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.

Relic Knights

During my frequent browsing on the internet in search of 1/72 miniatures, I came across a thread on the Soda Pop Miniatures forum that suggested that some of the figures from the Relic Knights game were actually close to 1/72 scale.

I was intrigued, but did not immediately get any of the miniatures, since from my experience, people who are not heavily invested in 1/72 figures don't seem to have a very good feel of how big they actually are.

Recently however, I finally broke down and ordered some of the figures mentioned in that particular forum thread to see if what they said was correct.

The news of course, is that the figures are much larger than 1/72 scale. I should have known better and looked more closely at the images provided in the thread, but I'm often blinded by optimism.

Purifiers (Shattered Sword Minions SPM142007)

The heads and torsos of the Purifiers could probably pass for 1/72, but their limbs are just too long. Their hands are small and delicate, but their feet are like those of 28mm figures.

The Prefects and Hasami (Doctrine Uniques SPM146004)

The Doctrine figures are pretty much like heroic 28mm, 32mm, or whatever figures, except for being thin and slender.

For some reason, Prefect Valeria was sculpted with her right foot rotated 180° (I fixed it for the scale comparison photo).

I wonder if this was done by the same guy who sculpted
the horse for the Italeri 1815 British Cavalry set

Some of the eyes are sculpted in relief, which kind of recalls the dismissive appellation of anime characters being "bug-eyed" as opposed to having oversized-eyes. Other faces are sculpted with more of a flat blank area where the eyes are to allow you to paint eyes at whatever size you prefer.

So as not to let the figures go completely to waste, I will see if I can convert some of the figures so that they can be used with 1/72 figures. I think the Purifiers will not be too difficult, but the Doctrine figures are probably a lost cause.

Mimic

The Mimic is one of the classic trap monsters from D&D. In the AD&D Monster Manual, they are described as capable of taking on the appearance of any type of inanimate object made of wood or stone, but they are sterotypically portrayed as medieval travel chests.

Another take on the Mimic that I've always rather liked comes from Dragon Quest, but these Mimics are more akin to tsukumogami (possessed/animated objects) than shapeshifting D&D Mimics.

Mimics are actually fairly scarce in miniature form. Ral Partha made a set of three different Mimics (chest, barrel, bed) for their AD&D Monsters line. More recently, Otherworld has produced some Mimics in metal, while resin Mimics come with the Super Dungeon Explore boardgame.

The Otherworld Mimics (left) are of the more traditional variety, while the SDE Mimics are of the DQ type (right). Both of them are pretty big for chests, but given that Mimics are supposed to occupy a volume of 150 cubic feet, they are pretty close to 1/72 scale (if not undersized).

Another creature related to the DQ type of Mimic is the Pot Devil (壺魔人 or つぼまじん) which attacks by swallowing anyone looking inside of it. I believe that they may have first appeared in DQ, but the only image I could find is from Final Fantasy where it is known as a Magic Pot.


These are dollhouse miniatures that I picked up from eBay, some of which I plan on using as Pot Devils. The first five are ceramic, while the last one is metal with a separate lid.

The typical Pot Devils seems to be colored in earth tones, and may often have an unglazed finish, so I'll probably add some surface details to the pots, and refinish with a rougher surface.

The last two types of monsters are also closer to being animated objects than actual Mimics, but it felt appropriate to include them in this post.

First we have the Maneating Casket from Castlevania and the Deathgrasp Sarcophagus from one of the newer incarnations of D&D. The Casket hops along, chasing it victim with the intent of eating them whole. I believe the Sarcophagus behaves similarly, though it merely imprisons its victims rather than eats them.

The Maneating Casket on the left is built of basswood. I'm going to see if I can get moulding and a cross made of strip styrene glued to the wood. If not, I'll have to buy some thicker plastic card to remake the casket. On the right is the Deathgrasp Sarcophagus (Demonweb #10) from the D&D CMG.

Last is the Creeping Coin, taken from Sir-Tech's Wizardry. These were animated piles of coins with a "breath attack" consisting of firing coins at the party. They were weak, and did almost no damage, but they could call for other wandering monsters (nothing more alluring to wandering monsters than the sound of jingling gold coins), which made them very dangerous.


To make the coins I sliced sections from a 0.02" plastic rod, glued them to a metal washer, and painted them gold. Next time I'll start by painting the rod gold so I won't have to worry about painting the edges of the coins.