The rare necessities?

I have noticed what seems to be a worrying trend in the construction of the most recent Heroclix sets – and I'm not just talking about sculpts such as Super-Lumpy (see previous post). What is concerning me - besides the weather, my workload and whether Transformers 3 will be as bad as Transformers 2* - is NECA's attitude to the super-rare slot.

Even as recently as Hammer of Thor and The Brave and the Bold, the SR slot was, for the most part, reserved for niche figures. How many of us were gutted that we didn't pull a Hela, a Seth or a Kurse, for example? There will always be a few particularly sought-after figures such as HoT's Volstagg but, for the most part, the SRs were more unusual characters that most casual players and non-collectors could live without.

This seems to have changed with the release of Web of Spiderman and the upcoming DC 75th.

WoS is a Spider-man themed set: a gathering of the allies and enemies of your friendly neighbourhood wall crawler. And in many ways the set delivers the goods - until we look at Doc Oc, Green Goblin, Sandman and Mysterio. Why were these four, all among Spidey's best-known enemies, put in SR slots when the majority of Marvel fans and 'clix players would love to get their paws on them?

Actually, we all know why - to sell boosters - but does that make it the right thing to do?

NECA seems to think so. Looking at the recently spoiled DC 75th set list, the JSA versions of Green Lantern, Supes, Wonder Woman and Batman are all in the SR slot while, for example, a niche character such as Warlord is an uncommon. Now, I don't know about the rest of you, but I'd much rather have a new version of Alan Scott than a Conan refugee with a dodgy taste in headgear.

So, what do you think? Am I being naïve and should accept that this is the way of collectible gaming, or does NECA risk annoying - and at worst losing - customers with a policy of making key, mainstream characters hard to get hold of.

* As an aside, Transformers 2 is a fine movie on DVD as it is possible to watch only the 15-or-so minutes of excellent robot-on-robot action while opting to avoid any scene that isn't at least 90% CGI.

I wish to God I was making this up...

...but apparently some of us will be seeing this when we crack open boosters of DC 75th.

For more images - many of which will make you feel a lot better about this set than the above pic - click HERE.

STOP PRESS: I think I may have stumbled across the inspiration for this sculpt - taken from a parade in New York in the 1940s (or possibly 1939):

Dear Wizkids...

Dick gets dynamic

Now here's something a lot of us probably didn't expect to see - a flying Batman. Better still, a flying, charging Batman. Just look at that first click: swoop in, leave behind a smoke cloud and lump an opponent's figure with that lovely 11 attack and 3 damage. Then laugh as they fail to hit that 19 defence in close combat. Two clicks later and Dick loses his rag and starts flailing around with his Flurry. Lovely stuff.

I really like the sculpt too. While it doesn't do such a dynamic dial justice, it still looks great and is an obvious homage to the cover of Batman and Robin issue 1.

One more reason to be looking forward to DC 75th.

Source: wizkidsgames.com