Advanced Dungeons Dragons
If you ask any 80s toy collector what the best figure from that era was, you'll find many will say Warduke from LJN's Advanced Dungeons & Dragons toy line, and I would have to agree.
I had quite a few of these toys growing up and always looked forward to going to the toy department in the local Tesco's, I have vivid memories of getting Warduke from there after a swimming lesson. He became my go-to figure to play with and I would spend hours making castles out of old cardboard boxes, and even made my own version of the Fortress of Fangs playset out of Lego. The Lego fortress must have been impressive, as my parents even took a photo of it.
LJN was founded in 1970 by Jack Friedman and produced both video games and toys. As far as toys go its heyday was the early 80s, when it started creating licensed products, including the 1982 Brooke Shields doll and fashion line, Steven Spielberg's E.T. Movie toys, Thundercats, Michael Jackson doll, Gremlins and more.
The Advanced Dungeons & Dragons line launched in 1983 with a selection of action figures and monsters based on the fantasy table top roleplaying game created by Gary Gygax and Dave
Arneson back in 1974.
The toys coincided with the cartoon series co-created by Marvel and TSR, but they had very little to do with it, apart from a few odd cameos from the toy characters, even though TSR were involved in both.
The first wave of toys consisted of 11 figures, three mounts and two monsters as well
as an incredible play set. No two figures looked alike, as they were all made from completely unique parts. Warduke, Kelek, Ringlerun, and Strongheart were all about 3 3/4 inches tall, Northlord, Ogre King, and the Young Male Titan were taller at around 5 inches, the rest all varied in size with the smallest being the Good Dwarf Fighter Elkhorn.
Warduke and Strongheart were by far my favourites of this first wave as they were featured fighting each other in an amazing piece of artwork on the back of the cards. I would spend hours studying this painting as it looked so exciting and it's still my favourite card art of all time.
Both figures had mounts they could ride, Warduke had Nightmare an evil looking horse covered in flames, Strongheart had Destrier his steed and also a Bronze Dragon. These mounts featured saddles with built in character legs, so when you popped the figure inside them it looked like their legs sat properly astride them. A great idea, but it did mean you could only use these specific figures with them and the mounts really lacked in poseability with only their heads able to rotate.
Hook Horror and Dragonne, the larger monsters released with this first wave, suffered from simplified movement as well, having rotatable arms and head only. This didn't stop my Warduke getting into many battles with Hook Horror.
The second wave of figures released in 1984 saw 8 new characters, along with reworked versions of Strongheart, Warduke, Elkhorn and Zarak — all now with the added 'Battle-Matic' feature. A lever on the back of the figure allowed you to move one arm up and down in a slashing
action, or a button on the waist would cause the upper body to rotate. As well as the Battle-Matic feature, the larger five inch figures benefited from 'Shield shooter' where the left hand held a missile launcher and could fire out hidden projectiles as part of their shields.
Only one new larger monster came with this second wave, but it was one everybody wanted — Tiamat the five headed female dragon that featured in many episodes of the cartoon series. It's one of the most sought after toys in the line and is incredibly hard to find, and even harder to find one that doesn't have the wings snapped off.
As far as playsets go, the Fortress of Fangs is right up there with the best of them. Loosely based on the shape of a snake's head, it features two layers filled with traps and gadgets. A secret trapdoor at the back drops you into the lava cave below, surrounded by stalagmites and stalactites that make up the Fangs of the set. All this is watched over by a purple devil monster.
As well as the main line of action figures, monsters and playset LJN and TSR also created a large number of PVC and Bendy toys. These were really nicely sculpted and painted figurines with quite a few based on monsters found in the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Monster Manual.
The bendy figures came individually packed on less impressive card backs than the main figures, while the PVC figures depending on the size of the character often came as two packs and sometimes with extra display pieces, like gold or treasure.
Some truly fantastic names were given to these toys, Carrion Crawler, Bullywugs of the Bog, Odious Ogre, and Orcs of the Skeleton Bone, to name just a few.
For years no one really collected these toys and you could pick them up cheaply and easily. In recent times this has changed and they are now much sought after, so prices are on the rise. Wave one figures are the easiest to find still, but are certainly not as common as they used to be. The second wave has always been less easy to track down and as they came with a good selection of weapons they are much harder to find complete and consequently demand a higher price.
By far the hardest to find is Tiamat the Dragon. She didn't have a major release, so has always been in short supply. As the wings are very easily broken, she is even harder to find complete. I do have one, minus the wings, and even in that condition she's a beauty.