Earlier this month, I had back-to-back articles about my favorite figures from 2018. Seeing as how this is the last article for 2018, and backed by poll, today is about the razzies of 2018 – the worst figures to come out this year. Let’s look at some TRASH!

Razzies are fun. It’s always a good time to look at things objectively and realize that not everything is sunshine and flowers and unicorns. No, some of the clix we get are god-awful, but it’s important to realize that there has to be some bad pieces in order for the really good pieces to shine through. It’s part of games that have random boosters. And to be totally fair, WizKids has done a pretty damn good job with sets this year with very few truly trash pieces.

As I went through the units section browsing each of the sets, there weren’t too many pieces where I found myself going “oh my god, why?”. There were a lot of figures that would border that, but in the right circumstance could actually work out okay. A lot of these figures are going to be rares and under as I feel like WizKids has put more effort into the Super Rares and Chases to make sure people who pay the money for a booster and open one of the bigger figures doesn’t feel like they got ripped off.

Don’t worry, there’s plenty here!

Now, one last bit before I dive in. Keep in mind that just like my favorite’s articles, this is all my opinion. Just because I think something sucks doesn’t mean you should feel bad if you like that dial.

Okay, grab yourself some holiday hot cocoa and lets ROAST some Heroclix!

X-Men: Xavier’s School

XXS002 Marvel Girl – Hey, remember when Mercury came out in World’s Finest and showed us that we could start getting TK at 25 points along with Sidestep? Remember how blown away we all were? And that was still during the 8-square TK days! Then we got pieces like Lt. Kyle in Star Trek last year that continued to back up the idea that TK is a cheap power now. Well, apparently young Jean didn’t get that memo, because she showed up with a dial from before Uncanny X-Men. Okay, yes, she does a bit more with objects, but with no movement powers or even support powers to back her up, she’s a 50-point paperweight and will probably need another TK’er just to get her into throwing range.

XXS008 Artie – What is the justification to this figure? He’s 25 points and you get traited Mind Control, which isn’t even that good since the Outwit changes. He’s slow and has 9 attack on his whopping 3 clicks of health, and only a 4 range, so he has to get in close to actually use his Mind Control, and even then, one hit from literally anyone but a copy of himself will KO him. Why wouldn’t you just pay 25 points more and use Professor X and get an incredible Mind Control piece? I think what’s even worse is that Artie got a freakin’ ID card. Talk about a slap in the face.

XXS022 Karma – Look, I know what you’re saying; “10 attack with triple target Mind Control for 40 points is bad?!” Yes, yes it is. When it’s tied to this dial. Again, Karma has no way to engage her targets before she gets hit first, so you have to pay more than 40 to actually use her, and when they DO hit her first, she’s sitting 17… and that’s it! Okay, yes, she has Shape Change, so she has a 33% chance of not getting attacked. But when that fails, she’s toast. Again, just play Professor X for 10 freaking points more.

XXS038 Magik – Guilty, I graded her highly. However, to be fair to Magik, it’s not her fault that she’s a bad dial. It’s Lila Cheney’s and The Blackbird’s faults. Those two came out and pretty much peed right in the face of any X-Men taxi, and Magik took a hard fall. Her stats are pretty bad, she only has 5 clicks of health, and you need a Super Rare to make her resurrection work, and it’s still only a chance. Sorry Magik. You looked decent during spoilers, but you aged horribly on release.

XXS049 Professor X, Dreamer – Look, there’s no arguing that this guy is just crap. Charles got probably the best sculpt ever and a horrid dial to go with it, in a set where we got the best Xavier. He brings nothing to your team and his title abilities are worthless, especially since he’ll just eat damage for using them. Oh yeah, and once he does go down, you can kiss the game goodbye since he’s giving all your opponent’s +1 damage.

XXS054 Gateway – Another character trashed by Lila and The Blackbird. 8 passengers is really nice, but if you need that option, just play Green Lantern from Elseworlds. The Prob is fantastic, but the fact that he immediately ends your action phase after carrying 2 or more characters is miserable.

XXS059a Emma Frost – It’s tough to say a Headmaster is bad because of everything they get, but it’s paired with one of the worst Keywords from the set (Hellions) whereas most simply got X-Men. Emma is yet another Mind Control figure that’s simply outclassed in every way by the Professor X rare. Hell, Karma is better than she is; basically the same defenses since Emma has Willpower, but at least Karma can hit multiple people. This dial ages horribly as well.

