Today you get a two for one! Not only am I going to give you the top ten best sculpts for a heroclix figure ever, but I’m going to give you a top ten of the best sets for sculpts too! Of course, this list may change after Chaos War comes out, but until then, feast your eyes on these!

First let me tell you the specifications I’m using for these decisions.

-Main sets only. No gravity feeds, fast forces packs, starter packs. It takes more effort to make those awesome sculpts and control quality in the main sets than in the smaller ones.

-No colossal figures but duos may count. Once again, Colossal figs are a whole different scale and aren’t comparable to standard pieces. Yes a standard giant may be considered.

-No chases or LE’s. It’s too easy to order special detail for these figures. I challenge them to make the “everyday” figure rock.

-Detail: how fine is the detail on the figure or figures (setwise) and for sets, how many make the grade? For sets I graded each piece via A, B, C, or D. The sets with the most A figures were the ones to get considered.

-What’s new about it? Does this figure bring a new look or innovation in sculpts? Is it a first or did it “break the mold”? For a set, how many figures in the set can we say did the same or close?

-And past all that, does it just look ridiculously cool?

So, let’s start with single pieces and see what the best figures ever are (yeah, I know it’s my opinion).

10: Spiral from Clobberin Time: I know what you’re thinking. You see one multi-armed figure, you’ve seen them all right? Well, Spiral and Six armed Spidey were the first of their kind. Spidey came out cool, but Spiral beats him in detail. They’ve also never topped her by making another Spiral since then. The scale of making these figures was a lot different then. Because of all the swords and smaller stature than the Spider-man piece, Spiral was not easy to make. That means she was ahead of her time. That’s why I give her the number ten spot!









9: Supergirl from Crisis: The only thing lacking in sharp detail is the guy she’s holding over her head. But wait a second…. She’s holding a guy over her head! That means you get the impression that she’s running around bashing people with this tied up dude’s body! That was a radical move as sculpts go. They tried this again in Hammer of Thor with Volstagg, but it just doesn’t give you the same effect. So what did that guy do to tick her off like that? I don’t think we want to know. So, thanks to a fantastic innovation and some great detail on the girl herself, Supergirl gets the number 9 spot.









8: Human Torch from Fantastic Forces: First of all Fantastic Forces blew a lot of people away with the amazing amount of detail in every single sculpt they made. It was the first set of its kind and to my knowledge they found it expensive and never went that route again. And why would they? Even the dials were laminated! But the Torch, well, they’ve tried, but never beat this awesome sculpt of the Human Torch. And he’s exceptionally detailed right down to the 4 on his chest. On his face you can see his cheek bones and brow lines. Now that’s detail! It’s detail worthy of this list and the number 8 spot.






7: Wonder Woman from Arkham Asylum: Anyone can make a sculpt holding a big rock, but a Roman pillar? The scoring detail is great all around the pillar and makes it a believable weapon. Wonder Woman’s details are sharp too, right down to her eyes, stripes and stars. I think this is the best Wonder Woman sculpt ever and they are going to be hard pressed to beat it. And while Supergirl had an awesome weapon, Wonder Woman’s details are way better. It also doesn’t hurt that the dial reflects the pounding it looks like she’ll give. But if Wonder Woman is number 7, what could we be seeing for the rest of this list?








6: Green Goblin from Web of Spider-man: Not only was a new Green Goblin much awaited and anticipated, they gave him to us in spades. You get detail right down to his teeth, jutting jawline and belt buckle. Rather than give him some ho-hum plastic stick to sit on, they made it look like he’s actually flying right out of your comic books and onto the table. It’s not all smoke either, there’s actually a burst of flames too. They gave Green Goblin a style lacking in flying figures since Human Torch. Part of what gives him the number 6 spot is how much the sculpt matches up to the character and its history.






5: Nightcrawler from Fantastic Forces: Speaking of matching the character, this sculpt, a first of its kind, just does that. Not only do you get the exceptional detail of the Fantastic Forces set (just look at his face!) but you get an accurate image of him going into teleportation combat. Hard enough to do one long pointed tail, but two? And check out his toes, they are in great detail and even show flexing motion. Nightcrawler has been fortunate to always get a good looking sculpt, but out of them we have this one at number 5 to be the number 1 Nightcrawler. (And before you point it out, yes the photo is of Kurt Wagner, but I maintain all the REV's looked the same and they are in my storage so this was the only one I could photo)






4: Storm from Giant Sized X-Men: What’s not to love? Her hair, the lightning, her eyes, and the intricate details in her dress all make for one awesome sculpt. Never before has a figure wielding lightning been done so well. Let’s face it, she also gives fanboys something to really drool over. It’s the best Storm ever and more than worthy of the 4 spot on this list. Wait, did I say lightning?















