View Full Version : Critical Hit Volumn 1 Issue 8
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CRITICAL HIT ISSUE 8
Good day to all my loyal readers!!!!
Here it is. The issue you all waited for Issue number 8. I know it is a month late and I apologize. However, I needed to take a short sabatical as my work schedule, coaching schedule, realms responsibilities and Family life all became too much for me. Thank goodness Thele was there to take the reigns and put this together. A HUGE thanks must go out to the writers as well as they do a great job getting me the articles as fast as possible.
Do you think you can write for the magazine? Send me your ideas through email to rock810@yahoo.com OR PM me on Wizkids or HCREALMS at rock810.
I hope you enjoy this AVENGERS/JLA Reserve issue. Issue 9 will be out in October and will have a smooth INDY flavor.
Good day and Good Gaming
Bill Rock
WANT TO READ IT NOW? CRITICAL HIT ISSUE 8 (http://www.hcrealms.com/temp/Critical[1].Hit.08.pdf)
If you don't have the issue in your email by midnight tonight please let me know
This is The' Le, the creative director of Critical Hit. We hope you all enjoyed this month's issue.
After you read it, please come back here to let us know which articles were your favorites!
We love to hear feedback!
~Le
coyotejack
09/17/2006, 11:32
Sweet! Thanks Rock! Can't wait to read it. Trust me, I know about how work can be, that's why I haven't been able to contribute (which I'd like to do in the future).
Anywho, thanks for putting this together once again!
Don't thank me as much as THELE deserves the thanks.
Nice job. It's always exciting getting these in the e-mail.
cheers
wonderboy8917
09/17/2006, 12:21
Any idea when the price guide will be updated?
Any idea when the price guide will be updated?
Probably not for a LONG time as I personally do not have time to oversee that project. That and the negative feedback was too much for me to want to do it again.
docpound
09/17/2006, 12:49
Good issue, I really enjoy the custom clix and some of the sculpts are just unbelievable, that man has some serious skill!!!
Good issue, I really enjoy the custom clix and some of the sculpts are just unbelievable, that man has some serious skill!!!
Note that issue 8 displayed two different custom clix designers, Rafael Aguilar Jr. and Michael Ian dela Paz.
Both are just fantastic!
`Le
It was nice to see a theme issue, but several things left me non-plussed. These are meant as constructive criticism, so please don't get needlessly offended. I've tossed in some "plus-plussed" comments too!
1) The issue would have been better if broken into two different issues; one each showcasing the JLA and the Avengers. Maybe I missed it, but shouldn't a JLA/Avengers double issue at least have paid lip service to the mega-company crossover of a few years ago?
1b) One of the more difficult things for 'theme' HeroClix players is to know what eras of the comic history are represented by the figures. It would have been great to have a 'scorecard' listing the various incarnations. I'm especially confused at times by the Avengers roster, especially since the TA also represents both Alpha Flight and the Thunderbolts!
2) The Generation X was a nice touch, but it felt really out of place in this issue.
3) I may be channeling Kevin Smith...but I loved the Aquaman article.
4) The "dead weight" article had something of a false premise...the Experienced IC Captain America was one of the most popular pieces in clix play "back in the day", with both Stealth and Range. He was immediately surpassed by the HT Exp Batman, but for Marvel pure fans that didn't go for just Firelord/Dr. Strange, he was a popular option.
Ive ranted enough about using Inspiring Command with that guy, so on to Rookie Hulk and Vet Firestar. The Hulks are all problematic, but this relatively inexpensive one, with points to spare for Fortitude solves his biggest weakness. The Vet and Experienced Firestars are both good pieces, if a little pricey...with the advent of Thunderbolts the option opens up to make her an even better taxi for a grounded nasty (Iron Fist, Etrigan, Mockingbird or as suggested..Valkyrie)
4b) It would have been great to see the dials for these as was done in the rest of the issue.
5) The 'where's wanda?' section was a nice touch, and it was nice to see (more) lateral thinking in terms of character design....this compliment brought to you by a player who was sick of Scarlet Witch's clix years ago!
