The Clix Consumer Impulse -- and the Coming Constriction!
(Continuing my "No Time For Anything Important!" trend...)
With a large order of Heroclix Unleashed scheduled to arrive Monday, I finally broke down and picked up 5 boosters locally late Friday -- just to take the edge off:
U Batman
R Braniac 5 x 2, 1E
E Cheshire
E Deadshot
R, V Cyborg
V Gotham Undercover
R, V Hawkgirl
E Killer Croc
R, E Killer Frost
E Kobra Fanatic
U Mr. Bones
V Scarecrow
V Shade
R,V Supergirl
A nice, starting assortment, only one duplicate, and with the majority of the figures left to keep my bulk buy interesting. Generally nice sculpts and paint jobs, and some intresting power combinations.
Then, last night, WizKids released the list of which figures will be appearing in their Universe line - a revised starter set -- along with the list of which figures will be officially retired on June 2nd. (That link will take you to a pdf download, btw.)
Basically, they've come up with two categories of official play that will have prize support: Restricted and Unrestricted. At Unrestricted events, any Heroclix piece (except for the promotional ones, which were never meant for play) is okay to use. For Restricted events, however, they've begun to retire earlier sets. A huge chunk of the original Infinity Challenge set will be retired as of June 2nd. Once the Ultimates set is out in June, it'll likely be the time when they'll officially retire the long out of production Clobberin' Time.
The retirement announcements caused quite a flap among the fans when it was first announced a while back. Some players were enraged, some rolled over on their backs and publicly acknowledged that it's WizKids' decision to make. The latter, eyes wide but glazed, declared all would be well, as WK promized prize support for both types of events. The former immediately recognized that this move, clearly laying down a line between Old & New product, meant that the emphasis will remain on the new (and therefore Restricted) events. Further, that the company spokesman who said that they would continue prize support for some Unrestricted events until the fans no longer seemed to want it was the same guy who was saying that there wasn't an overwhelmingly negative player response to retirement while the messageboards had been running red with dissent ever since the announcement. I suppose it's a matter of semantics, as little short of owning a controlling interest in the company or cornering them with a weapon was going to count as "overwhelming."
That's a huge issue all on its own, of course, and not one I'm interested in rehashing right now beyond restating that while I understand that they have to cease production on some sets, I believe that retiring figures from official play (especially broad sweeps of pieces, as opposed to one or two where they would be forced to come out and declare that they'd made a mistake with those clix) is a bad move. It slaps long time players, makes sweeps of figures less valuable (and with people paying a premium for pieces and some of those people trying to win rarer limited edition figues at tournaments, there is a case to be made for value), and makes it easier for WK to not have to work as hard to creatively trump older, popular pieces with variations.
Of more immediate interest is how it appears - judging by the retirement list - that unless Ultimates changes the trend that by the time they officially retire Clobberin' Time the Restricted list for Marvel will apparently have no characters with Pulse Wave (that link goes to a pdf of the Powers & Abilities Card.) This was quickly noticed once the surprising move to retire Dr. Strange and Blizzard were tied in with some of the other removals. Unless something's been overlooked, and/or Ultimates brings PulseWave figs of its own, by the time Clobberin' Time is retired the only Marvel figure with this power will be the ultra-rare, ultra-expensive Galactus clix.
As everyone expected, Firelord is headed out to pasture, despite new figures and rules changes had already pulled most of his teeth. His combination of low cost, heavy hitting capacity, deep dial and being very easy to heal still made him a figure almost no one could field without someone rolling his eyes. More surprising was the news that Black Panther (particularly the rookie, which I've linked to) and the Con Artists have been spared. Each had been declared "cheese" by many players for being ultra-cheap purveyors of powerful abilities, Outwit and Perplex, respectively. (The former allows one to nullify any power in the figure's line of sight within 10 squares, while the latter allows a player to change any dial stat on any piece in that same, visible range of 10.) Also of note was that Paramedics made the cut. Two things were riding against it: Many who complain that having some figure dedicated to just healing people in what's essentially the middle of a battle doesn't have much of a basis in the comics, and these Universe boosters are 2-figure affairs, where a generic could be a glaring irritation to someone who's just laid out a little over $4 for two figures and was hoping for someone who at least merited a name. I suppose that Paramedics fit the mold of everyday, real world heroes.
Beyond that, we now know that there are 12 Uniques in Universe, and they're the 12 uniques from Infinity Challenge. This means that barring some special exception, when Xplosion is retired, with it will go all of their uniques.
Time for me to get moving with some morning chores, as the kids and I are aiming to take in Hellboy this afternoon.
