Friday, July 25, 2008
In the AftermathMy bulk order of Secret Invasion arrived yesterday and I dug into that after work. I'm still at the early edge of absorbing the possibilities and even reacting to the sculpts now that they're in hand.
I'm currently left lacking the Nick Fury and Gamora Super Rares and the Skrull version of Elektra in terms of what's in the main 1-60 set. I'll take my extra Magus and Impossible Man, along with various other extras to next Monday's Secret Invasion game and see about possible trades.My Mole Man has a serviceable group of 7 moloids - one to drag around for Mastermind fodder (taking a bullet for the chief) and two squads of three - while Attuma and Namor have an anemic force of five Atlantean Warriors to split, and there are four Spider-Slayers, each with JJJameson's face in the viewscreen, ready to hunt for Spidey. I also have five or six Sharon Carters, the extras of which I believe I'll keep as potential, generic SHIELD agents.
Before getting into any specifics, I do want to note once more how the chase figures remain the feel-bad element of modern clix sets. Not pulling even one of them leaves especially the collector who buys at the case level and above feeling less positive about the rest of the set. It's bad enough that under the current rarity scheme one can buy two cases and still be hunting for Super Rares (and, in my situation, even a rare this time out, though I expect I'll be able to trade for that readily enough.), but add in a couple of supremely rare bits and there's no reasonable way of collecting a set.
Even when someone pulls one, unless money's flowing like water or it's a character the collector really, truly has been waiting for, it's not something easily folded into one's collection. Instead, it's an instant commodity. Most have to at least be given pause at the notion that this one piece could be traded for a large chunk of the entire set. Moreover, if one decides to keep it and goes to play it at a venue, aside from having to be concerned about keeping it from being stolen, if it's a particularly effective game piece there's going to be some level of resentment coming from some of the players. Ask anyone who went to a venue and played one of the Crisis chase Superman pieces.
Chase pieces break the collector's spirit -- market madness drives these pieces into fiscal/trading territory that simply isn't realistic for most of us -- and once the spell of a completionist is shattered, well... then everything comes up for question.
Feh.
Well, I have what I have -- and whatever I'll pull in the few boosters remaining in my buying path, such as the sealed match I'll be going to next Monday in part so I can get the new map and the Nowhere To Hide BFC they'll be handing out to the first 16 of us who registered and show up.
Time for some early comments on the set, post-release.
There are some terrible sculpts - Yellowjacket comes immediately to mind, with the legs, trunk and head all appearing to be misproportioned, along with the pose being so half-hearted. There's not even enough vigor in that to want to caption it with a "Get off my lawn!"He also serves to illustrate a lousy choice Wizkids made with respect to most of the pieces with Skrull variants: They sculpted them as Skrulls. Anyone giving it half a thought would realize that sculpting them as the original characters would be what makes the most sense. My honest opinion of why it went the way it did? It was easier to sculpt the faces as shape-shifting Skrulls than as humans. As a result, we're left with human versions (based on the dial) who are mysteriously disfigured. Interest in modding techniques and paints is already climbing sharply.
The very cartoonish Spider-man sculpt that kicks the set off is also drawing some understandable flack. The proportions better resemble the grotesque Hasbro line of "mini" figures. The dial itself is solid for 50 points, though there's little in it to really call up Spidey's usual methods -- no late-dial Outwit and no ranged Incapacitate. Instead, we get a pound and tie-up Spidey... but still, it appears to be a highly efficient 50 points. I expect to see him worked in often.
In general, though, I feel good about the bulk of this set, at least in terms of character selection.
We finally get a Jim Hammond Human Torch, Triton, Attuma, Atlantean Warriors, Immortus, Mephisto, a more recognizable Adam Warlock, along with his more malevolent possible future-self, Magus, Grey Gargoyle, Goliath (Bill Foster), Sharon Carter, Dum Dum Dugan, Ms. Marvel, Psycho-Man, the Skrull Emperor Dorrek, vintage Spider-Slayers, Morbius and even Howard the Duck. Okay, part of me even wanted the horribly-named She-Thing, and I may end up having some fun with the Impossible Man. I know some others have been awaiting Power Pack, and somewhere out there is someone who wanted Thor Girl -- I haven't met him yet, but there must be. Big fans of the original Secret Wars can now recreate the battles, now that Arachne has been made. Doom wannabe Kristoff is in the mix, too, as is Gravity and Spier-Girl.
