Space… the final frontier. These are the voyages of the Starship Enterprise. Its continuing mission: to bring new Star Trek figures to Heroclix… to seek out new ideas; new teams.. to boldly go where Heroclix has gone once before! Yeah, it’s time for the FIRST Star Trek Away Team: The Next Generation – Resistance is Futile set review.

This year sure does feel like 2017 with releases. Thanks to the delay on Rebirth and Black Panther hitting just a few weeks later, this first Next Generation set, the second Next Generation set coming soon, WWE, and Dark Phoenix, this is a massive year for Heroclix. It feels like now more than ever, it’s essential to figure out which figures you pick and choose to reduce how much product you’re storing. If you’re anything like me, this year has been brutal on your storage space.

While I’ve never been a Trekkie (I’ve always preferred Star Wars), I appreciate the series and what it’s done for us as a society. Of all the Star Trek’s, The Next Generation is easily my favorite. The effects were great for the time, making it feel more futuristic than the original series. Jean-Luc Picard was an awesome captain and spawned a slew of memes, slogans, and phrases. Even if I wasn’t a Trekkie in the 90’s, I still grew up around TNG, so it feels closer to me than the original series.

WizKids decided that rather than launching a full booster set like they did for the original series; they would split this between two gravity feed sets with separate releases. Today’s review is pretty much a “part 1” as we won’t have a full series review until the second set launches in the next month.

Unlike my recent set reviews, I’m not going to include sealed reviews as this is just a gravity feed set. This will be like my older reviews and much shorter as well. Remember that these are my personal reviews and they aren’t the definitive ratings of figures. It’s okay if you disagree with me! Also, I don’t like to say that any figure is inherently bad as these characters are near and dear to some folks.

Okay, energize!

COMMON

001 KLINGON CREWMAN

I feel like the super cheap aggro dial has reached it’s tipping point and these new dials just aren’t that exciting anymore. Charge, Blades, and Combat Reflexes is awesome for 30 points, as is the ability to heal someone adjacent when KO’d, but there’s just nothing here that makes me want to get this dial when I can only play him on Klingon or Warrior teams. Score: 3/5

002a BORG DRONE

This is my issue with the Star Trek sets; they’re highly reliant on using more figures from the set, pushing you to collect a lot to get their full value. On a Borg team, these are great generics that have some good lockdown and damage improvements for your team and are actually really hard to KO. When they aren’t on a Borg team though, they’re just so lackluster. There’s so many better Empower pieces out there. Score: 2/5

002b HUGH

The first gravity feed prime. This really scares me for this kind of product moving forward. Just like the drone, that first trait is useless outside of a Trek set. Thankfully Hugh actually has some pretty good damage potential and team assistance for his cost. That being said, if I’m going to use a common Prime for some decent ranged damage potential, why not just pay 20 points more and run Kirk DePaul? Score: 3/5

003 CAPTAIN JEAN-LUC PICARD

Picard is great on a Starfleet team giving you an amazing Leadership figure with some good defenses. However, he doesn’t really do anything on any other team. His lack of real offense of any kind means that Picard is just a Leadership figure and nothing more. We’ve seen some killer Leadership figures as of late, so unfortunately Jean-Luc’s first dial misses the mark (on a regular team). Score: 1/5 (4/5 on a Starfleet team)

004 STARFLEET ENSIGN

20 points for Perplex or Telekinesis is really good. Not much more needed than that. Just make sure you pay 20 points each. The other clicks that your opponent can choose are not very good compared. Score: 5/5

005 LT. COMMANDER DATA

I’m not a fan of Shifting Focus in a gravity feed set; it’s much harder to get multiple figures than with a standard set, so I’m already not happy with this figure. Data feels a bit like Shifting Focus Vision with his Sidestep and big defenses. The Indomitable is nice and the Close Combat Expert will make him hurt a lot if he does close the gap. There’s just nothing exciting here to me. Score: 3/5

006 LT. WORF

Another Shifting Focus piece, same feelings. Worf is a bit better than Data as he has more going on in general and is easily worth the additional 10 points. He’ll be strong on the approach as he’ll improve everyone’s defenses against ranged attacks, and then help pile on the hurt for melee attacks. A good team-player piece. Score: 4/5

