Wednesday, March 04, 2009

Heroclix saved?

From the folks at Save Heroclix

Sorry for the radio silence for the last week or so; we've been hearing some tremendous news and we've been waiting for the time where we could spill some major beans. While we can't say things in plain English yet, we do have some announcements.

#1 HeroClix will be sold, and it will be sold shortly. Both Topps and a newly formed game company have agreed in principle, and are hashing out their final deal.

#2 The game will be sold to a new ownership group that Pinata Games' members have met with and talked with over the past few months. They're nice people and we think they have some solid ideas...some BIG ideas. We've worked together with them on a few little projects tied into their purchase of the brands.

#3 In addition to HeroClix, the new group is buying some other brands from Topps, and other WizKids' fans may be delighted to hear what the new group wants to do with them.

#4 While Pinata Games will not be owners of the properties, we are working on a long-term deal with the new owners to collaborate with them on the relaunch and operation of HeroClix. We officially will announce our partnership with the new group after the purchase of the brands.

#5 Justin Ziran (CEO of Pinata) has been out-of-state talking with the new ownership group for the past few days, and he has nothing but good news to report. We anticipate a formal announcement some time over the next couple of weeks, which may have some other interesting news in it as well.

To reiterate, this is great news, and we'd like to thank all of the HC fans for remaining so resolute during this process.

-Jake Theis

Delightful. I would like to state publicly that I would be thrilled to help the new owners of Heroclix in an area where it's always been lacking: the maps. As you can tell, I just loving making Heroclix maps and would love to see some of my designs be part of the new owner's offerings... .

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

Well, in the long run, this is good news for me. While the "hiauts" has caused an upswing in my custom commissions, I can't see interest in customs continuing if the game itself is allowed to die.

Confirmation word: "avortsk". An abortion in Belarus?

Anonymous said...

Thanks for the update, Scipio. I'm very pleased to think that HeroClix may return to life sometime this year.

Diamondrock said...

Good news indeed. I was worried that HeroClix would disappear before I ever got the chance to get into it. I'm hoping to pick it up when I get back to school.

I should go ahead and buy that figure I've had my eye on so I can customize it for my "Blog Team."

Scipio said...

Blog Team...?

Diamondrock said...

Oh yes. I am putting together a team composed entirely of characters I obsess about on my blog. Doctor Polaris and Azrael will headline and there will be a motley collection of backup singers...

George S. said...

*checks calendar*

Well, that's good to hear.

I hope their definition of 'couple of weeks' matches up with the rest of fandom. Still, even if I don't play the game much anymore, I'm glad it has the chance to come back.

Anonymous said...

I wonder if the other games included in that package includes Horrorclix. I play mine together, and it seems most of my customs lately have been horror clix (ghostbusters and Weeping Angels)

Heartiac. said...

Thats good news, hopefully they can diversify the lineups a bit though... I like Batman, but I am unclear as to how many Batmen anyone needs...

Anonymous said...

Mathias, it would be great if Heroclix and Horrorclix were made compatible. There are lots of characters that could "cross over", like the 70s Marvel monster characters. I've done one Horroclix custom myself: Carl Kolchak (complete with Vincenzo and Miss Emily victim tokens).

Anonymous said...

I enjoyed HC for many years, and owned 90% at one time or another. But I lost interest because of two reasons...

(1) I just want to play Golden and Silver Age characters, not modern ones, and HC dragged their feet bringing them out.

(2) I am done with buying figures sight-unseen. No more closed box purchases for me. I have been strictly loose for years now. I want only the characters I want. Boosters cost waaaaaaaay too much to pull a bunch of junk. It costs no more to produce an awesome 250 point Superman than a 20 point thug. And I'm not in this for the thugs.

The new owners need a NEW model for selling these sets. Abaondon the reliance on our gambling addiction ("gimme another booster, I want that Thanos!"). I'd rather pay a little more and know what I'm getting.

Anonymous said...

Anonymous wrote:

"I just want to play Golden and Silver Age characters, not modern ones, and HC dragged their feet bringing them out."

And I echo those sentiments, but WizKids wanted to sell what was popular, i.e., current, so the Golden Agers in particular were relegated to the occasional appearance as a Unique figure, while both DC and Marvel increasingly used the line as just another way to pimp for their current "big" storylines.

I finally got tired of waiting for official Golden Age releases, so I contracted with Totaltoyz to make me lots of Golden Age conversions: Rockman, Ibis, Sheena, the Purple Tigress, Firebrand, the Red Bee, Spy Smasher, and dozens more.

"I am done with buying figures sight-unseen. No more closed box purchases for me. I have been strictly loose for years now. I want only the characters I want. Boosters cost waaaaaaaay too much to pull a bunch of junk. It costs no more to produce an awesome 250 point Superman than a 20 point thug. And I'm not in this for the thugs."

Personally, I'd like to see more of the 7-figure (or however many) Collector's Editions. Give me an All-Star Squadron set, or a Liberty Legion set, or a Freedom Fighters set (all Golden Age, of course). Or Silver Age Batman villains, or the Challengers of the Unknown and their foes, etc. I'd buy just about anything that didn't include mutants or the Super Young Team.

It would also be nice to see more characters from beyond the world of DC and Marvel: THUNDER Agents, the "Comics Greatest World" folks from Dark Horse, Image and Wildstorm, and hey, maybe even some Canadian and British supers!

Eltolad said...

Just a quick question, do you still have some of those old maps for heroclix? I found a few on your site, but the place you hosted it at no longer has the files.

You can contact me at ebayeltolad gmail com (insert usual punctiuation)