XXS066 Mister Sinister – He’s crap. I’m sorry if you pulled him, but he’s just bad. 100 points for a dial that can kind of teleport but can’t make attacks afterwards and drops so hard so fast is not good. Shape Change, Invincible, and Stealth are a great power trio to keep him safe, but look what happens to this guy if he takes just 2 damage; he falls into common/uncommon territory. When you compare him to the amazing AoA chases in the set, you can’t help but laugh, and every person I know that opened him was extremely disappointed because of how much he feels and plays like a rare, or junk Super Rare at BEST.

Avengers: Infinity

AI003 Black Widow – And the award for WORST figure of the year goes to Black Widow! Why would anyone pay 50 points for literally just Perplex? Push her and she actually gets some powers like… Mind Control? What the hell? Support? Who is this?! It doesn’t matter because Natasha is going to sit around doing nothing and then she’ll go down in 1 hit, maybe 2 if you’re lucky. But will you really be lucky? If you end up at the end of her dial, you have a whopping 15 Combat Reflexes with 2 Exploit Weakness. I have never liked Black Widow dials, and this is some huge ammunition to make my case.

AI027 Starfox – To be fair, this was VERY close to being the worst figure of the year, and he’s barely better than Black Widow. Traited Mind Control for Avengers, not too shabby, but with those 9 attacks on every click for 60 points is just dumb. Oh wait, he has Perplex – but only to modify values negatively. But can’t he just perplex your defense down? Sure, but that also means he can’t save himself before he makes it into battle eventually. The Pheromone mechanic is garbage too, and it pales in comparison to Purple Man last year. I pulled 2 of this idiot and I just want to throw them away.

AI034 Iron Patriot – This dial isn’t honestly that bad, but the fact that she’s 80 points is about… 30 points too many. Iron Patriot has virtually no offensive capability other than hoping she can double token someone, and while her Perplex is kind of nice to make up for that, her ability to redirect an attack once per game to herself will most likely knock her into total crap where she can’t damage anyone, save someone with low stats and no reducers. If she were 50 points, she might be playable. At 80, she’s a joke.

AI042 Supremor – High stats are nice, especially so when you have any one of the three support powers every turn, but does Supremor actually have high stats? I don’t think so. 4 damage is pretty lackluster for 200 points, and 18 defense is practically average now for decent figures. Supremor also has a shrimpy 6 range with only Sidestep to get him into the fight, and with only Precision Strike on his attack, he’s most likely going to have to pick up Outwit and take out reducers to pull his massive weight. His defense absolutely tanks on his 4th click, and that awful Pulse Wave power is a massive gimmick that’s never going to actually work or even be worth the insane amount of planning it will take to pull off.

AI050 Quasar – These chases were legit cool, but Quasar was just miserable and another case of Mr. Sinister where players were incredibly bummed if they pulled him. Good stats like the rest, but TK on 100 points with Flurry traited and no way to engage into the fight sucks. His ability to port Power Cosmic people next to him seems good, but then they can’t take ANY actions afterwards? Why? Why not costed actions? To make matters worse, his Virtue power is legit the worst since you need an extreme case of luck to make it do literally anything.

AIG002 S.H.I.E.L.D. Flying Car – at 100 points, you get a big dial to add to someone, but it’s 100 freaking points that doesn’t do anything on its own. At 40, it’s not as bad, but it’s not giving too much to a character other than Invulnerability, and only 5 extra clicks. The Dune Buggy is much better and costs 10 less. But the real question is why the hell wasn’t this the red version and why wasn’t it called Lola? This thing gives vehicles a bad name.

AIG007 Giganto – Heavily unimpressive compared to Giganto and Namor, and overwhelmingly bad stats for his points. I’ll give him that he has the very good Mass Destruction trait, but that doesn’t save this massive target from being eaten alive before he gets the change to dish some big damage. He might get one or two hits in, but you’ll end up sacrificing that massive 200-point cost to do so.

