winkerbean Posted November 11, 2008 Share Posted November 11, 2008 (edited) now over the past years i've only bought a few brick of clix here and there but this came as a HUGE!! shock.... The Topps Company announced today that WizKids will immediately cease operations and discontinue its product lines. Scott Silverstein, CEO of Topps, said “This was an extremely difficult decision. While the company will still actively pursue gaming initiatives, we feel it is necessary to align our efforts more closely with Topps current sports and entertainment offerings which are being developed within our New York office.” must be a sign of the times Edited November 11, 2008 by winkerbean Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
buttheadsmate Posted November 11, 2008 Share Posted November 11, 2008 (edited) I am actually quite new to collecting toy/action figures & when the 'speculative loss' of the Marvel license was all the talk here not so very long ago I couldn't believe my own feelings :sad: . Sometimes there is speculation here now & again about "How many Waves will there be?" & ,again, I actually shudder. Some poor bugger out there must love Heroclix as much as I (we) love Minimates & tonight I genuinely feel sorry for him. Sad. Edited November 11, 2008 by buttheadsmate Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shanester Posted November 12, 2008 Share Posted November 12, 2008 Topps has stated that they plan to stick to their sports theme as a focus, but may work with another entity to continue Heroclix. No promises, but a possibility. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TM2 Dinobot Posted November 12, 2008 Share Posted November 12, 2008 (edited) Heh. Wouldn't it be funny if WhizKids and DST hooked up? We could almost get different scaled mates, if they were heroclicks in MM style with no articulation. This came to a shock to me as well. I NEVER saw this coming. Edited November 12, 2008 by TM2 Dinobot Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shanester Posted November 12, 2008 Share Posted November 12, 2008 MY LCS does a Heroclix night (I do not take part in this) and the Topps guys hinted that H-clix may be reborn down the road. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TBT! Posted November 12, 2008 Share Posted November 12, 2008 I'm a bit of a boardgame geek and IMO HeroClix did two things wrong... Firstly and probably the most important is they made the game blind boxed collectable, so people ended up having to buy way more than they should to play the game, let alone get a full set of figures. In theory this is great for the company as they make more money but it drives all but the hard core gamers with cash to burn away! The Second was the ruleset that started fairly simple and just got more and more convoluted and contradictory as went by so it became in accessable for anyone to new to the game to pick up and enjoy. I haven't really played much clix due to the above but I know we have people here who have and I'm sure they'd agree with me. T. p.s. I was kind of bummed when a while back they made sportsclix baseball which was a fun game but totally changed the ruleset after the first set and then completely cancelled it after the second! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cappy Posted November 13, 2008 Share Posted November 13, 2008 The problem here is that you've got a baseball card company who owns a game company. Is it any surprise they don't understand the gaming industry and maybe aren't willing to stick it through some tough times to keep a good game in print? Of course, maybe the plastic-miniatures gaming has reached a saturation point -- there are certainly enough of them out there right now. It should be noted that another big leader in this market: Heroscape, has also been retired. And Timbo, interestly many of the points you made were addressed recent releases. This past year saw a streamlining of the rules, some of the collectibilty factor was removed and they had some decent full-game-in-one starter box sets. *sigh* Nonetheless, tis sad to see another gaming staple fall. Particularly since WizKids was a Seattle-based company and I (sort of) know some of it's originators. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pickle Posted November 13, 2008 Share Posted November 13, 2008 I'm a bit of a boardgame geek and IMO HeroClix did two things wrong... Firstly and probably the most important is they made the game blind boxed collectable, so people ended up having to buy way more than they should to play the game, let alone get a full set of figures. In theory this is great for the company as they make more money but it drives all but the hard core gamers with cash to burn away! Kinda reminds me a bit of those blind box Asian figures.... Kubricks I think they are called. Though not the same in size of number of figures per set, more like buying a pack of cards. The Second was the ruleset that started fairly simple and just got more and more convoluted and contradictory as went by so it became in accessable for anyone to new to the game to pick up and enjoy. And that reminds me of D&D and Magic the Gathering. Well, every game past its third year really. p.s. I was kind of bummed when a while back they made sportsclix baseball which was a fun game but totally changed the ruleset after the first set and then completely cancelled it after the second! Amen. All jokes aside, those are some great points, which is why I stopped after the second set. That and when Mage Knight 2.0 came out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NorthRaider Posted November 13, 2008 Share Posted November 13, 2008 I'm a bit of a boardgame geek and IMO HeroClix did two things wrong... Firstly and probably the most important is they made the game blind boxed collectable, so people ended up having to buy way more than they should to play the game, let alone get a full set of figures. In theory this is great for the company as they make more money but it drives all but the hard core gamers with cash to burn away! Kinda reminds me a bit of those blind box Asian figures.... Kubricks I think they are called. Though not the same in size of number of figures per set, more like buying a pack of cards. The blind-box strategy is also very popular with designer vinyl toys like Qee and Kidrobot's Dunny. I can honestly relate from personal experience that going down THIS collectible road is just about as fun as walking through a minefield, but designer vinyl companies probably did this because it is their idea of attracting impulse buyers. With HeroClix though the blind-box move is very questionable indeed, since we're talking not just about collectors but also gamers... I certainly do feel for the completist gamers sifting through all those darned Secret Invasion booster packs and not get a single Skrullectra. (Wait, did I get this wrong? I know nothing about how HeroClix chase figures are marketed.) I feel really sad now that another cool niche product like HeroClix is suffering. The fact that toy companies and big store chains these days would rather stake their money on something like Superhero Squad than on HeroClix or Minimates kinda pisses me off. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
