previously. This is more or less the same treatment the Battlestar Galactica Minimates got with the single-boxed Cylons.
The different Terminators include:
T-800 Endoskeleton
T-800 Endoskeleton Battle Damaged with Gatlin Gun
T-800 Half Human Terminator
T-1000 Cop
and our rare variant General John Connor
(see group shot after the jump)

The second assortment will be the first wave in an ongoing line of Terminator 2 themed minimates (pictured above). The wave will include:
Terminator (T800) & John Connor
Final Battle T1000 & Battle Damage Sarah Connor
Endoskeleton & Battle Damage T800
VARIANT: Endoskeleton & Kyle Reese
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Line ups have been announced for the next 2 waves of Marvel Minimates.

Series 25
(New) Captain America & Red Skull
Red Hulk & Ska’ar
Iron Man & AIM Agent
VARIANT: “Bolt-Face” Iron Man & AIM Agent

Series 26
Wolverine & Deadpool
Gambit & Psylocke
Sabretooth & Skrull
VARIANT: First Appearance Sabretooth & Skrull

It was mentioned that there were going to be Army Builder figures in these waves, but I am extremely diappointed to see they won’t be packaged together. So if you want two 3 AIM Agents, you have to have 3 Iron Men. As if we didn’t have enough already. At least they aren’t packaged with Wolverine.

While not officially announced, there seems to be some control art (and pre-order pages) floating about the inter-tubes for the Terminator 2 license, prior to which was unknown to even be held by Diamond Select.

Images and News from the newly revamped Minimate Headquarters.

Alter Ego Comics has news that Star Trek Minimates will be getting a fifth wave or figures in the form of:
“Trouble with Tribbles” Kirk & Yeoman Rand (!)
Captain Decker & Lieutenant Ilia from Star Trek: The Motion Picture
Captain Sisko & Gul Dukat
VARIANT: Commander Sisko

DST also had news for Marvel Minimate fans:

Fans of DST’s Marvel Minimate universe will be pleased to learn that the next assortments of their favorite super heroes are heading their way later this year! Series 23 and 24 will feature all-new characters, villains and costumes, making these assortments a must-have for any Marvel fan!

Series 23 will contain several two-packs featuring characters taken from the past twenty years of Marvel history. Nova will be paired with Gamora, Cloak will team up with Dagger and the Spymaster will take on War Machine in this all-star lineup. The variant War Machine featuring Jim Rhodes will also be available as a limited chase figure.

With the ongoing success of the Amazing Spider-Man, it was only a matter of time before his villains got their due as Minimates! Series 24 will feature two-packs consisting of Spider-Man & Shocker, Cosmic Spider-Man & Transformation Venom, “Back in Black” Spider-Man & Kraven and the limited Tarantula variant. Additional pieces will also be included for transforming Transformation Venom into Eddie Brock and each Spider-Man into Peter Parker.

With fans clamoring for more characters and plans ramping up to continue the Minimate line well into the future, be sure to stick around for more updates as the summer convention season begins!

Source: MinimatesHQ

If you are not reading Captain America, you should be. After the recent death of Steve Rogers, the mantle of Captain America was passed on to his long time sidekick, James ‘Bucky’ Buchanan. Diamond Select Toys has announced a Marvel Select action figure based on Bucky’s modified Captain America uniform. The 7 inch tall figure was sculpted by Sam Greenwell and features 14 points of articulation. It will also come with a rooftop gargoyle base (pictured).

To my knowledge, this is the first action figure based on the new Cap uniform.