AIG014 Red Hulk – This guy is even worse than Giganto, and he’s more rare! Okay, yes, he has better reducers at 200 points, but his stats in general are just awful. Just like Giganto, Red Hulk has literally no way of getting in and making an attack other than for the Mass Destruction trait, which, I’m sorry, is not good for this point cost. One could argue that Red Hulk can jump in 10 squares, Quake for free, and then follow it up with Close Combat Expert, to which I would reply “yeah, but you’re paying 200 points for that with 10 attack and 3 damage, and with his huge size and no outwit protection, he’s going to get nuked before he ever gets a chance to follow up”.

FFA1005 Vision – Remember when Vision had the design problem of always the same thing; 10 attack, 17 defense on almost the entire dial? Welcome back, because that dude is BACK! 125 points for mediocre stats, basically Impervious that can dodge Pen/Psy, and maybe some free moving. Oh, but it gets better! Vision here tanks to a 9 attack on his 5th click and drops to a damn 7 on his last click. Are we back to pre-oreo dial figures? In what world is this worth 125 points? MAYBE if he was 75 points he would at least be playable. Not good, just playable. No, cancel that; that 7 attack is never worth it.

Batman: The Animated Series

BTAS024 Lock-Up – We’ve gotten a lot of gimmicky lockdown characters with Plasticity before and this guy is absolutely one of the worst. 10 attack for 40 points isn’t all that bad, but boy does he drop fast. He also only has Barrier to keep him safe, so unlike Karma, he doesn’t even get Shape Change to try and dodge attacks. When you play Lock-up, he simply gets sniped in one turn and does nothing.

BTAS027 The Penguin – I’ll be completely honest, this isn’t an that bad of a dial thanks to that Gotham Crime Boss trait. The problem with this Penguin is that we’re coming to the end of an age with two of the best Penguins to ever hit the board with Joker’s Wild. This guy doesn’t hold a candle to either of them, yet he’s more points than both. He’s also only 4 clicks long for 50 points, but the Outwit and possible self-generating Mastermind fodder keeps him around a bit longer than he seems like he should. Just like Magik and Gateway, he’s not all bad – he’s just crap compared to what else is out there and in this case, it’s comparing him to the exact same character.

BTAS030 J-Man – Not a particularly bad piece, but I can’t help but feel like J-Man was designed during Uncanny X-Men and never grew up. He has very lackluster values for 2018 with only two 10’s and an 8 at the end, and even with the Leadership and Perplex for friendly characters, he just feels heavy and overcosted. 2 years ago, this dial would have been amazing, but today it shows how bad power creep is.

BTAS049 Baby Doll – I hate this dial. I hate it with a passion. There’s way too much text for something that’s so simple, and yet you can’t rely on what she’s going to do to help your team. Her Energy Explosion that stops Super Senses is honesty really neat, but she becomes incredibly easy to KO once she actually uses it and hits. Mastemind can probably save her, but why would you want to? What on this dial would make you want to push damage onto someone else other than maybe a Henchman?

BTAS055 Robot Minotaur – At first glance, the minotaur seems fairly beefy and is capable at dealing some big damage, but then you realize that he gets horribly out-actioned from basic support powers which will come his way anyway, and he declines super fast. Those first two clicks are pretty good (aside from the 17 defense and giant size), but look at his third click onward. Rubbish. Oh man, but you can play him for 50 points with The Riddler and then you’re still left with a giant target that’s going to get burned down and out-actioned fast.

BTAS058 The Ventriloquist – Lets face it, we all wanted this guy, but not because the dial is good. We wanted him for Scarface. I have never seen anyone play him or even talk about him, and that’s because he’s trash. 9 attack and 1 damage with Ranged Combat Expert and a whopping 4 range. Don’t lose your coke too fast because this guy can also make himself only take 1 damage from attacks! Whoa! Yeah, too bad you’re still left with a bad dial and you’ll have to spend the next turn re-equipping the dummy (I mean Ventriloquist to Scarface, not the other way around), only to have the same thing happen. It’s like bringing a civilian to a super hero fight just so you can lift his wallet.

Secret Wars: Battleworld

SWB005 Gunslinger – I feel like I’m going to get flack for this one, but this guy sucks. He’s a bad generic. “But Ranged Combat Expert and Sidestep for only 20 points!”, I can hear you yelling at the screen now. Yeah, sure, but the dude has 9 attack and 1 damage, so you might pull 2 damage in a shot with him, or you could get super lucky and pull 3 if you roll the dice on a 9 attack. How about you play any other generic figure and do a lot better? Not even his token removal saves him because A) he has to actually hit and B) so you get to try and hit for another 1 or 2 damage? Whoopie. Man, I totally want to use one of my 3 actions a turn on this guy.

