Zargonians Archives - Vintage RPG

Dragon Set B (1980)

Stu Horvath — Fri, 12 Jan 2024 05:00:00 +0000

This is Dragon Set B of Zargonian standees, illustrated byt James Mirick — Ruby, Gold, Green, Brass, White and Bronze. Again, I think that’s what these are, because I stupidly opened both sets and don’t remember which was which and, as you can see, some of them are not super obvious in their coloring. I love these a little more than Set A — they’re both rendered a bit better and stranger. Bizarre poses. Odd horns. Really dig the cloud towers in the background of the Ruby Dragon, too.

The post Dragon Set B (1980) appeared first on Vintage RPG.

Giant Creature Sheet V (1980)

Stu Horvath — Thu, 11 Jan 2024 05:00:00 +0000

Zargonians Giant Creature Sheet V (1980), features James Mirick illustrations of a Titan, an Ettin and four Golems. I forgot until just now that part of the charm of these standees is a sort of disregard for scale beyond the sizes of the die cuts. Like, I love the idea of a Colossus of Ylourgne-size Flesh Golems, but the typical examples in D&D are not nearly that big. Nor are Titans and Ettins of comparable size. I feel like this is nitpicking, though.

Love, love, love this Iron Golem. I never really pictured one of those jogging before. I also like how the color scheme and its smoothness give it a stealthy vibe. Delightfully atypical!

The post Giant Creature Sheet V (1980) appeared first on Vintage RPG.

Large Creature Sheet 2 (1980)

Stu Horvath — Wed, 10 Jan 2024 05:00:00 +0000

This is Zargonians Large Creature Sheet 2 (1980). Illustrated by James Mirick, the focus here is mostly on winged critters. And here, Zargonians fails me. A winged manticore? GTFO. ¶ For real, though, I don’t know that I would ever need that many Griffons or Hippogriffs. The Pegasus looks hilariously un-magnificent. It looks like the Nightmare just broke a leg and will need to be put down. Those Ax Beaks are nice, though, and I love those Minotaurs.

The post Large Creature Sheet 2 (1980) appeared first on Vintage RPG.

Giant Creature Set II (1980)

Stu Horvath — Tue, 09 Jan 2024 05:00:00 +0000

This is Zargonians Giant Creature Set II (1980), consisting of the four classic Elementals, a Djinn and and Efreet. They’re great. I do think it is a little sad the Air Elemental doesn’t get to have a face though. Fire Elemental sure is creepy!

The post Giant Creature Set II (1980) appeared first on Vintage RPG.

Dragon Set A (1980)

Stu Horvath — Mon, 08 Jan 2024 05:01:00 +0000

Man, I love Zargonians. They’re a line of die-cut heavy stock cardboard standees from Bearhug Enterprises. They launched a big line — 34 SKUs — in 1980 and then effectively disappeared from tabletop history. I learned about them a couple years ago because they were listed in a weird onetime tabletop distro catalog I have and when I went looking for them; I discovered Noble Knight had a mountain of sealed dead stock. Hooray!

This is Dragon Set A. Unlike the other sets, which have three duplicate sheets, this contains six unique standees in the line’s largest size. These are the Diamond, Red, Silver, Blue, Black and Copper Dragons (I think; I stupidly opened both Dragon sets and its hard to tell the metallic dragons apart now that they are mixed). I love the art, by James Mirick. It’s pretty crude, but has that old school amateur appeal that I still find so delicious. I like the fact that these don’t look anything like established D&D dragons, but that despite the simplicity of the design, they all have similar physiological characteristics that imply they are all related species. Good stuff.

The post Dragon Set A (1980) appeared first on Vintage RPG.

Giant Creature Sheet VI (1980)

Stu Horvath — Fri, 27 Jan 2023 10:01:00 +0000

Giant Creatures Sheet VI is the best Zargonians sheet, because demons (the Dragons are pretty great too, but that’s for another time). These are so good because they are so recognizably modeled after the source material, but also undeniably in the artist’s own style. Masterpiece.

The post Giant Creature Sheet VI (1980) appeared first on Vintage RPG.

Giant Creature Sheet I (1980)

Stu Horvath — Thu, 26 Jan 2023 10:01:00 +0000

The Zargonian giants actually feel more in line with the D&D monsters they represent than the previous sheets. Maybe that’s because giants are basically just big people, so there is less margin for wild error. I really do love how feral the cloud and fire giant look while the hill and stone giants look pensive.

The post Giant Creature Sheet I (1980) appeared first on Vintage RPG.

Giant Creature Sheet III (1980)

Stu Horvath — Wed, 25 Jan 2023 10:00:00 +0000

Oh man, look at these idiots. I’d quip, but that bear is just killing me.

I generally love standees. They are way easier and cheaper and more convenient and lighter than metal miniatures. You don’t have to paint them! But they’ve never really caught on. There are modern options, sure, but my feeling is that people either want the elaborateness of miniature play (and the accompanying hobby), or just want to stick to theater of the mind.

Despite a pretty robust product line, I don’t think Zargonians lasted very long (there are no dates on these). I think this partly because I got mine from Noble Knight, and they have a ton of them, still in shrink wrap. That gives me “new old stock” vibes, like Bearhug went out of business and 20 years later, the owner sent the remaining stock to Noble Knight one weekend after cleaning out the garage.

The post Giant Creature Sheet III (1980) appeared first on Vintage RPG.

Large Creature Sheet 3 (1980)

Stu Horvath — Tue, 24 Jan 2023 10:01:00 +0000

The Zargonians Large Creature Sheet 3 features some classic humanoids — ogres, bugbears and trolls. With the exception of the trolls, maybe, they don’t look particularly like the D&D monsters, but I don’t particularly care. I love them. I love how the trolls look built to eat. I love how the ogres look kind of pensive and sad. I love that the bugbears are yellow.

Are Zargonian’s a first? They are almost certainly the first standees that are die cut from such sturdy cardboard. I am pretty confident they are the first full color standees. I am not sure when Chaosium started including standees in their box set, but I am pretty sure these were the first standees offered for sale as a standalone product. Probably.

The post Large Creature Sheet 3 (1980) appeared first on Vintage RPG.

Large Creature Sheet 5 (1980)

Stu Horvath — Mon, 23 Jan 2023 10:01:00 +0000

Last year around this time, I posted about the Game Master Catalog, an attempt in 1980 to produce an industry-wide glossy sales/distro catalog. There are tons of obscure games and accessories in there, but my favorite was Zargonians, a line of die-cut cardboard monster standees from a company called Bearhug Enterprises.

This is Large Creature Sheet 5. You get three identical sheets in the pack. I have no idea who the artist is, but I adore the art. It’s crude and colorful and vibrant in exactly the way I want my old school RPG art. It also…seems ill-informed? Like, the Rakshasa, a sort of woman/dog centaur thing, does not line up with the D&D version of the monster at all. Or anything, honestly. The Roper seems to just be a pile of rocks. Others are obviously trying to avoid copyrighted names — Dimension Beast instead of Displacer Beast, Lopey instead of…I don’t honestly know. The Leucrotta? But then the Beholder is just labeled Beholder, so I dunno. I like how it kind of look like a mushroom forest is growing out of its head, though.

The post Large Creature Sheet 5 (1980) appeared first on Vintage RPG.