I collected the LJN line of figures by buying them from K-B Toy & Hobby, a chain that had stores in the big shopping malls in the 80’s. I bought all the figures available that I liked, because a few of them I thought looked very improbable, like that Hooked Horror monster. I didn’t see the big play set, so I never bought it, and I don’t recall seeing those wind-up toys so I never bought them, either. With those few exceptions, I still have them boxed up in storage along with other toys that I thought would go along with the D & D toys, like a giant rubber snake, giant ants, and I think some of those big rubber dinosaurs that you could find in Toys-R-Us. The idea I was pursuing was to have larger D & D figures to play larger encounters on a 4x8 table, instead of those small inch tall metal figures you bought at the hobby shops.
That is a great idea to use the bigger figures for larger adventures, the line may have done better if they marketing them that way as well. We remember them just looking really cool for the time.
These were so awesome. I wish they had a whole line of the poseable figures. I only ever saw 2 or 3 of them widely available. And I wish I could have gotten multiples of all of them. An army of knights would have been amazing. They should have done the cartoon characters.
Basic & Advanced were two completely separate games. Advanced was indeed a more complicated game but basic was also a complete game unto itself. The red box you showed was the first in a line of 5 sets known today as BECMI. The real reason for the inception of Advanced was that Arneson & Gygax had a falling out. Gygax created Advanced in the late 70's claiming it was a completely different game so that Arneson would not be entitled to royalties. Naturally Arneson sued and he won a small but sustaining settlement. And the rest of the world ended up with two bad ass games for his efforts. Thanks Gary, RIP.
I collected the LJN line of figures by buying them from K-B Toy & Hobby, a chain that had stores in the big shopping malls in the 80’s. I bought all the figures available that I liked, because a few of them I thought looked very improbable, like that Hooked Horror monster. I didn’t see the big play set, so I never bought it, and I don’t recall seeing those wind-up toys so I never bought them, either. With those few exceptions, I still have them boxed up in storage along with other toys that I thought would go along with the D & D toys, like a giant rubber snake, giant ants, and I think some of those big rubber dinosaurs that you could find in Toys-R-Us. The idea I was pursuing was to have larger D & D figures to play larger encounters on a 4x8 table, instead of those small inch tall metal figures you bought at the hobby shops.
That is a great idea to use the bigger figures for larger adventures, the line may have done better if they marketing them that way as well. We remember them just looking really cool for the time.
These were so awesome. I wish they had a whole line of the poseable figures. I only ever saw 2 or 3 of them widely available. And I wish I could have gotten multiples of all of them. An army of knights would have been amazing. They should have done the cartoon characters.
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Basic & Advanced were two completely separate games. Advanced was indeed a more complicated game but basic was also a complete game unto itself. The red box you showed was the first in a line of 5 sets known today as BECMI. The real reason for the inception of Advanced was that Arneson & Gygax had a falling out. Gygax created Advanced in the late 70's claiming it was a completely different game so that Arneson would not be entitled to royalties. Naturally Arneson sued and he won a small but sustaining settlement. And the rest of the world ended up with two bad ass games for his efforts. Thanks Gary, RIP.
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