DEEP DISH THEMES:

ORIGIN: Fred J. Dukes was born in Lubbock, Texas. He joined a circus sideshow, using his abilities under the stage name "Blob". Professor X sensed his mutant power and sent out his students to locate Dukes. Fred was initially uninterested in the X-Men until he saw Jean Grey. He agreed to go along with them in order to spend time with her. After a battery of tests, Professor X determined that the Blob truly was a mutant and extended him an invitation become an X-Man. The rest of the team disliked the Blob's obnoxious attitude. Dukes refused to join, claiming he was better and stronger than than the entire team. As he tried to leave, the X-Men attempted to restrain him so Professor X could erase the Blob's knowledge of their secret identities. Despite their efforts, the Blob managed to escape.



PROS: It was November of 2002, and we were finally getting our first ever Marvel expansion of HeroClix in the form of Clobberin' Time...we got such fan favorites as the yet to be made Fantastic Four, Doctor Doom, Thor, and a bevy of other figures that would help to flesh out theme teams that people like me played before theme teams or keywords were ever technically a thing. The Brotherhood of Mutants saw figures like Avalanche, Toad, and Blob for the very first time. The sculpts were all pretty great, and the dials were halfway decent for the time. Blob here was only 31 points and had damage reducers and Charge! He wasn't getting very far, but he could hit characters without heavy damage reducers for at least a little damage. If anything he was pretty good point filler and was good at soaking up damage from a character with Mastermind. At the time the Brotherhood team ability allowed him to move without eating up one of your allotted actions for that turn, so he could get into position without taking up unnecessary actions. As the game would evolve a bit, he would be a good piece to take out severely weakened targets and be a dedicated theme team Probability Control piece. His Mastermind fodder role would remain intact.

CONS: The sad thing to say is that you pretty much have to go out of your way to make this figure useful. I feel like I achieved that in his "Pros" section with a bunch of flowery language and nostalgia. I actually had you believing that there might be something there, but there really wasn't. Even back then a seven attack was a slap in the face that wasn't going to be effective until a character was 2/3 of the way down their dial. In a set where Nightcrawler had an 18 defense with Super Senses, you had this poor schlub that had to roll an 11 on his top click to even attempt to get his measly two damage done (In an era where even 10 point characters had 3-4+ clicks of life). Granted, Nightcrawler was somewhat of an outlier in terms of his defensive capabilities, but he wasn't THAT much of an outlier, and chances are that you'd see one on the table a LOT back then...and that's not even getting INTO the fact that he has a four movement as the fastest he can move. I'll get more into that soon, though.

THEME: Well, I certainly don't think he's much of a brute for what he can do, but if you need fairly cheap filler for any of the reasons that I have detailed above, he is available below a pile of dust in my closet
The best thing that you would likely use him for is for dedicated theme team Probability Control or Mastermind fodder like I detailed above as well. He could find a useful place on a Brotherhood of Mutants team, but there are almost definitely better options. If you DESPERATELY need to shave points, though, he's your guy...just be aware that you are also shaving off almost all usefulness as well.



PROS: There are a few upgrades to this Blob over the rookie version. He starts out with an eight attack on this version which is nominally better than the seven attack that the rookie had. His opening defense stat saw a boost to a WHOPPING 15 defense! SURELY he won't take damage now! Probably his best boost is in his damage slot. He now sports a three base damage so he is officially able to bust through all standard damage reducers now. Though the change to attack is only a slight one, with the pairing of the increased damage, he might even be able to make a slight difference in a game. He's still relegated to picking off weakened foes, but he might be able to do it a little more efficiently now. He also adds a click of life to his dial for the sake of him acting as tie-up or him being Mastermind fodder. Seven clicks of life for 42 points is just insane by today's standards. He doesn't have the utility that today's figures do, but I do get one more use out of a figure like him...watching new players' heads explode as they exclaim "He's not KO'd YET?!?!?!"

CONS: That Incapacitate mid-dial is not doing his point cost any favors. With the likelihood that it will ever come in handy being super low, it was points that could have been spent better elsewhere...whether it be raw stats, some Plasticity, or something else that would have made him more viable on the battlefield. You'd have to ask yourself if you really need those few enhancements on this figure for your team or if you're just better off playing the rookie. It all depends on what else you would have on your team, really, but if you're reaching for these old Blobs, you're likely doing so out of flavor more than anything.

THEME: He has dropped the brute keyword and picked up the Freedom Force keyword on his experienced dial. This gives him two completely viable options for teams to play him on (Though a lot of the Freedom Force are famously former Brotherhood members). The Brotherhood of Mutants has had a recent surge of new and remade characters to have that keyword, so that would be the most viable keyword that I could recommend playing him with. Again, unless you're shaving points to fit in another character, more objects, or other game elements, it's REALLY hard for me to recommend him over a more modern one, but if he isn't essential to your team or strategy, saving 18 points over the X-Men animated version could get you those elements that you need!



