Brain Games

Today's mid-80's monstrous offering comes from the days when 28mm actually meant, well, 28mm. One of the more interesting monsters to grace the early days of D&D, and still going strong through every edition since- the mind flayer. I doubt he was used much in the early days of D&D; at least not as he was originally designed by Gary Gygax, since the mind flayer relied heavily on using the psionic rules. If you've never read through that appendix to the original AD&D Player's Handbook, go have a look now- just realize that, about two paragraphs in, you're gonna be using math skillz you probably haven't had to utilize for quite a while. Those psionic rules, as written, are easily some of the most complicated calculations ever needed to make a victim (first) feel inadequate and afraid and, (second) pliable enough to wrap your head tentacles around, bite off his skullcap, and suck out his brains.

Ral Partha Mind Flayer. He wants to eat your brains.

I went for a much more "natural" octopus look on the head (obviously), rather than the more standard TSR/WOTC mind flayer color scheme, which I have always seen portrayed in pale aqua/teal shades. I wanted to keep the robe simple, so I went for this satiny black with gold trim. The model was pretty boring after my first pass, so I added the scripting on the skull and sleeves to jazz him up just a wee bit. The fluorescent green spot color on the eyes and gems was chosen just as a complement to the orange flesh.

Older Ral Partha sculpts like these do have the unfortunate design feature of these really large fixed bases. Unlike the Grenadier or Citadel fixed bases which are much slimmer, there is no real way to remove these, so I opted here to simply gouge the metal base with my hobby knife to "match up" with the textures on the flagstone base. Hopefully, the mind flayer appears to be standing on a rounded step or platform- that's what I was going for, anyway. My favorite thing about slotta base figures is the ease with which I can cut that tab away and mount the figure however I want. . . Ral Partha got it figured out eventually as well.

Take care, brethren. Thanks for the look in.