Ancient Creatures of Chaos: Demons of the 1980s: Zygor, Leaping Slomm, Ngaaranh, and SA-ATOR!!!

We will start off the new year by looking at some of the things Hungry Ghosts was playing with last year instead of making more blog postings about Squats. First, Ancient Creatures of Chaos!

 We have a trio of ancient monsters, the Mark of Chaos Creatures from Citadel Compendium 1 (1983): Zygor Snake Arms, Leaping Slomm Two Face, and Ngaaranh Chaos Spawn. 

Lovely Ngaaranh Chaos Spawn

And Leaping Slomm Two Face

 

Leaping Slomm is a Mutant Chaos Troll

Lastly, Mr Zygor Snake Arms. Snake Tail too.

 

 Yes, Beardlings, 30 years ago, no internet (for practical purposes), and photographs were too expensive for hobby catalogs. At least we have some drawings. Hungry Ghosts remembers ordering miniatures just by the name alone: Female Elf Ranger. What's she going to look like? We'll find out in 4 to 6 weeks when she arrives in the mailbox. (We also had to pay $3 for the catalog, which also took 4 to 6 weeks to arrive. A primitive system for desperate young gamers, who also might be mistaken for devil worshipers, but that is a tale for another day. Or an early Tom Hanks film).

http://solegends.com/citcat1984arch/ArcList11-01.htm

http://solegends.com/citle1980/c1chaos/index.htm

Now, from 1985, SA-ATOR, the Gigantic Demon Lord.
Part of Tony Ackland's Arcane Monstrosities series.

SA-ATOR is a Gigantic Demon Lord of Complex Thought.

"No creature broods with black evil as does SA-ATOR, and no other creatures does he despise more than the pathetic race of humanity. His malice is bottomless, his hatred a deathly palor that glows black upon his rank and leprous hide He could destroy humanity if he wished. But SA-ATOR is far too subtle, and far too cruel, to merely slay mankind. That would he too easy! too unsatisfying! SA-ATOR knows that there are terrors worse than death, horrors more profound than the maw of oblivion, agony a thousand times more intense than the death rattle. No - instead he delights in the corruption of man, pleasures in the dance of death; in the war and hatred and cruelty that he seeds in humanity. These are emotions lie knows well; emotions that could be read in his gleaming yellow eyes were there a creature that dare look. But few living creatures could survive the stare of hatred in that face, or breathe the exhaled air of corruption that issues from that foul muzzle. A few that tried would be lucky enough to die. More likely they would themselves become twisted with bitterness, turned upon their own race and driven insane with lust for death and carnage."

http://solegends.com/citta/ta8saator/index.htm 

By April 1986, technology had progressed to allow photographs.

Despite his brooding about the corruption of humankind, SA-ATOR gets 10 Stomp attacks per turn.

Deadly Poison Breath attack too.

The 80s were a good time to be a

Gigantic Demon Lord.

Chaos Blister Packs from the Dawn of Warhammer: C35 Chaos Warriors

Today we will take the first brief tour through some blister packs from the early days of Warhammer Fantasy Battle and 40K from the Realm of Chaos. Weirdness abounds in a time of poor quality control and questionable contents.

 Here we have a blister pack of 4 Chaos Warriors from the RC3201 Series.

 They are solid metal beasts of Chaos. Three are old sculpts, old enough to have integral shields. The upper two are old enough that they first appeared as drawings in the Spring 1985 Citadel Journal.

 Upper right, the "Evil Warrior" and the unnamed fellow in the middle.

Hungry Ghosts also has Corsair, Champion, and High Assassin. Axe Lord is in the mail. Back to the pack.

Back in the early days, not so much thought was given to making sure that only necessary bits were included without any excess. So we can see here that even though three warriors have integral shields and the fourth has a giant axe, there is still a plastic shield sprue hidden under the Chaos Warriors.

More curiously, we have plastic crossbows in there. Why? The Winds of Chaos Blow Strange.

 Here we have Jagglespur, from the C35 series as well, shown in the 3rd Citadel Compendium from 1985.

And Fenris and Harrowhound as well...

... as too many others

Anyway, Jagglespur has some illustrious stylistic inspiration -

 Pallas Athena by Gustav Klimt

 Gustav Klimt Pallas Athena Detail

Back to Jagglespur...

 And Klimt's Judith Holofernes, and several thousand years older, an Assyrian frieze.

So we have some inspiration. But look at how much nasty flash is on this mini. So much for quality control. As well as messy casting being a sure sign of a recast mini.

Back to Judith Holofernes, just because.