The one that I chose was known in the Greyhawk campaign as the bullet...

Another iconic creature from D&D that began life as a toy monster from Hong Kong is the bulette. The toy is a quadruped version of the Ultraman kaiju Telesdon (テレスドン), also known as the Underground Monster (地底怪獣; Chitei Kaiju).

Telesdon was a subterranean creature, and had the ability to burrow underground. Its segmented tail and limbs were reminiscent of an earthworm.

In what seems to be an odd coincidence, Tim Kask who gave the D&D monster its stats, made the bulette a tunneling creature that would burst out of the ground to attack its prey.

Telesdon also had the ability to breathe fire, which the bulette does not have (but it would be cool if the bulette did have this ability).

Below is a comparison of the original plastic toy, and the Grenadier Juggernaut (Monster Manuscript Vol.V 1505, MM39).

Both figures look undersized compared to the pictures from the Monster Manual, and would probably be more suited for 15mm fantasy. The Juggernaut is sculpted with realism in mind, but I prefer the original design. Archive made a Sharkadillo that is the spitting image of the toy, but it is probably even harder to find than that plastic toy nowadays. In any event, I don't think the Sharkadillo miniature is any bigger, so the point is moot.

I don't know the context of this image from Ultra Zone, but I find it particularly funny because the bulette is also known as a "landshark", and Kask had the SNL skit firmly in mind when he gave the bulette its nickname.

Candygram!

Then inspiration struck me. It was a rust monster...

The rust monster is another iconic creature from D&D that originated from toy monsters that were made in Hong Kong. Based on general appearance, it's likely that the toy was modeled after Kemular (ケムラー), also known as the Poison Gas Monster (毒ガス怪獣; Dokugasu Kaiju). Kemular does not have antennae, but the tail and back (with the wing case folded) seem fairly analogous to the rust monster. In any case, rust monsters are the nightmare of any character with magic weapons and armor made of metal.

In old school illustrations, rust monsters were not particularly big, but in later editions they were portrayed as much larger creatures.

I like the original way in which they were presented as whimsical creatures, like in The Very Hungry Rust Monster by Steve Dismukes. I don't think every monster needs to be huge and menacing.

The miniatures of rust monsters in my collection include the Archive Rust Eater from the Dungeon Nasties II blister pack (Fantasy 5040), the Grenadier Ruster Beast (Monster Manuscript Vol.IX 1509, MM74), and the TSR Rust Monster (AD&D 5612).

The Rust Eater has the bumpy skin of a rust monster, but is bipedal, with aardvarkish features. The other two miniatures are pretty consistent in appearance to the original plastic toy.

As far as size goes, they're all probably about twice as large as I would prefer them to be, but they do not look overly large if you consider them to be later edition rust monsters.

Umber Hulk

As many old school gamers know, some of the iconic creatures from D&D originated from plastic monsters that were made in Hong Kong, and sold in the toy aisle of the local drug store.



What is less well known is that these Hong Kong toys were loosely modeled after kaiju from Ultraman (and other tokusatsu shows). The umber colored creature on the left is what is generally recognized as the inspiration for the umber hulk.

It is most likely that the umber hulk was derived from the kaiju known as Antlar (アントラー), but the Hong Kong toy does not bear much of a similarity to Antlar outside of the mandibles, and in fact looks more like Gomora/Gomora II (ゴモラ).

As a side note, Antlar and Gomora appear together in episode 4 of Ultra Galaxy Mega Monster Battle, so maybe the patchisaur was somehow derived from that episode.

The modern iteration of the umber hulk is more true to the original source material than the 1st ed. AD&D version of the umber hulk.



Here is a comparison of some of the 1st edition type umber hulks that I own.



To me, the Citadel (ADD77) version is ideal in terms of appearance and size for use with 1/72 scale fantasy. It really captures the appearance of the original Sutherland umber hulk. Next to the Citadel umber hulk, the Heritage Brawn Hulk (Dungeon Dwellers 1257) seems rather scrawny. It does not have any outer mandibles, and has a pebble textured skin. Perhaps it can be used as a vodyanoi. The last miniature is the Ral Partha umber hulk (AD&D Monsters 11-404). It has an armored carapace and mandibles, but the outer set of eyes is not very pronounced. It is more mesomorphic than hulkish, and is too tall for use with 1/72 miniatures.