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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Friday, August 14, 2009
Hammer of Thor!(Updated 8/15 to include the ad poster above, including a Loki, the long-awaited appearance of a Captain America sculpt we saw over two years ago, and further confirmation of the set list we'd seen leaked last year, with the special spotlight on Runaways.)
Okay, I haven't written anything in here in months despite trickles of information here and there. To bring you up to speed -- there really isn't a great deal, but after this long, long drought of information there's sufficient, corroborated news to make it worth noting:
- Neca Toys has purchased Wizkids from Topps.
- They've already been selling the Chariot of Thor vehicle, originally intended as a Buy It By the Brick mail-away. They started selling it at Comic-Con in San Diego last month, simultaneously pre-selling it on Amazon.com.
- They waited until GenCon Indy, running this weekend, to try to make an official announcement. There's apparently still some legalese being ironed out in their official announcement, but they are there - in their booth as Wizkids - running events and displaying the Chariot of Thor, along with clix of Volstagg, Surtur, Daredevil and Thor, along with a prototype for a Batmobile that's pending some tweaks and approval from DC.
- The long-awaited Hammer of Thor set is scheduled for November.
- The next DC set, Brave & the Bold, loosely scheduled for next February.
Still, we'll work with that we have. Before getting into the latest pics, here are the dial details on Thor's Mighty Chariot (As with any of the images, if you click on it you'll shift to a larger version):
Its major flaw is the combination of it being a 500 pt piece, and it neither having Power Cosmic nor is it eligible for Fortitude, as that card requires a standard fist Attack symbol, while the Chariot is a Duo, and so has a different Attack symbol. The result? A piece that's going to be taken apart with ridiculous ease by any team with Outwit. Among those who've reported playing it so far many have already house ruled Power Cosmic onto it. I'd be more likely to house rule an exception for Fortitude. I don't mind spending the extra 25 points once I've already gone that far. I'd probably even kick in an additional 25 for Repulsor Shield, so the Chariot would not only be immune to Outwit and Exploit Weakness, but also Psychic Blast and the Damage-boost from Ranged Combat Expert.I'm not one of those who've been chomping at the bit, waiting for the advent of vehicles in Heroclix, but they will have some uses, and I'm glad they've approached them as it seems they have: Making them high-point pieces, so they can be interesting accessories in large point games, but won't make an impact on standard game builds.
Surtur is fairly obviously a giant, and seems nicely sculpted, with the flaws (such as they are) looking to be more a case of the choice of source artwork. Still, it's a dynamic pose and what I can see of the musculature is attractively detailed. I've picked up a second shot of him, over on the right, making it clear that Surtur is wielding a sword.
So far our information on the set list leaked months ago appears to be good. One of the many nice things about that is that we appear to have a number of generics coming in this set, including Fire Demons and Rock Trolls, and it appears the generics this time out tend to have Special Powers that activate when specific leader types (Surtur for the Fire Demons and Ulik for the Rock Trolls), and early on started to raise thoughts of a huge, apocalyptic battle if enough pieces come my way.
The generics -- again, if the list holds true, and so far it has -- are: Asgardian Warrior, Valkyrie, Hand Ninja, Rock Troll, Fire Demon, and Phalanx Soldier. That's six generics out of the 18 Commons, which really helps raise the value of an average pull. Even if one doesn't care for generics he's going to be able to find people interested in trading for them. Spot number 16 is the robotic M-11 (Agents of Atlas), and could prove to be a good, loose-themed generic, too, if one's not too much of a purist.No good shot of this set's Thor has made it my way so far. The combination of so much armor, and the set including the likes of Malekith, Kurse and Thor's Chariot, at least, strongly suggests the set designer was drawing on the Simonson run of the 80's so this may be Thor when he was cursed and having to increasingly rely on magical armor.
The heavyweight member of the Warriors Three, Volstagg makes an appearance in this set. A flagon of ale in his left hand and a joint of mutton? A ham? Well, something meaty in his right. A great boot rests on the chest of a fallen troll, and without a doubt the big V's already spinning it into another battle legend to regale the bored with in one of the feast halls of Asgard.The long-ago leaked dial and cost is sufficiently ridiculous that I'm not going to bother getting into it here. I'll be interested to see what they've actually decided to do with him.
According to the set list, Volstagg will be one of the Super Rares, which isn't a terrible spot for him inasmuch that some won't be interested in him at all, while others will be very interested in completing their Warriors Three.
