I really hate how WizKids handles almost everything that it does.
Now I consider myself an outsider looking in - as I don't work for them and I've only been following their product for a little less than a year. That being said, in the last 10 months or so I feel like I've been abused slightly yet I feel for longer players / collectors as it seems that what has irked me has been business as usual for the better part of the HeroClix games life.
For this installment - which makes sense only if I post more - I'm going to complain about chase figures.
My current gripe is the reintroduction of chase figures. These figures are next to impossible to get unless you purchase one off of ebay from sellers, who in many times are store owners, who bought up tons of boosters just to sell them off as singles. I don't understand the business strategy here - sure if you do open a booster there's the chance that you'll get a randomly inserted chase figure or if you watch / hear that someone in your play group has found a chase figure - you figure that it's an achievable feat. If you do pull a chase figure or hear that someone you know has - sure you might think you can do it again, etc. leading to the purchase of more product but as it stands - I have not met nor have I opened a booster with a chase figure. Therefore I am remiss that in order to purchase one of these figures, ebay is the only option.
The part that pisses me off is that when WizKids went to the new booster system, they introduced a rarity distribution system. I love this as I like to know that I am guaranteed at least one "rare" figure per pack. The chase figures don't have a rarity assigned and the only thing I've heard is speculation that indicates that the chase figures are 1 in 100 boosters or that they come 1 per case (which we know is not the reality unless our store got screwed in their distro).
As far as the Crisis set goes - I'm more pissed off that the chase figures are Superman and that the 2 chases are the only 2 Supermen in the set. I don't think WizKids needed to do this considering that the same thing happened with chase figures when they included Alfred, Lois Lane, and Marvel Zombies as chase in previous sets. Why Superman?
Lastly, I return to the business strategy. I don't understand this move to include chase at all! WizKids does an excellent job getting all their players to purchase Bricks of boosters in order to get a mail-away figure. I'm pretty sure most HeroClix players will purchase a Brick to get the mail-away figure and then maybe buy a few boosters for tournaments, etc. I don't know if WizKids is doing the chase figures to support this secondary market - if so I don't know what is in it for them.
This leads into the next gripe I have, which is how WizKids can completely ruin prices of impossible to get figures by re-releasing them later...
1 comment:
Bill, I agree on all points. These chase figures should have been Superboy Prime from Countdown, or Extant, or some other all-powerful splash-in-the-pan forget-me-now crapfest of a character. You know, like Kingdom Come Superman.
But having the other chase be Earth 2 Superman pisses me off. He's the first superhero ever. Not in the fake history of a comic universe, like the way that Marvel claims that Namor is important... but in for-real publishing history, 1939, Action #1. He shouldn't be hard to get.
If these chases come up as prizes, I'll retract my ire. If they ever publish the actual ratio of chases, and our store just got really unlucky, it'll be cool. But right now the whole thing stinks.
The only positive part is if it's truly a random placement. When I was opening my case last week, I got to the halfway point, and Ferru noticed that we had gotten the same things. Right then I knew which super-rares I was going to pull, everything. I was going to pack it in and go home, but somebody mentioned that there was still the possibility of a chase. Maybe a chase figure is the cure for knowing the exact contents of a brick, which has happened to most of us at some point.
But if WizKids wants to use the chase to spark consumer interest, release the rarity. I'm not buying more until I know my odds. Actually, I'm not buying more Crisis at all, but it might drive other sales.
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