Filling in the gaps in the Marvel Universe

 There were still a few figures from the Knight Models Marvel Universe game that I was missing.  I had bought the cards only from someone last year for the Spider-Man Miniature game figures.  This uses basically the same rules as the Batman Miniature game.  This year the same guy decided to sell the figures.

Luckily, I was online when he posted and was able to snap up the figures to match the cards, and a lot of the remaining figures that I am missing from the Marvel Universe game, including a lot of the more rare ones that were released just before they lost their license – Doc Octopus, Elektra, and Thanos.

This is good, as I was having a hard time finding good alternate figures to use for Doc Ock and Thanos.  Usually I can find a decent Heroclix version to use, but nothing really looked right.  I was concerned that I might have to get the Marvel Crisis Protocol figures to use.

While a bit pricey, these will fill in most of the gaps I have.  I still need the Hulk, Loki, and Venom but I have Heroclix alternatives for these already.  I would also like to get another Wolverine, and another Ms Marvel to use for Carol Danvers.

 

Figure Painting Total - September 2021

 When I found a Blood Bowl Treeman figure, I had to pick it up. The squirrel that comes with it was given Star Player rules in White Dwarf and the figure has been very hard to find.

I was also finally able to find an original Batwoman figure. I'm not a fan of the newer figure on the huge gargoyle.


Bought
Blood Bowl - Crud Creek Nosepickers - 22
Blood Bowl - Treeman - 1
BM - Batwoman - 1

Painted
DA Red Hand Coven - 7

DA Crossroad Cult (Abyssal Harbinger) - 1
DA Chupacabra - 1
DA Jackalope - 1
DA Skinwalker in Bear form - 1

MU - Beast - 2 (heroclix)

Sept total - figures bought 24, figures painted 13
Running total 2021 - figures bought 267, figures painted 97

Figure Painting Total - April 2020

I had a week off before I started working from home. I finally finished the bases on some figures I had been working on. I finished them with a gloss coat, and then a matte coat on most of them.

Bought
Unmatched - Battle of Legends - 4

Painted
Unmatched - Robin Hood
Unmatched - Bigfoot
Unmatched - Bruce Lee
BM/DC Universe - Black Orchid
Marvel Universe - Emma Frost
Marvel Universe - Doctor Doom
Marvel Universe - Magneto
BM/DC Universe - Manta
BM/DC Universe - Huntress
BM/DC Universe - Deadshot
Spider-Man/Marvel Universe - Daredevil
Marvel Universe - Black Widow
Spider-Man/Marvel Universe - Punisher
Marvel Universe - Cyclops
Marvel Universe - Nova
Marvel Universe - Hulk (replacement)
Red Hulk (replacement as alternate for Marvel Universe)

April total - figures bought 4, figures painted 17
Running total 2020 – figures bought 15, figures painted 17

A destruction of Hulks?

The Hulk figure for the Marvel Universe game was huge, heavy, and expensive. It was supposed to fit on the large 60mm base. I was able to pick up an alternative but, if you missed out, you also have options.

There are a couple of Heroclix figures that are larger than normal, but would still be smaller than the right size. While they would be lighter, they are still a bit moderately priced. They are already painted, unless you buy the Red Hulk version, which would need to be repainted.

The new Hulk figure from Marvel Crisis Protocol is close to the same size, and light, but also pretty expensive. It will also need to be assembled and painted.


I had picked up this one. It was moderately priced, is light, is painted, and is the right size. The base needs a small amount of work to make it 60mm though. You can glue it directly to a 60mm base, or cut the figure from his base and then glue him to a proper one. I would cut a 60mm disk from styrene or cardboard, hot glue him to it, and then blend the edges with extra rubble made from styrene and paint to match.

Dollarama/Dollar Tree had some large scale superhero figures. These were light, the right size, painted, and cheap. They are closer to 1/35 scale but that is about the right size for the Hulk figure. This one already comes on a base that is almost 60mm. I had picked this one up a few years ago and haven’t seen any recently.

I did find some WWE wrestlers at Dollar Tree that were also close to 1/35 scale. They are light, a good size, and cheap. John Cena and Brock Lesnar have okay figures that could be used for A-Bomb and Red Hulk. They are both wearing boots so that would have to modified and the pant edges torn if you want to make a normal Green or Grey Hulk. They don’t have full bases, so that would need to be cut away and both pinned to a 60mm base. Both would need a simple paint job as well.

Why so many? I could not find the cheap Hulk, or anything equivalent when I was looking so I picked up the other one at a convention. Then I picked up the wrestlers while looking for ones that others would be able to find easier. Finally, while sifting boxes to storage recently, I came across the original one I had bought.

Birds of Prey

I also took some of the money that I was saving for Burning of Prospero and made another miniature order. I picked up some more Batman Miniatures/DC Universe figures. I bought the Birds of Prey and the Enchantress.

