Expansion Speculation

[ArgosCap]

Okay, this may be premature since the Master Set seems to be delayed, but we all know this game is going to sell like..like....a Marvel product. So, we all know there are going to be expansions. I agree with assessments made in the past that Marvel hero packs will probably have fewer figures for the same price as current Heroscape expansions. Probably 2 figs per pack. Maybe 3-5 for less popular characters or for squads. While each pack has fewer characters, I imagine, they will release more packs per wave. Probably 5-8 packs per wave. Here are my predictions for when we will see popular characters. Assuming the master set is here by late March, I would expect the first expansion to appear 2-3 months later, which will put us around Summer movie time. Think "Fantastic Four 2" and "Spider Man 3." In this scenario, I would assume the first packs would be as follows:

Pack 1 - Thing and Reed Richards
Pack 2 - Sue and Johnny Storm
Pack 3 - Doc Ock, Sandman and Black Cat
Pack 4 - Black Spider Man and Green Goblin (or Goblin 2, if they have liberty to make the figs look like the movie characters)
Pack 5 - Daredevil, Bullseye and Kingpin
Pack 6 - Elektra and Hand Ninja squad
Pack 7 - Ghost Rider v. Blackheart*

This will be some time after the Ghost Rider movie, but I'm sure Marvel will still be doing some marketing. The villain in this pack could be Mephisto, but Mephisto is a bit too powerful to translate into a battle game like this. Mephisto can grow to the size of the Empire State Building, teleport between dimensions, and shoot fireballs out of every conceivable orafice. Plus, his RPG stats suggest he is stronger and has more life than Silver Surfer and Thanos combined. He is more in the class of Galactus, which is real hard to translate to a simple game. On the other hand, his son, Blackheart is a simpler creature. While Blackheart does have much of his fathers power, he prefers to tear things apart with brute strength. Not to mention, Blackheart is the main antagonist in the movie.

While the X-Men are popular, the X-Men can be sold at any time. They will probably take up an entire wave by themselves. I could see them being a late summer/fall release.

Pack 1 - Wolverine v. Sabretooth
Pack 2 - Cyclops, Jean Gray and Beast
Pack 3 - Magneto, Mystique and Pyro
Pack 4 - Colosus and Iceman v. Juggernaught
Pack 5 - Storm and Gambit v. White Witch
Pack 6 - Bishop and Archangel v. Apokalypse

After that, we get into 2008, with the upcoming Iron Man movie. I see an opportunity for more avengers characters. Alternate armor Iron Man, Thor, plus more miscellaneous characrters like Blade, Hydra Ops, and more spidey villains.

What do you guys think will come down the pipe?

[ugly1hornedmule]

two figures for $10 dollars won't sell.

[yagyuninja]

1 figure for $12.99 has been selling very well...

[hextr1p]

JCB231 posted a pretty good bit of speculation in a different Marvel thread. The post is HERE, and what he said is quoted below:

Originally Posted by jcb231

Okay here's some initial ideas....

If I had my way, Marvelscape would consist of all unique cards. No common squads or heroes. Unique heroes and squads only to cater to the small brawl feel of the game.

In thinking of packaging, I'm going by the precedent set by prior waves. No more than five unique heroes to a pack, and no more than eight figures total, ever.

All of these expansion packs would include either a small amount of terrain, a city ruin object or obstacle like a mailbox or fire hydrant or wall, or some combination of the two.

Here's some rough ideas:

MARVEL LEGENDS HEROSCAPE

WAVE I:

1. The Fantastic Four
-Mister Fantastic
-The Invisible Woman
-The Human Torch
-The Thing
-Doom-bots....unique squad of two

2. The Skrulls
-Super-Skrull
-Skrull Warriors....unique squad of five (yes, I said five..I want these guys to be really fearsome)

3. Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.
-Nick Fury
-S.H.I.E.L.D. Agents...unique squad of four
-S.H.I.E.L.D. Medics....unique squad of two

4. Mutant Mayhem
-Wolverine
-Sabretooth
-Professor X
-Magneto
-Juggernaut

WAVE TWO:

1. Marvel Knights
-Daredevil
-Elektra
-The Punisher
-Kingpin
-Bullseye

2. Moonlight & Magic
-Doctor Strange
-Ghost Rider
-Moon Knight
-Luke Cage
-Iron Fist

3. Rise of the Phoenix
-Cyclops
-Jean Grey/Marvel Girl/Phoenix
-Dark Phoenix
-Beast
-Angel

4. Young X-men
-Iceman
-Rogue
-Gambit
-Pyro
-Kitty Pryde/Shadowcat

WAVE III:

1. Vampire Nation
-Blade
-Morbius
-Vampires...unique squad of four

2. Enemies of Spider-Man
-Sandman
-Green Goblin
-Carnage
-Doctor Octopus
-Rhino

3. Ultimate Avengers
-Hawkeye
-Thor
-Loki
-Black Widow
-Black Panther

4. X-Plosion
-Nightcrawler
-Mystique
-Colossus
-Toad
-Storm

Wave IV:

1. Friends and Foes of Spider-Man
-Black Cat
-Cloak
-Dagger
-The Lizard
-The Vulture

2. Avengers Assemble
-Giant Man...a large figure
-The Wasp
-Ant-Man
-Black Panther
-Ultron

3. X-treme Mutants
-Scarlett Witch
-Quicksilver
-Jubilee
-The Blob
-Mastermind

4. The Underground Army
-Moleman
-Ani-men....unique squad of six....yes, six.

WAVE V:

