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No. 1

Molly Hayes [What If 011] 

This piece is the epitome of F.U.N; and here’s why:

Fellowship-

At first glance, you’ve got a tough piece ahead of you. Average stats across the board, with invincible and a killer special damage power that can pull off silly amounts of damage. I’ve killed a-many enemies by smashing them into walls, or tossing them off buildings Hulk-style. If you get a mere 2 damage through to her though, the truth emerges. She’s just a little girl with 4 clicks and very little to stop much else.

LEVEL: MODERATELY HIGH

Utility-

Now, she may seem like a one-trick pony as a secondary attacker, but with her knockback and boosted values whether or not she charges, the importance of one strike breaking up your opponent’s group is crucial. She’s a wretched wrench in your opponent’s plans, tossing all about willy-nilly. You can count on her also soaking up AT LEAST two hits in a turn, all for fifty points. Not great, but dang is she great at what she does.

LEVEL: MODERATELY LOW BUT I DON’T CARE

Nerdcore-

Have you read the “Runaways” series? Princess Powerful was the hardest-hitting, one-shot-one-kill young lady who could really only take one or two hits before naptime. Plenty of pizzazz and spunk for the whole team, with a HeroClix piece that fits her to a “T”. Get it? “T”?? TBT??? Anyway, she’s the closest comic-to-’clix piece I’ve ever seen, and a character that deserves more love.

LEVEL: HIGH

Molly Hayes comes out on top. I knew it once I pulled her. There’s so much to love about HeroClix, and at the core of the game, it’s the representation of characters. Princess Powerful was always a sleeping bear in the “Runaways” series, written to a perfect accuracy for her young age. So blissful, and yet she RIPPED OFF CLOAK’S COWL/CAPE. Right outta the dark dimension! How do you put that into a HeroClix? Super Strength, Close Combat Expert, and (almost) guaranteed knockback of four, maybe? All in one. She’s perfect. I can’t wait to further indulge in the 2017 continuation of the “Runaways”comic.

Here’s to HeroClix, y’all. May your dice rolls be higher than two.

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No. 2

Throg [The Mighty Thor 033] 

Oh, mighty Throg. Wielder of a sliver of Mjolnir, a mere frog who be worthy. Let’s dissect this frog’s F.U.N factor…

Fellowship-

His values low-to-average, with the only real threat coming from his Perplex special that’s limited to animals… or the almost non-existent-in-modern-age Pet Avengers. Let’s be honest as well- every time I see this guy, I chuckle. His sculpt is great, and unless your opponent hates fun (or Perplex), everyone loves this piece. Even the free Frogjolnir can’t make Throg unfriendly.

LEVEL: MODERATELY HIGH

Utility-

Perplex, Perplex, Perplex. In actuality Throg’s only real issue is movement and range, and top-dial movement is backed by Sidestep. Push him once for a sweet boost to his values and added Energy Explosion. Or don’t. 45 points never looked so good. Or, uh, maybe not. I like frogs, so I like him.

LEVEL: MODERATELY HIGH

Nerdcore- I hate to admit it, and as I write this I’m finding a Pet Avengers comic to read on

my tablet, I’ve not actually read a comic with Throg in it (unless you count his cameo in the series “Thor: God of Thunder” which was excellent in itself). This is, however, the beauty of HeroClix: you find a figure, look up its comic series or graphic novel, and you READ MORE COMICS. That’s a win-win in my book.

LEVEL: MODERATE I GUESS I DON’T KNOW A LOT ABOUT THROG

Honestly Throg was going to be my number one, except my number one has been in my heart ever since I pulled her…

Next: WHA-? THAT’S NUMBER ONE?

No. 3

Iron Heart [Avengers Defenders War 071] 

The first, and probably last, Riri Williams click in her O.G. Iron Heart armor. An interesting concept, as I don’t believe she spent much time in her suit, but dang did HeroClix do it right. I’m not a huge fan of having chase-rarity as a F.U.N piece for accessibility, but this one takes the cake.