007 DR. BEVERLY CRUSHER

Not a bad medic as Beverly has two clicks with 11-attack, something we don’t see much on medics as they usually rock a lower attack value with Defend. The addition of Precision Strike means she can dish some damage if she finds herself in trouble. The free healing to everyone around her could be very good depending on the situation. Score: 4/5

008 COUNSELOR TROI

I like the idea of this figure; they give good defenses and back that up with Probability Control while also potentially giving figures a pseudo-Invincible. Of course, a good player would just KO Troi first, but that means you’re sacrificing a 50-point figure rather than who they’re sitting next to. Score: 3/5

009 KLINGON WARRIOR

This seems WAY better than the Klingon Crewman as there’s a very good chance you can get this 40-point figure up to a 12-attack by himself. While he can’t Charge in and his powers are better on click 2, this is a very aggressive and sticky dial for its cost. His issue will be surviving the approach. Score: 4/5

UNCOMMON

010 GOWRON

Our first dial in the set that feels capable of living through a hit while also possessing some lasting aggression. Gowron will obviously be great with a Klingon team, but there’s some potential here on a regular team as well. Adjacent characters will hugely benefit, as long as they take damage from an attack or Gowron can roll Leadership. If not, this is a very bloated dial. However, I do like the Mastermind to force those adjacent characters into damage. Score: 3/5

011 BORG SEARCH PARTY

Odd name for a single character. When I read this, I felt like I was reading a card game spoiler. This is actually a pretty decent figure. For 45 points, you get a cool ranged assistant that gives you +2 range, +1 damage, and stealth busting that can throw some decent damage themselves. Is this a little overpriced for these effects? Maybe, but I think this could be a good dial on the right team. Score: 3/5

012 REGINALD BARCLAY

I love the potential Reginald brings to the game. His Holodeck clicks (and keyword, what the heck?) are very cool and give you some awesome potential on the right map. The problem with Reginald is that in order to get there, he has to take 3-damage. Until then, he’s a 50-point Enhancement figure that can Sidestep, and nothing more. A good player will look at all the text on his card, see that he has two powers for 50 points, and will most likely just avoid him. Score: 2/5

013 THOMAS RIKER

Talk about a complicated trait that’s long-winded. You’ll almost never run Riker on his own as he’s pretty much guaranteed to chill on your Sideline until you meet the requirements of his trait and treat him as basically an ID summon that can come out at one of three clicks depending on what you need. What I don’t like about this idea is that you need two things to make it work; Commander William T. Riker and a figure with Telekinesis. So you’re either going to pull this trick off early game, or your opponent is going to know what you’re doing and probably nuke your TK figure. Score: 3/5

EDIT: Riker has been Errata’d to say that this can only happen once per turn which cuts down on the potential abuse of just summoning a ton of Rikers every single turn with someone like Hellion. Assuming you never let the Sideline version become KO’d and he does in fact return to your Sideline, you can keep activating this. I still feel the original score is correct though as it requires at least 3 figures and none of them can be KO’d to profit basically a pretty good bystander every turn.

014 ENSIGN CRUSHER

Don’t shut up, Wesley, because you’re a fantastic addition to Cosmic teams. For 50 points, you get a figure that will allow you to reroll a lot of different single d6 rolls along with Perplex, and two STOP clicks. Once he reaches those STOP clicks, he brings Probability Control and Outwit to the party. Figures that are hard to KO are always strong, and this is a lot more valuable with the best keyword in the game. Score: 5/5

015 LT. WORF

This is a good second half to the Shifting Focus Worf set as now you can reliably have either Enhancement or Empower at any given time, along with defense against the attacks of your choice which gives you a good package for his 60-point cost. On his own, this dial is fairly lackluster though as he’s somewhat slow, though the Indom helps a bit there. Score: 4/5

016 NURSE OGAWA

I love the idea of a nurse figure – someone who isn’t quite as good at healing but makes a doctor’s job so much easier. It’s a fun mechanic. The question is are you willing to pay 15 points for a reroll for your medic? Probably not. Score: 2/5

