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.

Ogre Magi

The ogre mage or Japanese ogre of D&D is essentially an oni (which I guess has been the official designation since 4th edition).

Fuji Musume + Oni no Nenbutsu
by Kitagawa Utamaro

The typical oni that an adventurer might meet would be something like the ogre or giant of European mythology, but oni are also servitors in the Buddhist hells, and in this role bear many similarities to Abrahamic devils.

In art, they are portrayed anywhere from being slightly larger than a human to being gigantic in size. Most miniatures will tend to be of the later type when used with 1/72 scale figures.

I will start by showing some of the shokugan/gashapon figures that I own. The standing pair are from series 1 of the Collect Club Seven Wonders Compilation (コレクト倶楽部 七不思議編) released by UHA Mikakuto (UHA味覚糖), and are a red oni (赤鬼) and blue oni (青鬼) respectively. The crouching figure is the red (赤) version of a yōkai netsuke (妖怪根付) from the Hyakki Yagyō Yōkai Collection (百鬼夜行妖怪コレクション) released by Furuta (フルタ).

The series 1 UHA figures are single piece castings made of a dense polystone resin. The Furuta figure is made of PVC, and a painted version is also available.

       鬼 (赤)       |       鬼 (天然色)  

The subsequent series 2 figures from UHA are a black oni (黒鬼) and a green oni (緑鬼) respectively.

The series 2 figures are multi-part PVC, and require some assembly.

The next figures come from the Rising Sun boardgame produduced by CMON. They include the Oni of Plagues, a Turtle Clan Shinto, and two Turtle Clan Bushi.

I'm not enthusiastic about the fancifully ornate weapons of the Oni of Plagues, but I liked the figure because it reminded me of Tsuchigumo from Nurarihyon no Mago. As for the Turtle Clan miniatures, I don't think they are actually supposed to be oni, but they are horned and fanged, so look close enough to be oni for me.

I particularly like that the monk on the Shinto figure is close in size to the similarly posed figure from the Arcane Legions game. However, I find the use of the term "shinto" for this class of characters by the game writers odd, and I'm thinking the word they should have used would be kannushi (but what do I know).

In the next image, we have the Oni of Blood which is also from the Rising Sun game, while next to it is a DDM Oni Night Haunter (Lords of Madness #35).

The Oni of Blood is a very elaborate sculpt, and I'd be really interested in seeing the production mold for it because it seems to have been made as a single piece.

I did a quick earthen wash over the pants of the Oni Night Haunter because I didn't like the original bright yellow color. The base was also replaced with a metal washer because it was so warped that I could not flatten it out using either hot water or a blow dryer.

The next two figures are the D&D Miniatures Icons of the Realms Ogre Mage (Classic Creatures #5), and a Reaper Female Oni (Bones 77486).

I like this CMG ogre mage because it has a single horn, which is sorely underrepresented in miniature oni. The turquoise and magenta skin of these two oni go well together, and are a nice variation on the traditional blue and red oni.

The next section covers all of my metal oni. The first three miniatures are a Ral Partha Ogre Mage (AD&D Monsters 11-405), a Ral Partha Dai-Oni (Bushido 53-912), and a Ral Partha Japanese Ogre (Children of the Night 13-039).

The last two figures are supposed to be armed with naginata, but I seem to have lost the weapons at some point.

The next image has an armed pair of Ral Partha Oni (Bushido 53-908), a Ral Partha Dai-Bakemono (Bushido 53-911), and an Asgard Oriental Ogre (Fantasy Monsters FM22).

The dai-bakemono is supposed to have a large tetsubo, but again, I seem to have lost the weapon. The Asgard miniature is the earlier version of their oriental ogre. It was probably originally holding some sort of weapon, but I'm not sure what type it was (the later resculpted version of this miniature carries a large two-handed mace).

The next image shows some old Reaper miniatures. The larger figure is a Bakemono (Daimyo 4027), while the three smaller ones are Oni (Daimyo 4028). The Daimyo Oni are sized like 15mm figures, and I get the feeling that they were originally supposed to be "oriental goblins". Certainly when these miniatures were first released by Texas Miniatures, they seem to have all been called bakemono, so they didn't start out as oni.

In any event, I'm grouping all the creatures called bakemono with oni because they look close enough going by looks alone. My understanding of the word "bakemono" is that it is a generic term like "monster", so using the word to indicate a specific type of creature is vague and confusing (I blame the Bushido RPG for this).

