Stay Tooned – The Toons RPG Miniatures
Well, having recently gotten hold of some miniatures I’ve been after for a while cause they are fairly rare, normally when you find them they are bloody pricey (though as they aren’t highly in demand they don’t go up to some of the citadel prices). After posting a bit of background on them with some photos I took.. I decided to see if I can expand on that.
It starts off with Jeff Dee, a TSR artist and game designer and Greg Costikyan, a SPI/TSR/WEG Designer and Science Fiction writer. At one point, the two were having a talk about what types of Genres had not yet been touched by Role playing games. This was probably be in the mid 70s as it’s stated that out of this came two particle games. With Jack Herman, Jeff Dee came up with Villains and Vigilantes which was first printed in some small magazines before expanding and being released by Fantasy Games Unlimited. This was the first full Roleplaying game they designed and the first superhero themed one when it came out in 1979.
Meanwhile, a genre they decided would be impossible was Cartoons. Grey Costikyan then took that and with assistance of Warren Spector (I can’t say just how much he put in but Costikyan is seen as the main one) came up with Toon: The Cartoon Roleplaying game. This was then first published in 1984 by Steve Jackson Games.
It wasn’t his first Roleplaying game, as he was fairly known in small ways. His first published game I know of, ‘Bug-eyed Monsters‘ was a board game released by West End Games in 1983, and in 1984 he released ‘Paranoia‘ RPG with Dan Gelber and Eric Goldbert and licenced to West End Games to be published after having problems finding a publisher for it. This does make it appear a bit weird that they went to Steve Jackson Games for Toon (This is the American Steve Jackson, not the English Steve Jackson.. yeah.. too big names in Gaming with the same name is confusing).. Maybe they just didn’t want it? or they didn’t like the deals they were getting..
Toon was first released in 1984 and was designed to be a very comedy based Roleplaying game which was quite difference then others and they very much tried to play on that fact. Characters are unable to die, just fall down and come back up a bit later, much like many of the golden age cartoons they wished to emulate, which are mostly the ones from the 1930s to the 1960s. It also relays highly on the fact that the Games Master (called the Animator) should disregard the rules IF what actions being done are more fun and enjoyable then just following the rules. Making the game far more ab-lib then most roleplaying games.
After it’s initial release, and some pretty good reveiews, a number of expansions were released. I’m not 100% sure of the order of these as the first 3 were all in 1983, but there was ‘Son of Toon‘, ‘Toon Strikes Again‘ and ‘Toon Silly Stuff‘. all also released by Steve Jackson games. It was then reissued as a ‘Deluxe edition’ which contained all of material from the original edition and 3 expansions in 1991, with some extra stuff coming in afterwards, naming ‘Tooniversal Tour Guide‘ (1992), ‘Toon Tales‘ (1993) and ‘Toon Ace Catalog‘ (1994). There was then a ‘Toon Munchkin‘ in 2006 but I’m not quite sure quite how they works.. It is sated as a very much cross-over of the Munchkin card game but uses the Rules from Toon and ‘Dungeons and Toons’ which was in the Tooniversal Tour Guide.
Steve Jackson Games appeared quite on the side of carefulness with Toon in that while the title was ‘Toon’, they were giving writers guidelines on the Steve Jackson site saying you shouldn’t use the term ‘Toon’ to refer to a Cartoon Character. Probably due to atleast some fears with the licensing over that concept, mostly with Warner Brothers (who later renamed there Looney Tunes range ‘Looney Toons’), and there co-lab with Disney in ‘Who Framed Roger Rabbit?’ making high use of ‘Toon’ to mean Cartoon Character. Oh and these guidelines.. they were for people to write stuff for Toon which they would pay for, but last updated September 1998, and they stopped taking submissions 29th January, 2019.
As the game is still in print, there are still more expansions and articles giving new settings and gear for the game, though it’s more of a simple low-key thing. Despite its reviewer success, the fact that it was seen as a fun and simple beginner level game may have put off too many people.. Bare in mind that at this stage in the 80s, alot of gamers were starting to believe things like this were ‘childish’ and should be taken more seriously. Just at White Dwarf having to drop cartoons like Thud, Derek the Troll and even Gobbledigook, and the rise of the more bleak ‘everything is war’ which was going around. Well, atleast it’s not as depressing as modern day Soap Operas where everyone is a evil druggy rapist.. and then you get to the villains!
