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.
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completely agree here vince
ReplyDeletein this day its all about making money
in the dc 75th set the white lanterns appear to be the best figures out there. however being one per case and there are 10 of them, how is anyone going to be able to get all of them for collecting purposes.
in todays economic climate its only the stinking rich that will be able to do such a task. a few chase figures i can live with but 10!!!
el
I've got mixed feelings about this. I love Heroclix because I can get Living Monolith, Lockjaw, Starhawk, etc as figures. The more obscure stuff.
ReplyDeleteI've got more than enough Supermen and Green Lanterns - let them be SRs. Fine with me.
...but I miss having the unusual stuff as SRs/uniques (Shadow King, Mad Thinker, Mr Fixit) - it made them 'more' special.