Amazing Spider-Man in a more traditional 5-figure only release, that packs 10 5-figure boosters to a brick and 2 bricks to a case. These bricks seem to be fairly consistent rewarding the purchaser with 3 Super Rares, 1 Prime, and 1 Chase to a brick. The exception to this rule seems to be if you pull Prime Hobgoblin, being that he is both a Super Rare, and a Prime, he seems to fill both rolls in the brick in which he appears. That said, I was fortunate enough to pull him, and I'm quite happy with what I got in addition to that figure. The collation in an individual brick seems to be very fair. There are plenty of fun generics in this set, so the more of those you receive, the happier people seem to be.
In addition to my own case, my store, Legends Games and Comics has been running a new player incentive program where your name gets put in the drawing for a free brick of product if you bring in a new player and they make a purchase while there in the store. Much to my pleasure and surprise, my name got drawn this time around to win the free brick of product!!! So, in my additional brick, I managed to pull Madame Web, Hannibal King, and Hornet in addition to an extra Ghost Rider and Nightmare, which I promptly traded for Blackheart and Baron Mordo. I also increased my generic numbers to 7 Zuvembies, 5 Werewolves, 4 Vampires, and 5 Mysterios. After 3 bricks, I'm only missing Terrax, Hobgoblin, Alyosha Kraven, and Ricochet (which I have coming in the mail) in addition to the 4 Spider Armor chases. All in all, I can't complain too much about that. Not only that, but with just a few trades, I could actually easily have a second CUR set, that I could probably turn around and sell, if I didn't let me 6 year old raid my dups.
In addition to the fantastic collation, this set actually looks really good. The sculpt are great, and the paint jobs seem a little less globby, bringing out more of the sculpts details. Sure most of the figures could still use a decent wash to really make them pop. But they look much better than some sculpt from even 2 sets ago.
My only minor complaint for this set comes from a dial design perspective. With the deluge of figures with Improved Movement in Batman and Streets of Gotham for "peak human" characters, there is a surprising lack of Improved Movement for characters that can "do whatever a spider can." We have at least 3 sculpts that I can thing of where the character is swinging on either a web or a rope, but those characters didn't even merit Leap/Climb? If it weren't for their points, they would seem like they're missing something. With their points being what they are in some cases (read cheap), they just feel like they're poorly designed. I'm saying that knowing full well that the playtesters don't see the sculpt when testing the dials, however, I expect the game designers have to have some type of a clue.
Moving on, I'd like to touch on the upcoming Teen Titans release as well, since we've now had a chance to see what the team dial mechanic (and boosters) are going to look like. At the moment, I dislike Team Dials less then Vehicles, so that's a plus in their column. I'm somewhat annoyed that they come with some of the figures for the team, but understand with the larger bases, if they come with 3, it allows you the opportunity to play them "out of the box," so from that standpoint it makes sense. It does seem that they did give some thought about the uphill battle of "putting all of your eggs in one basket" by giving you multiple actions for the team base. They do appear that they'll at least be more effective then Duo figures. I'm currently not in love with the Splitting mechanic particularly at lower build totals, but it's possible that I do not fully understand how it works.
The third thing I'd like to address is the news that poured in from Toy Fair 2013. I'll hit each announced license in turn:
- 1960’s Adam West Batman: Not that I need any more Batman Clix, but if you're going to try to get me on board for more, this is the product to put out. Who wouldn't want to have this classic show/movie immortalized in Clix?
- Kick-Ass 2: My main hope with this product it that not only will we get Kick-Ass 2 characters, but I hope to at least see Big Daddy here as well.
- The Lone Ranger (2013): I'm going to at the very least need to acquire the Lone Ranger and Tonto. I may or may not bother with anything else, but those 2 are must haves for me.
- Pacific Rim: Like with Star Trek Tactics, I'm concerned with scaling issues with this product. If all the figures are "Giant-Sized" and have the Giant Defense symbol, I'm all over this release. If not, I'll probably pass on it. That said, at least these a robots and monsters, and make more sense having a superhero-based power set.
- Nightmare Before Christmas: OK, now we're getting a little nuts. That said, I'm still on board with this release. I'm on the fence about how much I'll buy, but there are multiple fans of this franchise in my house, so more than likely I'll end up with a set here. I want Jack and Oogie Boogie. Outside of that, it's a wait and see.
- Iron Maiden: I'm not particularly a fan of the band. However, Eddie is a cool looking character. I will more than likely at least trade for at least one of these.
- Hello Kitty: Now this is the product where I'm having the most problem wrapping my head around it being HeroClix compatible. It'll definitely target a new and completely different market, but I'm just not sure how you translate the characters into a combat-based game. My daughter is very excited for this release, and I'm sure I'll buy her some when they become available. I just can't see myself adding any of these to my collection and/or games.
I think that manages to hit everything that I wanted to try and touch on in this Clix Critique. Hope you enjoyed reading, and look forward to your comments and feedback.
