In years past, this has been where your friendly neighborhood webmaster has shared his personal favorites of the past year. But a friend rather bluntly told me: “Nobody cares about that list.”

It stung a bit, but I had to admit he was right. It might be entertaining — one could say Friendly and Nifty, to invoke the spirit of this blog — to some readers, but was it also Useful? No.

Not until now.

So this time, and going forward, Heroclixin’s last look back at the year will list the Top Ten F.U.N. figs of the year, not just our favorites, in accordance with the F.U.N. acrostic:

• 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 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.”

Let’s look at one of my unrecognized favorites from 2014 along this new F.U.N. scale:

Captain America and Black Widow [Captain America: Winter Soldier 017]

• At 130 points, lack of Running Shot and having just 3 damage isn’t THAT scary. The duo is also generally untaxiable, forcing them to move about on their own most of the time, and can’t equip a number of tactics that could make them broken. FELLOWSHIP level: Moderate
• That Duo Attack tho. Via Special Power[s], CapWidow’s damage output can ramp up exponentially with modifiers. Being a single-base duo also allows them to be TK’d. Sidestep with SHIELD TA make them a boon to other shooters on the force and Avengers Initiative helps both their targeting and movement case. Finally, there’s Indomitable, IM:Characters and treated Stealth to make one wonder how this fig loaded with Utility didn’t make 2014’s actual Top Ten. UTILITY level: High
• “Captain America: The Winter Soldier” remains the best of the Marvel Studios movies, and this fig is a Nifty representative in HeroClix.Also, good duos are rare in the game. But Black Widow is one of my favorites so that’s why she’s here, too. NIFTYNESS level: Low

According to the new FUN scale, this is a fig that would make my favorites list of past years but wouldn’t QUITE make the F.U.N. one. Keep visiting Heroclixin’ all week to see what 2015 proper had to offer as the most F.U.N. figs of the year!