1/72 Multiverse

For the 50th Anniversary of D&D, WizKids has released a set of Icons of the Realms figures representing creatures from 1st ed. AD&D and the current 5th ed. of the game.


I picked up a few of the miniatures that I felt I could use alongside 1/72 scale figures, the first being the Classic Red Dragon, which is probably the size of a typical young dragon in the current line of miniatures.


The miniature represents the red dragon from the cover of the original D&D Basic Set from 1977.


I think it's a great representation of the artwork, though I wish they would have made the wings a little more in proportion to its body (certainly they were able to alter the appearance of other miniatures, so I don't know why they couldn't have made changes to make this miniature look better).


I also bought a Gold Dragon which is based on the 5th ed. ampersand logo.


This miniature is a Young Gold Dragon (50th Anniversary #50), which is the equivalent size I use for adult dragons in 1/72 scale. This particular miniature seems to sell on eBay for ~US$50, which is way overpriced. You can find it for much cheaper by shopping around.


The next miniature is an efreet based on the cover of the 1st ed. AD&D DMG.


The Efreeti (50th Anniversary #47) has been modified to suit modern tastes, with the damsel in distress replaced by a ball of fire. The sword arm is a separate part, and the seam line where it is attached to the body is quite glaring. I do like how the sunburst eyes from the artwork are replicated in the miniature though.


I was also surprised to learn that Super7 makes a similarly sized 3.75" action figure of the efreet (along with various other figures). Note how the left hand is conveniently cropped from the blister card art.


There is also a US$250 12" resin figure produced by WizKids that represents the "advanced scene" on the DMG cover after the scantily clad damsel has convinced the efreet that the knight is a much better candidate for his attentions.

Next are a pair of goblins. The 1E version is based on Dave Trampier's art from the AD&D Monster Manual.


The 1E Goblin (50th Anniversary #6) is similar to the art, with the main difference being the helmet (because of the way it is painted). The 5E Goblin (50th Anniversary #5) is an archer that is firing his bow.


Next are a pair of Shadow Demons, with the 1E version based on the art from the Fiend Folio.


The 1E Shadow Demon (50th Anniversary #17) mimics the artwork too faithfully, with its brows painted white. I'm pretty sure in the artwork, it is just a stylistic technique used to suggest some semblance of shape to the head of the demon. The 5E Shadow Demon (50th Anniversary #18) is just completely black except for its eyes and teeth.


The last two miniatures are a Pit Fiend (50th Anniversary #31) and a Glabrezu (50th Anniversary #25).


I wish the Icons Pit Fiend was closer to the original Trampier artwork, with half-furled wings partially cloaking his body, instead of the 2nd ed. Monstrous Manual version, since the miniature is similar in appearance to the conversion I made using a Reaper Pit Fiend.


Unfortunately, my Icons Pit Fiend is missing his tail, so it looks like he has a huge tear in his pants.

Finally, I really would have liked to get the demon idol miniature, but it looked like it was more suitable in scale for 15mm figures.

The first two miniatures are the androsphinx, Kamaljiori (Monsters of Exandria Set 1 #2), and an Adranach (Monsters of Tal'Dorei Set 2 #1) from the Critical Role Miniatures line.



Sphinxes from the Critical Role universe have both lion and eagle tails, but I'm not a fan of the design choice. However, as it turns out, the unwanted tail feathers were a perfect fit for the Reaper peryton that I bought 8 years ago.


The next miniature I've been working on is the Reaper Graveyard Golem (Bones 77526).


The miniature consists of five pieces in the newer Bones plastic. One of the parts was short shot, but I didn't actually notice until I was already finishing up with painting.


One of the things I didn't like about this sculpt was that it didn't have a right hand, so I did a bit of modification to make it fit my vision of the figure.


I was thinking about adding some crows perched on the "wings" of the golem, but it didn't feel quite right with the new, more action oriented pose.

The final miniature is Azael the Unfaithful from Rackham Miniatures. I think that in the Confrontation lore she is supposed to be some sort of undead, but I thought she would make a good fallen angel, so I decided to add some wings to the figure.


I based her look somewhat off of Nanael from Queen's Blade, with one withered wing, and one normal wing.


The right wing is from the Radiant Idol (Eberron: Rising from the Last War #32) from the Icons of the Realms Miniatures line.


While the left wing comes from a Deva (Snowbound #15) from the Icons of the Realms Miniatures line.

Pazuzu is a Mesopotamian underworld deity personifying the west/southwest wind, and ruler of the lilû.

Louvre Museum, MNB 467

A statue of Pazuzu appeared in the 1973 film The Exorcist, which apparently garnered enough popularity, that it has received bit roles in various forms of media ever since.