3: Black Adam from Superman: Actually Storm’s lightning is still better but this is a complex piece and a first of its kind. How is it a first you ask? Take a look at that soldier, it’s based on the winner of the 2010 World Championship, George Massu. Yes, that’s supposed to be George himself in Black Adam’s grip. Champions have designed pieces before, but never been part of the sculpt before. Try telling that one to your grandkids. The piece follows this up with great detail and just the right combination of shine and flat paint styles. That’s what I call the 3rd greatest sculpt ever.












2: Flash from Crisis: So I spoke a bit too soon on the lightning, but that’s not all that makes this piece so awesome. The complexity of this piece is astounding and depicts an accurate legendary scene from Flash. You can see how he dissipates as he runs himself to death. You won’t find another sculpt with a character literally killing himself in such graphic fashion. For that matter, it’s the only sculpt ever to depict a character’s moment of death. Now I bet you are wondering, what in the world trumps that makes Flash number 2?







1: Magneto from Giant Sized X-Men: For what it is, Magneto is the most complex sculpt ever made. Accurate colors on the energy field, explicit details on the debris and on Magneto himself, make this an incredible blockbuster of a sculpt. There’s even a waffle pattern and wording on the sewer lid he’s got hovering over him. Making this tall sculpt of Magneto definitely pushed up the bar and “broke the mold” on designing a HeroClix figure. There are sculpts, like Darkseid with his portal behind him, but none of them have this kind of intricacy. I would challenge the designers to not make a figure like this something that never happens again. It’s this kind of awesome detail that makes it fun to put a figure on your team and see them on the table. That’s why Magneto holds the number one spot, best sculpt ever.






Now for the top ten sets for sculpts. As I said above, I went through and looked at each and every piece, making as much of an effort as possible. I graded each piece at A for best pieces, B and C for great or good/okay pieces, and D for those that just didn’t work out. The sets with the highest number of A grades in CUR’s and Super Rares won their positions on the list. Granted, you may have graded them differently, but this is where my critical eye put things.

10: Web of Spiderman with a score of 24: This set brought us a lot of cool sculpts and a couple of breakthroughs like Green Goblin, Mysterio, and Doctor Octopus. The Spider-man pieces were neat and innovative. Honestly they were close to taking way more than the 10 spot but 36 pieces hit the B grade and prevented that. Still, not a failure as a set in sculpts with only 3 in the C grade and none in the D.

9: Sinister with a score of 24: Sinister was the last REV set to make this kind of score. It’s harder to get that much mass production to come out like that and they had sharper details than Web of Spidey. Just to mention, I graded each set of REV (rookie, experienced and veteran) with a single score to be fair to the sets that don’t do the triples anymore. Even so, that made grading a bit harder for these sets. So Sinister earned its mark above WoS with a small margin.

(Honorably mention goes to Arkham Asylum for having a score of 24. The set was barely beat out by detail)

8: Secret Invasion with a score of 26: Four pieces hurt this set and all of them were the Skrull duplicates. Captain Marvel, Ms Marvel, Yellow Jacket, and Electra all had blotchy detail in paint that hurt their score. The other Skrulls (super skrulls) were actually highlights of the set and helped set the score where it is.

7: DC 75th with a score of 26: In the case of this tie I moved to the B’s and DC broke past Secret Invasion by 2. So it was a close call. 75th had some nice sculpts but also some plain ones. Even so, the plain ones were still done well enough to make a B score. Neither set had anything in the D’s. As a matter of fact, none of the sets on this list had any that scored a D. Keep that in mind for later.

6: Mutations and Monsters with a score of 28: This set has some great detail in sculpt and paint. It also brings us gladiator Hulk who just looks outright cool. The three C grades for this set went to Golden Age Xmen and even they didn’t really look “bad”.

5: Captain America with a score of 29: Nothing in the C category for this set and it shows a definite effort to make pieces look cool. I’m sure they wanted them to look extra good for the new game mechanic in removable pieces. It was a cute mechanic, but you can see we don’t still have it. There had to be some extra expense in manufacturing the extra pieces that had to lock together.

