Counting sets for next year and I've come up with this for just my buying habits:

Spiderman Set + GF: $300 (Roughly)
Iron Man STarter +GF + Mini-game: $100
Teen Titans Set w/ Superboosters: $250
Wolverine and the X-Men Set: $250

Thats $900 out of pocket and it isn't even July yet, not to mention I'm sitting out batman releases which will be releasing alongside all of that. Not to mention almost all of No Man's Lands events will be sealed and I'm gonna guess that Fear Itself will be the same. I'm not complaining about the amount of money I'll spend, that's my own fault(Wish they weren't releasing 3 sets +the Iron Man thing back to back like that though, literally hit my fav DC team as well as my three favorite marvel characters back to back ) but I honestly think that they are oversaturating the market. Not to mention collectors of star trek minis and assassin's creed minis, etc. are gonna have even more things to think about buying.

Also I see switchclix as being horrible for Hero-Clix. Does anyone else not see them taking everything they have licensing to and making one shot board games, tabapps, or anything else and using the magical power of "Switch-Clix" to make us buy them because they'll have hyper-competitive dials and our favorite characters on them?

For tl;dr : Jesus that's a lot of clix (/cheer even though my wallet is crying) and Switch-Clix are da debil.

It's called running a business

I agree that it is a glut of product, but in my opinion their logic seems to be that the community was able to absorb the glut of product this year, so they should be able to handle as much or more in the future...

I'd say more, but I commented on this already in the video thread. Thanks!

So all the guys that said "don't complain, it's 10th anniversary, it will settle down next year", were wrong.

As long as the Retailers are placing enough orders wtih Distributors, and the Distributors are placing enough orders with the manufacturer, they will make as much as threy can as fast as they can.

However, I think this is going to back fire on them, in one or more ways, if sales drop, since people cannot afford it all, which will not only cause people to stop buying/playing partly or wholey, it is also causing people to lose interest, since too much product is not giving them time to learn the figures in one Set, and if retail sales drop for any of these reasons, the retailers will start getting stuck with the product that they cannot sell or are unable to sell fast enough, which they may need to do, to pay the bills, which will cause the retailers to place less orders, which will hurt the Distributors, who will then place less orders, which will hurt the manufacturer.

Many of the changes that has been made by Wizkids since the sale from Topps to NECA, and the HOT Set, in my opinion, are only geared towards maximizing profit, with no care as to how those changes will negatively effect sales and the game in the long run, with the exception of one change they have made. They are not geared toward what should I be doing to keep interest and generate interest in the game and growing sales, and only what can I make now. They do allot of things to give the impression the game is doing well, like make lower production counts, so they can say a Set sold out faster. I do not see that business model lasting.

I think the game has gone downhill, sicne they started making smaller cheaper made figures, and non-comic accurate dials; and then got worse when they started making FF and GF/CTDs with duplicate sculpts, with each Set release; and the Movie Sets, which have no comic accuracy; and started issuing too many of the same characters in one set and year, and too many sets in one year.

As far as I am concerned, the new Wizkids since the sale has slowly ruined the game, from having narrow vision and not being happy with a certain profit margin, that came off a certain business model that kept and generated interest, which they have abonded, for the "got to make as much as I can now thought mindset". NECA seems to be used to doing this with other types of Toys, but a Collectible miniatures game is different and has more long term staying power, and if you do things that kill the long term staying power, you do not make as much as you could, and ruin a good thing. Mr. Ziran is now the top dog, and probably not totally responsible for these things, and the Sets made this year, so the Sets we see next year have to be under his approval, and we will see if he puts a stop to the things I mentioned above, which I feel is hurting the game.

It's called over-saturation. Try pouring a gallon of water on your potted plant and see how well it grows.

10th sold out in days. Looks like there isn't enough water for the plant yet.

They are making product and people are buying it. Until it people stop buying they aren't going to change anything. Obviously there are people that like what they are doing and are buying a lot of product. And stores are making a bunch of money too.

The key in the long run will be making all future HC product 100% compatible with all existing product.

As long as a HC 2.0 never happens (zero compatibility), the game will continue despite the protests of players who can't afford new product. I'd love to have everything, but it's logistically not possible on my budget.

Adding Merge and Split retroactively was a very smart move, but I'm curious to see how SwitchClix is received, and how much of a longer-term impact it has.