The Birds of Prey were a repacking of the older metal figures for Black Canary, Hawkgirl, and the Huntress. These came with DC Universe cards on one side and Batman Miniature Game cards on the other. The first two had cards in the rulebook but this is the first time for the Huntress for DC Universe.

The Enchantress is one of the new resin figures. Since I already had the Suicide Squad set, I figured that I should probably pick her up to complete it. Plus she is one of the magic users for the new magic rules of the second edition.

The figures were complete, which is often a worry with Knight Models (although I haven’t had too much trouble). They are lovely figures but the sculpts are tiny and the joins are very small and fiddly.

Danger zone!

When the first Guardians of the Galaxy movie came out they had miniature toy figures that were a bit bigger than 1/35. They also had some ships that were actually closer in scale to 28mm figures. They had also brought out an Avengers Quinn Jet that fired heroes on motorbikes that were also about the same scale.

People have picked up both the Milano and the Quinn Jet to use as scatter terrain in Marvel Universe Miniature game. I had it on my list when I went to the States and have been looking for them spring but have not been able to find either. I see them on ebay but haven’t been able to pull the trigger due to the shipping costs.

But I was in Save On Foods at the end of November, and they had some toys out on their Christmas section, and they had a Quinn Jet. It looked like it had been opened, but was on sale for half price from $30 down to $15, so I snapped it up.

State of the Marvel Universe - miniature game

With a bit more searching, I was able to get more figures for the Marvel Universe Miniature game. I think I’m good now. I have all 5 starters, 13 of the 19 single figures, the 3 sets of markers, and the spray template. Of the Spider-Man game figures, that work with the Batman Miniature game but also have cards to use with the Marvel Universe game, I don’t have any of the 3 starters, but do have 4 of the 5 figures.

I have all the key figures I had wanted. There are still two figures that I am interested in, Loki and Elektra, but those both seem to be rare and expensive, so I will substitute Heroclix figures. I would also substitute for the rest of the figures I need unless the price drops on them significantly. These are Thanos, Doctor Octopus, Incredible Hulk, Venom, Hulkbuster MK44, and the other sculpt of Black Widow. If I run across the Spider-Man starters at a good price, I would get them as well – Superior Spider-Man, Spider Robots, and Goblin Cult.

Now I just have to paint them.

Figure Painting Total - September 2017

I was finally able to get a Jean Grey for Marvel Universe as well as another Emma Frost. The one I already owned had a casting issue with one of her legs. I will see if I can use some green stuff to fix it, and modify her to be a Scarlet Witch.
FunAgain had another sale, so I picked up some of the bigger figures to use with both Batman Miniatures and DC Universe.

BM/DCU – Clayface – 1
BM/DCU – Deathstroke – 1
BM/DCU – Harley Quinn – 1
BM/DCU – Soloman Grundy – 1
MU – Emma Frost – 1
MU – Jean Grey – 1


Oct figures bought - 6, figures painted – 0

Running total 2017 – figures bought 125, figures painted 0

FunAgain again

I’m ‘saving up’ to get more of the Games Workshop big game boxes, like Deathwatch: Overkill, The Horus Heresy: Burning of Prospero, Gangs of Commorragh, and the new Blood Bowl. However, FunAgain had another sale, so I picked up a few more figures for the Batman Miniature Game. I didn’t get too many – there is the pending second edition coming, and they have been grouping older figures into sets.

I ended up ordering two of the larger figures, Solomon Grundy and Clayface, and two regular figures, Deathstroke and Harley Quinn. On sale, the larger figures were hard to pass up. All four are figures that already have cards for the DC Universe game as well so that gives me a fair amount of villains to use.

The Court of Owls set and the Gotham Butcher are also on sale and are tempting in that they are a pretty small crew. I’ll probably pass for now and see what becomes of the Court of Owls crew with the new edition.

DC Universe - new collections for old BMG figs

Knight Models has started repackaging some of their older BMG figures with the Universe cards as well. Luckily, I hadn’t bought them yet so I will be able to take advantage of this. They had created a bunch of cards for the figures that you were able to print off yourself in the PDF of the rules.

The first two they released were the Justice League and the Secret Society of Supervillains. The Justice League contains Flash, Green Arrow, and Hawkman. The Secret Society contains Black Manta, Killer Frost, and Professor Zoom. In putting together the new sets they updated a few of the cards.

They just released the remaining three sets that they had preorders for - Birds of Prey, Suicide Squad, and Teen Titans. We had speculated which figures that they would contain. We were right about the Teen Titans in guessing that it would contain Cyborg, Kid Flash, and Starfire.

We thought that the Birds of Prey would contain Batgirl, Black Canary, and Hawkgirl but they substituted Huntress for Batgirl even though Huntress did not yet have a card.

