In 1983, as Dungeons & Dragons was entering mainstream consciousness (in both positive and bizarrely negative ways), both a cartoon series and a toyline were commissioned to capitalise on the growing success of the game.
Unfortunately, these two franchises didn't really communicate with each other, leading to the confusing (for 7 year old me) situation where what I was watching on TV bore no relation to the toys I was playing with.
The collection of villainous miniatures I've painted this week reflects this somewhat uncoordinated merchandising strategy.
You can tell their villains. They're all dressed in black and red.
The miniatures were kindly printed for me by Matt when he was printing his 7TV cast, the kids from the Dungeons & Dragons cartoon. He'd picked up the STLs somewhere along the line and he did a whole batch and passed on the villains to me.
I think he'd admit that these sculpts were somewhat problematic to print and there was more than a bit of tidying up to do, particularly with regard to missing fingers, and I believe that Shadow Demon didn't survive at all.
The most recognisable of the bunch is obviously Venger, both foot and mounted. The primary antagonist of the cartoon series, a terrifyingly powerful dark sorcerer with jefions of minions and perpetually in pursuit of the magic weapons held by...checks notes...six children.
These sculpts frighten me. Not just because it's Venger, but because the wings are incredibly thin and fragile. In fact one of the mounted model's wings broke whilst the supports were being removed and has been fixed with liquid greenstuff and blind hope.
The model on foot just needed a new index finger.
Kelek the Sorcerer has the unique honour of fitting in three separate categories in this group. He was part of the original toyline, he featured in a grand total of one episode of the cartoon series, and he's the only one of the bunch that I owned a toy of (if you're interested, I also had Warduke, Strongheart, Ringlerun, Elkhorn and Melf/Peralay - a pair of Gamorrean Guards served as Kelek's pig-faced Orc minions.
Zarak is an assassin. He's also technically a Half-Orc whose about the size of a Goblin. Apparently, back in the early editions of D&D Half-Orcs were quite short, although given that their average size is 5'6", Zarak is still short.
That's probably what turned him into a villain.
Like Kelek, he was part of the original toyline, but he didn't make it onto TV outside of commercials.
I had to replace his left hand due to the aforementioned finger issues.
Skyllar the Witch is an even more obscure character than Zarak, as she didn't even make it into the action figure range, but did get featured in a smaller scale monopose range of toys from the same time.
She's technically the apprentice of the hood wizard Ringlerun, but was corrupted by a magic item called the Heartstone.
Anyway, I needed to give her a hand swap as well.
Here's the group stood with Warduke, who I painted several years ago. Although Venger is arguably the most famous D&D villain of all time after Hugh Grant, the others did get their time in the sun. They were featured as special characters in The Shady Dragon Inn supplement for D&D and have continued to feature in adventure supplements down the years since.
So it seems I now have a good chunk of a D&D themed 7TV cast. If only there was someone I knew who has an era appropriate cast of magic item hoarding small children I could harass.
There's just one 'small' addition I'll need to make first...
Acquired: 76
Painted: 131*
Lead Mountain: 693*
* Stats watchers might be wondering, but I've also painted three more street tiles for my Carnevale board. They're in the pictures if you look carefully.