Special Price Guide complaint: None! I thought the price guide was a pretty accyrate assesment. I'm guessing that the complaints were "these prices are too low!", but honestly I think that was only true of the most rare pieces, which are going to have wide price swings anyway...the most successful "collectable" price guides have always inflated prices, for two reasons:
1) People who own the collectables want outside validation of the "worth" of their collection,
2) Vendors of collectables prefer high prices; they'll use whatever outside means possible to skew their sales price upwards.
Probably not for a LONG time as I personally do not have time to oversee that project. That and the negative feedback was too much for me to want to do it again.
Well, if it helps, here's some positive feedback. I loved the price guide. It's much more handy than having to go into completed auctions for ebay... and since completed auctions is the source of your prices, I don't see how people can complain. In a worldwide market like ebay, people spend what they will spend. Of course it's probably going to be more at your FLGS, because ebay auctions only last a few days, whereas an FLGS can keep the peices there indefinitely.
But I understand if you don't have enough time.
Of course it's probably going to be more at your FLGS, because ebay auctions only last a few days, whereas an FLGS can keep the peices there indefinitely.
The FLGS has got other considerations too, primarily time. They would probably rather lose (any) six $0.15 rookie figure sales as long as they can sell (any) one rookie for $1.
I understand when stores go a simple $1/$2/$3 (or similar) for REV sales, but it bugs me when the same places also have cherry-picked REVs with "price guide" sticker prices. If the store wants to get a "fair" price for a prize REV, they ought to offer "fair" prices for the chaff too.
Havn't read it yet, just wanted to say that how much it is appreacheated and how much I am looking forward to it...
THANKS!
I did TWO articles this month. (not trying to be an overachiever, I promise!) Let me know what you think when you read them, guys (and gals.) I thrive on feedback... :)
I'll try to answer your concerns as best as possible.
1) The issue would have been better if broken into two different issues; one each showcasing the JLA and the Avengers. Maybe I missed it, but shouldn't a JLA/Avengers double issue at least have paid lip service to the mega-company crossover of a few years ago?
The issue is broken up to showcase all the articles as our freelancers envisioned them. That being said, we do not tell the freelancers what articles to write. We may throw out "suggestions", but for all intents and purporses it is under their discretion. In this case, none of the freelancers decided to write about the JLA/Avengers crossover, which is fine because all the articles are just fantastic!
1b) One of the more difficult things for 'theme' HeroClix players is to know what eras of the comic history are represented by the figures. It would have been great to have a 'scorecard' listing the various incarnations. I'm especially confused at times by the Avengers roster, especially since the TA also represents both Alpha Flight and the Thunderbolts!
I am not sure I understand this.
2) The Generation X was a nice touch, but it felt really out of place in this issue.
True enough. The "theme" for the article is more of guideline than a rule. As long as the issue is peppered with theme then all is fine. The fact is that not all writers are familiar with the theme, so we let them expand to non theme articles if they like. Furthermore some of the articles that you find are actually ones that didn't make it into the previous article (due to time, or other reasons). You are going to see this in issue 09 too -- not all articles will be Indy themed. But the overall feel of the issue will definitely be Indy.
3) I may be channeling Kevin Smith...but I loved the Aquaman article.
I was particularly proud of the opening page for that. I found the image and worked the text around it. Gotta give a thumbs up to SLADE for a beautiful write-up.
4) The "dead weight" article had something of a false premise...the Experienced IC Captain America was one of the most popular pieces in clix play "back in the day", with both Stealth and Range. He was immediately surpassed by the HT Exp Batman, but for Marvel pure fans that didn't go for just Firelord/Dr. Strange, he was a popular option. Ive ranted enough about using Inspiring Command with that guy, so on to Rookie Hulk and Vet Firestar. The Hulks are all problematic, but this relatively inexpensive one, with points to spare for Fortitude solves his biggest weakness. The Vet and Experienced Firestars are both good pieces, if a little pricey...with the advent of Thunderbolts the option opens up to make her an even better taxi for a grounded nasty (Iron Fist, Etrigan, Mockingbird or as suggested..Valkyrie)
That my be true, but I don't believe that was what the author was saying. He simply said that Stealth and EnergyShield/Deflection were redundant in the pre-feat age. DAN HELLAND did a great job of showing us how to make these dead weight figures worth their weight. Regardless, I think we are all on teh same page here. The pieces he focused on are needed a boost, and DAN did a great job to boost them.
