ADD18 - Bard Adventure Pack

Sculptor : Aly Morrison

This is another of the 'adventure packs', a set of figures designed to represent a human male Bard player character mounted on horseback and on foot. In 1st Edition AD&D, a bard was a powerful character who had to attain at least 5 levels as both a fighter and a thief before starting as a 1st level bard.

ADD18 - Bard Adventure Pack

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  Singing Bard on foot. The foot version of this figure wears a chainmail vest over his fancy puff-sleeved shirt. He sports an extravagant feathered hat, and wears a slim-bladed sword at his belt. He is depicted strumming on his lute and singing.

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  Bard on foot. Notice there is no fringe and how much of his brow the hat covers.

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  Mounted Singing Bard. The mounted bard is identically armed and dressed. He carries his lute slung at his back, and has his sword drawn and raised above his head. The horse is a fine beast, wearing an ornate caparison and harness.

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  Mounted Bards face. Notice there is no fringe and how much of his brow the hat covers.

The Citadel "C13 Bard"

This is a re-sculpt and re-release of the ADD18 Bard under the Citadel "C13 Bard" name.

The C13 Bard was advertised in the May 1986 Flyer [Stuff of Legends] and initially used the same picture as the ADD18 Bard. [Stuff of Legends]

The re-sculpted versions with closed mouths are depicted in the Easter 1989 Sale Flyer [Stuff of Legends] under the name C13 Heroic Adventurers and never to be seen again.

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  C13 Bard on foot. This is the closed mouth version.

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  C13 Bard on foot close.

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  C13 Mounted Bard. This is the closed mouth version of the mounted figure.

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  C13 Mounted Bard close. Notice the fringe, closed mouth and hat sitting high above his brow which is covered by his fringe.

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  C13 Bard Blister Pack.

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  C13 Bard Tabs.

Differences.

The closed mouth variant can be seen in blister pack format and has "Bard" stamped on the front of each tab. The reverse of the tabs have no markings and look to have been removed prior to production. As you can see there is no copyright.

Notice the fringe. The hat sits high above his brow and his brow is covered by the fringe. Richard Scott commented in an email: "My open mouth version doesn't have any of his fringe showing at the front".

Information.

1.Richard Scott was not aware of the C13 Bard release and assumed it was part of the range. When asked in a recent email the reply was : "I didn't even know the bard joined the c-series after the AD&D range finished".

2. The TSR ADD18 Bard was introduced to the range at the latest known date of December 1985 (release of the Third Citadel Compendium within which the TSR ADD18 Bard is advertised). The Citadel C13 Bard (re-scuplted and copyright removed) was advertised on a flyer in May 1986 [Stuff of Legends]. Citadel continued to advertise and manufacture the TSR AD&D line until the end of February 1987 [Time Line] at the earliest. It's unlikely both the TSR ADD18 Bard and the Citadel C13 Bard were manufactured, stocked and sold at the same time. The likelihood is that the TSR ADD18 Bard was not produced or sold past the announcement of the Citadel C13 Bard. The point being the re-sculpted version was being sold by Citadel for AT LEAST 10 MONTHS before having it's final sale which the ADD18 Bard was not included in. This may account for the lack of TSR ADD18 Bards on the general market as it would potentially have only been available from December 1985 until the end of May 1986.

3. There's no Copyright marks on any of the closed mouth bards been found - they are fairly common minis. Mounted, on foot or on either half of the mount. The mount gives a little information away about it's previous life as the TSR ADD18 Bards Mount as described below.

4. There's no notification on advertising that the code was supplied with a random head (singing or closed mouth). The only known advert [Stuff of Legends] DOES NOT use the * notification as indication. Other catalogue pages [Stuff of Legends] show the * notification being used on the appropriate variant pack codes. This is also the case for the corresponding price list.

5. No known advertising displays the closed mouth bard as being in the TSR AD&D Range.

6. If Aly Morrison is reading this or if anyone can put me in contact with him / has more information please get in touch.

C13 Bard Mount

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  Bard mount left side.

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  Bard mount right side.

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  Roughly Removed copyright on the inside right side of the mount on one example.

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  Area has been smoothed over in another example.

Information :

The mount shown has no identification markings on either tab or inside of either side of the mini.

Other mounts from the AD&D range included a "©TSR 1985" stamp on at least one of the parts or tab. Examples of this are:

ADD10 - Fighter in Platemail. The mount has the "©TSR 1985" stamp on the inside of both parts.

ADD21 - Mounted Barbarian. The mount has the "©TSR 1985" stamp on the inside of both parts.

ADD48 - Cavalier. The mount has the "©TSR 1985" stamp on the tab of the right side of the miniatures tab.

ADD83 - Centaur. Each lower section has the "©TSR 1985" stamp on the inside.

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