zakeno:

I’ve been drawing some dragons based on Medieval paintings to warm up today. ????

As I said before, the first time I played V&V (2.0) I was thirteen years old. I didn’t understand what made a game system good or bad, difficult or easy—all I knew is whether it was fun or not. V&V was just fun. It ticked a lot of boxes for me—you could play as yourself (stats to be determined by you, your overly critical friends, and the GM), you got a totally random set of super powers, and you got to blast bad guys and send them flying. Many of the Powers were open to interpretation, which was good if your GM was on top of things. A lot of the Powers simply asked you to make something up, which was also good—again, if your GM was helpful and understood balance within their campaign. There were some Powers that were just plain broken, such as: a type of Illusions that allowed you to create a near endless horde of hard-light minions, Teleportation which could potentially allow you to travel several lightyears in an instant, and Gravity Control which could multiply the weight of a target many hundreds of times turning them into jelly. You get the idea. There we no caps, no limits—just your imagination and your GM’s willingness to reign it in, or let it run free destroying all that is good and fair in the world. Despite a solid few years of fun, I stopped playing V&V back in 1989. In high school my friends wanted to distance themselves from gaming and do cool things, like get wasted and drive drunk. Good times? I would always keep my books, but never found another group to play with. Flash forward to 2017 and Mighty Protectors (Villains & Vigilantes 3.0). The game’s original creators, Jeff Dee and Jack Herman, had just won a hard-fought case to get their IP back from Fantasy Games Unlimited head, Scott Bizar. They had been working on V&V 3.0 for about 5 years, and wanted to release it to their fans, but had to get over this last legal hurdle. Hurdle cleared, they launched a Kickstarter for the new book, and I slammed my money down with glee. I followed every update as the game got closer and closer to shipping—watching the Stretch Goals pile on, I would be receiving not only the rulebook, but a few adventures and supplements as well.

I received my copy later that summer—a beautiful hardbound book boasting 150 pages—110 more than its predecessor! I dove in and immediately hit a wall. Stat caps? Damage caps? Character Points? You get…150 CPs for a Standard Level hero…80 for Abilities (no longer Powers), and 70 for BCs (not stats). HELP! Now, it wasn’t and isn’t all bad. You still had the option to base your character on yourself, and once I got my head around the Character Point system, I was brewing up heroes like crazy. The book also boasts a ton of races, backgrounds, origins, and motivations—all meant to add depth and dimension to your hero. There’s a section all about the V&V multiverse: government organizations, superhero groups, powerful cosmic beings, criminal organizations, criminal government organizations—from space! There are vehicle and base creation rules, and vehicle combat rules (I’m still figuring the latter out), rules for inventing new Abilities, Ability Modifiers that allow for a deep level of character customization so your Flame Blast won’t be the same as the other guy’s Flame Bast—ever! The bad: There is a rule about Acquiring Targets that forces you to make a Perception Check any time a target moves, sneaks, becomes invisible, etc. since their last attempt to target it. What?! Combat maneuvers are many, but their mechanics are cumbersome and slow, so most players don’t want to use them. The rules require Task checks to perform specific actions but there’s no Skill system. You get a bonus to any Task check that relates to one of your two Backgrounds (think training or careers), which is hard to determine. What if my Background is business? You must use computers in business, so do I always get a bonus when using computers, or are some computing Tasks too difficult for Captain Business? After you go through the lengthy character creation process, the last thing you want to do is dive into a very granular combat system. They endeavored to make combat resemble what we see in comics books. Big splashy moves that send enemies flying through walls, grapples and throws, diving in front of blasts to defend innocent bystanders—but you must stop, consult the rules, do the math, and then roll. Lastly the technical writing suffered: the book deals in many generalities, lacks a consistent glossary of terms often using several different terms to describe the same thing, and has a sort of shorthand that reveals the lack of an outside editor—one that would have questioned the disparate terminology and lack of specifics.