Looking at some of the reviews at the time so highlight some of the downsides though. Mostly that if the Animator has a rubbish sense of humour and unable to ab-lib well, you can strip the game of any fun and pretty much make it unplayable. Secondary to this, the players need to have a sense of fun or else they can just ruin the game.
Now. All that, and I still haven’t gotten to the miniatures yet. Like alot of RPG book based games, Miniatures are kinda an after though, as there isn’t really a HUGE need for them, but can be useful or help expand bits. In 1985, Steve Jackson games (who pretty much don’t do miniatures, just card and tile based stuff) licensed TAG Industries to create a line of miniatures for the game. (They also did miniatures for ‘The Morrow Project‘ RPG published by Timeline Inc) Some of their miniatures were released under the ‘Crimson Dragon‘ Range.. This logo, however, also appears on miniatures they released which don’t even mention Crimson Dragon and in fact, appear to be on stuff which pre-date their miniature line.
TAG Industries (no connection to the later ‘The Assault Group’, often known as ‘TAG’ appear to have been around from the early 80s till 1996, when they were miniatures where then sold to Ravens Forge Miniatures (itself going out of business in 2008). While it’s known that the Toon miniatures were part of the deal, they never put them back into production. It seams that Raven’s Forge was a pretty small company, founded by David ‘Bo’ Mathews, which.. He removed the end of his left pinky in an industrial accident in his main job (Military contract manufacturing. He cut it off with a bandsaw.. funny enough, I have a friend who cut off about half of 3 of his fingers with a bandsaw he was.. erm.. using to cut firewood.. There might be a reason why my personal view is to limit how powerful and large a power tool can be for me to use it. Bandsaws are a no-go, where my Dremel or Jigsaw are fine) meant they had to delay all orders for the near future and production was stopped. less then a year later, the company appeared to go under as no future update was given. Both TAG and Raven’s forge were USA based and I don’t believe ever released their stuff to a wider world. TAG was pre-internet (well.. not really for the mid 80s.. but pre-modern internet) and I can’t say I have ever seen either Mail-order for them outside of the USA, or a UK dealer. In fact, information on TAG is very rough at best so they were probably very small with a low production count.
This hasn’t made getting there stuff much easier and as said, not a lot is known. Most information on there figures comes from the re-releases done by Raven, who did have a website. Its not even known WHEN they did go out of business, just that there miniatures were brought in 1996 by Raven, so It would be around that time at the latest. (Oh and there is a modern company called ‘TAG Industries LLC who have places over the USA who appear.. to mostly sell Propane tanks.
But while writing this, I have been able to do a bit more research to get some more information by the way of Dragon Magazine (that is the TSR D&D magazine, not… one of tons of OTHER magazines called Dragon, like the much more well known Japanese ‘Dragon Magazine’ which gave the world, among other things, fantastic fantasy comics like ‘DragonHalf’ (by Ryusuka Mita (which came from 1988 to 1994, with a 2 part OVA in 1993 as well as a simple boardgame like video game)) and ‘Slayers’ (by Hajima Kanzaka with Art by Rui Araizumi (which started as a series of light novels appearing in Dragon from 1989, before moving to Comics and then TV, Films and Video Games)).
The first apperance appears to be in the January 1984 Issues (81), where in their regular ‘Figure Feature’ section (written by Kim Eastland) she states:
Crimson Dragon Miniatures is another ‘new kid’ this time around, and this initial line is also impressive. Miniature companies seem to be working harder these days, and this company is no exception. Though it sizes out at around 30mm / 35mm scale, this line offers good detail and some nice touches (…). White is most noticeable about the line is the company’s fearlessness in casting BIG figures. The messenger of the Gods is nearly 40mm tall, and looks like he could be from some fantasy pantheon as he towers over most other figures.
