b-36 wrote: It backs up what I've always thought: Given the fact that the designs we are discussing were being produced as plastic figures in the early 1970s, and would seem to pre-date many of the fantasy role playing publications in which they appear, I have always assumed that the concept for the Rust Monster and Bulette (and maybe some of the others) came FROM the figures and was used BY early role players and then TSR, and not the other way around (I think many assume the Hong Kong figures were "borrowed" from the pictures in the Monster Manual, et al, and not the other way around). But there are definitely others here who may know more about that, or can shed further light . . .
b-36 wrote:I've been collecting these (and other "Fantasy Toy Soldiers" and knights of various lines) for many years.
As others have stated, there are variations to the quality of the paint jobs. Earlier Hong Kong versions are usually well painted (for Hong Kong plastic toys!!), later Hong Kong and most of the China versions have poorer paint jobs (eyes overpainted, missing paint, etc . . ).
I've created a web page with some pictures of some of the figures from my collection. Along with the Bulette and the Rust Monster, there are figures that resemble the AD&D Salamander, Owlbear, Su-Monster, and Umber Hulk. Others that are slightly like the Troglodyte and maybe some of the dragons/dragonne.
b-36 wrote:I updated the page at the link above (http://www.bhkwt.com/open/acaeum) to add some pictures and information on later Hong Kong and China plastic Fantasy Toy Soldiers that were DIRECTLY taken from TSR/AD&D monsters (drawings in the Monster Manual type hardcovers or taken from older Heritage/TSR/Grenadier lead mini designs).
b-36 wrote:I updated the page at the link above...
TheMilford wrote:Can you tell us the size of some of these figures? Are they abou tthe size of old cowboys and indians?
Zenopus76 wrote:The sets I had as a kid always came with a weird pterodactyl with feathers, which was the largest figure in the set.
b-36 wrote:I updated the page at the link above (http://www.bhkwt.com/open/acaeum) to add some pictures and information on later Hong Kong and China plastic Fantasy Toy Soldiers that were DIRECTLY taken from TSR/AD&D monsters (drawings in the Monster Manual type hardcovers or taken from older Heritage/TSR/Grenadier lead mini designs).I'm mailing two plastic bulettes (one small, one larger) to Tim Kask tomorrow - and I'm searching for the thread/threads where he may have discussed basing monsters on these figures. Good stuff!!
As I said, I created it for two reasons.First and foremost? I had an empty page in that issue of The Dragon because a full-page ad either cancelled or was late, and I had to go to press.Now Gary and I had had several talks about creating monsters, and he had frequently encouraged me to let my imagination run wild. The umber hulk and the rust monster were fabrications (by Gary) to "explain" two plastic monsters from a bag of weird critters from the dime store that Gary had found and used in Greyhawk. (Now it would be a Dollar Store.) There was still had one that had not been taxonomically identified and defined yet that intrigued me; they called it the "bullet". I frogged-up the name a bit. At this same time, SNL was hitting it's stride and had become a cultural phenomenon, and the Jaws movies were just hitting their stride, and SNL ran with the "landshark" parody. People were going around going "Landshark" "Candygram" all the time as they became a temporary buzzword. No doubt influenced by some really good " Oz oil" that was going around (statute of limitations is long expired), my excursive mind hooked them together as I imagined what a "real" (in D&D terms "real") landshark might be. I had probably been watching a PBS program about moles or armadillos.The second reason had to do with Outdoor Adventures (or lack thereof) and a herd of hobbit ponies. But that's another story...
The bullette (boo-lay), as it was first called, was the first monster I invented. Why is the more interesting part of the story. I had decided to add a feature to DRAGON that would mean a new monster every issue; problem was, I had to launch an issue early because an ad didn't come in. I wrote it up very late at night; the nickname "landshark" was a reference to a character that the original Not Ready for Primetime Players had done on Saturday Night Live. I went to Dave Sutherland for an emergency drawing (drawings could be submitted to the printers after the copy was set) and he did a dandy job on almost no notice.There once was an unknown company in Hong Kong that made a bag of weird animal-things that were then sold in what once were called dime stores or variety stores for like $.99. I know of four other very early monsters based on them. Gary and I talked about how hard it was to find monster figures, and how one day he came upon this bag of weird beasts. It might have had a sci-fi marketing hook. He nearly ran home, eager as a kid to get home and open his baseball cards. Then he proceeded to invent the carrion crawler, umber hulk, rust monster and purple worm, all based on those silly plastic figures. The one that I chose was known in the Greyhawk campaign as "the bullet" (for it's shape) but had only amorphous stats and abilities, not being developed. Gary told me to take it home, study it, and decide what it was and what it could do. He wouldn't tell me what it did in GH. So I took it home, "frenchified" the original name, made it bigger in scale and made up the rest of that stuff.I heard that it was popular with a lot of DM's. I sure liked it when I had a pod of them eat a bunch of adventurer's horses, severely stranding them for a while. I thought that a giant armored mole-thing with a taste for horseflesh was about as bad as anything you could not wish for on an open plain. Comes from growing up in the Corn Belt, I guess.I have a bunch of monster ideas: I have invented some for every adventure I have written in the past year. I think that its real "old school" for the players not to know the anatomical details and reproductive habits of everything they meet.
Zenopus76 wrote:[ Image ](Picture from b-36 photos above).Okay, this figure is probably the inspiration for the umber hulk. I even had one of these that was brown (umber) back in the day.Not sure about the others.
Zenopus wrote:Hmm...well, that was my best guess - that's the only one I've seen from these sets with "mandibles". None of the figures identified in this thread really looks like the Sutherland umber hulk illo. If it is one of the others, I think we'll need some more guidance. b-36's photos have all of the "creatures" from these sets that I remember (missing only the dinos), but it's possible there were other figures.