Fellowship-

Nothing about Riri screams “INFINITE POWER”. 18 defense is her max, 10 attack top-dial. Her sculpt is a little intimidating, lightning shootin’ everywhere, but 25 points is not scary at all. The fear-factor is her ability to soak up damage. No matter how much damage she takes, if she rolls well, she can last up to six clicks before finally falling apart. A wonderful piece to play around with, your opponents will enjoy the possibility of K.O’ing her in one attack. LEVEL: HIGH

Utility-

Riri’s 25 points are useful. Always. Access to Probability Control, Outwit, or Perplex allows her to be useful anywhere, anytime. The takeback is her fifty/fifty chance of hitting the worst power in the game — Earthbound/Neutralized. The other half-chance is Sidestep, a great re-positioning tool for a support piece like Iron Heart. That’s all, too. No attack or defense powers to speak of on her entire dial. LEVEL: MODERATE TO MODERATELY HIGH

Nerdcore-

Good news: This may be the first and last ragtag Iron Heart we get. This is

volume one of Riri’s makeshift armor, and since then we’ve seen her grow into a real hero. As she develops into a smarter and stronger hero, the idea of throwing her into her first suit would seem silly, like a Spider-Man without webbing. This creates a cool, niche-like factor that she falls into.

Bad News: None. Well, aside from making the almost-impossible EXACT comic-book-to-HeroClix transition, this piece is pretty darn good. LEVEL: MODERATELY HIGH

Three isn’t bad! I’m not a huge Iron Man/ Iron Heart fan, and her chase-status held her back from being top-two. Sorry Riri fans! Next: Two might leave a frog in your throat.

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No. 4

Batroc [Avenger/Defender’s War #050] 

“HON HON HON EET EZ EYE, ZAY-LEE-PAIR!”

Mais oui, Batroc, the flying French villain makes top-ten. Goodness me, this piece is F.U.N. Also fun to play with! Allons-y!

Fellowship-

Forty points, with a sculpt that really catches the character that is Batroc. Though he has modest values, with only one special power on the dial, Improved Movement through just about everything hinders his friendly factor, but it’s zay-lee-pair! You can’t knock him for being one of the most maneuverable piece on the board! No big complaints on the fellowship side of this piece.

LEVEL: HIGH

Utility-

This is where the Frenchman falters. Badly. His point value and lack of keywords allows him to fit into some teams, but only for ONE PURPOSE. He is the best close-combat tie up piece I’ve seen, with the exception of the Carnage Colossal’s pogs that get popped out. Combat reflexes guarantee a NINETEEN defense when he’s adjacent, and his improved movement allows him to dodge line-of-fire very well. His special movement power grants TWO sidesteps when he has one action token, AND a free attack boosted with precision strike. Eight movement (boosted to twelve with sidestepping) almost guarantees he’ll be in your face. The good: He’s REALLY GOOD at what he does. The bad: HE CANNOT DO ANYTHING ELSE.

LEVEL: LOW

Nerdcore

This piece, in my firm opinion, captures who Batroc is. Ugly costume, impressive movement, rather above-average human bean. Flashy, a little arrogant, and a pain in the neck. We’ve seen plenty of Batroc in ‘Clix already, but this specific piece is a welcome update to a piece recently missing in the modern age, especially after his one-and-done appearance in “Captain America: The Winter Soldier” movie.

LEVEL: comme-ci, comme-​ç​a- MODERATE

I use this piece regularly. It’s rare for me to use a piece over and over again, but this piece! It’s so good! Totally not overpowered either! Seven down, three to go. WHO WILL TRIUMPH???

Next: Number three got heart.

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No. 5

Squirrel Girl [Deadpool & X-Force 039]

Tippy Toe [Deadpool & X-Force 010]

You can’t have Squirrel Girl without Tippy Toe. It’s blasphemy! It’s like salt without pepper! Or steak without potatoes! OR OZZY OSBOURNE SPEAKING CLEAR, CONCISE ENGLISH WITHOUT SINGING! It’s just not right! Time for a duo-review!

