FEAR OF THE DARK EDDIE Art Scale 1/10 Deluxe Edition – Iron Studios

Eddie, also known as Eddie the Head, is the mascot of the British heavy metal band Iron Maiden. He is a permanent fixture in the band’s artwork, appearing on all their album covers, singles, and marketing products including t-shirts, posters, and action figures. Eddie is a special presence at all the band’s shows and is the main character in the first-person shooter video game Ed Hunter, the RPG Iron Maiden: Legacy of the Beast, and a 2018 pinball game. His origin stems from a papier-mâché mask used on the band’s early stage backdrops. According to Steve Harris, the band’s founding member and bassist, the name Eddie came from the original mask being called “The Head,” which sounded like “Ead” in the band members’ London accents. The name Eddie from the mask was transferred to an illustration created by Derek Riggs, which became the cover of the band’s first album. Riggs exclusively produced Eddie’s art until 1992, portraying Eddie related to the themes of each album, single, or tour, where the iconic zombie appears as a Crimean War soldier (The Trooper), a lobotomized mental patient (Piece of Mind), a World War II pilot (Aces High), an Egyptian mummy (Powerslave), a cyborg warrior (Somewhere in Time), among others. In 1992, the band decided to accept contributions from other artists, in a sort of contest to choose the cover to update Eddie for the ’90s. The chosen one was English illustrator Melvyn Grant, who first drew Eddie for the Fear of the Dark cover.