Ye Olde Inn

Hello All,

This is a post that I had put up on one of the Heroquest Facebook pages but, I wanted to post it here also to get your guys thoughts as well. Rod Phelps made a post about the unreleased Heroquest miniatures he has. Before I wrote these two posts I did try reaching out to Rod about his post and didn't get any response.

Like a lot of people in that Facebook group, I followed the posts he made starting back in April 2020. About the 3Ups and 4Ups that miniature places would have sculptors work from to get the details right on the minis.

It was interesting to me that they did that.

Then it blew me away when Rod posted the unreleased miniature ones. Recently, I seen a movie or show that made me think about one of the unreleased minis he posted. Rod called him "The Gollum" (or earth elemental).

The movie I am talking about was called Troll Bridge (2019) - IMDb. One of the first guys the hero meets is this guy

look familiar lol. Then maybe this mini could be a troll.

Then I was wondering about a few other miniatures that Rod had posted in these posts. For the unreleased "Spider".


Do you think it would have been a large (or giant) one? If it was a giant one, then would it take up two spaces from his front pincers to his butt (or back side)? Like the giant wolves. Not to mention the spaces his sprawling legs would take up. He would have been a great fight for the heroes.

My last curiosity about these miniatures is kinda the same thing about the "Carrion Crawler".

Do you guys think it would just take up two space on the game board or more? Also does anyone have an idea why it didn't have a base? Does the one in the picture set OK on a flat surface with out falling over?
Thanks for letting me pick your brains.

This is my first time seeing these pictures. They look like oversized sculpts. I imagine they’d be shrunk for production, to fit on the board.

That's right j_dean80.
The original post said that "When companies make minis they used to make 3Ups or 4Ups. These were one of a kind over sized models that would then be sent down to the sculptors so they could have a larger specimen to work the detail into the mini".

My guess is the spider would shrink to 1x1 base and the other 2 a 1x2 base.

Interesting. But no pics of the previously known "unreleased" minis, like the evil dwarf, centaur, sabertooth or minotaur? I'm always curious to see the "cutting room floor" of Hero Quest, even if the quality and practicality may be all over the place. A good spider is something I've long wanted to see, but it's tricky to have one where the legs all fit on a base and it still looks right (and isn't too brittle, see what happens with really small parts on a plastic model like the Dragon Strike Figures). Of course using polymer materials you can have thin little parts without a problem.

The Carrion crawler looks like a piece of furniture. Yes, you can have minis that don't have bases, but they start to look out of place. Maybe slapping an oversized base on the bottom would do the trick.

Imagination is always going to fulfill our needs for new content, but at the same time, it's cool to have tidbits of what might have been to inspire us...

I just love the simplicity but effectiveness of the old models. Todays models are over detailed and complicated.

The steel moulds used for making plastic models are typically made from 3-up or 4-up miniatures which scales down as you guide a cutting tool - it's much harder to make a steel mould from an actual size model but I guess it is possible you're just going to have more error, I haven't heard of anyone doing it.

Because you probably missed this post:
UNPUBLISHED HEROQUEST EXPANSIONS (go to page 3)
My thought is: many of the unreleased figures suck, so probably this is why they are still unreleased. Few ones are good (the sabertooth for example)

Thanks I do remember that now...

@ Lowery_79
I agree we're looking at a (rock) troll. Elementals and stone golems don't wear fur clothing. I believe it (or they) would fit in a Dwarf Quest Pack set in or under a mountain.

I'm less sure about the footprint of the spider. The legs flaring to the side are a problem, as Hero Quest minis should always fit through a one-square door. I'm inclined to believe a 1x1 base would work best with large spiders. However, Giant Wolves exceed their bases by quite a bit, so a 1x2 base might have worked, too.

As for that creature, I'm stumped as to why a base was abandoned. If you reference the other picture of it, you can see the head is about the same width as the feet flaring at the front (note the shadow that reveals most of the body is hidden behind the head.) I estimate the beasts length was to come in at about 3 inches from head to tail. That would set the feet apart at either end of a 2 inch base (if one were used.) Like a Giant Wolf, I think it would have counted as a 1x2 figure. I'd also say the front base worked out to about 3/4 of an inch wide. Seems stable enough to stand, if a bit tipsy, in my opinion.