Monday, August 17, 2009
Hammer of Thor
Back to the set list
Back to the set list
No new info here. This is just my looking over the set list we're expecting so as to get myself back up to speed after this long, long dry spell of new sets.
With the set likely due out around Thanksgiving (that's the U.S. one, in late November, not the October celebration our neighbors to the North have) I wanted to drag out and dust off the set list as we understood it to be for this set months and months ago.
So far all confirmed info's backed it up, and indications are that since this set was all but produced at the time Wizkids was shut down by Topps the new owners are starting things off by essentially flipping the switch on the process. That they're apparently also aiming to produce Brave and the Bold (roughly next February) - the set originally planned to follow HoT, this line of thought has so far stood up.
We don't know how the new owners will be dealing with many things, including whether they'll continue the Buy It By the Brick mail-away piece promotions. If they are going to do it, it seems unlikely they're planning on using the Thor's Mighty Chariot for that as they've sold them directly at Comic-Con International and GenCon so far, and people can buy them from Amazon.com. If you don't go via that link, be careful not to just casually search for "Chariot of Thor" or somesuch, because another store is one of those selling items through Amazon and the wrong search could bring their ad up instead (my frist stab did), which would be the same piece for $34.99 instead of $19.99. I ordered mine last month, but the order's bundled with a book that' isn't due out until next month, so I'll see mine in late September, which is fine with me.
Anyway, the Hammer of Thor list as best we know it, with some parenthetical notes where I thought they might be helpful) is seen below.
I've done some color-coding.
In green are those directly to do with the set's titular character, Thor.
In red are Runaways -- a series of characters I know virtually nothing about.
In blue are Agents of Atlas.
In orange are the Guardians of the Galaxy/Infinity Watch "cosmic" heroes and villains.
In purple are Thunderbolts-related characters.
Common
#001 Bug (The Micronauts/Guardians of the Galaxy)
#002 Kingpin
#003 Asgardian Warrior
#004 Valkyrie (AFAIK this will be a generic)
#005 Hand Ninja
#006 Rock Troll
#007 Jimmy Woo
#008 Fire Demon
#009 Pip the Troll
#010 Malekith
#011 Marvel Boy
#012 Enchantress
#013 Thor
#014 Bi-Beast
#015 Phalanx Soldier
#016 M-11
Uncommon
#017 Balder
#018 Fandral
#019 Chase Stein
#020 Karnilla
#021 Ulik
#022 Moonstone
#023 Beta Ray Bill
#024 Namora
#025 Starlord
#026 Pluto (Okay, I know he's from the Greek pantheon, but he first came into Marvel comics via a Thor tale.)
#027 Moondragon
#028 Rocket Raccoon
#029 Gorilla Man
#030 Owl
#031 Ronan the Accuser
#032 Daredevil
Rare
#033 Sif
#034 Hogun
#035 Loki (This is the newer, female form.)
#036 Heimdall
#037 Songbird
#038 Venom
#039 Surtur
#040 Captain America
#041 Molly Hayes
#042 Phyla-Vell
#043 Penance
#044 Airwalker
#045 Karolina Dean
#046 Fenris (This is the Asgardian creature, not the offspring of Baron Strucker)
#047 Nico Minoru
#048 Spider-Man
Super Rare
#049 Ultron
#050 Hela
#051 Odin
#052 Venus
#053 Seth (a character based on an Egyptian death god)
#054 Loki (classic look.)
#055 Valkyrie (This is the Defenders character, who - nonetheless - draws on Asgardian magic and certainly theme. I'm expecting her to be on flying horseback.)
#056 Destroyer
#057 Thor and Loki
#058 Gertrude Yorkes and Old Lace
#059 Volstagg
#060 Kurse
If they stuck to what had seemed to be the most recent standard operating procedure then we'd expect two of the conceptually wretched chase pieces, neither of which I have any idea about.
Looking at all the green this set's striking me as perhaps the most focused one yet, which may work against it for many.
Looking at where the red shows up, it appears that part of the plan was to pull Runaways fans deeper into the set as they chase the team. The first doesn't show up until the Uncommons -- still fairly easy to pull - three more among the Rares and one among the Super Rares. Hey, maybe one o both of the chase pieces will turn out to be a missing team member from that group? As best I can tell their line-up also includes Victor Mancha and Klara Prast. Well, that's one of many "we'll see" elements...
I generally like the list, especially including the generics. The Runaways characters aren't any I have a personal interest in, so maybe that'll work to my advantage if it comes down to trades, since one of them is a Super Rare. Among the Asgardians I can't say I'm especially excited about the Warriors Three (Fandral, Hogun and Volstagg) nor Heimdall -- seeing them generally just as supporting players, though I know I'm doing them some disservice in that.
Back before the summer a list of playtest dials emerged. With the caveat that many of them were very obviously still in need of changes and so shouldn't be what we'll expect, here's a link to those dials.
As a promotional item, Neca/Wizkids produced some "Mystery" cards that they began putting inside the Chariot Thor boxes, each one a mostly blank character card with s Special Power described on it, leaving it to the holder to gues which character it will be associated with in a Clix set. The ones that have been reported match up (albeit in one case the text was altered to improve the version we'd seen leaked earlier) further confirm much of what we know about the set list.
That's enough for now.
Labels: Hammer of Thor, Heroclix, Wizkids
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Saturday, November 15, 2008
Should I Care?
Or, more accurately, should I be bothered?
In the wake of Monday's announcement by Topps (see previous entry) we've seen a great deal of activity from a fairly new front and backed by the fans. I remain too much in the dark, lacking information we're simply not going to have access to out here, but I'm trying to make sense of it and get some thoughts out.