Fellowship-

These two scream fellowship. Kind of. Tippy Toe, mostly. She’ll ping you for one damage if you aren’t careful. Squirrel business and whatnot. Squirrel Girl hampers the score here, she’s actually REALLY strong if you leave her alone to gather up squirrel forces to fight you. Also her 11 attack and Exploit Weakness strike fear into the heart of, specifically, Thanos and Galacticus. Honestly if I had separated these two, Tippy Toe would probably be top-two. YOU CAN’T DO THAT THOUGH.

LEVEL: T.T. HIGH, S.G. LOW. MEDIAN LEVEL: MODERATE

Utility-

Squirrel Girl shines here. Producing pogs and dealing major close-combat damage really allows her to flex about the battlefield and stretch your opponent out. If given enough time, she can get Squirrel Man on the field, a MAJOR threat if left alone with Super Strength, Charge and Impervious. Meanwhile, Tippy-Toe is really only a minor thorn in the side of the enemy, dealing out one damage at a time. She’s really good against non-stealthy supporting pieces, who often get tossed in bushes to protect them from range attacks. Or you can push her to gain Exploit Weakness on click 2.

LEVEL: MODERATELY HIGH TOGETHER OR SEPARATE

Nerdcore-

This is why I’ve placed them together. The only time I’ve seen Squirrel Girl without Tippy Toe is when S.G is trying to be the average everyday college girl with a totally super secret. Thus my totally sensical and logical conclusion. They’re about as close as they’ll get to the comic book with these two figures.

LEVEL: MODERATELY HIGH BUT ONLY BECAUSE I HAD TO PUT THEM TOGETHER TO BE A TEAM INSTEAD OF A SUPER COOL DUO FIGURE OR WHATEVER

SG&TT had this coming. A wonderful character with great writing whom I totally don’t have a weird fantasy crush on, HeroClix had to do it right. They knocked it out of the park, figuratively speaking. Not literally. Squirrels are usually in parks.

Next: Quatre!

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No. 6

Ms. Marvel [The Mighty Thor 037] 

If you haven’t read a Ms. Marvel comic book yet, do yourself a favor and pick one up. Hers isn’t the best comic you’ll read all year, but my goodness is she a good character. A product of a new generation, one with pre-existing superheroes. The base line’s been set for her, and she takes off with it. Time to take off with why she’s only number six!

Fellowship-

This is her weakest F.U.N factor. She seems unassuming, but hoo boy is she a tough cookie. Every turn she has potential to heal one click. Her values are solid either half-dial she goes to, and is a pain in the butt to hit too. Way too strong to really be F.U.N. Sorry, Kamala. LEVEL: LOW (LIKE WHEN SHE’S TINY)

Utility-

90 points ain’t that much. So if you want a strong tie-up or secondary attacker or Outwit and Perplex support, Kamala is hard to look past. She can do it all, all in a couple turns. If you want to compare her to her idol, Captain Marvel, in the same set, I’ll always choose the Ms. EVERY. SINGLE. TIME. Sorry Carol, but your Civil War counterpart is more “worth it” (even if Hypersonic Speed, Perplex, and Super Strength is surprisingly strong). Ms. Marvel’s keywords allow theme teams galore! LEVEL: HIGH (LIKE WHEN SHE’S ALL BIG)

Nerdcore-

In the pursuit of finding a perfect comic-to-HeroClix piece, This Ms. Marvel gets it pretty right. I think that’s she’s a little too strong though — Kamala hasn’t quite put her hero life perfectly together. Her ability to change is a little too free, especially for the amount of energy it takes her to pop up and down, and then heal when she’s not changing shape. Oh well — she’s darn good for what we got, and I am not going to complain any further! LEVEL: MODERATE

Ms. Marvel is AWESOME. I love Marvel’s devotion to creating a newer, younger generation of superheroes as the old fade. You’ll see at least one more piece in the U-18 category before the list is done. Next: Five is times two!

