What KILLED Heroscape?

Heroscape was my favorite miniature wargame before I knew what miniature war games were. Unfortunately, Hasbro cancelled it a year before I was old enough to make my own money and buy my own stuff.

11 years later, not wanting to put in the effort to play Age of Sigmar or 40k, I looked back into my favorite "board game" from my childhood.

While looking at the astronomical prices of sets on eBay, I decided, "I'm gonna figure out why they cancelled this thing."

[Mattx]

im 44 sec into the video and im already so glad you made this video.

TY

[ericheckenkamp]

I went to college in my late 20s and early 30s. There were some nerds playing heroscape in the student lounge. It looked cool, and as an avid TT gamer I was in. I got a ton of it, and played for a few years in college. Met my wife, graduated, etc and it all went in a storage tote. Fast forward to 2020 where my 6, 8 and 10 year olds find it and say, "What's this, dad?"

They're all addicted now. I just wish I could get some more water, swamp and lava pieces.

[chrisgabele]

The biggest mistake Hasbro ever did was they never tried to make a TV series for these game sets. I still believe that to this day, Heroscape would still be popular if an animated series launched.

[Beanibirb]

It makes me happy to know that Heroscape is coming back with a brand new set

[jz]

The last Christmas that Heroscape was on our Walmart's shelves, they had probably 10 Master Sets left over and started their slow discount. I kept checking back each week as I already had plenty, but who wouldn't pass on more cheap terrain? The last time I went to where they were stocked there were none on the shelves, but the price was $2.50! One person nearby had a copy in their basket. I asked them if they'd be willing to part with it. They said they planned to give it to their grandkids, but they knew someone else had recently picked a copy up too. I searched all around the store and ended up finding them. I offered them DOUBLE (yeah, I know) to buy it from them if I could have it to purchase. They were nice enough to let me have it without paying them.

[JOECRAZY]

Solid video. Great editing and presentation overall. Thinking the community is gonna bring it back. With 3d printing in our homes is possible maybe it might be cheaper in some respect. Who knows. The support for the game to find fans and bring more people to try it out and watch content about it helps greatly. Love the vid keep up the great work. Earned a sub

[pelopogo]

Loved to play with the figurines, never learnt how to play, warhammer is hype RN, went into the store and no one knew what I was talking about. Thanks for sharing it’s exactly what I remembered

[thewonderfullymadejaraid]

It's 2021 and I still play Heroscape. Everything is hella expensive now, but it is still super fun. My older brothers were 11 and 13 when Heroscape released, so they jumped on the game as soon as they could. They and their friends would combine their collections to form massive terrain battlefields with hordes of miniatures. Then I got into the game a few years later, and I have loved it ever since.

[hugodecrypteactus]

I was looking for this game again and found your video, very interesting! 👏

[StudioRevoct]

Heroscape really was the battle of all time

[nathanfolsom]

Nailed it on the stocking issue. A year after the cancellation Wal-Mart still had the Marvel set and the Nakita Agents expansion on the shelves.

[johnbutler]

Wave 5 was a big misstep. Most previous waves included three blister cards of common squads and one blister card of unique heroes. Wave five had two blister cards of common squads and two blister cards of unique squads and heroes. Players bought multiples of the common blister cards but one each of the unique blister cards. Big box retailers like Wal-Mart and K Mart had Wave 5 cards that sat on the shelves for months until they went on clearance and once that happened, the stores didn't order more Heroscape, at least not for awhile. And that's before the brand got transfered to Wizards of the Coast from Milton Bradley.

[emilianomiron]

There was a back story on heroscapes website which redirects you to Hasbro today. It was a journal entry style story telling. It was actually pretty detailed. I'm pretty sure the final entry was when they found aquila. And then it was turned into DND

[Gavyn_Hosfelt]

Been trying to figure this out a while myself never realized stores were not able to just purchase packs of commons

[tytolley]

I got the last set of heros so in my town. Never regretted it. Nowadays the game is super expensive but I still love the monthly tournaments they throw for it. Game community is still going, my collection is still growing. Loved the video. Heroscape is dope.

[sawyer]

As of today it’s back!!! So excited to play it. I hope the new one has a better run then the first

[faxanadu]

I was 26 when I started collecting in 2006. There’s still 7 master sets and over 1000 figures living in my closet. It was like a second childhood. So much fun! Some of the tiles have become brittle over the years, but I could set up a game at a moments notice. Ran a four player game at a convention in Reno. I just set up river map running through a forest with four teams of warriors led by a dragon. Everyone that played that day had 0 experience but everyone had a great time.

[johronok]

I remember getting this and really liking the minis that came in it. I never was able to find anyone to play it with back then though so I never really got to play it.

[oscarsiri]

I never played it but I started to find the minis in flea markets in my country, so I started to collect to playedwith them in my Battlemasters boardgame (form the 90s) and they fitted.... very well! I just use the fantasy themed minis. I order some form time to time if they're not expensive. I didn't know why they stopped, very cool video!

[juconkey]

Me and some of my friends got huge into heroscape. Together, we had four of the base sets and two of most of the expansions. We would have huge battles.