Introduction to the Miniatures

   In “The Dungeon Dwellers Miniatures” section of the site there are pictures of all the miniatures used in this line. Each picture includes the following information; a number and alpha designation, the sculptor’s name, and the rarity of the figure.

   The figure’s numeric designation is based on the blister pack or box number that the figure is associated with. The Dungeon Dwellers numeric range was from 1200 to 1299 for the blister packs, 3501 to 3507 for the green box sets, and 3511 to 3520 for the white box sets. The alpha designation is a letter that was assigned (or not) to the figurer’s base to identify the figure in the mold. In the evolution of this line, there were changes to some of the miniatures. Some subtle, and others complete redesigns. Heritage did not make changes to the base to indicate the change. To help identify the version of each of these miniatures, a -1, -2, and -3 were added to the end of the designation. For example, the Harpies had 1 change from the original sculpt. Therefore, the original sculpt is listed as “1272A-1”, and the revised sculpt is listed as “1272A-2”.

   The sculpting of miniatures for the Dungeon Dwellers line began in 1979. Max Carr, a staff sculptor for Heritage USA, did the bulk of work for the initial offering of miniatures. During the production of the line, others at Heritage including David Helber, art director, and Duke Seifried, vice-president, contributed to the sculpting. Later in the production of the line, Steve Bissett, a budding underling of Duke Seifried’s contributed as well. He was later hired to work at Heritage as a sculptor. Outside sculpting commissions came from David Harlan, George Freeman, and potentially Julie Guthrie (see the interview with David Helber). In the sculptor section of the data provided, if the sculptor was not known a “N/A” was added.

   The rarity calculation is derived from the number of times a specific figure occurred in a blister pack(s) or box set(s). The lower the number, the rarer the figure is. For example a 1287 – Golem is rarer than a 1278 – Wink Dog. The Golem’s rating is a 3 compared to a Wink Dog’s at 9. The Golem came 2 to a blister and was also included in box set 3507; 2+1=3. The Wink Dogs came 6 to a blister and was also included in box set 3504 (3); 6+3=9. For more information on the calculations, visit this page.

In the "Painted Gallery" .....