4: Fantastic Forces with a score of 29: Nothing in the C category for this set either. It beats out Captain America by detail alone. Fantastic Forces blew people away when it came out and stands as the best made REV set ever. If I were only grading the REVs it would be number 1. This set proves that, in manufacturing, you get what you pay for. Higher detail can be ordered. This set had to be higher expense to make with the laminated dials and extreme detailing. As you know, they never did this again.

3: Superman with a score of 31: This score honestly surprised me. I went into this thinking I knew who would be number one and Superman was nowhere near that. There’s a lot of good effort in Superman for its detail with highlights like Darkseid, Steel, and Superwoman.

2: Giant Sized X-Men with a score of 35: This set speaks for itself. With pieces like Predator X, Storm, Magneto, Juggernaut (and the list goes on), this is the set I thought was going to hit number one. Take a look at Cyclops, a common and his excellent detail right down to his visor. It’s those fine details and solid sculpts that brought this set to number 2 and almost number 1.

1: Hammer of Thor with a score of 36: This set was the “break back onto the market” set and they needed it to look awesome. Even the generics of the set have excellent detail. Hammer of Thor holds a defining place in HeroClix history. Take a good look through them sometime, and use a magnifying glass.

So who failed?

Since the awesomeness of these sets, especially with Hammer of Thor being number one (so since Hammer of Thor) the three worst sets are:

3: Hulk with a score of 16
2: Galactic Guardians with a Score of 11
1: Brave and the Bold with a score of 10
Lowest score ever goes to Icons with a 7.

Since Superman there has been a steady decline in grade whether from manufacturing or quality control. Maybe they aren’t paying as much for detail, who knows. Take a look at Superman’s score above and compare to Hulk and GG. This isn’t saying that Hulk and GG were “terrible sets”, just that they were less quality in detail than those sets. So consider yourselves challenged NECA/WizKids and bring that talent to the table.

In one final note I want to point out an issue with sculpt reuse. There is a division amongst players in whether or not this is even important. For those who want less reuse, it may be because the dynamics have changed since cancelling out doing full REVs in sets. Back then, sculpt reuse was accepted as the norm because they had to do three of every main piece in the set. This made for huge sets and lots of printing. Now that the triplicates aren't necessary, some want to see more posing and dynamic sculpts rather than reuse. I'm one of those players though I do accept sculpt reuse to a point. Too much reuse shows a lack of effort.

Hope you enjoyed the Top Tens, keep on clixin!

how in the world is
the sprectre(cr)
silver surfer(gg)
doomsday(sm,75th)
spider-man 2099
ghost rider(ff)
the thing(si)
PRETTY MUCH THE WHOLE HALO SET
RAMPAGING HULK
aquaman(75th)
kingdom come gl
M.O.D.O.K(ca)
mighty thorr
hulk buster

not on the list?? any of those are better then wonder woman,black adam or storm.

Thanks for the list, but this is proof-positive that beauty is in the eye of the beholder. That Supergirl sculpt makes me throw up in my mouth...but just a little.

I would also be inclined to disqualify DC75 on the basis of the Zamarons, Superman, Captain Comet and Bart Allen. It does have Sinestro, though.

Sigh, why do people insist on doing this? Why aren't they on the list? Because this is a top TEN. Please count how many you just posted and guess what. HALO is HALO not HERO. And I specifically said NO gravity feeds or starters, MAIN SETS ONLY. I also said no chases. Otherwise I would have been pulling from Lord of the Rings, Green Lantern Gravity feed, Street Fighter.... see? As for best sculpts from a Gravity feed that's going to be Street Fighter as far as I'm concerned.

And yes, beauty is in the eye of the beholder, that's why I acknowledged in parenthesis that I know this is my opinion :D

If I don't post something that is your personal favorite, it doesn't mean I don't think it's worthy or that I'm trying to insult you personally.

I spent hours all week long going through every single piece I own (that isn't in storage) and online, there are THOUSANDS of pieces to go through. I did it because I wanted to write and entertaing article for you with as much actual effort put into it as possible. (Noting that all the other writers here do the same for you)

I totally accept that you may not agree with me and it doesn't offend me at all.

I chose what I chose and posted my reasons. As others have said before me (because a disclaimer is apparently always needed) please don't get angry. It's just this writers opinion. I feel I presented my opinion in an educated fashion with details to support them.

