Plastic Pieces of Joy ?
Ok... Set up required for story.
I'm into shiny objects. I like them and can't get enough bright shiny objects. Many objects revolve around my love of comics. I like my comics, I like shiny objects so they're two tastes that taste great together- Comic Book Toys. I like buying action figures and posing them and collecting them....
So when Heroclix came out- a game that combined my love of DC heroes with little pieces of plastic of said heroes... I was pretty darn happy. The bloom came off that rose in about a year or so. I blamed it on two things- one was the game scene and two was the hoops wizkids made me jump through to get my geek on.
You see, I'm all about completeness. I like COMPLETE sets of stuff. Not a huge OCD, but there it is... so wasn't happy about all the levels of rareness in this set. First you had your 'normal' rares in a collectible game. Which is to say in most ccgs( collectible card games) you have common, uncommon and rare cards. In magic( to use the prime ccg as an example) you were promised a rare and two uncommons in each 16(?) card booster. In Heroclix... A lot less. The odds were 1 in 4 packs or so you got a rare. AS the sets came out, it was discovered that the uniques 'clump' so if you buy a pack and get a unique- you want to buy other packs asap from the same place as you had a better chance of getting another unique.
This also meant that it was theoretically better to buy a case- spend the money up front and get 8 uniques guaranteed. This didn't really work for me for 3 reasons- One sometimes it's easier to shell out 15 bucks a pop for 3 boosters when I can afford it then 200 odd dollars for the case. Two- you still don't have EVERYTHING. And by that I mean you still need more uniques and to trade for commons... as you really wouldn't get all the uncommon figures in a case. Third, part of what makes this doable is a quick turnaround to selling/ trading off all the common dupes you have... which I wasn't so good at. So the one time I bought a case- I felt sorta rooked....
Next are the LEs- at first you could only get them at tournaments- At first I stank up the place, then I'm not sure if I've got better( I hope) or my opponents have changed a bit( used to have a lot more players) but I'm about mid range. I can win a game or two but have yet to win a tournament and have only once won a fellowship. So the only way to get an LE was on ebay... which cost a bit of $. For the first DC set- I ended up buying most of the uniques and LEs on ebay or at a comic con or two.
But for the second set- I bought a case. I felt burnt as I couldn't make a set of commons( as mentioned above). I bought and traded for the uniques I didn't get and to get the 'high end' LEs( those that were only gotten at the release event aka marquee.). Because of the burnation of the second set, I barely touched the 3rd set, getting enough to sample and I got many of the 'low end uniques', but as a couple of the uniques from this set are going for $20 and upwards on ebay( KC Superman $40), I figure I could spend that money on other games or for food or other stuff.
HOWEVER, HOWEVER. And this is what I really wanted to blog about. Sorry for all the background but I felt I wanted someone besides evan to understand this. The current set has new rules- usually I'm against new rules but I felt I sorta wanted the cards for this set. I also *really* wanted the kingdom come flash and a set of Kid Flash/ Impulse figures and some other bits of plastic. Plus they changed the LEs in this set, now you could pull them from a pack, the pulled LEs would look a tad different but I didn't care. I did pretty well with the cards but not with the Uniques. I even went to the marquee to try my luck there. The marquee is a sealed booster game... you buy three and then fight. I drew OK but not great... However I got steamed because every one else pulled uniques and LEs but not me. I didn't win, as a GOOD player pulled a GREAT army. BUT. BUT. One guy had bought 3 boosters for tourney but then forgot to show up... The manager put them back on the shelf. I thought to myself that as said above, uniques bunch... So after begging to be given the 3 boosters( as I pitch in without pay a good bit), I paid for them and got an ok LE. Not one that I wanted but I was happy to have checked them for the Kingdom Come Flash. The KC Flash seems to be going for about $20+ on ebay and looks cool.
On Friday, the store gets some more HC and Mike feels guilty for making pay for the 3 that had already been paid for- so he let me take a DC booster for free... Nothing. So when I worked on Saturday, while the heroclix called to me- I didn't listen because I felt the set we had was 'cold' and the non unique part of the marquee shipment.
