Axed Jazwares Mega Man Figures, MiniMates on Display at Video Game Memorabilia Museum

Have you heard of the Video Game Memorabilia Museum? If not, then know this: it is like the ultimate embodiment of video game merchandise, a nirvana of geekish delights for fans of numerous video game franchises.
Don’t believe me? Don’t think such a place exists? Check out their front page, then answer those questions again.

Of course, if Mega Man weren’t among the contents, we probably would not be writing this here (he’s on the second shelf from the left, at the top). And tucked away amongst enough video games and toy merchandise to make even Geoffrey the Giraffe cry are some very rare treasures indeed.

Turning back the clock, further than our current news archive will go, unfortunately, some of you may remember that American toy developer Jazwares, who then and now holds the Mega Man action figure license, had a lineup of new characters to be released: MegaMan Volnutt of Mega Man Legends, Knight Man of Mega Man 6, and the troop-builder Pantheon Hunters from Mega Man Zero, who would have come with an interchangeable head to provide an easy Copy X fix as well.

Somehow, VGMM curator Nightram managed to get his hands on these prototypes, and decided to show them off on video in his blog back in September:

It is a shame the line didn’t catch on more; while the earlier sculpts weren’t very good at all (yet some people loved them, proving there’s no accounting for taste), they did get progressively better, and these prototypes look as though they could have been some of the best yet. Ah, what might have been.

What strikes me as strange is the Pantheon Hunter with the Zero head. Thinking back, I’m not sure we ever saw the Copy X head, so this may have simply been a placeholder, as I believe all three characters shared the same body mold.

You can also see a pouting Servbot sitting in there, behind the MiniMates that I never even knew existed (I brought up the prospect a few times, but word from Jazwares was that Capcom was hellbent against anything MiniMate or LEGO-ish at all). And amazingly, there are even female characters are included in the mix, and Dynamo (misidentified as Gate), too!

As you can see, this is part of a series, so if you’re into video game collectibles on the whole, you may want to check out the full series. Then, you can head on over to the website linked above and gaze to your heart’s content at all sorts of merchandise from around the world. To give you a head start, here’s the link to the Mega Man section.

Source: Protodude’s Rockman Corner

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