One man's toys have also become his treasure.When Jeff Burton of Humboldt got his first MiniMate, a type of block-style action figure, in 2002, he likely did not foresee that 10 years later, his collection would number over 500. "I didn't really start collecting them (until) the Marvel comics line started in 2003," Burton told the Journal.The Humboldt resident was all too happy to answer some questions about MiniMates and his collection of them, part of which is on display at the Humboldt and District Museum and Gallery from now until the end of December."They are a bit of an unknown toy, and I love sharing anything I can about them," Burton said. Minimates, he stated, are a brand of block style action figures produced by Art Asylum and Diamond Select Toys. They are now a standard 2.5 inch figure with 14 points of articulation."The ability to interchange parts lends itself to a huge playability factor," Burton said. They cover many different properties from Marvel comics and movies, other movies, TV characters, video games and they have even started to make some in-house brands such as the Calico Jack's Pirate Raiders, Maximum Zombies and Mobile Action eXtreme (M.A.X.) elite heroes which cover everyday people like firefighters, police and so on. "They have also branched out to make vehicles like the Delorean from the 'Back to the Future' movies and the pirate ship, both of which are part of the display at the museum," he said. Burton doesn't know exactly how many MiniMates he owns. "On top of the regular releases, I have a collection of custom-made characters, some made by me others made by other more talented customizers," he said. "I also have been lucky enough to get some production pieces, first shots and prototypes over the years as well."He estimated his collection numbers somewhere around 500, but that number could be low. He didn't bring the whole collection to display at the museum."I was not entirely sure how big of a setup I was going to do," he explained, "and sometimes less is more as the whole collection might have been overwhelming to visitors."So what was it about MiniMates that made him want to have so many?"At the time I first saw these, I had been out of the toy collecting game for a number of years," Burton noted. "Toy companies were making bigger and bigger toys and they were not only costly but took up space. This really didn't appeal to me since I really liked to play/pose my toys and these big ones just were too big."The biggest appeal about the MiniMates were their size, he said, followed closely by how different they looked since they generally have the same basic square body and legs with cylindrical arms and head. "Seeing how far they have come in the years since they started has been a great ride," he noted. He displays some of his collection at home - the MiniMates based on Marvel comics and movies are in display cases on the wall - but others get packed away, he noted. However, with the release of special collectors' cases, he has been putting more and more of his collection on display in his home, which he shares with his wife and children. This generally makes them easier to work with for his projects, he noted. But does he let his five children, which includes triplet girls, play with these toys? "Having kids and a toy collection can be a touchy situation, as toys are for playing with, no matter what your age is," Burton smiled. While he shies away from letting them play with his main collection pieces, he lets them play with spares and doubles that he comes across. His son has started his own MiniMate collection, and one of his daughters has recently shown interest in the toys as well, he admitted. In addition to the toys on display at the museum, Burton has included some posters."I really enjoy how they do the MiniMate style drawings for them," he said. "I will be adding some more posters as well," he noted. "Since Diamond Select Toys heard about the exhibit they have sent me some more posters that I don't currently have." Another addition to the exhibit will come in the form of some actual design sheets from Diamond Select Toys. "Their interactions with their fans and customers is top-notch," Burton said, adding that "they have been very excited about this exhibit since I first told them it was happening."In addition to his collection, Burton also writes a daily MiniMate blog, which can be found at portraitofanaddiction.blogspot.com. On this blog, Burton posts new and old MiniMates, some full-on product reviews, as well as write-ups on other MiniMate related things such as close-to-scale accessories. "This allows me to continue to work with the small scale photography while I collect props and such for my larger MiniMate photo projects like photo-based comic books starring the MiniMates," Burton stated.
