The Tease of Things I Don't Need

Thursday morning check-in
(Includes two late-day clix updates)

Nothing of vital interest. I noted I hadn't posted since Sunday and so thought I'd take a couple minutes to dust.

While they could have gone off better than they did, the clix auctions concluded Sunday night with only one non-sale. I'm still waiting for word on one or two payments buts when the smoke clears and all the transaction fees have been taken it appears that I'll have more than covered the cost of my Collateral Damage brick, so that's good. That most of the ground was made up from the sale of earlier uniques, though, changes the landscape and has me reconsidering my approach to future sets. The next one's not until June, though, so there's time for consideration.

We have a freezing rain/wintry mix falling this morning, having started just before daybreak. By 6am they'd decided to keep the schools closed, so there was no reason to wake the kids up. I headed out soon after that so as to avoid anything resembling rush hour traffic -- those people are irritating enough when there's simply rain, never mind if there's any ice involved -- so my workday got off to an early, six thirty-ish start. Depending on the timing and length of lunch I could be done as soon as a little past three.

This morning I decided to walk down to Panera for a banana nut muffin, and while I was waiting I heard choked sobs and tearful gulps from off in a corner. In this Panera location they offer wireless Net access, so people sitting at tables or in booths, drinking coffee and working on their laptops are common sights. So it was the case with the woman in the corner: A twenty-something with long, wavy black hair that had a "it looks like rain, I'm not going to bother to dry this" look, sporting glasses, jeans, worn sneakers and a bright blue jacket. Picture a young Julianna Margulies, add a little real world blemish and wear and tear and you'll be close enough. She was finger-pad scrolling through something and taking it all badly, looking back at the screen periodically with just a hint of hope, as if she'd thought she might have read it wrong a moment before. Each time her face darkened and wrinkled anew as the same message was received.

She was doing some halting attempts at typing, but it was impossible to figure out if this was the microtext of an instant message break-up or her trying to respond to an email between rereading the text and cradling her face in her hands.

When one sees such things in movies, many an audience member will be moved to speculate that were they somewhere in the scene they'd move to console the sobbing woman. Some might even work up some repartee, perhaps some self-effacing, stumbling, stammering bit of Hugh Grantish bit of distraction. Of course, in the movie we recognize the actress and know that good things will come from or of her.

In real life our good senses provide flashes of biohazard signs.

In real life, however, it's much more likely that this is either one of the pointless extras populating the background, or even more likely a really nasty, potentially messy, over-stuffed trash bag of life's well-aged mistakes. None of that is meant to sound superior, it's more that I have too much garbage and trash of my own that I don't seem to get around to. No quick fixes were likely, and a big, potentially creepy guy in his mid-forties coming over to intrude in her affairs could have easily gone quickly wrong. The only good thing likely to come of it would be to remind her that she was in a public place.

Back into the lands of fantasy and the fiscal - Heroclix in this case - the week's laid out some details. The rest of the post will likely concern this, so tune out if that's not for you.

We knew that this year's convention exclusives (items one can only buy from Wizkids at select conventions) are going to be The Spectre as the big figure and Parallax as the normal-sized piece. Clicking on the Parallax will show you his stats, and while I may be missing something it doesn't strike me as anything thrilling. The dial for this 270 point figure is seen below.

A fairly powerful, difficult to damage piece, it nonetheless seems less than dynamic for the cost. Of all the features probably the most telling is the 8 Range, which (along with his lack of move-and-attack powers) makes him vulnerable to characters with greater range. The figure was supposed to have a new, as-yet undefined team ability - Quintessence - so if that's missing who knows what other errors there might be. If Quintessence bestows inherent move-and-attack powers on the piece, though, he could suddenly be worth his points.

They haven't shown us the details on Spectre yet, though that could come any time now. We have gotten another view of the piece, along with the box it'll come in.

The price for Spectre will be steep $85, and the only way to be able to buy it will be to be one of the lucky ones whose ticket is drawn since they've eliminated the VIP gaming pass option. (The VIP gamer pass was an option to pay more money up front for a pass that guaranteed the option to buy the convention exclusive; in the end I'm happy they've eliminated it.) During set hours one can go to the Wizkids booth, show his badge and pick up a ticket. There'll be a set (but as yet unspecified) number of tickets drawn and posted that afternoon, and those whose tickets come up will be allowed to make the purchase. Add in $15 or so of additional product to reach the $100 mark and Parallax is thrown in.

Update 1: I see that they've unveiled a little more of the secrets of the Spectre, by describing the mechanics for his Angry Spirits and revealing the dial for them. This is looking seriously fun.

Update 2: While no one's in the group as yet, they've revealed the specifics of the Quintessence TA:

Members of this team do not take pushing damage and their powers cannot be
countered. This team ability cannot be copied by wild card team abilities.

Over on the Marvel side of the game, despite us being just past two weeks since Collateral Damage debuted and no one's received the clix brick exclusive mail-away Krypto, they unveiled the Venom limited edition piece that will only be able to be bought by people who buy a brick of June's Sinister expansion from a retail store.

Simultaneously they made official what many of us knew was coming: That when the new rule book comes out in June that Combat Reflexes will be getting a boost. The new version adds a defensive advatange when being attacked in close combat and will read as follows:
COMBAT REFLEXES (optional): Modify this character’s defense value by + 2 against close combat attacks. This character may choose to be knocked back by any attack from which it takes damage. Knockback damage dealt to this character is reduced to 0.

...a positive move. People for whom this was news were sent immediately scrambling to see which extant clix will see the greatest improvement from this. Those who have it on their dials at the same time as they have Stealth or a stealthy team ability (Batman) see the greatest benefits since Stealth can protect them from ranged attacks from most clix and this new tweak of Combat Reflexes makes them tougher to hit close up.

The dial for this new Venom, seen below, is one of those that benefits a little from the change.
For 105 points this Sinister Syndicate-associated, full-color dial piece should see some play. His first, sixth and seventh clicks invite the use of the Pounce feat, his last two clicks not only see a spike in his attack value and damage-dealing ability, but with Steal Energy they give him a chance to heal himself a little. His Defense values at that stage are low enough, though - especially with no powers to reduce any damage he's received - to make it likely that if he's anywhere in that part of his dial an opponent's going to move to finish him off.

What's seen as the truly sweet spot on his dial is his fifth click, where all of the attack-oriented powers work together. He can Charge into contact with someone, attack using Blades/Claws/Fangs and his Exploit Weakness means that whatever he rolls as Damage dealt will go through. With a successful attack roll and the luck to roll a 6 for Blades, he could do six clicks of damage even to someone with Impervious.

...and that's - once more - more than enough of that.

Time to resume the workday.