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Rust Monster: Year One

Started by Pencil-Monkey, Nov 14 2013 10:37 AM
rust monster monster manual retro gaming d&d old school miniatures

3 replies to this topic Posted 14 November 2013 - 10:37 AM

(Alternatively title: Rust Monster Begins.)

From NerdNYC dot com:

Evilyn loved dinosaurs as a little kid. Her dad bought her cheap bags of plastic dinosaurs made in Hong Kong from the local dime store: Now even as an 8 year old kid, Evilyn was some what of a dinosaur expert. She would consume book after book on all things dinosaur. So when she found a "dinosaur" in the bags her dad bought her that looked like a clawless giant lobster with a propeller for a tail... she knew something was up! Nonetheless she loved playing with it! Shrimpy, her name for it, vexed her for years, providing hours of curious daydreaming imagining what the hell Shrimpy was.

3 years later, Evilyn plays Dungeons and Dragons for the first time, the Monster Manual being her favorite part! Where to her surprise she finds: What? Shrimpy is a rust monster?

To this day the rust monster is her favorite D&D monster. She still has Shrimpy at her parents house.

Today she shared this story with me. So of course I ran online to see what I could find. And find I did!

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 Posted 14 November 2013 - 10:40 AM

Wait, what? Is this guy's wife called Terry or Evilyn? (Seriously, Evilyn?) Posted 14 November 2013 - 11:09 AM

Also, as it talks about in the comments, that same set of plastic monsters also had the creature that inspired the bulette. I really wish my set of those toys was still around. I have fond memories of it. But then, those memories include chewing on them quite a bit when I was an age when that sort of thing made perfect sense. Posted 15 November 2013 - 10:55 AM

According to Jeff Rients, LJN Toys made a prototype plastic toy bulette that was never put into productions. Back to Roleplaying

Also tagged with one or more of these keywords: rust monster, monster manual, retro gaming, d&d, old school, miniatures


