DragonTooth's Horus and the City of Magic Money



I haven't done a lot of buying over the summer, mostly because I haven't done much selling. But I couldn't resist putting in a bid on DragonTooth's GD-1 Horus, even though he is broken at the ankles and missing his sword and sceptre. I was pleased to win him for less than $9 - that's a bargain to me, even in his current state. Now I just need to acquire his sword and sceptre...

You can see him above after he has visited my little shop of mini horrors. He has been pinned back together, and I used a bit of Citadel's LGS (Liquid Green Stuff) to fill in the gaps. I still need to smooth it out before I prime and paint, but I'm getting there.

 

The Grenadier mind flayer in the third picture is for scale reference. I had no idea how big Horus was until he arrived at my house. Overall height is 60mm, and measures 45mm from foot to eye. I imagine he would scale out at close to 54mm if he were standing upright. I'm glad he's posed and not standing still like a statue.

 

In other DragonTooth news, did you see the City of Magic sets that recently sold? If not, let me recap: King Niflung's Throne Hall sold for a staggering $898 USD! Tomb of the Dwarf King went for $521.11 - a princely sum for a king's tomb. Ye Blind Cyclops Inn sold for $316.11, and the Dwarf Armory ended at $266.

 

There is a deep-pocketed DT collector out there who was willing to shell out $2,001.22 to add those four City of Magic kits to his or her collection. WOW! At an average of $500 per kit, that is dedication. On the plus side, all four kits look like they are 100% complete, something that is not very common considering the age of the kits and the amount of components involved.

Achilles Reborn!

I will rupture you!

 

 

No, I am not declaring myself the second coming of the legendary warrior Achilles. Rather, I am celebrating my return to indoor soccer after a seven month hiatus, courtesy of a ruptured right achilles tendon suffered at the end of January. My repaired tendon held up just fine - the rest of my muscles that have seen scant use in the intervening months, however, made their displeasure be known. The pain was worth it! Things started out well as we went up 2-0, and then quickly fell apart in the second half as we went on to lose 4-3. I am, needless to say, very happy to once again don my gloves and jump around and catch the ball kicked towards me at high velocity.

I have been eyeing the lead pile lately, cleaning up and organizing the mess that has lingered over the summer. Over on acaeum.com, there is a thread that shows the result of one collector's hard work: his painted collection. Hats off to Chris for the drive and desire to not only accumulate a nice stash of lead, but to actually paint every piece.

A Rogue, Paladin, and Ranger walk into the Yuirwood...

Since our regular DM has had his hands full of late, I was suckered into making a guest appearance by some of the players who were just itching to roll some dice. Well, I wasn't really suckered into it as much as begged/cajoled, and to be honest I enjoy a little DMing every now and then. I spent some time brainstorming during our vacation in Idaho and managed to come up with some encounters, as well as a rationale for the events that unfolded.

To explain the departure of our wizard (my character) and our cleric (otherwise busy), I decided to create a rift in The Weave that was caused by the forces of Chaos. It allowed quite a few nasty creatures to enter Faerun, as well as cause an increase in the general monster population - at least in Aglarond, where our characters are based.

Most of the spellcasters were summoned to Velprintalar to see if they could band together and close the rift, so off went Garrity (wizard) and Posht (cleric). The three remaining characters - Palau the halfling rogue, Callum the human paladin, and Nikola the human ranger - were left behind in Relkath's Foot to see what developed. The guards and patrols were increased and stepped up to meet with the surge in monster activity, leaving the trio of adventurers to help as needed. In this case, they would be needed to track down the perpetrator of a heinous crime.

According to the survivors, an elf (not a drow) walked into the temple of Corellon Larethian and killed a group of acolytes, along with the acting priest. The guards who attempted to stop him were likewise killed, and the assailant walked off into the woods, heading east. Palau, Callum, and Nikola are sent off after him/her.

After about a week in pursuit, they finally catch up with the mystery elf. It looks like an elf, speaks like an elf, wears elf armor - but it detects evil and is wielding a nasty-looking black greatsword. An intense battle ensues, with Nikola effectively incapacitated thanks to a word of chaos spell. I make my first error of the evening when I "kill" Callum - he had actually done enough damage to kill his enemy, but I made a simple math error, allowing one more attack that would have killed the paladin, but quickly catch the mistake.

The party is then able to discover that the elf is actually a death slaad! The unholy greatsword was as effective against the paladin as the paladin's chaotic bane bastard sword was on the slaad. Callum would like to destroy the evil blade, while Palau and Nikola seem to think they can somehow trade or sell it for something more useful to the party. I'll let Ned (regular DM) sort that one out!