The Exorcist, 1973

Adèle Blanc-Sec - Le démon de la Tour Eiffel, 1976

Legend, 1985

The Simpsons - Treehouse of Horror XXVIII, 2017

Godzilla: King of the Monsters, 2019

Spider-Man: Far From Home, 2019

House of Ashes, 2021

A couple of miniatures of Pazuzu exist, but the one I have is from the Citadel Demons Box Set from their RuneQuest line of miniatures.

An insert gave the gaming statistics for the various demons, with some notes on their combat strategies, but there wasn't much in the way of background provided for them. Some additional information appeared in White Dwarf 48, where the demons were given AD&D statistics.


The miniature vaguely fits the description of the mythological Pazuzu, but doesn't much look like the statue from the movie. I think I'm going to attach a scorpion tail to the miniature to align it closer to its appearance in Mesopotamian mythology.

British Museum 86263

Murlocs are the colorful Deep One expys from World of Warcraft. They range in height from 3.5 feet to 6 feet, and average about 4 feet tall.


The first miniatures of murlocs came from the World of Warcraft boardgame from Fantasy Flight Games. I was able to buy a few examples of the loose murloc miniatures many years ago, before the price of the game skyrocketed to insane levels.


The next figures are from the short lived World of Warcraft Miniatures Game made by Upper Deck, and include the Marsh Murloc and Blindlight Murloc.


The miniatures are roughly the same size, and represent the upper end of the murloc height spectrum. The Upper Deck miniatures look better than the FFG figures because they have proper murloc legs, whereas the FFG murlocs have thick human-like legs.


Another miniature that looks like it came from WoW is the Mage Knight Carapace Creature (Dragon's Gate #039), which resembles a gorloc. However, what it reminds me even more of is a piscodaemon (except taller).


I cut away the prognathous jaw, and added some Kneadatite tentacles to turn it into a proper giant piscodaemon.


I'll finish this post with the Tiik Baby from the Aquatic Familiars III set (Dark Heaven Legends 03612) which I've seen painted up as murlocs.

The Larval Stalker is a ghost-like entity that comes from the original Silent Hill video game. They don't get much in the way of attention because they are harmless, and don't really play a large part in the game.

I've always liked them because of how strange and mysterious they were, so I decided to finally create a sculpt after years of toying with the idea.

The beta texture for the Larval Stalker offered the clearest image to base my sculpt on, since it is not transparent.


I carved the body out of plastic sprue, then used staples to make the arms and legs. The head, limbs, and details were fleshed out with Kneadatite.



Once things settle down a bit and I am able to get more stable with my finances, I'll try to order some mold making supplies so I can cast the sculpt in clear resin.

Part of the lore in Silent Hill is that Larval Stalkers eventually turn into Stalkers, but I'm more of the opinion that Stalkers are just a variant of the Gray Child (just more difficult to see).


Making Gray Children was easy because I planned on modifying pre-existing figures.

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I received an order from Khurasan Miniatures at the beginning of the month, and part of the reason I made the order was because The Flayed from their Apoc666 line of horror minatures, looked like good candidates for Gray Children.


The miniatures are possibly a bit shorter and thinner than I would prefer, but they'll do.

There are two different looks used for the Gray Children (or three if you include the Mumbler).

In the Japan/Europe release, the Gray Child was changed to the Mumbler because of concerns that the final texture for the Gray Child was too similar to a human child.



In any event, I sculpted both the beta texture and the final texture versions of the Gray Children by building up the heads of the Flayed with Kneadatite.


I then drilled some holes into their hands and added some filed down staples to represent knives.


If you are wondering about the blue Sharpie markings all over their bodies, it's for an experiment to see if I can produce veining on the figures.


After spraying a coat of solvent based primer, the Sharpie bleeds to the surface. I think the technique doesn't quite work on figures that are this small, but the primed figures kind of resembles the Gray Children from the Silent Hill movie.


I'm not sure how well the blue will stay visible after I start adding my gray washes, but we'll see.

On a separate note, the other Apoc666 figures are also quite interesting. I got some Lurkers in Dark Places, and I would have gotten the Cercopyths as well except I didn't want to go over budget.


I'm thinking these guys can make great Bone Devil imps (while the Cercopyths would make great Demogorgon quasits) along the lines of what's happening in D&D with Yeenoghu quasits or Yeenoghu dretches in Baldur's Gate: Descent into Avernus.

The aforementioned creatures are available in the D&D Icons of the Realms line. Yeenoghu's Dretch (Baldur's Gate Descent Into Avernus #12) is on the left, while Yeenoghu's Quasit (Baldur's Gate Descent Into Avernus #01) is on the right.


The Lurkers are taller than the quasit, but I think they all look good together because they have similar builds.