Along with that, we have some interesting Skrull composite-power figures in the Super Skrull: X-Men and Super-Skrull: Avengers, each of which strikes me as cost-effective pieces that work well enough for being purely PAC-driven, which is to say they would have been better with Special Power combinations. Ultimately they are what they are, and I've bought far enough into the idea that these newcomers haven't had much time to adapt to the powers invested in them and so aren't so smooth on the
transitions and power combinations. Also, I can't blame the sculptor for the SS:Avengers piece, which looks as if he's simply mimicking Thor -- no sign of any of the other characters in his appearance.The 126 pt Avengers piece seems to have a much better first-strike advantage, but I'm expecting the 106 pt X-Men composite to have more staying power and prove more frustrating to an opponent.
Also, we have a solid assortment of characters who've been made previously in clix, among them Dr. Strange, Namor, Iron Man, Dr. Octopus, Punisher, Annihilus, Cloak & Dagger (this time as a Duo), Iron Fist, Power Man & Iron Fist (the other Duo in this set), the Mole Man and his Moloids, Captain Marvel, Hercules and the "Unthinkable" version of Doom, where he traded the life of his only human love in exchange for vast mystical powers. There's even a new version of Sentry which is designed so character-appropriately that I find myself wanting to field it somewhere down the line despite my continuing to see the character as a dreadful mistake for the Marvel Universe.
Dr. Strange, Namor and Hercules may be three of the remakes I most want to field, though hardly the only ones. Along with these it's important to remember that while they came in their own pack (this year's starter) we also have as an official part of this set a new Fantastic Four, Dr. Doom and two (somewhat lackluster) Doombots... all of which finally came into my hands this week and none of which I've gotten to play!
With the new Namor and a Golden Age Human Torch we can now field the original Invaders, though it'd have to be in a 500 pt build, adding Union Jack in as a thematic guest star. We're still lacking a proper Hulk (including appropriate keywords) for a Defenders team... maybe next February.
Yeesh. Yeah, that's right. This is the first year in clix where there's only one Marvel set in the year. It's going to be a loooong stretch between now and next February's Hammer of Thor.
Right, right, there'll be DC's Arkham Asylum in October or November, and I'm sure there'll be items in there I'll want, but it won't feel the same heading into the final third of the year without another Marvel set imminent.
I'll likely have more to say on the set after I wade into it with teams.
Labels: Heroclix, Secret Invasion
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Chase still getting you down, I see. :)
SI hasn't arrived in my country yet but judging from the lackluster quality of sculpts and general non-excitement I feel in this set (am a casual gamer, BTW. I've grown tired of losing games :D ) I'll only be buying loose boosters.
Thank God for D&D Miniatures, then.
SI hasn't arrived in my country yet but judging from the lackluster quality of sculpts and general non-excitement I feel in this set (am a casual gamer, BTW. I've grown tired of losing games :D ) I'll only be buying loose boosters.
Thank God for D&D Miniatures, then.
Well, chase pieces will always irritate me. They continue to be the #1, feel-bad element in Heroclix, probably followed soon after by saving interesting twists, interpretations and powers for prize LEs.
There's a great deal of negativity from the most vocal elements and the easily-led on the Internet, but as I look over virtually the entire ser it doesn't look even half as bad as some are saying. The Spider-Man and Yellowjacket are terrible sculpts, but most of the problems otherwise are more due to the paint jobs. When I start to delve into the complaints I see many who are really more bothered by the character selection, often because they wanted to see A, saw B instead and are taking it as a comparative. That they'd then rush to criticize sculpts of characters they didn't want to see as "unexciting" is hardly surprising. What they fail to see is that what would make a terrific set of characters (particularly when one's looking at the list of characters not yet made into Clix) for them would be someone else's list of "no-names" and abominations.
