WizKid's announcement is quite timely...

I kept this to myself and Brian - only because we work a few desks away and he always hears my bitching.

I think I'm done with buying HC for now and if the company is going away then I feel like a winner 'cause they quit before I did. I got my credit card bill and only then did I feel the 'owww' of a $125 purchase - for a hobby that I haven't participated in and probably will not be able to for the next few weeks. Additionally I've reached a sort of critical mass with these miniatures as they occupy most of my closet.

I am not thrilled with HoT aside from getting the Runaways. I really don't want any more duplicate Marvel heroes (aside from a damn Wolverine - am I the only one who doesn't have one?) in the set. I don't want Thor or Hulk or Cap or Iron Man or any incarnation of Hank Pym. I want them to complete their sets - I would have been thrilled if SI had included X-Men:FC Angel to complete the set. I'd also like a Illuminati Black Bolt as well as some way to make the Illuminati figures all not suck (for their total point cost) but hey - whatever.

I really am not thrilled with the preview of '09 - Batmobile?!?! WTF! Bold and the Brave - team ups - can we say Wonder Woman and Superman for a total ass kicking? I'm sure that would be the chase in that set with a point value of at least 350. I would have loved a GA & Batman duo - which would have probably been the SR, but hey - whatever, we got Worlds Finest. The '09 Marvel set also looks/sounds dumb - it celebrates the 70th aniversary of Marvel. The figures include the 'Fastball Special'... NO! You have Colossus with that as a power already - just give us the Wolverine which negates that damage and I'll be thrilled. I really want a new (Out Of the Shadows class, re: common and semi-overpowered for points) Wolverine.

The upside to WK folding is that this allows us to construct new scenarios, have different game formats, etc. during the 50 or so weeks that WK had tournament / release games scheduled. I think that killed the game a bit, especially during Crisis. I think 5 weeks to celebrate a new set is good and then switch to open tournaments with legal sets. I know we all tried to keep the Marvel U and DC U separate during the tourney but it always seemed to showcase the same series of figures.

Sadly, even though I enjoy the redesign from Avengers on - each newer set, especially SI, seems to have over powered the new sets vs older ones. Indomitable as well as various charge+flurry combos don't seem to have the proper point costs assigned to the figures making each of them a damn steal! Just give it up for Spiderman or Hercules! Now let's pit any of the new figures against figures from older sets and see which wins.

I just foresee this trend increasing and in a few years we'd have a broken Amazo, for instance, with all powers available on every click with high stats and that figure would probably cost around 250 or so points. Hmmm, that'd be a great design - Amazo has a white power that reads "wild card ability - he possesses all powers of any figure that he can draw line of fire to within 8 squares" or something like that. He'd have a replacement value for his stats which would give him the highest value for figures within his line of sight. It'd be a totally cool figure as he'd be a clone of the best of the team that he is facing off against. Damn, I now want this figure.

Anyhow - I digress, it's sad in a way that the company that produces new figures may be wrapping up shop - but that does leave us with a ton of figures that we've all acquired as well as the freedom to use them as we want to for future games. I don't see this as a bad thing - I'd love for Topps to end the line, retool it, and bring it back in a year for HC 3.0.

What I'd love to see represented in a relaunch or modification, is a change of how some figures work. Mr. Incredible should have a laughable attack but a beefy 20-22 defense, ie. you need box cars each time to hit him. That's his comic representation. You don't need to KO everyone in the time limit.

I'd also love to see constructs enter the game - like scientists can build things (Mr. Incredible again!), etc. Add a little RTS element to the game. I've mentioned this with Brian as well - I don't see how the current rules can support this. HC's gameplay is you bring everything at the start of a game and nothing new enters the game after deployment.

Them's my $.02.