Moving on, the boys run up against my next creation: a fiendish half black dragon ettin (!) and his plain vanilla ettin minion. The pair had been wreaking havoc on a small mining community, but the miners will be troubled no more. It was fun watching the players react to such an unusual template. The theme would be repeated later on down the road ;)

A random encounter with a pair of fire giants filled out the first leg of the trip, with the power trio arriving safely at The Watchwall. Callum trained to become a level 12 paladin, and picked up Exotic Weapon Proficiency (bastard sword) so he can once again resume using his shield. Things at the wall are busy but under control, so the party decided to head back to Relkath's Foot.

On the first leg of the return trip, they come across an ogre, busy defiling a lovely elven grotto in the name of Baphomet. The characters attack the ogre in a sort of "hmm, it's only an ogre, but something must be up" sort of way. Right! The ogre in question is a 4th level barbarian ogre, who rages and attacks. It is joined by a 4th level ogre rogue and then their master - a ghour demon. The ogres are tough, but they aren't up to the combined fury of our brave adventurers. The ghour is a lot tougher and inflicts a large amount of pain, but in the end it falls.

Now just a couple of days from returning home, the party has its final encounter, and stunning one at that. Following a trail alongside a stream, they come to a smallish lake. As they move around it, they are met by the steely gaze of an abyssal greater basilisk rising out of the water. In a heartbeat, Palau is petrified and promptly dubbed "the garden gnome" by yours truly. The basilisk is TOUGH (almost 200hp) and provides a challenge to the paladin and ranger, denied the extra DPS from the sneak attacks of Palau.

Once the hellish basilisk is vanquished, and the garden gnome secured to the paladin's mount (a wingless hippogriff), Callum and Nikola complete the journey back to Relkath's Foot. There they learn that the rift has been closed (yay!) and all is back to normal. Well, with the small exception of an unknown quantity of chaotic-aligned creatures now running loose in and around Aglarond, that is to say.

All in all a successful evening of D&D for all concerned, I have to say. I had fun in my role as guest DM, even with all the extra work that comes along with the job. And the players gained a good amount of XPs, along with a modest amount of treasure (uber evil greatsword notwithstanding). Callum dinged 12 pally, Nikola is close to 12 (I think), and Palau has enough to ding 13 rogue - once we manage to un-garden gnome him, of course :P

Now that I'm back from my last major family vacation and school for the kids is nigh (only two more weeks of freedom!), I know the lead-oriented content on TLD will resume at my normal pace. Thanks for reading!

Grenadier's Selene, Guardian of the Sanctuary

I've been working on another installment of the Lead Market Report (LMR), and couldn't help but notice that one of the large-scale Grenadier Colossal Lords sets recently sold for a whopping $171.50! It struck me as unusual because they typically sell anywhere from around $10 to $30, give or take a few dollars.

The set in question is Selene, Guardian of the Sanctuary. She is the only figure from the Amazon Realms subset (the other two being the Museum Scale Models and Master Wizards sets), and was sculpted by Janine Bennett. Box contents can be seen in this LMW photo. I can only guess this particular kit was not produced in the same numbers are the rest, hence the rather high price?

After studying the LMW, I noticed that the pic in the eBay listing above does not show the hands or sword. Does that mean someone paid almost $200 for an incomplete kit??? If you bought this set and it was actually complete, please leave a comment.

The large-scale sets from the big G are really quite nice, at least in my opinion. I own a few, and I'm always on the lookout for more (at the right price, naturally). What I'd really like to see are some of these kits all put together and painted up. Anyone have some painted examples they'd like to share? Or know of a link to any galleries that show some?

No Country For Old Lead

Things have been pretty quiet both here on the blog and on the painting front. That changed a little bit in the past week when I actually picked up a brush and slapped some paint on some partially finished giants and a Heritage LOTR troll. Of course once I did that, it was time to pack up the Family Truckster and head to Lake Wenatchee State Park for a weekend of tent camping.

A good time was had by all. Many a wild s'more were made over the campfire and consumed by ravenous small people. Note to self: if you use the giant campfire marshmallows (the ones that look about three times the size of a reglar marshmallow), you WILL make a mess. No saving thow, do not pass go, do not collect $200.

Our campsite was frequented by the smallest chipmunks I've ever seen - even smaller than the garden variety fellas usually seen in the woods of the Pacific Northwest. Note the glowing eyes. I think this was a Dire Chipmunk. That, or the flash from my camera. I'll go with Dire Chipmunk.

When he wasn't busy hiking, eating s'mores, or tending the fire, Lukas did his best Two-Face imitation. He sat on the ground and covered the right side of his body with dirt. This was followed by a dunking in the lake to clean off the offending dirt. He could have showered, but he chose the frigid waters instead.

At the end of the trip, everyone was dead dog tired, dogs included. It didn't help that our friends who camped next to us accidentally set off their car alarm at 3AM, and didn't get it off for at least a full minute (an eternity in the wee hours).

So now that we're safely home again and all the camping gear has been cleaned and stowed, it's time to start blogging and painting again.

Lead Market Report - April 2012

Late again! Here is the very much overdue April 2012 LMR. I guess I'm going to have to bite the bullet and do a combined May/June LMR.

