For a long time, I didn’t think Quest for the Cursed Bone (1984) actually existed. The other Kid Stuff D&D tie-ins (like Black Dragon Bog) weren’t exactly easy to find, but there were enough floating around that I knew I’d get my hands on them eventually. Unlike those, which are 7-inch records accompanied by a storybook, Cursed Bone was apparently a 12” LP with no storybook. Until then, I didn’t know Kid Stuff (who produced lots of record/tape-and-book tie-ins for a variety of properties) even made LPs. Coupled with the fact that, for a long while, there was no real record of the thing online aside from one old photo, I began to suspect that Cursed Bone only existed as a kind of prototype or was only released to test markets, like the wind-up D&D toys from LJN.
And, honestly, I still suspect that. Only nine other people have the thing listed in their Discogs and I have only seen one copy surface on eBay in ten years (this one). So I dunno. The hilarious thing is that I can’t bear to listen to these things. Black Dragon Bog was so full of fremdschämen, I’ve never had the grit to put the others on the turntable, including this one. So I have no idea why anyone wants a cursed bone. This one has the tightest sleeve art of the group, though — Mercion looks particularly cool on the back cover, I think. No idea who the wizard is, or the elf.
If you want to hear about cursed bones, someone has thoughtfully uploaded the audio to YouTube.
A great find!! The high res scans are very appreciated! If you’d like to know, the Wizard on the back is Ringlerun, and the Half-Elf on the front is Caruso. Interestingly, he has brown hair here, however he has blond hair in every other depiction of him (The Forest of Enchantment, Characters Coloring Book, puffy stickers). In addition to those pictured, the recording also features Filaree, Skylla, and Zargash!
Oh man, pity Zargash isn’t in the art, that character design is so good!