Barbarian Quest Pack - Original Sculpts

Following the previous post with the Elf Quest Pack prototype figures, here are the 4ups sculpt from the Barbarian Quest Pack, one of the two rare HeroQuest expansions released in North America and Canada only. The photos are taken by Rod Phelps (aka Skyknight) who also owns the figures.
You can notice from the images they are yellow and bigger than the original blue miniatures we get used to see. Rod posted some of these figures for the first time in 2010 on Boardgamegeek and explained as follows:

"When companies make minis they used to make 3Ups or 4Ups. These were one of a kind oversized models that would then be sent down to the sculptors so they could have a larger specimen to work the detail into the mini."

On another post, Rod also explained why the Yeti figure is missing from the set:

"Glaringly obvious is the fact that the yeti is missing. Just before I got my hands on this, one of the wives of the employees got him because it reminded her of the bumble on Rudolph. Is what it is."

And also answered to people asking him to paint them:

"these things are the original heroquest molds, to alter them in any way would be sort of like dying King Tuts bandages to make him more colorful....while it may look cool it does affect the overall historic value of the thing. No, these will be left just as they are and well taken care of, I loved Heorquest as a young lad and an adult and to own a piece of that history is very cool in my book....

I have others but they were never released so I have decided not to post pics of them until I make some more inquiries into it."

With the last sentence he was referring to the unreleased expansions for the Dwarf and the Wizard!
Please note: I obtained from Rod his permission to publish this photos.

 Check the links below for more information about these rare figures:
- Barbarian Quest Pack - Original Sculpts
- Elf Quest Pack - Original Sculpts
- Wizard Quest Pack - Unreleased Sculpts
- Dwarf Quest Pack - Unreleased Sculpts

Elf Quest Pack - Original Sculpts

 

With this post and in the following ones I will try to group some interesting information shared by Rod Phelps (aka Skyknight). For those of you who missed his posts on Boardgamegeek or Facebook, you must know he did some side-works for Hasbro back in 1990 when HeroQuest was still in production; through his work on Heroscape he became friends with some of those who worked on HeroQuest and eventually came upon these models. He also mentioned unreleased expansions like the Wizard and the Dwarf Quest Packs were not just rumors. When Hasbro (sadly) decided to discontinue the HeroQuest line, they destroyed almost all the copies of the game stored in their warehouse, leaving only one copy of each product for archive purpose. Employers were allowed to take some of the stuff for their own and Rod was the lucky one to bring home some of the pre-production stuff as well as some of the unreleased stuff.

Please note: I asked Rod explicit permission to post his photos.

"These are the original molds where the mini is doubled in size four different times. Many times companies use three ups from what I understand. These are then viewed to make sure that when the minis go into mass production there will not be a problem, things like too sharp of angles and such can be detected at this point. Once these are a go and everyone from the production guys, artists, and sulptors say they are good they then get reduced down to the size we know and put out to public.
So what happened is you had the original mold sulpt, these were then cast from that mold in resin for handling purposes, handed to the production teams, ok'd, and then miniaturized for production."

 Check the links below for more information about these rare figures:
- Barbarian Quest Pack - Original Sculpts
- Elf Quest Pack - Original Sculpts
- Wizard Quest Pack - Unreleased Sculpts
- Dwarf Quest Pack - Unreleased Sculpts

HeroQuest box cover: remake by Mauro Pane

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Italian artist Mauro Pane did an amazing digital rework of the original Les Edwards art for the HeroQuest box.

Watch the complete step by step process in the following time-lapse video on YouTube:

Bard and Music Spells

Custom set of spells for a Bard character (or Music Spells if you prefer). This cards are inspired by the new HeroQuest release of the game but made in the classic style. I will use them while waiting for my Mythic Tier to be delivered. This set can be useful not just for a Bard but for any other spellcaster character too.
They still don't have a rear artwork but I would like to make something that is very generic (and music related, of course) and usable with any kind of musician character, not  a specific one.
EDIT: thanks to Dario Annuncio aka ZioDario who painted a rear artwork for this set.

- Healing Song unlike other healing spells, this one can recover up to two body points only but to ALL the Heroes the spellcaster can see, not just one. So you can recover up to eight Body points in total (two for each of the four Heroes).

- Inspiring Tale is a power up spell usable on another Hero but not on yourself and grant one extra die when attacking, only for one turn. Not so much powerful but this spell can be regained everytime another hero standin' in your line of sight rolls two white shields while defending. Not sure this one is very helpful as you should decide not attacking a monster with your two Attack dice and waste your action using this spell to allow someone else to roll one extra die.

- Lullaby is an exact copy of the classic Sleep spell, nothing different. That's a bit sad. It would probably need some modification in order to make it different and more interesting as there are alreday three similar spells in the game (a Water spell, a Chaos spell and Deep Sleep from the Elf spell set).

Artwork painted by Luis Octavio NB, the original sketches you can check below.

