Chaos War GF Impressions

So this week, I had a chance to play almost all of the Chaos War Gravity Feed (or CTD) figures. Since 8 of 10 are Avengers, it was pretty easy to make a 1000 point team with them (especially for me if you consider how much coverage the Avengers get around here). I was able to key up some primary likes and dislikes for this one, so I'm gonna start there.

Likes

Avengers - Obviously, as the Avengers are my favorite superhero team/movie/franchise this is an easy purchase for me. And if you discount the Avengers movie figures, this is the product that would get the easy money from me rain or shine.

There's another angle to this sculpt

Spider-Woman's sculpt - I had to say something.

Dislikes 

Bio omission - This is a big one. A huge drop in quality as far as I'm concerned. I wasn't aware of any focus group that decided character biographies were unneeded fluff. No one reads every comic book printed. Okay, there might be somebody. But most people do not. Bios can help get people to go out and read a book they may not have before, thus improving revenues for stores, which in turn helps keep venues open and people buying more and more heroclix. Take care of your customers and they will take care of you.

Cap's Ultimate look - is wrong.

Cap's sculpt - I love Cap. He's pretty much my favorite superhero character of all time. I like Ultimate Captain America just fine, too. But if I'm getting an Ultimate Cap sculpt, then the dial and the character should be Ultimate Cap, not 616 Cap. NOW, I'm hoping the #001 Cap in the Chaos War set proper is actually Ultimate Captain America since we know the Fast Forces one (also with the same sculpt is also the 616 version). I have some HeroScape Caps on order to take care of this imbalance, as there aren't many viable choices for replacement in HeroClix. I'd love to carve up a Smokey Feet Cap from HoT, but even I can't destroy a 20+ dollar Rare to stick on a 1 dollar common...it would be an economic disaster.

General Commentary

This set was originally titled "Mighty Avengers", and the content clearly reflects that earlier title better than the new one. I don't know if the change was due to a perception of Avengers overload by Wizkids or a licensing change, but several key figures are direct cast members of the Mighty Avengers comic book which ran from the conclusion of Civil War to the end of Siege and the rebranding of the Heroic Age of Marvel Comics. I don't have a particular beef with the change, as I trust them to know what the market needs (on some things, but not on others, like character bios of course) in general.

Guess Tony couldn't pay for a better sculpt. Or a newer one.

Where the figures are concerned, the sculpts are all fairly nice, with the exception of Iron Man. It is, in my opinion, just a bad sculpt. In addition, it seems like Wizkids is burning through some kind of backlog, because we are finally getting late 80's Iron Man and another early to mid 2000's sculpt, although we can't seem to get late 90's or the actual current suit Tony is wearing in the comics even if everybody else is updated. As an example of what I'm talking about, the current Iron Man armor seen in the Avengers titles predates Steve Rogers' Super Soldier look, but we've got Steve as a figure. The Future Foundation also appears AFTER Tony Stark rebuilds the Iron Man armor (which happens in Iron Man 25). If we're gonna get 15 Iron Man figures a year, can at least ONE of them be the "current" one. If I read correctly, he might be about to change armors again. It's not really a beef, just commentary.

Janet-tron. Mmm.

I love the Frank Cho inspired Janet Ultron as a concept for a sculpt, but the execution probably leaves something to be desired. Hmm...perhaps a poor choice of words.


The dials are mostly what I would term as good. Not excellent, not bad, but good. Very 'general purpose' in most cases, which with popular headliners isn't a bad way to go, but in the main set I would hope they pack somewhat more of a punch. We already know Thor does this, so it may be academic. We shall have to see. I really like the Vision and Wonder Man figures just as they are, though. I thought Masque was a cute inclusion.

Conclusion

The Chaos War GF/CTD (whatever you like) micro set is a nice whet your appetite morsel before the main course, offerning some variety in play from the normal set, but nothing that really 'stands out' from a min/max abusability standpoint. I would probably say it is not a "must have", but I know most of us "must have it" anyway, so I'll not belabor the point. I am still looking forward to the full release of Chaos War (and the FF set) in a little over a week. Till then, keep those pips off double ones!