Then a bat freak comes in. This guy is just NUTS about batman. He starts buying the boosters hoping to find bats stuff... and he opens a KC Flash. I almost plotz. I had told him how much the KC figures are worth. I restate that the KC flash is going for $20+ on ebay. I'd be willing to pay $15 but that would be $15 CASH NOW. I really was upset and unhappy. He had gotten MY plastic piece of joy.
I was angry. And depressed. Of course I realized that he had paid more then $20 for the boosters... but still he had gotten a plastic piece of joy. However it wasn't HIS plastic piece of joy.
He later came back and said he'd sell me MOST of the figures he got for $10. I told him I'd take them but that I'd give him $15 bucks if he wanted.... as that's what I offered him for KC Flash. He said he only wanted $10 bucks... Which I gladly paid for a plastic piece of joy.
The epilogue is he bought another 3 boosters from another store today( we got bought out) and offered them up to me... I asked him if he wanted anything for them... Because while I didn't want these non u's( as I had no idea what they were or anything), I still was glad to get my plastic piece of joy- KC Flash from him... I offered him the $5 bucks left over from the KC Flash offer I gave him yesterday. HE accepted. But now on a level I fear that he'll keep buying boosters looking for Red Robin and expecting me to give him a kick back for the figures he doesn't want. So I wonder how much joy this piece of plastic will bring me.
It is a nice piece of plastic, you know.....
I'm into shiny objects. I like them and can't get enough bright shiny objects. Many objects revolve around my love of comics. I like my comics, I like shiny objects so they're two tastes that taste great together- Comic Book Toys. I like buying action figures and posing them and collecting them....
So when Heroclix came out- a game that combined my love of DC heroes with little pieces of plastic of said heroes... I was pretty darn happy. The bloom came off that rose in about a year or so. I blamed it on two things- one was the game scene and two was the hoops wizkids made me jump through to get my geek on.
You see, I'm all about completeness. I like COMPLETE sets of stuff. Not a huge OCD, but there it is... so wasn't happy about all the levels of rareness in this set. First you had your 'normal' rares in a collectible game. Which is to say in most ccgs( collectible card games) you have common, uncommon and rare cards. In magic( to use the prime ccg as an example) you were promised a rare and two uncommons in each 16(?) card booster. In Heroclix... A lot less. The odds were 1 in 4 packs or so you got a rare. AS the sets came out, it was discovered that the uniques 'clump' so if you buy a pack and get a unique- you want to buy other packs asap from the same place as you had a better chance of getting another unique.
This also meant that it was theoretically better to buy a case- spend the money up front and get 8 uniques guaranteed. This didn't really work for me for 3 reasons- One sometimes it's easier to shell out 15 bucks a pop for 3 boosters when I can afford it then 200 odd dollars for the case. Two- you still don't have EVERYTHING. And by that I mean you still need more uniques and to trade for commons... as you really wouldn't get all the uncommon figures in a case. Third, part of what makes this doable is a quick turnaround to selling/ trading off all the common dupes you have... which I wasn't so good at. So the one time I bought a case- I felt sorta rooked....
Next are the LEs- at first you could only get them at tournaments- At first I stank up the place, then I'm not sure if I've got better( I hope) or my opponents have changed a bit( used to have a lot more players) but I'm about mid range. I can win a game or two but have yet to win a tournament and have only once won a fellowship. So the only way to get an LE was on ebay... which cost a bit of $. For the first DC set- I ended up buying most of the uniques and LEs on ebay or at a comic con or two.
But for the second set- I bought a case. I felt burnt as I couldn't make a set of commons( as mentioned above). I bought and traded for the uniques I didn't get and to get the 'high end' LEs( those that were only gotten at the release event aka marquee.). Because of the burnation of the second set, I barely touched the 3rd set, getting enough to sample and I got many of the 'low end uniques', but as a couple of the uniques from this set are going for $20 and upwards on ebay( KC Superman $40), I figure I could spend that money on other games or for food or other stuff.
