Rigg's first offical Eddie was used on Maiden's 1980 'Running Free'. In Wall's autobiography, it is said that this was from a design given to Dave Beasley.
Ralph Bakshi released his 'Lord of the Rings' in 1978 and although it wasn't monsterous succes, it had a lot of underground buzz.
Given how close the album is to the film, and that Eddie on 'Running Free' is quite different from later iterations, I realize there may be no connection at all.
That being said, I was wondering if anyone knows if Tolkien/Bakshi's Gollum had any known influence into Eddie's design?