REVIEW: WizKids Games Marvel HeroClix Guardians Of The Galaxy Movie

[JeffSaylor]

Collect And Play The Unique Characters From This Summer’s Hottest Flick...

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Unless you’ve been hiding under a rock for these last few months, you’re probably aware that Marvel Studios has one more treat for audiences this summer, a little thing called Guardians of the Galaxy. And while that may not be one of Marvel Comics’ biggest properties, in addition to a diehard core group of fans/readers (among which I count myself) it’s an absolute treasure trove of unique and awesome characters with endless adventure and wonder in deep space. The marketing push for the film has spread awareness of these characters like never before, and by the time the summer’s up Rocket Raccoon, Groot, and the rest will be household names. So while we all wait for the August 1st release date, what about collectibles? Well, beyond the kids’ toys at the big box stores (and until later this year when some of the expensive items arrive) there’s a whole line of great Guardians of the Galaxy collectibles known to miniature gamers with a HeroClix set from WizKids Games! Capturing the iconic heroes, bad guys, and all those living in the gray area in between them, this set offers tons of fun play options as well as great collectible miniature figures. Today we’ll be taking a close look at one segment of the Guardians of the Galaxy movie HeroClix release, the core “hobby” Gravity Feed!

While probably best known for its sprawling five-figure booster expansion sets, HeroClix also regularly brings movies to the game with properties like Man of Steel, Lord of the Rings, Iron Man 3, Dark Knight Rises, Captain America: Winter Soldier, and many more. The now familiar release plan for these special sets is a gravity feed of blind bagged single-figure boosters available at both “hobby” (comic and game shops) and mass market (Target, etc.) stores with some figures in common and others exclusive to one or other. In addition, there’s often a Starter Set that reuses sculpts from the gravity feed with new dials, maps, and everything you need to play the game in one box. Guardians follows this outline exactly with an overall gravity feed collection of eighteen figures, eight of which are shared between markets, plus four rares and a chase unique to each. Both sets come in the same box, a big purple affair lavishly covered in movie promo artwork, logos, and CG renders of some of the figures. Each HeroClix figure is held securely in a plastic holder which in turn is sealed in a foil wrapper.

Collation is not (and never is) guaranteed, but in this box and what I’ve seen of others it’s very good. In the 24 packs they generally have two of each common, two of each rare except for one (a single), and one chase figure. The eight commons of Guardians of Galaxy, which are uniform in both hobby and mass market boxes, have a great balance of the main characters you’ve already seen in the previews and on posters along with some cool generics for army building. While they’re not exactly paladins, the self-proclaimed “Guardians” are about as “good” as you can get in the wild reaches of space and you’ll find three of them here with the half-human Star-Lord, deadliest woman in the universe Gamora, and everyone’s favorite “not a raccoon” Rocket Raccoon! Backing them up or imprisoning them, depending on which trailer you watch, is the space cop organization the Nova Corps, and they’re represented here with generic Corpsman and Officer figures. We don’t know very much about the big bad in the film, but you can find him among the commons with the mighty Ronan the Accuser figure, and he too has minions with the Sakaaran Soldier and Sakaaran Commander generics.

The hobby store rares flesh out the groups introduced among the commons with another Guardian of the Galaxy, another member of the Nova Corps, a bad guy, and a mysterious character we don’t really know. That order describes the massive tree-like Groot, Nova Prime Irani Rael, the evil (?) blue cyborg Nebula, and the even more blue pirate Yondu! [If you’re keeping score, the rares you’ll find at Target, etc. are Guardian Drax, Nova Corps Rhomann Dey, Ronan’s subordinate Korath the Pursuer, and The Collector who we first saw in the credits of Thor: The Dark World.] As of now the most eagerly pursued of the hobby rares are Groot and Nebula, though they’re all great figures.

Finally, most gravity feed boxes (but necessarily every single one) will contain a single chase figure, and for Guardians WizKids has created two alternate versions of the main heroes. At your comic book store if you’re lucky you can pull a beefed up version of Star-Lord with a unique unmasked sculpt holding the object seen in the film’s trailers! [The mass market boxes yield a chase version of Rocket Raccoon that’s similarly more powerful than his common counterpart and with a unique sculpt.]

