Of note, Holmes used the name of the Green Dragon Inn from Tolkien as the name of the tavern in Portown in the Holmes Basic Sample Dungeon, and in the Boinger and Zereth stories. This was apparently independent of the same usage in Greyhawk City.
The figure is from the Minifigs Mythical Earth line, one of the first line of fantasy minis, produced starting in 1972 per the Lost Minis wiki. They were meant to represent Middle-Earth characters, although were named generically. This mini is ME58 Dragon, obviously representing Smaug from the Hobbit.
Another photo from the same auction, showing the dragon with two other unpainted Minifigs minis that it was auctioned with, ME49 Gondor Knight and ME59 Eagle. Unfortunately, the right wing is missing from the dragon:
Any connection in your mind between Portown and Portland?
ReplyDeleteI don't know if Dr. Holmes meant there to be one, but since my fantasy campaign is set in the mythical realm of "Norego" I tend to make one. Full disclaimer: I'm actually running an AD&D first ed game, not Homes Basic, although I've adapted the Holmes initiative system and a few other bits of Holmesian flavor.
DeleteLige, My apologies, I meant to respond earlier to your comment. There's certainly a similarity in names, but I haven't noted any other connections between the two. Holmes didn't move to Portland until ~15 years after the Basic Set was published.
DeleteJust saw this now. It's a shame those listings are long lost to ebay. There seem to be a handful of "Holmes Miniatures" still up, but all historicals. I enjoyed trying to ID all the minis pictured in Holmes' "Fantasy Roleplaying Games" book, but of course some pictures are too small to tell, and the auction might have given some clues.
ReplyDelete