The short form: Heroclix's final Brand Manager, Jake Theis, took up the banner of a Save Heroclix front. The thrust of the action is to form a company and make a bid to take over the property from Topps. He quickly set up a blog and began accepting donations (clearly solicited as such, not intended to be actual investments and completely, clearly un-refundable) to get the ball rolling. By the end of the work week the foundation of a new company, Pinata Games (apparently sans tilda over the "n") was laid. By Thursday the 13th they apparently bought the pinatagames.com domain, though so far they haven't done anything with it. At the pace they've been going, though, I wouldn't be surprised to see that change radically within the next few days.
The more detailed story as told by the insiders via blog posts can be found at their current website: Save Heroclix. Go there, go to the bottom and click on the last page to start reading from the beginning.
Anyway, my thoughts are as follows, and as I'd essentially posted on one of the fan sites early this morning:
It does seem contrary to reason that - if the product's been truly financially successful - Topps would pull the plug on the line if all of the sculpts, dials, etc. have long since been completed for a new set. Granted, it isn't as if poor or short-sighted decisions are unfamiliar territory in the world of business, and Topps may have simply decided that in the short term this would make an excellent fourth quarter tax write-off, though letting the brand/product line simply die would seriously erode the market value of what they bought.
It may be simple paranoia, a result of having felt "taken" too many times over the years, or the natural emotional reflexes born of just coming out of a roughly 24-month round of political campaigning, but there's a nagging sense of being played, possibly by more than one party.
If Topps does plan to jump back in, release Hammer of Thor within the first quarter of 2009 as originally planned, and continue Heroclix letting this fan tumult garner some extra attention for the line could work for them - though I wouldn't suggest letting it go too long.
I'm also concerned that Pinata Games could turn out to be more of a bit of opportunism than anything else. Indications are, based largely only on the speed of activity we've seen this week, that the new gaming company being formed on the focused good will of fans of a particular game wasn't a plan that just appeared from nowhere as the week progressed. There's an expectation that some other game or games is waiting to be pulled out of hiding as the "alternate" product for Pinata if no deal is forthcoming from Topps/Topps decides to move ahead with Heroclix on their own, sans the Wizkids brand. There's nothing wrong with that, but if things roll that way I'll likely always believe that that was the true, root intent behind this -- to start a gaming company -- and that the Heroclix situation simply provided an avenue to accomplish it more smoothly and quickly than would have been possible had he just decided to try to launch a company from a cold start. Especially in this economic climate, imagine how difficult it would be to pull cash and goodwill together - nevermind at this breakneck pace - if it was being done as just another business start-up.
I could see a scenario where it's to both Pinata and Topps' benefit for things to play out this way.
Jake gets a lot of good will, a marketing splash and start-up capital for a new company while simultaneously re-focusing fan interest in Heroclix - which will help draw more attention to the game, Meanwhile, Topps gets the opportunity to dissolve Wizkids if they found the last encumbrances of that company and its contracts to be a problem/burden, then either have a re-sweetened product line if they decide to come back in in "response" to the outcry of the fans/market to carry the game forward, potentially with (at least in the short term) less of a tendency for the fans to complain if there are further changes, say, to how Approved Play (or whatever Topps chooses to call it, if anything) is run. Oh, sure, some will hardly pause to draw a breath before complaining -- we're the Internet age, after all -- but I expect enough will jump on the complainers with "Dude, shut up. We almost lost the game completely. Enjoy the new sets or leave." We've already seen a great deal that over the history of the game even in the absence of the scare of a shut-down.
I suppose the end result is all that really matters - the fans are responding because they want Heroclix to continue, and if it does then to some degree it's ::ahem:: Mission Accomplished (will we ever be able to use that phrase again un-ironically?) - but I at least wanted to get some of these thoughts out as they've been persistent. I also wanted to get all of it down for my personal record.
While it'll likely only provide Pinata a better launch platform (and, hey, good for them) since they'll run straight press releases as articles, in hopes of shaking more details out and possibly forcing more hands I contacted Milton Griepp of icv2 (where I'd first seen the Topps announcement as an early afternoon newsflash on Monday) the other day to make sure he had all the particulars on Pinata's start-up, the Save Heroclix effort, etc. Milton got back to me early Friday afternoon to thank me for the heads-up and let me know he'd reached out to Jake and will be doing a story on his efforts and, presumably, the situation in general. Confirmations today let me know this will definitely be part of Monday's industry news.
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Or, more accurately, should I be bothered?
In the wake of Monday's announcement by Topps (see previous entry) we've seen a great deal of activity from a fairly new front and backed by the fans. I remain too much in the dark, lacking information we're simply not going to have access to out here, but I'm trying to make sense of it and get some thoughts out.
The short form: Heroclix's final Brand Manager, Jake Theis, took up the banner of a Save Heroclix front. The thrust of the action is to form a company and make a bid to take over the property from Topps. He quickly set up a blog and began accepting donations (clearly solicited as such, not intended to be actual investments and completely, clearly un-refundable) to get the ball rolling. By the end of the work week the foundation of a new company, Pinata Games (apparently sans tilda over the "n") was laid. By Thursday the 13th they apparently bought the pinatagames.com domain, though so far they haven't done anything with it. At the pace they've been going, though, I wouldn't be surprised to see that change radically within the next few days.
The more detailed story as told by the insiders via blog posts can be found at their current website: Save Heroclix. Go there, go to the bottom and click on the last page to start reading from the beginning.
Anyway, my thoughts are as follows, and as I'd essentially posted on one of the fan sites early this morning:
It does seem contrary to reason that - if the product's been truly financially successful - Topps would pull the plug on the line if all of the sculpts, dials, etc. have long since been completed for a new set. Granted, it isn't as if poor or short-sighted decisions are unfamiliar territory in the world of business, and Topps may have simply decided that in the short term this would make an excellent fourth quarter tax write-off, though letting the brand/product line simply die would seriously erode the market value of what they bought.
It may be simple paranoia, a result of having felt "taken" too many times over the years, or the natural emotional reflexes born of just coming out of a roughly 24-month round of political campaigning, but there's a nagging sense of being played, possibly by more than one party.