The Suicide Squad was a bit of a mix. We thought it could have Deadshot, Harley Quinn, and the Joker. Alternatively, it could have contained Deadshot, Deathstroke, and Joker, leaving Harley to add to Ivy and a Catwoman for a Gotham Sirens. These were based on the figures that already had cards listed. I had hoped that it could possibly include the comic sculpt of Boomerang (which did not have a card yet, but I really prefer this figure to the one from the movie).
In the end, they only used the Deadshot figure which had previously had a card, and added the comic figures of Katanna and Captain Boomerang, both of which did not have cards.

This is great as I don’t have any of those figures yet. I had only started filling in these figures with Ravager, and Lobo. It would also save me the trouble of printing the cards.

From the cards, that would leave Batgirl, Ravager, Deathstroke, Harley Quinn, Joker, Lobo, Poison Ivy, and Ra’s Al Ghul as the last regular-sized figures and Bane, Clayface, Solomon Grundy, and Swamp Thing as larger figures. A League of Assassins set could still be made from Ravager, Deathstroke, and Ra’s Al Ghul. Gothem Sirens could also be made with Batgirl, Harley Quinn, and Poison Ivy.

BMG - more figures.

I was going to stop buying miniatures for the Batman Miniature Game and save up for some of the Games Workshop boxed sets. But then Fun Again Games had a summer sale so I ordered a few more.

I ordered the Modern Batman as it comes with a Robin. I already have the Ben Affleck Batman, and now the Armored Batman from the DC Universe Trinity set. This one goes with the World’s Finest card in the DC Universe and is supposed to be the best Batman for the points in the Batman Miniature game.

I also got a Ravager, who is a Free Agent, so she can work with any team. She also used to be one of the best figures in the DC Universe game. In addition, as a Justice League Grey, she will work with either team.

I also picked up a Lobo, another Free Agent who can also be used in DC Universe. I don’t know if he is good, and I wasn’t a huge fan of him in the day, but I’m looking forward to painting him.


I am pretty sure this will be the game that gets me to start painting again.

Marvel Universe status update.

With a bit more searching, I was able to get more figures for the Marvel Universe Miniature game. I think I’m good now. I have all 5 starters, 13 of the 20 single figures, the 3 sets of markers, and the spray template. Of the Spider-Man game figures, that work with the Batman Miniature game but also have cards to use with the Marvel Universe game, I don’t have any of the 3 starters, but do have 4 of the 5 individual figures.

I was even able to pick up a figure that I can use for the Incredible Hulk. It seems a bit big to me – closer to 1/32 scale, but that matches pretty close to how big the Knight Models figure is. I had been looking for one from the Dollar Store or Dollar Tree but hadn’t been able to find one. This one was about $10- more than I had wanted to spend, but still much less than the actual figure. At that price I have to think about if I really want to rebase or repaint him.

I have all the key figures I had wanted except Jean Grey. There are still two other figures that I am interested in, Loki and Elektra, but those both seem to be rare and expensive, so I will substitute Heroclix figures. I would also substitute for the rest of the figures I need unless the price drops on them significantly. These are Thanos, Doctor Octopus, Incredible Hulk, Venom, Hulkbuster MK44, and the other sculpt of Black Widow. If I run across the Spider-Man starters at a good price, I would get them as well – Superior Spider-Man, Spider Robots, and Goblin Cult.


Now I just have to paint them.

Marvel Universe Miniature Game

I’m late to the party with this one. I had been looking at it but hadn’t bought any when it was cancelled. Since then, there has been a mad flurry on the figures and I have been able to order a bunch of the figures I wanted but there are still about half of the figures from the line that I haven’t been able to get.

It doesn’t help that the figures are about $25-$30 each with the exchange. Since I play Games Workshop games though, the price doesn’t shock me as much as it should. For that price, it would be cheaper to get action figures and upscale the game to fit. The scale wouldn’t be too outrageous as it’s supposed to fit on a 3 foot by 3 foot board so a 9’ by 9’ or 10’ by 10’ area would work. It could probably be a tighter game on an 8’ by 8’ board. Not too bad for a convention but a much too big for my game room.

I had been looking at trying the system by getting the DC Universe Trinity set but the news of the cancellation changed my timeline on that. With a flurry of purchases from four different online stores, I was able to get all 5 of the Marvel Universe starter sets and a bunch of the individual figures I wanted.
I am still missing 3 key figures, 5 figures that I’m interested in, and 9 figures that I don’t care as much about but would finish the sets. There would also be 3 sets of Marvel Legends – which would be the Superior Spider-Man, Goblin Cult, and Spider Robots gangs for use with the Batman Miniature Game rules. I am not overly looking to get those but would pick them up if found cheaply.

So, after spending about $500, I have 28 of the 53 figures total ordered – but that total includes 12 from the Legends starters that I’m not really interested in. I also have ordered all three token sets but have not been able to get the spray template. There are also some unreleased figures that have cards but not miniatures. For those, and the ones I cannot find, I can always use Heroclix figures.