Meanwhile, in another part of the crypt, Deeth and her Dwarf ally Elkhorn are ambushed by a terrible Raging Roper, a deadly foe capable of crushing unwary adventurers in an unbreakable embrace.

After defeating the Roper, Elkhorn proceeds further down the alley and find his fellow dwarf comrades waiting for him in the treasure room.

Your pics are awesome. They capture the scene perfectly.

This is again amazing 

What grabs me is level of effect that comes from something so simple and anybody can do it! excellent stuff


Bryan i didnt see your post ( i didnt  mean to copy you lol)

trappedtexan wrote:

Your pics are awesome. They capture the scene perfectly.

Thanks!!

Lobotic wrote:

This is again amazing 

What grabs me is level of effect that comes from something so simple and anybody can do it! excellent stuff

Thanks! I really enjoy building these little crude setups. I always start with something very simple (the background wall in this case) but then add layers after layers on it (the "ceiling" and wall all around) to improve the lighting and the shadows.

I think I'm at a point where I should design a small shoebox size base setup that I could alter easily by simple removing side panels to the décor I need. I would perhaps save a lot of time. and I could reuse it instead of scrapping it at the end of the photo shoot.

Another great set of pictures. I like the glowing gold treasure chest!

darthmatt22 wrote:

Another great set of pictures. I like the glowing gold treasure chest!

Thanks! Wanted to put some emphasis on the treasure chest, so directed a bright yellow light on it. By the way, the chest really contains small pellets of aluminum paper I just stole from our kitchen supplies. So Elkhorn and his fellow dwarf comrades are in for a huge disappointment! LOL Laugh: :-)

Two new additions just got in my little LJN collection!

Please welcome the Odious Ogre with his Book of Magic, as well as a second Deadly Grell!

Just bought these off eBay and was so pleased to find how good they smell when I opened the package! The smell of brand new plastic/PVC! Unlike the stuff I usually get off eBay with the horrible smoking house smell, this time the smell reminded me when I removed this kind of toys from their package!

This second Deadly Grell has also much vivid colors. See the new one (right) compared to the first one I had (left). Very nice!

Those Grell are the thing of nightmares..

Congrats on the newbies! Can't wait for them to join the story.

Matts right the Grell are really freaky are they just head with legs? Or brains with legs?

darthmatt22 wrote:

Those Grell are the thing of nightmares..

Congrats on the newbies! Can't wait for them to join the story.

It's coming it's coming! :-)

Lobotic wrote:

Matts right the Grell are really freaky are they just head with legs? Or brains with legs?  

Here's the cardback description of the creature:

"The grell can levitate and fly through the air, maneuvering by flapping its ten tentacles. They are usually found in dungeons or gloomy ruins."

And on the back of its card:

"Although it has ten tentacles, the grell only attacks one enemy at a time. Adventurers must also avoid the sharp beak of this intelligent monster. The tentacles will grow back in a few days, unless a brave warrior can fight to its body and destroy the creature."

I sure hope the thing is intelligent, so why else have such a huge brain? LOL   So yeah, basically this is a floating brain with a beak. Creepy.

Leaving Elkhorn with his Dwarves friends, Deeth meet with Bowmarc and both venture through the castle ruins, seeking for the secret passage that will lead them to the upper levels. But they are soon ambushed by the Deadly Grell: a floating brain of terror, a vision of nightmare.

I love these scenes. lighting and everything is just awesome. Really sets the mood.

And just when I thought they couldn't get creepier!

darthmatt22 wrote:

And just when I thought they couldn't get creepier!

LOL I think this one is the creepiest of them all. They could have done much scarier stuff, but I guess they refrain themselves since they are mainly toys for kids...

A quick update on the collection, with yet another picture, this time without any lighting practical effects (had no time to do this yesterday).

I have finally received the last 3 pieces (3 duos) of figures I was missing to have an almost complete collection!

I now basically have all the 3.75" collection of figures, PVC and Bendy monsters, Beasts, Mounts and Playset.

