Heroquest metal prototypes

[Daedalus]

Hello everyone!

I took recently close up photos of the metal HeroQuest gargoyle prototype and uploaded them into the Miniature Showcase folder, for everyone to browse. Feel free to use them in blog postings and such, there is no copyright in them. If anyone from the Collecting Citadel Miniatures or The Stuff of Legends sites is reading this, feel free to upload copies into those sites too.

http://forum.yeoldeinn.com/gallery/image_page.php?album_id=15&image_id=2138&sid=6cbcebed172eacfc9f7cf16e398a188d

For the true collectors, the close up photos show evidence for double moulding, implying that both a master copy and production mould were made of them. We can only guess if they were meant originally for general release (like select blister packed AHQ and Space Crusade metal prototypes*), or for limited edition mail-order special offers (like the Heroquest metal dwarf originally was).

*Witness testimony: in around 1991-1993 I saw in Helsinki Itäkeskus shopping mall's generic hobby shop - that sold roleplaying games, anime plastic robot kits, English language Turtles comics and Citadel Miniatures - in the racks being sold Space Crusade metal Chaos Androids and metal Destructor Chaos Dreadnoughts, the latter with more weapon options than the basic plastic model. Can't remember the name of the shop, but it was not of the main Fantasiapelit chain of hobby shops, nor was it the Ihme ja Kumma toy shop situationed also within the same shopping mall. At that same timeframe the main Space Crusade boargame was sold in general department stores and Space Hulk pc game in computer shops. I'm not mistaking them for the "Mission Dreadnought" set, nor for the late 1990s Citadel Miniatures Necron metal models. You could buy the Destructor as such, with extra weapon options, completely made of metal. The information online that the Space Crusade metal prototypes are unreleased is thus incorrect. Can't remember if they were packed in soft or hard plastic blister packs, but they looked the same as all the rest of the hundreds of Citadel blister packs on the same wall. My brother can remember the metal Space Crusade models as well, so this is not a lone foggy memory.

[Daedalus]

The best thing about Hero Quest is the Gargoyle.

It's always good to get another piece of the history. Good thing the leg proportions were made taller and the whip was given some action.

[lestodante]

We can only guess if they were meant originally for general release (like select blister packed AHQ and Space Crusade metal prototypes*), or for limited edition mail-order special offers (like the Heroquest metal dwarf originally was).

I guess you are confusing the unreleased HeroQuest Dwarf with White Dwarf at 90 limited miniature. Both figures share the same pose but are different (head and beard, helm, shoulders, weapon and armor decorations).
So that's not really the same dwarf you can see on the box.
Anyway the Advanced HQ figures were available in few promotional blisters (all except the Elf and the Skaven), same for the Wizards of Morcar prototypes (all but Zanrath).