In May of 1984 (issue 85) their regular Figure Feature by Kim Eastland, describes the figures by Crimson Dragon, mostly the Microsaurs Rex and Land Dragon, both sculpted by Chris Atkin who appears to have been the main sculpture:
Original Monsters are always fun to collet, but are hard to find. For those miniaturists who love the unusual, TAG has created some fascinating creatures. The short figure with the polearm is a bipedal creature whih looks like it evolved from a dinosaur – sort of a toy Protceratops. The Seven-inch figure being intimidated is one of the longest Land Dragons ever seen in a single piece. A particularly nice touch is the crawling, Lizardlike Apperance of the Dragon, reminiscent of the old Lost World -type movies.
Like with most figures at the time, they did 25mm scale (or there about) and while pretty pricey compared to UK prices at the time, $1.50 for 2 of the small rex’s and $15 for a single piece metal 7-inch long dragon? not too bad.. (seriously, 7 inch long in a single piece cast? don’t see that much if ever
By 1985, Space Gamer Magazine (a kinda small time one by Metagaming Concepts, which funny enough, was mostly licensed out to a former employee who launched his own company… “Steve Jackson Games” huh.. maybe a reason they promote the company…) as meaning good at doing unusual figures which were something ‘different’ then the normal ones.
This gives a very good idea of when TAG started up their miniatures as being late 1983 (as the initial line up is advertised in the January 84 issue). However the Company itself appeared to be a bit earlier. IN 1981 TAG published ‘Your Paladin has been stolen!! (by Druids)’ by Timothy A. Green. A 28page Scenario for D&D (and Tunnels and Trolls but also atleast one version has a bit saying AD&D as well) and it is pointed out that while they were in ‘Bowling Green, Ohio’, they later moved to Castalia, Ohio. So.. what do can I now say about TAG?
TAG Industries was founded by Timothy A. Green (thus the name ‘TAG”) in Bowling Green, Ohio around 1981 as a side hobby project for it’s founder.. They released the odd Scenario books as well as home made gaming accessories. While they appeared to use the ‘Crimson Dragon’ Logo either, they branched out into their own Miniatures line with the Crimson Dragon Miniatures name around 1983 with Chris Atkin sculpting them. Around this time they also moved to Castalia, Ohio. About 1985, Tim also released his own game ‘Midnight at the well of souls’ RPG. Timothy A. Green later died on 23rd April 2013 in Cleveland, Ohio. It was a common name but that one has been confirmed as him. TAG Industries was a very small part-time operation so probably just him with some commission work more then directly employing Chris Atkin. I have also been able to find out that one of the things they did sell were Dice Bags and that his mother even helped with the sewing of them. This has taken a bit of information on quite a few places to add this all together so probably the most information online about them. I’m not gonna try with a product list cause I only can find about half of it, and some of that features some information which isn’t 100% confirmed.
Meanwhile, Chris Atkin has also done work for Ral Partha Enterprises as a member of staff from about 1991 to 1997 (so another thing that kinda hints that TAG went under quickly) and for Iron Wind Metals, which… yeah.. erm.. gets a bit tricky for me.. I think Ral Partha basically went under in 2001. Iron Wind Metals was one of the companies created as a direct successor to keep figures in production and do new ones.. then Ral Partha Legacy was created around 2020 to take control of many of the older ranges and this year (2025) Iron Wind was sold off to Catalyst Game Labs. OH and sometimes he was just created as Chris Atkins so.. which is his name is.. I don’t know right now ^_^ He might not have been the only sculpture for TAG Industries/Crimson Dragon Miniatures but he is the only one I’ve seen credited, and he is credited on a range of their stuff. I have seen the odd blister pack which has a space for the sculptor name (always a good thing) but this has been blank on what I have seen so.. no clue.
Still haven’t gotten to the Miniatures yet eh?
As I said, in 1985, Steve Jackson Games licensed out Toon to TAG to make a series of Miniatures for it. I don’t know if they were ever released single or just in a boxset.