The set also includes a new Daredevil. What's most interesting about what we've seen so far is that a zoom-in on the dial gives us a Special Power square on the Speed slot.Aside from thoughts of him having a mix of Leap/Climb and Running Shot (and/or maybe Charge), most of us are watching for something else that would be criminal to not have on a DD in an age of Special Powers: An anti-Stealth power. A man who doesn't rely on his eyesight (he's blind) but instead on a synthesis of the remaining senses, ampllified, should know not only when someone's hiding in the shadows but even if the person's invisible.
We'll see...
For the moment, I'm happy to see the game getting a continuation via a new company, and the very promising Hammer of Thor set getting its chance.
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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, 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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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 29, 2008
Into the Asylum
Recent posts steeped in foreboding aside, we still at the very least have a couple sets in the pipeline, warts and all, with the next of them being another DC set, Arkham Asylum, due October 22.
Official previews (written in advance by the set's designer, Seth Johnson, before he left the company) are set to start next week. This week, however, someone appears to have leaked the main set list, complete with numbering and experience level. The holder of the info's being cagey about details, though. For instance, he knows the point totals for each of the pieces, but is making a short-term contest of that.
Still, I'll present the info that's known. (Edit: A list with the point values for each piece is at the end of the post.)
Here's the named set list, complete with REVU status for each. I've provided the breaks for rarity levels, too.
It's an... interesting list. If one's not a fan of the Legion of Superheroes and/or up on recent arcs involving the Green Lantern/Sinestro Corps, etc., there are likely to be quite a few "Huh? Who?!" moments -- I must confess this is the first set where I found I had to Wiki more than one or two for clarification. Though it's over the top, I've included reference links for all but a few which were either too generic or vague.
I definitely like the rise in number of generics - pieces a theme player would have reason to hold onto multiples of.
COMMONS
001 Veteran WHITE MARTIAN (generic)
002 Rookie MANHUNTER (We don't know if these are the human versions or the robotic ones.)
003 Experienced MULTIPLEX (effectively a generic)
004 Rookie THE QUESTION
005 Experienced FLORONIC MAN
006 Veteran GOTHAM CITY DETECTIVE (generic, with a Crispus Allen LE)
007 Veteran TWO-FACE
008 Rookie STREET THUG (a surprising generic)
009 Rookie KID DEVIL
010 Veteran GORILLA GRODD
011 Veteran THE RIDDLER
012 Veteran AMANDA WALLER
013 Rookie HUMAN BOMB
014 Experienced SCANDAL SAVAGE
015 Experienced PLASMUS
016 Rookie BATMAN
UNCOMMONS
017 Rookie MAN-BAT ASSASSIN (curious generic -- these are League of Assassin members who've been given the Man-Bat serum.)
018 Experienced SOLOMON GRUNDY
019 Unique LASHINA
020 Experienced ANARKY
021 Rookie MISS MARTIAN
022 Experienced HITMAN
023 Veteran WONDER WOMAN
024 Veteran COUNT VERTIGO
025 Unique JOHNNY SORROW
026 Experienced NIGHTSHADE
027 Experienced FIREFLY
028 Rookie ARKILLO
029 Unique PER DEGATON
030 Veteran AMON SUR
031 Experienced CAPTAIN GORDON
032 Veteran LIGHTNING LORD
RARES
033 Unique THINKER
034 Veteran ROBIN
035 Experienced GHOST FOX KILLER
036 Unique ZOOM
037 Rookie ELEMENT LAD
038 Veteran PENGUIN
039 Veteran COSMIC KING
040 Experienced DOCTOR DESTINY
041 Veteran FRANKENSTEIN
042 Experienced VENTRILOQUIST
043 Unique CALCULATOR
044 Rookie YELLOW LANTERN
045 Unique CIRCE
046 Experienced LYSSA DRAK
047 Veteran ULTRA-HUMANITE
048 Veteran BIZARRO #1
SUPER RARES
049 Veteran BLACK MANTA
050 Unique METRON
051 Veteran MAD HATTER
052 Experienced BATGIRL
053 Veteran THE TOP
054 Unique DESPERO
055 Rookie SABBAC
056 Unique THE FLASH
057 Veteran SATURN QUEEN
058 Unique CHANG TZU
059 Unique THE JOKER
060 Unique SUPERMAN PRIME
061 Unique THE CLOWN PRINCE OF CRIME (Buy It By the Brick mail-away.)
Also reportedly (see that contest link earlier in the post) the point breakdowns for these 61 pieces group as follows (Point Value: Number of clix in the set at that value):
70 : 5
55 : 4
50,68,75,90 : 3
64,72,80 : 2
19,27,30,37,40,45,47,60,61,65,66,74,76,85,88,89,97,98,99,107,115,116,120,126,130,145,149,150,157,177,195,199,248 & 318: 1
...a fairly good point spread. Looking at it another way:
1-50: 10
51-100: 36
101-150: 9
151-200: 4
201-250: 1
251-300: 0
301+: 1
...we see that this should be solid for team-building, especially within 300 pt builds, which remain a standard tournament build.