buttheadsmate Posted November 13, 2008 Share Posted November 13, 2008 Blind boxing is probably as painful as...... Blind Boxing...... although you take more punches. Thankfully it is one avenue DST haven't gone down. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
karamazov80 Posted November 13, 2008 Share Posted November 13, 2008 Blind boxing is probably as painful as...... Blind Boxing...... although you take more punches. Thankfully it is one avenue DST haven't gone down. Praise the lord. I'm not at all familiar with these things, so I'm just curious: do these kinds of games lose their popularity quickly when the figures stop coming out? Will people stop playing? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
buttheadsmate Posted November 13, 2008 Share Posted November 13, 2008 Blind boxing is probably as painful as...... Blind Boxing...... although you take more punches. Thankfully it is one avenue DST haven't gone down. Praise the lord. I'm not at all familiar with these things, so I'm just curious: do these kinds of games lose their popularity quickly when the figures stop coming out? Will people stop playing? It usually ends in a KO ....the victim is invariably the referee or the time-keeper. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shanester Posted November 13, 2008 Share Posted November 13, 2008 The problem here is that you've got a baseball card company who owns a game company. Is it any surprise they don't understand the gaming industry and maybe aren't willing to stick it through some tough times to keep a good game in print? You know, they also tried to get into the Designer/Vinyl market, too. Their Subcasts have not exactly taken off. I commend their desire to branch out, but if you can't make a license like Marvel work, something is wrong. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pickle Posted November 13, 2008 Share Posted November 13, 2008 I'm not at all familiar with these things, so I'm just curious: do these kinds of games lose their popularity quickly when the figures stop coming out? Will people stop playing? When a TCG or CCG (like heroclix) no longer comes out with new products, it becomes like a self contained board game. It loses its tournament environment where there are prizes and the such, which means most people will stop playing and buying due to there being no "benefit" to continue playing. There are a lot of people who will still purchase heroclix because it was such a great game and they have put so much money into it already. Also, if it is the end, the products will get a lot cheaper. For example, the game I still play only costs $8 to get a box of booster packs, which would have cost $180 at retail when it was still on the market. I highly doubt that this is the end of Clix. Hopefully Topps will sell the game mechanics to another company that would do a much better job. Not WOTC (Hasbro) though, they would destroy it. Maybe they will open another gaming studio to focus only on Heroclix. Heroclix is such a strong selling game that there are probably already companies making offers. To be even more hopeful, if Topps does sell, maybe we will see Mechwarrior and Mage knight come back. So to answer your question. Yes they do but that all depends on how well Topps will support the tournament scene and yes, most people will stop playing. There is always something new for gamers to spend their money on. The one thing about the timing of this announcement and very well might destroy the future of Heroclix is that this month is when the World of Warcraft miniatures game comes out. If Topps does not make an announcement soon about the direction of Heroclix, most competitive players will switch over to the new game on the scene. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jcastick Posted November 13, 2008 Share Posted November 13, 2008 It really is and isn't a surprise that this happened... It isn't because the game started as a 4 figure booster for around $7 and the game was fairly easy to get into. But then, as stated, the rules got more and more convoluted, too many powers to keep straight and the worst part was the fact that boosters kept getting more and more expensive, then they changed it to add power cards to the game which was More crap that you had to lug around and plus making the boosters 5 figures for now over $10. It IS a surprise because this was one game that took off well and has been popular it's entire length of being available. It has a huge fan base and has a theme Many people love. On a side note, Wizkids games isn't the only company losing games....I heard from the owner of my local gaming shop that Wizards of the Coast is canceling D&D Minis! That is honestly more surprising to me then Wizkids games getting axed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TM2 Dinobot Posted November 13, 2008 Share Posted November 13, 2008 Blind boxing is probably as painful as...... Blind Boxing...... although you take more punches. Thankfully it is one avenue DST haven't gone down. But they did though. The SFII figures in Japan were blind boxed. Personally I don't see anything wrong with blind boxing. It makes it like a treasure hunt. People just need to realize that it doesn't work in the American marker. Almost very time someone has tried, it has failed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pickle Posted August 6, 2009 Share Posted August 6, 2009 Necro..... For this post and for Heroclix. Thanks to NECA. I don't play the game but was really happy to see the first pics from SDCC and then this: http://www.superherotimes.com/newsarchive/004928.php Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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