Friday, October 24, 2008
From the Asylum (and not.)
The latest Heroclix expansion - this one a DC one, the second for 2008 - hit the streets Wednesday. As noted in the previous few posts it was titled Arkham Asylum, even if done so largely for dramatic effect rather than as an accurate descriptor of the setlist... which doesn't bother me, but simply bears noting.
(As of this writing only Wizkids has finally updated their gallery with the set. So, here's the link to that gallery.)
For various reasons I cut my order in half this time. The reasons?
While there were many points of interest in the set (which I'll likely get to in a few moments), I simply didn't find myself frantic to collect all of the Super Rares, and collecting everything in the Common, Uncommon and Rare slots is fairly easy these days.
The rarity scheme for the sets is broken. The first 48 pieces are so easily come across that very light buying almost seems to be encouraged, while collecting a set of the 12 Super Rares has become more of a financial chore than is fun to pursue, and the now seemingly requisite 2 chase figures per set have the unpleasant effect of making much of the rest of the set appear valueless. Unfortunately, it has the effect because for the most part it's true. If one buys a booster of figures and doesn't pull a Super Rare, in terms of immediate market value one's largely been rooked; good luck being able to sell the components for half the retail cost of the booster.
Except for cheating trades with the unwary, for the most part anything from the Common, Uncommon or Rare level quickly becomes almost valueless (save for the generics, which, happily, they've begun to work back into sets) in terms of trading for the Super Rares. Meanwhile, the chase pieces tend to immediately command prices roughly three to six times what individual Super Rares do.
The chase pieces are a sort of "bonus" lottery with an ugly twist.
I could abide the Super Rares, but the chase pieces continue to cross the line. If one doesn't pull them (especially if one's bought a case or more) there's an almost inescapable sense of loss. Of waste.
If one does happen to pull a chase, it's an instant commodity. It's no longer simply a cool game piece offering a unique representation of a character, it's something that's worth over $100. Unless one's well-heeled it seems foolish to keep it, and if one does it's more likely to bring grief in play (between the resentment of some other players and having to be especially wary because it has that much cash value packed in a couple ounces of plastic), and the attraction that should be there -- the character -- becomes immediately obscured.
And even that's not the ugly twist.
The little extra marketing twist of the knife is in the choices.
In the Crisis set, some of the ads featured a gray-at-the-temples Superman, an Earth-2 version who was prominent in the original and one of the later Crisis tales. That ended up being one of the two chase pieces. The other chase was a Superman, too -- the Kingdom Come version.
In Secret Invasion, Spider-Woman (who's actually on one of the boosters) ends up being one of the two chase pieces.
In this set - Arkham Asylum, which is an immediate reference to the loonier elements of Batman's rogue's gallery - which features Batman as the prominent figure on half of their booster art (there are two booster designs) - is the subject of both chase pieces. The only other Batman in the set is a Batman Beyond version. (A cartoon set in a future where the legacy is being reluctantly handed over by an aging Bruce Wayne.)
I've grown weary of it. Even just revisiting all this is taking much of the wind from my sails.
Graaah.
Before getting into a light, irregular look at the set, I'll note that I did happen to pull one of the chase pieces, the #99 Batman on a lamppost. Whereas I held onto the Earth-2 Superman I pulled from Crisis (though I sometimes wonder why) I'm expecting to use this Batman chase as part of a block of clix auctions I'll set up this weekend/early next week. It looks very cool and brings some new things to the table for Batman, but I can't help but look at it in terms of what it can recoup for me in terms of outlays while also allowing me to buy a little later the couple additional pieces I'll still want from the set.
To the set...
As noted in an earlier post, the main set (Nos.1-60) breaks down this way (straight from boneyard's long-ago confirmed list. I've bolded all those I pulled; I have a complete set of Commons, Uncommons and Rares, and six (half) of the Super Rares.
Each piece may be followed by a bracketed clarification (to help pin down which version of the character it is) and the point cost of the piece.
