So ever since Heroclixin’ launched a decade ago, we’ve done a Top Ten list of the best figs (more or less) of the year.

Until now.

We’re giving up.

It’s just too hard this year.

There were a LOT of good dials. A partial list:

Medusa [Avengers Black Panther Illuminati 030]: An uncommon so good that it changed the pauper format to highlander.

Astronomer [Avengers Black Panther Illuminati 048]: Improved Targeting Elevated might be the most powerful of IT and he’s got it with ELEVEN RANGE and with PROB and DOUBLE TK and he gets any one gem for just +5 points.

Mister Oz [Rebirth 052]: Meta teams for me are 260 points because this 40-pointer is the first thing on every team for his TK manipulation and see-all Prob.

Vulture [Earth X 019b]: It got Watch Listed for good reason. Endless attacks on short-dialed foes is one thing but he’s easily juiced into a master killer for less than 100 points. Way less.

Kobik [Avengers Black Panther Illuminati 069]: Swapping team abilities shouldn’t be a thing, yet here we are.

Jean Grey [047]: Mega Mind Control shenanigans — and an explosive finish.

Q [Star Trek Resistance Is Futile]: Die replacement remains a broken ability, no matter how WizKids tries to rein it in, bit-by-bit, every time it tries to keep it in the game.

Wendigo [X-Men Dark Phoenix Saga G018]: That ridiculous multiple attacks ability AND healing? Sheesh

Voyager [Avengers Black Panther Illuminati 017]: Mega TKer. Mega taxi. Can’t Outwit her. Perplex. Might be the best 50 points one can spend.

Thanos [Avengers Black Panther Illuminati 067]: So many positive modifiers. For a tentpole with virtually no move+Attack, he’s awfully effective.

Starfire [Rebirth 055]: HSS Energy Explosion! 50-point Pulse Wave! Quintessence! STOP click! Free healing with other Titans!

Billy Batson/Shazam [Rebirth 026/037a]: Cheap Perplex with a STOP and a great alter-ego mechanic.

Eddie Guerrero [WWE 017]: For his triple Flurry, STOP-plus, superProb.

Captain Venom [Earth X 062]: Gives Monster teams theme prob.

Dr. Claire Finn [The Orville 003]: Possibly the game’s best medic, with one of the game’s best pogs.

And that’s just more or less off the tops of our heads. I’m sure there are more.

So……. yeah. It’s just too much for me. And Sceritz, who’d normally help me figure out the meta stuff, has been pulled away from Heroclix to run his website Do You Even Comic Book and his creator-owned comic series, Scorpio. And Taylor has taken a step back as well.

So sorry, no Top Ten of 2019.

There’s not even going to be a Top Ten F.U.N. Figures of 2019 list from us.

The reason?

There’s just too many!!!!

2019 was a year where the vast majority of figures score well on our F.U.N. Factor:

• Is the figure FRIENDLY and FAIR? 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.”

Like, even a good portion of the candidates for best fig still feel kinda Friendly and Fair. Not all, but a LOT of them. But it’s hard to find figs this year that weren’t Useful somehow. And most all were pretty Nifty in some way. So it’s too difficult to even do the F.U.N. list this time around.

But we are still going to do a Top Ten WORST of the year. Stinkers do exist.

And I will still list my favorites, as will Taylor (maybe). So the Top Ten isn’t dead.

(I’m also considering a look back at Heroclixin’s Top Ten of the Decade, seeing how we’re still in our 10-year anniversary. It will be interesting — and probably mortifying — to revisit some of those original picks after the many changes and power leaps the game has undergone.)