1. Fantastic Forces
-Namor
-She-Hulk
-Vision
-Leader
-The Mandarin

2. Spider-sensations
-Kraven the Hunter
-Mysterio
-The Shocker
-The Scorpion
-Spider-woman

3. NYPD
-NYPD SWAT...unique squad of four...hey, the superheroes need some normal guys around right?
-NYPD Officers...unique squad of four

4. Mutant Rumble
-Apocalypse
-Dazzler
-Sinister
-The Multiple Man....four figures in one

WAVE VI:

1. Mutant Chaos
-Bishop
-Cable
-Domino
-Longshot
-Deadpool

2. Superheroics
-Falcon
-War-Machine
-
-
-

and on and on....some rearranging could be done, but I think this line could go through at least Wave Six without getting into stuff that's too far off the map. A lot of folks are familiar with a lot of characters, and this is especially true of kids. Movies and cartoons and video games and other action figure lines have put oddities into the public spotlight and not just on the comic pages. When action figures of relatively obscure characters like Taskmaster sell, surely an expansion wave that pairs him with first stringers can.

There could also be decent point-five wave items...perhaps after Wave II there could be a large box wave like this:

1. Sentinel Strike
-Sentinels...unique squad of two or three large figures
-a moderate amount of ruins and terrain

2. Galactus' Hunger
-Galactus....large double-based figure, clocking in somewhere in the 250 point range, just about capping out the maximum strength you could workably have in a HS figure. A beast of a figure.
-a large amount of ruins and terrain

Quite thorough, indeed. Heh...

[Doc_Savage]

I agree that there will be less figures per pack with the Marvel expansion sets.

My guess would be 5 figures at most. Four seems likely, using Heroclix as an example.

[ArgosCap]

If the expansions looked like jcb231's list, I would be ecstatic. Ultimately, that would be a dream come true.

However, I don't think it's realistic to expect. First of all, this whole thing assumes that Marvelscape will follow the pattern of Heroscape, and I think the licensing aspect changes things a lot. Heroscape is a long term investment for Hasbro, and I don't think they will shift their focus that much to Marvelscape, since there are a plethora of other Marvel products that they are selling. If Marvelscape falls flat on its face, it will hardly be noticed. If Heroscape falls on its face, Hasbro looses something that is potentially a big franchise for them. So, I don't think Marvelscape will get as much attention. That means, we are going to see popular characters, with little regard for obscure comic references, such as the difference between a Shield Agent and a Shield Medic. For Wizkids, it was important to be that detailed, but I doubt Hasbro will be.

I also wouldn't expect to see NYPD in a marvel pack, unless it came with Daredevil or something. I would love to see them (probably more than any other hero), but I doubt it will happen. I don't think we will EVER see the Punisher in a heroscape spin-off. I think he is too controversial. Yes, there are plenty of Punisher action figures, but this is essentially a simplified roleplaying game with kids as a target audience. Yes, Red Skull is far worse, but Red Skull is a villain. The Punisher is pushed as a hero, and that makes him controversial (in the comics he was really intended to be more of an anti-hero, even from his first appearance in Spider-Man). I mean, do you really want kids using a "heroic" Punisher, to mow down Captain America with his "Assault Rifle Barage Special Attack." That just seems questionable. if two superheros want to duke it out, over some silly rivalry, or "Civil War" moral issue, that's fine, but when they start murdering each other, the game itself becomes morally questionable. In Heroclix and Attactix, you don't have the word "Assault Rifle" spelled out. In the Attacktix incarnatin, Punisher's guns would look as silly as Cable and Bishops (which mostly just knock characters around instead of killing them).

I do agree with the possibility that Marvel expansions may have terrain in them, to make people feel like they are getting their money's worth, even though they are getting fewer characters. Maybe Wolverine v. Sabertooth will come with a chopped up Sentinel hand, that sticks out of the ground or something. That would be cool. Rob talked about "crushed cars" and the like.

[zombiedude]

They'd better stick with the "Heroscape" formula. I am not spending a ton of cash on 4 to 5 figures.

[jcb231]

Originally Posted by ArgosCap

I don't think we will EVER see the Punisher in a heroscape spin-off. I think he is too controversial. Yes, there are plenty of Punisher action figures, but this is essentially a simplified roleplaying game with kids as a target audience. Yes, Red Skull is far worse, but Red Skull is a villain. The Punisher is pushed as a hero, and that makes him controversial (in the comics he was really intended to be more of an anti-hero, even from his first appearance in Spider-Man). I mean, do you really want kids using a "heroic" Punisher, to mow down Captain America with his "Assault Rifle Barage Special Attack." That just seems questionable.

The preschool kiddy-oriented Super Hero Squad figures have an adorable chunky little weeble-esque version of the Punisher, and Ghost Rider, and Elektra, and so on. If I recall correctly there's also a smiley Punisher figure in the Spider Man and Friends series. I fully expect Punisher to be in the is game if the expansions do well.

[Punisher_fan]

Originally Posted by ArgosCap

I don't think we will EVER see the Punisher in a heroscape spin-off. I think he is too controversial. Yes, there are plenty of Punisher action figures, but this is essentially a simplified roleplaying game with kids as a target audience. Yes, Red Skull is far worse, but Red Skull is a villain. The Punisher is pushed as a hero, and that makes him controversial (in the comics he was really intended to be more of an anti-hero, even from his first appearance in Spider-Man).

If Marvel leaves one of their more popular heroes out then what is the point of the game? Especially when he was just listed as one of the last iconic characters created by the current EIC. Given that the aforementioned Super Hero Squad, Mini-mates, Kubricks, Bearz, and the Guess Who? game ( 6 & up) all have the Punisher, I believe you are incorrect about this.

He may arrive in a later expansion to coincide with the movie sequel, but he will appear.