Jake Theis, current brand manager, also released a promotional article that ended with some clues about the list. At the moment I'm mostly sticking with the guesses boneyard's presented below, though I've added one or two of my own:
A character with both the Past and Future keywords - Metron or Per Dagaton
A Special Power that begins "In Contact With..." - Calculator
A classic character that Alan Moore revitalized - Floronic Man (in Swamp Thing)
A classic character that Neil Gaiman revitalized - Dr Destiny (in Sandman)
The named power "EAT THE HOSTAGES" - Gorilla Grodd
An Uncommon figure with a starting Damage value of five … and Perplex - Bizarro #1
A named power written in German - Plasmus
At least one character chosen by a Top-16 player at the HeroClix World Championships - Superman (boy) Prime (To bad they didn't make the Ace the Bathound/Streaky combo instead)
At least one character that first appeared in Charlton comics - Nightshade
At least one character with the Batman-Enemy Team Ability and the Wing Speed Symbol - Firefly/Man-Bat Assassins
A trio of villains - Saturn Queen, Lightning Lord, Cosmic King
A soldier that’s a little late for roll-call - Frankenstein (a Sevcen Soldiers of Victory reference.)
A duo figure that isn't a duo figure - Ventriloquist/Scarface
At least one Golden Age villain - Ultra-Humanite/Per Degaton
The named power "GRRRRRAGH!" - Solomon Grundy
A figure that had the shortest comic book appearance of any DC HeroClix character done to date - Yellow Lantern
The highest-point version of one of the “DC Trinity” EVER done by a full 50 points - Wonder Woman (So that should be 248 points.)
A figure with 20 Defense! - Superman Prime, the Top, Zoom, Jak Garrick or the Thinker
Edit: Below is the list with the point values for each piece attached. I lack the time to edit them into the list above.
001 WHITE MARTIAN (generic) -90
002 MANHUNTER (Paul Kirk? Mark Shaw? Robot? clone Paul Kirk? Kirk DePaul? Kate Spencer?) - 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 (crouching on gargoyle?) - 64
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
033 THINKER - 55
034 ROBIN - 66
035 GHOST FOX KILLER - 68
036 ZOOM - 130
037 ELEMENT LAD - 70
038 PENGUIN - 70
039 COSMIC KING - 85
040 DOCTOR DESTINY - 99
041 FRANKENSTEIN (from 7 Soldiers) - 98
042 VENTRILOQUIST (w/Scarface) - 70
043 CALCULATOR (Purple costume?) - 55
044 YELLOW LANTERN (Bizarro) - 65
045 CIRCE - 149
046 LYSSA DRAK - 72
047 ULTRA-HUMANITE - 177
048 BIZARRO #1 - 199
049 BLACK MANTA - 68
050 METRON - 195
051 MAD HATTER - 75
052 BATGIRL - 50
053 THE TOP - 80
054 DESPERO - 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 - 318
BITB Clix: 061 THE CLOWN PRINCE OF CRIME - Joker escaping Arkham Asylum - 150
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What Would Be As Bad Or Worse...
A year ago the Supreme Court decided that manufacturers could impose limits on the discounts retailers can give on the selling of their products, overturning an antitrust ruling that had stood for 96 years. The central argument revolved around product image, and wanting to protect retail outlets that the manufacturer approved of; the subtleties depend on the product line and the manufacturer in question.
Wizkids had already taken a preliminary step in the direction of controls earlier by unceremoniously gutting their distribution system a couple years back and signing an exclusive distribution partnership with Alliance/Diamond, restricting the primary (wholesale) sales of their product to brick and mortar retail establishments. This was the latest step in responding to such retailers' complaints that Internet-based retailers were seriously undercutting their sales by offering much deeper discounts than they felt they could afford.
While Wizkids has yet to take any more steps, in the past couple years they've vecome increasingly imitative of other "industry standard" practices, so today's announcement that Mayfair Games will be imposing a 20% cap on discounts offered by retailers could be worrisome.
My most recent bulk purchase - for Secret Invasion - was (including shipping) a 36.4% discount over MSRP, and a hair shy of 40% when one adds in the PA state tax that would have accompanied the higher price. Even at that, I've been gravely reconsidering my purchases due to the difficulty of completing even the basic 60-piece set, much less any notions of actually getting the damned chase pieces.
