Clix Fix Nix
Two weeks from yesterday the next Heroclix expansion, Sinister, will be hitting comics and gaming shops. As I rolled the set over in my mind again I was moved towards a decision.
While my enthusiasm for the character selection in the set remains high, my disdain for many of the stat, power and team affiliations (generally lacks thereof) saw my anticipation of the set weaken. Oh, I'm still in for more than a pound -- my long-ago prepaid brick (shrinkwrapped unit of 12 boosters) will be in my hands two weeks from now, and most likely the case I ordered months ago will follow the next day --
(Hmmm... brick Thursday, case Friday, Superman Returns most likely first thing Saturday, and that part of a weekend where I'll be taking the following Monday off and then having Tuesday, July 4th as a holiday... a potentially fun stretch to look forward to if something doesn't step in to spoil it.)
-- but too much information has taken much of the magic of the set for me.
Granted, it could be argued that had I stayed out of the loop, getting the dial info, etc. all in one gulp along with the clix themselves might have been too many disappointments (again, almost entirely with the dials, not the characters chosen) in a concentrated, bitterish pill. On the other hand -- and this is the side I'd bet on -- were I to be opening boosters a couple weeks from now and seeing the pieces for the first time I'd likely be too jazzed about seeing the Wizard, Trapster, Beetle, Valkyrie, Nighthawk, Electro, Swordsman, Falcon, Rhino, Black Bolt, Deathlok, etc., etc. to be immediately bothered by the shortcomings of the stats.
So, with the next set coming up in October being another Marvel set - Supernova - featuring new versios of Thor, Thanos and the Silver Surfer, along with a first time appearance by Hyperion -- all as seen here in these early, promotional mock-ups
-- and promising generics of four alien races (Kree, Skrull, Shi'ar and Badoon), I've decided how I'm going to approach it.
I don't need advance info on the set to make buying decisions as those are already made. My case order for that is already in and I'll be getting a retail-level brick, too (and hoping that that brick is one where most of the alien generics from that case ended up), so, barring financial reversals/collapse all that's in place.
I'm not a competitive gamer, so studying the stats as early as possible for maximum strategic impact isn't a factor. I don't need to know before they're in my hands.
My aim now will be to attempt to avoid all spoilers for the set.
Ideally, as the release date in October (still don't know the specific date) approaches I'll know next to nothing more about the set than I do now. In practical terms I doubt that even if I steer completely clear of HCRealms and try to be careful about what I click on over on Wizkids' site I'll still find learning who some of the other characters in the set are is something that's unavoidable. That's okay, though. My simple aim is to retain as much surprise about the set as possible. If the majority -- hell, if any substantial part -- of the set is a surprise to me when I start opening boosters, it'll be a victory.
Doing it -- that'll be the difficult part.
Of course, it isn't as if I'm lacking more than enough other things to do instead.
Oh, while I'm on the subject of Clix I want to mention that we've just passed through the third New Guy Night event cloud.
I'd made it to the first two and so have the Jessica Drew from the first one and a Batman-allied Supermanfrom the second, but scheduling threatened to make this one something I couldn't easily get to, much less with a requisite "new guy" in tow. (It's a demo event that attempts to entice current players to recruit a new one to the game; bring a non-player and you each get a free, event-exclusive LE.) This past Sunday came and went without me being able to do it, and I'd signed up for a Wednesday night event as a last chance, though that, too was looking slight as the week dawned.
Then, Monday afternoon at work, one of the, well, new guys at work - a pleasant, Costa Rican immigrant who's working for us for the summer and who I'd been talking soccer/futbol/football and comics with the previous Friday said, "Oh, I have something for you."
He'd gone into his comics shop of choice over the weekend to pick up the latest issue of a series he's following and a clerk gave him a promotional clix. As he's not into the game and knew I was - the extras I've lined up on a shelf in my office are difficult to miss - he brought it in for me. I fully expected it to be the recent Free Comic Book Day Wolverine, perhaps a leftover, purple-ringed Batman or maybe one of the Hulks still kicking around... but it turned out to be the New Guy Night III, armored Spider-man. Sure, the proportions between the character and the lamp post are screwy, so he looks more like he's pole-dancing, but in all respects it's a cool variant on any of the Spideys we've seen so far.Sometimes these things work out in pleasant, surprising ways.
Comments
I'm trying to imagine how horribly disappointed I would be if I ordered a case of SINISTER blind, opened it up, saw all the fabulous sculpts... and then picked up a Swordsman, say, and checked out the dial. Honestly, I think the euphoria of the character choice, closely followed by the horrifying disappointment of a Seth dial, would probably see me swearing to never buy another WK product.
So, I won't be trying to avoid spoilers for SUPERNOVA. If the character selection is going to be as good as Seth's set generally have been, I want to know. And if the dials are going to be as poor, well, I want to brace myself.
A seven-click dial with an AV that doesn't drop below 8 (10,9,9,8,8,8,9), a 2 Damage for all but the penultimate click. The one click of Running Shot gives way to three of Leap/Climb and then three of Charge. The Charge clicks see him miserably slow (6,6,4) so I question how useful they'll be (especially under the official rules).
The Invulnerable click shifts to Toughness for three clicks, then Combat Reflexes for three more, so towards the end of the dial he's supposed to be trying to get into a clinch with an opponent. His last two clicks have CCE, so his 1 and 2 Damage , respectively, gets a boost.
Something of a novelty Spidey he's nonetheless the only version who can, unaided, hit someone 10 spaces from where he starts a move. Then he has that Invulnerability lending a little protection.
The lack of Super Senses is lamentable, but understandable given both the restrictions of the dial format (a single color per stat) and the theme of this ultra-thin slice of Spidey history. After all, that armored costume didn't make its way through an entire story, which is why he abandoned the approach.
As for Sinister, there would definitely be some disappointment but I don't imagine it would be as completely off-putting for me.
If my order was going to waver one iota up or down based on what was revealed then I'd have to stick with the previews. Since it's not -- for now I'm locked on a course -- I prefer trying to preserve as much surprise as I can. There are always going to be disappointments in the dials -- and Supernova will undoubtedly leave me pissed off at what's done with the LEs, presuming that Thor, Thanos and the Surfer will be showing up as upper tier REVs, giving each an LE form. Indeed, I wouldn't completely put it past Seth to decide to make an LE of Thor post-death of Odin, where Thor's infused with the Odin Force and is lord of Asgard. If that turns out to be the 270+ piece in the set... Feh.
Still, what's going to be will be - and is already set in, well, plastic - and since I'm going to be gobbling five bricks of the set I'd like to have most of the first four bricks be filled with (hopefully mostly pleasant) surprises. I haven't had a set where I didn't know the set from A-Z before opening the boosters since Clobberin' Time, because I was still so early in the process that I didn't know where to look for advance info.
For the record, I am not trying to "disguise" myself as someone else. I just started a new blog. You commented on mine, unbidden, and I responded.
No more, no less. Visit again if you chose, don't if you don't. It's okay with me either way.
Take care.
Beyond that... to be perfectly honest there's an obsessive collector mania involved. I certainly find scant time to actually play, it seems... but here I go, continuing to accumulate new and missing pieces. :)
I'm Switzerland. I'm neutral. Thanks for commenting on my blog. It's nice, especially when you're starting out, to get comments.
I just got back from "Cars" with my kids. Really good movie.
Have a good weekend.
Besides, I've had people post here who voted Republican. The threshold of offense and pain is set fairly high. ;)