Captain, there be DragonTooth giants!

How many of you recall reading Dragon magazine back in the day and some ad caught your fancy? For me, it was always the ones from DragonTooth miniatures. They typically featured a striking model, such as a dragon, giant, or griffin. There was just something very cool about these models - the sculpts just popped with personality.

Back in the late 70s and early 80s, young men without paper routes did not have a lot of disposable income to throw around at whatever minis they might have lusted after at the moment. Allowance usually lasted long enough to make the trek down the hill to the variety store or 7-Eleven, to be spent on 1/72nd scale models, Topps baseball cards, or health food such as candy bars, Slurpees, or Hostess baked goods. So all that cool D&D gear, ranging from modules to minis, was passed by, relegated to the "one day when I have lots of money I'll buy that (fill in the blank)." Heh...

Yesterday, a couple of my childhood desires finally arrived in my mailbox:


DragonTooth GI-5 Horned Hill Giant

Now this big fella means business! He's a thick, beefy bruiser, and those horns on his head just add to the overall mean, nasty look of this mini. His face is expressive as all get-up, and whatever loot he's dragging along in that sack was no doubt gained at the end of his massive club.


Dragontooth GI-6 Big Meg and her stewpot

OMG, Meg is so freaking ugly and I love her! Lumpy, bumpy, and bug-eyed, Meg has it all. She is using her giant ladle as a truncheon, no doubt trying to add another victim to her stewpot. The only piece missing is the stewpot handle, but I should be able to fashion one out of wire or greenstuff, no problem.

Now the part that makes me really giggle is the price. The DragonTooth giants were part of a 13 giant lot that cost me (drum roll, please) $39.00 - $29 for the lead and $10 for shipping. Hey, that's a whopping $3 per giant! When you take into consideration that a GI5 recently sold for $32.31 and a GI6 sold for $56.00, I like to think I did OK on this acquisition in a Gordon Gekko greed-is-good sort of way.

Also included in the aforementioned lot are 5 Ral Partha giants, 5 Grenadier giants, and 1 Citadel giant (FF12). I finally added the RP 01-108 Titan to my collection, complete with original shield and longspear. That one usually runs $20+ so I'm happy about that as well. And all five of the Grenadier giants are keepers, because I have yet to pick up any of the Giant's Club models until now. The Stone Giant (3502), Frost Giants (3503), Forest Giant (3504), and Two-Headed Giant (3509) make welcome additions to my legions of giants. I already own 4 of the RP giants and the Citadel Mountain Giant, so they will be resold in upcoming eBay auctions, and the rest are for my personal collection. I hate to sound like I'm gloating, but HOT DAMN that was a score!

To bring me back down to earth, I didn't win a book I was bidding on - a copy of Ed Konstant's The Book of Fantasy Miniatures. It's a vintage reference work I've been trying to add to my library for some time now.

Well, you win some, you lose some, no? I may have lost the book, but I gained a pair of Tom Loback's miniature masterpieces.