If Topps does plan to jump back in, release Hammer of Thor within the first quarter of 2009 as originally planned, and continue Heroclix letting this fan tumult garner some extra attention for the line could work for them - though I wouldn't suggest letting it go too long.
I'm also concerned that Pinata Games could turn out to be more of a bit of opportunism than anything else. Indications are, based largely only on the speed of activity we've seen this week, that the new gaming company being formed on the focused good will of fans of a particular game wasn't a plan that just appeared from nowhere as the week progressed. There's an expectation that some other game or games is waiting to be pulled out of hiding as the "alternate" product for Pinata if no deal is forthcoming from Topps/Topps decides to move ahead with Heroclix on their own, sans the Wizkids brand. There's nothing wrong with that, but if things roll that way I'll likely always believe that that was the true, root intent behind this -- to start a gaming company -- and that the Heroclix situation simply provided an avenue to accomplish it more smoothly and quickly than would have been possible had he just decided to try to launch a company from a cold start. Especially in this economic climate, imagine how difficult it would be to pull cash and goodwill together - nevermind at this breakneck pace - if it was being done as just another business start-up.
I could see a scenario where it's to both Pinata and Topps' benefit for things to play out this way.
Jake gets a lot of good will, a marketing splash and start-up capital for a new company while simultaneously re-focusing fan interest in Heroclix - which will help draw more attention to the game, Meanwhile, Topps gets the opportunity to dissolve Wizkids if they found the last encumbrances of that company and its contracts to be a problem/burden, then either have a re-sweetened product line if they decide to come back in in "response" to the outcry of the fans/market to carry the game forward, potentially with (at least in the short term) less of a tendency for the fans to complain if there are further changes, say, to how Approved Play (or whatever Topps chooses to call it, if anything) is run. Oh, sure, some will hardly pause to draw a breath before complaining -- we're the Internet age, after all -- but I expect enough will jump on the complainers with "Dude, shut up. We almost lost the game completely. Enjoy the new sets or leave." We've already seen a great deal that over the history of the game even in the absence of the scare of a shut-down.
I suppose the end result is all that really matters - the fans are responding because they want Heroclix to continue, and if it does then to some degree it's ::ahem:: Mission Accomplished (will we ever be able to use that phrase again un-ironically?) - but I at least wanted to get some of these thoughts out as they've been persistent. I also wanted to get all of it down for my personal record.
While it'll likely only provide Pinata a better launch platform (and, hey, good for them) since they'll run straight press releases as articles, in hopes of shaking more details out and possibly forcing more hands I contacted Milton Griepp of icv2 (where I'd first seen the Topps announcement as an early afternoon newsflash on Monday) the other day to make sure he had all the particulars on Pinata's start-up, the Save Heroclix effort, etc. Milton got back to me early Friday afternoon to thank me for the heads-up and let me know he'd reached out to Jake and will be doing a story on his efforts and, presumably, the situation in general. Confirmations today let me know this will definitely be part of Monday's industry news.
Labels: Heroclix, icv2, Jake Theis, Save Heroclix, Topps, Wizkids
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Monday, November 10, 2008
Wizkids -- No More!
Here's the press release today, in this case taken from their Blog site, though it initially came to me via icv2:
Over at HCRealms they're obviously going apeshit, as their server's being bombarded - periodically, beyond its capacity. Attempts to go launch Wizkids' own forum platform results in a "No web site is configured at this address." error.
Heroclix reportedly remains a profitable product line, but apparently Topps wasn't willing to continue supporting it. Why the rat bastards bought it in the first place eludes me, but who knows? The people who made that decision may be long gone by now.
Speculation's running rampant. Some have posited that this is a move by Topps to nullify the exclusivity deal with Diamond so that they'd then be free to either sell the other contracts and business. Whether or not Wizards of the Coast, Privateer Press or one of the other gaming operations would be interested in buying it remains up in the air. Whether or not anything for the Hammer of Thor expansion has actually been made beyond the prototype stage is also unclear.
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Here's the press release today, in this case taken from their Blog site, though it initially came to me via icv2:
News from Topps…..
November 10th, 2008 by wkadmin
The following announcement is being released from Topps today. We’re all in a bit of shock and at a loss for words right now.
——–
The Topps Company announced today that WizKids will immediately cease operations and discontinue its product lines. Scott Silverstein, CEO of Topps, said “This was an extremely difficult decision. While the company will still actively pursue gaming initiatives, we feel it is necessary to align our efforts more closely with Topps current sports and entertainment offerings which are being developed within our New York office.”
Upon notifying our partners, Topps will immediately pursue strategic alternatives so that viable brands and properties, including HeroClix, can continue without noticeable disruption. To that end, WizKids will continue supporting Buy it By the Brick redemptions for Arkham Asylum, and the December Organized Play events for HeroClix.
For consumer announcements, please refer to www.wizkidsgames.com over the coming days for further information.
Over at HCRealms they're obviously going apeshit, as their server's being bombarded - periodically, beyond its capacity. Attempts to go launch Wizkids' own forum platform results in a "No web site is configured at this address." error.
Heroclix reportedly remains a profitable product line, but apparently Topps wasn't willing to continue supporting it. Why the rat bastards bought it in the first place eludes me, but who knows? The people who made that decision may be long gone by now.
Speculation's running rampant. Some have posited that this is a move by Topps to nullify the exclusivity deal with Diamond so that they'd then be free to either sell the other contracts and business. Whether or not Wizards of the Coast, Privateer Press or one of the other gaming operations would be interested in buying it remains up in the air. Whether or not anything for the Hammer of Thor expansion has actually been made beyond the prototype stage is also unclear.
