Thinking out loud: The Future of Heroclix

Way back in the early 2000s, I got into Heroclix pretty hard when it first hit the shelves. It was my first flirtation with supers gaming and probably the biggest jump I'd made away from Warhammer 40,000 at the time (purchase-wise, I had played a bit of DBA and NATO Spearhead). Much like what would happen five or so years later with Warmachine, tournament play finally killed my enthusiasm for Heroclix, as well as the artificial rarity, and I pooh-poohed the game for a fair while after that. Despite this, I did keep buying the odd loose clix, if it was of a character I really liked or could find use in another miniatures game; I had, at one stage, grand plans for an Ultimates-themed 40K Daemonhunters army, with Nick Fury as an Inquistor and Captain America as a Grey Knight, but I could never get the figures to put it all together. It was then that I first rebased and repainted clix and I found that I got a lot of satisfaction out of it, so, even though I didn't have a project in mind, I just kept going with it. A few years after that, I discovered SuperSystem and the rest, as they say, is history. 

These days, I'm spoiled for choice when it comes to miniatures for generic superheroes, I've lost track of the number of makes and manufacturers that have gone into my "Equalisers" setting stuff and I'm still yet to get any of my Crossover stuff on the table. However, when it comes to the big name heroes for my Ultimate Alliance games, I still find myself turning to Heroclix more often than not. Despite the quality of sculpts varying from reasonable to abysmal, the pre-painted atrocities and the above mentioned problems with rarity, the fact is, if you want a Marvel or DC hero, you'll find it in clix, probably for next to nothing. Knight Models has hit in a big way with their Batman/DC and Marvel ranges, but anyone who has bought one of their products will tell you about the fiddly assembly and poor cast quality. When I'm asked what the best way to get into supers gaming is, I say download the SS4 quick-play rules and grab a Heroclix booster; in for under $20. 

Marvel and DC are still the biggies when it comes to Heroclix, but I have plenty of the Indy clix and whilst I never bought any Halo, Assassin's Creed or Bioshock clix, I did see them around. Also, TMNT is coming out, which is pretty damn cool and should fill out a fair few slots on my wish list. What surprises me most about TMNT clix is just how long they've taken to arrive. As a writer and someone who has worked in the gaming industry, I get that miniature wargames is hardly an obvious choice for merchandising and that licensing is a legal minefield, but Heroclix is one of those weird entities that seems to have defied all expectation. Think about how much tooling molds for plastic miniatures must cost, even with a large scale production, and now consider that WizKids make hundreds of new molds every year; they must be doing ok to still be operating more than ten years later. 

Personally, I'm hoping that TMNT will be a huge success for WizKids, not because I play Heroclix (I don't anymore), but because it would be a great "bargaining chip" for them to expand their range. I don't know about you, but I was glad to get my hands on the BPRD set back in the day and got a bit giddy when I opened a Howard the Duck and I'm set to relive that with TMNT; fingers crossed that Metalhead isn't a Chase Rare. Should WizKids get the chance, I'd like to see them start to move in on some other comic, television, film and video game brands: 

Image Comics

Until recently, I had only been exposed to Image's early 1980s and 1990s work, which is, frankly, pretty woeful as Rob Liefeld is the driving force, both artistically and in terms of writing and he is pretty damn crap at both. Ok, so Deadpool came good in the hands of other writers, but that was clearly the exception rather than the rule. Then I started reading Invincible. Holy crap that comic is amazing. Like Jaime Reyes Blue Beetle and Ultimate Spider-Man amazing. Here was a fully fleshed-out world, populated with a variety of heroes that "felt" like Marvel or DC but was still unique and fresh. Forget Spawn and all that Youngblood crap; Invincible, Guardians of the Globe and Savage Dragon alone would provide a great basis for a series of Clix sets. Plus Spawn and all the other teenage power fantasy BS would draw in a few people as well. 

King Features Sydnicate

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think King still owns the rights to Phantom, Mandrake and Flash Gordon, plus the associated characters and even other "heroic" characters like Prince Valliant and Jungle Jim. Ok, so there's not a great deal of opportunity for growth, but at least there are more characters than the Watchmen set. Thanks to the 1980s DOE cartoon, there's a substantial cult following for these characters, and with superheroes being the big thing in pop culture at the moment, may as well strike while the iron's hot, right? Seriously, Octobrain clix, I want one. 

Dragonball Z 

Much like TMNT, why is this not a thing already? There's a new DBZ film and series on the way, the relaunched CCG is going gangbusters and DBZ video games continue to sell like crazy in Japan and the USA. Akira Toriyama is famously difficult, but has shown that he'll do pretty much anything for truckfulls of cash. When asked, as I have been more than once, how I would do DBZ as a minis game, I say that Heroclix is about the only existing system I can see pulling it off. Plus, there's hundreds of characters, many with multiple forms or costumes, so sets could go for years. It would be like printing money; watch Super Saiyan God Goku go for four figures on eBay, especially if he's a convention exclusive. 

Nintendo 

And why not? Nintendo will slap Mario and Co on pretty much anything these days the the punters lap it up. Have you seen Amiibos? I know people who don't even own a WiiU or DS that collect the damn things and keep them in the blister packs. Can you imagine how fast Nintendo Clix would sell? The best thing is, all Nintendo would have to do is sell the license and approve designs, then sit back and rake in a percentage. Nowhere near the top of my list, but still, the possibilities are pretty huge. 

