The 1983 Montgomery Ward Christmas Catalog hits pay dirt for D&D – they had the LJN toys well represented, with selections from the regular action figure line, the bendies, PVC and even the Fortress of Fangs all present. Kind of weird how they were grouped, though.

For the actual D&D game, you’ve got a mess. Both the Basic and Expert are available, but the photos are a hodgepodge of the contents from both the 1981 Moldvay and 1983 Mentzer versions. I enjoy how the old Gateway to Adventure TSR catalog snuck into the product shot, too.

Finally, the catalog offered two of the ill-advised D&D crafting items. Ostensibly, these are licenses of the cartoon, but I kind of wonder if they are also examples of the Blume brothers’ weird foray into crafting products (they tried to get into needlepoint, if I recall correctly). Anyway, these are a wood burning kit and a candle making kit and I would probably kill a man to get my hands on intact copies today…

Anyway, that’s it! Happy holidays, gang! It has, once again, been a delight hanging out with you and talking about RPGs all year!