I'm now just missing a few items:

- The Young Male Titan's Spear (for my Battlematic Shield Shooter variant)
- All the LJN Mini figures:
  - Kelek
  - Warduke
  - Skylla
  - Zarak
  - Ringlerun
  - Elkhorn
  - Strongheart
  - Mercion

And the rarest stuff, the wind-up creatures:
- Pernicon
- The Tarrasque
- The Cave Fisher

I'm not even mentioning the prototypes of Valkeer the Viking, the Fat Kelek (2nd version) and the giant Cyclops Shield Shooter Pulvereye. These did not make it to retail at all, making them all "out of my league" (and budget) collectibles. LOL  

Do you have the pvc figures of the cartoon characters? I have seen them from time to time on ebay but man are they expensive. Cool looking but way to much for what they are in my opinion.

trappedtexan wrote:

Do you have the pvc figures of the cartoon characters?  I have seen them from time to time on ebay but man are they expensive.  Cool looking but way to much for what they are in my opinion.

No. No way I'm getting these unless I find them in a garage sale for a few bucks. They go for way too much on eBay, way too expensive for my budget. I would obviously like to get them, but honestly didn't watch the animated show that much. To me, this show was the annoying and mandatory wait before "The Transformers" TV series would air at 7am on Channel 22 each Saturday mornings. LOL

Great update! Glad you found some goodies. Those "rare" wind-up creatures seem interesting?

darthmatt22 wrote:

Great update! Glad you found some goodies. Those "rare" wind-up creatures seem interesting?

Thanks! For the Wind-up, they could be interesting to own, but they come at a very high price and are very rare and I would say impossible to locate. I've seen the Cave Fisher on eBay once I think, but a while back. Both the Cave Fisher and Pernicon creatures were released, but the Tarrasque never made it past the prototype stage, so this later one is definitely off limits unless I win the lottery.

Note that these pictures are not mine. Just borrowed them from this page: http://www.toyarchive.com/Dungeons&Dragons/WindUpCaveFisher1.html

The Odious Ogre and Deadly Grell figures are really cool! Congrats on acquiring the three duo figures too.

Artoo_Detour wrote:

The Odious Ogre and Deadly Grell figures are really cool! Congrats on acquiring the three duo figures too.

The Grell is one special toy indeed. Very creepy and also lots of play value for the kids.

I never had the Odious Ogre when I was a kid. Always found it a little lame compared to the other similar shape figures like the Shambling Mound and the Umber Hulk. My brothers and I had all the Bendy creatures (Deadly Grell, Raging Roper, Carrion Crawler, 5-headed Hydra, Neo Otyguh, Chimera) which were a nice complement to the real articulated figure line. We also had the 3 sets with the small goblins figures (Troglodyte, Bugbear and Troll). We never had those other figures 2-packs (the Men-at-Arms, the Sarken Mercanaries, the Skeletons, the Dwarves, the Orcs, the Bullywogs) mainly because they we not articulated and just PVC. They just felt too odd when displayed with the main action figures.

In the end, when we departed with our toys and moved out of the house, my parents kept a few of these. My dad owned a music store and I remember seeing two of my toys sitting on his cash register: the Raging Roper and the Five-Headed Hydra. I never asked him why exactly he kept these. Maybe they were kinda souvenirs for him? Dunno...

But the worse is that other such toys were used by my parents to keep open the doors of the cages where our cats used to sleep: very beat up versions of the Umber Hulk, the Shambling Mound and the Deadly Grell were guarding these doors. They were so disgusting that I never wanted to take them back when my parents divorced and sold the house. Yuck.

I had a bunch of these at one point. I got them all one Christmas and really enjoyed them. Unfortunately, they were lost along with some other figures of mine. I had them all and some (luckily not all) of my vintage SW figures and vehicles in my Dad's old US Army footlocker stored in our attic. Somewhere along the line, somebody pilfered them. I moved and had some things sent along afterwards. These never made it.

That's awful.  Losing your childhood toys sucks.  I traded off all of my gi Joe collection and had everything from the 80s and 90s and I kind of regret that on occasion, but I traded it for Star Wars figures so it wasn't a complete loss.

In fact I traded a ton of my toys off over the years for Star Wars figures and comic books.

The only childhood toy I have willingly let go of is my Lego "collection". I didn't collect Lego, but it was a no brainer gift for me as a kid, along with anything Star Wars. I gave everything I had to a friends son who loved Lego. I huge suitcase full of them.