1977 Grenadier TSR Lizardman Logo miniature
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Post Posted: Sat Mar 30, 2013 8:13 pm 
 

At long last, I am now the proud owner of one of the rarest miniatures produced by Grenadier! :D :D  

Ever since Paul ran the Dave Sutherland auctions, I've wanted one of these minis to be the highlight of my Grenadier collection---even moreso than the Special Sets, or the Grenadier Bulletins or posters from the back of cover ads from Dragon.   I wasn't able to afford Sutherland's, nor Kevin Henrdryx's either, but while looking at some lots of figures on eBay last week, I saw what looked like one of these TSR logo minis in one of them, and decided to chance it.  The figures arrived today, and lo and behold, it was in fact the Grenadier TSR mini! :D  

Now I'm curious about the paint jobs on the minis.  The mini is painted well, and it just occurred to me that the folks at Grenadier probably painted the minis for the TSR crew.  Whoever has the minis sold by Paul from Dave Sutherland and from Kevin Hendryx---can you please compare the paint jobs on your minis to the one on mine?  My recollection of the previous auctions is that they're identical to my painting, but it would be nice to be able to validate that.  I'll also see if I can track back through my Grenadier contacts to see if we can ID who painted the minis; my assumption is that Ray Rubin painted them, since he painted all of the paintings for the Grenadier box set covers, but it would be nice to confirm that, as well.  

1977 Grenadier TSR Lizardman Logo miniature - front view:

Image

1977 Grenadier TSR Lizardman Logo miniature - back view:

Image

1977 Grenadier TSR Lizardman Logo miniature - scale comparison view; I hadn't realized how large this miniature was, but it towers over the 25mm troll from Grenadier's Denizens of the Swamp boxed set:  

Image


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Last edited by grodog on Mon Dec 19, 2016 3:45 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Post Posted: Sun Mar 31, 2013 10:57 am 
 

grodog emphasis grodog wrote in 1977 Grenadier TSR Lizardman Logo miniature:At long last, I am now the proud owner of one of the rarest miniatures produced by Grenadier! :D :D  


And, my lovely children with the help of one of their cousins, broke the miniature last evening.  Pride goeth before the fall, or the broken miniature, as the case may be....  It should be easily repairable, at least    PDT_Armataz_01_02   :roll:   :wink:


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Post Posted: Sun Mar 31, 2013 11:00 am 
 

Nice find!  I didn't know that most of these were assembled and pre-painted.  We picked up this one from ebay a couple years ago.

Image

Someone was selling hundreds of old fantasy minis as singles and I saw the lizardman and thought it looked awfully familiar.  Didn't have any reference photos to go from so I threw in a token bid.  Ended up winning it for about $6. 8O   Was pleasantly surprised at how large it was when it arrived.  Word is there may have only been a couple dozen of these cast.  Anyone know more about these?

-Devon


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Post Posted: Sun Mar 31, 2013 11:03 am 
 

grodog wrote in 1977 Grenadier TSR Lizardman Logo miniature:
grodog emphasis grodog wrote in 1977 Grenadier TSR Lizardman Logo miniature:At long last, I am now the proud owner of one of the rarest miniatures produced by Grenadier! :D :D  


And, my lovely children with the help of one of their cousins, broke the miniature last evening.  Pride goeth before the fall, or the broken miniature, as the case may be....  It should be easily repairable, at least    PDT_Armataz_01_02   :roll:   :wink:


Ouch! Hope repair goes well.  You don't keep your minis locked in a gun safe?  Those things are lead and are very dangerous. :wink:


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Post Posted: Sun Mar 31, 2013 11:43 am 
 

I saw the lot with that guy shortly after it ended. Nice score - looked like there was some other nice stuff in there as well!  Sorry to hear about the Lizard Man's defeat in battle...

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Post Posted: Sun Mar 31, 2013 11:57 am 
 

grodog wrote in 1977 Grenadier TSR Lizardman Logo miniature:
grodog emphasis grodog wrote in 1977 Grenadier TSR Lizardman Logo miniature:At long last, I am now the proud owner of one of the rarest miniatures produced by Grenadier! :D :D  


And, my lovely children with the help of one of their cousins, broke the miniature last evening.  Pride goeth before the fall, or the broken miniature, as the case may be....  It should be easily repairable, at least    PDT_Armataz_01_02   :roll:   :wink:


But its a toy. Its s'posed to be played with (and broken). Not only do you now own one of the rarest Grenadier minis ever produced, you now have a unique mini with a cool story to go along with it. Truly priceless.


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Post Posted: Sun Mar 31, 2013 12:41 pm 
 

burntwire brothers wrote in 1977 Grenadier TSR Lizardman Logo miniature:Nice find!  I didn't know that most of these were assembled and pre-painted.  We picked up this one from ebay a couple years ago.

[ Image ]


That's a great picture, Devon.  Do you guys have a higher-resolution one, by chance?  If you're willing, I'd like to use a pic in _Fantastic Worlds of Grenadier_'s next edition---to show the mini in it's unassembled and then painted/assembled states.

burntwire brothers wrote in 1977 Grenadier TSR Lizardman Logo miniature:Someone was selling hundreds of old fantasy minis as singles and I saw the lizardman and thought it looked awfully familiar.  Didn't have any reference photos to go from so I threw in a token bid.  Ended up winning it for about $6. 8O   Was pleasantly surprised at how large it was when it arrived.  


