Showing posts with label toys. Show all posts
Showing posts with label toys. Show all posts

Thursday, May 2, 2024

Lego Dungeons & Dragons: Red Dragon's Tale

 A bit of a break before I get into Sci-Fi month proper.

My oldest kid and I went in on the new Lego: Dungeons & Dragons set.

Lego: Dungeons & Dragons

3745 Pieces. It's not the biggest Lego set he has built, but it's one of them for sure.

It is also really cool.

Lego: Dungeons & Dragons

Lego: Dungeons & Dragons

Lego: Dungeons & Dragons

Lego: Dungeons & Dragons

Lego: Dungeons & Dragons

Lego: Dungeons & Dragons

Lego: Dungeons & Dragons

The scale is about right. Good enough really.

Sinéad and Larina in Lego: Dungeons & Dragons

Sinéad and Larina in Lego: Dungeons & Dragons

Sinéad and Larina in Lego: Dungeons & Dragons
Sinéad and Larina confront Cinderhowl

The best part? It comes with a D&D 5e Adventure, "Red Dragon's Tale."

Four PCs are included; A Dwarf Cleric, Elf Wizard, Gnome Fighter, and Orc Rogue. All level 5.  Why no humans? I guess you can get humans all the time with other Lego sets.

The adventure is included in the set, and my son plans on running it soon. Yeah, four 5th-level characters vs. an owlbear, a displacer beast ("Pouncy"), a beholder, a bunch of skeletons, a 13th-level evil sorcerer ("Ervan Soulfallen"), and an adult Red Dragon ("Cinderhowl"). It sounds like a TPK waiting to happen. 

There is even a book on how to use this as a game without the D&D rules.

Still, he had a blast building it. I was going to help, but he stayed up until 7:00 a.m. working on it over the week. He is young and works nights, so he can still do that kind of stuff. He wants to take his Sunday group through it this weekend.

Can't wait to hear how it goes!

Tuesday, June 20, 2023

Mail Call Tuesday: ReAction D&D Figures

A little over 3.5 months later, I finally received my ReAction D&D Figures in the mail, just in time for Father's Day.

ReAction D&D Figures

ReAction D&D Figures

They are pretty cool. As you can see, these are the ones from Super 7.

Of the three the Sorceress (as she is properly known) is my favorite.

The D&D Sorceress

She is roughly the same size/scale as the classic Kenner Star Wars figures (this is by design of course). She even has holes in the bottom of her feet to put into action scenes.

The Sorceress and Two Princesses

She is a little taller than the other D&D Figures out last year. 

The Witch and the Sorceress

Maybe Skylla has a bit of elf in her.

She does not come with the green fireball though.

All the figures look pretty cool to be honest.

Cover models

The font on the cards is closer to the Mentzer Basic books than the AD&D or Moldvay books. 

Yes, I took them off of their cards. 

Now the Efreeti actually will see some use in games I am sure. He is a good size to be an efreeti amir or pasha or something similar.

Efreeti

Efreeti

Compared to the mini from the Classic Monster Manual line maybe he is the long-lost "Greater" Efreeti.

All three of these figures have also, in one form or another, have had premium statues made of them. The Efreeti and the Githyanki from Wizkids and the Sorceress, in her modern guise of Seoni, from Dynamite.

Seoni and her Mini-me

The figures are fun, and I am glad I grabbed them.

I do have another Sorceress on the way that I am hoping to do a little modding on. 


Tuesday, March 7, 2023

Not Yet a Mail Call Tuesday: ReAction D&D Figures

 Well...not exactly a Mail Call Tuesday today. Though it will be sometime in June/July.  But I had to mention these.

ReAction, the company that makes action figures for various properties in the style of the old Kenner Star Wars figures (3.75" scale), has a new series coming out.

Wave 1 of their Dungeons & Dragons line has some very familiar faces.

Wave 1 ReFlection D&D Figures

There is the Sorceress (D&D Moldvay Basic), the Efreeti (DMG), and the Githyanki (Fiend Folio) in the first wave for preorder now.

Damn it. Just when I was in a good place NOT to give WotC any money out of protest for the OGL shenanigans. 

Anyway. As someone who really went hardcore with D&D with the Moldvay Basic (my first proper D&D) and writes so much about witches, I am morally obligated to buy the Sorceress.  I owe it to that 11-year-old I once was. Besides, she is certainly popular.

Sorceress CardSorceress

The other figures also look great.

