Hey everybody! Welcome to Clix O’Clock, a new weekly feature here on We the Nerdy! Assistant Editor Henry has been playing Heroclix for a very long time and wants to spread his love of the game with everybody who’ll listen! This week he talks about the newly confirmed chases from the upcoming set of Heroclix, The Flash, and why he’s happy to have new versions of old figures. On top of that, he relates it all back to the problem Heroclix constantly faces; price-gauging.
This weekend was New York Comic-Con, the biggest convention for comics and nerdery in the United States! As a native New Yorker, I was in attendance, and very excited to hear that for the first time ever, Wizkids would be too! Unfortunately, when I went by their booth, I saw that they had very little to offer, with just a sneak peak at a couple of the sculpts for The Flash on display. One of which was The Question, a chase figure that we can now confirm. He’s a switchclick too, so we can assume that he’s going to go onto a teambase. The silly thing is, we already have a switchclick of The Question that goes onto a teambase, and it even has the exact same sculpt!
There are three mindsets that I have encountered since this announcement; Those who are excited for a new version of the existing teambase, those that are annoyed that the old teambase figures are being revisited, and those that don’t care. I find myself in the first camp. We are coming off of a number of chases are are super-competitive and super-valuable. For the entire summer, there were only a few things people cared about in the Heroclix marketplace: Entity chases and Zombie chases. In fact, you probably couldn’t get one without trading the other. As such, I think that having more casual chases (Or at least in theory) is great for the game. Especially when you consider the upcoming Holiday season that The Flash will be released in, it’s nice to have something where you theoretically won’t be spending every dollar trying to complete the set. On top of that, it helps that it’ll be only three chases as opposed to the series of eight that the last three full sets brought.
Ultimately, I expect these to be less expensive chases. Unless they have disgustingly good special abilities to back them up, these figures already exist. The Convention Exclusive versions of the Trinity of Sin that we had last year are top-tier pieces that constantly cause problems for their opponents. Making them again as chases isn’t too dissimilar to what Wizkids is doing with the new tournament system, which re-dials older figures that we exclusive to team dials in their original release. So far, those figures are very good alternatives that improve on the originals, but they have very little secondary value. They’re a way for people to get a modern age Rogue and Psylocke without hunting for the team base. And I love Wizkids for doing that.
Right now, the Heroclix player base is used to ultra-rare figures that (For some) break the spirit of the game. While I think that it’s very fun to have these figures out there, and I’d argue that they need to exist in order for the game itself to thrive, I am happy to have a break from this. I originally wanted to complete the entire set of The Flash Heroclix, since he is my favorite hero in comics. But now I can sit back and pick from the set. I don’t have to bend over backwards to complete the set because I already know the chases are, and they aren’t anything I need. If I want a Question, Pandora, or Phantom Stranger, I’ll buy the teambase.
This brings me back to what is an important issue for people to remember. You don’t have to buy everything. If these chases don’t interest you, don’t buy them. If you are the kind of player that wants to buy everything, go for it! Don’t be upset that somebody else has your shiny new toy too. It’s a game, and I think that by making a limited number of chase figures, and making them re-treads of figures already currently in play, Wizkids is saving us all the hassle and allowing for a more fun Holiday Season.
Next week on Clix O’Clock, Henry talks about common figures and why they hold their value for his taste. All this and more in Clix O’Clock: Common Misconceptions!
I think my only real problem when it comes to certain chases is their raw power. Superboy Prime from Titans was a good example of a figure that just wrecked house.
Beyond that, I completely agree, as cool as chases are they’re not vital unless you make them so.