Rocketmen

Rocketmen is WizKids' 2005 alternate-history space-race CCG, set in a Cold War universe where the USA and USSR rocketed past the Moon and into a full-scale space war over the solar system. It shipped the Axis of Evil base set and the Heads Up expansion before WizKids ended the product line.

The game

Designer Tom Braunlich (of Decipher Star Wars CCG fame) built Rocketmen around fleets of rockets and astronauts pushing into contested solar system sectors. The retro-futurist aesthetic drew from 1960s Cold War space-race iconography plus pulp science fiction from the same era, giving the game a visual identity closer to The Right Stuff than to Star Wars or Star Trek.

The context

2005 was WizKids' CCG-experimentation period, with Pirates of the Spanish Main running and various tabletop innovations happening across their portfolio. Rocketmen was positioned as a niche-appeal title for adult players who wanted a CCG with historical resonance and unusual setting. The retro aesthetic appealed to hobbyists tired of fantasy and anime-dominated CCG visual language.

The end

WizKids ended Rocketmen after the Heads Up expansion in 2005 as the broader 2005 to 2006 WizKids CCG contraction affected multiple product lines. Rocketmen has not been reprinted or resurrected by another publisher.

The collector angle

The 2005 Axis of Evil set and the Heads Up expansion are the complete catalog. Specific rare rocket and astronaut cards carry collector interest, and the distinctive retro-futurist art makes individual cards visually recognizable even to non-collectors. For collectors who track unusual theme CCGs or Tom Braunlich's post-Decipher work, Rocketmen is a specific and assemblable target.