Along those lines, I'm counting the Grenadier Oriental Goblins (Fantasy Lords 184) shown in the next image among my ranks of oni.

Even so, these goblins don't have features that are particularly oni-like, and wear their hair in a chonmage, so I'll probably need to do a little modification to turn them into proper oni.

In the Legend of the Five Rings RPG, it seems that oni are called ogres, while demons are called oni. This is reflected in the AEG Clan War miniatures, with the Ogre Bushi (Shadowlands 13-103) looking like an oni, and the oni lord Kyoso no Oni (Shadowlands 99-002) looking like a demon.

The Lesser Oni (Shadowlands 13-113) are also very demonic, and look nothing like traditional oni at all. In fact, I would probably classify them as generic bakemono.

The final section covers 15mm oni from Alternative Armies, and Battle Valor Games.

The Alternative Armies figures are part of their Sengoku Japanese Fantasy line. In the first image (from left to right) – Oni with Claws (SGF04), Oni with Large Blade (SGF05), Oni with Large Blade (SGF06), Armoured Oni with Large Blade (SGF85), Armoured Oni with Claws (SGF86).

More Alternative Armies figures (from left to right) – Oni with Claws (SGF87), Oni Shamen [sic] (SGF88), Oni with Tetsubo (SGF89), Oni with Tetsubo Beckoning (SGF90)

The armored oni are human-sized, while the unarmored oni are shorter. I wish the unarmored oni had been made the same height as the armored ones.

The Battle Valor oni are figures from the Samurai fantasy skirmish Kickstarter by Philip Mann. I pledged at the Oni Lord level to get an Oni Army Set.

The first image is of the Oni Command (SAM126).

Next are the Dai Oni (SAM127).

Then the Oni (SAM128).

Last are the Small Oni (SAM129).

There are a lot of similar poses between the oni and dai oni, but the later are more suitable as 1/72 oni. I don't see the oni on the Battle Valor website at this time, but I imagine they will appear at some point in the future. Hopefully the Dai Oni Command set which was not unlocked during the Kickstarter campaign will be produced as well.

A final comparison shot of the various 15mm oni (and a Daimyo oni).

The 15mm dai oni are just about right for roughly human-sized oni. The others will either need to be converted to increase their height, or used as some other type of small yokai.

In closing, I'd like to mention the Dixon oni from their Legends of Nippon line (which I do not have). The Dixon website never really had any pictures of the oni, so I was hesitant about buying them because I didn't care for the overly thick, chunky style of the Dixon samurai.

However, they recently(?) posted a PDF file with illustrations of their oni and bakemono, which was very encouraging, since the miniatures look pretty faithful to the appearance of traditional oni. I will probably have to order some of these miniatures in the near future.

Sengoku Daimyo

I found these two blisters in a pile of unboxed gashapon at the hobby shop over the weekend. The people at the counter seemed to think they were manufactured by Furuta, but I haven't been able to verify that this is accurate. Furuta did release various samurai in 1/35 scale, but I have never heard of a line in 1/72.

メーカーは誰ですか?
The set on the left consists of Uesugi Kenshin and his mount, while the set on the right consists of Takeda Shingen and a retainer. I'm assuming it is Takeda since the screens bear the Takeda mon.

The figures are made of a soft vinyl, and come pre-painted. Details are soft and toy-like.

Kenshin has his sword arm bent back at the elbow at an uncomfortable angle (though you can't really see it in this picture). The figure was not designed to sit on his mount very well either (Kenshin's cape and the high cantle of the saddle make him tilt forward). The horse has a peg under one hoof so it can be plugged into the diorama base that comes with the set.

General Takeda (right) is wide. Really wide. I'm guessing it's Takeda, but he is not wearing his famous red armor with wigged helmet. In fact, his helmet is more reminiscent of Shimazu Yoshihiro's than any representation of Takeda's helmets that I am aware of. The accompanying samurai (left) has a peg in his foot to allow him to be plugged into the diorama base that comes with the set. I thought he was a mounted figure at first because he was so bow-legged.

The honjin (本陣) consist of a single two panel screen, and two single panel screens for the sides. The screens are made in hard plastic with the mon of each daimyo printed on the center of each panel. The screens come with pegs that allow them the be plugged into the diorama base.

Uesugi clan mon

Takeda clan mon
If anyone has any information on these figure sets, I would appreciate hearing from you.