So that's my (amateur) take on the future of Clix sets; probably more an exercise in fantasy than prescience, but that was what I was going for anyway. How about you, what boxes would you like to be cracking? CW DC sets? Mortal Kombat? Vallient Comics? 

Superhero Media: Daredevil (Netflix)

Freaking amazing. I love Daredevil comics, pretty much everything from Frank Miller's tenure as writer through to the recent End of Days epic, there exists a coherent story of a man trying to do the best he can to save his dying neighbourhood from poverty, crime and corruption. Like all comics, there are weak patches, but I feel that overall, it is an almost unparralled run of quality comics. I even enjoy the Ben Afflec movie because it was, until recently, the best live-action representation of the character I like so much. So, Netflix Daredevil, pretty damn awesome, get your 30 free trial on and binge it out over a weekend. Also D'Onofrio is a brilliantly sinister and physically imposing Kingpin with a great subtle fragility that humanises the character. 

Where the Fox Daredevil film was sleek and polished in the Hollywood tradition, despite the gritty and noir overtones of the source material, Netflix Daredevil is thoroughly contemporary look at Matt Murdock that shows a New York that it still to come to grips with a world populated by Norse Gods and Super Soldiers. Unlike Agents of SHIELD or Arrow, the cast of Daredevil don't look like off-duty underwear models, Elden Henson is a wonderfully ugly Foggy Nelson and even Charlie Cox (Matt) is scuffed up and bruised more often than not. 

If Daredevil is indicative of what's to come with the Netflix MCU tie-ins, I'm pretty excited. Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, Misty Knight, Iron Fist and the Punisher are all set to break into the MCU in a big way. I can't wait for SLJ Fury to send Frank on a mission to rescue a small Russian girl. Hell, in a year or two we're all set for Secret War as a film or TV mini-series. As Fury said "This is how you teach them."

Miniatures Finished: Catwoman, Deadman, Freddy and Devil Dinosaur

Got a few things off the desk in the past week: 

 Deadman, Freddy Kruger, Catwoman and Devil Dinosaur. All Clix except for Devil, who is a D&D Miniature. 

 Detail on Devil Dino. It was really fun to paint a big mini from scratch. 

 Close-up of two dead men, one hero and one villain. 

 Catwoman. A bit plain to paint, so her goggles actually have 5 colours on them!

Fuzzy Logic - SS4 AAR

Let the corruption begin! Last night I got Fuzzy (see the "Little Lead Men of Valour" link to the right) into a game of SS4 with a couple of my small teams. The scenario was The Rescue with The European Union Super Soldiers (played by me) defending the buxom newsgirl from USAwesome in a classic hero team "misunderstanding". The game was played on my WIP Empire of the Dead Necropolis table as a game of EOTD had just finished.

 Saladin, Victoria and Richard the Lionheart guard the defenseless woman. 

 McHero and The Second Amendment approach from the woods... 

 ...whilst The Frontier Spirit goes for a flanking maneuver.

 The Second Amendment opens fire, with little effect. 

 Saladin makes a charge for McHero, not wanting to be on the receiving end of his powerful bulk. 

 Victoria closes in to negate The Second Amendment's ranged superioity. 

 The Frontier Spirit wounds Richard the Lionheart with a crack shot of his ghostly six-shooter. 

 Richard and the prisoner take cover behind the church. 

 The Second Amendment is no match for Victoria's flashing blade. 

 The appointed defenders of Turkey and Italy stare down the product of Fast Food and Political Pressure Groups. 

 The combined might of Saladin and Victoria is not enough to so much as scratch McHero. 

 McHero injures Victoria gravely, but the rescue chopper has arrived and the game ends in victory for the European Union Super Soldiers. 

A fun little game to introduce the basic concepts for a new player, I really want to bump some of the teams up to five members to get some real comic book action going! 

Superhero Media: Megamind

So I saw that Megamind was on television the other night, and I figured that it wouldn't hurt to record it and give it a watch. I vaguely remember hearing from someone that it wasn't that good, so I went in with low expectations. Turns out Megamind is pretty damn amazing. Starting with a very "Superman" opening (last son of a dying planet, sent to earth), Megamind quickly sets up a somewhat cookie-cutter supervillain origin and dives right into the action. Actually, before I get too far ahead, the nods to the classic Donner Superman and silver-age Supes in general are really well done and perhaps make the film worth checking out for Superman fans just for those notes alone. Also, though the origin story is quick, it does cover the ideas of Hero/Villain rivalry really well. 

I'll note as well, that Megamind really knows how to make an entrance, which as a fan of Doctor Doom, I really appreciate. So it's no The Incredibles, but Megamind playes with some great concepts that I love to see in superheroes; reversal of hero and villain roles, a hero retiring and a Villain being forced to defend the same people they once terrorized. The offsets to this are the usual Hollywood cliches like love being the answer and Disney fake-out deaths, but I guess I'm getting used to that kind of thing and just mentally gloss over it. Man I can't wait until Bollywood, England and Hong Kong start making superhero films. 

Ok, so I won't be running out to find a 28mm Megamind, but if I see the DVD cheap, I'll be sure to grab it. What I have gained most from the film is some inspiration for scenarios and hero backgrounds to flesh out my games and settings. It's always good to find a film enjoyable when I'm not expecting much and David Cross is always good value, even when the audience is too young for him making jokes about having "blue myself early". 
 

Annihilation Day +2

Some more shots of the fun: 

That's all I have for the moment, if I find any more, I'll be sure to post them.

Annihilation Day +1

Some more pictures have surfaced of the battle for Hero City: