TOOBS - Cool Alternate Miniatures

[Richards]

I thought I'd post about some cool alternative miniatures I found at a Michael's hobby shop in town. A company called "Safari Ltd." has these "Toobs" (foot-tall plastic tubes) filled with all manners of different plastic figurines, generally for about $8.00. So far, I've purchased the following:

INSECT TOOB - contains the following:
2 caterpillars (which make suitable stand-ins for carrion crawlers)
2 butterflies (one red, one blue)
2 cockroaches (suitable as giant cockroaches)
2 scorpions (suitable as Large monstrous scorpions, although they'll stand in as Medium or Huge if needed)
2 ants (suitable as giant ants)
1 spider (suitable as a Medium or Large monstrous spider)
1 bumblebee (suitable as a giant bee)
1 dragonfly (suitable as a giant dragonfly)
1 centipede (suitable as a Large monstrous centipede)
1 fly (could be used as a chasme demon with a little imagination)
1 praying mantis (suitable as a Large or Huge giant praying mantis)
1 grasshopper
1 ladybug

FOREST TOOB - contains the following:
1 wolf (suitable as a winter wolf or a worg, possibly a dire wolf)
1 bobcat (I've already used this as a krenshar once in my game)
1 bear (suitable as a dire bear)
1 bear cub (suitable as a brown bear)
1 eagle (sutable as a giant eagle)
1 cougar
1 moose
1 male deer
1 female deer
1 rabbit
1 fox
1 squirrel

WILD TOOB - contains the following:
1 crocodile (suitable as a giant crocodile, or even just as a rather large "normal" crocodile)
1 rhino (pretty much to scale)
1 hippo (pretty much to scale)
1 elephant (pretty much to scale)
1 camel (pretty much to scale)
1 lion (suitable as a large lion or small dire lion)
1 tiger (suitable as a large tiger or small dire tiger)
1 bear (suitable as a brown bear or a small dire bear)
1 black panther
1 giraffe
1 zebra

There are all kinds of other "Toobs" as well, although the other ones I've seen are perhaps less of a bargain as far as being useful as D&D figurines goes: there are Animal Babies, Sharks, Fish, Pandas, Spacemen, Pioneers, Egyptians (these had some cool figures that could be used as statues and oversized sarcophogi - they were a bit too big for the standard D&D miniatures), Lizards, and so on. Some of them are also available at our local zoo (at least the animal-based ones are).

Anyway, I just thought I'd share. They're a pretty good bargain, and you can see exactly what you're getting for your money.

Oh, and in the course of typing this up, I thought to go check out "Toobs" on Google, and I found a link for those who are interested: http://safariltd.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=CTGY&Category_Code=B0001-RE0027

Johnathan

 

[Steel_Wind]

We actually used a tube full of horses in these for mounts.

Imagine looking at the horse from the side. One of the guys in our group Dremmeled out a an upside down "T" in the body of a bunch of these tube horses. The slot would perfectly fit a WotC mini base, with the wide-open hollow enough to accommodate the legs of the mini.

To mount the mini - slide the base in the horse. You essentially have a mini standing inside the horse at mid thigh.

Now - I know what you're thinking. That's gonna look STUPID! And up close - yes, it does.

But from 5 feet back - where most of us are sitting around the table? It actually looks pretty damn good.

 

[MrFilthyIke]

But from 5 feet back - where most of us are sitting around the table? It actually looks pretty damn good.

Prove it with Pics.

 

[Mark CMG]

I've got a couple of horse Toobs and picked up the Medieval Knights(?) Toobs, mainly for the little dragon and the artillery piece. Fortunately around here (Chicagoland) they are sold at Michael's Crafts and Hobbies and you can almost always get a 40% off one item coupon, making the Toobs even cheaper.


http://www.iqtoys.au.com/iqtoys/images/knightsanddragonstoobxl1.jpg

http://www.iqtoys.au.com/site/page=item/item=1574

http://www.creationsensation.com/MuseumStore/replica_set.htm

http://www.creationsensation.com/MuseumStore/images/toobhorse.jpg


Some bits are more useful than others.

 

[Jdvn1]

It looks like the bases on some of them are too big. How'd they fit for you?

