Intrigue !
Well how many figures have you got that are quite close?
There's that knight 'fighter' where there are three slightly different versions:
Nos: 6, 11, and 20 for example.
It must have been an easy option to take an existing figure, add a greenstuff beard and hair and bingo you have a new figure ........ which you decide not to release.
Of course it could have been the other way round - someone sculpted your unreleased wizard, and then the boss said; "No!"
Later it was reworked to a necromancer.