That's Toy Biz!
Thanks to Tony Collett for alerting me to a five-year deal signed (or at least announced) today between Marvel and Hasbro.
My first reaction was that the dissolution of the deal with Toy Biz - one year ahead of time - would likely mean a drop in the quality of the average Marvel action figure. Hardly a stunning loss to me, but I was enjoying some of the figures in their Legends line and had from time to time eyed items in the Marvel Select line. Also, I don't recall the last time I saw something from Hasbro that wasn't, well, a crappy, cheaply-made toy. I have little confidence that Hasbro's going to produce work as nice as, say, the Black Panther figure shown here.
However, there are two details that caught my attention:
One: there's a line in the official statement (emphasis mine)
Commencing in 2007, a wide range of toy and game categories - including action figures, role play and preschool toys, board games and puzzles - will be produced by our new licensee, Hasbro.
Two: Hasbro owns Wizards of the Coast, which has among its product line the highly successful Star Wars Minis game... which many current and former Heroclix gamers find a more enjoyable miniature-based gaming system than Heroclix. Gameplay has been seen as more dynamic, less complex, and game pieces have often been described as playing more like the characters they're based on. Areas that are either shortcomings or bonuses include pieces with set abilities. While they can be enhanced by game mechanics, a character is either in the game and in possession of its full abilities, or it's knocked out.Do I think Marvel's decision makers are dim enough to interfere with the highly-successful Marvel Heroclix line? At this stage, no, but it'll bear watching as 2007 approaches.
There's no mention of exclusivity, so there shouldn't be any immediate problem. Marvel could decide to use the gaming system used in Star Wars minis and adapt it for use with their superhero line, and run these as parallel lines. However, if they feel that the Heroclix line is beginning to flag and is in any way played out - players departing the game more rapidly than new ones are coming in - and feel that the positive buzz surrounding Marvel Superhero Minis is strong enough they may decide to terminate the contract with Wizkids and hope that the remaining players will jump aboard the new system. Early signs of this could cause Wizkids to consider a complete revamp of the line (the dreaded "Heroclix 2.0" speculations, in which earlier product may become largely or completely incompatible with the new), which could help speed the departure of existing players.
That, of course, is a mountain of speculation.
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Comments
The Star Wars minis game is esentially the same system as the Dungeons and Dragons minis game, which is in turn pretty much the same (simplified) as the paper and pencil D&D combat system (which is also what the Star Wars roleplaying game is based on, the d20 System Reference Document).
So, I can envision a lot of what this would look like. Take the "d20 Modern" game system, graft on superpowers that we could largely get from either the D&D magic system or whatever Star Wars uses for force powers, and you'd have at least 80% of this worked out. And then the minis become a direct outshoot. And the D&D minis (and, I assume, the Star Wars minis) support both the miniatures game and the roleplaying game.
Whew. Just thoughts bases on what could be easily envisioned.
My reaction came from how often I casually come across Star Wars Minis enthusiasts who used to be into Heroclix and are touting why they switched. Seeing that Marvel's gotten in bad with Hasbro for five years (whatever that means in the end, of course, since their contract with Toy Biz was supposed to have another year, but they were so anxious to break it and get with Hasbro that they're willing to pay out $13-16 million for the early release) and Star Wars Minis are popular among much the same audience as Heroclix. Since they have both the production and gaming mechanics in place and are now hooked in with licensing I wouldn't be terribly surprised to see them attempt Marvel Heroes Minis by 2007, especially if they think that either a portion of the audience is under-served, and/or Heroclix has lost people due to the directions taken in that game and so along with a new audience there's another group to be re-captured.
We'll have to wait and see.