_That's_ a nice find :D  Did you save any details about the auction/seller, by chance?

burntwire brothers wrote in 1977 Grenadier TSR Lizardman Logo miniature:Word is there may have only been a couple dozen of these cast.  Anyone know more about these?


Paul Stormberg had the best summary details that I'm aware of; if he doesn't chime in, I'll summarize based on my recollections.


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Post Posted: Mon Apr 01, 2013 10:11 am 
 

Grodog,
 I will get a higher res picture for you soon.  We may have the sellers info around here somewhere.  I will do some searching and see what I can find.  

Anyone know how many employees TSR and Grenadier had in 1977?  I'm guessing not too many.


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Post Posted: Mon Apr 01, 2013 11:27 am 
 

burntwire brothers wrote in 1977 Grenadier TSR Lizardman Logo miniature:I will get a higher res picture for you soon.  We may have the sellers info around here somewhere.  I will do some searching and see what I can find.  


Thanks! :D

burntwire brothers wrote in 1977 Grenadier TSR Lizardman Logo miniature:Anyone know how many employees TSR and Grenadier had in 1977?  I'm guessing not too many.


I don't, offhand, but I'm guessing that we should be able to make some solid inferences based on comments in SR and TD:  

- April 1975 (SR#4) mentions that Gary and Brian are on staff, and that soon they'll be adding 2-3 more folks, including Tim Kask, Terry Kuntz, and Dave Arneson
- Dec 1975 (SR#5) mentions that Gary, Brian, Rob, Terry, and Tim are the folks who "make up" TSR at that time

Tracking forward we may be able to find some more details out.  IIRC Rob and Terry and Dave and Dave Megarry had all quit by the time 1977 closed out, however, so there may be a number of changes to sort through.  Tim/Frank/anyone else care to chime in?


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Post Posted: Mon Apr 01, 2013 11:37 pm 
 

Allan,

Great find! I too saw that lot and my first thought was yeah, that lizard is big and cool and DOES look like the TSR logo. A cursory search didn't turn anything up, so I was content to watch the auction. When the bidding ended, I was scratching my head and wondering why it ended so high. Mystery solved. Congrats on a very cool piece for your collection.


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Post Posted: Tue Apr 02, 2013 7:51 pm 
 

With all the reprints, seems like WotC should do wizard & lizard minis of the logos.

  

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Post Posted: Wed Apr 03, 2013 12:07 pm 
 

Here are a couple of better pics of the mini.  I emailed these to Grodog as well.

Image


Image


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Post Posted: Thu Apr 04, 2013 12:09 am 
 

Allan and burntwire bros: Thanks for the detailed pictures of this rarity!

Is the name of the Grenadier sculptor of the mini known?

For anyone who hasn't seen it, here's a screenshot of the artwork by Greg Bell from the inside cover of the Greyhawk Supplement. It was then used as the basis of the Lizard Logo, which according to the Acaeum's logo page first appeared in July 1975. This is the same date as the 2nd printing of Greyhawk. Is the Lizardman artwork on the inside cover of the first print of Greyhawk (Feb 1975)?

Image


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Post Posted: Thu Apr 04, 2013 8:17 pm 
 

Zenopus wrote in 1977 Grenadier TSR Lizardman Logo miniature:Is the name of the Grenadier sculptor of the mini known?


Not to me.  Paul may recall it, but I also haven't been able to dig up Paul's previous auctions for additional details from those yet, either.

Zenopus wrote in 1977 Grenadier TSR Lizardman Logo miniature:[the inside cover of the Greyhawk Supplement] was then used as the basis of the Lizard Logo, which according to the Acaeum's logo page first appeared in July 1975. This is the same date as the 2nd printing of Greyhawk. Is the Lizardman artwork on the inside cover of the first print of Greyhawk (Feb 1975)?


Yes, it's also on the inside cover of the true 1st GH.


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Post Posted: Thu Apr 04, 2013 11:51 pm 
 

Now don't get me wrong, because the lizardman is iconic and I've always liked Greg Bell's work even though he doesn't get much respect, but for the first time I've noticed in the picture that Zenopus posted, that the head, tail and hands seem pasted on.  Does anyone know which original artwork might have inspired Greg for this one?  

I do like the mini.  Want.

LB

  


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Post Posted: Sat Apr 06, 2013 8:29 am 
 

Lurker Below wrote in 1977 Grenadier TSR Lizardman Logo miniature: Does anyone know which original artwork might have inspired Greg for this one?


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Post Posted: Sun Apr 07, 2013 7:17 pm 
 

Mine is also broken. :/
I haven't messed with it; it came with green skin and gold axe.

He's here with a pumpkin-head bugbear (Heritage?), The Grenadier Gold Wizard prize (okay, a comp from them), and a special not-for-sale Smiley-face Beholder.

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Post Posted: Mon Apr 08, 2013 7:57 am 
 

ExTSR wrote:Mine is also broken. :/ I haven't messed with it; it came with green skin and gold axe.

Hrmph... definitely not the right axe. Now I wonder where... :/

  
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