No. 7

Nico Minoru, [What If? 031] 

I LOVE “The Runaways” SERIES. They’re an oft-overlooked graphic novel series from my youth, but with the new 2017 series out, they got the love they deserved in “What If”.

Now, Nico’s spells don’t work twice, and they way they worked that into her piece is wonderful. Let’s look.

Fellowship-

Seventy-five points for a pick-a-power piece. Sound familiar? Well, unlike a certain king of goblins, Nico’s got a handicap. You get two, but not the same TYPE of power each turn. Can’t overuse invincible, or a combat expertise, or hypersonic speed. It’s a great limiter. Your opponents won’t feel like you’re breaking the game with something like, I dunno, the Infinity Gauntlet. LEVEL: MODERATELY HIGH

Utility-

I got what you need, son. Most of the time. Almost every other turn. Depends on what you need. All for a nice, clean 75. You like keywords? I got mystical. Everybody likes mystical. Deal? Deal. LEVEL: MODERATELY HIIIIIIIIIGH

Nerdcore-

Nico’s powers are limited. She doesn’t have a spellbook, but I have a feeling she started carrying a thesaurus around so her staff didn’t mess with her. This piece is the only piece that’s captured that issue with incredible accuracy. The “What If” storyline involving the kids with the young avengers fleshed out her abilities and added keywords that allowed her and her team to become fully realized HeroClix, not just half-done pieces like we got before. LEVEL: MODERATELY HIGH

Okay, okay, okay. She rated super well. “Why isn’t she higher on the list?” someone is asking. “You love the Runaways, TBT. How could you throw her down to number seven? What is wrong with you?” The answer: She’s just too difficult to use. She gets in her own way by being super good, and getting in the heat of battle can lead to forgotten powers and unsportsmanlike conduct. F.U.N, yes, but too difficult to use regularly. Next: six is almost halfway there!

No. 8

Groot [Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 002] 

IT’S LIL’ GROOT! He’s the best part of the second movie, easily. Other than Mary Poppins, of course.

Fellowship

Ten-points-per-click Groot is not scary AT ALL. Tiny Shape Change can be frustrating though. LEVEL: I AM GROOT

Grootility-

One job only: be carried and en-DANCE. Get it? Enhance/ en-dance? He’s super good at this. Well, he can be used for tie-up with his shape change, but I don’t recommend it. No reducers and low odds for shape change put him at odds with my idea. LEVEL: I AM GROOT?

Nerdcore-

As far as a movie tie-in set goes, this was exactly what I thought this lil’ groot was going to be. He’s there for the comic-relief, support for the rest of the wonderful cast. Never the true center of attention, but with the little things he did, he put himself in the spotlight. This is a rare “comic-to-movie-to-clix” transfer that really did well for me. I love it! LEVEL: I! AM! GROOT!

At the end of the day, the Marvel movie series is doing really, really well. I love it, most of the public eye loves it, and with characters as memorable as Groot is, you’ve gotta love comics going mainstream. There’s just so much you can do right with the current trend! The big issue is that you can do a lot of wrong as well… Onward to the final seven!

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No. 9. 

Pirate Deadpool [Deadpool & X-Force 065]

Pirate, ninja, cowboy! Just like rock, paper, scissors. In this iteration, pirates rule. This piece is so much fun. Everyone gets to be a pirate! The real difficulty is actually getting him…he’s a chase figure.

Fellowship

Out of the many Deadpool figs to come out this year, this one takes the cake for me.

It epitomizes who Deadpool really is: a swashbuckling adventurer with a heart of gold. He’s not even ridiculously strong! Just kind of strong. I’ll say this — your opponent won’t hate to play against him. His high defense value is a turn-off, sure, but average 10 attack and 3 damage at his point value is not scary. Just think: For five more points, you can have Jakeem Thunder. Way more powerful! LEVEL: MOD-ARRR-ATE

I swe-arrrr, that’s the last pirate-pun. Probably.

