Thanks for the kind words, Dog. Good to see in the land of the spare logs and I hope you're doing well.

Non shall count to nine, but only to proceed to 10!

Never!

Productive day, all in all, but it left little time for the Realms.

Just wanted to check in (no real use to anyone, but it felt courteous) on my way to finally turning on the tv and watching a show or to on my way to sleep.

Whether you have anything relevant to say or not, we still like hearing from you!!!

RE, for what it's worth, I approach buying beer much the same as I do filling the car's gas tank: it's a good thing to switch off every once in a while.

I don't know if it's even available near you, but my really cheap, off-and-on choice of beer is Pabst Blue Ribbon...the preferred brew of hipsters in the downstate NY area. At least, the canned version is cheap.

But since I prefer my beer in bottles, I've been on an extended run with Miller High Life. A local supermarket is always discounting the 12-packs.

I not only like the taste, but there's the bonus of being able to respond with all honesty, whenever somebody asks how I'm doing, that I'm living the High Life!

Been gone for a few days.

RE Pets: I love all animals. I'm far from an hippy, but I'm the type that feels bad if I were to hit a squirrel on the road. Currently have two cats (moody Siamese and an fat, orange, fluffy cat). When I get the cop job and move into a larger place, I want to get a Cavalier King Charles. I've always been the type to for for larger breeds (gotta have a dog you can sit down and talk to), but now that I don't live in a house with a yard, I need to go with a smaller breed.

RE Baseball: Still don't watch it.

RE Hulkbuster Squad Leader: Yet another bad dial coming out that we're going to be told to accept it and love it. Am I just being cynical or are a lot of the Hulk dials just exceedingly lackluster?

Ah yes, PBR. It was the beer we'd drink sitting around the bonfires back home (cue John Denver's Country Roads). When I moved to Minneapolis, I found that the douchey college kids drank it because it was "cool." Grain Belt Premium was another good one we'd drink back home. Right now the beer of choice (out of convenience) is Miller Lite. Dos Equis (green bottle) is also a pretty good beer. If a place has it, my favorite beer is Paulaner Original Munich.

From a completely selfish point-of-view, I am a bit relieved that I don't consider it a must-have since I will not be buying any of the Gravity Feed figures. I think I will go for a case and whatever is needed for draft/sealed events.

Speaking of that case I am committed to, there has been a lot of talk among our group lately of how hard it is for our local shop to compete with the low online prices of clix these days. If I wasn't supporting my local venue, and his valiant efforts to keep this game alive in our area, there is no way I would buy from our store. Although I love the fact that clix prices have dropped to become far more accessible to everyone, I wonder if it's affecting more stores than just Chad's. Magic seems to have the right balance since their store sales/turnout is a good as ever. It's unfortunate...

DOGGGGGGGG!!!!!!! Holy Crow....talk about That Ol' Gang of Mine! It's great to see you here and I sincerely hope you'll find time to stop by when you can.

Besides, ya can never have too many Vikings fans in one thread, I say.
Well...it shows how much I like BOTH of you that I don't care that one roots for the Phillies while the other swims with the Dolphins.

My teams: (baseball) Mets in the National League, Red Sox in the American League; (football) Jets -- arggghhhh --- in the AFC, Vikings in the NFC; (basketball) Knicks; and (hockey) Islanders.

Among the rest, there are some I like better than others and some I like much less than half of that. That said, if Major League Baseball ever agrees to limit playing in Florida simply to the spring, I would not be upset about it.

BTW, Dana....at least your Dolphins are playing. I have not seen a Colts game this season, but after yesterday's debacle, I am having a lot of trouble accepting their record thus far --- Manning or no Manning.

That said...I doubt it will happen, but I'd LOVE to see the NFL adopt a version of the NBA's draft lottery, to deter...tanking.
There were times this past baseball season when I'd hear about how the Texas Rangers had won a game because of something involving David Murphy, then think about the Red Sox outfield and I'd get mad about the Gagne deal all over again (though admittedly, I'd thought it was a huge move at the time).

Ya think David Murphy could play for this Red Sox team? I certainly do.

As for Keith Foulke...

O.K., since I don't enjoy roller coasters or relationships that remind my stomach of them, I can see your point, Dana...but with all due respect, I will disagree on Foulke.

No matter what he did (or didn't do) in Red Sox seasons before or after, Foulke was as important to Game 4 of the 2004 ALCS as Keith Millar, Dave Roberts and Big Papi himself. We don't win that game without Foulke and his bulldog performance and he certainly came through in the ALCS games that followed before the Sox put the Yankees away early in Game 7.

If I EVER get the chance, I would like to shake his hand and say "Thank you, sir, for 2004."

Sox, I'm sorry for your long Sunday night but I am happy for mine. From the "enemy's" perspective: their defense is good, Ryan can coach (although he does get too high and too low for my tastes), but I'm not so sure about Sanchez. The Jets defense is just not where it was a couple years ago and they need a little more from their quarterback and I'm not sure he has it to give.

I'm in the same boat. If it wasn't for the fact that 1. I'm a judge and 2. I feel obligated to support the store, I'd just buy online. I also feel that due to less than exciting SR's and Chases and over production, the secondary market is much more buyer friendly. Since it is so much more buyer friendly, people can buy less product at the retail level and just go directly to the secondary market.