If you're interested in a complete listing of the dials, the best I can do -- and it's fairly nice and complete -- is to link you to this thread.
I've yet to play any of them, and it's possible that won't change until a match on November 3
Commons
001 WHITE MARTIAN (generic) -90
002 MANHUNTER (Robot) - 64
003 MULTIPLEX -30
004 THE QUESTION (Renee Montoya) - 37
005 FLORONIC MAN - 47
006 GOTHAM CITY DETECTIVE (Crispus Allen) - 27
007 TWO-FACE - 75
008 STREET THUG - 19
009 KID DEVIL - 55
010 GORILLA GRODD - 157
011 THE RIDDLER - 90
012 AMANDA WALLER - 75
013 HUMAN BOMB - 45
014 SCANDAL SAVAGE - 60
015 PLASMUS - 80
016 BATMAN (Beyond) - 64
Uncommons
017 MAN-BAT ASSASSIN - 40
018 SOLOMON GRUNDY - 115
019 LASHINA - 72
020 ANARKY - 70
021 MISS MARTIAN - 76
022 HITMAN - 61
023 WONDER WOMAN (Diana Prince) - 248
024 COUNT VERTIGO - 74
025 JOHNNY SORROW - 55
026 NIGHTSHADE - 50
027 FIREFLY - 68
028 ARKILLO - 126
029 PER DEGATON - 90
030 AMON SUR - 70
031 CAPTAIN GORDON - 50
032 LIGHTNING LORD - 89
Rares
033 THINKER - 55
034 ROBIN (Tim Drake) - 66
035 GHOST FOX KILLER - 68
036 ZOOM - 130
037 ELEMENT LAD - 70
038 PENGUIN (classic) - 70
039 COSMIC KING - 85
040 DOCTOR DESTINY - 99
041 FRANKENSTEIN (from 7 Soldiers) - 98
042 VENTRILOQUIST (w/Scarface) - 70
043 CALCULATOR - 55
044 YELLOW LANTERN (Bizarro) - 65
045 CIRCE - 149
046 LYSSA DRAK - 72
047 ULTRA-HUMANITE - 177
048 BIZARRO #1 - 199
Super Rares
049 BLACK MANTA - 68
050 METRON - 195
051 MAD HATTER - 75
052 BATGIRL (Barbara Gordon) - 50
053 THE TOP - 80
054 DESPERO (original) - 88
055 SABBAC - 145
056 THE FLASH (Jay Garrick) - 120
057 SATURN QUEEN - 116
058 CHANG TZU (aka Egg Fu) - 107
059 THE JOKER (Straightjacket) - 97
060 SUPERMAN PRIME (Sinestro Corps) - 318
The generics having returned to sets in a significant way was the factor that helped tip me towards getting a case rather than retreating to a brick. They bring value to a potential booster buy, helping (however slightly) to bridge the span between boosters containing Super Rares. In this set the generics are:
001 WHITE MARTIAN (generic) -90
002 MANHUNTER (Robot) - 64
003 MULTIPLEX -30
006 GOTHAM CITY DETECTIVE (Crispus Allen) - 27
008 STREET THUG - 19
017 MAN-BAT ASSASSIN - 40
Six of them, with the first five being Commons and the sixth being an Uncommon. Granted, two of them are essentially cops and robbers - a level of generic I didn't expect to see - but they each have their uses.
The White Martians, while expensive for a generic piece, impressed me when I saw the sculpt. Sure, it's one of those pieces where one wouldn't have a clue it can fly without seeing the wing symbol on the base, but it's a super-powered shape-shifter and surprisingly nice visually despite the almost completely white paint job.
A fairly mobile, damage-dealing, damage-avoiding and resisting piece, I can see working these into an alien invasion force. Yeah, 90 points is a bit to pay, but a flying piece, seven clicks deep, three leading ones of Charge and three final ones of HSS, mostly AVs of 9 or 10, a 6 range, a late-dial return to 3 Damage along with several clicks of Exploit Weakness and Combat Reflexes and a final click of Regeneration that could conceivably restore it to its third click. They certainly look fun.