SWB032 Karolina Dean – Did I say J-Man feels like he’s from Ucanny X-Men? I’m sorry, I meant Karolina Dean. How in the hell is this dial worth 55 points in today’s game? After her first click, she has no movement at ALL unless she’s in threat range of an opponent. Her stats are incredibly average with no way to boost them. Worst of all is that she was overcosted because of her potential to heal for free, but the requirements to do so mean you have to win map roll and you have to keep her in certain areas of the map. That won’t make counterplay easy at all, will it?

SWB046 Chase Stein – His stats are bad, but for 35 points it can’t be too miserable, right? Wrong. Chase serves as a taxi, but only borderline okay on a Runaways team since he only has a 7 movement, meaning if he wants to carry 2 people on any team, he can carry them a whopping 5 squares. Helping his Runaway friends? Cool, that’ll be a massive 4 square swing. But wait, he has Energy Explosion! That helps right? Well, he only has 3 range, so good luck with that one. No, I think I’d rather just pay 25 points on a Runaways team and play yet another Molly Hayes.

SWB054 Big Boss Hill – Why is Maria Hill the ONLY Baron that doesn’t have her ability as a trait? Why does she have a horribly “on-switch” Hypersonic speed that requires your other characters to be damaged? Why is she so easy to punch through passed her first click and why does she suck so horribly after that first click? These are all questions I’d love the answers to, but I’ll never know because I would never opt to play Big Boss Hill.

FFSWB003 Alex Wilder – Another figure that feels directly lifted from Uncanny X-Men. Mediocre values and more than anything, terrible powers don’t give Alex a lot of value. I guess his Outwit is kind of cool? But wouldn’t you want to Outwit good abilities instead that could maybe push you further towards a win like defense powers, or movement powers? You gotta love that he doesn’t share the traited Stealth like the main set Runaways, and he has simply a 17 Willpower to protect him from literally everything. For 50 points. Compared to the main set Uncommon, this dial looks like it’s about 10 years old.

FFSWB005 Sister Grimm – Leaps and bounds better than Alex still doesn’t make Nico good. No, she’s quite bad as well. She has no way to get herself into combat to use her Quake, and while the Stealth/Super Senses/Mystics/Prob combo make her a little tough to actually hit, she’s not pulling a lot of weight or accomplishing anything in return for her points. Her special Prob is quite bad since it’s complete chance if she ever triggers it, and the payout isn’t even that good. Better than Alex by a long shot, but that doesn’t save her.

FFSWB006 Talkback – Man, the Runaways were a real gamble this year. Chase gets another useless dial, but this one is even worse than the rare. 16 freaking defense with no protection other than Perplex. No Stealth, no rollouts, nothing! But lookout because Chase can gain his Darkhawk Amulet and possibly heal himself… back into his horrible starting clicks? What is going on here? Wait, you can go through all that trouble and probably end up on clicks 5 or 6 after a hit and only have a 9 attack without that Perplex? Why does nothing on this dial jive with each other? You know what, I’ll play Alex over this dial because at least Alex has Sidestep and Incap, and his Outwit can actually do some work.

Well now, that was actually a bit cathartic. I’m more than sure some of these pieces will hit home with some of you, be it that you absolutely agree with what I’m saying or you’re adamantly opposed to my reasoning. If you find yourself in the later camp, more power to you. Not everyone likes using the most powerful figures and some of the best games can be had when you’re purposely using low-power level pieces.

I think this was a fun way to end the year, and I think I’ll factor it into my typical year-end articles. What are your thoughts on these figures? Do you think some of them don’t belong here? Maybe you think some do that aren’t here. Let me know in the comments section below!

That wraps up both Two Clicks From KO and Clix Fix for 2018. I wish you all a wonderful holiday season and a spectacular New Year’s! Regular articles will return on Tuesday, January 8th on Clix Fix, and then again here on Tuesday, January 15th right here on Two Clicks From KO. Most likely I’ll be diving right into some Earth X spoilers or news, so hopefully we get some nice reveals over the holiday break.

Take care everyone, and remember, the real fun begins when you’re Two Weeks From The End of The Year!