EfreetiGithyanki

The Efreeti also has another advantage. At 3.75", that translates to 18.75' in D&D 3/4/5 scale.  So I could use it as the Efreeti Pasha. It would have a certain level of "street cred" to use the same figure as the front of the DMG for it.  Everyone in my current gaming groups knows all about 1st Ed AD&D, so to them, pulling this guy would have the same effect as pulling out Tiamat or Orcus.

All three of these figures have also, in one form or another, have had premium statues made of them. The Efreeti and the Githyanki from Wizkids and the Sorceress, in her modern guise of Seoni, from Dynamite. These figures are a lot cheaper.

You should be able to preorder these anywhere.

I am getting mine from Super7, which has better shipping. But I have seen them at Entertainment Earth as well. They will likely be on Amazon soon.  Of course you could order them from your FLGS or FLCS.

These are not the same scale as the new D&D Cartoon figures, but they are close to last year's NECA Skyla and Kelek figures. Come back around in June/July, and we will see.

Wednesday, July 27, 2022

Mail Call: Dungeons & Dragons The Lost Wave Figures (2022 SDCC Exclusives)

Nice little treat in the mail today.  A while back I had arranged to get some of the new "Lost Wave" Dungeons & Dragons figures produced by NECA and sold exclusively at the 2022 SDCC.  The set included a full version of Skylla and a "new" version of Kelek.  So you know I could not say no.

Well, today they came!

Skylla and Kelek

Full unboxing.

Unboxing

Unboxing D&D The Lost Wave

D&D The Lost Wave all 4 figures

D&D The Lost Wave all 4 figures descriptions

D&D The Lost Wave all 4 figures descriptions

No real desire to keep Pulvereye or Valkeer, but I'll put them in with the other D&D toys for my kids to sell to pay for my medical bills in 30 years. 

I am pleased with the Skylla and Kelek figures. 

Skylla collection

Skylla new figure vs. old

Skylla new figure vs. old

Kelek also looks good. Wish I had kept my original one from the 80s.

Kelek

Right now my youngest is 3D printing my Kelek on Warg. But it was not ready at the time of this posting so maybe next time.

Saturday, June 11, 2022

New D&D Minis and Figures

So the universe has decided I need to spend more money on little plastic people. 

Up first, and very near and dear to my heart are new NECA, LJN-style D&D action figures. 

NECA SDCC exclusive figures

NECA SDCC exclusive figures

They look great, but I am mostly interested in the Skylla and Kelek figures.  I am quite excited for the Skylla one since she never had a 4" figure release.

Kelek figure

Skylla figure

I had a Kelek back in the day, this one looks a lot like that older one save that this newer Kelek looks like he has a mohawk.  

So a while back I picked up the Kelek and Skylla D&D Miniatures from WizKids, well their next round is coming out and I am very excited about this one too. And it should be a lot cheaper.

It looks like there will be five characters. Diana, Hank, Eric, Presto, and an unnamed cleric.

DianaEric

HankPresto

Here is our unnamed cleric.

Aleena

Given the tabard, the mace, and the design I am making the guess that this is Aleena.

Missing are Shelia and Bobby, which kinda sucks really, but not a problem. Thanks to HeroForge.

Shelia the ThiefShelia the Thief Invisible

Click on the images for the HeroForge site.

Of course, WizKids might have another wave. 

My HeroForge Skylla and Kelek compare well to the new WizKids versions.

Skylla and Kelek

In any case, these are likely to suck up a lot of my gaming budget.

Thursday, June 11, 2020

BECMI: Expert Level Accessories and the AD&D Toy Line

Last week I talked about the tie-ins with the 1983 D&D Basic Set.  Today I want to delve into a very specifics sort of tie-in relationship and one that gave us very mixed results.
I am talking of course about the Advanced Dungeons & Dragon toy line and it's, let's just say awkward, tie-in with the BECMI version of D&D.


Today gamers of a certain age look back rather fondly at the AD&D toy line.  Back then though, at least in my circles of 1983, we kinda looked down on them.  Sure we thought they were fine for a younger sibling, but we were Real RoleplayersTM and we didn't need that!  In fact, it was much the same way the same group of people now look down on D&D5 players.  Well, it was dumb then and dumb now.  But I digress.

If you follow me on social media I do a feature called "The Other Side Rewind" where I usually post a link to an older blog post early in the morning. Today's was a look back at my review of the Shady Dragon Inn, AC1.