Manhunters, the robotic precursors to the Green Lantern Corps, who have most recently become allies of the Sinestro Corps, have also made it into the set.
At 64 points and only five clicks deep, it's packed in at least an interesting fashion. Three opening clicks of Toughness, starting at 17 and dropping for the the next two, he also has No Man Escapes the Manhunters!, a Special Power granting him Incapacitate and a modified form of Outwit which simply can't cancel Defense powers; not a bad combination. On clicks three through five he has a combination of Running Shot and Power Battery, a Special Power that not only grants Steal Energy but allows it to work with ranged attacks, too. Sure, his range is only 6 (with a single target), but the combination potentially allows him to be a mobile attacker who can simultaneously do a little damage and regain some health.
Keywords Robot and Sinestro Corps give him some themes to play with -- I'm inclined to go for Robot, but I haven't explored the synergy with Sinestro Corps pieces.
Multiplex - well, aside from cool-looking, if visually simple, sculpt - is a Suicide Squad member, including having that TA, so he could be healed - potentially substantially, if an ally is KOed adjacent to him.
At 30 points it's not an imposing piece. A single click of 9 Attack Value, two of 8 and then two of 7, combined with three clicks of 2 Damage and two of 1 make him more of a potential tie-up piece, but more of a clean-up piece. His Defensive Special Power grants him a form of Toughness so long as he's next to another of his duplicates, this on his first three clicks. After that it turns to Super Senses.
Two opening clicks of Leap/Climb, then two of Flurry give him initial mobility and then some small potential to be a close combat threat. In order to really have any thematic fun with a character whose power is to create duplicates of himself is to play with at least three of them, and 90 points would likely be way too much to spend at such a level in a 300 pt build, so I probably won't use him on a team lower than 400 points. Also keyworded as a Scientist there may be some possibilities there, too, but for now I've been waiting to run a Suicide Squad team and this is one of the new pieces to help that along.
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The latest Heroclix expansion - this one a DC one, the second for 2008 - hit the streets Wednesday. As noted in the previous few posts it was titled Arkham Asylum, even if done so largely for dramatic effect rather than as an accurate descriptor of the setlist... which doesn't bother me, but simply bears noting.
(As of this writing only Wizkids has finally updated their gallery with the set. So, here's the link to that gallery.)
For various reasons I cut my order in half this time. The reasons?
While there were many points of interest in the set (which I'll likely get to in a few moments), I simply didn't find myself frantic to collect all of the Super Rares, and collecting everything in the Common, Uncommon and Rare slots is fairly easy these days.
The rarity scheme for the sets is broken. The first 48 pieces are so easily come across that very light buying almost seems to be encouraged, while collecting a set of the 12 Super Rares has become more of a financial chore than is fun to pursue, and the now seemingly requisite 2 chase figures per set have the unpleasant effect of making much of the rest of the set appear valueless. Unfortunately, it has the effect because for the most part it's true. If one buys a booster of figures and doesn't pull a Super Rare, in terms of immediate market value one's largely been rooked; good luck being able to sell the components for half the retail cost of the booster.
Except for cheating trades with the unwary, for the most part anything from the Common, Uncommon or Rare level quickly becomes almost valueless (save for the generics, which, happily, they've begun to work back into sets) in terms of trading for the Super Rares. Meanwhile, the chase pieces tend to immediately command prices roughly three to six times what individual Super Rares do.
The chase pieces are a sort of "bonus" lottery with an ugly twist.
I could abide the Super Rares, but the chase pieces continue to cross the line. If one doesn't pull them (especially if one's bought a case or more) there's an almost inescapable sense of loss. Of waste.
If one does happen to pull a chase, it's an instant commodity. It's no longer simply a cool game piece offering a unique representation of a character, it's something that's worth over $100. Unless one's well-heeled it seems foolish to keep it, and if one does it's more likely to bring grief in play (between the resentment of some other players and having to be especially wary because it has that much cash value packed in a couple ounces of plastic), and the attraction that should be there -- the character -- becomes immediately obscured.
