FIRST LIGHT discussion

[SirRick]

Is this only available from Target?

I was hoping it would appear on hasbro pulse, so I could order the jungle dice set and get free shipping.

[Kurgan]

Only if you get it from Europe/UK.

With luck, it will sell well enough that it will appear at other stores for the US Market, similar to other games that began as Target exclusives.

Given the availability of information, if you're clever, you can technically play it even before its release...

[wallydubbs]

Why do these companies give so many exclusives to Target? Hasn’t their shopping numbers gone down since the tuck underwear for kids (among other similarly targeted) fiasco? & the optics of that & them continuing to get toy exclusives after what they were pushing is off.

No, because it was swimwear for adults, and smarter people in charge of selling games recognise when stuff is made up for political reasons and they can still make more money on a cutdown version of the game - even more when they get a exclusive deal with one of the biggest toy sellers in the country. Regular people don't buy games based on the number of miniatures, a decent price is more important to them.

No, no, Jelsabob is right, the tuck underwear is being sold for children too. You can see advertisements for toddlers on line.

I don't want to support Target in that endeavor either. The fact is that the majority of corporations have gone woke. Look at Disney, despite having to cancel Star Wars shows for including Woke propaganda they keep pushing this agenda. Understandably, profit is supposed to be the ultimate endgame for corporations, but when it comes to the Woke agenda they're willing to make an exception. Maybe they're playing the long game, waiting for the next generation of Americans to go Woke.

We know Hasbro is woke with the whole Mr./Mrs. Potatohead. In fact I think that's the reason we're getting alternative gendered heroes and Orcs.

No, the answer is probably a lot simpler. As of 2018 Hasbro joined into a partnership with Target. Originally it was all about the My Little Pony toys, as Hasbro sold exclusive My Little Pony toys to Target, which created a whole toy isle in "Canterlot" as the demographic was 10% higher among women and girls then in males in Target. They revisited a partnership in 2024, this time around Transformers, where Hasbro specifically created an Optimus Prime toy that turns into a Target delivery truck. I haven't been able to find anything specific about HeroQuest regarding this partnership.
There are a lot of Target advertisements on line, though. "Target Exclusive Hasbro Collectables" by I don't think the word 'exclusive' means anything here as Amazon and Walmart say the same things. So this isn't really anything solid.

[Kurgan]

A post was shown on Facebook shared from Instagram of a physical copy of First Light with a sticker advertising the Dragon miniature and displaying the OLD (Clark Mitchell) cover. Opinions have ranged from it being a total fake, mock-up (for example the Avalon Hill logo being pixelated on the box) to maybe some kind of promo box given to influencers ahead of the backlash.

My initial reaction would have been "it's fake" too, but BellofLostSouls (a game review site) claimed on instagram that it was a review copy they were sent by friends at Avalon Hill. See images below....

I see that originally the German product page on HasbroPulse europe showed the Mitchell cover, but then was replaced after complaints with the English version (and the YellowFly updated design). All of the entries on Pulse look the same.


So yes, they have backed off completely from the widely shown Clark Mitchell cover due to public backlash, as explained in my Patrick O'Rourke GenCon interview. Nobody who buys the product moving forward will get the "old" cover (thankfully).

https://www.hasbropulse.com/eu/en/search?q=heroquest%20first%20light

English version Feb 1, 2025

German version March 4, 2025

Spanish version May 1, 2025

https://www.hasbropulse.com/uk/product/heroquest-first-light-english-version/G0978UU00

UK English May 2, 2025

Target page https://www.target.com/p/heroquest-first-light-board-game/-/A-90908633#lnk=sametab for the US still gives a ship date of January 12th (the "in-store" date of Jan 1st has not yet been contradicted.. see the techraptor article: https://techraptor.net/tabletop/news/avalon-hill-announces-talisman-alliances-fate-beckons-first-expansion-for-talisman )

[Kurgan]

Thanks to Bohemyus for posting about a new "influencer" type video... Let's Table It on youtube got a "review copy" early... it clearly depicts some things we know have changed already, like the box cover, cover of the quest booklet (both of which show the old Clark Mitchell much maligned "A.I." art, now replaced by the newer, superior YellowFly art) and the "old" dice (like the ones at GenCon, they are ivory/bone colored and these movement dice are white with red pips... but the new box clearly shows the combat dice are the same as the 2021/2022 white combat dice and the movement dice are once again red with white pips).

Check it out here. There are spoilers but he flips quickly past the relevant pages...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_m_e7Mqtxts&ab_channel=Let%27sTableIt

Many pictures follow screen grabbed from his video:

note the "dice box" .. there are actually two of them. Some of the things in here may be subject to change, possibly, besides the covers of the quest booklet and box cover and dice color... maybe.

[Kurgan]

Many more pictures from LTI's the unboxing video. Notice the furniture have the same image on both sides of the tile. The monsters have the same image on both sides of the tile. There are only 2 each of the Goblin and Orc designs (the plastic minis from 2021/2022 have 4 Orc designs and 3 Goblin designs).

[Kurgan]

Still more images from the above video... check out the new GM screen (hadn't seen the back up close before, although Daedalus did!):


And now some pages from the Rulebook (the color coded explanations, they really break it down). Add this to the more detailed, double sided "Reference" cards, they go out of their way to explain the rules to new players.

[Kurgan]

More pictures from the First Light Rulebook (again from Let's Table It's unboxing video):

[Kurgan]

More Rulebook pictures... The big picture of the monster face (from the monster card back) folds out into the bunch of components like a modern numbered board game layout demo...

[Kurgan]

More images from Let's Table It's unboxing video...

There's some lore pages (possible spoilers) below...