Ye Olde Inn

I have 2 kinds of Battle Masters goblins and have noticed there are 2 different molds. Nevermind that they were each molded in different colored plastic. The one I got from North America was a brighter green plastic, while the one from the UK was a more olive drab plastic similar to old plastic army men. The notable thing is that the sculpts are different. The NA one has slightly larger proportions everywhere ( eyeballs, sword, head, etc.). I discovered this difference in the middle of batch painting, so neither are completely painted yet, but it might be easier to see the differences before I finish painting them. The UK one with the more drab plastic is on the right in both images:



My question is this:
Is this difference in molds primarily regional (i.e. NA vs. UK), or is it versional (i.e. an older version vs. a newer version, or core game vs. expansion)?

Also, the differences are very subtle; the right ear of the drab plastic UK one on the right has it's right ear tip slightly curled down.

Are there similar differences with other Battle Masters figures?

I don't have your answer but just wanted to say I prefer the UK version. The NA one looks more cartoony.

From looking at items listed on ebay with different colored plastic, and with considering the scans from thingiverse which seem to match the UK version, I'm thinking that the entire green sprue is different. The thingiverse goblin wolf rider's rider had a smaller spike on it's helmet and a different shaped nose. The olive drab orcs I saw on ebay seemed to have different less simple sculpts for the skulls on the sword and belt. It does seem that all of the UK sculpts look better and appear to have better quality plastic, but they are also less robust in thickness. My current hypothesis is that the switch to a cheaper plastic led to them reworking the sculpts to be more robust so they would be less likely to break with the cheaper plastic, and/or more likely to form properly in the molds. Because the NA ones are thicker, it would probably be better if the 3d scans were of the NA versions because resin is probably more brittle than the cheaper plastic.

I wonder if any of the other sprues are different as well.

Interesting, didn't know that!

I say UK version because that's where the one I got came from, but I really don't know if the difference is regional or just an older version which may have been available everywhere before there was a change at some point in time.

A Facebook member recently published the following picture, where can be seen two different ogre sculpts, one with two assembly pins, so YES, like with HeroQuest it looks like existed different moulds for miniatures of Battle Masters board game:


I have been checking my copies of Battle Masters and pictures and videos of unpunched copies on internet and these were my conclusions:

- All assembly instructions sketches in EU and NA show that the Ogre miniature just has one pin.
- EU Battle Masters game boxes with the red stamp in the front cover included Ogre miniatures with just one pin (no idea if it is different in the boxes with the flag in the front cover).
- EU Chaos Wardband expansion box included Ogre miniatures with just one pin.
- I only found some US Battle Masters game boxes including Ogre miniatures with two pins, but it looks like many other US boxes included the miniatures with just one pin.

Oh cool, a dark blue variant of the Ogre Champion from Battlemasters!

This makes me think my spray painted big Ogres won't look out of place at all... it's already canon!

The more cartoonish goblins came with ogres that had 2 pins, in a white shield box. I haven't been able to confirm which boxes the other goblins came with.

The box with the white shield in the front is an American version of the game. It should also include bases in brown and tan colours.

Here is a comparison of the 2 different orc sculpts. Notice the lip to chin ratios and the size of the nose (i.e. the distance from nose to lip and from lip to chin.) Also notice the skulls on the sword are happier in one sculpt than the other.

When I compared the two different sculpts of unpainted goblins in person, the color of the plastic was as different as the colors are represented in these images of orcs. The poorer quality sculpt (in darker more translucent green) shares the sprue with the poorer quality (more cartoony) goblins of the same color and came with brown bases instead of the green in the top picture I found on ebay.

Here's another comparison from ebay which shows the difference in slot appearance, the thinner one has dots:


I haven't been able to make a good comparison of the wolf rider sculpts yet.