It doesn't bode well for a game when going to the secondary market has no negative consequences for the consumer vs. paying retail prices. There really isn't much incentive for most players to buy from a game store. Think about all the people who don't go to tournaments. They don't really care about the local "scene," all they want is their clix to play at home. Why would they go to a hobby store to pay much higher prices other than to "support their local store." I can tell you that sentiment will only carry so far.

Yes, it's been my experience that T and T is a great resource for single clix. I really like the way that they regularly adjust their pricing to reflect what's going on, demand-wise.

It's my understanding that T and T is a brick-and-mortar store that serves as a venue where players can do their thing. So if I don't eventually get a second-wave TRU Nemesis or Frost Giant from Secret Santa () or a local venue, I'll hope to turn to T and T for help.
Well said, Dana!

In truth, I feel this way about ALL you fine fellows who have posted here since I launched this trial balloon with the hope that I'd be joined by some old friends.

Fixed it for ya.
Don't know about Grain Belt Premium..but the name alone makes me want to try one.

It was that way with Iron City --- and I promptly made the mistake of falling in love with it. Alas, like the girl who is the cousin of your next-door neighbor and visits just long enough from five states away to cast her spell on you...I found that there ain't no sunshine when she's gone.

Ain't no Iron City in these parts.

As for Paulaner, that ain't cheap...but oh, how I love a good Hefe-Weissbier! And the Dos Equis Lager is a bit beyond the budget except for special occasions, but I DO ask for it when dining in a Mexican restaurant.

Some very insightful stuff there, KF.

I have been a staunch defender of Sanchez -- I've snickered in recalling Pete Carroll's petty vote of no-confidence after his QB decided to leave USC and I've continued to maintain that I'd take him over the majority of starting QBs in the league -- and maybe I'll feel that way again after the next game if not tomorrow, but last night has left me shaking my head.

As for Coach Ryan...I think the football fans in NY who don't like him reveal themselves as being folks who don't like the Jets, period.

I have been an investor of emotions in this franchise since they were the Titans in the old AFL and to me, Rex Ryan is the best thing to happen to the Jets, coach-wise, since they hired Weeb Ewbank. That's right: I think he has been more important than Went Thataway Parcells.

I didn't like Buddy Ryan as a head coach, but I love his son with the shorter hair. After having endured Mr. Mum Mangini, how could I NOT love Rex?

I'm interested in this dial, largely because I like to see more dynamics to support swarm teams, but I am dismayed that they've not generated much excitement for this set with the dials and previews.

At this point we're left wondering if Black Bolt, Mr. Fixit, Red Hulk and/or maybe a couple of the other unseen pieces will get the excitement going. I'm hoping the AIM Agents and AIMarines each have something good going for them, too.
Understood, though as someone who pre-ordered all of this to some depth - 2 cases of the main, one of the counter-top (formerly gravity-feed) singles box displays and a FF Pack - I'm still trying to keep my excitement up.
I can't get myself to see the fate of this game balanced on the backs of stores, or at least not see it as if Heroclix has to be the make-or-break for a store to stay in business. I do see that Wizkids may be making a problem of it by pushing order minimums attached to the ability to buy prize kits, though so far it doesn't seem as if they're demanding huge buys. Still, they'd make this much easier by giving us more exciting dials.

My bottom line, personal economic view on the game is that if my options for buying into it were narrowed to at or very near MSRP for the bulk of my buys, I'd be inclined to drop out. I'm neither patient enough to go the long haul route from the start and just wait to buy on the secondary market, nor would I be interested in just buying a few boosters here and there, followed by some trading and singles-buying.

When I do go to play at a venue I make a point of buying something. If it's a sealed event, then it's automatically covered, but if not I pick something out and buy it. Generally, I skip venue play, though, and as someone who's been buying at the case level or above pretty consistently since at least '03, the venues simply aren't that important to me.
Yeah. See above. The local venue scene is a very small part of my Heroclix experience, and I can't bring myself to feel bad about it. I do aim to come out for some events, but in general it's not a big draw for me. I don't enjoy prize-driven competitive play.

While I know many (or at least a vocal group) hated the buy-in element, I'll point to the first four weeks of Coming of Galactus/Starro for something that I enjoyed which also brought sales directly to the venues. Savvy store owners would give their people a modest discount on a brick and dole it out over the course of a 5-week event. Innovative ones would allow their customers to do installment pays ahead of time or during it.

More interesting/exciting dials would be the best move for Wizkids in terms of the sets themselves. Reliance on chases isn't the best way to go because it concentrates too much value in a few pieces, though I do admit that they do drive sales. Amping up the Super Rares - especially the dials - would be a better middle-ground move. Really, if they decided to continue to choose the chases as they've been doing - special event versions of characters/elseworlds/what if? types - but gave them more borderline broken dials again I'd be okay with that, too. Cosmic Spider-man, Bag-Man, Spider-Hulk, Sinestro Corp Batman -- this sort of thing doesn't appeal to me as a collector, and as I'm not a power game player I don't care on that level either; if that would drive sales (and it would) then go for it.
Hopefully Wiskids will give us a confirmation that they're going to make this second wave of TRU exclusives avaialable through normal channels sometime early next year.

Weak man that I am, operating on so little information and with damp firecracker after damp firecracker being rolled out at us in celebration of the impending Hulk set, I responded to an early solicitation this morning.

I've ordered two cases of Galactic Guardians.