I think, in general, I am more immune to the depredations of nostalgia than most folks, but not entirely immune. The Dungeons & Dragons figures Super7’s Re/Action line are like a knife honed out of nostalgia that could split the atoms of my being. They are so good they almost cause me pain. Like being haunted by the ghost of a childhood that never existed. Shit’s fucking twisted.

So we have the Githyanki from Emmanuel’s Fiend Folio cover, the Sorceress from Erol Otus’ Basic Set and the Efreeti from David C. Sutherland’s Dungeon Masters Guide. They are presented in the Re/Action style, which is basically the classic 5-point articulation of Kenner’s Star Wars toys. Starting with Alien, I believe, Super7 has slowly turned a vast swath of ’70s and ’80s pop culture into these toys, but few are so perfectly suited to the style as this cohort. They look so perfectly correct, it’s hard to explain. I think it is easiest to see on the Githyanki, maybe — all the detailing is taken directly from the painting, but in becoming three dimension (but also stiff and sculptural), it become something else entirely, recognizable but different. It weirds me out a little, in sort of the same way Jung’s archetypes weird me out, or the Goetia.

I knew the Githyanki was going to sell out fast. I was a little skeptical about the other two rising to that same level, just because, I think, that I don’t vibe on the way the renders looked in the promo materials, but they are all three monstrously cool in person.