Labels: Heroclix, shutting down, Topps, Wizkids
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Friday, September 5, 2008
Arkham Asylum: First LooksLater today we're supposed to have the first of the official previews, but a bit past 4 this morning the latest icv2 email brought me pics of the sculpts and cards for three of this set's rogues: Riddler, Mad Hatter and Gorilla Grodd. (Yeah, I was too lazy to keep them proportional in the graphic, but you're smart folks and know to look to the size of the bases to get a better sense of relative scale.)
No dial info, but here are the three (click on each for a larger view) alongside their cards. They didn't show us the back of the Mad Hatter's card presumably because his powers all fit on the first side.
First: Riddler
An interesting package, especially at 90 points.Stealth, then Leap/Climb, with Mastermind for Defense, he also has a couple of Special Powers:
Riddle Me This grants him the use of Incapacitate. If he chooses to gamble a little, it lets him do so as a Free Action against a single target providing he doesn't use another Free Action that turn (so, no Perplex or Outwit), and if he successfully hits the target he chooses a number between 1 and 6, then rolls two D6 dice. If the number he chose comes up once he can place one Incap token. If it comes up on both dice he can place two if the target doesn't have any. Considering that he could just use the first half of this SP to allow him to Incapacitate two targets (he has two lightning bolts on his base) and still be able to use Perplex and Outwit, I'm thinking the latter options aren't likely to be seen often.
His second Special Power is They'll Never Get This One, which allows him to use Outwit and Perplex. When he uses Perplex he can only use it to modify an opposing character's stat (other than Damage) by -2.
Will he be worth the 90 points? Show me the dial!
Next: Mad Hatter
Mastermind for defensive purposes is definitely thematic. A 6 range for Mind Control works well enough for him, as do two targets. Perplex is handier than ever these days.His Special Power is Hypnotic Hats, allowing him to take no feedback damage if he decides to Mind Control a single target, but it also has a fun extra element for his fellow Batman Enemies. Anyone he's Mind Controlled remains for the rest of that turn a Batman Enemy, which means that if the target is next to a Batman Enemy (or someone copying that TA) they can borrow his Attack Value and use it against him. This could be fun.
...and then there's Gorilla Grodd
At 157 points it's hoped he has killer stats to back him up. He's something of a swiss army knife with Mind Control, Telekinesis and Outwit among his bag of tricks, and with Indomitable (the special symbol next to his Defense) he has the built-in Willpower to act two turns in a row without pushing. Some are concerned, though, when they see his point value and his having no damage-reducer better than Toughness.
His Special Power is Your Will Is Mine, granting him Leap/Climb and Mind Control with a range of 8, which strikes me as very character accurate. Hopefully while I expect him to start with this it won't be entirely front-loaded. I'd like to see Charge come in fairly soon, then fall back to this power again -- perhaps even more than once as Grodd shifts tactics between mind games and raw, physical attacks.
Eat the Hostages! (Steal Energy) is a tad gruesome, but fun -- hopefully it'll work well. We'll need to see what sort of Damage he's capable of on those clicks.
The Mastermind on Riddler and Mad Hatter is likely part of a trend for the core Batman enemies, and will underscore the utility of those 19-point Street Thugs we'll be seeing in this set.
Labels: Arkham Asylum, first previews, Heroclix
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Friday, August 15, 2008
Footsteps In the Hall
A day for potentially dire information leaking from WizKids. Several elements remain speculative, but it's difficult to put a positive spin on this.
We recently (July 23rd) had the release of Secret Invasion, which was still a nicely-designed set (both in terms of character selection and dials) but had some rough elements in the area of production -- some issues with sculpts but mostly with paint. Some odd and even unfortunate choices made, too, but I've already talked about the set in a previous post.
We'd already known that Seth Johnson, the designer for the past several years, left a little while back, but that he designed everything through this fall's Arkham Asylum set, and had a shepherding hand on Hammer of Thor, which will be the next Marvel set (February '09), though Kelly Bonilla was actually the one to do the designs (stats, keywords, etc.) for that set. Kelly seemed to have Seth's full confidence, and I expect that in those respects at least the set will be solid.
Today, however, was the next big layoff date for WizKids staff. A fairly reliable, if admittedly biased, source ran a post this afternoon, which I'll reprint below.
Just to be sure everyone is on the same page, remember that Topps currently owns WizKids. Okay, here's Hair10's post. (Link is to the HCRealms thread.) I'll resume on the far side of it.
My initial reactions weren't positive.
It seems amazing that they could so misjudge things. Am I the only one who is getting weird echoes of some bad decisions made in the history of the comics industry, as when some people decided that storytelling was relatively unimportant?
A completely inexperienced designer with little comics knowledge in charge of a game based on comics characters, and their sculptors let go..? Someone, somewhere up the chain apparently made the decision that these sets will sell on their own - just print anything with the comics connection and emphasize that it's going to be produced in limited numbers, and people will buy it. Yeah, it at least seems that whatever wasn't crushed under the boot of "Industry Standard" WotC approaches will be wiped out by the Topps "collectible" steamroller.
Some of the immediate speculation is that Topps may be making all of these immense trims so that the next two quarters come out as staggeringly profitable, and are intending to shop Wizkids to a new buyer. (Wizards of the Coast is the top postential buyer most are rushing towards.) All of that is strongly in the Speculation column.
I know I'm not about to just jump ship this early -- it at least appears we'll have some good things coming in Arkham Asylum and Hammer of Thor, so I'll deal with each as it comes and chart the course for the rest of '09 as information dictates. Worst case? This time next year I won't be spending any more money on clix, but I'll still have a huge collection covering the vast majority of the characters and plenty of extras to modify into characters that remained unmade.
Heroclix appears to continue to be a money-maker for the company, though, so I'm not expecting them to simply shut it down. What's more likely is that they'll push through what will essentially be more quality drops and increase the aggravation factor as concerns the true collectibility of the game.
As stated earlier, much of the info isn't heartening, but not all of it is immediately damning. None of it is immediately encouraging either, but I'm trying to step back from it and take a second look. It isn't as if we don't have time.
