Concluding our listing (not ranking) of the past year’s top F.U.N. figures:

Molly Hayes [Secret Wars: Battleworld 015]

Taylor, Sceritz and I argued a little bit over this little girl’s inclusion.

RKJS: … Should Molly Hayes be one of our FUN figs or nah?

TAYLOR: Soooooo

TAYLOR: The short answer: no

TAYLOR: Long answer: no, but it breaks my heart

TAYLOR: Her utility is even more limited than the last molly, but she’s more accurate with her powers and abilities

TAYLOR: She is actually a little frustrating to use honestly

SCERITZ: Omg

RKJS:  See, I was coming from the perspective of her being too good

RKJS:  Natural 4 damage on her turns, 18DV tie up when tokened

SCERITZ: She’s strong lol

TAYLOR: But she NEEDS a taxi

TAYLOR: Badly

RKJS:  That’s what makes her F.U.N. and not unfair

SCERITZ: She’s… 25 points…

SCERITZ: With 4 damage…

RKJS: Yep. So incredibly Useful

I promise this is not how all our discussions over these year-end lists go. Like, hardly at all. But it was too funny this time, and, as it happens, spot on.

Yes, Molly may be on the edge of unFair with her ultra-cheap cost and sky-high damage potential. Yes, she is highly difficult to run without a lot of taxi or TK help. Yes, she is Useful anyway as tie-up threat, etc. despite her inability to push (her Sidestep while near enemies is key). And yes, she is one Nifty girl.

The Phantasm [Batman: The Animated Series 051]

Only 10 AV keeps her from being a terror to see on the map. Granted, that AV becomes 12 vs. 74-point foes — with Blades. And granted, she also gets a SP-Perplex against foes on clicks 2, 3, 4 and 6. And granted, she can effectively FREE move every turn with her Smoke Cloud trait:

YOUR ANGEL OF DEATH AWAITS: Smoke Cloud as FREE // FREE: Move but only through squares with her smoke cloud markers. After resolutions, remove each of these markers she moved through.

The Friendly thing about this is that she can’t park herself in Stealth with her own Smoke and she has 0 range so she can only go about 3 squares at a time and hope she can hide BEHIND a Smoke Cloud with her Stealth. Great F.U.N. based on one of the best stories of the 1990s Batman TV show.

Phat [X-Men: Xavier’s School 048]

Taylor suggested this one, and saved me the trouble of a writeup:

“At 75 points, you get a close combat brick the X-Force and X-Static teams desperately needed. A nice niche character, he fits the F.U.N mold like a glove. What sets him on the F.U.N List is his Headline token trait use (through his attack power) and his “It’s More Than Just A Name […]” trait.

Starting with 11 attack, he can acquire Headline tokens easier than most of his teammates, and then spend them to gain Giant Reach 2+X for a turn. This means he could potentially have Giant Reach 5 for a turn, thus making his limited movement a non-problem.”

It’s as he says. The die roll makes his effect a bit random for maximum F.U.N. while the SP ensures he’s useful.

Photon [Avengers Infinty 056]

10 AV is not what you want to see from your 12 Hypersonic attacker, but it will put your opponent at ease — she’s not that scary. But she gets more useful when you make that Leadership roll to suddenly gain up to 5 or 6 extra squares of swing (via her balanced and Nifty SP to place her within X squares in line of fire with a good Leadership and Shape Change roll). 19 Super Senses DV is darn good, too, if the SC roll fails. She also has the Avengers Infinity trait that boosts her attack and damage when targeting 100+ pointers. Finally, her late dial has Defend and Prob to help the team.

Sprite [X-Men: Xavier’s School 039]

Her AV is not great at 10 and lower, blunting the threat of her starting Charge+Exploit Weakness. Her true utility comes with her 33% chance at running through foes (she ignores EVERYTHING for movement) and giving them an action token. 18 Super Senses is a decent defense, but even better is her Nifty trait dealing 2 penetrating damage and an action token to whoever KOs her. It’s a good deterrent, especially on her late dial where she has Senses AND Shape Change to make her a good tie-up (though she’s lost her stunning SP by then. She’s also another with the X-Student trait.

X-Student [X-Men: Xavier’s School 006]

So with only 1 damage, 2 clicks of life and practically no defenses at all, X-Student is not a scary piece to face. He’s almost overcosted at 25 points and, at 15, could end up on a dial you didn’t plan for. But every one of those dials is useful: One is a medic, another grants cheap TK, and Plasticity+Poison is never bad. Arguably his worst dial is 11 AV Mind Control, which is actually one of the best MC clicks in the game for the cost.

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One more list to go: Taylor’s, Sceritz’s and Rurouni KJS’s personal favorite figures of 2018. Next for that!