If there's one positive thing about Wizkids getting shut down in 2008, it's this: the NBC HEROES boxed set was never released. Easily one of the worst scifi shows ever made, the HeroClix community should be thankful it hasn't seen the light of day.

But it got me thinking: what kind of boxed sets should we get? Look inside, because I've got a list...

HeroClix World and HCRealms has teamed up to bring you the Top 22 HeroClix Box Sets We Want! Numbers 22-11 can be found at HeroClix World, but the top 10 can be found below!

10. Many Faces of Spider-man
Back in the 90's Marvel tried to revamp the entire Spider-man franchise by introducing the Clone Saga. But in Marvel fashion they made a tragic error -- the spider-man we've been reading for 50+ years was suddenly a clone, and the Ben Riley that appeared out of nowhere was the real Peter Parker. What the hell? Supposedly this was always a temporary situation but they made another error -- they kept stringing the reader along for a year. That's just poor story telling. It's really simple: your reader does not need in the dark with the main character! If "Ben Riley is the real Peter Parker" supposed to be temporary, then they should have done something to let the audience know this immediately. Marvel paid the price for it dearly -- sales dropped like a rock and they needed to repair the damage as soon as possible.

That being said, I think an all-Spider-man set would be pretty darned cool. Many of these characters have already been done, but this kind of set would still be extremely popular... we could have traditional Spider-man, Ultimate Spider-man, Symbiote Spider-man, Scarlet Spidey, Six-Arm Spider-man, and I would absolutely love the little known Death's Head II Spider-man... Peter fought along side the Punisher in a post-apocalyptic world and died in the Punisher's arms -- that's Earth-9939 for you uber nerds out there.

09. Movie Mayhem
The Incredibles is easily one of my top 5 greatest superhero movies, but why think small? How about a boxed set based on movie heroes? There's no reason why we can't have: Phantom (Billy Zane), The Shadow (Alec Baldwin), Hancock (Will Smith), The Rocketeer (Bill Campbell), Dr. Octopus (Spider-man 2), and more.

The problem is getting all the licenses, which need to come from the movie studios as well as the I.P. owners, so I recommend focusing on a single movie franchise like the new Batman movies. Think about the possibilities: Batman (Bale), Lucius Fox (Morgan Freeman), Joker (Heath Ledger), Harvey Dent (Aaron Eckhart), Ras Agul (Liam Neeson), Commissioner Gordan (Gary Oldman), and Alfred (Michael Cain).

And for you comic geeks who have not seen the Rocketeer, The Phantom, or The Shadow yet, shame on you!

08. TV Mayhem
There are lots of superheroes on the small screen too, but they may be a little harder to sell. I still wouldn't mind seeing Lou Ferrigno's Hulk, not to mention the entire line in Adam West's campy Batman. It's also easy to expand past the traditional comic book heroes thanks to old favorites like the Powers of Matthew Star, The Secret Powers of Alex Mack, Jake 2.0, and the tron-like Automan. C'mon Wizkids, how about giving me an Limited Edition Greatest American Hero?!?

I'll be happy as long as we don't get a boxed set based on the crapfest known as NBC's HEROES.

07. Elseworlds / Armageddon (2001)
The Elseworlds stories are some of the best out there, mostly because they started out as one-shots. Wizkids already started this trend way back in the Cosmic Justice set with Vampire Batman unique, so why can't we have more? I think Red Son Superman and Batman should be on the top of that list, and perhaps even the Shazam powered Superman from the Armageddon storyline. I think the wheelchair Flash would be cool too because... well... you know... HeroClix can always use more wheelchair figures...

06. X-Babies
I'm always surprised at the number of people who didn't like the X-babies, but I thought it was incredibly fun! Much of the appeal came from Arthur Adams' excellent artwork, but really, who doesn't like a tiny Wolverine? These kids are based on the Chris Claremont run of Uncanny X-men, and I wouldn't want it any other way. They'd probably need to throw in a new MOJO too since he was so critical to the creation of the X-babies.

...continued below...

05. Marvel Apes
This was a really, really, really, really terrible idea on Marvel's part... but visually it was very cool (thanks to some great cover images). It probably wouldn't sell as well as a Marvel Zombies set, but I think there would be a lot of interest once players see the figures... really, the Marvel Apes look pretty cool.