I'll be curious to see if any of the creative staff being let go will still be offered contract work. This wouldn't be the first operation that decided to cut its immediate overhead to the bone and then outsource most of it to people they have no long-term obligations to, including any benefits. However, if much of this is to be done post-HoT, they'll have to start dishing that work out soon. Hopefully WizKids' NDAs won't prevent the sculptors from saying something about it in advance -- even if it's just to say how many characters they have them working on -- and WizKids itself will start giving out heartening information about such things... though I guess they won't be likely to do that for at least a while, with two sets in the pipeline ahead of any such sets, which we've been given little to no info on.
Irking me a little is knowing that on some level the success of the next two sets will (likely) reflect positively back on those who remain, despite their having little to nothing to do with any of the aspects that matter. I shudder to think what little marketing tweaks might be coming from these muddled middle management types, especially if they're kowtowing to Topps' execs with their harder to get = more "exciting"/more collectible" mentality.
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A day for potentially dire information leaking from WizKids. Several elements remain speculative, but it's difficult to put a positive spin on this.
We recently (July 23rd) had the release of Secret Invasion, which was still a nicely-designed set (both in terms of character selection and dials) but had some rough elements in the area of production -- some issues with sculpts but mostly with paint. Some odd and even unfortunate choices made, too, but I've already talked about the set in a previous post.
We'd already known that Seth Johnson, the designer for the past several years, left a little while back, but that he designed everything through this fall's Arkham Asylum set, and had a shepherding hand on Hammer of Thor, which will be the next Marvel set (February '09), though Kelly Bonilla was actually the one to do the designs (stats, keywords, etc.) for that set. Kelly seemed to have Seth's full confidence, and I expect that in those respects at least the set will be solid.
Today, however, was the next big layoff date for WizKids staff. A fairly reliable, if admittedly biased, source ran a post this afternoon, which I'll reprint below.
Just to be sure everyone is on the same page, remember that Topps currently owns WizKids. Okay, here's Hair10's post. (Link is to the HCRealms thread.) I'll resume on the far side of it.
Here’s some more info from the inner workings of WK. I’ve known this for a bit but I promised the person who told me that I would hold on to it until at least the 15th. Why the 15th? As some of you may remember, it’s layoff day at WK.Whew.
As far as I know this information is accurate. I was told the below by a (now?) former WK employee and parts have been confirmed by other sources. But since it isn’t first-hand knowledge on my part I figured it was best placed in the “Rumor Mill” forum. It may be the last look at what goes on inside of WK as any contacts I might have had are now gone.
First, some old news but with some confirmation…
* Seth was let go, he didn’t leave of his own accord. When he was told he was going to be let go he chose his date rather than wait around until Aug. 15.
* Kelly Bonilla was given the helm of HC design. She’s a former MW lead designer and she did some Pirates too.
* Kelly has worked extensively on Hammer of Thor. In fact, the entire set was/is pretty much done by her.
* Kelly’s last day is today (August 15th) as she was also let go.
* There are two rounds of layoffs… August 15th and October 15th.
Now some new info…
* Anyone who may be left over now (after the Aug 15 date) is pretty much out the door on Oct 15. WK has cut something like 95% (guesstimate) of the staff.
* Pretty much the only people left are Jake Theis (HC Brand Manager), Wade and Rollie (Assistant Brand Managers), Justin Ziran (director of brand management), a few admin (such as financial and HR) people, and one other (who I’ll get to in a moment). Pretty much everyone else is gone. [Speculation – based on the Joe Huack article I saw early this month, I would expect the admin functions to be moved to Topps HQ in NY]
* Tiffany O’Brian was let go as well. As some of you know, she’s the Brand Manager for Pirates and Star Wars. [Speculation – both myself and the person I was talking to think that Pirates and Star Wars will be discontinued after whatever releases they have currently in the pipe.]
* All of the Consumer Experience Department is gone.
* All of the Editors are gone.
* All of the Marketing Department is gone.
* Some of those functions may go back to Topps corporate but there are no longer jobs in WK for them.
* Pretty much all of the Art Department is gone. Sculpting is being outsourced to China (we’re already seeing the effects in the SI set of that). Ben Misenar and Brian Dugas work will show up in Arkham and Hammer, but after that it’ll be Chinese sculpting shops. Ben and Brian will do some contract work only, but they are no longer on the WK payroll.
* The lease for the WK office is up in October (it’ll be interesting to see what happens there).
And now the 64 thousand dollar question… with Seth (and then Kelly) gone everyone wants to know who the new HC game designer will be? Well, it’s none other than Eric Engelhard (Caliban17), the current Consumer Experience Rep.
Before I say anything more, a bit of full disclosure… Engelhard is the guy that perma-banned me from the WK forums for “attempting to start an illegal mail campaign” when I posted that people should take their WF brick coupons that were getting returned and send them back to the WK offices to show that we were unhappy with the way it was handled.
I don’t really care about the banning (the WK forum is a joke anyway), but IMO the reasoning itself speaks volumes about the man. He was the person responsible for the CoG and Crisis events and all the screw-ups that went along with them (scheduling, mis-shipped prize support, lack of info, etc). The persons that I got this information from did not have kind things to say about him either (moron and brown-noser were the kinder terms used). A good many of the ex and current (at least until the 15th) employees were “horrified” to hear the news that he was taking over HC design (“horrified” was the exact word used). The kicker is that while he evidently reads a few comics, he barely knows HeroClix and he has no game design experience coming into this
The more I think about it, the more I realize that WK is an odd company. When faced with financial pressures, most companies refocus on their core products in an effort not to lose customers at the very least. If cuts are necessary, it’s middle management that usually takes the hit and not the guys in the trenches who are turning out product for you. But WK works in completely the opposite fashion. They farm out sculpting so the visual quality suffers. They sack the guys doing the work and turn it over to unqualified individuals to pick up the pieces and carry the future of your money makers. And somehow, through all of this, middle management remains.