I come up with at least one new rules question every time I engage with the rules or run a session—which is often these days. Unfortunately, the creators are unresponsive, and their official forum is mostly inactive, having only half a dozen regular posters, myself included. Fortunately, I have a great group of players and a couple of fellow GMs who I bounce ideas off so I can answer these rules questions myself and come up with house rules that don’t bog down the game or detract from it. The very good: Jeff and Jack do understand how to create a campaign setting, and how to run a balanced game, and they share that knowledge with you in this book. Also, this game is a massive sandbox of superpowers. The combinations of Abilities and Ability Modifiers is nearly endless. One of my players asked me if their flying squirrel hero could have “some kind of disorienting sonic chirp” attack. Yes, he can. I have another player that wanted to buff his teammates with songs like a classic D&D bard. Yes! Admittedly, it takes a lot of fooling around with the math, but it’s all addition and subtraction. If you want a superhero roleplaying game that allows for an extreme amount of character customization, this is the game for you. If you recoil at the thought of a very cumbersome combat simulator, this might not be the game for you. That said, you can always skip a lot of those rules, or simplify them, or home-brew your own. I have plans to post a character creation guide, and even some examples of combat and tasks, so stay tuned.

EMCE has released four more boxed sets for the video game Fallout 76.  The figures include more people, mutants, aliens, robots and zombies.   The quality is excellent.  I wish the other Nano Force offerings like the Aliens v. Marines set were done this well.  There are so many figures in this set now that I am giving it its own post.   You can see the original video game figures post here Video Games.

snagerdragon:

everyone pray for Crackers, it belongs to the granddaughter of a 1800s naturalist 

I always wanted to be a superhero.

“The pleasure of reading a story and wondering what will come next for the hero is a pleasure that has lasted for centuries and, I think, will always be with us.” 

— Stan Lee

Back in 1985, when I was 13, my brother and some of his friends started playing a table top role-playing game called Villains & Vigilantes. It was D&D’s heyday and if your game’s title didn’t have an ampersand and alliteration, were you even trying to make an RPG? I usually wasn’t allowed to play with his RPG groups, but I always got to flip through his rulebooks and supplements. When I cracked open the V&V rulebook, I had no idea that I would still be playing this game 34 years later. I couldn’t even imagine graduating high school–at that point it seemed too far away. Minutes seemed hours and years seemed infinite when I was a kid. Inside the book I discovered that you could play as yourself. Instead of creating a secret identity for your character, you were your secret identity! I was immediately hooked and begged my brother to let me make up a character. I remember being nervous about rolling up my Powers at random, hoping they would be really cool or at least similar to those of my favorite heroes: Daredevil and Spider-Man. I ended up with a strange mix of powers that didn’t go together at all. The rules suggested that you find a theme within your Powers and get rid of the rest, but I refused. I don’t remember why. Maybe it was the beginnings of my tendency to “Power Game” or maybe I was afraid of not having the right ability for every situation. My brother was frustrated but allowed Mega Man (even to this day the name embarrasses me) to exist. The flame powers of the Human Torch, the agility of Spider-Man, the telepathy of Professor X, the phasing of Kitty Pride, the intelligence of Reed Richards, and the growth of Giant Man. After some more begging, I got to play in the adventure ‘Crisis at Crusader Citadel’ alongside some of my brother’s friends. It’s a simple two act module meant to introduce the players the the V&V Universe through a group of A-List vigilantes–the Crusaders, and their villainous opponents–the Crushers. It was surprisingly fun and original. Mega Man got to strut his goofy stuff, firing flame blasts, phasing through walls and floors, and acting as a telepathic switchboard for the entire team. All of the villains and heroes we fought against or beside are just as indelible in my memory as my favorite Marvel and DC characters, and it’s still the first adventure my new players go through when I start a campaign. It will always be one of my fondest memories of playing a TTRPG. I played V&V for the next three years straight introducing my small circle of friends to it, and running my own games. Mega Man was on the bench and would always be now that I was the GM. Sadly I would step away from the game for decades. Then something happened in 2015.

