Monsterpocalypse - Saying "See you later!"

I wanted to post a quick blog tonight because I was thinking about this... I'm getting my second week of ebay items together and listed (I'll be posting that here soon), basically I'm getting rid of things that no longer are seeing any table time or otherwise not being used or wanted... One of the items that went up today was Monsterpocalypse... which kind of surprised me that it met my criteria to say good-bye.

Shown below is my auction photo that shows all of the stuff I am selling, basically it is a Starter Set, and six boosters (2 Monster Boosters and 4 Unit Boosters).

I personally thought the game was pretty cool, and played well too... My sons thought the pieces were 'awesome' and I heard lots of "woah!" and "cool!" as we opened them... There seems to be a lot of interest with this game at my FLGS and with other players in the gaming area too. However, something about it is just hitting me the wrong way... it isn't the game play, it isn't the sculpting, it certainly isn't the paint (these babies are probably the nicest looking paint jobs on collectible miniature games in a LONG time - they make MageKnight look like the ugly sister you hide away in the attic)... 

It leaves me to realize that it probably has something to do with the blind purchase. As you can see in my photo above, with only having 1 starter and 6 boosters, I already have SEVERAL duplicates... that is just not cool. If I am going to spend my money on a game, I'd like to see what it is I am getting... Here is what the boosters look like when you buy them...

So, I hate to say it, but I think this game lost me, specifically because of the collectible factor... Now you may ask yourself "Why is D-Rock giving World of Warcraft minis praise in an earlier blog, but shooting down Monsterpocalypse? They are both collectible!!!"...

Well, I'll answer that for you... a quick ebay search this evening has revealed that even the most expensive WoW minis out there is only in the $20 price range, and while I think this is kind of high, it isn't unreasonable if the figure is really so rare... so if I really wanted to 'complete' a set of WoW Minis, then I'd not have to spend a lot of money.

However, Monsterpocalypse has some minis in the $100 range or higher, they are listed as "Ultra Rare" and "HTF Promo" and stuff like that... this is just WAY too much money and too much effort to try ever complete a set.

Ok, I know what you are going to say "You don't have to get them ALL, just get what comes in the random boosters"... well, I have an answer for you there too... In this game, the more rare and the harder the piece is to find (and the more expensive) the better it does in a game, so like the card game magic, the theme comes down to "he who has the best deck (mini) wins"... 

I can't bring my $10 booster set to a fight against someone who just dropped $250 on ebay for some ultra-rare-htf-promo figures, I'll get my ass handed to me.

This really sucks too, because Privateer Press did an excellent job, we even got a cool "Strategy Guide" (photo above) which gave all kinds of cool info. Something most other companies don't even bother with... So Privateer Press really seems to have gone the extra mile here.

Looking back at last year, I saw a few collectible games coming up on the Horizon... We had World of Warcraft Minis, we had Mutant Chronicles and we had Monsterpocalypse... I had decided back then (and was very vocal about it), I would only get into ONE of those three lines, specifically because of the collectible factor... had they been non-collectible, I'd have gotten them all. I decided (after much debate and research) that I'd go with Mutant Chronicles. I like that theme and have wanted to get a good game for ages, and Fantasy Flight had always provided high end products... When FFG announced Mutant Chronicles was no longer going to be random packed, I was very happy! I decided to give WoW and Monsterpocalypse a shot and purchased a small amount of each game (maybe around $100 of each or slightly less).

Well, as you can see now by my Monsterpocalypse being on ebay, I went with WoW Minis... And to be honest, I thought the Monsterpocalypse was a better product, nicer paint jobs, cooler theme, etc., but it is those damn ultra-rare super expensive figures that just shoots it down for me. Oh well, sorry Privateer Press. My son and I have gone with WoW this time.

Side note: Why can't we have games like these packed in the same way as HeroScape? That line lasted for years and years and we had a great run with it. Most of these blind purchase games have a life of about half that of HeroScape... Hasbro had to have done something right there!!!