The origins of plastic toys that became D&D monsters

[MortiS-the-Lost]

This is a rambling some what unfinished post that I'm making in the hopes of starting a discussion and finding out more about the plastic toys which inspired many of the classic D&D monsters, while I'm well aware of which monsters were inspired by what toys (as I will attempt to demonstrate below) but I'd like to know more about the toy themselves - the only thing I know for sure is that they were made in Hong Kong (and that's because it's written on the bottom)

It's a popular and well known fact that many D&D monsters were based on cheap plastic toys that were picked up by Gary Gygax and friends (supposedly from a 'dollar store') in the pre-history of D&D. Any self proclaimed D&D expert will tell you that the rust monster was based on this toy...


^The toy that inspired the rust monster

In fact it seems every RPG blog has a post about 'the origins the rust monster' (just google that and you'll see) others might go on to tell you that other D&D monsters were also inspired by similar monster toys, presumably from the bag/set of toys.

One of which was the Bulette of which I am rather please to have the original toy it was inspired by.


 ^The toy that inspired the Bulette (this is one that own)

and I recently came across this photograph on A Blog, it seems to be of a bunch of plastic toys that look remarkably like the Shambling Mound, Naga and Goblins. However I can't confirm this as the blog gives no credit, source or explanation for the image.


 ^Were these old toys used by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson? Or are they D&D figures produced later on? I hope some one reading this might have some information on this picture

Now as I've mentioned a lot of people talk in passing about the plastic toys and many people own or did own them. They mention 'a bag of crappy dinosaurs', 'random monsters' and 'Hong Kong Toys', but no one seems to know what the toys were supposed to be or remembers what (if anything) was written on the packaging


^a bunch of the 'random monsters' together

The carbuncle also strikes me as looking somewhat like one of these toys but I have yet to see a  carbuncle toy - it just has that Hong Kong toy look about it ...



Well that's about it for the introduction post - as I find out, come across and speculate more on the subject I'll add more posts to this thread - next I'll be adding a post explaining a half formed theory about the toys having a Godzilla connection

[Billiam Babble]

Excellent.  I knew a bit about the Rust Monster's bizarre origins, but there's plenty more here.
I haven't finished reading Playing at the World - which hints at different scale miniatures and toys for giants and dwarves.  There's a wonderful fun spirit of improvisation in the early days of gaming - which is always worth remembering when we get bogged down by different rules, classifications and ways to represent specific creatures or characters in games.

[The Skald]

Damn and Double Damn - I had a "Bulette" and an "Umber Hulk", toys I picked up from the forerunner of the 'Poundshop' way back when I ran early D&D campaigns. I can remember how chuffed I was to have them to include in my sessions, but never once gave a thought to their significance! I would have kept them for sure, and wish I still had them just for the nostalgia!

Sorry for digging up another old thread, but I just dropped on here looking for ideas to help my search for "budget monsters" for my games - Halloween is fast approaching, and for sure I'll be picking up bags of "Giant Spiders", "Giant Flies" and whatever else I can find, and I just couldn't resist a nostalgic stroll down D&D street (well, it's late and it's been a long weekend on the road gigging!)
I hope the thread will continue Mortis, cos I'd really like to read the rest that you hinted at