And even that's not the ugly twist.
The little extra marketing twist of the knife is in the choices.
In the Crisis set, some of the ads featured a gray-at-the-temples Superman, an Earth-2 version who was prominent in the original and one of the later Crisis tales. That ended up being one of the two chase pieces. The other chase was a Superman, too -- the Kingdom Come version.
In Secret Invasion, Spider-Woman (who's actually on one of the boosters) ends up being one of the two chase pieces.
In this set - Arkham Asylum, which is an immediate reference to the loonier elements of Batman's rogue's gallery - which features Batman as the prominent figure on half of their booster art (there are two booster designs) - is the subject of both chase pieces. The only other Batman in the set is a Batman Beyond version. (A cartoon set in a future where the legacy is being reluctantly handed over by an aging Bruce Wayne.)I've grown weary of it. Even just revisiting all this is taking much of the wind from my sails.
Graaah.
Before getting into a light, irregular look at the set, I'll note that I did happen to pull one of the chase pieces, the #99 Batman on a lamppost. Whereas I held onto the Earth-2 Superman I pulled from Crisis (though I sometimes wonder why) I'm expecting to use this Batman chase as part of a block of clix auctions I'll set up this weekend/early next week. It looks very cool and brings some new things to the table for Batman, but I can't help but look at it in terms of what it can recoup for me in terms of outlays while also allowing me to buy a little later the couple additional pieces I'll still want from the set.
To the set...
As noted in an earlier post, the main set (Nos.1-60) breaks down this way (straight from boneyard's long-ago confirmed list. I've bolded all those I pulled; I have a complete set of Commons, Uncommons and Rares, and six (half) of the Super Rares.
Each piece may be followed by a bracketed clarification (to help pin down which version of the character it is) and the point cost of the piece.
If you're interested in a complete listing of the dials, the best I can do -- and it's fairly nice and complete -- is to link you to this thread.
I've yet to play any of them, and it's possible that won't change until a match on November 3
Commons
001 WHITE MARTIAN (generic) -90
002 MANHUNTER (Robot) - 64
003 MULTIPLEX -30
004 THE QUESTION (Renee Montoya) - 37
005 FLORONIC MAN - 47
006 GOTHAM CITY DETECTIVE (Crispus Allen) - 27
007 TWO-FACE - 75
008 STREET THUG - 19
009 KID DEVIL - 55
010 GORILLA GRODD - 157
011 THE RIDDLER - 90
012 AMANDA WALLER - 75
013 HUMAN BOMB - 45
014 SCANDAL SAVAGE - 60
015 PLASMUS - 80
016 BATMAN (Beyond) - 64
Uncommons
017 MAN-BAT ASSASSIN - 40
018 SOLOMON GRUNDY - 115
019 LASHINA - 72
020 ANARKY - 70
021 MISS MARTIAN - 76
022 HITMAN - 61
023 WONDER WOMAN (Diana Prince) - 248
024 COUNT VERTIGO - 74
025 JOHNNY SORROW - 55
026 NIGHTSHADE - 50
027 FIREFLY - 68
028 ARKILLO - 126
029 PER DEGATON - 90
030 AMON SUR - 70
031 CAPTAIN GORDON - 50
032 LIGHTNING LORD - 89
Rares
033 THINKER - 55
034 ROBIN (Tim Drake) - 66
035 GHOST FOX KILLER - 68
036 ZOOM - 130
037 ELEMENT LAD - 70
038 PENGUIN (classic) - 70
039 COSMIC KING - 85
040 DOCTOR DESTINY - 99
041 FRANKENSTEIN (from 7 Soldiers) - 98
042 VENTRILOQUIST (w/Scarface) - 70
043 CALCULATOR - 55
044 YELLOW LANTERN (Bizarro) - 65
045 CIRCE - 149
046 LYSSA DRAK - 72
047 ULTRA-HUMANITE - 177
048 BIZARRO #1 - 199
Super Rares
049 BLACK MANTA - 68
050 METRON - 195
051 MAD HATTER - 75
052 BATGIRL (Barbara Gordon) - 50
053 THE TOP - 80
054 DESPERO (original) - 88
055 SABBAC - 145
056 THE FLASH (Jay Garrick) - 120
057 SATURN QUEEN - 116
058 CHANG TZU (aka Egg Fu) - 107
059 THE JOKER (Straightjacket) - 97
060 SUPERMAN PRIME (Sinestro Corps) - 318