Spider-Monkey? Ape-Vengers? Doc Ooktavius? These are the best names Marvel can come up with? Really? This is what the "House of Ideas" has become? Did I mention what a terrible idea this was?

04. Dark Knight Returns
A far better story than the lame Watchmen, the Dark Knight Returns is rich in plot and characters. We could easily have a boxed set with Batman, Carrie Robin, old man Joker, Bitter Superman, and the one-armed Green Arrow. Wizkids would probably want to include the Dark Knight Strikes Again in this set so they can have include the Atom and ugly-black-suit-Flash. There are just so many possibilities!

(on that note, how about a Kandor set that comes with a bottled city along with a bunch of mini Kryptonians?)

03. Amalgam
Bennifer (Ben + Jennifer), LiLo (Lindsay Lohan), TomKat (Tom Cruise + Katie Holmes), Manimal (n'uff said)... the squishing of things together is a time honored tradition, and the comic book industry is not above this. Back in 1996 we got to see some of the greatest (and no so greatest) DC and Marvel characters squished together in comic book format. The rest is history...

Dark Claw, Super Soldier, Iron Lantern, Hyena, Challengers of the Fantastic, Spiderboy, Bizarnage, Nightcreeper, Redwing, AngelHawl, Thorel, Quick Frightful Five, Freeze, Two-Face Goblin, Thanoseid, Aqua Mariner, Green Goliath, Dr. Doomsday, Blue Jacket, Thorion, Doctor Strangefate, Shatterstarfire, Gren Guardsman, Silver Racer, ... please... someone stop me...

02. Army Builders
I admit: I wasn't a fan of Marvel Sinister at all -- the character selection was weak (to say the least) and the yo-yo dials were incredibly uninteresting... I'm sure others out there would agree, right? The good news is that Sinister gave us some very intersting generics. I'm talking about the "army building" units that we all need to complete theme teams, specifically: SHIELD Trooper, SHIELD Sniper, and SHIELD Agent. I think a whole set of these would be great, as long as Wizkids wises up and stops throwing in a "unique" just to screw with us (this makes us less likely to buy multiples boxes).

There are lots of Army Building sets that could be popular, such as: Hydra Set, PD set, Doombot set (how awesome would that be?), and Skrulls set just to name a few. And they wouldn't have to be tied into a HeroClix TA either! How about a Darkseid Fanatics set, Manhunters set, Moloid set, a Multiple Man set, or an OMAC set? Better yet, how about an Agent Orange Constructs set!

01. Blackest Night
Screw the Construct set -- how about some Blackest Night sets? Geoff Johns is truly a master writer, introducing 7 new lanterns in a single page -- rage (red), avarice (orange), fear (yellow), willpower (green), hope (blue), compassion (indigo), and love (violet), and black (undead). I think it's bad storytelling to introduce that many lanterns and bring them into the limelight (Blackest Night) in just under 12 months, but the execution of the story helps you look over this fault. (They should have introduced a new ring color every year rather than all of them in such a short period of time).

Still, it would be really cool to get some new Lantern sets. The GL Corps boxed set was great, so why can't we get another? Heck, I think we need one new set for each of those colors -- I'm sure players would open their wallets!

Here's a tip for Wizkids: give us NEW Team Abilities, and don't cheat by issuing Alternate TA Feat Cards... that's uber lame.

-The Le

Kudos for mentioning Automan. I thought I was the only person left alive who remembered that show.

Wouldn't mind seeing a boxset of the Misfits of Science either.

Spider-Man first appeared in 1962, not 50+ years before Clone Saga, but I get your point. Personally, I'd like to see a set of Spidey and his greatest enemies from his first year of publication.

Keep in mind that when the Heroes set was announced, the show had just completed its extremely successful first season and was riding high in popularity and popular acclaim. If the set had come out *then,* it would have likely been a hit.

Now after the multiple disasters which afflicted the second season (some self-inflicted, some a consequence of the writers' strike), I don't blame you and lots of others for losing esteem. Even on its "good days," the show has never reclaimed the quality of that first season. I'm still a fan, but it's slipped from "Must-See" to "When I get to it..."

-J

Hmm, I think I never disagreed with one of your arcticles as much as with this one...

Although I do get the NBC Heroes hate, I don't get it with Watchmen and you almost lost me right there.