Now, I realize I come off as a complainer here on these forums but I’ve never been a “THE END IS NEAR!” kind of guy. But I gotta say that it sure seems like Hammer of Thor might be the start of WizKids’ Ragnarok. We get one set designed by Kelly only to have the game handed over to a n00b after that. And IF Pirates and Star Wars are truly zombie game lines then that makes WK a one trick pony. WK appears to be in some pretty dire straights right now. Guess we wait and see what happens, but…
My initial reactions weren't positive.
It seems amazing that they could so misjudge things. Am I the only one who is getting weird echoes of some bad decisions made in the history of the comics industry, as when some people decided that storytelling was relatively unimportant?
A completely inexperienced designer with little comics knowledge in charge of a game based on comics characters, and their sculptors let go..? Someone, somewhere up the chain apparently made the decision that these sets will sell on their own - just print anything with the comics connection and emphasize that it's going to be produced in limited numbers, and people will buy it. Yeah, it at least seems that whatever wasn't crushed under the boot of "Industry Standard" WotC approaches will be wiped out by the Topps "collectible" steamroller.
Some of the immediate speculation is that Topps may be making all of these immense trims so that the next two quarters come out as staggeringly profitable, and are intending to shop Wizkids to a new buyer. (Wizards of the Coast is the top postential buyer most are rushing towards.) All of that is strongly in the Speculation column.
I know I'm not about to just jump ship this early -- it at least appears we'll have some good things coming in Arkham Asylum and Hammer of Thor, so I'll deal with each as it comes and chart the course for the rest of '09 as information dictates. Worst case? This time next year I won't be spending any more money on clix, but I'll still have a huge collection covering the vast majority of the characters and plenty of extras to modify into characters that remained unmade.
Heroclix appears to continue to be a money-maker for the company, though, so I'm not expecting them to simply shut it down. What's more likely is that they'll push through what will essentially be more quality drops and increase the aggravation factor as concerns the true collectibility of the game.
As stated earlier, much of the info isn't heartening, but not all of it is immediately damning. None of it is immediately encouraging either, but I'm trying to step back from it and take a second look. It isn't as if we don't have time.
I'll be curious to see if any of the creative staff being let go will still be offered contract work. This wouldn't be the first operation that decided to cut its immediate overhead to the bone and then outsource most of it to people they have no long-term obligations to, including any benefits. However, if much of this is to be done post-HoT, they'll have to start dishing that work out soon. Hopefully WizKids' NDAs won't prevent the sculptors from saying something about it in advance -- even if it's just to say how many characters they have them working on -- and WizKids itself will start giving out heartening information about such things... though I guess they won't be likely to do that for at least a while, with two sets in the pipeline ahead of any such sets, which we've been given little to no info on.
Irking me a little is knowing that on some level the success of the next two sets will (likely) reflect positively back on those who remain, despite their having little to nothing to do with any of the aspects that matter. I shudder to think what little marketing tweaks might be coming from these muddled middle management types, especially if they're kowtowing to Topps' execs with their harder to get = more "exciting"/more collectible" mentality.
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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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Friday, July 18, 2008
Secret Invasion: The Set List?
A reasonably solid report arose today concerning the full set list for next Wednesday's Secret Invasion set.
I've split them up into the ones that were revelations du jour, those we knew were coming thanks to mentions in the Fantastic Four starter set rulebook, and those we've had full reveals on.
The ones listed as a character and then a Skrull version are reportedly the same sculpt, but with different dials, coming with a tri-fold card with both the regular and Skrull info. No word yet on how relatively rare the Skrull and regular versions are, but the gist seems to be that the Skrull versions may be true chase elements. Fucking Wizkids bloodsuckers. Whatever their rarity, the dials will be marked a and b following their number in the set, marked on the dial in the KO slot directly before the first click, designating which card to use with them.
The only other notes to make at this juncture is that the person who reported on this case said that there was no set poster and no set list in the boosters, and that the case only had BFCs and Feats as 6th element items in the boosters. On that last point, if true, this means either some absolutely horrible collation or they've kept Event Dials, bystanders and special objects out of this set, save for the Event Dials they'll be using as prizes for some events.
Surprise!
Arachne - Those strange people who've been waiting years to recreate the original Secret Wars will now be able to do so.
Captain Mar-Vell/Skrull Captain Mar-Vell - I'm going to be interested to see how this one's laid out.
Dum Dum Dugan/Skrull Dum Dum - As with Sharon Carter, I'm going to be interested to see how adaptable the piece is in terms of point cost and utility for use as a generic SHIELD agent -- presumably of some higher rank.
Hawkeye - This is the new, female version, who's part of the ill-named Young Avengers. We've seen the sculpt and card - so far so good. She and Wiccan will likely be the only two, really capable Young Avengers. The array of powers (both close and ranged combat) seen on the card has me thinking that a second one of these might end up with a Clobberin' Time Hawkeye glued onto the base.
Hercules - I'd reconciled myself to not seeing him until next February's Hammer of Thor set!
Human Torch - This is Jim Hammond, the Golden Age Torch, one of the original Invaders, at long last! Finally - especially along with the excellent, new Namor in this set - the original, core Invaders can be fielded.
Jarvis - Hey, if DC can have Alfred as a figure, why not? I was slightly surprised this one didn't come as a duel-purposed human and Skrull version, but upon quick reflection it would be difficult to come up with a single point value to cover the game impact of each of the two versions.
Morbius - Hopefully it'll be a solid piece, if for no other reason than it'll quiet down the ones who've been groaning about his absence so far, especially from Mutations and Monsters.
Psycho-Man - Another of the FF's foes going back to the Lee & Kirby era!
Tarantula - This is the current, female one.
Thor Girl - Terrible name and a fairly forgettable character. Hopefully it'll be a nice sculpt and a good dial, though.
