Wednesday, December 31, 2014

Heartbreaker Miniatures Identified...


It's the little things that are the most satisfying and today I bumped into a Kickstarter looking to republish the Earthdawn line of miniatures - Kickstarter Earthdawn RPG Fantasy Miniatures.  The company doing the work is Impact! Miniatures and they state that they'll sell the re-published Earthdawn miniatures under the ZN Games branding on their website once the Kickstarter rewards have been shipped.

It looks like Heartbreaker Hobbies & Games originally had the rights to produce Earthdawn miniatures.  The molds for Earthdawn miniatures as well as their general fantasy lines were then purchased by ZN Games.  I've painted a bunch of ZN Games published miniatures.  Those molds have recently been obtained by Impact! Miniatures who kicked off a Kickstarter in October 2014 for the Earthdawn line with FASA's blessing.

Here's why it's satisfying to me... I found the answer to an unknown miniature I've had in the "archived" status.  I was scrolling through the potential stretch goal rewards and there in mold 308 was the orc miniature I've had in my Archived category as a half orc fighter.

 


I was able to confirm that by going to Knoble Knight Games and indeed HBH308 was a three pack published in 1993.  Furthermore, going to the Lost Minis Wiki shows that this specific figure was 308B.

The only piece missing is who sculpted figure 308B Orc With Sword for Heartbreaker.

I like to publish the sculptor as part of my blog posting - for the ZN Games figures I was able to pinpoint from within the Lost Minis Wiki the Goblin Scout to Chaz Elliot originally published as 5018 Goblin Hero.  The Goblin Dungeon Boyo to Kev Adams originally published as 2026 Dark Goblin Champion #2 with Axe.  The Wild Satricon to Phil Lewis originally published as 6502 Chaos Knight Musician.

I also found the Human Thug as originally being an Earthdawn miniature 353 Blood Elf Grim Legion Mercenary - but unfortunately no information regarding who sculpted the piece.

The final ZN Games piece the Human Hero I didn't find at all in Lost Minis Wiki - so I'm still looking for the sculptor on that mini as well.

AND... I finally found the answer to the last piece in my unknown bucket - the War Maiden.  It's from the Chronopia line produced by Heartbreaker as well.  According to both the Lost Minis Wiki and The Miniatures Page, this was figure #2 from the warband box 20517 - Sons of Kronos Maidens of the Blade (this is the same box which has the nude figure which is a favorite of mini-painters everywhere).  Unfortunately, I haven't found information on who sculpted the miniature - it might be Kevin (Kev) White - I found an article that he did the aforementioned nude blade maiden leader - it's rumored he did most of the Chronopia line as well as the i-Kore Celtos line (which is why I originally thought it might be a Celtos miniature).