Ghost Archipelago Critturs

[swampedbybunnies]

For those who prefer to lavish their money/ talents on figures and terrain, the purchase and prep. of a whole new range of creatures is a bit of an issue.

Can I suggest a search on ebay for 'Toy Plastic Dinosaurs', 'Toy Plastic Sea Creatures', 'Toy Plastic Snakes/ Crabs/ Spider' etc etc?

It will reveal bags of about eight creatures for about £1.25. The sea creatures bag was especially useful with an octopus, shark (2 figures using head and dorsal), turtle. Either way the wastage can be given to friends for their own games. All you need to do is base them, and maybe ink up a bit.

I also discovered my own local toy shop sells nicer dinosaurs for a price comparable for the prices of metal ones - a lot lighter too.

[kuba]

The scale is a problem, It's not easy for me to estimate how certain plastic toy shown in the web will look next to standard 28mm figure. Right now I've built all undead and deamons creatures from random encounters table, some animals and island denizens (tribals drichean etc), but I'm still hesitate with animals and saurians. For aquatic creatures I'll popbably use my own sculpts -it can't be that hard to sculpt sharks fin I guess, even with my limited skills 
Before trying plastic toys for dino I need to check Tamiya's models, right now I think that I won't find cheaper and better detailed raptors that are properly scaled (Tamiya's seem too large).

[Bloggard]

I've been looking at that stuff on ebay too - in fact the razorbeak in my thread came from that kind of source.
didn't have time to titivate it, paint-wise, but should do, as it does look a bit plastic-y as is.

there's also the Schleich and Papo models (Amazon in the main I think) - they're more expensive, but compared to 'proper' 28mm critturs still relatively cheap, and are usually well pre-painted too.
I've got a few which seem suitable and will be putting a pic of them all in my thread on this board in due course.

[swampedbybunnies]

The sharks look about right. The octopus, turtles etc are about man size, as are the crabs, spiders etc. As these are all 'Giant Fantasy variants', scale is not that much of an issue really.

The only dino I have found as a scale issue is possibly Pterasaurs: all the others 'look right'. And all this cost less than £10, whereas I'd be looking closer to £100 for metal figures I don't really want.

[mikedemana]

Agreed. Hobby store finds are really worthwhile. Here's a pic of a T-Rex purchased from there needing only a minor bit of washing or touch up. There is also a line called "Toobz" here in the states that packs them inside a clear plastic tube. The scales are all over the place, though, inside the same tube. You really have to pick and choose what you want. The crocodile/alligator tube looks perfect, though.

As far as craft store, pre-painted dinosaurs, the big ones are perfect, I think. A towering T-Rex is just what the doctor ordered...who's going to disupute whether it's "too towering" or not? 



Another source (for those who live in the States) is Iron Wind Metals. They show up at conventions and have a sift through bin of various animals and dinos that are in 25mm/28mm scale. Through the years, I've picked up quite a collection from them. In fact, some of them are sitting out on my table waiting patiently for me to finish painting my warbands, then they're next up.

Mike Demana
www.firstcommandwargames.com
http://leadlegionaries.blogspot.com/

[Bloggard]

nice work on the dino-titivation, Mike.

[Duncan McDane]

Problem with toy Dino's/Dragons are often the teeth ( or rather, the lack of those ). Probably has something to do with child safety rules but be prepard to do some conversion work if you want to have realistic monsters with realistic teeth ( and also fangs & claws ).
Oh, yes, and of course I like what you made of those dino's too  .