017 COMMANDER SHELBY

Shelby might seem overcosted for a mediocre Pen/Psy figure with Leadership, but in today’s game where theme teams are seeing play like crazy, she’s actually decent. Giving your team a flat +1 to attack while adjacent to her against an entire team can be a lifesaver. Shelby also has a decent dial as she takes damage; just make sure you willingly push her rather than letting her take that first hit. Score: 4/5

018 B’ETOR

Way too expensive at 90 points, but not bad at 50. Giving your adjacent allies Stealth and +1 to damage in melee attacks gives you a nice safety net while you approach your enemy. Keep in mind that B’etor has Stealth as well thanks to the trait since they’re friendly to themselves and have the Klingon keyword. Once you get in the fight, I would immediately push them to get that sweet Poison click. Score: 3/5

RARE

019 K’MPEC

Average stats and a trait that requires your characters to be hit multiple times and survive before it pays off. Meanwhile, you’re hoping that friendly characters’ attack value doesn’t dip too much to where you’ll never get to benefit from K’mpec. However, there is some use here. He does grant stealth busting for adjacent characters and he has Prob with Indomitable, so he’s a decent support figure. Would I pay 60 points for that though? No way. Score: 2/5

020 BORG BOARDING PARTY

If you want a taxi for Borg, they’re needed. If not, this is an incredibly lackluster dial. In order to use that Ranged Combat Expert, you have to move them within 4 squares of their potential target, and then pray they don’t either take a hit themselves or their target moves. Their Adaptation trait might seem good, but it requires your opponent looking to use the same power to target your characters multiple times per turn. Score: 1/5

021 WESLEY CRUSHER

It’s too bad this Wesley is unique because he would absolutely be a replacement for Big Tony as the go-to Perplex figure. 15 points for top-dial Perplex is killer, even if he doesn’t theme well. I personally don’t like the chance at hurting himself as I tend to roll low on single d6 rolls, but that potential to remove a token from an ally after Perplexing them offsets that pretty easily. Score: 5/5

022 COMMANDER WILLIAM T. RIKER

If this dial was cheaper (or had a sub-100-point line), I would play the hell out of this. Riker is awesome at protecting your allies and bailing them out of trouble, along with Probability Control to even the odds. Unfortunately his opening clicks lack the damage capabilities of his later clicks, and the Phasing on every click for a minimum of 100 points hurts. When you factor in the common Riker that comes with him, this dial is a little better, but he’s still just too many points for what he does. Score: 2/5

023 LORE

Not a bad support figure with some surprising offense thanks to the high values and Precision Strike. Mastermind and Shape Change is an annoying combo to break through, so picking up Probability Control that sees through everything for allies makes a resilient annoyance for your opponent and a very reliable support figure for you. Lore is also surprisingly durable as you’ll probably live through one hit and the Regen at the end of the dial will help bring you back. Score: 4/5

024 TASHA YAR

Basically, a melee figure that has full-dial Invulnerability when adjacent to Data and can reposition enemies that miss her with punches and kicks. Don’t get me wrong, moving a figure to any other adjacent square is very good, especially when they have to hit a 19 to avoid it. Tasha has a nice opening click and could pull some shenanigans off in the right setting. Score: 3/5

025 ENSIGN RO LAREN

At first glance, Ro looks like just another traitor figure with some good close combat abilities. If you’re like me, you probably stopped reading halfway through her trait and missed the second portion which makes her incredible; when she reverts to your opponent, she completely stops their use of Probability Control. That’s AMAZING and absolutely worth 40 points. I can see throwing Ro into the heat of battle as a tie-up figure right away with the threat of 4-damage the following turn (pushing her every chance I get), and hoping they take the bait and KO her. I love this figure. Score: 5/5

026 LT. COMMANDER GEORDI LA FORGE

Geordi’s attack power is very, very random and probably won’t come into play very often, but even having the potential of adding +2 to damage for free is very good. Thankfully, his damage power makes up for that by making him just a good figure all around. Geordi is the end-all, be-all Probability Control figure for your own figures as he shuts down any other re-rolls. His last two clicks are also quite surprisingly good as well for some surprise damage. Score: 4/5

