Harry the Hammer - then and now

[IBBoard]

This is something I meant to ask about when the magazine was first released, but which slipped my mind until now - Harald Hammerstorm, AKA 'Harry the Hammer'.

For those who are to young/new to the hobby (it's actually before my time, but I've seen him before) Harry the Hammer is the warrior featured on the cover of the original edition of Warhammer. I have seen the box in real life once, but at the time I was poor and they wanted at least £20 for it so I couldn't buy it.

The original picture of Harry is below:

To me, he looks like a fairly normal warrior with some classical Greek influences (the shield), a quite normal medieval helmet (complete with gold cross detailing around the vision slit) and more of a metalworker's/lump hammer than a battle hammer. Interesting, characterful, but I'd never seen him as much of a warrior of Chaos.

Now Games Workshop have release an Anniversary Harry after he has been wandering the Chaos Wastes for so long. His hammer has changed, his helmet is a different pattern, and his shield has morphed in to (or been replaced with) a classic Chaos shield shape. He does still have his spiked knees, though.

It might just be me not having known his history in the first place, but somehow he doesn't seem like the same character. I guess if he had been walking in the wastes for so long then he would have changed and been mutated, but the story seems a bit odd. The figure itself is great, just not the best one to associate with the classic artwork on the original edition of Warhammer.