Art Asylum

Designed and produced by New York City-based sculpting and design house Art Asylum, Minimates began in 2002 with multiple lines of 3" Minimates based on several different licenses. These included Dark Angel, Star Trek, Kung Faux, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, and the films of Bruce Lee, along with a Rock line featuring Kiss, Rob Zombie, Ozzy Osbourne and Alice Cooper. The 3" Minimate line also included several blank or promotional Minimates. These usually bore the logo of a specific company and were used as giveaways.

Following a partnership with Diamond Select Toys, a range of 2" Minimates based upon the Marvel Comics Universe was launched. The 2" Minimate body type began to be used in place of the 3" body type, and it was announced that the 3" range would be discontinued. In 2004, a Lord of the Rings line produced by Art Asylum and Play Along Toys added a third 2.5" tall body type to further illustrate the size differences of the various races of Middle-Earth.

In 2004, Art Asylum and Play Along launched their Minimate-based C3 ("Create Construct Customize") construction sets, which could be used to build vehicles and playsets from the DC Comics universe with a primary focus on Batman and the Justice League. The license terms limited the selling of the 2" DC Minimates to the construction sets, and the line failed to gain a foothold in the market. C3 was discontinued, and in 2006 DC Direct announced that they had picked up the DC Minimates line and would release their own figures in partnership with Art Asylum. That same year, non-construction-set vehicles were introduced to the brand, in lines based on the Speed Racer cartoon (from Art Asylum) as well as both the classic and modern Battlestar Galactica TV series (from Art Asylum and Diamond Select Toys).

In 2007, Art Asylum became a division of Diamond Select Toys, and the Minimates body type has since been applied to dozens of licenses from comic books (The Walking Dead, Invincible), TV (24, Star Trek), movies (Terminator 2: Judgment Day, Universal Monsters, Marvel Studios), animation (The Real Ghostbusters, Peter Pan) and video games (Halo, Tomb Raider, Marvel vs. Capcom 3). DST has also developed Minimates based on its own concepts, under the brands Calico Jack's Pirate Raiders, Minimates M.A.X., and Battle Beasts, which they acquired the trademark for in 2009.

Most Minimates lines are sold as two-packs in assortments, or four-packs, both of which are available online or at local comic stores. Some were shared between Toys "R" Us or Walgreens and the specialty store market. Exclusive Minimates releases have been offered at major pop culture conventions, including San Diego's Comic-Con International, New York Comic Con and C2E2.

Due to license restrictions limiting all Marvel Minimates to the 2" scale, a range of four 8" unarticulated resin statues under the "Minimates Max" banner were announced for 2006 to represent larger-scale characters in the Minimate style. Because of the cost and unarticulated nature of the statues, the line was not well received and eventually cancelled. Only two of the four announced statues, Galactus and the Sentinel, were released.

The Minimates Vehicles line featured original ships and jets from the Calico Jack's Pirate Raiders and M.A.X brands alongside licensed vehicles from licenses such as Terminator 2: Judgment Day, Back to the Future and Knight Rider. Each assortment featured color variations between Toys R Us and specialty markets to differentiate between the two releases.

A carrying case that holds up to 36 Minimates was also produced, and comes with an exclusive figure. The first edition came with a Battle Beast, the second edition with a Pirate Raider, and the third, released in 2013, came with a silver 10th Anniversary Minimate.