Who wouldn't love official Red Dwarf Minimates? Well, given the worldwide population estimate of six billion, there are probably a lot. But if we trim that number down to important people. Say Minimate fans and Red Dwarf fans for example, we can now safely assume that most people want Red Dwarf Minimates. (You can prove anything with statistics if you can manipulate the sample, that's how statisticians make the big bucks.) :)

With all the costume changes over nine series we'd probably end up with a lot of Listers and Rimmers. There are many ancillary characters with great gimmicks as well. The Inquisitor with a mask and extra heads, Legion with a composite face, all of the wax droid versions of famous people, a Confidence and Paranoia two pack so we can get a Minimate of Craig Ferguson. I could just keep going and going with these, but I won't.



Okay just a few more: Gelf army builders, both Holly and Queeg accessory heads, both nummy Kochanskis, Camille, the Cat Priest with his fearsome hat, Hudson. Then there's all the potential variants of the main cast: Duane Dibbley, Ace Rimmer, Jake Bullet, The Riviera Kid, Lister with Space Mumps, Rimmer and Mr. Flibble from Quarantine, etc. etc. But since they can't seem to get the teased Doctor Who Minimates off the ground, Dwarfers will likely be going without.

That is unless they take the initiative and make some of their own. Enter the Minimate Multiverse Sci-Fi Custom Contest. The potential Minimate prizes were all I needed to start my version of Kryten. I thought the half-chewed rubber-tipped pencil look would translate well to a Minimate.



The Kryten costume underwent changes through the series, but this version isn't meant to reflect any particular version. I went with what what I felt were the defining characteristics of the suit. I would have loved to put the little transparent bits on the shoulders, but they turned out too fiddly for my uncoordinated meathooks.

Speaking of shoulders, that's probably the most glaring problem with this custom. They're just too big. If I were to do it again, I'd use a different base to keep the size down. I might also try sculpting the head piece directly instead of making it removable like real Minimate hairpieces.



Ah the groinal socket. The ideal Kryten accessory. A number of add-ons can be plugged into the groinal socket, buzz saw, power drill, hedge trimmer, even an egg wisk. This particular attachment is made from a bit of speaker wire and a fried capacitor. I don't know exactly what it does, but it sounds electrical in nature. Other videos (give it a couple minutes).

Here's the gallery of all the contest entries in case you don't want to read the entire thread linked earlier. There's some great stuff in there. Luke's Velociraptor still stands as one of the greatest Minimate customs I've seen.