REVIEW: WizKids Star Trek HeroClix Away Team: The Next Generation – To Boldly Go Latest News October 10, 2019 Star Trek has found a very cool partner in WizKids Games, resulting in everything from board games to Attack Wing, and not one but two different styles of HeroClix. After multiple sets of starships (and the 2012 reboot films Away Team) HeroClix introduced figures of characters from the TV shows starting at the end of 2017 with Star Trek HeroClix Away Team: The Original Series. While that was a full five-figure booster set, with The Next Generation they went with TWO sets of single-figure boosters. We took a look at the first, Resistance Is Futile, back in July, and now we’re back with the second. Just hitting stores is Star Trek HeroClix Away Team: The Next Generation – To Boldly Go, and we’ve got a full countertop display box to check out! As the second part of a series, To Boldly Go shares similar packaging with its predecessor. The single-figure boosters come in a big, chunky box featuring the recent Star Trek product visual style which is very clean and bright. There’s a general blue background with lots of panels in red, blue, and white, and of course the iconic logo front and center. Being Next Generation themed these also include a portrait of Captain Jean-Luc Picard. Also like Resistance Is Futile, this new set has a complete set list on the sides of the box with thumbnail images of all figures! Naturally there are spoilers there, so it’s up to you if you want to check it out before you grab some boosters (or a whole box). Here’s the full breakdown of the figures we pulled in this display (your results will vary of course): Commons (including duplicates) 001 Commander William T. Riker 002 Romulan Officer 003 Cardassian Soldier 004 Ferengi Trader 005 Romulan Guard 006 Klingon Warrior 007 Starfleet Admiral 008 Lt. Georgi La Forge Uncommons 009 Lt. Commander Data 010 Toreth 012 Ferengi Salvage Crew 014b Worf 015 Dr. Beverly Crusher 016 Miles O’Brien Rares 018a Sela 021 Tomalak 022 Duras 024 Lt. Worf Super Rares 027 DaiMon Bok 028 Professor Moriarty Wow, some really neat characters in there, and some great nostalgia for TNG. Obviously with single-figure boosters the collation is going to be a bit different compared to the five-figure sets, and this one falls mostly in line with the previous Star Trek expansion. In this box we pulled at least one of each of the eight commons, six of the nine uncommons (including the Prime), four rares out of nine, and two super rares out of four. No chase, unfortunately. Taking a tour through the set, we’ll start with the ubiquitous commons. As always these set the themes you’ll see throughout the expansion, and of course you know it’s going to include Starfleet. These officers include a “standard” version of Commander William T. Riker (vs. the Q-empowered one in the previous set), a generic Starfleet Admiral (reminds me most of Nechayev), and Lt. Georgi La Forge in his early-show red uniform. All the aliens at this rarity level are generics with the Romulan Officer and Guard, Cardassian Soldier, Ferengi Trader, and Klingon Warrior. It’s notable that this set introduces the Cardassians and Ferengi to HeroClix! If you guessed that the uncommons continue the themes we saw in the first figures then you’d be 100% correct! Enterprise-D crew at this level among our pulls were Lt. Commander Data, Dr. Beverly Crusher, and Miles O’Brien, the latter being clixed for the first time. There is an uncommon Worf, the Prime, but this figure represents his time away from Starfleet and being immersed in Klingon intrigues. Our pulls here are rounded out by the Romulan Toreth and the generic Ferengi Salvage Crew. Aliens have taken over our rares, with not a single human among the bunch! This Lt. Worf is the familiar Security officer we know and love, and it’s appropriate that he faces off here against the Klingon traitor Duras. Tomalak was one of the most famous Romulans in The Next Generation and faced off against Picard on multiple occasions, while Sela is the half-human/half-Romulan daughter of Tasha Yar. Our two super rares are very interesting and notable characters from The Next Generation, and both “evil” (at least from a certain point of view). The Ferengi on the show were portrayed not exactly as heroes to begin with, but DaiMon Bok was one of the worst. He sought to take revenge against Jean-Luc Picard through a complex plot involving the Starfleet captain’s former ship and