I generally consider myself pretty knowledgeable about the world of prepainted fantasy minis, but I ran across one this week that has me stumped. On Ebay I've now stumbled onto two copies of a mini that's clearly the sculpt of the Huge Red Dragon from WotC's Giants of Legend set, and it's painted just like that mini too, but on the bottom it's stamped "Ashardalon, Red Dragon", and the set symbol is the same as for the Wrath of Ashardalon board game (a little White Plume Mountain). The plastic bag for the mini has Konami written on it, too. I'm just wondering whether any other mini collector out there has seen this thing before, and knows anything about its provenance. Anybody?
Bump!
I have never heard or seen a Wrath of Ashardalon red dragon that was factory painted. I have seen a few copies where people have painted them after market (along with other board game figures) though. And in some cases the hand painted one looked as good as, if not better, than the pre-painted figure.
I would ask for more info before I paid for them. Just my opinion of course. :-)
Yeah, this is definitely not an Ashardalon mini from the board game that's been painted by someone as a one-off. The base is different, and it's clearly an unpainted black plastic base, not the red plastic of the board game version. It really looks just like the Giants of Legend paint job, on a different base. I don't know what to think. I was able to buy both the ones I've seen on Ebay for a song, and I'm confident I can resell them for way more than I paid, so I'm not worried about that. But I'd still like to know what the heck they are! In particular, I'd like to know whether these are a recent release, or something that came out back in the day that I just never ran across before.
Once you receive them would you please share photos?
Thank You
I've got one already, though it's in with my sleeping wife. I'll see if I can't find time to snap some pictures tomorrow.
Ok, here are a couple shots:
I looked again at the Wrath of Ashardalon unpainted mini, and it has the same base, though obviously this one is black, and also has a small number stamped on it in white numerals (not visible in the photo) that the unpainted one lacks. It looks to me like the sort of paint job you'd expect from Wizards; good enough, but not so good that it looks like it was done by someone with real skill, so that makes me think it's a legit promo repaint. I just wish I knew where it came from, and why the wrapper has a big KONAMI stamped on it in red. Weird....
And maybe this gives us a hint what might be up:
Maybe they were handing these out as swag at a gambling trade show?
I have never seen that promo before, so maybe you are right. At least you were able to pick it up from ebay.
Looks great!
If you see another listing pop it up :)