Were Wizkids to step in, especially after having raided their MSRP twice in the past couple years, and limit discounts to 20% -- or even 30% -- that would essentially mark the end of the line for me and new Clix.
For the sake of maintaining the archive, I've reprinted the two article links below, starting with the earlier decision:
Supreme Court Drops Ban on Vertical Pricing
Could Have a Major Effect on Hobby Gaming
Published: 07/03/07, Last Updated: 01/01/50 12:00am
On the last day of its term the Supreme Court reversed a ruling that had stood for 96 years and ruled instead that it was not automatically a violation for manufacturers and distributors to enforce minimum retail pricing on retailers. The case, Leegin vs. PSKS, was based on an appeal from Leegin Creative Leather Products of a $1.2 million judgment stemming from the company's decision to cut off Texas retailer Kay's Kloset for its refusal to adhere to Leegin's no-discount policy.
In deciding in favor of Leegin the Supreme Court overturned the flat ban on resale price agreements, based on the Sherman Antitrust Act, enunciated by the Court in 1911 in the case involving Dr. Miles Medical Company. In that 1911 case, the court decided that these vertical pricing agreements did not benefit the consumer and banned them outright. Now, in a 5-4 decision, the Court's new conservative majority has decided that in certain cases these pricing agreements may actually promote competition.
The decision does not mean that it is now acceptable for manufacturers to immediately implement programs that will turn their 'minimum suggested retail prices' into ironclad minimum retail prices, which, if not followed at the retail level, would result in the cut-off of supply or other punitive measures. What the Supreme Court decision means is that cases involving the imposition of vertical pricing by producers and distributors will now be considered on a 'case-by-case' basis in which courts will endeavor to determine the impact of such a pricing policy on competition. The only certain outcome of the precedent-shattering decision will be a slew of court cases as various groups of manufacturers attempt to establish their right to control retail prices.
The arguments cited by the Justices in the Leegin case do provide some potential insights in how the courts might decide similar cases in the future. Leegin's pricing policy was part of a marketing strategy for an upscale line of leather goods that were to be sold only in small boutiques that could provide copious amounts of customer service, so customer service can be considered an important factor. The court also cited 'product demonstrations' and the provision of specialized consumer services -- two elements that could certainly apply to hobby game stores that regularly provide demonstration of new games and hold organized play events, while losing sales on the very products that they are demonstrating and supporting to non-brick-and-mortar Internet discounters. Using this criteria the Leegin decision would appear to clear the way for game manufacturers to implement minimum retail prices, but the companies will have to be prepared to litigate to gain this right -- and under antitrust laws litigants face the possibility of triple penalties if they lose.
Now the Mayfair Games decision:
Online Discounting of Games—One Year Later
Mayfair Using Supreme Court Decision to Control Pricing
August 29, 2008
Roughly a year after the Supreme Court decision allowing companies to control the prices at which retailers sell their products under certain circumstances (see “Supreme Court Drops Ban on Vertical Pricing”), one game company that we’re aware of, Mayfair Games, has used the decision aggressively to control the prices at which its products are sold.
Mayfair has instituted a policy, the Mayfair Authorized Retailer Program, that restricts discounts above 20% off retail on its games. VP-Sales Bob Carty talked about the status of the program in the Future of the Hobby Channel panel at Gen Con Trade Day (see “The Future of the Hobby Channel”). “We're in the process of the second stage of enforcement,” he told the audience. “We’ve gone from 113 retailers discounting product in November… when we started releasing Third Edition [of Settlers of Catan]; we now have between six and 11 in any given week. And I think that's a big step. Six of them are habitual and on the blacklist but they're still getting product, and we know where, and we're going to deal with them very shortly.”
One other game company, WizKids Games, has made significant efforts to reduce Internet discounting by controlling sales to Internet-only retailers (it began this strategy prior to the Leegin decision, see “Joe Hauck, WizKids EVP on Internet Retailing”), although it is not using price controls based on Leegin to our knowledge.
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A year ago the Supreme Court decided that manufacturers could impose limits on the discounts retailers can give on the selling of their products, overturning an antitrust ruling that had stood for 96 years. The central argument revolved around product image, and wanting to protect retail outlets that the manufacturer approved of; the subtleties depend on the product line and the manufacturer in question.
Wizkids had already taken a preliminary step in the direction of controls earlier by unceremoniously gutting their distribution system a couple years back and signing an exclusive distribution partnership with Alliance/Diamond, restricting the primary (wholesale) sales of their product to brick and mortar retail establishments. This was the latest step in responding to such retailers' complaints that Internet-based retailers were seriously undercutting their sales by offering much deeper discounts than they felt they could afford.
