In years past, this has been where your friendly neighborhood webmaster has shared his personal favorites of the past year. But a friend once rather bluntly told me: Nobody cares about that list.

It stung a bit, but I had to admit he was right. It might be entertaining — one could say Friendly and Nifty, to invoke the spirit of this blog — to some readers, but was it also Useful? No.

So Heroclixin’s last look back at the year will list the Top Ten F.U.N. figs of the year, not just our favorites, in accordance with the F.U.N. acrostic:

• Is the figure FRIENDLY and FELLOWSHIP-worthy? That is, if your opponents see this figure on your team, will their hearts utterly sink at the prospect of dealing with it? If so, it’s not F.U.N.
• Is this figure still USEFUL and full of UTILITY anyway? If so, it may be F.U.N. But it shouldn’t run TOO high on this scale, or it may overwhelm the Friendly portion!
• Does this figure have a NEATO or NIFTY or NICHE or NERDCORE appeal that goes beyond its just having good stats and powers? Does it have a special place on a team outside of the usual keywords? And does this clix capture the character’s appeal? If so, it may be F.U.N. But the answer can’t JUST be, “I like this character.”

 

Let’s look at an unrecognized F.U.N. fig from 2015 along the F.U.N. scale:

Scarlet Spider[s] [Avengers Assemble 005]

• Is the figure FRIENDLY and FELLOWSHIP-worthy? Their almost total lack of moving attack (they need to be next another Scarlet Spider to use Sidestep) or Willpower keeps them from being very scary at all. It takes 2 or more points at 60 apiece to get any real use out of them. And with only five clicks of life, they can be handled. Level: HIGH
• Is this figure still USEFUL and full of UTILITY anyway? There’s a lot of Flurry on this dial, and a fair amount of 3 damage. A 50% Shape Change SP makes it tough to damage them when fielded in multiples (or with other Scarlet Spider figs from other sets) and Toughness plus ending Regen makes it hard to KO them. Improved Movement helps get them where they can do the most good. Level: MODERATELY HIGH
• Does this figure have a NEATO or NIFTY or NICHE or NERDCORE appeal? There’s something about clone teams that’s pretty nifty. And considering every character named Scarlet Spider is a clone, this can be a fun informal theme to build on. Also, build around the niche Initiative keyword. Level: MODERATELY LOW

Stay tuned this week for last year’s most F.U.N. figures! We’ll wrap up the look back with our personal top 10s as well.