Get Your Favorite D&D Monster Minis as their 1st Edition Art Version in ’50th Anniversary Icons of the Realm’ from WizKids
The 1st Edition D&D art was… something else, for better and worse. And WizKids shows it off, with a new series of miniatures.
Dungeons & Dragons, these days, is a game defined by its art. The Hasbro/WotC behemoth has the art pipeline on lockdown, and it has since it acquired D&D from TSR back at the turn of the century. But D&D, in many ways, has always been defined by its art. Just that sometimes, the artistic stylings of their monster illustrations didn’t necessarily back up the fearsome details or mechanics.
For instance, here’s the Bugbear as we know them in 5th Edition:
Big hairy guy, long arms. Beefy, imposing, you can imagine getting one-shotted by them thanks to a lucky roll. But take a look at the Bugbear in 1st Edition
You see someone looking like that, and you just know you’re going to start hearing about crypto. Well, WizKids has decided to pay homage to the old school artwork of D&D, by releasing new miniatures almost directly translated from that art. The results are exactly as hilarious and cool as you’d think. Let’s take a look.
WizKids Unveils Icons of the Realm: 50th Anniversary Collection
Celebrate the 50th anniversary of the world’s greatest roleplaying game with the 31st set in our Icons of the Realms line of pre-painted Dungeons & Dragons miniatures. Our largest booster set to date!
Collect all 50 figures from D&D Icons of the Realms: 50th Anniversary (Set 31), the newest set of randomly sorted monsters in our exciting line of D&D miniatures. This includes a collection of classic creatures and characters, each depicted in their 1st and 5th edition incarnations to appeal to collectors new and old and, for the first time, 10 secret rare chase miniatures.
Each miniature is depicted in a “1st and 5th Edition incarnation” which means you get a bunch of old school miniatures that you won’t accidentally impale yourself on at 2am. Prominently, you can see the old school Githyanki here, straight off of the cover of the Fiend Folio. But there’s plenty more where that came from. Including an old school Bugbear:
A goblin, in the old style, who looks surprisingly well dressed. Almost straight out of a Ralph Bakshi cartoon.
As well there’s an old school style Blink Dog, for something a little cuter.
Is this an improvement on the more recent design? Who can say.
There’s also an Efreeti with a miniature design that leaves very little to the imagination, perhaps because there’s little enough to imagine.
And last, but certainly not least, the Glabrezu. Before we look at it though, here’s the “modern” day representation of what a Glabrezu looks like.
These are fearsome demons who delight in destroying mortals both with their giant crab claws, but also by tempting them into a path of ruin. Their pincers hold their prey close, and they can also cast some powerful spells. Here’s what the 1st Edition miniature looks like.
