It seems an interesting if

It seems an interesting if not possibly scandalous case of artistic license has been discovered within the world of Harry Potter products. A reader of The Leaky Cauldron from the alt.fan.harry-potter newsgroup, while looking at a picture we posted earlier, noticed a distinct similarity elsewhere.

On January 25, 2001, we posted a picture from the January edition of Playthings magazine that stated Mattel would be rolling out mini-games based on each chapter of the first Harry Potter book. The picture portrayed what appeared to be a Mini-Game called “Lost in Gringotts Caverns” and, even though Mattel wasn’t mentioned anywhere in the picture, we assumed the art came from them. Perhaps Playthings took artistic license.

Our intrepid reader brought our attention to an old PC game from SSI/TSR called “Eye of the Beholder.” Notice the simularity in pictures. What strikes me most is that TSR is now a part of Wizards of the Coast. And, as we’ve mentioned in previous posts, they are now a part of Hasbro – a rather large competitor of Mattel.

Ironic, no? We haven’t had a chance to contact Mattel, Hasbro, Wizards of the Coast, or Playthings Magazine as of yet but we plan to. We’ll keep you posted.