My players know me as Grackleflint. I like RPGs. Do you like RPGs? Cool. This blog is going to be the home of my V&V 3.0 campaign–the stories and the characters that populate them. It will have story updates, character portraits and character sheets and stats. I will also delve into the dense thicket of weirdness that is the Villains and Vigilantes 3.0 rules to try and make them more accessible to the new player.

pitzips:

friendly beasts

1 Freezeuary

Polyesterdelpia Tribune

PROFESSOR BUBBLEBE LOST AT SEA! Monster Sea Reptile Suspected!
          The celebrated Bathyologist and Deep Sea researcher Professor Willis Bumblebee of the Roach Harbor Oceanographic Society has been reported as missing and presumed dead. Along with Galois Galoshglug his partner, the professor explored the deep seas in his famous Benthosphere, recording his adventures in numerous popular books.  His research vessel the Goggle II reports his last transition as
"Observing a large shape like a...oh, oh dear... Gal, I think those are teeth, monstrous huge...uh oh" 
     The expedition's Captain, Whiskerbush McNottlegussy, has stated he made all efforts to recover the spherical diving craft, but the end of it's cable was parted as if cut.  Drag netting produced some animals, even large fish, but the Captain claims nothing large enough to endanger the little globe was caught.  Some crewmen allege large reptile sightings in the area in recent years.
     The Steamer Albatrosaur caught a prodigious 22 foot arthrodire 3 years past in these waters off the Sumatran Coast and Dr. Shrugespy of the Polyesterine Zoological Academy is of the opinion that such a beast could be responsible, though he warns of the dangers of jumping to conclusions.
     Mrs. Bubblebee kindly informed us her husband hoped to find evidence of a monstrous beast of Sumatrian legend, described as a finned serpent of great size, like a giant mosasaur perhaps, 30 foot specimens being common in these waters, and accounted the origin of the natives wild fish tales.  Perhaps the good Professor had his wish?  Unfortunately it seems we'll never know.  The editors wish to add they will be taking a collection to assist Bumblebee's widow meet the somber expenses before her.  Inquire at our office.

Here are some more Russian made orcs and ogres.  I don't have any information about who made them.  They seem to be hand crafted in very small runs.  Includes three female orcs.









































































Scale Shots

UPDATE 10/12/19: New Anti Paladin and sets of 5 Goatmen and Dwarves.


UPDATE 4/7/19:  Even morehansa from Warhansa!  They just released 60mm Conan and Zena figures.   Copyrights?  What Copyrights?  There is also a cool new evil priest and sacrifice. 


UPDATE 2/25/18:  Morehansa from Warhansa!  They have relased new 5 figure sets of 54mm Asterix the Gaul and post apocalyptic weirdos along with a 4 figure set of 60mm ninjas.  There is also a new bad ass 65mm orc gladiator, and  a 28mm scale troll that works as a goblin in toy soldier scale. 

Original Post:


Warhansa is a small company that makes truly outstanding figures. They recently made their first 1/32 scale (60mm) fantasy figures, and I hope they make more.  These guys are a barbarian warrior and some kind of non-human assassin.  The detail is excellent. The smaller blue guy is called the Night King and is intended as a very large figure in 28mm scale. He is about 54mm. The figures are made in small batches, so they are kind of expensive, but the quality makes them worth the price.
I asked them to describe their company and this is what they wrote back:  
We are an international team united by passion to toy soldiers. We have been dreaming of making our own minis since childhood. We started our project 3 years ago. Production is based in Russia. We make miniatures according to our taste in relatively small quantities and gladly share them with fellow hobbyists.  
You can check them out here Warhansa.

Just about every Asian fantasy movie I have seen and story I have read revolves around one or more martial arts masters who's skills rise to the level of super powers. Asians love to mix fantasy with martial arts, and who can blame them.  Martial arts and fantasy are a natural fit.  Part 1 of this post is about ninjas. Part 2 will be about other martial arts figures.
Japan's supernaturally sneaky ninjas exploded into the world's culture in the 1980s and were quickly paid tribute in the form of cheap plastic ninja toy soldiers. The first ones to show up in the USA were made in Hong Kong and China.   Some very nice ninja figures have also come out of Russia more recently.  I see no reason not to include ninjas in any fantasy world.  Having trouble with pesky orcs?  Sick the ninjas on 'em.

UPDATE 4/1/19  


I found a bag of ninjas from 1997 made by Boley that I had never seen before.  They must be fairly rare.  Ego aside, if I miss something like this for 20 plus years, it has to be hard to find.  I also found a few of the unknown 54mm ninja that come with separate weapons that are very similar to the Marty Toy Galaxy Warriors figures.





Hong Kong/China Ninjas




Boley 1997 50mm

These guys are about 54mm if you consider that they are all bent at the knees.  They actually stand at about 50mm.  Four poses.

