So, I tell you what, go through your ENTIRE collection and narrow your favorites down to just TEN, then come tell me what they are and why. Not just a list off the top of your head, go and actually do the comparisons. That is my challenge to you. Thank you for your opinion and have a great day.

Posting this now before this kind of thing goes any further.

Nice work Dave. Thanks for the thoughtful list you compiled. Obviously it's you opinion and I agree with most of the list. However, when I ask "Where's Fantastic Forces Spider-Man?" I'm not saying that you're personally insulting me. I'm just giving you MY opinion about who I think should be on the list. These lists always bring about a debate. And some of the debate, unfortunately, devolves into an unnecessary argument. It is opinion after all. There is no correct answer. With that being said, my favorite is the Spider-Man 2099 figure. And it is my opinion. Thanks.

not really commiting on your choices more to the idea.

i guess i had a list of my best sculpts i my head, but looking at them, i guess most are LE or chases

i always held the playstation hulk as the best sculpt yet, but i am trying to come up with the list of best common figures, uncommon figues , rares and superrares now.

thanks for the idea.

Gotta add the new AVM 022 Destroyer sculpt to the list.

It is just as badazz as a Heroclix can get.

Super, I look forward to seeing it :D

And everyone:

I just don't want people to lose objectivity on it and that has been happening a lot lately. I usually just brush it off as opinion but today I want to challenge everyone to think more.

What does your favorite figure have in it's sculpt that others don't? Did it bring a new innovation or style? Was it a first of it's kind. There are a lot of super awesome sculpts out there, but when you try to narrow them down, I thinkl you'll find yourselves as challenged as I was.

I love the Halo set. It is so much fun to play and blends in with regular clix much better than LotR or Street Fighter. And I love the sculpts: Master Chief on a Ghost?!?!? OMG - Perfect!

But the paint job on that whole set just sux monkey nuts. Its like they hired the set out to a bunch of slave laborers or something. Its just bad. Sculpts are great - paint jobs awful.

Okay, let me re-iterate the AVM 022 Destroyer piece and explain why:

1.) The sculpt is massive without being "chunky". Though the decision to make him a giant is somewhat confusing, the sculpt just screams "Power!" It is tall and meaty and muscular looking and just begs to be used.

2.) The little spikey details make a large sculpt all the more intimidating. Those details make the figure look menacing and dangerous - as it should.

3.) I love the Destroyer. And I have since I started collecting comics in the early 1970s. The movie Destroyer - and its Heroclix counterpart - does a great job of taking the beefy Jack Kirby creation and modernizing it just enough without losing its classic sensibilities. It is an example of an update done right.

4.) The way the paint job brings out the details really gives you the impression that this is a fully charged Destroyer, ready to unleash hell on an unsuspecting victim. This guy is NOT waiting for the bus - he's about to destroy the bus, the station and a large chunk of whatever town it sits in.

How's that?

how was halo not a full set??? it came in full blind boosters, had each rarity and everything. just because it doesn't come from marvel or dc doesn't mean the character isn't a HERO. it still doesn't account for the rest of my list(take off hulk and thing). any of the ones that i listed are still better then the wonder woman. holding a huge pillar does NOT make you innovative, and really doesn't make you one of the best of all time.

Halo clix, like Horror clix, is not HEROCLIX. It had/has it's own set of rules and plays differently than either Horror OR Heroclix. I am only talking about Heroclix, sorry if that was somehow confusing.

Then again, this is "heroclixrealms" not "horrorclixrealms" or "Haloclixrealms" right?

As for the rest, thank you for your opinion.

How's that? Nicely said actually. And it is an awesome sculpt. It stands as one of the many reasons that HoT is my number one listed set for sculpts. Still, while it has the ominous and foreboding to it that you mention; it doesn't give me the other aspects I was looking for. It doesn't bring something that "little bit different" to the table (again for me). It wasn't a historical first. It's an armored thing with big fists, much like the Hulkbuster Ironman. It was just missing that "something" I was looking for. But, it's still an awesome sculpt. I won't debate that.

I think he means the Avengers Movie Destroyer—although the HoT Destroyer is also nice. Also, FWIW I appreciate the time you put into this list, the reasoning (even though I disagree with it), and the excitement of your list. What I don't understand is the defensiveness in your response to Larthossgr8?

When you title something like "Top Ten Best Sculpts Ever!" you are inviting disagreement. We all know that this is opinion vs. opinion.