a breathless Blue Dragon, a short-staffed Ogrillion and a non-green sword-wielding Troll?

"I'm so confused..."

Allow me to explain.

As recently witnessed, I have failed my save vs. The Papo Pit, also known as the following aliases: The Safari Snare, The Schleich Seduction, The Target Tangle, and sometimes even The Dollar-Store Deadfall.

After (subconsciously ;^]) looting the idea from Christopher B at A Rust Monster Ate My Sword and posing the old-school-ish Red Dragon with some even older-school lead figs, I decided I needed more of these "toys."

So I made my way to a local miniatures shop (models, games, terrain, etc) and initially added the Papo Blue Dragon (winged and sans fire-breath, in this case), and the Papo Ork (which is...well...an "orc"). He actually kinda looks a little Ogre-ish to me, or maybe even more so Ogrillion or Orog, but whatever. Here he is chillin' with a veteran lead Druid/Shaman/WildMage/Wizzie/etc (info on the skull-topped walking-stick later):

I will most likely use him for an oversized Ogre, or some orc/ogre/goblin deity, like this Jeff Dee rendering of Maglubiyet:

Regardless, this "Ork" fig was in their clearance bin (50% off) because the fork at the top of his forked-wooden-staff/stick was broken off. Big whoop! I mean, first off these figs were priced at $5 (or less) anyway at that shop, so at $2.50, I couldn't say no to the big green guy. Here's his broken shaft (ouch!):

And here's the quick little mod my son and I came up with for an impromtu photo op:

I won't permanently affix that skull, as that's the head to the Plasma Kreaps Ghoul (basically a very cool winged skellie), and we like that fig way too much to eternally behead him. At any rate, it's a thought starter and for some pics it's kinda works.

Next up, the fire-breath-less Blue Dragon fig. I'm not sure if it was another fig-injury or not, but the shop wouldn't take clearance price on this particular fig. I tried to tell them that it was "missing" the fire-breath (as other Blues in the same shop had it spewing from their mouths) but it wasn't going to happen. So I just snagged it anyway at $5.24 or whatever. See, I was gonna cut off the flames from a normal Blue anyway, as we all know (heck even my 5 y.o. son knows) that Blue Dragons breathe lightning, not fire. I guess I could have bought a normal Blue fig, and saved the flames for some other mod, but whatever...this way I didn't have to cut the poor cerulean wyrm. Here's a closeup of him/her in all his/her flamelessness:

Now I just need to find a cool plastic/rubber bolt of lightning to glue to the back of it's throat. Any ideas on where I can find one?

Paired up here with the original Red in this shot, you can see their slight differences, including big wings vs tiny wings and flames vs no-flames:

Now for some comparisons between these Papo Dragons and some offerings from the WotC line of D&D minis. Again, I don't have the massive, colossal, gargantuan, just plain huuuuuuge WotC Dragon minis to compare, but then again $40-$300 vs $5.24 isn't a fair fight to begin with, eh? Anyway here's some side-by-sides of the Papo Dragons vs WotC Basic Game and Against the Giants boosters Dragons:

As much as I am totally pimping these Papo Dragons for some old-school feel, I must say I do also like this new WotC Red from the AtG boosters. It has a very proud look to it, which seems right. However in the end the Papo fig wins outright for me. It just hits me too hard in the Moldvay box set gut. I will do the reverse mix here for a sec though and throw in the new WotC Dragon vs my old 1983 TSR "Fighter with Platemail" from their Fighters, Rangers & Paladins box set:

Still lingering in the local shop, I couldn't leave without snagging this guy for $2 or $3...can't recall. Papo calls him a Troll with Sword, and that might possibly be in the Three Billy Goats Gruff "mean dude under the bridge" theme, but it's certainly not the stinky, green, pointy nose, must-use-acid-or-fire type that the term "Troll" conjures for me (and you I presume).

Names aside, I dig this little Papo Troll (uhm ...with sword). I think in an old-school themed game, he could play the part of some generic brute. He has a look that to me seems to be a mix of ogre, orc, hobgoblin, and maybe even a tad bugbearish ...sorta ...dunno. He looks fun though, especially with that shortsword jabbing ya in the face. Doink!

Here's a closeup of that ugly mug:

And one more shot of him going toe-toe with that venerable Shaman/Druid/humma-humma from the earlier "Ork vs Oldguy" scene:

Ok, one final fig before I left the local shop a little lighter in the gold pieces bag. This guy is what Papo calls a Dwarf King, but as Jay suggested in this comment to this post over at Grognardia, I may use him as a Fire Giant. BTW, it appears from Jay's comments and links to pics of his figs, that he tends to dig the Reaper minis too, especially the one I use a lot for my 4e Cleric of Kord and other holy warrior stand-ins in games and pics...cool! Anyway, I'd say this Papo Dwarf King could also be used as some Dwarven God, Aspect of Moradin, etc. but I kinda like Jay's Fire Giant angle. Maybe add a little custom paint job, mixing in some blackened skin look, etc. Dunno. Here's a shot of him just about to cleave our (apparent) undefeated world champ, "Old Guy in Bathrob with Cane" in half:

Ah well, toys they truly are, but useful props in future games I hope they will someday become.

BTW, I also snagged a few others from another shop (some of which I bought for trying some mods and paint jobs), but have yet to take pics of them, so I'll save them for another post. Fun!