PROS: Some pretty standard bumps in his dial based on the way old dial design used to work. He now has a NINE attack and three damage to start with. This might even move him up to secondary or tertiary attacker on your team depending on how many points you have to work with. He is still cheaper to play with than every other Blob that has been made since, so there is still some economy to be played here should the need for some wiggle room arise when building your team. His defense is still atrocious as well, but it's at least equal to the lowest defense on most modern dials so there is still a chance for it to hold up against SOME attacks...especially if those attacks were to come from other old pieces!

CONS: This is it. This is the epitome of speed from the original REVLE Blob pieces from Clobberin' Time. He can lumber over a few squares and flop an attack at somebody hoping that it will stick. It's pretty easy to avoid Blob on the battlefield. With a six movement maximum, even your slowest characters can likely outpace him. The thing I'm NOT upset about is that this is pretty accurate, and I kind of feel like some more modern dials get this wrong. Blob shouldn't even be a LITTLE bit fast or even AVERAGE man fast. If his speed ever gets up to an eight, I feel that it is inaccurate. Seven is pushing it a bit, but not unheard of. Nine is RIGHT OUT (Not that any of those exist, but I had to make the joke).

THEME: Freedom Force is gone, Brute is back, and we now have a new option available to us!...X-Corps. While there is a decent number of X-Corps keyworded characters in the game, there haven't been any new ones since the first Deadpool set. Now, if your venue is running some sort of scenario where the older stuff you run, the better?...this could be the figure and keyword to use for it! Some of the figures you can get within the keyword are still viable to this day regardless how many remakes there may be for them. I would STILL use that Banshee...there's no such thing as a bad Multiple Man (At least to me), and that Deadpool set Domino uncommon is possibly the best one that they've made. It's a keyword that has likely seen very little play in the grand scheme of keywords, and I think that it still has some life in it. I don't know how much life this particular Blob adds to the team, but it's at least got some good bones to it.



PROS: There's not a whole lot of difference between this version of Blob and the other REV figures from Clobberin' Time, but one of the biggest notable differences is that they removed the all-but-useless Incapacitate in favor of more clicks of Charge. THREE more clicks of charge to be exact. I don't know that it's necessarily accurate for Blob to be on the move that much, but for game play purposes, it's a nice option to have. His stats aren't going to be doing him very many favors when he's using it, but he's at least no WORSE than the rookie version at any point that he has his Charge. He will have at least a seven attack and a two damage when using it. For just three more points than the experienced version, this might be the best old version of Blob that exists. The points are low enough and the usefulness is high enough to average out to a decent old piece.

CONS: It's at this point that I will praise new dial design by looking at all of Fred's superfluous clicks. Just look at that last click...TWO movement, FOUR attack, ELEVEN defense, and a ONE damage. There are bystanders that do more than that...OLD bystanders at that! I'm so grateful that newer dial design saw that so many of those old figures had clicks that were largely taking up points on a characters dial and figured out a way to make them more cost effective. Almost every old figure had dials like this where their last two clicks were just raw numbers (And bad ones at that) and zero powers or usefulness. This was also before traits so there was literally nothing they were bringing to the table other than the mere fact that they were alive still.

THEME: My hopes are that someday that we will get an Apocalypse that can "Make" Horsemen and that I'll be able to put together a Horsemen of Apocalypse team. With any luck said Apocalypse will have some ability to boost stats/powers of characters and this Blob is pretty decent with powers but needs some help with stats, so he could be some decent raw material to work with. So, while I'm not suggesting a KEYWORD theme team, keep this figure in mind in case we ever get a figure like that (Apocalypse or otherwise) that can boost some stats like that.



PROS: This is a great "Comic Accurate" Blob and has one of my favorite sculpts that he's ever had. I say he's comic accurate because he only has one click of Charge. After that he gets kind of winded and is just happy to hold you down and not do a whole lot. In that regard, he's the best at what he does if he can keep you there. He has four clicks of Plasticity after he loses charge so he's holding you down. What makes that even more important is his defense special power called "Layers of Extra Fat." It makes it so he ignores all but one damage any time he would take damage. Not counting Pulse Wave and Outwit (Which are the great equalizers anyway) it's going to take SEVEN attacks to put him down. THAT is exactly what a Blob should be...hard to hit and kind of slow.

CONS: I totally appreciate what they're going for with his "The Immovable Object" trait, but it doesn't help him get into battle very quickly. His speed isn't the WORST that it could be and in fact is a little faster than I believe he should be, but with that trait, he's going to be slow to get into the fight. He'll have to stop and take a breather as well as there is no Indomitable/Willpower to help him out (Not that there should be). Unfortunately a ton of his points are tied up in that trait and the defense special power as well. His attack stat is only mediocre at best and his damage output is DISMAL. He's some of the best Mastermind fodder in the game...even in today's game, but I would really prefer a character on my team that has more of a function than "Damage Sponge."

