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SDCC14: WizKids Games Wrap Up
Latest Word On HeroClix Including Exclusive Flash News & More...
San Diego Comic-Con is always a big stop each year for WizKids Games, and 2014 was a banner year with not just HeroClix on display but also Dice Masters, Star Trek Fleet Captains, Star Trek AND Dungeons & Dragons Attack Wing, non-gaming miniatures, and more. You can see everything shown off at the NECA booth in our photo gallery (link above and below) including epic dragons (like Tiamat and Bahamut), Star Trek Fleet Captains Dominion ships, new Attack Wing like the epic and gargantuan Borg Cube, and upcoming HeroClix reveals from the Flash and Guardians of the Galaxy sets! During the show, we got to sit down and talk with reps from WizKids and here's what we learned.
HeroClix players currently have more options than ever before for playing in competitive tournaments and getting access to exclusive prizes with everything from the increasing number of WizKids international events to the Con In Your Store program hitting stores this month. Immediately before the start of SDCC WizKids also announced the new Open series, a competitive regional program that will feed players directly into national championships (this year's top players qualify for next year's Worlds!). WizKids sees this as a pilot program and is hopeful that with its success this year they can expand it in the future with more and more participating stores. Already they've had many requests from venues around the country to get in on the fun next time around. Con In Your Store, meanwhile, is the most broad-reaching and grass roots new program, and it's something the guys at WizKids wanted to do for a while. They see it as an alternative to trekking to big conventions, which not all players can do. It gets exclusives and for-sale items out there, and every venue has an equal opportunity to participate. WizKids is monitoring how stores are doing and listening for feedback; everything they learn will go into improving potential Con In Your Store events in the future (nothing announced yet). With both the Open and CIYS, WizKids emphasizes that players will get out what they put in; just like at any convention the organizers and players need to work together to ensure a good time with posted information, excitement, and good sportmanship.
Going on right now across the world of HeroClix is the DC War of Light storyline OP event, and if your local venues are anything like mine they're packed with eager players! WizKids learned a lot from last year's Fear Itself OP event, particularly when it came to the first ever HeroClix tournament boosters and supply and demand; War of Light features two distinct waves of tournament figures with their own complete rarity schemes. And with the new initiative that all OP kits are designed for 10 players venues have more flexibility and freedom than ever before to tailor their orders for the number of players they get, and venues getting multiple kits have more prizes than ever before to distribute.
Looking ahead, the next DC Comics set on the horizon focuses on the Scarlet Speedster with the Flash! Due out in November, this expansion will bring many (all?) of the characters known as the Flash, speedsters both good and evil, more Flashpoint characters (we got to see a prototype of Deathstroke at SDCC), Rogues, the fan poll winner Etrigan, the Authority, and much more. Notably, WizKids has announced that the Flash set will have a new level of rarity, an Ultra-Chase figure. This announcement has had a huge impact on the player community with varying opinions on both sides. WizKids is committed to trying new things and this is a way to shake up the status quo; they'd also like to urge players not to presume the worst, saying that the Ultra-Chase is not likely to be "everyone's favorite character." We even have a bit of exclusive news from WizKids and can confirm that the Cosmic Treadmill will be a 3D object in conjunction with the Flash set! Beyond Flash, 2015 will bring a tremendous Trinity War set with every version of modern Justice Leagues, and the Crime Syndicate Fast Forces.
On the Marvel side, of course the big news at San Diego was the reveal of quite a few figures from the upcoming Guardians of the Galaxy comic book set! On hand were characters like Star-Lord, Gamora, Captain Marvel, Shriek, Iron Man, Korath, and many more. Previews for the set have also started coming along with official tournaments like the Canadian HeroClix Championship event. Look out for a lot more in the coming weeks until the set releases. Beyond DC and Marvel there are big things coming for Yu-Gi-Oh too, with the Series 2 set on the schedule for August/September and the epic OP storyline event Battle of the Millennium starting in October!
Outside of HeroClix, WizKids has had huge successes with Marvel Dice Masters (and they're working to get more Starters out there), and the follow up to the initial launch comes in September with the Uncanny X-Men expansion. As noted above there were awesome Dungeons & Dragons minis on display at SDCC, both from the Icons of the Realms booster set and Attack Wing. Speaking of the tactical flight game, attendees will be able to play the first full demos of D&D Attack Wing at Gen Con with dragons, troops, heroes, etc.!
If you play HeroClix or any of the other games from WizKids, there's a lot to look forward to in the rest of 2014 and into 2015 including the new monthly HeroClix Organized Play kits that start with the X-Men, Excalibur, Justice League, and Gen 13. 2015 will also have another mega OP storyline event from Marvel or DC (unfortunately we couldn't get them to tell us which one)! So stay tuned for more exclusive news and reviews here on Figures.com!
-Scott Rubin
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