Minions by Thinkway Toys

I absolutely loved the original Despicable Me movie. Those little, yellow Minions just made the movie for me. Unfortunately, the Minion merchandise available from the film was little more than some pitiful plushies. A missed opporunity if you ask me.
Well it appears that Universal is set to fix that mistake with Despicable Me 2 and a large helping of licensed goods including these collectible action figures

Despicable Me: Minion Action Figures from ThinkWay Toys

I absolutely loved the original Despicable Me movie. Those little, yellow Minions just made the movie for me. Unfortunately, the Minion merchandise available from the film was little more than some pitiful plushies. A missed opporunity if you ask me.
Well it appears that Universal is set to fix that mistake with Despicable Me 2 and a large helping of licensed goods including these collectible action figures.

I first learned about these figures from Thinkway Toys at Toy Fair 2013 and have eagerly been awaiting their release ever since. As soon as they hit Toys R Us I scooped up a handful to add to my collection.
Series 1 consists of 11 figures - 9 Minions along with Gru and Dr Nefario. At the time of this writing all but two of the figures are available (Baker and Fireman 2 have yet to hit retail shelves).

The figures themselves are dimiuitive at around two inches tall, but still pack a ton of charm. They are light on paint & detail, but the sculpts do a great job of capturing the Minions' delightful personalities. The packaging touts the Minions as "highly detailed action figures" but I would say that "nicely detailed" is a bit more accurate.

Each figure features moveable arms at the shoulders which allows for some flexibility when posing. They stand pretty steady on their feet, except for the Ninja Minion who has a tendancy to topple over when not completely level.

MSRP puts these figures at $7.99 each, which leans slightly towards the expensive side. Then again, I paid a similiar price for each of the three, slightly smaller Minions I picked up from Universal Studios Orlando and those figures dont have any articulation at all.

Regardless of the price I am super happy to finally have Minion figures available so I'm not complaining at all.

My Minion Army (the third, fourth & fifth Minions from the left are from Universal Studios Orlando and not part of the series).

BANANA!!!!!

Phil, Stuart & Dave

So, simple figures - but ones that I am excited about nonetheless. I would have added these guys to the top shelf, but there simply isn't any room up there any more. Even the second shelf in my display case is a bit overrun at the moment. Temporarily, these Minions are forced to take up residence on shelf 3 which is reserved excusively for Star Wars toys. Hopefully that wont cause too much trouble for anyone.

Again, Im just delighted that Universal cranked out the licenses to support the new film. There are a few more Minion items on shelves along with some upcoming releases that i hope to get my hands on soon.

I'm also very much looking forward to finally seeing Despicible Me 2 when it hits theaters this June.

I still think a blond box assortment of Minions would be a huge hit ifs home is listening. I would buy a case or two without even flinching.