“The fantasy comes alive!”
Way back in the early 1980s, toy company LJN combined forces with TSR to release a series of toys based upon the popular and, at least in the early 80s, controversial role-playing game, Dungeons & Dragons. Despite my very strong Southern Baptist roots and the alleged Satanic portals that DnD potentially opened, my mother actually purchased a number of the figures and other toys from this line for me. They were some of my favorite toys at the time and the 3 3/4″ action figures quickly found themselves in battle with Star Wars figures, Indiana Jones figures, and just about any other figure that I could get my hand on at the time. With the recent release of the Dungeons & Dragons film (which I still haven’t reviewed), action figures for the classic cartoon were released and the nostalgia hit me big time.
There were action figures, one playset, bendy figures, monsters, animals, PVC figures, and die cast miniature collectible figures in the line. The first wave was released in 1983. It featured named characters like Warduke, Elkhorn, Ringlerun, and Strongheart, who were all based upon their coinciding characters types like Paladin, Wizard, Dwarf, Fighter, etc. The second wave featured some of the same characters along with new ones, all of which had a “battle-matic” action feature. There was also a Tiamat dragon toy.
I had two of the 3 3/4 figures, Warduke and Strongheart. Needless to say, Warduke was my favorite of the duo. I also had some of the metal collector figures. If memory serves me correctly, I had Warduke, Strongheart, Ringlerun, Skylla, and Kelek. I had one lone bendy figure, the Neo-Otyugh, and a pair of the PVC figures, Bullywugs of the Bog. The Bullywugs often fell victim to the schemes of Skeletor and He-Man battled the Neo-Otyugh on numerous occasions. While I never owned the Fortress of Fangs playset, I always wanted it. I wanted Tiamat as well, but I never got that figure, either.
Believe it or not, as much as I loved the DnD action figures and the cartoon series that began in 1983, I’ve never actually played the game. I never had friends in my area that wanted to play and until I became an adult, I had zero friends that actually played the game (as far as I know).
Did you have any of these toys growing up? Do you still have them? Let me know in the comments!
As always, thanks for checking out my post. See you again real soon!
Ken's Alternate Universe! 
I was getting a bit old for these by the time they were released but seem to recall picking up Kelek simply because it was it was neat that they existed. Never realized how many of the monsters they made.
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I wish that I still had my figures. Warduke was so awesome!
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