Movie HeroClix sets like Guardians of the Galaxy offer fans and players a unique opportunity to collect and play alternative versions of comic book characters in terms of both dials and sculpts. Many of the main characters in this set have appeared in the game once or twice, but now, for instance, a Guardians fan can reach for the comic book Star-Lord or one of the movie figures. As noted above, they also serve as neat collectibles of the film’s characters and as such feature very highly detailed sculpts for their small size. In particular WizKids is always improving their likenesses of real actors and CG characters. There’s also a nice range of poses as appropriate to the characters. Common Star-Lord blasts at his enemies with a wide-legged gunfighter stance while Ronan the Accuser threatens mayhem with his Cosmi-Rod, and the forces of the Nova Corps stand at attention. There’s a lot of great texture work like Groot’s bark skin, Rocket’s fur, and Sakaaran armor. Standouts for me include common Star-Lord with his detailed mask, the Sakaaran Commander whose face is truly horrific (and unfortunately too small to see easily in photos), and of course the always awesome Rocket and Groot. Meanwhile, look for good likenesses of actors on figures like chase Star-Lord (Chris Pratt), Irani Rael (Glenn Close!), Yondu (Michael Rooker), Nebula (Karen Gillan), and more.

Guardians of the Galaxy figures come in a wide range from the ground-pounding 45 point Nova Corpsmen to the fearsome 275 point Ronan the Accuser (and the Starter Set version is even more powerful!) and everything in between. Interestingly nearly every figure in the set has at least one Trait, and there are plenty of Special Powers too along with some Improved Movement, Improved Targeting, lots of Indomitable, Sharpshooter, and even some Swimmer. Groot and Rocket Raccoon at opposite ends of the size spectrum bring in the Giant and Tiny symbols, and if there’s one place this set is lacking it’s Team Abilities; some of the Nova Corps have Police and the Collector from the mass market set has Power Cosmic. I won’t talk too much about the Traits and Special Powers since some of them are a bit spoilery for those unfamiliar with the characters, but there are lots of cool ones that combine standard powers, allow attacks after full movement, spice up rivalries when certain opponents take the field, support allies, and lots more. There’s a very cool “stop click” on one of the figures that includes some mechanics we’ve never seen before, the Sakaaran Soldiers have a great minion power with their Commanders, and fully THREE of the new Nova Corps figures have “Share Through The Worldmind” Traits that boost allies and work perfectly with older Corps members!

Earlier I explained how this gravity feed works, and that you’ll get different rares and chases depending on where you purchase the figures (comic book/game stores vs. Target and mass market). In addition to all of that there’s a Guardians of the Galaxy movie HeroClix Starter Set with six figures sharing the same sculpts from the gravity feed but new dials: Star-Lord, Gamora, Drax, Rocket Raccoon, Groot, and Ronan. If you’re new to the game but interested in playing, or you love these characters, the Starter is the ideal product for you because it includes a rulebook, Powers and Abilities Card, a double-sided map, and everything else you need to play the game, and the dials of the included figures are scaled to make team building easy. You can find that Starter in comic book and game stores everywhere.

While we won’t really know how good Guardians of the Galaxy is until August 1st, the buzz is through the roof and if you’re reading this you’re probably going no matter what anyone says. And whether you’re looking for more collectibles of these new movie heroes or you’re a hardcore player, you should definitely check out what WizKids is doing with the Guardians of the Galaxy HeroClix. At $2.99 the single-figure gravity feed packs are the perfect impulse buy, and who knows, you might pull the chase Star-Lord!

Visit HeroClix.com for even more info as well as downloads of rules and maps, and check Figures.com regularly as we continue our reviews of new HeroClix!

CLICK HERE FOR OVER 55 NEW PHOTOS!

Review and Photos by Scott Rubin

Review Samples Courtesy of Wizkids Games

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