Happy Christmas to all, and to all a good night!

The Santa Wars genre has been around for a long time, but it's unclear to me where the concept originated from (perhaps with the now defunct Wargame Supply Dump?).

Santa Wars should not be confused with the nonsense surrounding the supposed "War on Christmas". Similar rhetoric has been used as a political tool as far back as the 17th century, when Christmas revelry was said to be descended from the Roman Saturnalia and Bacchanalian festivals, and condemned in the culture wars of the Age of Enlightenment.

The only figures that I can think of that are suitable for 1/72 scale Santa Wars come from Alternative Armies as part of their Seasons of Celebration Range.

I bought a sampler pack of the figures many years ago, but currently, I can only find the Psycho Presents (SN04) in my pile of lead.

There is only one figure armed with a melee weapon, so I'll probably  do some weapon conversions on the rest of them.

I remember the Evil Snowmen in the set were rather scrawny looking, but I found a fairly decent snowman in a set of Christmas ornaments.

I also found some very usable reindeer in the same section of the craft store. I think the reindeer were 69¢ a pack, and I ended up getting four sets.

Finally for Santa, there is the Citadel Limited Edition Dark Future Santa, and the Santa from the Nativity set from Odemars.

The 20mm Santa was too short, so he was modified to bring him up to spec.

Hardcore collectors might be taken aback by my sacrilege of chopping up a limited edition figure, but in the end, Santa is of no use to me if he isn't the right height.

All that's left is to paint him up, but I'm undecided as to whether to put him in a green robe, or a red robe. I'm currently leaning towards red based on the sculpt, and depictions of Santa throughout history.

Warren of Vile Fungi

I backed the Warren of Vile Fungi Kickstarter by Mortal Arrow almost a year ago, and received the figures on my doorstep earlier this week.

All in all, I was quite satisfied with the results of the Kickstarter campaign, and I really like all of the fungal monsters that were produced. The creatures reminded me of the various plant monsters from the post-apocalyptic novel Hothouse by Brian Aldiss.

Hothouse is credited as being one of the inspirations of Gamma World, but I find it odd that James Maliszewski in his review of the novel, somehow finds the idea of cables from the Earth to the Moon as being too difficult to accept as science fiction.

In fact, the concept of the space elevator has been around since 1895, and has been used in the works of Iain Banks, Yukito Kishiro, and Tsutomu Nihei (among others). The concept has also been proposed in a fantasy context at The Vertical Jungle blog with a plant based elevator akin to the webs described in Hothouse.

I'm actually going to have to read Hothouse again because I don't remember many of the details anymore (I think I read it back when I was in high school... ). I wonder if I will have a different opinion of the story after I re-read it.

Anyway, I showed some of the smaller myconids from the Mortal Arrow Kickstarter campaign in a previous post, and now, I'll present the rest of the miniatures.

I think my favorite miniatures from this Kickstarter are the Gas Spores, which are monsters from the AD&D Monster Manual. The Crackle Orb (MAFMMN03A) is just about the same size as my Beholder, while the Spore Tyrant (MAFMMN03B) is much larger (maybe the size of a Nolzur's unpainted Beholder?).

The Crackle Orb had a large casting bubble that needed to be filled in, but otherwise there were no issues with the models.

The Phantom Fungus (MAFMMN07) is another interesting model, with 11 pieces cast in a light-weight clear resin. The creature was originally described in the D&D v3.5 Monster Manual.

The body is entirely clear, but the legs and tentacles have a decidedly yellow tint to them (it's not really visible in my pictures though). Thankfully, it looks nothing like the official D&D design which I found to be quite awful.

I was unsure of how to attach the legs at first, but Mortal Arrow has thoughtfully marked the body and legs with Roman numerals to indicate which leg goes where.

I had to carve away excess resin from the body for leg II, and drill out the hole for leg IV to get the legs to fit flush with the body, but even after all that, all the legs were still not level with the tabletop.

Despite the unevenness, the model stands up quite well due to the number of legs.

I used clear epoxy to attach the legs because I was not sure if CA glue would cause the resin to fog up. I didn't bother epoxying the tentacles in place because I kind of like having the option of using the model without them.

The next four groups of monsters first appeared in the AD&D Monster Manual II, but the Mortal Arrow designs are completely new and improved.

Ascomoids

The Fruiting Ascomoid (MAFMMN04A) consists of 2 resin parts, while the Fellrot Ascomoid (MAFMMN04B) is a single piece resin miniature.

Basidironds

The Baby Basidirond (MAFMMN01) is a 3 part metal miniature.

The assembled model looks very similar to the Pathfinder Battles Purple Fungus (Maze of Death #005) which is shown on the right.

The two adult Man-eater Basidironds have many identical parts. Basidirond I (MAFMMN06A) consists of 4 metal parts and 4 resin parts, while Basidirond II (MAFMMN06B) consists of 4 metal parts and 5 resin parts. If you order from the Mortal Arrow website, I think that the catalog numbers are actually reversed for these models.

The legs on the models must have been warped, because they kept on tipping over, and needed to lean against each other like a couple of drunks to stay upright.

I had to use a blow dryer to heat up the legs and reposition them to allow the Basidironds to stand without assistance. The resin is very flexible, so it works well with heat, but you have to be careful if you drill into it because it tends to trap the bit and leads to them snapping off (I broke two drill bits trying to pin these models).

Between the two Basidironds is a Pathfinder Battles Mind Frond (Maze of Death #004), which I guess could be a toddler Basidirond.

Phycomids

The Phycomid set (MAFMMN05) consists of 3 resin pieces.