I agree. And I think WK knows this. Split/Merge is the best example of WK making sure they don't alienate any part of its fans.

The thing I fear and expect from SwitchClix is the design will make them the best version of character X so fans feel compelled to buy it. Tab App is a perfect example - those pieces are superior to any ones that came before. I expect the Batman from the Batman board game to be better than the Batmans coming out with Batman just like the Batmans coming out in Batman are better than the DKR Batmans.

When I think about an Iron Man 3 set, I can't see it being worth buying a lot. They would have to reduce the number of Iron Man armors to 1 or 2, maximum, then come with compelling pieces to round out 40 figures. A War Machine is obvious, but I'm not looking for a Nick Fury or another Black Widow. Sure we'll get a Crimson Dynamo (got one in Cap America) and we'll get a Whiplash (brand new character) and a Mandarin (could stand to be improved) but I think for $40, I can get everything I want and be done.

Spider-Man has potential depending on the villains and allies. A great Spider-Man dial won't happen in the set because it needs to be saved for Tab App or some board game. Daughters of the Dragon is a must - so is this a singles only set or do I buy a brick?

As an X-Men and Teen Titans fan, THESE are the sets that speak to me and I'll be getting at least a brick of each. Since I'll be getting a brick of Batman and a CTD of $treets of Gotham, my spending should be in line with what I usually get.

The sooner you realize that HeroClix is transitioning from a "Collectible Miniatures Game" (CMG) to a "Trading Miniatures Game (TMG), much like CCG/TCGs, the happier you'll be. The next iteration is the "DeckBuilding" Miniature Game ... and you're pretty much into boardgaming at that point.

Yes. They were, in fact, 100% wrong.

Heroclix is becoming a very character or dial driven game. Its not necessarily a bad thing. Its different.

When Indy Clix came out I bought some. The reason: it was the only set out during that time and the venues ran Indy Clix games. Once the next set came out (I think it was Cosmic Justice or maybe Xplosion), I never used them again.

Now there is no time between sets, really. I bought JL52 and played a pair of games on the day it was released. The next time I was able to play was when 10th Anniversary came out - so I bought some and played one big game with them.

I would like to play sometime soon - but I haven't used much of 10th nor any of my JL52 outside of my original 4 figure purchase. I really wanted the Marquee Batman. But then I saw the JL52 Batman and thought he sounded neat. I didn't pull him but before I could buy him as a single, the FF Batman caught my eye (and was played against me that day). I wanted him and bought the FF pack a few days later. Seeing the preview of Batman, the 88 point Batman looks incredible. I don't need the Marquee Batman that I intended on getting earlier and I don't want the JL52 Batman I wanted a few weeks ago. I know the Batman board game Batman is going to be even better (whether through options or abilities for the points).

So now I focus on looking for those handful of pieces that fit what I need and if I miss them I can rest assured a better version will be coming around the corner.

So get the characters who aren't going to appear in every set and ignore all those repeat characters who just get more and more efficient with each release.

Yup. This is how I see it.

Can you tell me the difference? I thought these were interchangeable terms.

That's my dream- I'm a comic fan and a gamer and have never liked random boosters.

As long as they keep making stuff that is good I will buy. I'm a little disappointed that WoS got retired so fast and now we have the Amz Spider just around the corner.

I don't like the sealed event suggestion from WK for no mans land, because that hurts those of us that go to multiple venues and some venues think of that as the only thing to do. One suggestion from a fellow gamer was to just do sealed and not buy boosters outside of that, but that messes with the super boosters of batman and let's face it after market for those is going to go through the roof just like GG ones.

My only worry is how fast sets are turned around and when retirement hits how many sets will get the axe. I know from a business sense you always want new products flying off the shelves and you want to keep things interesting so I'm not sure what can be done.

The idea retirement was a way of keeping tournaments "fresh" or allow new players to "get into the game" can officially be declared dead.

Modern Age is fast becoming another tool that WK gives to retailers to get more money from their customers. We aren't there yet, but it will be important to see when the next cut-off for Modern Age begins. Getting an entire set dedicated to Iron Man while we have:

gg101 LE Iron Man
AVM205 Iron Man
AVM019 Iron Man
AVM006 Iron Man
FF001 Iron Man
CW201 Iron Man
CW024 Iron Man
M10A012 Iron Man
M10A009 Iron Man
tabM-003 Iron Man

available in Modern Age seems really weird to me.