The Shady Dragon Inn features the Inn and tons of writeups that can be used as ready-made PCs or as NPCs.  It is, as I described it, the "Rogues Gallery" of D&D.  It also has stats for a number of the LJN Toys AD&D line Heroes and Villians.  Of course in BECMI D&D stats format. Everyone from Strongheart to Kelek to Warduke even my beloved Skylla is here.  You can read my full review of it here.

But that is not the only place they appear.


Another product designed to work with the AD&D toy line and feature what are arguably the first set of D&D iconic characters is the Expert level adventure, XL-1 Quest for the Heartstone.
XL in this case is not "extra-large" but rather "Expert Licensed."

It features a kingdom, Ghyr, not found on any of the maps in the Expert set, and dozens of characters from the toy line.  It also introduces monsters from the toy line to the BECMI rules for the first time.  We get Hook Horrors, Dragonne, and the raging Roper!



Let's not delude ourselves here.  XL-1 Quest of the Heartstone is not a good adventure.

There is one reason to get this and that is because of the tie-in with the D&D toy line.  Even the author of the adventure Michael L. Gray has said this.

Correction, there is another reason.  The maps for this adventure are rather nice featuring the same isomorphic maps we see in Ravenloft.

The Heartstone itself is something of an iconic on it's own.  We know from the Shady Dragon Inn supplement that Strongheart and Warduke used to be friends. But when exposed to the Heartstone Strongheart became a paragon of good and Warduke one of evil.   Both are featured fighting side by side on the cover of the module.  It also features in Skylla's backstory. She was a student of Ringlerun until she was exposed to the Heartstone and sought out the dark sides of magic. 
Given what the Heartstone does would it be heretical to suggest that Strongheart and Warduke are actually the same person! Just split into "Good" and "Evil" halve by the Heartstone?  Their stats don't match though.
What about Skylla and Charmay? The same picture is often used for them both.  Both were students of Ringlerun.  Here is an awful thought.  Skylla touched the Heartstone was split into good and evil.  Evil Skylla went on her way but good Skylla was taken by Ringlerun and had her memories changed and she became "Charmay."
This is why they often look alike and why I have never seen them together in any one product.  Hmm. Something to consider for another time.

One of the biggest issues I see with this is the seeming hamfisted way the toy line was added.
The toy line was marketed as "Advanced Dungeons & Dragons" the stats and tie-ins are all for D&D BECMI lines and the Expert in particular.  I hate to speculate but was this part of the same split of D&D/AD&D going back to the Arneson/Gygax split?  My understanding was that if it was "D&D" then Dave Arneson got a bit of cash, but not so for AD&D.  Again. I hate to speculate.


The book art is still Charmay!

But. It does create an interesting problem.  There are many more classes in AD&D and some of the characters belong to those classes. Strongheart is a Paladin, Peralay (formerly Melf) is multiclassed (ok this one is easy to fix), Hawkler is a Ranger, Zarak is an assassin.

For the Shady Dragon and Quest of the Heartstone they had to be converted to the nearest D&D class.

Looking at modern iterations of the game, specifically D&D 3.0 and Pathfinder, but also other media tie-ins with the characters of the Forgotten Realms, it seems like there was a need, or at least a want,  for some iconic characters.  Hell, I have spilled a lot of digital ink on Skylla alone.   I wonder why more wasn't done.  I guess the easy answer is that TSR just didn't think about it at the time, but I find that is an unsatisfactory answer.  Reading any anecdotes from the time Gary was eager to get the D&D band into every home. Maybe not always the D&D game, but certainly the brand.

Hard to blame him really.  D&D was popular then and only now are the ideas he had being fully realized.  It's easy to see why.  The people in charge of D&D (and pretty much every other successful game company) now were the players back then.  They wanted to know more about the exploits of Strongheart, the evils of Kelek and whatever dastardly deed Warduke was up too.

The characters would appear again and this time in a better adventure.

Module X10 Red Arrow, Black Shield also features these iconic characters and it is also the closest thing we got to a meta-plot in 80s D&D.  It is a follow-up to the Desert Nomad series of X4/X5 and it also uses the War Machine massive battle rules from the Companion Set (more on that next week) AND it also uses the AD&D BattleSystem.  There is so much going on that this adventure really deserves it's own post.  I had hoped that the Print on Demand version would be here by now, but everything is slow.

Do the LJN/AD&D toys exist in the canon D&D world of Mystara?  I suppose you can say yes. The likes of Warduke, Skylla, Ringelrun, Strongheart, Kelek, and Charmay easily join the ranks of the iconic D&D characters.

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