Nature Spells - preliminary sketches

In this post I'll show you the preliminary sketches for the Nature Spells, drawn by Luis Octavio NB.
The Bear Strength spell was originally featuring the barbarian. I was considering to use this set as a II level spells for the elf, so asked him to change the barbarian for the elf. Also, this spell can be used only on yourself and the barbarian can't cast spells.

Nature Spells

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Custom set of Nature Spells, inspired by the new release of the game but in the classic style. I will use them while waiting the new release to be delivered. The concept of this spell set is by Nikki Dawes.
The set can be useful for a Druid or any spellcaster character.
- Forces of Life is just a standard healing spell, recovering four lost Body points, like Healing Body or Water of Healing.
- Pixie can be a healing spell or also useful to reveal traps when there are monsters, so no searches are allowed and the Heroes may trigger some trap while fighting against an enemy.
- Bear Strength is instead a power up spell, giving the Hero one extra die in both attack and defense. This spell has the particularity that may be used more times during the same quest because the Hero can regain the spell after recovering all his lost Body points. Used in combination with the other two spells or a healing postion, this one can be used at least 3 times per quest!
Artwork painted by Luis Octavio NB, you can check the original sketches tomorrow in another post.

More Villains

Took a picture of three classic Citadel Chaos Warriors, with a HeroQuest base.
The first one is Azoth the Faceless (Heroes for Dungeonquest), I just had another layer of paint on him. Looking much better with his robe that was brown and is now turned purple, while his helm is now golden. I am preparing a mini questpack featuring this sorcerer as the main character, with new spells.
The figure is not an original, it is a resin recast that was made and gently gifted by Granpasso (RIP) years ago.
The one in the centre is a Chaos Warrior (another resin recast). He had some bubbles and some missing parts were resculpted with green stuff.
The third one is a Chaos Champion. and is one of my favourite miniatures. The Chaos Champion was made and painted many years ago and one of my first attempt at making resin recasts. A big thank you to Woreno from the Italian HeroQuest forum for providing this and other miniatures to let me have the chance to make my hands on them. Unfortunately you can see part of his pouch missing and the bottom of the sword is also missing a part (it was a skull knob).

Not all bases are the same...

I just had fun measuring all the HeroQuest bases using an electroninc caliper.
It ended that not all bases match the same size perfectly.
Curious that even two miniatures of the same type measures different sizes; possibly they come from a different production or from different editions of the game (country, year of production) or maybe just the plastic used may be different and shkrink more or less than the another one.
The Dwarf seems to be the one wigh the biggest base.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Heroquest parody by Pablo Sanchez

A nice artwork by Pablo Sanchez, a HeroQuest parody.
I found this in my hard disk, but can't find the original source anymore to link the artist page.
Fortunately I usually save files with name of the author so at least I can credit him.

Hyper Contest - Vinci un set di HeroQuest (scade 29.9.2019)

 

 

 

 

 

NOTE: ITALIANS ONLY

Partecipa al concorso e vinci un set base di HeroQuest in Italiano, 100% completo ed in buonissime condizioni più... alcuni extra (top-secret per il momento)!!!
Il contest è organizzato dal sottoscritto e la partecipazione è gratuita!!! Si, proprio così... gratuita!
I requisiti per partecipare però sono i seguenti:

1. essere cittadino italiano e residente in Italia;
2. avere almeno 18 anni di età compiuti;
3. richiedere ed attivare una carta prepagata HYPE (gratuita) utilizzando solo ed esclusivamente il seguente link di invito:
   https://www.hype.it/invite/684a705759622f5243704d3d 

NOTA: la carta HYPE è una carta prepagata emessa da Banca Sella; non solo non ha costi per voi ma quando vi registrate (vi raccomando di usare solo il link che vi ho indicato sopra, pena l'esclusione dalla partecipazione al contest) riceverete anche un bonus di benvenuto di 10 euro.
Purtroppo chi è già titolare di una carta HYPE non potrà partecipare ma ciò non esclude che si possa far registrare un amico o un proprio parente. Per per ogni utente che si registra e attiva la carta tramite il mio invito, riceverò una notifica che conferma il buon esito della registrazione.

E' necessario che si raggiungano almeno 20 partecipanti.
Qualora non si raggiungesse il numero minimo di 20 partecipanti verrà annunciato l'annullamento del contest ma riceverete comunque il bonus sulla vostra carta.
Tra tutti i partecipanti al contest verrà estratto un vincitore che si aggiudicherà il premio che gli verrà recapitato gratuitamente presso il proprio domicilio (in Italia).
Per motivi di trasparenza e al fine di evitare dubbi di qualunque tipo, l'estrazione verrà effettuata in diretta tramite apposito account su Instagram in modo che sia visibile a chiunque sia interessato.
Il termine ultimo per partecipare è il 29 Settembre 2019, mentre l'estrazione avverrà entro i 15 giorni successivi alla data di scadenza.
Per un più semplice monitoraggio dei partecipanti o se avete dubbi o domande non esitate a chiedere lasciando un messaggio qui sotto.