Triton - In one form or another, this completes the Royal Family of the Inhumans... though Black Bolt, Medusa and Lockjaw are retired, and at least Medusa needs a serious overhaul from the original version.
Yellowjacket/Skrull Yellowjacket - Will we finally get a suitably clever and capable Hank Pym?
Rulebook mentions; still waiting for info:
Adam Warlock - Will we finally be getting the more powerful, truly cosmic version?
Clea - I'm going to keep my expectations low, since most of her time while on Earth saw her as a fairly minor magician.
Dr Octopus - I'm looking for some style and utility.
Elektra/Skrull Elektra
Energizer - Power Pack makes its debut, like it or not.
Gee - Another Power Pack kid.
Goliath - Apparently this is Bill Foster.
Gravity - Eh.
Immortus - Could be very cool, could be lame. Only Seth knows.
Iron Fist - We've seen the sculpt and card already. The card has us expecting something similar to the Fantastic Forces version -- very cool -- but the sculpt is a newer, stripped-down version.
Kristoff - Another Doomesque piece.
Lightspeed - Another Power Pack kid.
Malice - This is the Sue Richards version.
Mass Master - The last of the Power Pack kids.
Ms. Marvel/Skrull Ms Marvel: Let's see if she finally gets her due.
Ringmaster - Hopefully he won't be lame. Sure, he should be easy to harm, but hopefully he won't be useless.
Sharon Carter - How will Agent 13 fare? Moreso than with Dum Dum Dugan I'm hoping she'll do double-duty as a generic SHIELD agent. Update: She's a 50-pt. piece starting with a SP granting her Running Shot and Stealth. No stellar stats - max Damage of 2 and AV of 9, though she has a special form of Perplex that only lets her affect herself or friendlies, but she can't use it on Damage. All in all, she could be a reasonable, if a tad expensive, SHIELD generic in a pinch.
She-Thing - Another terrible name, though to be fair she was officially known as Ms. Marvel (II) during most of that time. Still, I became fond of Sharon Ventura during her stint with the Fantastic Four.
...and the ones we already have the details on:
Spiderman
Moloid
Tombstone
Atantean Warrior
Grey Gargoyle
Captain America
Iron Man
Spider-Slayer
Attuma
Punisher
Mole Man
Dr Strange
Howard the Duck
Speedball
Cloak and Dagger
Doom
Spider-Girl
Super-Skrull X-Men
Namor
Skrull Emperor
Gamora
Power Man and Iron Fist (Duo)
Sentry
Impossible Man
Super Skrull Avengers
Mephisto
Nick Fury
Annihillus
Spider Woman
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A reasonably solid report arose today concerning the full set list for next Wednesday's Secret Invasion set.
I've split them up into the ones that were revelations du jour, those we knew were coming thanks to mentions in the Fantastic Four starter set rulebook, and those we've had full reveals on.
The ones listed as a character and then a Skrull version are reportedly the same sculpt, but with different dials, coming with a tri-fold card with both the regular and Skrull info. No word yet on how relatively rare the Skrull and regular versions are, but the gist seems to be that the Skrull versions may be true chase elements. Fucking Wizkids bloodsuckers. Whatever their rarity, the dials will be marked a and b following their number in the set, marked on the dial in the KO slot directly before the first click, designating which card to use with them.
The only other notes to make at this juncture is that the person who reported on this case said that there was no set poster and no set list in the boosters, and that the case only had BFCs and Feats as 6th element items in the boosters. On that last point, if true, this means either some absolutely horrible collation or they've kept Event Dials, bystanders and special objects out of this set, save for the Event Dials they'll be using as prizes for some events.
Surprise!
Arachne - Those strange people who've been waiting years to recreate the original Secret Wars will now be able to do so.
Captain Mar-Vell/Skrull Captain Mar-Vell - I'm going to be interested to see how this one's laid out.
Dum Dum Dugan/Skrull Dum Dum - As with Sharon Carter, I'm going to be interested to see how adaptable the piece is in terms of point cost and utility for use as a generic SHIELD agent -- presumably of some higher rank.
Hawkeye - This is the new, female version, who's part of the ill-named Young Avengers. We've seen the sculpt and card - so far so good. She and Wiccan will likely be the only two, really capable Young Avengers. The array of powers (both close and ranged combat) seen on the card has me thinking that a second one of these might end up with a Clobberin' Time Hawkeye glued onto the base.
Hercules - I'd reconciled myself to not seeing him until next February's Hammer of Thor set!
Human Torch - This is Jim Hammond, the Golden Age Torch, one of the original Invaders, at long last! Finally - especially along with the excellent, new Namor in this set - the original, core Invaders can be fielded.
Jarvis - Hey, if DC can have Alfred as a figure, why not? I was slightly surprised this one didn't come as a duel-purposed human and Skrull version, but upon quick reflection it would be difficult to come up with a single point value to cover the game impact of each of the two versions.
Morbius - Hopefully it'll be a solid piece, if for no other reason than it'll quiet down the ones who've been groaning about his absence so far, especially from Mutations and Monsters.
Psycho-Man - Another of the FF's foes going back to the Lee & Kirby era!
Tarantula - This is the current, female one.
Thor Girl - Terrible name and a fairly forgettable character. Hopefully it'll be a nice sculpt and a good dial, though.
Triton - In one form or another, this completes the Royal Family of the Inhumans... though Black Bolt, Medusa and Lockjaw are retired, and at least Medusa needs a serious overhaul from the original version.
Yellowjacket/Skrull Yellowjacket - Will we finally get a suitably clever and capable Hank Pym?
Rulebook mentions; still waiting for info:
Adam Warlock - Will we finally be getting the more powerful, truly cosmic version?
Clea - I'm going to keep my expectations low, since most of her time while on Earth saw her as a fairly minor magician.
Dr Octopus - I'm looking for some style and utility.
Elektra/Skrull Elektra
Energizer - Power Pack makes its debut, like it or not.