The human body on one of the pieces is obviously too big, so maybe I'll modify it into the corpse of a giant lizard or something.

Ustilagors

The Ustilagor Nymph (MAFMMN02A) is a 2 piece metal miniature, while the Ustilagor Prime (MAFMMN02B) is a 3 piece metal miniature.

I don't have much to say about the miniatures, but as monsters, I wish the Ustilagors were more like cordyceps fungi instead of being psionic.

The next creatures were all independently created by Mortal Arrow.

The Carnivorous Mushroom (MAFMMN08) is a 3 piece model in gray resin.

It reminds me a lot of the carnivorous mushroom encountered in the caverns underneath Ant Hole Town (アリの穴街; Arinoanamachi) from Somali to Mori no Kami-sama (ソマリと森の神様).

The pin on the tail does not align well with the main stalk, so I had to cut it off and replace it with a metal pin.

I may modify this model to look more like the carnivorous mushroom from the anime.

The Rhyzonid Ancient One (MAFMMN09A) is an awakened Myconid, and consists of two resin parts.

The Zygom Rotguard (MAFMMN13) are described as the enforcers of Ascogenea, and consist of 3 metal parts.

I think the Rotguard would look good painted up as either a fungus or a plant.

The Living Toadstool (MAFMMN14) is (I believe) a zygom infested giant toad, and consists of 5 resin parts.

I think it might look pretty good alongside my Plague Toads.

The original focus of the Kickstarter were the Myconid Heroes (MAFMMN10A-E), and their Corrupted Myconid counterparts (MAFMMN11A-E).

I don't particularly care for the Heroes because they are too tall, and they fall into my doghouse category of mushrooms-that-wear-clothes. All of the models come in multiple parts, and require assembly.

I didn't bother gluing them together because I plan to sell them.

I do however love the Corrupted Myconids. They look cool, and they don't pretend to be human by wearing faux clothes.

Tosser (MAFMMN11B) and Stabber (MAFMMN11E) are 2 piece metal models.

Thrasher (MAFMMN11A) and Mauler (MAFMMN11C) are 3 piece metal models.

Of these four Corrupted Myconids, Thrasher is my favorite.

Rasper (MAFMMN11D) is the most impressive of the Corrupted Myconids, and consists of 4 pieces.

Rasper is like a gigantic fungal centipede, and a bit of cutting and drilling is required to make all the pieces fit together. I also filled in the gaps between the segments with Kneadatite for additional strength.

Finally, on a related subject, I want to show some of the more monstrous Fightin Fungi miniatures produced by Alternative Armies for Ganesha Games. These include the Matanagar (FIFU 009), Spore Monster (FIFU 014), and Swamp Lion Fungus (FIFU 034).

These models are on the smaller end of the spectrum when compared to the Mortal Arrow figures, but are nice nonetheless.

This was a pretty long post, and if you've reached this far, I thank you for reading.

I'm thinking about shooting some turntable videos of these miniatures and uploading them to YouTube so that the models can be viewed from all sides. If there is any interest in such a project, please comment below.

Mean Green Mother From Outer Space

Audrey II is the infamous plant monster from the musical and subsequent 1986 film Little Shop of Horrors (in the original 1960 film, it was known as Audrey Jr).

I'm pretty sure that Audrey II is what most people think of when they are asked to envision a carnivorous plant monster, and they show up frequently in the putz nurserys from the Lemax Spooky Town collection.

I wanted some standalone pieces, and was able to find some resin floral decor pieces that were very similar.

These pieces can be found on eBay under the search term "dollhouse venus flytrap", which is totally appropriate, since in the musical casting notes, Audrey II is described as a cross between a Venus flytrap and an avocado, while in the original film, Audrey Jr was a cross between a butterwort and a Venus flytrap.

The D&D version of the carnivorous plant is the Greenvise, which bears some characteristics of the plant from The Flowering of the Strange Orchid by H.G. Wells (i.e., it's ability to produce a Death Fog).

Looks a bit like the Deku Baba from Legend of Zelda.

The D&D Miniature version of the creature is called the Greenvise Vine (Savage Encounters #20).

Similar to the Greenvise is the King Sprout from the Super Dungeon Explore Forgotten King set.

The stat card for the monster even makes a reference to Little Shop of Horrors.

Another plant monster based on the Venus flytrap is the Pakkun Flower (パックンフラワー) or Piranha Plant. Some possible links between the Pakkun Flower and Little Shop of Horrors are discussed at VoVatia.

The one on the left is from the Furuta Choco Egg Super Mario Collection 3 (チョコエッグ スーパーマリオ 第3弾), while the one on the right is a phone strap mascot figure that was used as a premium for the Suntory Dakara energy drink.

The next carnivorous plant is the HorrorClix Pod Mother (The Lab #090). The plant has a face that reminded me a bit of how the faces of the victims of Audrey Jr blossomed from its flowers, but I wanted my model to be less anthropomorphic.

I cut away the eyes, nose, and cheekbones, then touched up the paint. I also cut away the victim, who was overscale.

In 15mm metal, there are the Klorzids Plants from Alternative Armies/Grinning Skull Miniatures.

The first image has a Klorzid New Seedling in Pot (GRN66), Klorzid Sapling with Flower Staff (GRN67), and Klorzid with three heads (GRN70).

The second image is of a Klorzid gaping mouth attacking (GRN68), Klorzid big teeth with Flower Staff (GRN69), and Klorzid wrapped around Flower Staff (GRN71).

I'm not sure if I want to use the figures with the flower staves as they are, but the sapling and three-headed versions are definitely ready to go.