6th Ed. Possible unreleased skink prototype?

[naddan]

So I started to build some plastic skinks from the same boxes in the photo (same design) and I noticed there's one champion body that actually does not exists, ever noticed that? Some clues? Isn't he cute?

 

[Aginor]

Interesting.

 

[naddan]

You can notice that in the sprue there is only one skink with a golden thing on the top of his crest and it's only for the champion
WHO IS THIS SKINK

 

[Warden]

I have noticed this before, it is the same thing with the saurus warriors. The original saurus kit for 6th edition looked like this in the army book:

Notice that totem banner? It is WAY thicker than the actual set, which has a very thin banner.Plus a few different kinds of saurus heads to include the champion, and a few different kinds of shields.

Here is mine that I got back at the start of 6th edition (newer pic of course):



Both the saurus and skink kits have differences like this between them (heads, banners, weapons, etc).

From what I understand, the studio armies (to include the ones that are on 90% of the box art) were prototypes that were never put into mass production in plastic. If you look at some of the newer artwork from 7-8th edition, AOS, or even the Lustria Campaign book you can see the difference between the prototypes and the production versions. Back cover of the 8th edition book is a good example:

 

[naddan]

I found a similar discussion searching and yeah, the saurus are even more different!

 

[Imrahil]

I have noticed this before, it is the same thing with the saurus warriors. The original saurus kit for 6th edition looked like this in the army book:

Notice that totem banner? It is WAY thicker than the actual set, which has a very thin banner.Plus a few different kinds of saurus heads to include the champion, and a few different kinds of shields.

Here is mine that I got back at the start of 6th edition (newer pic of course):

View attachment 60922

Both the saurus and skink kits have differences like this between them (heads, banners, weapons, etc).

From what I understand, the studio armies (to include the ones that are on 90% of the box art) were prototypes that were never put into mass production in plastic. If you look at some of the newer artwork from 7-8th edition, AOS, or even the Lustria Campaign book you can see the difference between the prototypes and the production versions. Back cover of the 8th edition book is a good example:

View attachment 60923

I think I'll put it in this thread, bwcausebit might be just the same issue as you described.

Reading through the 7th edition army book(for fluff purposes) my eye caught the display page of Saurus Warriors. In the top left corner there are 2 Saurus Warrior heroes mentioned:



I do not recognize the heads and bodies on these Sauri as one of the heads and bodies that come in the sprue.
So I was thinking: are these released as saperate models?

Might it be the same issue as above: work in progress models painted up before the boxes where 100% approved and ready for production?

Grrr, Imrahil