It's pretty clear we should be helping to run the company. I do think we're on a similar page, at least.
If it's outside the brick, then stores can provide them as rewards for buying brick equivalents too. They also then don't take up an internal slot, which in a way makes it NOT an extra.

With four different ones they would be one set per 40 boosters. That's almost exactly SR level, which is 1 per 36.
With two different ones they would be 1 per 20 boosters, just below rare status of 1 per 16 boosters. That's still pretty rare, now that you mention it. I revise my suggestion to making it a generic only if it's one per brick so that there may be demand for 17,000 of them (or more).

It doesn't matter which way Wizkids decides to go as long as I can get a BiBtB figure.
I've missed out on too many of these due to production line limits ( World's Finest) or "no more Super Skrull Illuminati even though we said we would produce more" or even not getting a reply for the Clown Prince of Crime because the company was bought out by Topps.

I had made this suggestion a while ago (3/27/09):
2. Change the price of the mail-away figure to $10. Have 2 different mail-away figures per set. This will increase the amount of bricks sold as more collectors/players will want both figures. An example would be the Arkham Joker mail away and a Harley & Poison Ivy Duo for Arkham. For SI it could have been The Illuminati Skrull and Spider-Woman.
Original message:
http://www.hcrealms.com/forum/showth...57#post4141257

I would definitely go for the 1 generic per brick. That would probably be a once every so often type of offer though, as players would probably get sick of the generic BBB figs if they were offered too frequently.

I also like the idea of two different figs as opposed to four (not that four is a bad idea) , as that would still present the rarity needed to create demand, and offer in-store delivery of the BBB fig. Say, if there was a Red Hulk in the next Marvel set, they could make a Green Hulk and a Gray Hulk version of him as the BBB figs, each with unique dials. Assuming, that is, that the two extra dials and paint jobs don't make it too expensive. Doesn't sound too far fetched to me though.

Agree with OP.

~Phil

It may be argued that the model of doing oversized, special figures that did not generate enough revenue from brick purchases to cover their production led to the first round of clix being shut down for a year.

Multiple dirrent brick figures sounds horrible. I really couldn't get behind that. For all the people who buy at the case level or more (like myself), there's plenty who only buy one brick.

I'd be okay with a generic brick figure - it's actually a neat idea - provided that this is a generic that people don't need huge numbers to play. A generic Sentinel would make a reasonable generic brick figure - priced at about 150 points, most people would only need one to three of them. That's attainable.

A generic League of Assassins Ninja, on the other hand, would be like NECA inviting us to hire actual ninjas to attack their headquarters. People would want five or more of those suckers.


That's just speculation, though - i.e., something you made up just then, with no prior evidence to support it.

It could just as easily be argued that the secret royalty fees that WizKids is contracted to pay to the Jack Kirby estate were multipled for the Super Skrull: Illuminati brick figure, leading to an unexpected blow-out in the costs of that figure.

I don't really see why it matters. Look at it this way...

- If a store buys 5 cases it gets 10 brick figs.
- WK has already received their money for the 5 case purchase, they probably don't care how those 10 bricks are sold.
- Therefore, the brick fig is a 'store incentive' rather than a WK incentive at this point.
- The store should be allowed to determine what is the best way to market the product based on their individual customer base.

A store incentive that most stores can't give away to it's players? I'm still unsure how that is helping anyone, and like has already been stated, overproducing the figures costs more money, more money means there is less money for other things. I'd rather see them produce less brick figures and use the money for something else. What that something else is? I have no clue, but stores having a mass amount of worthless figures doesn't make sense at all.

Well I think WK would care for two reasons and the stores for one.

For WK, the cost of printing and packaging an additional 12k brick figures might not balance out to the value of the promotion.

For both, the value of the incentive is diluted by the brick figures ubiquity. For WK, this probably exacerbates the problem I mention above.

Personally, I had a harder time getting the in-store brick figure (because they were not shipped to my store with the cases) than I had previously. Ideally, I realize that it should be easier, but is it really so onerous to mail in some UPC's?

For the people that think you have to go to a midnight release and get the redemption sent at 5;00 AM, you don't, trust me. I sent my world's finest coupon from Jersey about a week after the set was released and I still got one. it seems that they just dump them all in a bin and start pulling out on a certain date, instead of filling the orders as they come in.

For all those that keep saying WK should do whatever to keep in business I offer this...

If WK wants to make big oversized pieces then that's fine. But they should sell them directly or through Amazon like they did with the Chariot. That way they can recoup their costs on them. They should not be used as a brick incentive. Rags Surtur was great... reused sculpt (no added cost) but a different enough dial that he's unique. Plus, he's playable! I find it hard to believe that he cost for producing 17,000 of these (where the bulk of the cost was already absorbed by the basic set since it had a Surtur fig) is greater than producing even 6000 to 7000 of a BRAND NEW OVERSIZED fig. And even if you opt to do a new sculpt, a standard sized one can't cost nearly what these large (and neary worthless when it comes to playability) ones do.

As for Jarimy's concern about 'leftovers' and them being worthless, I can somewhat see his point. This is where the "generic" idea really has some merit. How many bricks would have been purchased if Multiplex or Warskrull were the brick figs? How many bricks would WK sell if B&B had a generic Green Lantern Corps member in it while the brick figure was a same-sculpt-but-alternate-paint-and-dial Black Lantern Corps member in it?

Think about it.

It's not a program. It's a "here's your 10 figs because you bought 5 cases, use them to promote your own sales as you best see fit."

As we've seen with Surtur, selling them outright wouldn't net much. Stores would figure it out pretty quick.

I like the generic idea, I don't think it makes sense to have 2 or 4 different ones or whatever someone mentioned. The generic idea would definitely be cool. Warskrull would have made a much better brick figure than a super rare.

I'm all for everyone's ideas, but they really need to make sense. I'd love to have everything I ask for, but we have to remember that Wizkids is a business. I'm not implying they will just up and go out of business, but people have to stop and think about the decisions that Wizkids makes. If they start making poor business decisions, it won't just immediately put them out of business, but over time things will just fall apart.

I think right now they are heading in the right direction.