(Continuing my "No Time For Anything Important!" trend...)
With a large order of Heroclix Unleashed scheduled to arrive Monday, I finally broke down and picked up 5 boosters locally late Friday -- just to take the edge off:
U Batman
R Braniac 5 x 2, 1E
E Cheshire
E Deadshot
R, V Cyborg
V Gotham Undercover
R, V Hawkgirl
E Killer Croc
R, E Killer Frost
E Kobra Fanatic
U Mr. Bones
V Scarecrow
V Shade
R,V Supergirl
A nice, starting assortment, only one duplicate, and with the majority of the figures left to keep my bulk buy interesting. Generally nice sculpts and paint jobs, and some intresting power combinations.
Then, last night, WizKids released the list of which figures will be appearing in their Universe line - a revised starter set -- along with the list of which figures will be officially retired on June 2nd. (That link will take you to a pdf download, btw.)
Basically, they've come up with two categories of official play that will have prize support: Restricted and Unrestricted. At Unrestricted events, any Heroclix piece (except for the promotional ones, which were never meant for play) is okay to use. For Restricted events, however, they've begun to retire earlier sets. A huge chunk of the original Infinity Challenge set will be retired as of June 2nd. Once the Ultimates set is out in June, it'll likely be the time when they'll officially retire the long out of production Clobberin' Time.
The retirement announcements caused quite a flap among the fans when it was first announced a while back. Some players were enraged, some rolled over on their backs and publicly acknowledged that it's WizKids' decision to make. The latter, eyes wide but glazed, declared all would be well, as WK promized prize support for both types of events. The former immediately recognized that this move, clearly laying down a line between Old & New product, meant that the emphasis will remain on the new (and therefore Restricted) events. Further, that the company spokesman who said that they would continue prize support for some Unrestricted events until the fans no longer seemed to want it was the same guy who was saying that there wasn't an overwhelmingly negative player response to retirement while the messageboards had been running red with dissent ever since the announcement. I suppose it's a matter of semantics, as little short of owning a controlling interest in the company or cornering them with a weapon was going to count as "overwhelming."
That's a huge issue all on its own, of course, and not one I'm interested in rehashing right now beyond restating that while I understand that they have to cease production on some sets, I believe that retiring figures from official play (especially broad sweeps of pieces, as opposed to one or two where they would be forced to come out and declare that they'd made a mistake with those clix) is a bad move. It slaps long time players, makes sweeps of figures less valuable (and with people paying a premium for pieces and some of those people trying to win rarer limited edition figues at tournaments, there is a case to be made for value), and makes it easier for WK to not have to work as hard to creatively trump older, popular pieces with variations.
Of more immediate interest is how it appears - judging by the retirement list - that unless Ultimates changes the trend that by the time they officially retire Clobberin' Time the Restricted list for Marvel will apparently have no characters with Pulse Wave (that link goes to a pdf of the Powers & Abilities Card.) This was quickly noticed once the surprising move to retire Dr. Strange and Blizzard were tied in with some of the other removals. Unless something's been overlooked, and/or Ultimates brings PulseWave figs of its own, by the time Clobberin' Time is retired the only Marvel figure with this power will be the ultra-rare, ultra-expensive Galactus clix.
As everyone expected, Firelord is headed out to pasture, despite new figures and rules changes had already pulled most of his teeth. His combination of low cost, heavy hitting capacity, deep dial and being very easy to heal still made him a figure almost no one could field without someone rolling his eyes. More surprising was the news that Black Panther (particularly the rookie, which I've linked to) and the Con Artists have been spared. Each had been declared "cheese" by many players for being ultra-cheap purveyors of powerful abilities, Outwit and Perplex, respectively. (The former allows one to nullify any power in the figure's line of sight within 10 squares, while the latter allows a player to change any dial stat on any piece in that same, visible range of 10.) Also of note was that Paramedics made the cut. Two things were riding against it: Many who complain that having some figure dedicated to just healing people in what's essentially the middle of a battle doesn't have much of a basis in the comics, and these Universe boosters are 2-figure affairs, where a generic could be a glaring irritation to someone who's just laid out a little over $4 for two figures and was hoping for someone who at least merited a name. I suppose that Paramedics fit the mold of everyday, real world heroes.
Beyond that, we now know that there are 12 Uniques in Universe, and they're the 12 uniques from Infinity Challenge. This means that barring some special exception, when Xplosion is retired, with it will go all of their uniques.
Time for me to get moving with some morning chores, as the kids and I are aiming to take in Hellboy this afternoon.
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