Image from the product page

The company Ata-Boy is offering a cool metal sign featuring the Holmes Basic Set cover art, by David Sutherland over on Amazon for $11.99, with their storefront stating that their products are officially licensed. Find it here:

Holmes Basic metal sign from Ata-Boy

The dimensions are 8.25 inches by 11.5 inches, and each corner has a small round hole to aid in hanging. The front faithfully reproduces the actually cover from a later printing of the Holmes Basic set, where the angled banner incldues the words "With Introductory Module", except that the TSR logo in the lower left corner has been replaced with a Wizards of the Coast logo. A bit of the art on each side is clipped off, but at the top there's a bit of extra art from the top side of the box. Compare the image above with a boxed set cover image from the Acaeum:

Holmes Basic set box cover, fourth print. Source: Acaeum

I ordered and received one myself and the quality is good for what it is; i.e., a thin metal sign with the artwork printed on it. The back side is unpainted golden metal (like a cookie tin) and there's a thin lip around the back side edge, so it's not completely flat. I haven't hung mine up yet, but here are photos of the front and back of it:

The Ata-Boy store also has some other items that may be of interest, including a similar metal sign with the AD&D Players Handbook cover artwork and refrigerator magnets with the Holmes Basic set cover and the Players Handbook cover.

A Happy New Year from my original and new Demon Idols!

That's my original Players Handbook, which I received for my birthday in 1983 along with a Pac-Man watch. I still remember reading it in bed that night, captivated by all the new options not found in my Holmes Basic rulebook, like Half-Orcs!

The statue is a new Xmas present; a licensed "D&D Dice Tower" available from Gamestop.

Here's a quick review of the new demon idol tower:

Construction: Probably the biggest dice tower you'll ever own, being 10 inches tall, 8.5 inches wide, and 7 inches deep. It feels sturdy, weighing a bit under 4 lbs. The "aged" color and texture are well done. 

Design: The nicest feature is the fire, which lights up via a switch on the bottom. It requires 3 button cell batteries (1.5 LR44), which are included.

It's not a perfect recreation of Dave Trampier's original art; notably, the horns have been turned into ears, giving it a more goblin-y feel. The statue's feet are not visible in the original; here, they are wearing sandals that somewhat comically resemble flip-flops. 

Note that the statue is missing one jeweled eye in a nod to the PHB cover. I feel like a bit of an opportunity was missed here to have two removable eyes.

For a more faithful and creepier design, see the version available from Otherworld Miniatures.

Functionality: The top of the head comes off, revealing a chute into which you drop your die, which shoots out the dungeon archway in the front. It works well; my first roll sent the dice flying about 3 feet across the kitchen floor.

And it could easily serve as a gigantic dungeon prop. The archway is big enough to slide a mini into, and there are some flat spaces on the pedastal and statue in which a mini could stand.