Dear WizKids and NECA,

Well I must say, it's been quite a ride since you guys have bought the game of Heroclix! It seems you've pulled it back from the grave and made it living and thriving again, not in a zombie-ific way, but in a thriving civilization kind of way. That is actually why I'm writing this to you guys, because in my opinion - you should've left HeroClix dead instead of what your doing to it.

First let's take a step back and look at what it was like before all of you:
Heroclix sets were released every 3 or 4 months and alternated between Marvel and DC. Now granted, it was pretty slow and antagonizing at times, but they occasionally did release starter sets which were unique and nothing even remotely close to the sets that they had already made (i.e. Green Lantern, Hellboy, 2099, etc.)

Now Let's look at what YOU are doing:
Since the rebirth of HeroClix, sets have been pouring in sets and figures faster than lies in a campaign for presidency. There is a set it seems every thirty minutes and by the time you get on HcRealms the next day, you've already missed four sets being released! Not to mention you guys also decided to replicate every figure nine times. We have a hulk set, gravity feed, and fast forces! And on top of all of these releases, there is almost ZERO differences between their sculpts! It's not jsut hulk though, it's the Avengers set (#2... -.-)! You have one-hundred and one ways to sell off figures! I mean come on!?

I need a second paragraph to go on with all of this! Even then on top of last paragraph's descriptions, their's more. You now also deem it fit to hold Target Exclusive Gravity Feeds! I don't live anywhere near a Target, the closest being 87 miles away! Also with the Toy's-R-Us exclusive figures! You would think instead of making exclusives, you'd sell as wide as humany possible! If Suzie has a lemonade store set up in the middle of Nevada, and wants to sell HeroClix, you'd think you'd let her! You should want your product out to the world, not exclusi-fied down to two stores!

Even now, I need a third paragraph. You also seem to think that making Convention exclusive figures is awesome now too! What if I live in Georgia for example. There are three conventions these are at: Origins (Columbus, Ohio), GenCon (Indianapolis, Indiana), and San Diego Con (San Diego, California)! You basically just smacked every HeroClix gamer, who isn't near or can't afford to go to these conventions, in the face! It's like your trying to narrow your base of sales down to so little, that only the rich and mobile can get to them! What the heck!?

My father is an example of what your doing to HeroClix fans. My father has been a collector since Icons was first released and has strove to get every single figure HeroClix ever released. I even remember starting to help him when Supernova came out. HeroClix were constantly played with in our household. To give you an idea, he was down to 46 figures to get to have every single one. Now any true HeroClix fan understands how difficult it is to even complete a set, let alone get every figure. His job never changed, he's made the constant same income, but he's been driven away. Not because of the economy, but because of you WizKids/NECA. You've released so much, so fast, and so exclusive, he gave up. A hardcore collector, with thousands upon thousands of references of trading of HeroClix- done. He still collects the main sets now, but to keep up with it- he sold alot of his figures. Figures I remember pulling out of packs, were just sold away, complete sets broken just to get recent. Instead of every REV, it's now reduced to just an R or just a V, silver rings rule the sets, with their purplr-ringed counterparts gone for new, copied figures. It's upsetting that I had to watch all of those beloved figures go, and now I'm left with some of them. On my bed I have 93 LE's, 10 Gold Print LE's, 22 Purple Rings, and 100's of REV's- the bit that's remaining of his once massive collection- and their also a fraction of what has left.

It's all because of you guys. This isn't meant to be a sob story, it's meant to try to hammer the nail home to whoever's in charge over there that this is what your doing to us. As a HeroClix community, we're seeing more and more hardcore fans, and just regualr fans buckle and submit under your hurricane like torrent of figures. While the old way was slow, it built a base like rock, that your wearing away to nothing but gravel. And it sucks. It sucks that not only has a fond thing in my life been destroyed by you guys, but that your doing it, seemingly oblivious, to so many others out there.

I don't expect anyone from WizKids/NECA to care, heck I don't even expect anyone from them to read this. Least of all, I don't expect them to understand what their doing to us- as a community of HeroClix collectors. With that being said, I hope more of us will post more stories of ours like this, and then maybe they'll start to see and understand- hopefully not too late. Whoever has read this, thank you, and hopefully you're from WizKids/NECA.

With concern twoards the future,
ThePolishYeti.

No.

That is all.

Wow! If you don't like it don't buy it but there's a whole community that is VERY happy to have new product again. Go ahead & pretend it doesn't exist if you like & play with your old clix as if the game did stay dead. (Edit - no one forced your father to sell off the old stuff to buy new. He made that decision of his own free will. Guess he likes the new stuff or why would he have done that?)

I'd rather have too much to pick & choose what I truely want from than nothing new at all.

I agree with you Yeti!

@brevard321- Wow, all of that writing by myself just for that one, non-specific anwser. Thanks.

