Ye Olde Inn

Since I started collecting various HQ components, I've been surprised at the variety of colors that the hero miniatures come in. In the image below you can see two Elves from European editions on the left and one from the US on the right. The heroes from the US versions seem pretty consistent, but the European ones range from brick red like the one in the center to the bright fellow on the left. The dark red European ones are slightly more detailed as well.



I don't know what the significance of this is, but I thought it was interesting. The bright red one really stands out to me. When I first saw that color, I thought the Simple Green I used to soften the paint had somehow bleached the plastic.

mine all looked like the center one. never seen lighter versions.

The US figures certainly seem less detailed than the central UK figure. I use US models for conversions over the UK pieces.

Whilst painting up my collection, I've noticed even varying levels of casting quality.

So far I tend to buy from eBay UK sellers over other locations if the images lack quality.

I think the bright European ones came with the first edition(s) of the game, very soon (after a few weeks/months) replaced with the darker, more detailed ones,
simultaneously with the new card texts and rule book changes. I think...

Seb wrote:The US figures certainly seem less detailed than the central UK figure. I use US models for conversions over the UK pieces.

Whilst painting up my collection, I've noticed even varying levels of casting quality.

So far I tend to buy from eBay UK sellers over other locations if the images lack quality.

Interesting. Maybe when Milton Bradley and Games Workshop split MB needed to make new molds and lacked access to the original sculpts. Anybody here (drathe) know if the GW-MB split predates the NA sets of 1990?

I think the bright European ones came with the first edition(s) of the game, very soon (after a few weeks/months) replaced with the darker, more detailed ones,

Which could be why my original set has the darker plastic pieces, I bought it in Australia and quite likely, was the second wave release for markets beyond UK/USA.

Daedalus wrote:Anybody here (drathe) know if the GW-MB split predates the NA sets of 1990?

I don't believe it does. Mage of the Mirror and Frozen Horror both have some Citadel Miniatures in them. (Ogres and Mercenaries)

drathe wrote:Mage of the Mirror and Frozen Horror both have some Citadel Miniatures in them. (Ogres and Mercenaries)

I thought all of the HQ miniatures were made by Citadel.

I don't believe the exclusive MM and FH miniatures are. But I could be wrong.

My thinking is when MB and GW were in partnership, MB had legal rights to the figures from the base set and the first four, non-North American expansions. That would include the Men-at-arms and the Ogres. Basically, they were contracted for the game. I figure that after the split MB retained ownership of the rights to produce the figures, but GW got to keep the molds and greens (original sculpts) as their own property. Thus, MB created molds from already-cast plastic figures, not the original greens. This is evidenced by less detail, as Seb reports. Do the NA Mercenaries and Ogres exhibit this same lack of detail? My guess is yes.

I think drathe is right that the other figures from the EQP and BQP were sculpted and molded entirely by the US arm of MB. Skyknight got his 4-ups of the original BQP and EQP sculpts from the games development guys at Hasbro. Hasbro bought out MB, including the building where HQ was produced. Toco showed us the concept artists were also hired by MB-US. Those 4-ups almost certainly were made in the MB-US factory from the originals in the same building. It's a safe bet to say this is where the exclusive BQP and EQP figures were originally designed and produced.