WizKids, the company that invented the collectible miniatures game (CMG), unveiled a portion of its 2004 schedule at Toy Fair, and the emphasis was on expanding the company's most popular brands. The Mage Knight Dark Riders Expansion for Mage Knight 2.0 arrives in April, and reintroduces the cavalry to the best-selling game of medieval fantasy combat. The knights and their mounts from the Dark Riders Boosters can fight separately or together. Each Booster Pack (MSPR: $6.99) contains four figures with the horse and rider considered as separate figures. In June, WizKids will release the Skyguard Griffin (MSRP: $15.95), another in the long line of elaborate large Mage Knight figures such as the Hill Giant or the Orc Cyclops.
WizKids' Marvel HeroClix game has been a major success--a status confirmed by two major releases in the first half of 2004. The first Marvel HeroClix release is the Universe Starters and Boosters in May. The Universe Starter Box (MSRP: $12.99) includes two 100-point teams so kids will be able to start playing the game right out of the box. The Universe Boosters have only two figures and will sell for around $3.99. The figures in both the Universe Starters and Boosters have been taken from the previous Infinity Challenge and Xplosion series. The Universe figures will carry a Universe symbol, which will allow collectors to differentiate them from the original Infinity Challenge and Xplosion versions.
The second major Marvel release from WizKids is the Ultimates Boosters, which contain four figures, will retail for $6.99 (MSRP), and are set to debut in June. The characters in the Ultimates series are made up of half characters from Marvel's popular Ultimate comics and half from the rest of Marvel's line.
The DC HeroClix Unleashed Expansion, which debuts in March, includes 97 different figures, including characters from the popular Kingdom Come series including Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman. The coolest figure in the series (and one of the coolest ever produced by WizKids) is the Bat Sentry, a giant winged Batman figure, which takes up two spaces on the HeroClix board and counts for two figures in the four-count Booster packs.
WizKids is planning an August release for Falcon's Prey, a 120-figure expansion for its science fiction CMG, MechWarrior. The company has not yet made an announcement about an 'update' set for its Major League Baseball SportsClix game, which would, for example, include Alex Rodriguez in his New York Yankee uniform, although such a release must be under consideration at least for 2004.
Conspicuous by their absence were any 2004 releases for Crimson Skies, ShadowRun, Creepy Freaks, or IndyClix. According to WizKids, none are planned at this time.