The Tease of Things I Don't Need

Please, Mr. Postman

Mostly more clix items following a domestic lead-in.

Some housework and some errands today, including a run for a large meat buy; our freezer chest downstairs is set with the main courses for meals for at least the next two weeks, probably more than three.

Speaking of the deep-freeze we're back into a winter's chill again. Today's local temperatures reached a ragged a fingernail above freezing, not that one would feel anything less icy with the gusting winds. It's a good day for indoor tasks, entertainments and to relax in the warmth. I have some correspondence to get to, along with some text to go along with the ebay auctions I'll be starting within the next... 17 hours or so.

Last week while going through a folder where I keep financial items - be they bills I'll pull out within a day or two to write a check for and send off, or medical bills that are too frequently issued only to be sopped up a short time later upon re-application of insurance, or offers for this or that that didn't go immediately in the trash - I came across something that's been in there a long time: An order form and special envelope from over a year earlier. It was from issue #1603 of The Comic Buyer's Guide (#1616 of that monthly recently arrived) and was an offer for a mail-away limited edition (okay, so they're all limited editions, just like their owners) Mr. Freeze.

The key element for this Limited Edition is that it's translucent, rather than painted, and has a couple clicks of power-neutering Outwit at the end of his slightly shorter dial. So, more of a visual impact than anything else, though that late Outwit might - briefly - come in handy.

At the time it was the first LE where we'd been asked for $6.99 -- $1.00 more than the previous mail-away LEs. At the time we didn't know what was up, and even wondered if CBG had insisted on a cut. Since them we've seen that $6.99 is just the new standard no matter who was handling the deal. We've since acclimated.

Now, not only is the offer over a year old, but it's attached to Legacy, the notoriously under-produced set, so "Sold Out" would seem to be stamped all over it.

Still, on a lark, I decided that while I was writing out checks for various utilities, insurance, etc. I may as well write a small check and make a try. The worst they could do was return the check and let me know the offer had expired. Instead, I saw that they'd cashed the check by the start of the week and by Thursday he arrived in the mail in his modest, diaphanous glory. Heh. They probably still have 1,000 of these sitting in a storage box in a corner of CBG's Wisconsin offices.

Friday -- although I didn't see it until this morning, when we finally remembered no one had gotten the mail on Friday -- the mail brought another clix LE I'd ordered along the way. This is the version of Clayface called "Ultimate Clayface." There's a visual difference between this and the regular REV, though that's just a shift from an unattractive brown to an unattractive gray. I've set them up below, with the booster-pulled one on the left and the Ultimate one on the right.

The man doesn't get by on his looks most of the time, but that's not why we'd want him in the set.

The differences in the dials are significant, though hardly game-breaking. (Click on the image below for a larger view.)

First, Ultimate Clayface (UC) has a 6 Range while Regular Clayface (RC) only has 2. In the sometimes close quarters of some of the newer maps that extra 4 squares of reach could be important, but it's not something that can't be worked around. Also, he's 10 points more than the 89 pt veteran, and has one click less of life in the deal. He also trades leading and ending clicks of Super Strength for Poison. There are some other trade-offs too, as the dials are sufficiently different to appeal to different styles of play. The 89 pt veteran's largely ready to hit the map as is, though, while I' might be reluctant to play the 99 pt UC without adding 10 points for Armor Piercing to get the maximum use from that Poison; without AP the poison won't pose a threat to anyone with any damage-reducing powers.

Finally, I see that Wizkids got around to cashing my late-January $2 shipping and handling check for the Anthony Stark LE, so I should be seeing that early version of Iron Man somewhere in the next couple weeks. The delay was my own fault for misplacing the form & receipt for a couple months, but that's all done. So, aside from watching for this the only other clix item in the mail I'll be watching for will be the Krypto I sent away for on Thursday -- the first sign of which will be my seeing that $2 check cashed.

So now I'll take a break from spending on this hobby and try to make a little of it back with some ebay auctions starting later this weekend.