Black Destroyer

The displacer beast is considered a "product identity" of the Dungeons & Dragons game despite being an obvious expy of the Coeurl from A.E. Van Vogt's short story Black Destroyer.

The story was also adapted to comic book format by Marvel in 1974.

Despite being listed as a large sized creature in the AD&D Monster Manual, I've always considered the displacer beast to be roughly the size of a normal puma (like the comic book version of the coeurl as opposed to the short story version).

Because of this, 28mm miniatures like the Ral Partha Displacer Beast (AD&D Monsters 11-413) are just too big.

The Ral Partha displacer beast is the size of a large 28mm tiger or lion. It also bears the traits of the original coeurl in that it has four (rather than six) legs.

It is only with the 15mm Splintered Light Miniatures Chaos Panthers (MONS09) that I've found something that is close in size to what I'm looking for.

The SLM displacer beasts are pretty much the size of a typical puma in 1/72 scale. They're not as fear inducing as a creature the size of an elephant, but I don' think bread-and-butter type dungeon monsters need to be blown out of proportion.

With the displacer beast covered, I wanted a miniature of an actual coeurl as well. The coeurl has been used as a monster in the Final Fantasy video game series, and in the Dirty Pair light novel (and anime) series as well.

Yuri, Kei, and Mughi

Being lazy, I always like to see if there is a miniature that is already available that I can use as a starting point for my creations. For the coeurl, that base was the Pathfinder miniatures Shadow Hound (Shattered Star 08).

Even though the shadow hound is presumably a dog, the face is generic enough that could pass for a cat.

It has forelegs that are longer than its hind legs, which the coeurl is described as having. It is also relatively large and imposing compared to a man.

I removed the head, and reattached it so that it was facing forward. I drilled a couple of holes in the shoulders and glued some bent wire in place.

This is as far as I've gotten, and the next step will be to figure out how I want the 7-fingered "hands" at the end of each tentacle to look. I don't particularly care for the paw-like appearance of the ones in the illustration below, but I haven't come up with any alternatives yet.

Many coeurls are illustrated with multiple
tentacles sprouting from their shoulders.

I also need to come up with a way to make the ears, which I envision as being similar to Kzin ears.

Meow is just Me + Ow

A comparison of the various miniatures.