Some people just love to complain, and many seem to be looking for a way out of something that's become fairly expensive, but who would prefer that everyone else walk away from it so it would just collapse; that way they wouldn't have the pangs of regret that so frequently come with walking away from something that goes on without them.
That said, the decision to make four of those Skrull impostors into Skrull sculpts is indefensible. Honestly, the only excuses would be sheer stupidity or the angle that sculpting them as lumpy-chinned Skrulls would require less skill than handling human faces.
I'm only in the game because of the characters, so I'll either continue on with this or drop it because it has become too disappointing, but it won't be because another game's lured me away. Well, I suppose if something based on these Marvel and DC characters came along that was as good or better than Heroclix, but even then I'd be reluctant to start pouring money into another game. D&D or Star Wars miniatures, etc. though? No chance in Heaven, Hell or Earth. It's all about the characters for me. As I've often noted, I didn't get into Heroclix because I was looking for a new game.
There's a great deal of negativity from the most vocal elements and the easily-led on the Internet, but as I look over virtually the entire ser it doesn't look even half as bad as some are saying. The Spider-Man and Yellowjacket are terrible sculpts, but most of the problems otherwise are more due to the paint jobs. When I start to delve into the complaints I see many who are really more bothered by the character selection, often because they wanted to see A, saw B instead and are taking it as a comparative. That they'd then rush to criticize sculpts of characters they didn't want to see as "unexciting" is hardly surprising. What they fail to see is that what would make a terrific set of characters (particularly when one's looking at the list of characters not yet made into Clix) for them would be someone else's list of "no-names" and abominations.
Some people just love to complain, and many seem to be looking for a way out of something that's become fairly expensive, but who would prefer that everyone else walk away from it so it would just collapse; that way they wouldn't have the pangs of regret that so frequently come with walking away from something that goes on without them.
That said, the decision to make four of those Skrull impostors into Skrull sculpts is indefensible. Honestly, the only excuses would be sheer stupidity or the angle that sculpting them as lumpy-chinned Skrulls would require less skill than handling human faces.
I'm only in the game because of the characters, so I'll either continue on with this or drop it because it has become too disappointing, but it won't be because another game's lured me away. Well, I suppose if something based on these Marvel and DC characters came along that was as good or better than Heroclix, but even then I'd be reluctant to start pouring money into another game. D&D or Star Wars miniatures, etc. though? No chance in Heaven, Hell or Earth. It's all about the characters for me. As I've often noted, I didn't get into Heroclix because I was looking for a new game.
understood. I too got into this game because of the characters. I'm actually pretty excited to get a new Hercules and Punisher just to collect, so I'm sure to get some boosters of SI when it comes to the Philippines.
I don't complain about what I haven't seen or felt, so I don't care too much if a not-so popular character apparently got into the set over someone like Nova or Smokey Feet Cap. As a casual gamer dials mean squat to me, so the sculpts and the fact that a character in the comics got made into clix matter more.
That said, I guess I shouldn't read too much into the negativity of different clix forums. But sometimes gut feeling takes over, and I'm just not as excited as, say , Crisis or Avengers (one set they complained so much about was the most awesome set for me!). But oh well. I don't play too much anymore anyway, so as a collection this set will do just fine for me.
When you look at it, the character selection is pretty great (talking about the pic you have at the top of your post).
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I don't complain about what I haven't seen or felt, so I don't care too much if a not-so popular character apparently got into the set over someone like Nova or Smokey Feet Cap. As a casual gamer dials mean squat to me, so the sculpts and the fact that a character in the comics got made into clix matter more.
That said, I guess I shouldn't read too much into the negativity of different clix forums. But sometimes gut feeling takes over, and I'm just not as excited as, say , Crisis or Avengers (one set they complained so much about was the most awesome set for me!). But oh well. I don't play too much anymore anyway, so as a collection this set will do just fine for me.
When you look at it, the character selection is pretty great (talking about the pic you have at the top of your post).
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