seankreynolds said:Uh, such as? Many of the creatures in the 2E MM first appeared in FR products: the dracolich, the beholder variants, etc. Nowadays most people think FR "stole" those creatures, but they originated in FR.
Such as the creatures that appeared in the 2e Monstrous Compendium, Appendix Three: Forgotten Realms that had originally appeared in one of the core 1e monster books (i.e., Monster Manual, Fiend Folio and Monster Manual II). There's more than a small number of them. Why had these "core" critters suddenly taken up exclusive residence in the Forgotten Realms setting? I didn't know, and I didn't want to know.
It was after purchasing MC Appendix 3 that I realised that 2e was all about getting me to buy stuff I didn't want just to get me back to the level that 1e had already reached. I abandoned it at that point. (I had only been buying 2e stuff because I'd hoped for a dramatic improvement over the 1e rules; alas, that wasn't to happen until 3e came along.)
As for claiming that Monsters of Faerun must be a core product because it doesn't say "Forgotten Realms" on the cover -- let's just say that I don't set my games in Faerun and have no interest in finding out what monsters might live there. If WOTC wanted to sell that book as a "core product", then it should have been entitled Monsters of anywhere you like, and certainly not that place that is otherwise known as "Forgotten Realms". I've spent many years not buying Forgotten Realms supplements, and it's not a habit I intend to break any time soon.