THEME: In my opinion, he has been and always will be best on a Brotherhood of Mutants team. He makes AMAZING Mastermind fodder and there are usually at least one or two characters (Like Mystique or Magneto) that will have that power to be able to shunt an attack off on to Fred who just stands there and laughs at how much it tickles. Since they changed Mastermind to be able to do it to a character regardless of point value if they share a keyword, it opens up a whole new world of things that can use him as their own protective wall of fat.



PROS: This Blob is holding you and has NO plans of letting go. He has zero Charge on his dial and instead has an entire six clicks of nothing but Plasticity on movement. This time around he has a trick that none of the other ones have, though. He has a damage special power called "Irresistible Force" that says: If an opposing character moves due to its own action and ends within 2 squares and line of fire, after actions resolve you may place that character adjacent to Blob and the square in which it ended its move. If you get within his grasp, he is going to grab you and pull you in for a nice big bear hug. It may seem like something that easily avoidable, but a good player will find a choke point to put him in that will make it hard to get beyond him. It might even force you to use a Perplex on movement to ensure that you can get beyond that reach as well. If he even hold down one person, you will likely get your points' worth out of him. What I like most about that power is that it doesn't have a limit technically. Sure, you're limited by the number of adjacent squares, but if somebody just keeps feeding him, he'll keep eating! He'll just keep plopping them right down next to him. This could be EXTRA useful with that Quake that he has that other Blobs do not. Bring 'em in close for a hug and belly bounce them all away. What's nice is that his stats are a little more offensively minded than other Blobs' as well.

CONS: Though accurate, he STILL has an "Immovable" trait that prevents him from being carried, TK'd, or knocked back. This time his movement is even lower at the top speed of SIX. He DOES have Indomitable this time around which might help to mitigate that a bit, but it's still going to be a hindrance. I wish this one were as durable as the GSX one, or even HALF as durable. Those are some nice opening stats and Impervious has the potential to be really good, but it's too susceptible to penetrating damage as well as the normal Pulse Wave and Outwit. If he had those kind of damage reducers and then you made them Protected: Outwit, we might be talking, but as is it's a little too weak for a nearly 100 point investment for me. I know, I know, Protected powers weren't a thing at the time TECHNICALLY, but there was ways to write a special power that could have duplicated the effect.

THEME: This being the Days of Future Past Blob, I would be remiss to not play him on a comic/chronologically accurate Freedom Force team. That's what he was basically designed to fit in, so lean into it. The Uncanny X-Men set saw some of the non-former Brotherhood characters made, so there is definitely a good size pool to pull from. The Uncanny X-Men ones even have an ability to use Force Blast for free after being given a move action. If you play your cards right, you could even Force Blast them right INTO Blob's waiting arms.



PROS: The funny thing is that I've played this Blob a few times even, but I can't say that I've sat back and looked at his dial on paper for any length of time until writing this article. He really is the best of all the available worlds for a Blob figure! He's got the little bit of Charge and Plasticity...the Super Strength and Quake...but almost more importantly, he has a defensive special power that improves on all previous formulas. It says: Blob takes a maximum of 1 damage from attacks. // Blob can only be chosen for Mastermind by characters that he shares a keyword with. Protected: Outwit, Pulse Wave. It fixes issues of abuse that might come up with a figure that is this cheap to play where he becomes the ultimate Mastermind fodder by making it tied to a keyword and therefore inspires theme play. They even found a way to make him immobile on HIS terms. GONE are the days where he can't be carried or TK'd because now he has his NOTHING MOVES THE BLOB trait that says: Immobile, but only if it's not your turn. // At the end of your turn, if Blob was not moved or placed this turn, give him a Stability token. Blob modifies defense +1 for each Stability token. When he moves or is placed, remove his Stability tokens. It's like somebody at WizKids finally said "Hey, enough with these inefficient Blob figures. He's a good character and has gotten the shaft in one form or another since the beginning of the game, because this one really knocks it out of the park!

CONS: There's really not much I can hate about with this figure. He's good enough to be in a regular rotation of play on my theme teams, but he's not so good that he seems like he's TOO good which can be just as damning for a figure for me as underselling it at times. About the only thing that I can really gripe about is that he was made in a niche set like the X-Men Animated set so his keywords reflect that specific iteration of him and aren't representative of him in comic books as well. He still has the two big keywords that he should have so it's not a very big sleight to him, but there are a few keywords that he COULD have had but doesn't.