Anyway, apart from Watchmen, I'd love to see a Marvel Zombies Boxed Set and Batman Beyond. I'm not so keen on the rest.

For example, DKR and DKSB figures can go right into regular releases, IMO, and I can live without movie counterparts of actual comic-book characters. Maybe a movie set with just the "extra" characters, like Hancock etc., would be okay. And if the generics go into the common slot, that's usually enough to get a fair amount of them (except for Sinister and Supernova, where I had to trade for generics...).

It's possibly a good thing that I looked at the piece here first, rather than over at the larger list on your site, because much as Soul indicated, the ill-informed, borderline moronic comments on Watchmen (film and source work) would have been enough to get me to stop there and cut short the waste of time. Of course, there are proven (beyond the point of hackneyed) writer's rules for composing Top 10, 20 or whatever lists, and among them is to put in some outrageous statements to get people to react, and I'm sure that's at least in part behind some of this. It's a large part of the reason I generally skip such lists and avoid creating any of my own.

However, to borrow from the piece and rearrange suitably:

I'll be happy as long as we don't get a boxed set based on the crapfests known as:
The Powers of Matthew Star
The Secret World of Alex Mack
Jake 2.0
Automan
The Greatest American Hero
X-Babies (this must appeal to the same deviant impulses that find people collecting those ghastly Super Hero Squad deformities)
Amalgam

Wow.

Some good point in this article, some interesting ideas. Some I agree with, some I am sure would not sell around here. But really, "lame watchmen". Wow. Even if you don't like the story its hard to argue that after the movie, a box set of watchmen clix would most likely do pretty well.

I like the TV idea, we could have the interesting Dean Cain Superman vs. Tom Weiling Superman. Or Lynda Carter's Wonder-Woman vs. Buffy. There are a lot of TV superheroes you could add, drawing in thier cult followers to pick up the set and hopefully giving the clixers some useful pieces. Just think how well the david hasselhoff Nick Fury would handle the Sameul L. Jackson Nick Fury.

I loved Marvel Apes if only for the lame names. I was thinking that if DC did something similar we'd get Macaquaman

As previously mentioned, Heroes season one was actually really good. And then it just went completely off the rails afterwards.

In regards to Blackest Night? It wasn't exactly just a year. It was more like 2+ years in the making, considering you started seeing Sinestro Corps members in early 2007. Technicality, yes, but it wasn't quite as rushed as you make it sound. And really? An 8 year long storyline would be better? I'd think that would drag a lot worse than what we're getting right now.

As far as the choices go... I dunno if I want boxed sets more than just slipping figures into the main sets. But that's probably just me.

I liked Sinister, it came out with some great support pieces and middle attacks and a lot of characters I hadn't seen but wanted to. I wouldn't mind seeing a Deadly Foes of Spider-Man Collector set or a Maximum Carnage set.

I am very disappointed that TMNT did not make the top 10, but very happy that Blackest Night was #1.

I thought the problem with the Clone Saga wasn't that sales plummeted, but that they went up which was why they strung the whole thing out far longer than the originally plotted storyline to keep those sales figures up? Or have all those interviews I've read with the writers and artists who bemoan that were involved with it been lying?

Only the Dark Knight Returns, Blackest Night and Army Builders really appeal though. The others would just get a 'meh' from me. More Indy sets would suit me better (a complete set of the main Judges from Judge Dredd and a Zenith set would be my chief wants).

And as others have said, dial down the mudslinging a tad. I'm sure it puts off more readers than it attracts.

I think It's more profitible for TPTB to *not* sell generic sets, but rather put them in the boosters. Why buy one collector's set for ~$20-25 worth of 7-8 generics when, if I really want them I would buy 7-8 boosters at $12 apiece.

I think they risk loosing money with generic action packs.

I suppose if they did it right and really themed it up I might be on board - for instance, I'd love to see a Hulk action pack that contained some Army grunts (even a sheet of Pogs), a strong version of the Hulk, and maybe General Ross &/or Major Talbot.

But random Omacs? SHIELD agents?

No thanks.

The problem with action packs, IMO, is that they're too small. Make an Astro City pack and you're limited to 7-8 figures. Who do you pick for that 7? No matter what you choose someone gets left out. Same with AoA.

I'd rather see an AoA expansion, than an AoA collectors set.