027 LURSA

I honestly don’t know what to say about this dial. If feels so… bland. There’s nothing here that gives me any desire to run her. At 85 points, she can pop-off a decent first hit, but ends up in rough shape after just a single hit. At 45 points, that 9-attack is brutal and requires a push to make her worthwhile. Lursa’s best click is actually click 5 when she’s a hair from death. Not something I want to run. Score: 1/5

SUPER RARE

028 Q

Like Trelane before him, Q looks to be the star of the set with his abilities to re-roll dice within 8 squares, but Q also brings his own Probability Control to the party. While I like his 50-point line the best for value, it’s a bit too risky to use even with the Mastermind and Super Senses. Instead, the sweet spot for Q is his 125-point line where he has some meat to him and comes with 2 soldiers to help him dish some damage. Now you have a decent ID summoner that actively hurts characters that have no choice but to attack him. Keep in mind that his Penalty Box only hurts opponents if he’s attacked multiple times a turn. The first attack will generate a Penalty Box after resolutions, and the damage is dealt when an attack misses. Since the Penalty Box isn’t out if the first attack against him misses, no damage will be dealt. However, you’ll still get to assign the character that swung at him Immobile. Score: 5/5

029a Captain Jean-Luc Picard

I really wish this dial wasn’t so damn high in points because I really like what this version of Picard does. This guy is all about playing the odds and the long-game value. Every time he succeeds at Leadership, he picks up new keywords to further integrate him into your team, and his Diplomacy Perplex is amazingly cool that can be a total pain for a lot of figures. The Picard Maneuver is incredibly cool, and it’s a bummer it’s only on the end of the dial. To make this dial good, I would have given him The Picard Maneuver up front instead of the Sidestep, and I would have dropped his cost to 100 points. As-is, he’s okay. Score: 3/5

029b Q

This this the first time we’ve had a prime of a figure that isn’t the b version of their other ego? It’s odd that Q is the b side of Jean-Luc rather than, well, Q. Anyways, This is a much more slim and efficient version of Q without the penalty box. This guy is cheaper, harder to hit, and is more about trimming all excess fat for one of the best replacement roll figures ever. With Super Senses, Probability Control, and a chance at making opponents auto-miss, Q is insanely hard to hit and will be a welcome addition to Cosmic teams. It’s a tough call of who is better between the Super Rare and the Prime, but I think the Super Rare edges out as he’s more playable thanks to multiple point lines. I don’t think I’d want to play this Q at 175 points, although you could do a lot worse. Score: 5/5

030 LOCUTUS OF BORG

Talk about completely specialized to work within the set… At least Locutus has a pretty cool effect with the ability to give adjacent allies Steal Energy, or double Steal Energy if they already have it. His kit is one of the most well-rounded as well; Running Shot, 11-Pen/Psy, 18-Toughness, 3-Outwit, 7-range, and Indom is a great opening for 75 points. His mid clicks are also quite good and painful while the last two give him some great bounce back potential. Score: 4/5

031 BORG QUEEN, THE ONE WHO IS MANY

I haven’t liked the Title Trek characters at all since they require more figures from the set to really utilize, but I actually like the Queen because of how she’s setup. She’s amazing at just eating damage to give your team MOVE, CLOSE, or RANGE actions that don’t count against your action total over and over again. With three clicks of Invincible and Outwit with 8 range, she’s incredible at just creeping up the board, taking some unavoidable damage for activating that plot ability, and then throwing out some ranged attacks to keep herself in the game. Once she gets some plot points, she can potentially resurrect an opposing character which can win the game for you. On a swarm team, the Borg Queen can potentially end the game in a single turn thanks to all the attacks you’ll get to make (as long as they started adjacent to her, so up to 9 figures, which is easy to do with bystander teams). Color me impressed; I’ll be getting the Borg Queen. Score: 5/5

EDIT: The Queen also received an Errata to say that she can only resurrect one of your opponent’s figures at a time. This is a smaller change than Riker, and I don’t think it really makes a difference on her dial as I still believe her best use is spamming actions for your team. No change in score here either.

