Back in the 1970s that glorious old supplier of lead, Asgard Miniatures, released FM24, Silent Shambler, Halloween Goblin. It was designed by either Tony Ackland or Bryan Ansell, not sure which of them.......
Painted version here by Mark Stevenson
It was listed in an October 1978 ad in Military Modelling;
Based on the 1975 TSR D&D illustration by Greg Bell from the Greyhawk supplement..although they never called it a Bugbear, possibly for copyright reasons....edit; apparently there may be a baggie with Bugbear on....more to come when proven! They were also known as 'Jack-o-Bears' in the Runequest gaming universe....
The code was at at some point redesigned as a 'Silent Shambler'.........
A later code, FM71, was designated as a Bugbear (painted example below c/o Mark Stevenson of the 'Asgard Miniatures Collectors' Group on Facebook and line drawing from the 'The Armory Guide') when Bugbear had become a more generic term.......
Now, the conundrum is whether or not there was a version 1 of the FM71 code and if this was indeed the pumpkin-headed variant above, moved from the FM24 when it was redesigned......20 internet points to anyone who can help.....
Oh, and never forget the ongoing enigma on the FM18 Secrom. Never pictured anywhere that I know of, and later changed to Skeleton Warrior. 100 internet points for the solving of that one......and I might even throw a blog mini in as it's really annoying me!
Most of the Asgard lines are listed, mostly with accompanying images, on the Lost Minis WIKI, a boon for collectors of old (and not so old) lead.
4 comments:
We now have 2x examples of bagged Halloween Goblins/Pumpkinheads with the code FM24. This plus Your previous catalogue findings would confirm that is the correct code. Whether another version of FM71 Bugbear exists still dubious - unless anyone has one?
There are a few Asgard minis I have never seen (even in a photo) - Giant Insectoid, Orcs FG14,15,16, Goblins FG4 & 7. But then again I had not seen a running hornhead until recently....
Thanks for this post on a fun mini, and for the original code... I painted mine up last year ( http://wheretheseapoursout.blogspot.co.uk/2016/10/happy-halloween.html ) and based on google searching, determined he was FM71, but I feel a correction is now in order based on the fact that there are bagged FM24 examples.
Nice painting!
Stumbled onto your blog...cool stuff..keep up the good work! Love the pumpkin headed bugbears and pig faced Orcs..
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