Utility

More useful than you’d think, with a plethora of powers through his dial, Pirate Deadpool is comfortable in land or at sea. Thematic as well, with half Running Shot and special Penetrating/Psy Blast and Charge/Blades on separate halves of his dial, he simulates fighting from ship-to-ship and then the infamous board-and-burn! You’ll never be caught unawares with this piece! LEVEL: HIGHER THAN THE FIGHTIN’ TOPS

Nerdcore

We got just about every variation of Deadpool this year, if not all of them. Round of applause to Wizkids/NECA for that. This one is the coolest, by far. I said cool, not “riding a unicorn EPIC”. Pirates are still cool. Yarr. LEVEL: MOD-ARR-ATE I’m not a big fan of Deadpool. This one though? SHIVER ME TIMBERS!

Next: He’s somebody! Absolutely eight!

Hooray: The worst is over! Now we move on to our most favorite thing here at Heroclixin’: The F.U.N.

Normally, this is where webmaster Rurouni KJS dishes on the top 10 F.U.N. figures of the past year according to the following criteria:

• Is the figure FRIENDLY and FELLOWSHIP-worthy? That is, if your opponents see this figure on your team, will their hearts utterly sink at the prospect of dealing with it? If so, it’s not F.U.N.
• Is this figure still USEFUL and full of UTILITY anyway? If so, it may be F.U.N. But it shouldn’t run TOO high on this scale, or it may overwhelm the Friendly portion!
• Does this figure have a NEATO or NIFTY or NICHE or NERDCORE appeal that goes beyond its just having good stats and powers? Does it have a special place on a team outside of the usual keywords? And does this clix capture the character’s appeal? If so, it may be F.U.N. But the answer can’t JUST be, “I like this character.”

But this year, it’s new contributor TBT who’ll supply this Top Ten list, partly because there were SO MANY figures released during HeroClix’s 15th Anniversary — more than 650 different dials!

And so it begins…:

No. 10. 

I had to start with a spider. 2016 was the year of the spider with the SFoSM set, and I LOVE SPIDER-MAN. Platonically, of course.

So which spider could I write about? “What If” brought a lot of Spider-Man, but they weren’t spider-y enough for me. “The Mighty Thor” brought Banner-Hulk-spider, but I didn’t fall in love with it.

Just like Peter Parker though, when my eyes hit this piece, I was done for, in love.

Spider Gwen [WizKids MP17-005]

Fellowship-

Samurai-Gwen is ridiculous. A great point value, decent stats, and a sculpt that POPS. The big issue is her strength. The last remaining Gwen Stacey has to be strong, so she’s LOADED with offense and defense. Not very friendly. Gotta be tough to survive in the multiverse, though. LEVEL: MODERATELY LOW

Utility-

She’s a secondary attacker. That’s it. Her saving grace in usefulness is her three keywords, allowing her to fit into solid teams that probably need a strong and cheaper piece like her. What she does, she does well, and can do this cool bustin’-through-walls trick if she hits. Thanks, special attack power that grants Sidestep! LEVEL: MODERATELY LOW

Nerdcore-

So you’ve gotta fill the gaps, right? What HeroClix haven’t been made? This plucky piece is a perfect addition to the droves of HeroClix we needed. One-of-a-kind, and definitely nerdcore. To add to that, Spider-Gwen is such a reliable character to build off of because she’s been EVERYWHERE. Multiverse characters need this treatment more often, where they get this awesome short story based off of universe 236528759.5-whatever and it gets rewarded with a super cool ‘clix. Gwen’s got more cool clix coming. LEVEL: HIGH

Honestly, I had a lot of HeroClix I loved this year. Getting a top-ten together and then writing this list was amazing. I’m glad there was a spider-verse character to start it all off. Now, TIME TO SEE WHO RISES TO THE TOP, NEXT TIME ON DRA- wait, no that’s wrong. Next: Numb-arr nine!

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