Hing Fat 45mm.
The first ninja toy soliders I found were made by Hing Fat, but were distributed by lots of different companies.   These figures are about 45mm.







Photo from an ebay auction.
Photo from an ebay auction.






























Photo from an ebay auction.
























The red guys are copies made by Sopla of Greese.




Photo form an ebay auction.


Photo from an ebay auction.




































































Unknown 54mm.
These 54mm Ninjas are just about as common as the Hing Fat figures, but I don't have any idea who made them.

































Photo from an ebay auction.











































Separate Weapons Variation




























Redbox Return of the Ninja Playset.
This is the only Ninja playset I know of.   The figures are only about 35-40mm and are a little cartoonish, but the playset is very cool.
























GI Joe Copy Modern Ninjas.
These are 54-60mm copies of 3.75 inch GI Joe figures.  I have no idea who actually made them.  



































Other Ninjas.
These are 40mm from Blip, LLC's Ninjas v. Robots set.
These were vending and prize figures.  About 45mm.
These come apart the the waste.  About 45mm.
























Unknown
Don''t know a thing about these guys other than I want some.  Photo from an ebay auction.






























Photo from an ebay auction.







































Russian Made Ninjas

Russia is a little late jumping on the ninja bandwagon but they have made some exceptional figures.
Oritet.






















Tehnolog.













Unknown (because I can't read Russian).   90mm.






























Warhansa 54mm






















Mattel Guts Akido Force - Close Enough.


Mattel called these guys the Akido Force, but they look enough like ninjas to me.

Greek copies.

I recently found out that the bootleg barbarians in my Arco Sword & Sorcerer post were made in Mexico back in the 1980s or maybe very early 1990s.   The figures come with built in weapons and the riders don't the have peg holes in their butts to fit onto the original horses. They were sold in header card bags.  The bootleg sets include all of the figures and one of the two dragons, but no horses.  The figures are almost the same size but with much thicker bases.  The header card is all in English and very close to an exact copy of the original card backs.  
I got these figures in a trade with a collector and artist in Mexico.  I am very grateful to be able to get figures like these that I probably would never have found without help.  My benefactor is Nando Murio.  You can check out his art on pinerest here.  He also sent me an amazing bag of bootleg ninja turtles that includes some bootleg battle beasts.  I will post some pictures in my TMNT post.

































































Side by Side with Originals.










No peg holes in the riders.  They won't fit on the original horses.  

Video games are joining movies and television as a source of inspiration for toys and other swag, including a few new sets of toy soldiers.  McFarlane was the first (and in my opinion still the best) with the amazing Halo Heroic line but others have recently made nice efforts as well.  Over the last few years I have seen bags of toy soldiers associated with Starcraft, Killzone 3 and now Fallout 76.  
These sets tend to have a very limited number of poses and are expensive to buy in the after market.   I don't know if they came with the video games or had to be bought separately.   I have seen copies of the Starcraft Zerglings for sale on Ali Baba.  Chinese companies are already offing to sell copies of Blizzard Entertainment's intellectual property.  The Chinese have no honor when it come to bootlegging, and I love them for that.  I will be ready to take shameless advantage as soon as I get the chance to buy cheap copies of these figures.  I anticipate seeing bootlegs of some or all these figures sooner or later.    
These are all sci fi and post-apocalypse themed sets, but aliens and mutants can work as fantasy monsters.  They may not strictly fit into the fantasy theme of this blog, but I want to post about them anyway.  I can do whatever I want with my blog, so nah.   

STARCRAFT (2016)























KILLZONE 3 (2018)


























FALLOUT 76 (2018)

UPDATE 11/10/2018:
I have come across a new mystery line that includes some knockoff DFC knights.  This is the second mystery line to include bootleg DFC knights. They are marked "China" but that does not say much to narrow down who made them or how they were packaged.  They are just like the older knockoffs.  They are same smaller size and have the same modifications but some of them come in new colors like red, orange and salmon along with the more common blue. As with he old set of bootlegs, here is no copy of the DFC bowman.

The ones I have found came in ebay lots from the UK.  I have almost always found them mixed in with a set of what look like Robin Hood type figures which I first posted in my 45mm Army. They were probably some short lived cheap bag or carded set.  I don't know if I have a complete set of the Robin Hood figures or not.  I suspect there might be one more figure for eight total.  I want to get all the knights in the red, orange and salmon colors pictured and any other colors I haven't found yet.  Please comment if you know anything about these guys.

