Rediscovered Realms newsletter reconnects you with old-school heroic fantasy worlds of epic role-playing games, unearthed magazines, forgotten gamebooks and enchanting art.
Many of you have noticed some stray creature claws assisting with my photos in recent posts. There have even been reports of a few spottings of the creatures behind the claws - Eldrador Creatures by Schleich!
Your eyes do not deceive you, Friend. These figurines are indeed as cool as they appear.
Lava, Ice, Stone & Jungle are the environments you’ll find them in . . . unless of course you bring them into your home.
They are extremely well-detailed and of the highest quality. Many even have articulated claws, maws, and taws, err, tails.
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I came across them around this time last year at my local Barnes & Noble and passed them by. After all, what has a grown man to do with kid’s toys?
But the lure was too great.
“How like D&D they are,” I mused.
“You know . . . I bet I could use them as monster inspiration for the gamebook I’m writing . . . or for the daily pencil sketches I’m doing.”
“If not, I bet I can use them for SOMETHING . . . eventually.”
Do you love heroic fantasy gamebooks like me? Consider signing up to be informed when I launch my very 1st one!
(Featuring artwork from Clyde Caldwell & Luke Eidenschink!)
And THAT is how the 1st four of these magnificent beasts came to dwell on my desk - taking up quite a bit of space (they’re big & HEFTY -see the Lego figurines in the main article photo for scale), but totally worth it.
The O.G.’s
When I started Rediscovered Realms back in February of this year, writing at my desk, their unblinking eldritch-eldradoritch eyes would often stare at me pleadingly, as if to say, “Can we play too?”
So now, they are my deputized assistants when springy uncracked books or wavy magazine pages refuse to lay flat - or when a composition needs that certain “je ne sais creature”.
A year has now passed since the first adoption, and on subsequent trips to B&N, I was able to resist the pull of visiting newly spawned brethren in their assigned endcap domicile - my kung fu was strong.
Not so a couple weeks ago.
Welcome to the family!
Their ranks have now more than doubled, and it appears I will need a bigger desk . . .
Awww, look how they’re all getting along!
Schleich has been producing figurine toys (Smurfs, animals, knights, elves, dinosaurs, Harry Potter) for many years.
And here’s a campy & ultra-entertaining short video series of animated Eldrador Creatures battling each other. You get to learn a bit about the different creature’s backstories, their world, and more - all with professional (and funny!) voice-over dialogue. Below is just one example, but you’ll probably want to watch them all! (on Schleich’s YouTube channel)
Other News from The Realms
Luke Eidenschink has compiled some of his best fantasy pen & ink illustrations into his very 1st Kickstarter. With 16 days left, you have plenty of time to take a peek(and then pick your jaw up off the floor).
Did you know Rediscovered Realms interviewed Luke not too long ago? Well now you do:
Lego hobbyist, Thorsten Bonsch has created an amazing customized Lego Bag End from The Hobbit & The Lord of the Rings. Makes me want to get Rick Moranis to shrink me so I can live there.
Need a badass cloak for clandestine meetings or to impress others at upcoming family gatherings? Lunafide may have your answer.
If you’re going to get a cloak, you might as well hurl fireballs too, am I right? It’s so tempting to get me one of these - the Pyro Mini Fireshooter. Watch ellusionist’s product video and be amazed. (You’ll probably want to make sure and take it off your wrist before you pet your dogs/cats though.)
As someone who’s first gaming console was an Atari 2600, I felt I had to include this. Atari is releasing “Save Mary” a BRAND NEW game (cartridge) for the 46-year-old 2600! Now where did my parents put those old joysticks and that 20” TV? . . .
Dungeons & Dragons is coming to classrooms all across the US. Wizards of the Coast and “AdoptAClassroom” announced new plans to provide select teachers from 200 different classrooms with the necessary materials for Dungeons & Dragons campaigns.
Each package will include a Player’s Handbook, a Monster Manual, a Dungeon Master's Guide, a D&D Essentials Kit, D&D Campaign Cases (Both Creatures and Terrain) and a D&D Afterschool Club Kit, which also includes a copy of the D&D Starter Set Dragons of Stormwreck Isle.
Personally, I think the only way this will be successful is if they also provide Mind Flayer teachers.
14 days to go for “Gamefold” - The first folding table designed for gaming. Modular cupholders, dice trays, shelves and more. (I did succumb to pledging for one of these!) Soon they will be releasing skulls that will mount on the corners. Just sayin’ . . .
Slate published a fascinating article about the roots of modern-day fantasy (and the business of it), “The Man Who Invented Fantasy”, about Lester del Rey (of Del Rey books). For anyone who’s enjoyed fantasy books written from the 70s-90s, I highly recommend this quick read.
That’s it for now.
Fine Adventurers such as yourselves have other important things to do that need doing. Now go do that voodoo that you do so well!
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One of the things that amazes me about many gamers today is how they often forget the role that bizarre toys played in the formation of D&D. There weren't a lot of fantasy miniatures back in the day, so Hong Kong made Kaiju toys would suffice.
My own games are mishmash of "official" minis, 2d paper and acrylic minis, gaming paper and plastic terrain bits. And yes, I'll even throw in random toys some time. Let's just say that I've even used pop-up books to represent terrain...and not ones designed for it.
Eldrador Creatures: Buy a Bigger Desk
One of the things that amazes me about many gamers today is how they often forget the role that bizarre toys played in the formation of D&D. There weren't a lot of fantasy miniatures back in the day, so Hong Kong made Kaiju toys would suffice.
My own games are mishmash of "official" minis, 2d paper and acrylic minis, gaming paper and plastic terrain bits. And yes, I'll even throw in random toys some time. Let's just say that I've even used pop-up books to represent terrain...and not ones designed for it.