« D&D: April 2010 | Main | D&D: June 2010 »

Origins of the rust monster

Awesome:

The rust monster's appearance is based on a plastic toy that was sold in toy stores during the 1970s and 1980s in cheap bags of plastic monsters and dinosaurs. Gary Gygax wrote about the inspiration for the rust monster: "When I picked up a bag of plastic monsters made in Hong Kong at the local dime store to add to the sand table array ... there was the figurine that looked rather like a lobster with a propeller on its tail ... nothing very fearsome came to mind ... Then inspiration struck me. It was a rust monster." --Gary Gygax

I had that bag of dinosaurs. I had lost all the 'dinosaurs' by the time i started playing D&D, but i remembered having it. Had no idea the toys were actually the inspiration for the monster. Always kind of wondered about it but never thought to look it up until tonight (my memory was triggered after seeing this ad in an old comic i was reading (New Mutants #1) and looking to see if it was possible for me to re-purchase those old model sets on ebay (it's not, currently, anyway)).

Apparently the owlbear and bulette were created the same way, but i don't remember having them.