orbs that cause pain and delusion. Lastly, the crew of the Enterprise frequently found themselves up against holographic villains… like Professor Moriarty. Designed as a true challenge for Data, Moriarty was sourced from the Sherlock Holmes stories and was given true sentience. He even took command of the ship, and tried several times to escape his holographic prison. We’ve seen with the previous sets that while WizKids sets out to replicate the look of these characters as closely as possible from their TV appearances, they manage to find interesting ways to differentiate them so they’re not all just people standing at attention. I love the variety among even the Starfleet officers, and of course the aliens are even more active and dynamic. True to form, the figures also feature familiar poses right out of the show. Check out the Starfleet officers which include the Admiral and Dr. Crusher standing with their arms crossed (a signature look for the doctor), Data and O’Brien examining their PADDs, Geordi prepared for anything with a phaser in hand, Riker unleashing a blast from his weapon, and Worf carrying his bat’leth in a Klingon battle stance. The three Klingons stand in fierce battle poses, each one wielding a different weapon. They have very highly detailed outfits with nice overlapping plates and lots of little accents. The Romulans share a couple main sculpts with differences in pointing weapons and holding devices. They’re a bit less exciting with their bulky clothing, but the central decoration on their chests is nicely textured. The Ferengi are appropriately small with great fur textures on their pelts, while the one Cardassian has cool armor. And of course Moriarty looks awesome with his detailed Victorian ensemble. On top of those cool sculpts are top notch paint jobs, that look great on their own as well as within the larger collection of Star Trek HeroClix figures. The Starfleet characters are all crisp and colorful, nicely pairing black with their respective role-based colors along with rank accents. Romulans are, appropriately and accurately, fairly drab in their grays, though the different metallic colors on their torso accents do a lot to differentiate them. The Klingons may all share the same color scheme, but it looks great with dark colors contrasting with bright metallic armor, while the Ferengi have dull earth tones for clothing with animal fur colors and nice bright metallic accents on their head pieces. Moriarty is impeccable as you’d expect, with a sophisticated black and white formal outfit decorated with lots of gold buttons. As described, there are metallic paints used on armor, weapons, and interesting accents, while translucent plastic only appears on firing energy weapons. I have to give a shout out once again to WizKids’ awesome work on the PADD screens – so much detail on such tiny spaces! Obviously if you’re a fan of Star Trek: The Next Generation AND a HeroClix player or collector then this set is going to be a must-buy for you. The figures look great, they have fun abilities and mechanics (especially when you build teams from this world specifically), and there are iconic and beloved/reviled characters here. There’s a lot of synergy with the previous Resistance Is Futile expansion both in team building, shared abilities/buffs, and in Shifting Focus figures like Worf and Data. This set has a lot of new and fun options for any HeroClix player, too, with just our pulls ranging from elite healers and support figures like Dr. Crusher and the Admiral to brawlers and stealthy shooters like Duras and Toreth. Star Trek HeroClix Away Team: The Next Generation – To Boldly Go is in stores and wherever you buy your HeroClix now, so go grab some boosters and see how much fun the figures are for yourself. Interested in getting into the game? Head over to the WizKids Info Network to find a participating venue near you. Good luck with your pulls! Scroll down to check out a photo gallery of all the figures from this brick. Visit HeroClix.com for even more info as well as downloads of rules and maps, and stay tuned to Figures.com as we continue our reviews of new HeroClix! Review and photos by Scott Rubin Review samples courtesy of WizKids Games [See image gallery at www.figures.com] Keep up with all the latest toy news by following Figures.com on Facebook and Twitter! To buy action figures, take a look at Hobby Link Japan, BigBadToyStore.com, TheToySource.com, Toynk.com, and BriansToys.com.