The generics having returned to sets in a significant way was the factor that helped tip me towards getting a case rather than retreating to a brick. They bring value to a potential booster buy, helping (however slightly) to bridge the span between boosters containing Super Rares. In this set the generics are:
001 WHITE MARTIAN (generic) -90
002 MANHUNTER (Robot) - 64
003 MULTIPLEX -30
006 GOTHAM CITY DETECTIVE (Crispus Allen) - 27
008 STREET THUG - 19
017 MAN-BAT ASSASSIN - 40
Six of them, with the first five being Commons and the sixth being an Uncommon. Granted, two of them are essentially cops and robbers - a level of generic I didn't expect to see - but they each have their uses.
The White Martians, while expensive for a generic piece, impressed me when I saw the sculpt. Sure, it's one of those pieces where one wouldn't have a clue it can fly without seeing the wing symbol on the base, but it's a super-powered shape-shifter and surprisingly nice visually despite the almost completely white paint job.A fairly mobile, damage-dealing, damage-avoiding and resisting piece, I can see working these into an alien invasion force. Yeah, 90 points is a bit to pay, but a flying piece, seven clicks deep, three leading ones of Charge and three final ones of HSS, mostly AVs of 9 or 10, a 6 range, a late-dial return to 3 Damage along with several clicks of Exploit Weakness and Combat Reflexes and a final click of Regeneration that could conceivably restore it to its third click. They certainly look fun.
Manhunters, the robotic precursors to the Green Lantern Corps, who have most recently become allies of the Sinestro Corps, have also made it into the set.At 64 points and only five clicks deep, it's packed in at least an interesting fashion. Three opening clicks of Toughness, starting at 17 and dropping for the the next two, he also has No Man Escapes the Manhunters!, a Special Power granting him Incapacitate and a modified form of Outwit which simply can't cancel Defense powers; not a bad combination. On clicks three through five he has a combination of Running Shot and Power Battery, a Special Power that not only grants Steal Energy but allows it to work with ranged attacks, too. Sure, his range is only 6 (with a single target), but the combination potentially allows him to be a mobile attacker who can simultaneously do a little damage and regain some health.
Keywords Robot and Sinestro Corps give him some themes to play with -- I'm inclined to go for Robot, but I haven't explored the synergy with Sinestro Corps pieces.
Multiplex - well, aside from cool-looking, if visually simple, sculpt - is a Suicide Squad member, including having that TA, so he could be healed - potentially substantially, if an ally is KOed adjacent to him.At 30 points it's not an imposing piece. A single click of 9 Attack Value, two of 8 and then two of 7, combined with three clicks of 2 Damage and two of 1 make him more of a potential tie-up piece, but more of a clean-up piece. His Defensive Special Power grants him a form of Toughness so long as he's next to another of his duplicates, this on his first three clicks. After that it turns to Super Senses.
Two opening clicks of Leap/Climb, then two of Flurry give him initial mobility and then some small potential to be a close combat threat. In order to really have any thematic fun with a character whose power is to create duplicates of himself is to play with at least three of them, and 90 points would likely be way too much to spend at such a level in a 300 pt build, so I probably won't use him on a team lower than 400 points. Also keyworded as a Scientist there may be some possibilities there, too, but for now I've been waiting to run a Suicide Squad team and this is one of the new pieces to help that along.
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