4b) It would have been great to see the dials for these as was done in the rest of the issue.
That is on me. I don't always create dial images for each figure. It depends on how much time I have and how much room needs filled in the article. for example, I diplayed the Vet-IronFist dial on one of the articles, because I was able to fit it in for aesthetic purposes. Still, that is an interesting comment. I will try and add more "dials" to future articles and see how it pans out.
5) The 'where's wanda?' section was a nice touch, and it was nice to see (more) lateral thinking in terms of character design....this compliment brought to you by a player who was sick of Scarlet Witch's clix years ago!
Kudos to John Cupach!
Special Price Guide complaint: None! I thought the price guide was a pretty accyrate assesment. I'm guessing that the complaints were "these prices are too low!", but honestly I think that was only true of the most rare pieces, which are going to have wide price swings anyway...the most successful "collectable" price guides have always inflated prices, for two reasons:
1) People who own the collectables want outside validation of the "worth" of their collection,
2) Vendors of collectables prefer high prices; they'll use whatever outside means possible to skew their sales price upwards.
Well said. The Price Guide was never meant to be "authoritative" for people to use in their stores. It was really meant as a way for the reader to see how much their own figures have sold for on the eBay. Rock did a great job compiling the prices, but man it's a pain in the butt to do. I am sure we will see the Price Guide return in some incarnation in the future. As it stands now though, you will have to get your price guide fix in Wizards or other news stand magazines.
For now and the future, Critical Hit will just concentrate on what it does best -- great articles!
-The Le, creative director
Just to let everyone know where I am at with subscriptions. I have sent out 1300 emails and have 400 emails to go. HOWEVER, I have to stop sending for the night as my yahoo account will not let me mail any more. Please no advice on using a different type of email account as I like yahoo because of the filter it uses.
Thanks for the feedback so far
It was my first article (the cheese article), and I have to say I'm happy to be apart of the team and all members who read this mag should give serious rep to thele for all his hard work (He and rock had a LOT of patience with me as a new guy and I just wanted to say thanks).;)
I have yet to read it, as it was late when it arrived in my e-mail, but i had a look through it.
I don't know who did CH Issues 1-7's Layout, and no offence to them, but I LOVE Issue 8's Layout.
It looks alot more like a magazine then it did in the Other issues.
The New Diel layout is also cool, and the "AD's" for the Up-Coming set's, such as the DOFP, as a footer-ish artical is wonderful, it keeps the magazine Flowing.
(Again, I am not trying to offend the person who did the lay out for the first 7 issues, like everything, it get's better.)
Only problem Is (and this is very stilly) the Figures, Some you can work out, or you have, but other's people may not know, when it's a filler Figure image, mabey a small Italic name of the figure below would help...Thats only me, and I'm a Newbie to HC :p
Nice issue, lots of ideas.
One complaint. The Thunderbolts article implied that Team Abilities have retired! That is not true. The Team Ability is still available to Thunderbolt to even if it has no active figures.
I do see mystics being the default option if there is nothing else of value. Also Ultimate X-men is a valid choice as sometimes you want the +1 attack (say Vs FF) rather than Batman/Ultimates etc and Thunderbolting allows you to choose rather than have to just stick with Alpha Flight.
If you are running a bunch of Avengers/Wildcards under 50 points I do like Superman Enemy. Since the outwit does not end until the action that seperates the two Avengers ends, Spiderman can outwit defenses then poune on them for five damage!
