Something we don’t do often here at Heroclixin’ is comment on the state of the game or give reactions to new sets and rules and whatnot. So F.U.N. Reflections is a new occasional series intended to do just that.

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We are somewhat disappointed in Uncanny X-Men’s character selection. First, out of about 70 slots, only 16 are of never-before-clixed characters. The rest are remakes. Granted, some, such as Omega Red, are sorely needed. And all are meant to replace older versions finally headed for retirement in June. But that leads to our other complaint.

Fully HALF the remaining characters have two or three other same-named versions in the set, robbing slots for the younger New X-Men. I’m a fan of Cyclops, but even I didn’t want three versions of him.

It makes sense in cases like the young, All-New X-Men version of Jean Grey versus her original Phoenix incarnation. But in other cases we see stuff like Nightcrawler’s two not-so-distinct dials and sculpts. It’s weak sauce.

Speaking of weak sauce, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Mouser Mayhem starter set came out, and veteran players noted two things right away.

• There are only four figures that come with it instead of the customary six, and all four range from mediocre to worse.
• The Mouser bystander pogs that come with the set do not have point values, so they are unusable in the HeroClix game.
• To all this, we at Heroclixin’ say: GOOD.

Usually, when a new starter set drops, we vets are all over that product like spring pollen on a wet car, seeking to get new copies of the latest ruleset, stock up on object tokens, and add new metagame-worthy figures to our collections — leaving actual new players with nothing to learn the game with.

This time, though, WizKids may have been crazy like a fox:

1. First delaying TMNT’s release until AFTER the Civil War starter set’s street date, drawing sales to that product.
2. Second, stocking the TMNT starter with deliberately weaker elements to further discourage vets from poaching all copies, leaving some merch for players brand new to the game. This is an item I think WK intends to have some shelf life.

 

So those are Heroclixin’s musings for mid-April. We’ll have a lot more to say as we aim to make this a mostly weekly feature of the site.