CITADEL: Is it just me, or have more of the AD&D minis been cropping up lately? This trio of character 3-packs were only $15 each, pretty much a righteous buy in my book. It's just a guess, but I think this Red Dragon only sold for $41 because it did not say "Citadel" anywhere in the listing.

The Encounter at Khazad-Dum is a great set, and $43 seems like a good price for a NIS copy. And there were a couple of my coveted C28 giants on the block: this one for $20, and this one that went UNSOLD at $15. How the frack did I miss bidding on that?

DARK HORSE: Glaug Pod.Glaug Pod? It sounds like something your order in Munchen ("Glaug pod, bitte!") that comes on a platter piled with with sauerkraut, and it best washed down with one of those Exxon Valdez-sized tankards of beer. This Officer's Glaug Pod sold for $86, which would hopefully buy you and your buddies at least one round at the Hofbrauhas Munchen.


GRENADIER: This female giant is not one of my favorites, but collectors are willing to pay for her nonetheless. $23.50 brought this painted one home.

HERITAGE: The WWII bug bit me big-time, to the tune of $66 for this shrinkwrapped box of Panzertroops Infantry Assault in mint condition! And yes, when I received it, I opened it. I will do a complete writeup on this nifty set sometime this summer. I would have bid on this Heritage LOTR Painting Guide that sold for $20.50 but the Panzertroops box killed my budget at the time. This three-pack of White Boxes was a BIN bargain at $45.

Dammit Scotty, I need more lead! Some Trekkie (don't get your knickers in a bunch if you prefer Trekker) forked over $199 for this lot of Star Trek heavy metal.

RAL PARTHA: I love to see little lots of old lead, especially giants! At $10 per giant, this was a decent deal for the buyer, in particular because they are in pristine, unpainted condition. And this pair of female giants says to me that you guys love tall chicks! The furs and club version sold for $15, while her sword and mail sister went for $8.

How do you tell someone that they have a giant snake growing out of their neck? You don't. You just pay $152.50 for his likeness in miniature and keep walking. DON'T make eye contact with Molydeus!

Takhisis continues to impress, even unboxed models like this one that sold for $101.01 - wow! A French seller moved one for an even more impressive $142.50 (as well as an unsold Dracolich that didn't get any bites at a start of $95).

BattleTech: When you can buy 5 Mechs for $7 each, and one of the Mechs is a Warhammer, I would consider that a great buy (even when one of the Mechs looks like it is missing an arm). The same seller sold this lot of 7 Mechs for $40, still a good buy even though the Warhammer is missing an arm. Compare that to loose Warhammers ($21, $19) and Riflemen ($19) - see what I mean?

Carded Mechs, in particular unseen Marauders, are still able to pull down the big bucks, like this Marauder IIC for $110. At least shipping was free!

I don't know if these two paint sets are RP or not, but I'm sticking them here. Clan Jade Falcon went for $40, and Clan Wolf sold for $19. I wonder if the paints were still good???

REAPER: I can't believe this LE boxed set, The Druid's Stone, sold for $8.10 - good news if you were the buyer!

WOTC: If you're into Chainmail minis, this lot was right up your alley - 21 boxes for less than $3/box with shipping! Sure, there are duplicates, but a bargain is a bargain, I always say.

LOTS: Anytime you can buy minis for around .50/mini, you're doing pretty well. This lot of 144 sold for $77, and I could see a Grenadier Demogorgon and that ugly gal from Pinnacle Dark Crystal set I talked about here. This lot of 111 sold for $148, but the lead was totally old school - lots of Custom Cast and Minifigs, among others - but it also came with some ODD booklets and ancient dice. Going even higher was this lot of 90+ figures for $170. I'm not sure exactly why, other than it is way old school, with some Heritage LOTR, John Carter, and things of that nature included. This lot of 20 blisters included a Citadel AD&D and RP 11-series, and worked out to be less than $4/blister at $72 for the bunch. And this mixed lot that sold for $42 had some interesting stuff, including a DragonTooth D76 Dragon that appeared to be missing its head! If Grenadier LOTR is your thing, you probably saw this $50 lot. And this is a nice lot of older stuff, I'm just not sure if it was $78 nice or not.

OSFMapa Journal #2

This is the wraparound cover that graces OSFMapa Journal #2, which I have already had the pleasure of reading cover to cover. Everyone who contributed this time around did a wonderful job, and you can feel the passion for all things lead in each article.

If you are a miniatures enthusiast who enjoys not just collecting but the history and personalities associated with the hobby, you should seriously consider joining our ranks. It's a very cool feeling to contribute to a product that is the result of meticulous research and writing from the heart.

For more information on the OSFMapa, stop by the Yahoo! group, the website, or the blog.

Several copies of Journal #2 will eventually be sold on eBay to help finance our efforts, so keep an eye out for those if you are interested.