You Never Forget Your First Dragon

[Dr.Bedlam]

I saw this ad in Fantasy Modeling #5 back around '80 or '81 and immediately sent off for the Dragontooth catalog, and promptly bought the dragon. I think it cost something like $20, if you factor in the shipping. I knew when the box containing him arrived, because I think the box must have weighed twenty pounds.

 

He was about the size of my hand, five and a half inches from tabletop to wing tip, and weighed approximately fifty pounds. Solid lead. Eight parts; Two wings, torso, four legs, and the top of his head and upper jaw. Wings would NOT stay on with crazy glue, epoxy, solder, or Sovereign Glue.

 

My players must have fought that dragon three or four times in the three years we existed as a gaming group before we all went off to college and scattered to the four winds. One of the boys named him Skippy. As in, "Dragon? Oh, man, Skippy's gonna hit the table!"

 

There weren't a whole lot of dragons back then. Toy dragons may have existed, but we didn't have any clue where to find one. And metal dragons had begun to exist, but I lived in a little tiny Texas cow town in the middle of nowhere. For us, there was Skippy, and we loved him well.

 

So naturally, he was among the things my parents tossed out when I left for college. I have never seen another Dragontooth dragon like him. He was seventy pounds of solid lead, and probably illegal to sell, these days, but I'd buy another one in a minute.

 

 This is my newest dragon. Arrived today. He's pretty, and I hear they have him at Wal Mart, now. He and his box of friends cost fifteen bucks.

And back in 1980, I'd have flapped my arms and flown to the moon by sheer force of personality if I thought it would have got me a dragon like this.

But then.... today... you can find dragons anywhere. I think Reaper makes one or two different dragons, don't they......?

Who was YOUR first dragon?

Edited August 1, 2020 by Dr.Bedlam

[TGP]

These are Die Cast ??

[Dr.Bedlam]

7 minutes ago, TGP said:

These are Die Cast ??

 

Skippy? I have no idea.

The Nano Metalfigs in the second picture? The box says they are. They aren't pewter, and they aren't 28mm; they are closer to whatever scale the rest of the Nano Metalfigs are. Bigger than 28mm, but somewhat smaller than Green Army Men. Jada/Nano Metalfigs have made Disney figures, Halo, Harry Potter, DC and Marvel superheroes, and suchlike in the past, as well as die cast metal cars.

The detail isn't much to write home about, and the paint is enamel baked on, and probably applied by frisket and airbrush at a factory in China. At least two different sets are available at Wal-Mart in Denver at the moment; I had to order the one with the dragon. A fourth set is slated, but has not yet hit retail or the website, to my knowledge.

Edited August 1, 2020 by Dr.Bedlam

[Disciple of Sakura]

2 hours ago, Dr.Bedlam said:

Who was YOUR first dragon?

The first dragon I ever actually painted was a pewter Pathfinder Red from Reaper.

[Inarah]

IIRC it was 1986 when I bought the Grenadier Guardian Dragon and painted it with metallic red nail polish. Two coats.  There's a pic on the forum (not mine): https://forum.reapermini.com/index.php?/topic/78714-guardian-dragon-grenadier/

 

I still have him after all these years, still metallic red, thought I did go back at some point and paint the horns white with real paint.  He's never seen game play. :( 

 

Five years later I would put a deposit down for the complete set of Julie Guthrie dragons.... and watch the game store go out of business before delivering. 

 

I never really got into dragons.  I picked up Ral Partha's Silver Dragon at some point, painted blue and silver.  Also the Celestial Dragon which I did in an asian multicolor scheme.  Aside from a couple of the Bones baby dragons (https://forum.reapermini.com/index.php?/topic/72731-teaching-your-dragon-to-fly/)  I haven't collected or painted them much. 

 

[haldir]

I'm pretty sure it was this guy, from Ral Partha:

 

Rogon, the Balrog Dragon!! RAWR!'

 

 

 

 (not mine, just a random net pic)

 

I may still have somewhere but he must got lost in all the years that I painted him up. I went with a similar scheme on the box art but I painted the spine a dark blue (Partha or flip top Citadel paints!!)

 

I think I may have followed him up with Huma's SIlver Dragon or Clutch of Fear. I had both, but which came first I can't recall.

 

[TheAuldGrump]

I think my first was the Ral Partha Golden Dragon and their Frost Drake.

 

Followed closely by the Dragon of the Month that Grenadier had running in the early eighties - which were some pretty awesome dragons, for the time.

 

The Auld Grump

[Dr.Bedlam]

38 minutes ago, TheAuldGrump said:

I think my first was the Ral Partha Golden Dragon and their Frost Drake.

 

Followed closely by the Dragon of the Month that Grenadier had running in the early eighties - which were some pretty awesome dragons, for the time.

 

The Auld Grump

 

I had several of those.... the only one remaining is the Golden Dragon, still on display in the bedroom. Wish I still had the box.

[WhiteWulfe]

I think my first dragon is still unfinished... Something something rainbow dragon challenge. Ebonwrath I think.  Hubby was in the hospital at the time with appendicitis last time I update that thread (well, more or less anyways) 

 

My first finished dragon would be the one from Dragons Don't Share, a kit I really wish Reaper would re-release or that Ron would stop teasing about it "possibly being a power up" in the Bones V pledge manager. 

 

I have multiple dragons in various rates of assembly at the moment, some getting the green stuff treatment, others needing full on assembly, and others just needing a bath followed by a prime and actual paint... 

[Glitterwolf]

Ral Partha Young Dragon.

 

 

[Cicciopiu]

Oh well... my first dragon was Grenadier Guardian Dragon of the Mountains I still have a picture of him, but not the mini, it was a present for a friend of mine.



Sorry for the picture quality, this are very old photos 

Edited August 2, 2020 by Cicciopiu

[aku-chan]

I've never really been too interested in dragons, but deep in the mists of time (either my first or second attempt to get into the hobby) I did have the old Games Workshop Zombie Dragon.

He was very poorly painted and kept falling apart.

[Dr.Bedlam]

3 hours ago, aku-chan said:

I've never really been too interested in dragons, but deep in the mists of time (either my first or second attempt to get into the hobby) I did have the old Games Workshop Zombie Dragon.

He was very poorly painted and kept falling apart.

 

Thing about the Reaper boards: folks here tend to be either gamers, artists, or both. I'm a gamer with pretensions to art.

And I got a dragon because I needed a dragon. It's in the name of the GAME, for potato's sake. Sooner or later, there gotta be dragons. I just didn't expect to get so attached to him.... 

[Mad Jack]

 

 I think the first dragon mini I owned was actually one of the Reaper ones - Marthrangul, I believe... Back in the Ral Partha days I was too poor to buy large figures, and not nearly skilled enough to paint them...

(It wasn't until a little after Reaper came around that I started painting figures with more than just a basecoat - I wasn't even drybrushing at that point.)

 

 

[ShadowRaven]

my first dragon was a two headed thing when I was a wee fledgeling raven, that had a saddle and I'd ride G.I. Joe's on. Much too big for tabletop, even back in the day when D&D dragons where the size of small mountains. My first mini dragon was something...frost dragon I think is what they called it, and I am not even sure who 'they' are any more. Not Reaper anyway, but since then I've painted a bunch, and collected a bunch more. I love me my dragons.