 

[Mark CMG]

It looks like the bases on some of them are too big. How'd they fit for you?

Some are right on the money and others are a bit too large or ridiculously small. But when I can get half a dozen of the dozen or so figs to work, and get the toobs for three bucks and change, it works out to be worthwhile.

Some toobs are really mostly good, like the horse toobs. The dino toobz are hit and miss. Wild animals are mostly good, but the dogs toobs has some that will be ine if you match them up next to the new Frost Giant Jarl fgure coming out. The Medieval Knights are mostly big clunky guys and unfit for the game board if you are mainly a minis guy, but if you don't mind toys and legos, then they'll do just fine filling out some ranks.

I'll try to take some pics.

 

[Mean Eyed Cat]

Yes! Now I have some minis for my next adventure when my group meets a horde of dire pandas:

No, but seriously, how tall are these miniatures compared to D&D minis? I was looking at the Pirates Toob and wondering if they would be compatible [although that ship is probably waaay to small ]

 

[Agent Oracle]

They are approximately the right size. 1.5" to 3" tall. Not actually bad mind you, and they fit in quite well on the table.

 

[Mark CMG]

Yes! Now I have some minis for my next adventure when my group meets a horde of dire pandas:

Those guys are screwed. Bet they will regret buying that discounted bamboo underwear!


Here are some thumbs with links to (much) larger pics. I added some "known" minis in with the pics, like a DDM hobgoblin and a GW skeleton to give some perspective and scale. These include some other oddball minis I picked up, since I was taking pics anyway and wanted to give an idea how many inexpensive minis can be had if you keep your eyes peeled.

This first one includes a dollar store dragon (more on those later), a couple of GW skeletons, a plastic scorpian (based for a few cents) from a dollar store bag of animals, a mage knight skeleton (re-based for a few cents, used as a giant skeleton) bought at an auction in a four big bags of someone's dumped Mage Knight army (paid about six bucks for a couple hundred figures, and an ape (based for a few cents) from a dollar store wild animals bag.



Moving right, most of the same stuff, but in the middle is a stone giant that I believe is from a Hero game (? someone chime in if you know better, please!), a plastic scorpian (based for a few cents) from a dollar store bag of animals, a DDM hobgoblin, and the front paw of . . .



. . . the front paw of and whole figure of a DDM Hellcat, the Dragon & Knights toob dragon (based on a cut up dungeon tile, call it Large), another DDM hobgoblin, and then the Dragon & Knights toob artillery piece (good size for DDM figures, I think).



The next pic is that dollar store dragon (based on a chunk of dungeon tile) with a couple of figs for scale and its container.



Opened up, it comes in pieces with assembly instructions (though they are hardly necessary). They seem to come in black and green, so I picked up a couple of each, at a dollar apiece. I also got some use from the container building a stronghold for my Hordes of the Things army (more on that in the not too distant future on my website.



This Oliphant-sized elephant cost $0.88 at Walmart, so I picked up a couple. I'll mash up some howdahs or archer platforms for them sooner or later, or just have them trample some PCs au natural.



Here's the rest (besides the little dragon and the artillery piece) that came in the Dragon and Knights toob. As you can see, next to the skeleton and hobgoblin, they are somewhat outrageously large. You'd have to call them between seven and eight foot tall, I suppose. I do not think the ones on foot would fit well on a one inch stand but the riders could be easily used on a Large base.



As with the riders from the previous pic, the horses from the Horse Toob would work fine, IMO. Being plastic, they could easily be shaved down on the sides to allow a rider to be worked onto one (using green stuff to make a saddle and some thread for a bridle). I find when I pick up old minis at auction, there are often horseless riders sifting around in the bottom of the bag or box, so these come in handy. Certainly, they are very useful as a herd of wild horses, as additional horses for an adventuring group, added to a matchbox to make a cart or wagon, or as horse milling around the outskirts of a campsite. All good in this toob, IMO.

 

[dragonlordofpoondari]

I use the horses meself and would recommend them. I picked them up with a mind to use them in a conversion of B10 Night's Dark Terror. Everything else I've seen from Toobs in the stores just looks a little too cartoony or out of scale to merit a spot on my game table.