@gambitrmp-
1. Where's this community, all you hear these days are reasons why this new setup sucks.
2. Kind of hard to pretend when I activly play in tournaments.
3. Ok, he doesn't necessairly like them. I said he was a hardcore collector. COLLECTOR. The idea is to collect every figure. If he collected an artist's set of 10 paintings, and only collected 4 of them, then it's not a collection- it's only pieces of it.
4. You would think that NECA would support you buying every figure you can being a hardcore collector, but by putting so much out their driving it so people should only be able to pick what they want limits the amount of stuff they'll buy. By doing what your saying, NECA is hurting itself!

Sorry. I lost your point in all the verbal diarrhea.

I'm happy with the current roll-out of Heroclix. Even if there's almost nothing coming in the second half of the year. It's clearly due more to the 10th Anniversary than anything else. Well, that and the crying for more that happened in 2010 and 2011.

Re: Convention Figures. They're not a smack in the face in any way, shape, or form. They're just an incentive/perk for those who win the tournaments at those cons. As for the SDCC, there's a good chance those will be available through some other way.

While I do find that my personal collecting habits have changed since NECA took over, and I dislike the big box store exclusives, I don't see a lot of logic to your OP, nor to this conclusion:

Many of us (in fact I think it's safe to say a clear majority) prefer to have new figures as opposed to no new product. Including, apparently, your father. How in the world would it have been better for NECA to let the game die? No matter how you might feel about how NECA is releasing their current product, that's just a nonsense concept.


You probably shouldn't let your limited personal experience color your perception of what is really happening. All evidence points to the community being larger and stronger than ever. That's WHY the company is releasing so much product - because they are making profits from doing so.


If you actively play in tournaments, why would you want the game to die? Because dead game eventually means a dead tournament scene. Is it would just be easier for you to walk away if the game were dead? Seems pretty selfish to me.


If he's selling off the older parts of his collection to collect the newer stuff, he obviously prefers the newer stuff to the stuff he's selling.


By that logic it would be better for NECA to release a single 100 figure set than to have a continuous release cycle. After all, 100 figures is WAY easier to collect than thousands, and it would make all the completionists happy!

I'm pretty sure NECA wants every player to collect whatever they can afford to collect. That's how they maximize sales (and hopefully profits). They certainly don't maximize sales by limiting their product to whatever number of figures every customer can collect completely. I have an established career, while some guys at my venue are still in high school or college. We're not going to have the same level of resources to use on this game.

Well said, Elfholme.

Another good thing to keep in mind is that not everyone likes or collects the same sort of things. Some people only like Marvel or DC. Some like both. Some only like the Avengers or the X-Men. Or on the DC side of things, Batman or the JLA. Some people like Cosmic stuff. Some people hate Cosmic Stuff. So what Neca/Wizkids is doing is really trying to please as many people happy as possible. Some people are completists, and while it sucks to be them... they really only have themselves to blame.

Hey man relax the wold of heroclix is growing and the way i see it it will become huge so there are different markets the company has to reach. .I don't buy hardly any dc. I am a marvel guy so after the avengers i will settle down on the buying and get to building a 3 d map. the sets are for all people to get a taste. not all people who play are hardcore. some pick up somethings for there kids, some to try it. I would love heroclix band wars where let's say Iron maiden's Eddie goes up against Ken Kelley's Man O War. and so on scooby doo would be pretty cool to. Just remember unless your a Millionare, you wont get every piece unless you work for the company or live in hong Kong.
And I have to drive 2 hours to play this game with anyone so don't cry about the too many set's when I ave to drop 40< bucks just to play in a sealed tournament!

So, Suzie's lemonade stand. Where can I find one of these? I could go for some lemonade. And, does she have pink lemonade?

@Beast- Well that's great as an incentive, but what if you can't make it to those torunaments? Say I live in Alabama? Not fair to us. Trade? Trading's still unfair because everyone there will jack the prices to $100 like with the Horsemen.

@elfholme
1. Even if they sold a 100 figure set, they'd make profit, they would selling any amount of figures.

2. Not necessairly, people will still play- and honestly it's just an injustice that every 30 minutes a set is released and old ones are being retired that have been being used forever.

3. Ok I'll tell you now- he hates what they're doing now but he wants to get them as a COLLECTOR, plus like #2, I actively play, so he get's them so we can get the LE prizes.

4. Well collectors get all 100, Suzie get's only DC because her lemonade stand is anti-Marvel, Bob can get his hulk figures, and so on and so forth- everyone satisfied. Plus if they wern't putting "chase" figures in every brick anymore and having 5+ to a set, they could make chase's like Crisis' Supermen, hard to get.

Last Paragraph- Then why are they making Toy's-R-US exclusives or Target exclusives. I live 90 miles away and would buy that set.... How's that maximizing profit?

First Paragraph- Am I being harsh? Yes. Do I wish it dead? No. It's jsut used to show how much i despise what they're doing.