ORIGINAL POST:

There are surprisingly few DFC bootlegs.  The most common are slightly modified versions of the knights.  These knights are just a little bit smaller than standard DFC knights, and four have slightly modified weapons.  I have found only one example of these figures in original packaging and it is a strange mash up of DFC, Chinasaurs and The Sword & The Sorcerer.  The bootleg knights  also seem to be associated with the little gray figures pictured below, but I don't know were they come from.
I eventually found a header bag of knockoff gray knights from Straco, and a carded set from Gordy with both blue and gray knights.



New colors found over the last five years or so.






The new Robin Hood Guys.



Here are some side by side pictures with the older mystery set which also has Robin Rood type figures but are not as well made or detailed. 






Well matched with the knights. 


Oddly, the salmon DFC bootleg is one of the few figures that came from a USA ebay lot.  The color match is dead on.  



The older figures have similar stands to the DFC bootlegs.  The new guys have flat stands with no ridge.














































Older Bootlegs



*
*
I have found these figures with the bootlegs more than once.  So, I think they are related.
*










































This undated set by Famus Toys has the blue bootleg knights, a Chinasaur giant bird, and the red boarder around the card is the same as on the cards for Arco/Fleetwood's The Sword & The Sorcerer figures. Very strange but very cool.









































Here is a interesting set from Gordy with both blue and gray bootleg knights.  King Arthur and the knights of Justice.   It even includes some authentic medieval razor wire. Dated 1992.





Stracos' set of the knockoff knights in gray.






































Joseph Svec III sold me this odd bag of MPC knights with DFC knights and dragonriders.
I don't know if these are a factory mistake, a bootleg mix, or some kind of strange joint venture, but I have never seen DFC mixed with MPC before.

Miner industries owned MPC.








































































Scale Shot.

They make these Devil figures in Mexico for holidays and because they are cool.  They range in size from 60mm up to 10 inches.  Some are anatomically correct. 























Picture from an ebay auction. 
Picture from an ebay auction. 
Picture from an ebay auction.

Dollar General has a new 10 figure set of mummy soldiers available for Halloween 2018.   There are 10 new mummy figures and 10 skeletons (in 8 poses) which have been around for years.  The mummies are 54mm and the skeletons are about 45mm.  These guys are a little cartoonish, but I like the concept of mummy soldiers.  They are only $1 per pack of 10.  Excellent price.

I posted pictures of the Skeletons a couple of years ago.



























2019 Versions.

I have been looking for this guy for more than a decade. He showed up on ebay in an otherwise average lot last week.  I was all set for an evil bidding war but I was the only bidder.  Lucky day!

Based on the other figures in the lot, I would guess that he is original Hong Kong production (as opposed to the PRC marked figures made in mainland China.)   Like the brown knights, he would be one of just a very few rare color variations to come from Hong Kong.

I can post pictures of this very rare catalog Dragonriders of the Styx playset thanks to David Pietila.  David says it is the Sears version and he should know.    This set seems to be missing the dragon, but that does not mean it wasn't included originally.   This was David's childhood set.  Here is what he has to say about its background:

Greetings,I have found a box of Dragonriders of Styx that has been in storage at my Mother's for years.  Apologies for the pics, but the item is 19 hours away from me. I had someone else send my photos. The box has instructions, I believe there is an order form on the other side. My mom had written on the box "If you boys open this again I will return it to the store." The box is a plain mailer, at one time it had a label that was plain as well. 

This set of 10 soft plastic mythology figures was released as give away prizes in Mexican snack cakes in 2017.  The cakes are called Gansitos/ Gansi Premio.  The company that makes them is called Marinela. The figures are about 35-40mm tall.  They came individually wrapped with a collector card.  They are on the small side for toy soldiers.  Nice quality.  

I've had these for years and tried off and on to find out who made them and what they are called, but no luck at all.  I think they were made in the 1980s, but maybe the 1990s or both.  They are made of rubber and have holes in their butts for pencils.  The little dragon is fairly ordinary looking, but the mutant centaur birdman is one of the weirdest figures of all time.  So, does anybody know anything solid about these guys?









While we are at it, what are these guys?