The Werle
09/18/2006, 04:28
I read this, and thought all of the advice was pretty solid and well thought out. My only problem was a bunch of nitpicky spelling errors and stuff that I can't help but notice.
Keep up the good work, but never forget to hit F7 before "going to the presses".
CarlosMucha
09/18/2006, 04:44
OMG! each # get bether and bether! nice work guys! and a more and very powerful cover! (btw, who is the artist? is a comic book?)
Scott Neelan
09/18/2006, 04:50
One complaint. The Thunderbolts article implied that Team Abilities have retired! That is not true. The Team Ability is still available to Thunderbolt to even if it has no active figures.
Actually, in Restricted tournaments you can Thunderbolt only to a TA that has a legal member. At the moment, that leaves out Morlocks, and will soon include Serpent Society, Ultimates, and Ultimate X-Men (though theoretically we could get some more characters with those last two TAs in upcoming sets).
On topic, love the mag. I especially liked the look at "reserve" Avengers and the random displays of some fantastic mods & customs. Kudos to the contributors, the modders, and to Thele & Rock810, the guys in charge.
Phoenix Force
09/18/2006, 08:28
Myke dela Paz here. :classic: Thanks for letting me contribute to this biggest Issue yet of Critical Hit. Great job as always Rock and Thele:cool:
The Issue is really Big, I mean Big on Ideas, and Informations- Very useful infos. The Layout and the Cover is also fantastic. :classic:
Very handy for tournaments and trading too :classic:
1b) One of the more difficult things for 'theme' HeroClix players is to know what eras of the comic history are represented by the figures. It would have been great to have a 'scorecard' listing the various incarnations. I'm especially confused at times by the Avengers roster, especially since the TA also represents both Alpha Flight and the Thunderbolts!
I am not sure I understand this.
As an example, not all figures with the JLA symbol have actually worked together...despite 'reserve' status, retcons, and mega-crossovers. It would have been nice to have a condensed version of 'team rosters' (such as in our team-building resources thread, or even from Wikipedia) to point out Satellite era JLA, JL(I), JLE, Watchtower era, etc.
I'm reasonably up on Justice League (and Alpha Flight), but I'm hopelessly lost when it comes to Avengers...despite having read much of the Busiek run!
The inclusion of rosters (especially with missing-from-clix members) would be an easy way (IMO) to boost "theme" content.
ludd_gang
09/18/2006, 10:46
Tidge, even though my Deadweight article didn't cut the mustard for you, I'm just thrilled to see some earnest and constructive feedback. In all sincerity, thanks for taking time to share your thoughts on all of the articles. :)
I don't know who did CH Issues 1-7's Layout, and no offence to them, but I LOVE Issue 8's Layout. It looks alot more like a magazine then it did in the Other issues. The New Diel layout is also cool, and the "AD's" for the Up-Coming set's, such as the DOFP, as a footer-ish artical is wonderful, it keeps the magazine Flowing. (Again, I am not trying to offend the person who did the lay out for the first 7 issues, like everything, it get's better.)
LOL.
I actually did the layout for issues 2-8. I learned some new tricks and techniques before starting issue 8, and the results were just fabulous. I will be sticking with this style for future issues, and I will keep browsing Toyfare, Wizards, and other magazines for new layout ideas.
I am glad you liked it. Each issue is just getting better and better!
`Le
Tidge, even though my Deadweight article didn't cut the mustard for you, I'm just thrilled to see some earnest and constructive feedback. In all sincerity, thanks for taking time to share your thoughts on all of the articles. :)
It was a good article, but when I think Avengers Dead Weight, I think Xplosion Iron Man, Quasar, or the like :)
That's a great concept for an article series tho, maybe you can adopt it for our online debate skills? Every team has got some real stinkers, and some of those stinkers will have defenders (like me!)