@Beast Again
While their making some happy, they're driving away a part of their original starting base of fans. And lots.

@mikedwelch I'm sorry, are bands superheros?

@kuthell Right next to the Herocl- wait.... THAT'S RIGHT, NECA doesn't want to expand their reach of market! Sorry, but yes there is pink lemonade.

Sure, but given that, selling 100 figures is obviously not as good for their profits as selling 1,000,000 figures, right?


If you think we'll have a healthy tournament scene without new product, you must have missed what happened to the larger community during the "hiatus". I think we can extrapolate from that and from what has happened with other collectible games that stopped producing product and conclude that no new product being released would kill off the game.

Retirement is really a local issue, as WK's Modern Age is a tier that is set up for their big tournaments (Origins, GenCon). Most players wouldn't be affected by Modern Age at all if their local venues didn't enforce the restriction. WK certainly isn't telling local venues to run Modern Age events! I choose to ignore retirement in my home games, and the venue I frequent usually does as well. If your local venue is different, find out why, and if it's an issue for you, work with them to change it. In any case, that's a local issue, not a WK issue.


He's still making a choice that he would rather have the new stuff than the old stuff he's selling to get the new stuff. He's voting with his wallet. If WK responds by taking that cash, I'm not sure why it should be a surprise.


In theory, they are trying to reach folks that they won't reach by selling exclusively through game and comic shops. I don't personally care for the distribution method because Target and TRU aren't consistent in when they put product out, and they typically have VERY little product at each store. However, I don't know how successful WK is with it...maybe they ARE reaching a bunch of new potential customers this way. There are numerous reports of Target GF packs opened, but the chase Loki is still there...that smacks of kids looking for their favorite characters, not current Heroclix collectors. Some of those kids might start playing the game...


Hyperbole is really a poor tool for getting your point across.

Who ever told you that life was fair?
Do you understand the way that this whole process works? I don't think that you do...

If your venue only plays Modern Age, then I understand your frustration. Maybe you can encourage tehm to play some Golden Age?

Well that is his own personal burden to bear. I want them, too, as a collector...but I can't get them all. I will get as many as I can and live with the fact that I can't get every piece...that's the way it is for most people.

...and NECA goes out of business because they aren't making enough profit to justify the cost, or the prices are too high and players stop buying product.

Are you suggesting that it is better to have chases figs like Crisis Supes instead of the White Lanterns or other recent ones? That sort of undermines your whole "make it easier for the collector to collect everything" argument.

Because those are large stores which reach a larger audience than hobby shops. Are they accessible to everyone? Nope, but they are accessible to more people than if they were only at hobby shops. I would hazard a guess that they made out quite well with the Target exclusive AVM figures.
Hyperbole is rarely an effective method of proving your point.

If that is true then it will show in their bottom line and they will have to rethink their current strategy.
Have you seen that there were plans for Iron Maiden HeroClix? It is a perfectly relevant statement that he made.

Clearly. That is why they have started selling product in other markets, not just hobby shops...oh, wait.

LOL! Rep for similar thinking. At first glance, I thought I had double posted!

1) Well just thet way they are selling pretty much proves there are people happily buying this up. There have ALWAYS been moaning about this or that. But I'll conceded that the community as a whole is split. Guessing many of the happy ones are too busy playing to sit here & grip, always been a GUESS of mine. Always seem to run into more negativaty online than in person but in fairness I haven't been to a live event in years either.

2) Part of pretending they don't exist is not doing tournies that wouldn't exist if newer clix weren't being made. Were there events during the fall of clix? GUESSING not again. I was playing at home at that time.

3) If he's such a hard core collector, I again wonder why he didn't just finish out his pre-HOT stuff & say well I have everything from before the company change. Now he argueably has a really messup up collection from a collector standpoint and again he did that to himself. No one forced him to sell what he had.

4) As long as sets keep selling like they do, I'm not sure why they would care WHO is able to keep up & who isn't. Sales are good so somebody is buying. Sure that can change but not taking the chance on making a drive to grow the game is also a risk. Everything is.

I'm sure I didn't change your views any more than you changed mine. Do I get everything I want, no but I'm also not "villifying" a company for providing me with choices on what to buy & what not to buy. I'm making decisions on what I "can" or rather want to afford & what I don't.

Your personal situation is your personal situation. I can respect that you feel hurt that you can no longer be a completionist the same as I can no longer justify being a character completionist but that's honestly not exactly Wizkids FAULT for trying to run a profitable business. I choose to focus on the positives that there is new product, that it includes new characters, and buy what I can & enjoy using it.

I don't know it just seems to me that some people need to try to balance need & want better & little plastic super hero game pieces are clearly in the want not need category. Seems people forget that sometimes but so do I really.

You do have some sympathy from me. That doesn't mean I think Wizkids should change thier practices ... even the ones I personally don't like if it's working for them. They are not here to take care of me any more than I am here to take care of them.