Toys for use as minis

[Thurbane]

Quite true, Gygax said that several times in his Q&A here.

Does anyone happen to have a photo?

Yep, I posted a (bad) pic of my rust monster toy here a while back, I'll see if I can find a link...

 

[Rhuvein]

Green Dragon

I picked up the Schleich dragon from Target over the holidays. Amazon has it too. Looks real good compared to wotc's stuff:

 

[frankthedm]

I picked up the Schleich dragon from Target over the holidays. Amazon has it too. Looks real good compared to wotc's stuff:

Better than the curious posture of the gargantuan black and squatting & barfing pose of the Collosal red. But otherwise I think the wotc ones have a modest edge. The Schleich dragon still is a good fig.

The Papo figs of humans work nice for huge giants. The Cerberos is a good fig. But the best so far is the two headed dragon

Two headed dragon from Papo toys

“Papo is a French company that makes high quality painted plastic 90mm toys sized perfectly for little hands and styled authentically for adult sensibilities.”

The high detail means the animals can work very well for minis of ‘dire animals’ sans spikey bits. Their Historic / Fantasy line is quite strong, with figs that could be used for huge giants, even mounted ones. Their 3 headed Cerberus is quite cool. Their dragons started out comic lardballs with tiny wings, round bellies and lopsided gouts of flame like giant tongues; though their most recent offering is really good.

38906 Papo Two Headed Dragon / Papo Drache, zweiköpfig / ???

The Body has a good solid draconic shape and a powerful barrel chest. The figure could honestly support more necks than it current has and could make a decent base fig for a Tiamat mini. The body’s colorations is a dark green scales with an occasional brown and typical pale underbelly. The fire breathing head has a purplish red to reddish brown coloration. The other head has a cooler blue tone, leading one to suspect that head might have a different type of breath weapon.

The right front and hind feet resting on the ground are 4 inches apart, thus making this a good fit for a gargantuan base [4”] with the tail overlapping the base unless a square was used instead of the typical round base. A CD would also make a great base.

I did not care for the flame, thankfully the breath piece is not that well glues in. A bit of paint on the mouth’s inside will be damaged by doing so, so a quit touch of paint could be useful there.

 

[Droogie]

In 197p, there was a fully articulated Alien action figure that Kenner released in conjunction with the movie.

It was 18" tall, had an articulated tail & limbs, and the inner jaws shot out when you pulled a lever on its back.

I wish I had bought it (I wanted it so bad, I couldn't buy it- I was just a kid, and it freaked me out).

However, if you have one or could find it, it would be totally awesome for a homebrewed demon of some kind. Just be prepared to shell out some bucks...

http://www.toyzine.com/magazine/articles/alien.html
http://www.bugeyedmonster.com/toys/alien/
http://cgi.ebay.com/1979-Kenner-Ali...467QQihZ009QQcategoryZ348QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

I've got one! Got it when I was about 9 years old. I was obsessed with that movie long before I ever had a chance to see it, thanks to my brother's copy of the graphic novel. Inspite of mom's objections, "Santa" brought me one anyway.

He's a bit scuffed, but all his parts are present. He's in my basement now. Since I had no idea he was so valuable, I'll bring him upstairs.

He's a bit large to use in a game tho, unless you need a colossal demon endboss for an epic-level campaign finale.

 

[kenobi65]

Sorry I can't provide a link, but the DMs in my group have used fish tank decor from the local pet store as dungeon dressing. You can buy faux pillars, arches, and other crumbling masonry and it lends some great atmosphere to the game.

Ah, but I can.

Sean K Reynolds put this page together on his web site a few years back. Some of these pieces are very cool indeed.

http://www.seankreynolds.com/rpgfiles/miniatures/aquarium/index.html

 

[AFGNCAAP]

In 197p, there was a fully articulated Alien action figure that Kenner released in conjunction with the movie.

It was 18" tall, had an articulated tail & limbs, and the inner jaws shot out when you pulled a lever on its back.

I wish I had bought it (I wanted it so bad, I couldn't buy it- I was just a kid, and it freaked me out).

However, if you have one or could find it, it would be totally awesome for a homebrewed demon of some kind. Just be prepared to shell out some bucks...

http://www.toyzine.com/magazine/articles/alien.html
http://www.bugeyedmonster.com/toys/alien/
http://cgi.ebay.com/1979-Kenner-Ali...467QQihZ009QQcategoryZ348QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

I used to have one as a kid. Coolest. Toy. Ever!

Of course, it freaked out my mom, so she wound up getting rid of it. Damnit.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

For you lucky bastiches that have the Alien, he would make an EXCELLENT demon BBEG...

Of course, I'd also make a side trip to Hobby Lobby or Container Store (or someplace similar) and find a doll storage dome to put him under for display...

 

[sniffles]

Farm, dinosaur and insect packs of "toys" from Wal-Mart are excellent sources of large monsters (and the occasional huge) for about $2 a bag. Of course the paint schemes suck marmalade so if you're handy with a paint brush, these are a much better investment. I have a whole passle of monsterous spiders that started out as crappy toy figures. Unfortunately I have no way to post pics so...

But they're really good for $0.12 each (approx)

Yeah, those bags or tubes full of assorted plastic animals and insects are handy. You can get bunches of critters to stand in as huge monstrous spiders, or lizards, or snakes. And of course you can't go wrong with plastic dinosaurs.

 

[Thurbane]

Found that pic of my rust monster toy

Here tis...

 

[BroccoliRage]

Just confirming the Heroscape Minis...one of my players bought a ton of these. Equal or better than DnD Minis.

Here's a second for HeroScape. Buy two of the Master sets, two of the bridge expansions, and two of the castle expansions. Then buy up all of the army packs you can find, which sell for about ten bucks. You get a fun and very simple wargame system (which, if you still have your old Hero Quest board game laying about you can use as a supplement/compliment, as they both use the same system), and a ton of minis for roleplaying. Some are kind of goofy looking, but how pretty does a mini really have to be?


I picked up a pack of 60 mini-sized ninjas for $2. When I was a lad, I bought a sack of Fantasy themed toy soldiers, like the tub of army guys only with wizards and monsters and knights riding dragons. I wish I could find those again, I only paid about a dollar.

I second the dinosaurs option. You can also find insects in similiar packs.

Hunt through dollar stores! I picked up some Yugioh minis that I took a pen knife and removed the wanky bases from. Also, you can find Horror Clicks and Mage Knight bits for cheap.

Mega Bloks has a dragons series, and I have a few of those pieces laying in the mini's chest.

I picked up a Samurai Jack and Aku "mini", each out a gumball machine.

OH, at closeout stores you can pick up MOTU minis! From the latest series, of course.

Hope this helps! I've done this myself for quite some time.