Hasbro Dungeons & Dragons - Venger & DungeonMaster

 Finally getting around to wrapping up wave 1 of Hasbro's Dungeons & Dragons animated figures and we've got the biggest for last: Venger and DungeonMaster.

Two figures for double the cost, how can you go wrong? If you're lucky, you might be able to find them at 50% at Target. I learned my lesson with pre-ordering all these figures. I could have easily gotten the entire wave at clearance price so no pre-ordering wave 2.

DM is a solid figure and I mean that quite literally! He has no legs and his torso just kind of goes all the way down to his feet, which are also melded into the body. No issues with the shoulder or wrist joints which are the only articulation. He's a cool little figure that I'd keep on my desk at work if that was an acceptable thing to do. Now I feel like I need to get a Black Series Yoda so they can hang out together.

 

Dungeons & Dragons Minatures

 At one point in my teens I started experimenting with painting miniatures. Technically, I don't think any of these are specifically D&D branded figures but I think it makes for a clearer post title then "Little Meal Fantasy Figures." I got my feet a little wet at an even earlier age by messing around with some of the figures from my Dragonriders of the Styx Tower of Night playset.

For the most part, the games I played in were "theater of the mind" and we rarely used maps and minis. If a map was needed, it was usually a quick sketch of the area to give the players a better idea of how things were laid out.

These are by no means high art and were done by a total novice decades before you could go online and find a tutorial for everything under the sun. The paint is old and wearing off in places. Partially because I had no clue about sealing them once done and them all being kept in a long, thin jewelry box like you'd use to keep a watch or bracelet. I should probably give them a better home.

With these being generic figures, it's up to you to decide how to paint them. Since it was so long ago, I can't say what I might have been thinking except black and red look really cool together. I can definitely see this dude cracking some monster skulls.

D&D & Me

Welcome to Dungeons & Dragons month!

 

With the release of the new movie (it's fun!) and having a few figures I wanted to post about, I figured why not post about D&D the whole month? To kick it off, I'll be sharing my memories (what's left of them) on getting into the whole D&D thing.

My intro to D&D goes all the way back to the 80s when you'd rarely hear it mentioned without some kind of reference to the devil, black magic, and/or animal sacrifices. The infamous Satanic Panic of the 80s that hit everything from D&D to comic books to metal/rock music. Ah, the good ol days.

This is what got me into the game, the boxed Basic Set, complete with a set of dice and a crayon that you used to color in the numbers. Before I go any further, I have to give a shout out to Erol Otus who did this cover and lots of other art for D&D. I absolutely love his style! Look him up, you won't be disappointed.

Monthly Media Recap - March 2023

Movies were a bit on the lighter side (in number, not genre!) this month thanks to a couple of Netflix docu-series. I'll be making up for it next month when Salem Horror Fest rolls around and I plan on taking in as many flicks as possible.

Streaming

Bad Batch S2 (2023, Disney+)

Sure, there's a couple filler/adventure-of-the-week episodes but there's also some really great ones that tie into the greater galactic story. And there's one that was so good that Mrs Dex, knowing nothing about the series, really enjoyed.

MH370: The Plane That Disappeared (2023, Netflix)

This docuseries explores the Malaysian flight that went missing in 2014. It's more than a little freaky to think with all our tech that a plane full of people could vanish leaving behind very little evidence as to what happened. There's plenty of theories out there but we may never know.

Don't Pick Up the Phone (2023, Netflix)

Sounds like a horror movie and I'm sure for the victims, it was. I can't believe this person got managers to strip search employees over the phone while impersonating a police officer. Mostly, I can't believe people went along with it. Don't want to watch the documentary? You can read the wiki page on it.