Ye Olde Inn

by **HispaZargon** » June 1st, 2021, 7:17 pm

Hi everybody, this is my first post in this website!

Some days ago, I downloaded from the German section of this website an scan of an old advertisment/catalogue of MB boardgames and, of course, our beloved HeroQuest was there.

Once I checked the info contained there I felt very surprised since it contains a picture of the Against the Ogre Horde Expansion's box with a different art and miniatures than the ones of the released version of this expansion pack so... I would like to open a discussion about it since I have not found no additional information (sorry if it has been already discussed).

Here you can see the picture I am referring to, you will need to make some zooming in the related picture to see the details I am taking about:

http://deutsch.yeoldeinn.com/downloads/ ... tionen.pdf

It seems to be a preliminar design of the box art and content so, my questions:

Please, does anybody have this picture with a better quality?

Does anybody know anything about this preliminar version? What about the art? Does it belong to the same artist?

And what about the miniatures... They seem to be like oldschool Citadel C23 Ogres Series... or maybe not, any idea?

THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!!

HispaZargon

Yes, you are right. I didn't notice the tiles issue...! the tiles sheet of ROTWL can be also seen under the KK one. Attending to that and the miniatures, it seems to clearly be a preliminar design, a prototype just made for promo purposes like this one before finishing the official one. The ogres seems to be models of the link you sent but supported by classical 25x25mm Warhammer square bases, smaller thatn the classical 40x40mm monster bases provided in the blister of such Citadel ogre miniatures. The original ones were metallic but MB maybe tried to hide that for the picture by means of paintimg them in dark blue and dark red colours, the ones of the final plastic miniatures included in the ogre pack.

About the cover art, the design seems to be very close to the final official one, but It seems to present ogres a little bit stronger. In my opinion, the ogres in the official cover art look like less stronger than the miniatures contained inside the box but in this preliminary picture they seems to be stronger, as the plastic miniatures. Could be the preliminary cover the art that really inspired the design of the ogre miniatures but it was replaced due to some reason by the known one at the final step? Could be this original art unfortunately lost and the final art had to be made fast in order to achieve the expansion release schedule? Who knows... of course I am just guessing, if we could find a better quality image of the prototyoe art... anyway, ideas welcome!

HispaZargon.

by **iKarith** » June 2nd, 2021, 2:42 pm

I wonder how common it was to use preliminary or prototype game materials like that in advertising at the time? I now wonder if the Swedish HQ had the prototype game on the back of the box, since by law in that country the Les Edwards artwork on the front was substituted for a picture of a game in progress (sort of.)

by **HispaZargon** » June 2nd, 2021, 7:09 pm

iKarith wrote:I wonder how common it was to use preliminary or prototype game materials like that in advertising at the time? I now wonder if the Swedish HQ had the prototype game on the back of the box, since by law in that country the Les Edwards artwork on the front was substituted for a picture of a game in progress (sort of.)

Yeah, I think it should be very common at that time... Here we have another example from UK Argos Superstore 1989 Autum/Winter Catalogue, page 328, top left corner:

1989_Winter_MB_Games_in_Argos_Superstore_Catalogue.JPG

Source: https://issuu.com/retromash/docs/argos- ... winter/328

There you can see that the Basic Game's front box cover shown in the catalogue is not exactly as the final one since it has no title except "HeroQuest" words, it has no yellow border, etc. It seems to also be a prototype or just a preliminar design for promotional purposes.

by **Kurgan** » June 2nd, 2021, 7:10 pm

Picture on the front of the Swedish box appears to be the finished product, it's the back of the other boxes (NA & EU) that shows the prototype stuff.

KK had had the infamous Cloud of Chaos tile...

by **HispaZargon** » June 2nd, 2021, 7:33 pm

Kurgan wrote:Picture on the front of the Swedish box appears to be the finished product, it's the back of the other boxes (NA & EU) that shows the prototype stuff.

KK had had the infamous Cloud of Chaos tile...

Yes, about Swedish one I agree, it seems to be the final product (in this front box can be also checked that, as in the rest of EU versions, it also has missing the paper/card support for the wizard desk! :-)

Regarding KK box back... ok, EU version shows a rare version of Cloud of Chaos, but I think NA version box shows the correct tile in the back, isn't it?

by **HispaZargon** » June 2nd, 2021, 7:51 pm

I have found in other website a year 2012 discussion about the above Ogre Horde topic. There we can see another scan of the german MB catalogue page, but with a little bit better quality:

https://boardgamegeek.com/image/1292192/game-heroquest

Now, it can be clearly seen that the front ogre belongs a hammer in its right hand! Additionaly, I think the drawing quality is not the same as Les Edwards final one, maybe this one appears to have sharper colours, something like a comic style? Maybe it is only a coloured draft made by Les Edwards but with not too much detail, just inspired in one of the existing at that time Citadel ogres with a hammer referred above. Unfortunately, it cannot be checked very well due to the low quality of the picture but that are my feelings... Does anybody knows an artist at that time with this kind of painting style? Probably some of the already known Games Workshop ones, such as Gary Chalk but who knows...

by **lestodante** » June 9th, 2021, 5:04 pm

HispaZargon wrote:Regarding KK box back... ok, EU version shows a rare version of Cloud of Chaos, but I think NA version box shows the correct tile in the back, isn't it?

There are two different boxes for Kellar Keep (UK), the first one has the demo tiles on the rear picture, the second one has the correct tiles.