Hail to the queen! This is the Tiamat toy from LJN Toys’ official Dungeons & Dragons line, released in 1984.

This is, I think, the white whale of many a D&D toy collection. Until I opened the box this shipped in a couple months ago, I had never seen one of these in person. I never expected to own one, either, because they are crazy expensive. This is because they were fragile as hell, right out of the box in 1984.

There are two common break points. The front legs do a grabbing motion if you press on of the spines on her back. The attachment for the arms is pretty fragile and the grabbing motion puts too much pressure on it, so you’ll see a lot of these on eBay lacking arms (even brand new, the arms apparently had a worrying wobble to them). The wings are the second weak point. They attach via plastic tabs and they fatigue and break pretty easily. This one had both those problems (which is how I got a reasonable price), but the previous owner made repairs that are, I think, pretty solid. Still, the whole toy has a delicate feel, as if breathing on it funny would break it. Not a great feature for a kid’s toy.

She’s kind of awesomely doofy, combining as she does too many features. The four minor heads look pretty silly just pegged to the shoulders and they don’t pose well (though, honestly, I didn’t try too hard lest they fall of in my hand and make a grown man cry). The red head is nicely sculpted (the closing jaw action is also very nice), though, as is the body. It just all comes together awkwardly.

Anyway, she’s beautiful. I love her.