THEME: The "Mutant Brothers and Sisters" trait lends itself to playing Brotherhood of Mutants quite well. There is lots of Leadership to be found there and the common Magneto can even TK him into the fray AND potentially pull tokens off of him by doing so. With so many ways to heal a figure that only takes one damage per attack, the incentives are all over the place with the Brotherhood team, and the options to play alongside him are much more modern than the ones that exist in his other keyword. It would likely be my favorite keyword to play him on even IF he had other keywords.

KEYS TO THE KINGDOM

Now that we have had a little glimpse into the aspects of all the different versions of this figure, let's take a quick look at their keywords and I will tell you my number one picks to use for each keyword theme available (Named keywords are bolded):

Brotherhood of Mutants: xdps021 Blob
Freedom Force: xdps021 Blob
X-Corps: ct112 Fred J. Dukes
Factor Three: gx033 Blob
Brute: ct036 Blob

WHO NEEDS KEYWORDS?!

In this section, I'm going to list some possible theme teams that you could play this figure on that are definitely comic accurate but don't require keywords and provides links using Comic Vine and/or Wikipedia to tell you more about them. Unfortunately, using these teams mean you are going to forego keyword bonuses, but every once in a while Judges might let you slip by with one of these teams:

Defenders
Fake Defenders
Heralds of Onslaught
Horsemen of Apocalypse
Horsemen of Salvation
Legion Accursed
Marvel Zombies
Sinister Six
Team X
The Black Legion
X-Cell

This wraps it up for this edition of Deep Dish Themes! Thank you for reading! Feel free to post what you think about the article and feel free to nominate a character for an upcoming edition of Deep Dish Themes. Join me next time when I bring you the MANY faces of CITIZEN V!

Great article! I loved how you analyzed, in depth, all of the different versions! Nostalgia!

My favorite Blob story is after M-Day Blob lost his powers so all that mass spilled out as giant rolls of fat well Blob decides to stab himself because he is so morbidly obese that death was preferable to the life he was facing. Well Blob loses the knife in the rolls of his own fat so then Blob calls the X-Men and asks Cyclops to shoot him in the head. Cyclops does use his optic blast to dislodge the knife trapped between Blob's rolls of fat, Cyclops hands the knife back to Blob and leaves telling Blob that the X-Men are not murderers.

I do wish the new Blob had a better sculpt, but its nice to see Fred finally get a really good dial.

Every team needs a meat shield and in that regard Fred is king (or at least Duke ).

My favorite Blob story will always be the (apparent) death of his best friend Unus the Untouchable. It shows that Fred has been caring for Angelo for months as his powers have gone out of control because of a gadget used on him years ago by the Beast.

I think it was in Spectacular Spider-Man, finally Unus succumbs from his powers increasing to such a degree that not even oxygen can penetrate his force field and Fred goes berserk.

Finally after a battle with Spider-Man and Black Cat he just gives in to his grief and the man who cannot be moved ends up blocking all the traffic in NYC.

It humanizes Dukes, unlike certain later stories like in Daredevil where its implied that he and Pyro are child molesters and stories that contribute to the character assassination of Scott Summers.....just saying.

I love these figure reviews. Blob is a pretty worthy choice, especially with the comic accurate focus on some versions.

Well done, you almost made me want to dust off the old CT versions. ALMOST...

eww. Didn't read that.

When it comes to making theme teams, and I'm thinking Brotherhood. Blob is one of those figs that almost never makes the cut.
For the most part I'll always reach for Jugs WAAY before I grab Blob,
BUT! that newest version I didn't really look at. He seems quite cool.\

If I my humbly suggest the next deep dish Mr. Hyde!

What amused me most about CT Blob was that they really gave him Charge for the knockback resistance, with move/attack being an unavoidable consequence.

-J

That sounds like somebody trying to be edgy for the sake of edginess

XTAS Blob was my MVP in sealed. A complete unit.

yeah it's hard to argue against xdps. it's the best of all the dials and the cheapest beyond the rev. glad the "final draft" finally got all the pieces into place

You and Griff5813 made me go back and look up the issue, Daredevil Vol 1 269.

And yep Blob and Pyro ( there as members of Freedom Force )get into a town destroying fight over who "Gets" a young telekinetic mutant named Amanda Fallows.....who looks about twelve.

Mainly I wanted to see if it was Millar or Miller who wrote the story, only to see it was ANN NOCENTI.....what the #%$^.

That...that isn't what I expected, I guess you can't always trust your memories. Check your facts kiddies they may just surprise even you!

But yeah it was obviously a cheap "Make the villains EVULZ" ploy. On the upside I seem to be the only one who remembered it.....until I brought it up.....

Consistent characterization is a lot art

I never understood the rationale behind the Irresistible Force power on the DoFP Blob.

Like.. is he so big he has his own gravity? Because that's messed up if so. Or is it just supposed to be that he reaches out 2 full squares and pulls people to him?

This weirdness is why I never wanted to use him, haha