Phoenix Force
09/18/2006, 21:10
We can always look at wikipedia for the Line-ups of the teams in each era or timeline or storyline when we want to make comic accurate theme teams like the tbolts, avengers, and alpha flight, even the X-men:cool: yet its up to the tournament judges to implement the limitations of theme team creations:classic:
VermillionSL
09/19/2006, 02:13
Probably not for a LONG time as I personally do not have time to oversee that project. That and the negative feedback was too much for me to want to do it again.
i thought the price guide was great.
everyone who flung the nasty comments i did see about that guide are a bunch of ingrates who just want their collection of plastic carp to be worth more than it should be (and more than plastic itself should be worth).
LOL.
I actually did the layout for issues 2-8. I learned some new tricks and techniques before starting issue 8, and the results were just fabulous. I will be sticking with this style for future issues, and I will keep browsing Toyfare, Wizards, and other magazines for new layout ideas.
I am glad you liked it. Each issue is just getting better and better!
`Le
I thought you did, but i wasn't sure.
Things Like the Aquaman full-page image really make it stands out as a Magazine.
Might I suggest One thing, for Ease of Reading...
Linking the diffrent articals to the Table of Content.
Some people may have read the first 4 articles, and don't want to scroll through them again to get to the 5th so having them just click the 5th artical would be really cool.... At Time I go to old issues just to look at the FixClix (The Flight Base/stand #2 one is a BIG help for me at this time[Broken little...thing!?!]) but annoys me when i have to Scroll down most of the Mag...as i end up reading bits :p
I have gotten out the magazine all around. I apologize to people whose email starts with S as I sent it out multiple times by accident. If you did not get the E-mail please let me know.
I thought you did, but i wasn't sure.
Things Like the Aquaman full-page image really make it stands out as a Magazine.
Might I suggest One thing, for Ease of Reading...
Linking the diffrent articals to the Table of Content.
Some people may have read the first 4 articles, and don't want to scroll through them again to get to the 5th so having them just click the 5th artical would be really cool.... At Time I go to old issues just to look at the FixClix (The Flight Base/stand #2 one is a BIG help for me at this time[Broken little...thing!?!]) but annoys me when i have to Scroll down most of the Mag...as i end up reading bits :p
Your wish is my command! Allow me to show you one of the modern miracles of PDF.
When you open your PDF, simply click on the Bookmarks tab on the left of your screen. This will bring up an index of each and every article. Each link will take your directly to the article! (Bookmarks is the last thing I program in before sending the document to Rock, so it should be there for issues 2-7 too!).
If your Bookmarks tab is not present, you can enable it by clicking:
View=>Navigation Tabs=>Bookmarks
This should resolve your navigation issues!
`LE
As an example, not all figures with the JLA symbol have actually worked together...despite 'reserve' status, retcons, and mega-crossovers. It would have been nice to have a condensed version of 'team rosters' (such as in our team-building resources thread, or even from Wikipedia) to point out Satellite era JLA, JL(I), JLE, Watchtower era, etc.
I'm reasonably up on Justice League (and Alpha Flight), but I'm hopelessly lost when it comes to Avengers...despite having read much of the Busiek run!
The inclusion of rosters (especially with missing-from-clix members) would be an easy way (IMO) to boost "theme" content.
Here's the Avengers roster's broken down by issues of Avengers and WCA: Avengers Assemble! (http://www.avengersassemble.us/corerost.html)
Check out the rest of the site, too.
spiderbyte23
09/21/2006, 00:17
I think my favorite article was the one about T-Bolting the Avengers and what team to choose. I also enjoyed the customs that I saw in there, the one I liked the best was the Domino custom, but they were all quite amazing. Great issue and a job well done TheLe. Hope you get some rest and relaxation there Rock. Cheers!
Your wish is my command! Allow me to show you one of the modern miracles of PDF.
When you open your PDF, simply click on the Bookmarks tab on the left of your screen. This will bring up an index of each and every article. Each link will take your directly to the article! (Bookmarks is the last thing I program in before sending the document to Rock, so it should be there for issues 2-7 too!).
If your Bookmarks tab is not present, you can enable it by clicking:
View=>Navigation Tabs=>Bookmarks
This should resolve your navigation issues!
`LE
oooo....
I thought it would be odd not to have it in.
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