While Wizkids has yet to take any more steps, in the past couple years they've vecome increasingly imitative of other "industry standard" practices, so today's announcement that Mayfair Games will be imposing a 20% cap on discounts offered by retailers could be worrisome.
My most recent bulk purchase - for Secret Invasion - was (including shipping) a 36.4% discount over MSRP, and a hair shy of 40% when one adds in the PA state tax that would have accompanied the higher price. Even at that, I've been gravely reconsidering my purchases due to the difficulty of completing even the basic 60-piece set, much less any notions of actually getting the damned chase pieces.
Were Wizkids to step in, especially after having raided their MSRP twice in the past couple years, and limit discounts to 20% -- or even 30% -- that would essentially mark the end of the line for me and new Clix.
For the sake of maintaining the archive, I've reprinted the two article links below, starting with the earlier decision:
Supreme Court Drops Ban on Vertical Pricing
Could Have a Major Effect on Hobby Gaming
Published: 07/03/07, Last Updated: 01/01/50 12:00am
On the last day of its term the Supreme Court reversed a ruling that had stood for 96 years and ruled instead that it was not automatically a violation for manufacturers and distributors to enforce minimum retail pricing on retailers. The case, Leegin vs. PSKS, was based on an appeal from Leegin Creative Leather Products of a $1.2 million judgment stemming from the company's decision to cut off Texas retailer Kay's Kloset for its refusal to adhere to Leegin's no-discount policy.
In deciding in favor of Leegin the Supreme Court overturned the flat ban on resale price agreements, based on the Sherman Antitrust Act, enunciated by the Court in 1911 in the case involving Dr. Miles Medical Company. In that 1911 case, the court decided that these vertical pricing agreements did not benefit the consumer and banned them outright. Now, in a 5-4 decision, the Court's new conservative majority has decided that in certain cases these pricing agreements may actually promote competition.
The decision does not mean that it is now acceptable for manufacturers to immediately implement programs that will turn their 'minimum suggested retail prices' into ironclad minimum retail prices, which, if not followed at the retail level, would result in the cut-off of supply or other punitive measures. What the Supreme Court decision means is that cases involving the imposition of vertical pricing by producers and distributors will now be considered on a 'case-by-case' basis in which courts will endeavor to determine the impact of such a pricing policy on competition. The only certain outcome of the precedent-shattering decision will be a slew of court cases as various groups of manufacturers attempt to establish their right to control retail prices.
The arguments cited by the Justices in the Leegin case do provide some potential insights in how the courts might decide similar cases in the future. Leegin's pricing policy was part of a marketing strategy for an upscale line of leather goods that were to be sold only in small boutiques that could provide copious amounts of customer service, so customer service can be considered an important factor. The court also cited 'product demonstrations' and the provision of specialized consumer services -- two elements that could certainly apply to hobby game stores that regularly provide demonstration of new games and hold organized play events, while losing sales on the very products that they are demonstrating and supporting to non-brick-and-mortar Internet discounters. Using this criteria the Leegin decision would appear to clear the way for game manufacturers to implement minimum retail prices, but the companies will have to be prepared to litigate to gain this right -- and under antitrust laws litigants face the possibility of triple penalties if they lose.
Now the Mayfair Games decision:
Online Discounting of Games—One Year Later
Mayfair Using Supreme Court Decision to Control Pricing
August 29, 2008
Roughly a year after the Supreme Court decision allowing companies to control the prices at which retailers sell their products under certain circumstances (see “Supreme Court Drops Ban on Vertical Pricing”), one game company that we’re aware of, Mayfair Games, has used the decision aggressively to control the prices at which its products are sold.
Mayfair has instituted a policy, the Mayfair Authorized Retailer Program, that restricts discounts above 20% off retail on its games. VP-Sales Bob Carty talked about the status of the program in the Future of the Hobby Channel panel at Gen Con Trade Day (see “The Future of the Hobby Channel”). “We're in the process of the second stage of enforcement,” he told the audience. “We’ve gone from 113 retailers discounting product in November… when we started releasing Third Edition [of Settlers of Catan]; we now have between six and 11 in any given week. And I think that's a big step. Six of them are habitual and on the blacklist but they're still getting product, and we know where, and we're going to deal with them very shortly.”
One other game company, WizKids Games, has made significant efforts to reduce Internet discounting by controlling sales to Internet-only retailers (it began this strategy prior to the Leegin decision, see “Joe Hauck, WizKids EVP on Internet Retailing”), although it is not using price controls based on Leegin to our knowledge.
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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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