![]() This model was notable for having a clear plastic “flying base.”Īfter Citadel the license went to Ral Partha in 1987, which released another Beholder in 1988, sculpted by Dennis Mize. The license was then issued to Citadel in 1985, which produced a pretty respectable line of miniatures in just 18 months, including a beholder sculpted by Nick Bibby. The results were short-lived and I do not believe a TSR beholder was ever released. Grenadier produced the Searcher of Souls after it lost the coveted D&D license around 1982, as TSR tried its hand at its own in-house line of miniatures. It was small even for 25mm scale and would be just a tiny thing placed beside 28mm figures. ![]() This was one of the first miniatures I ever painted, many ages ago, and clearly I was using the Coloring Album guidelines as one can see the purple chinks between the olive plates. 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. ![]() 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. 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. Ray Rubin, cover of “Dwellers Below” boxed set (1980).
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