The art appears to Match that from Toon original release (this art by Kyle Miller), So it might be a commission piece as Kyle Miller was the artist on Toon rule book as well, Official Metal Miniatures. With the production ‘TN-101’ and the large ‘SET 1’ it appears they very much had plans to do more in the range, but I have never seen more then this set of 8 and again, I don’t know (but haven’t seen any examples) of them being sold separately, though often seen figures being sold loose. The
See the Crimson Dragon Logo? yet no mention of them.. I think, as said before, Crimson Dragon was kinda the name for the miniature line, cause they also did the odd other things as a company (namely atleast 1 DnD expansion, there own game with background Novel, and dice bags). These 8 figures, I could class as 25/28mm scale. By their cartoony nature, it’s not really the easiest thing to work out the scale. But lets look at the figures:
I don’t know if any thing else was in the box originally.. these kinda release does seam to let the figures rattle (but then, so do many of the old Citadel releases, though maybe not as much as this.. cause that’s alot of box for your figures. I’m guessing it’s a standard size box and smaller would have been a custom size, so cost more. The top is custom print while the bottom is a glued on piece of paper.
Foogle Bird is one of the large figures in the set, with Fred Bulldog being a middle range, and Mack Mouse being one of the smaller ones. Some of the sculpting is a bit soft but this might be more style as it’s more a cartoon style. However, you can see the base on Fred there is a bit.. less/textured then the others. edges aren’t quite as shape as them. Sculpting is pretty good I think for the style. Foogle Bird is mostly in the mould of large slightly overweight birds like Foghorn Leghorn or the Martian Bird (both from Looney Tunes) though clearly different, Fred Bulldog I have no clue on. kinda a gangster like muscled bulldog with a trilby (unless I have completely lost my ability to ID hats.. which might be the case), and Mack Mouse is a naked small mouse in the style of Micky Mouse (Disney) or Jerry (MGM) but with a large Revolver to lean on. I don’t remember that in eithers cartoon.. oh wait.. I kinda do… Tom and Jerry had some pretty.. dark things.. like them committing suicide by train at the end.. fun cartoons though.. Love my golden age USA cartoons as well as the Golden Age UK (which is more 60s to 80s).
The Rabbit, I would say appears to be the poster child for the Toon brand and we can see why. in 1938 (or atleast first released in 1938) Director Cal Dalton did the initial designs for a rabbit who would star in Ben Hardaway’s film ‘Porky’s Hare Hunt’. This was a kinda remake of a Tex Avery cartoon ‘Porky’s Duck Hunt’ from the year before, which had introduced Daffy Duck. Friz Freland had said that the decided to ‘dress the duck in a rabbit suit’. It wasn’t just a scene by scene remake but… pretty much a remake (oh and back in the day, director is a title for someone in cartoons who not only ‘directs’ the cartoon but writes it and often does much more. later on writers came out and more cartoons had more and more people and the directors role became more comparable to a normal film director). Anyway, Dalton designed the rabbit and it was just written on the model sheet that it was for Hardaway. Hardaway had the nickname ‘Bugs’. So this one was labelled as being “Bug’s Bunny”. So they designed to called it ‘ “Bugs” Bunny’. later on and off with the quotation until that became his real first name.) Anyway, The Rabbit is getting ready to throw a pie.. Next is Harry Beast who is a a Hairy Beast, being mostly fur. and then there is Olga Hippopovna.. A Russian sounding Hippo in.. a track suit?
The final two are The Martian, a Poddington Pea looking Marvin the Martian type with a bushy Moustache and ray gun. I’m gonna be stripping and repainting it by the way. Does kinda give me some UK vibes though.. guy with a bobblehat and bushy moustache.. wonder who I’m thinking of. and there is Fifa La Feline who is one of the smaller ones in the set, and a cat girl. Kinda going for the ‘sexy love interest’ like Penolope the Cat (from Pepe la Pew) or Toodles (or one of the other kinda generic) ‘sexy silent’ girl cat from Tom and Jerry cartoons.. but in a dress.
And here is a quick scale shot just to show a large figure, a medium figure and a small against a 4ed Plastic Skaven Clanrat. the 4ed (probebly Colin Dixon) rats and other figures are a bit bulkily at the time and does kinda look big with Fife there, but not too hughly out of scale but maybe more on the 25mm then 28mm.. which make sense for the time and I often find 25mm figures can work with 28mm, just they are shorter people.
My interest in these seams partly to come from what was stated by Kim Eastland. Fun, Quirky models.