(TV/streaming video) New & Leftover Items, a Touch of 2024, and some Nostalgic Forensics

Fantastic Forces
(More geek game/comics chatter)

The new Marvel Heroclix expansion has finally been announced, and it's called Fantastic Forces.

The set will have 104 pieces, including uniques and 24 "oversized" characters. (And, presumably, 16 super rares since those are supposed to be standard in each expansion.) There's something confusing in the text, though, as the main solicitation refers to 8 super rares and doesn't mention uniques... Well, these things will sort themselves out.

Every booster will contain one oversized character, either a giant-sized figure or a double-sized one (like the Ghost Rider shown here)... which means three clix per booster. That's the first potential downside to this that I immediately, see. It's going to take more boosters to complete a set. To put it another way, a case isn't going to cover nearly as much ground as the set will be larger and we'll be getting 75% of the pieces in previous sets and will apparently be chasing after more pieces. This set may push some of us who have been relative completists to ease off and become more selective.

So, apparently a set with more pieces in it, combined with a case containing 144 figures instead of the 191 we're used to. A case (presuming the discount remains the same) will still be the best way to go, but they're plainly trying to give us another nudge towards making the standard buy two cases, and to move those who are already buying two cases towards three.

Next, of a much lesser concern, is that the Fantastic Four & Dr. Doom in this set are the Ultimates versions. The mainstream Doom didn't look that shabby even after the Overmind blasted him over and over again. Well, close...

Still, we're finally getting Namor, the Sub-mariner, whom players have been waiting for since 2002. From the look of things we're getting a proper, Hank Pym Yellowjacket... albeit one in a somewhat atypical giant size. (Hopefully the paint jobs on the ones seen here were rushed and not typical...)

A new Scarlet Witch is in the mix -- I'm presuming that's meant to be the mainstream one, as I wouldn't expect the Ultimates version to go with that costume. I'm looking forward to seeing if she's a more powerful figure (on her higher levels) than we saw in her Infinity Challenge version.

The new double-sized figures will have their own rules, and there's a new speed sub-type called Transporters, so I'm supposing this means some non-flying characters will be able to carry other characters. This could just mean a sort of vehicle class, though a couple years back they told us that if they made vehicle pieces (ones with no rider already in/on them) that would technically classify as a "toy" and would cause them major headaches when it came to international shipping and taxation. I don't recall what the classification of these figures was - "minatures" or "statuettes" or somesuch, but apparently it's a matter of dollars and cents importance to some regulating bodies.

Anyway, the announcement's left us much to consider, (including the more DC-focused clix collectors, who can't help but see this as a strong indicator of what the next full DC set will look like) but at least we have an announcement. This set will presumably be out in late June or sometime in July.

Updates: With the fans left to buzz and stew over how this will all work, the sanest suggestions have been that the Giant-sized and double-based clix will be taking over the # 1-24 commons slots, so the idea will be that rather than having 2 extra of some low-level clix a player will have 1 extra of the large figures. That's a nice notion, and I hope that's how it'll go. It'll make the shift to 3 clix per booster easier to take.

They've stated 8 Super Rare characters in the set, which is a departure from the past two sets which had 16; some speculation is that they're going to have 8 Super Rares, which people can pull from boosters, and 8 different Limited Edition clix that one can only win in tournaments (or buy on the secondary market) , to appease the people focused on the tournament scene. I'm not thrilled about that part -- I'd just as soon have the 8 SRs reflect that there'll only be 8 LEs, too -- but what shall be shall be.

So, by this reckoning numbers 1-24 will be double the size, one way or another (it's official that all of the giants and double-based pieces in the set will be at the REV level, not uniques, so that's a step towards this model), 25-84 will be normal REV figures, then 12 uniques -- bringing us to the old standard of 96 figures, and then the 8 Super Rares, landing us at 104. So, by this reckoning there won't be more pieces to get in this new set. In fact, with the apparent elimination of the single, special (one per case) Giant-sized figure and half of the usual Super Rares, there's actually 9 fewer pieces to hunt through the boosters for than what we saw with Mutant Mayhem and Legacy. We'll still be getting 47 fewer clix in a case, though, so the hunt will still be more aggressive than before (ie it'll be necessary to buy more boosters) for someone who wants to get the complete set.