032 LT. COMMANDER DATA

Is this Data, or is this Sherlock Holmes, because it sure as hell feels like Holmes and I like that a lot. Park Data in some hindering in the middle of the map and he’s an incredibly annoying figure to deal with. Since his trait only requires range, you’re probably going to be using it a lot, and the more you do, the better the odds that you control the game. If that wasn’t enough, he brings a show-stopper Probability Control that just stops any other rerolling afterwards. I hate to say it, but I need both Data’s because this one is just so, so good. Score: 5/5

CHASE

033 MIRROR BEVERLY CRUSHER

An interesting take to change how colossal retaliation works. The mirror figures require a certain amount of damage from an attack instead of just damage in general, but they’re a bit more safe since you get to choose how they engage in the fight and they can swap if you have both chases. They also don’t get to make an attack afterwards, so this is more of a repositioning tool than retaliation. Beverly stops healing and Willpower when she places which makes her pretty good, although she doesn’t do much on her own damage-wise. However, she does bring Outwit, Perplex, Probability Control, and Support to the party which is outstanding. I would only ever play her at 75 points as a support figure isn’t worth a third of your build. Even at 75 points, I don’t think Beverly is great. Score: 3/5

034 MIRROR WILLIAM RIKER

Aside from the mirror mechanics, Riker doesn’t really do much for me. He’s an okay attacker with low values for his cost and a hefty glass jaw with only Shape Change protecting him. Like a lot of Clayfaces, Riker needs to succeed on his first Shape Change to get the ball rolling and make him better than he is when he starts the game. It’s a fun dial with some cool counter play options, but not nearly as good as the Kirk and Sulu chases from the original set. Score: 3/5

It’s nice to have a relatively short set review as opposed to the massive ones I’ve been pumping out (and will pump out again when X-Men Animated comes out thanks to all the colossal figures). As usual, let’s look at the breakdown of how figures scored.

Score of 1: 3 Figures | 1C, 2R – 8% of the Set

Score of 2: 5 Figures | 1C, 2U, 3R – 13% of the Set

Score of 3: 12 Figures | 4C, 4U, 1R, 1SR, both Chases – 33% of the Set

Score of 4: 8 Figures | 3C, 2U, 2R, 1SR – 22% of the Set

Score of 5: 8 Figures | 1C, 1U, 2R, 4SR – 22% of the Set

Interestingly enough, there’s a very large chunk of this set that’s either very good or excellent, but that still comes up to less than half of the set, with a whopping 54% of the set being average or lower. The real issue I have is that the good pieces in this set are in the upper rarities with almost all of the Super Rares being very good or excellent (4 or 5 rating) compared to how few of those figures you get in an entire countertop display of gravity feeds. The pull rates are way, way worse for gravity feeds than full 5-figure booster packs, so it’s much harder to get what you want and will most likely cost you a ton on the secondary market. Factor in the smaller quantities produced for the Star Trek sets and you have a problem with supply and demand. As of this writing, figures like the Super Rare Prime Q are sold out online, not even a full day after release, with a price tag of $80. That’s nuts.

Are there some gems in this set? Absolutely. Will I be picking them up? Not a chance. While there are about 8 figures from the set that I personally want, the prices are going to be too high, and it will be very hard to find sealed product of this set. Compile that with a lot of the generics requiring many of the figures from the set (read: Borg drones and Starfleet members), and you have a very strange set that either pushes a player to buy a lot of product, or have horrible odds at pulling something they’re genuinely use. That’s where the 5-figure boosters of the original set were great; if you wanted to run a Starfleet team, you got plenty of extras in boosters while still guaranteeing a rare or higher figure.

I’m still happy we have not one but two Star Trek Next Gen sets and I’m hoping there’s a better Jean-Luc Picard in the next set, but I think I have to pass on this one in general. If you like this set and you plan on running Star Trek teams rather than piecing them into your standard force, then by all means, I recommend getting a full counter top display or a sealed case if you can find one.

How do you think this set stacked up against some of the others as of late? Do you think this is better or worse than the first Star Trek in 2017? How do you feel about the separation into two different gravity feeds rather than a 5-figure booster set? Let me know in the comments section!

Thanks for joining me on another set review! I’ll see you guys on Tuesday over on Clix Fix, and here again the following Tuesday. Until then, remember that the real fun begins when you’re Two Clicks From KO!