‘I do not believe that I am made of the stuff which constitutes heroes, because, in all of the hundreds of instances that my voluntary acts have placed me face to face with death, I cannot recall a single one where any alternative step to that I took occurred to me until many hours later’
So spoke the man who would shortly be catapulted across space and time in one of pulp literature’s arguably most fantastic adventures... John Carter of Mars.
Towards the end of 1976 (74 or 75?), Grenadier released a short-lived ‘John Carter Warlord Of Mars’ series – this was quickly discontinued after failing to get the licence or possibly realising there was a licence fee to pay! I've just recieved some extra minis from the range and they have GM74 (I think) on the bases (see bottom pics)... I don't think the others had anything to be seen under the base... the mystery deepens a little. Some of the figures were repackaged into two pack of the Gamma World line as G9 Knights of Purity, Cryptic Alliance and G14 Tribesmen: Humans - I haven't noticed any other potential JC minis amongst the range although there are too few decent images of the blister contents... if you have them please help out! It would also be a joy to find the original card artwork if there was any! I've only even seen 9 different foot figures so far plus, of course, Terence's Plant Man.
In Terence Gunn's 2003 'The Fantastic worlds of Grenadier' he states '
...an eighteen title series based upon the characters and creations in Edgar Rice Burrough's John Carter Warlord of Mars series, sculpted 'mainly for fun' by (Andrew) Chernak. Unfortunately, due to a licensing agreement the miniatures company Heritage already had with the John Carter Warlord of Mars series, Grenadier had to withdraw its line.
In the 2016 new edition he removes any mention of the 'eighteen title series' although he does add some images. I have borrowed his image of the Plant Man from the book which is for imformative purposes only and retains his copywrite etc. I no longer have a working email for him so if there is any objection I will obviously remove the image.
Pics are the minis are either mine or US friend Joel's.
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