BEHOLDER MINIATURE PAINTED MANUAL
BEHOLDER MINIATURE PAINTED ARCHIVE

This was sold in a blister with a “Writhing Crusher” as part of the Fantasy Lords first series. Many, many unofficial beholders would follow, including the Grenadier “ Searcher of Souls” from 1984, sculpted by John Dennett. ( Heritage USA Dungeon Dwellers is a fantastic reference site for this line.) One of the next unofficial miniatures was probably the “ Beholding Sphere” sculpted by Max Carr for the Heritage Dungeon Dwellers, dating maybe to 1980 or 1981. And as the beholder was pretty firmly the intellectual property of TSR and now Wizards of the Coast, we have a hoary tradition of alternate names for third party versions.

BEHOLDER MINIATURE PAINTED ARCHIVE

And here a trio of reference sites-, Minibase, and the Lost Minis Wiki-were invaluable.Īs far as I can tell, the very first beholder miniature was an unofficial one made for Archive in 1976 or 1977, the “ Eleven Eyed Floater” in Dungeon Nasties II. But that hasn’t stopped lots of folks from trying: oodles of beholder miniatures have been produced over the years. You might get a perspective that looks great on paper but falls apart in three dimensions. And the beholder should look, if anything, terrifying.Īnd as hard as it might be to draw or paint a good beholder, it’s got to be even harder to sculpt one. It’s all-too-easy to end up with something completely risible or just too weird. The beholder might be relatively easy to describe as a concept-in fact, a floating sphere with an enormous mouth and many eyes sounds pretty metal-but it is actually rather difficult to depict visually, in part because the thing is so darned alien.

It also became clear in my research that many of these looks are awfully bad. Even slight differences of coloration in hide can turn two beholders into lifelong enemies. Some have eyestalks that writhe like tentacles, while others’ stalks bear crustacean-like joints. Some beholders are protected by overlapping chitinous plates. Beholders vary greatly in their physical forms, making conflict between them inevitable. Each beholder believes its form to be an ideal, and that any deviation from that form is a flaw in the racial purity of its kind.

BEHOLDER MINIATURE PAINTED MANUAL

5e really embraced this diversity, noting in the new Monster Manual (2014) that The disdain a beholder has for other creatures extends to other beholders. So it quickly became clear in researching color schemes there have been many different looks for beholders over the years. Zenopus also provided a picture of the “Official AD&D Rub-Down Picture Transfers,” which has a decidedly olive colored beholder consistent with these notes. Yellow-orange jagged teeth jut out from the pinkish mouth, ready to rend and engulf prey. A huge central eye stares balefully forth. The small eyestalks are a lighter olive, with disgusting pink sockets from which green and orange ringed eyes stare fixedly. Between these plates, cracks flush purplish-green, while highlighted areas glow yellow-green. The Coloring Album notes: An olive-green sphere, this eye-tyrant is covered in enormously tough chitinous plates. The only other 1e-era notes I could find were in the Official Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Coloring Album (1979), a somewhat odd third-party product but with Gary Gygax listed as the author. I don't believe there was a beholder on a Dragon or module cover until the Waterdeep and the North supplement (1987), which depicts the infamous crime lord Xanathar as bluish-purple with yellow highlights. As further support of this color scheme, over on a Dragonsfoot thread the esteemed D&D scholar Zenopus noted that the Polly-S line of official AD&D miniature paints from 1979 or 1980 had some beholder-themed colors, which included “450 Beholder Body Fuchsia” and “454 Beholder Eyestalk Violet.” Later editions of D&D have certainly used pinkish or purplish color schemes for their beholders, as seen on the cover of the 2nd edition Monstrous Compendium (1989). This set contained, I believe, the very first “official” beholder miniature, sculpted by Andrew Chernak. I'm very much in the process of editing my landing page for Extra Life 2018, but: be participating in a number of charity events all year, all over the USA.Ray Rubin, cover of “Dwellers Below” boxed set (1980). There's a simple reason for that: 50% (or more) of the proceeds will go towards Extra Life! I will retain no more than $100 for myself and every penny above and beyond will be donated.Who am I?I'm the D&D Adventurers League Community Manager! I love my gamers all over the world and I'm eager to help some sick kids in the process here. I WAS going to use it to terrify my Monday night D&D Adventurers League gamers, but a friendly local store hooked me up with a second figure so I figure I'll put this one up for auction!You might notice that the price is pretty high. It's a heck of a sculpt.And while I'm not an awesome painter, I'm pretty decent (or so I think!) and spent some time getting this all dolled up.

The beholder figure from Nolzur's Marvelous Minis is.

Beholder miniature painted