Gee - Another Power Pack kid.
Goliath - Apparently this is Bill Foster.
Gravity - Eh.
Immortus - Could be very cool, could be lame. Only Seth knows.
Iron Fist - We've seen the sculpt and card already. The card has us expecting something similar to the Fantastic Forces version -- very cool -- but the sculpt is a newer, stripped-down version.
Kristoff - Another Doomesque piece.
Lightspeed - Another Power Pack kid.
Malice - This is the Sue Richards version.
Mass Master - The last of the Power Pack kids.
Ms. Marvel/Skrull Ms Marvel: Let's see if she finally gets her due.
Ringmaster - Hopefully he won't be lame. Sure, he should be easy to harm, but hopefully he won't be useless.
Sharon Carter - How will Agent 13 fare? Moreso than with Dum Dum Dugan I'm hoping she'll do double-duty as a generic SHIELD agent. Update: She's a 50-pt. piece starting with a SP granting her Running Shot and Stealth. No stellar stats - max Damage of 2 and AV of 9, though she has a special form of Perplex that only lets her affect herself or friendlies, but she can't use it on Damage. All in all, she could be a reasonable, if a tad expensive, SHIELD generic in a pinch.
She-Thing - Another terrible name, though to be fair she was officially known as Ms. Marvel (II) during most of that time. Still, I became fond of Sharon Ventura during her stint with the Fantastic Four.
...and the ones we already have the details on:
Spiderman
Moloid
Tombstone
Atantean Warrior
Grey Gargoyle
Captain America
Iron Man
Spider-Slayer
Attuma
Punisher
Mole Man
Dr Strange
Howard the Duck
Speedball
Cloak and Dagger
Doom
Spider-Girl
Super-Skrull X-Men
Namor
Skrull Emperor
Gamora
Power Man and Iron Fist (Duo)
Sentry
Impossible Man
Super Skrull Avengers
Mephisto
Nick Fury
Annihillus
Spider Woman
Labels: Heroclix, Secret Invasion
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Monday, October 15, 2007
Billionaire Attempts Suicide
Hmmm. They've posted the first of the Super Rares for Mutations and Monsters, and it's an experienced version of the Hulkbuster armor.
Tony Stark is supposed to be one of the premier inventive scientific minds of the Marvel universe. Take all the hyperbole about Thomas Edison, grant it full truth and shift him into the early 21st century along with a family fortune to give him one helluva running start - add the good looks of a playboy and years both as a munitions designer and then as one of the Avengers in his Iron Man armor - and you have Tony Stark.
Unfortunately, as with all fictional characters he's often at the mercy of writers of considerably lesser brain spark.
When faced with coming up with a way of combating a creature of vast, virtually limitless physical strength - a being who becomes stronger and more resistant to damage the angrier he gets - how would one of the most inventive creative geniuses with cutting edge technology and almost unlimited financial resources? A nerve gas? A cryogenic device to drop him into a subzero torpor? An antigravity bubble so that all that vast strength of sinew and limb is largely nullified? Teleport him to the LaGrange point between Earth and Moon?
Sadly, none of the above if you're at the whim of the wrong comics writer. Instead, you demonstrate amazing testosterone levels and stupidity by trying to beat the most physicaly powerful being on Earth at his own game. What you get is a Hulkbuster.
A 6 range, single target suit of armor that requires the wearer to come into close combat in order to deal maximum damage is a... highly questionable strategy. That wearing the armor apparently removes his ability to apply a sword to the occasional Gordian Knot with even a single click of Outwit only makes it worse.
The clause in the movement special power has me wondering if we're not only getting another Hulk (beyond Green Scar and Rampaging Hulk) in the set, but that the third one will be a giant. Eh. Well, with Green Scar being 230 points, if the as-yet-unseen Hulk is the World War Hulk version it's likely to be even more points, so at least there should be plenty of room for the Hulbuster to pull in an ally or two.
He's going to need it.
Well, at least it looks fairly cool.
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Hmmm. They've posted the first of the Super Rares for Mutations and Monsters, and it's an experienced version of the Hulkbuster armor.
Tony Stark is supposed to be one of the premier inventive scientific minds of the Marvel universe. Take all the hyperbole about Thomas Edison, grant it full truth and shift him into the early 21st century along with a family fortune to give him one helluva running start - add the good looks of a playboy and years both as a munitions designer and then as one of the Avengers in his Iron Man armor - and you have Tony Stark.
Unfortunately, as with all fictional characters he's often at the mercy of writers of considerably lesser brain spark.
When faced with coming up with a way of combating a creature of vast, virtually limitless physical strength - a being who becomes stronger and more resistant to damage the angrier he gets - how would one of the most inventive creative geniuses with cutting edge technology and almost unlimited financial resources? A nerve gas? A cryogenic device to drop him into a subzero torpor? An antigravity bubble so that all that vast strength of sinew and limb is largely nullified? Teleport him to the LaGrange point between Earth and Moon?
Sadly, none of the above if you're at the whim of the wrong comics writer. Instead, you demonstrate amazing testosterone levels and stupidity by trying to beat the most physicaly powerful being on Earth at his own game. What you get is a Hulkbuster.
A 6 range, single target suit of armor that requires the wearer to come into close combat in order to deal maximum damage is a... highly questionable strategy. That wearing the armor apparently removes his ability to apply a sword to the occasional Gordian Knot with even a single click of Outwit only makes it worse.The clause in the movement special power has me wondering if we're not only getting another Hulk (beyond Green Scar and Rampaging Hulk) in the set, but that the third one will be a giant. Eh. Well, with Green Scar being 230 points, if the as-yet-unseen Hulk is the World War Hulk version it's likely to be even more points, so at least there should be plenty of room for the Hulbuster to pull in an ally or two.
He's going to need it.
Well, at least it looks fairly cool.
Labels: Heroclix, Hulkbuster, Mutations and Monsters
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