Several weeks ago, over a local, long-running gamer's convention (DunDraCon), I spent the afternoon looking in the "gamer's bazaar". This is like a flea market, where everyone sells off their old stuff. I was specifically looking for lead figurines to paint, as this is where you get some of the old stuff for cheap. Thank God my hubby was searching with me, because he called my attention to another box o' lead figs. I missed it because it was underneath a box I had just pawed through. There, among the partially painted and unpainted grayness of lead, was a incredible treasure:
A Nightcrawler figurine, 25mm, tail attached and in perfect shape. (And as anyone who does lead figures can tell you, something as fragile as a tail that skinny tends to get snapped off within nanoseconds of opening the box.)
The paint job was decent (even if it was basic, unshaded enamels). I gasped with shock and grabbed him with tender fingers, afraid to damage that ever-so-skinny tail. The guy who was selling him looked both amused and bemused at my interest: he had no idea who "this demon guy" was, and thanked me for the identification!
It turns out he was selling off a lot of a friend's stuff, so he had no idea what was in the box, where he got it from, etc., etc. I carefully wrapped my treasure up in some TP, placed him in an unused part of my shock-proof sewing case, and took him home.
Here's where it gets funky....
I found out from a friend that, yes, Marvel did put out a line of superhero action figures in the mid-80s (1985, I think), called Marvel Minis. Set 2 had several of the X-men in it, including Nightcrawler, a mohawked and punk-phase Storm, Magneto (complete with helmet), and Colossus. Gee, what are the odds!
But when I finally hunted that elusive box of figs down, I realized that this was not from that set! Grenadier's stuff was... well, flat. It's a lot easier to make a "flat" 2-piece mold for mass production, and it means that the figures tend to look like they're pressed up against glass. Grenadier also tended to be a bit "coarse" in their detail, unlike Ral Partha or Mithril Miniatures, and poor Kurt wound up looking like he'd been hitting the steroids a little much. He was built like a weightlifter, the same as every other male in the set. (Except for Dr. Strange, who kinda looked like Crumb's "keep on truckin'" guy....)
In the meantime, this rare find I had in my hand was built thin, like an acrobat, with sharp, refined features. He was crouched on one knee, had the prerequisite "two toes and reverse heel", and his tail was so strong that I would have to take pliers to hurt it! And now that I was examining it more closely, I saw that gold was poking through where the paint rubbed off. This guy had to be a bronze! That certainly explained why he was so tough! Maybe he was done in lost wax casting, but certainly not a basic two-piece mold. He wasn't a mass-produced, cheap piece....
And there wasn't any artist's mark! The base was all worn down underneath!!So here I am, inviting, begging, pleading for people to take a look at these pictures I have in my Webshots album. Does *anyone* recognize this? Where he may have come from? Who may have created him?
Nightcrawler 25mm figurine album, 3 pics