HOWEVER, HOWEVER. And this is what I really wanted to blog about. Sorry for all the background but I felt I wanted someone besides evan to understand this. The current set has new rules- usually I'm against new rules but I felt I sorta wanted the cards for this set. I also *really* wanted the kingdom come flash and a set of Kid Flash/ Impulse figures and some other bits of plastic. Plus they changed the LEs in this set, now you could pull them from a pack, the pulled LEs would look a tad different but I didn't care. I did pretty well with the cards but not with the Uniques. I even went to the marquee to try my luck there. The marquee is a sealed booster game... you buy three and then fight. I drew OK but not great... However I got steamed because every one else pulled uniques and LEs but not me. I didn't win, as a GOOD player pulled a GREAT army. BUT. BUT. One guy had bought 3 boosters for tourney but then forgot to show up... The manager put them back on the shelf. I thought to myself that as said above, uniques bunch... So after begging to be given the 3 boosters( as I pitch in without pay a good bit), I paid for them and got an ok LE. Not one that I wanted but I was happy to have checked them for the Kingdom Come Flash. The KC Flash seems to be going for about $20+ on ebay and looks cool.
On Friday, the store gets some more HC and Mike feels guilty for making pay for the 3 that had already been paid for- so he let me take a DC booster for free... Nothing. So when I worked on Saturday, while the heroclix called to me- I didn't listen because I felt the set we had was 'cold' and the non unique part of the marquee shipment.
Then a bat freak comes in. This guy is just NUTS about batman. He starts buying the boosters hoping to find bats stuff... and he opens a KC Flash. I almost plotz. I had told him how much the KC figures are worth. I restate that the KC flash is going for $20+ on ebay. I'd be willing to pay $15 but that would be $15 CASH NOW. I really was upset and unhappy. He had gotten MY plastic piece of joy.
I was angry. And depressed. Of course I realized that he had paid more then $20 for the boosters... but still he had gotten a plastic piece of joy. However it wasn't HIS plastic piece of joy.
He later came back and said he'd sell me MOST of the figures he got for $10. I told him I'd take them but that I'd give him $15 bucks if he wanted.... as that's what I offered him for KC Flash. He said he only wanted $10 bucks... Which I gladly paid for a plastic piece of joy.
The epilogue is he bought another 3 boosters from another store today( we got bought out) and offered them up to me... I asked him if he wanted anything for them... Because while I didn't want these non u's( as I had no idea what they were or anything), I still was glad to get my plastic piece of joy- KC Flash from him... I offered him the $5 bucks left over from the KC Flash offer I gave him yesterday. HE accepted. But now on a level I fear that he'll keep buying boosters looking for Red Robin and expecting me to give him a kick back for the figures he doesn't want. So I wonder how much joy this piece of plastic will bring me.
It is a nice piece of plastic, you know.....
1 Comments:
At 4/04/2005 12:53:00 PM,
Unknown said…
While I agree wholeheartedly about the downsides to collecting a game like this for the OCD collector (of which I'm one), I read (and maybe misread) a common incorrectness in this post regarding the appearance of rares in boosters.
Many people (including one of our local comic shop owners) think that rookie=common, experienced = uncommon, veteran = rare and unique/le = really rare. And then complain about how awful a lie it is when WK claims each booster has one uncommon and one rare figure when they open a booster with 4 rookie figures in it.
The problem is that this is NOT how the rarity works in Hero Clix. The exact specifics are long and complicated and more geekiness than I want to write about, but it nutshells down quite neatly to this:
Take a set, subtract the uniques and divide by ABOUT three (in every set since the first 2 and excluding Indy this left you with 96-12 uniques, leaving 84 REV figures, divide by 3 for 28).
In the above example, the first 27 figures in the set (ie the first nine REV SETS) fill your common slot. This means that set figure #3, the Veteran whomever, is a common, while set figure #81, the rookie whomeever is not (and usually, the commons are the first ten revs if my numbers are working right). You're guaranteed to get two of these first 27-30 figures in each booster (barring factory screw-up). The next third of the set, all R, E and V are the uncommons and each booster will have one. The remaining third of the REVs comprise the rares and every booster will have one EXCEPT for in certain boosters which will have a more rare piece: a unique or "super-rare" (the LEs that are now available in boosters). The ratio of these is: 1 unique in every 6 boosters, and one super-rare in every twelve (case buyers, as you mention, almost always get exactly eight uniques and 4 super-rares).
By the way, I'm stoked you finally got the Jolly Rancher, I mean KC Flash
Post a Comment
<< Home