Jason McKittrick is one of the most prolific Mythos artists around. Sadly, one of his excellent Cthulhu idols is apparently being recast and sold by a shady outfit called...well, click through to Jason's post on the matter. I won't post their name, since that would actually benefit their algorithmic ranking.
The pirates have been heavily advertising their copy of the idol on Facebook. Please avoid doing business with them, and report the ad to Facebook whenever it comes up on your feed.
This insanely detailed set of nautically themed LARP armor comes to us from Arthammer Workshop. I'd love to see this combined with a Deep One silicone mask and gloves.
Also, kudos to Arthammer for getting comedian Jim Gaffigan to model their wares. Heh.
Santa doesn't always arrive by sleigh. Sometimes he shows up at the helm of a dragon boat. Armstreet brings us this viking-themed take on the northest of the nordmen.
Brutal Forge brings us a pair of chaos champions just chillin' on the skull throne. The chaos armor is nice, but I'd love to have that magnificent prop throne in my gaming room.
Two Horns United returns to our pages with this incredible Neurogeist costume, complete with internal lighting. It blows my mind that this is all EVA foam.
Sander Propworx returns to our pages with this impressive selection of LARP weapons. The level of detail is just mind boggling, right down to the retention pins on the sword grips.
The talented Karen Main returns to our pages with her grotesque take on the traditional D & D Beholder.
I think this may be the first time we've featured a purely digital Cthulhu idol. Digital Dark Collectibles of Brazil has this wonderful sculpt available as a downloadable file suitable for filament or resin 3-D printing.
Russian artist Ruslan "Fadmen" Bocharov brings us this digital Cthulhu idol sculpt. I'd love to see it as a high rez 3-D print.
The talented Ugo Serrano returns to our pages with this nicely done Amulet of the Eye. In sterling silver with a faceted garnet gemstone.
The appropriately named Dragonariums brings us their Dragon Grimoire. Hand-bound in leather with a custom cast dragonskin embossment in resin.
Nuclear Snail Studios returns to our pages with this wonderful wasteland vest. I love trying to identify how each piece was made and then built up to create the finished product. Dimitri Zaitsev is a master at taking a pile of junk and turning it into amazing pieces like this.
Patrick Magee brings us this intriguing vampire bat specimen. But what exactly is it? A mundane vampire bat would, scientifically, be Desmodus rotundus. Based solely on appearance this one is likely to be a transformed humanoid vampire, or Homo sapiens homovorus.
Such are the questions faced every day by cryptozoological collectors.
This tribal high shamaness costume comes to us from Russian cosplayer and LARPer Fel0ra. Photography by Daria Smirnova.
This insanely detailed Cthulhu sculpt comes to us from Japanese artist Yoneyama Keisuke. Click through to see a full gallery of shots that show off the incredible texture work.
This cool crystal LARP lamp comes to us from Spanish propmakers Creadores a sueldo. I can't wait until life gets back to normal and live action games can resume.
Ugrik brings us the Blade of the Secret Eye, featuring a hand forged steel blade, cast brass hardware, and a resin and linden grip.
Russian artist nikolauskas_2la
brings us this recreation of the Assassin's Creed: Valhalla hand axe.
It looks like I'll be having ham for Thanksgiving dinner.
Just in time for the holiday, Patrick Magee brings us this undead Turkey creature. Mmmm...giblets.
I'm no expert, but I think this set of Viking Dragon Armor from Schmiede Traum takes some historical liberties. That said, it's absolutely beautiful. The color scheme brings the whole thing to life.
The Grimoire Weiss is a tome/enslaved magical construct from the Nier:Automata video game. Aldantler brings us this work-in-progress shot of his prop version, featuring the cast resin front cover embossment. I can't wait to see the finished product.
This beautiful example of tomecraft comes to us from the gifted Mille Cuirs. Featuring a hand-tooled leather cover with inset glass eye and marbled text block.
I absolutely hate when a vendor I recommended flakes out on a customer. Meliadhor left this comment on my Treasure! post from last month. It recounts a very disturbing experience with Alpha Officium, a boutique coin maker I've previously had very good experiences with.
Hi! Does anyone know if the AlphaOfficium store is still properly active and not a scam? We've emailed them earlier last month about coins purchase, and my friend bought about 100$ worth of coins, and so far its been over 12 days, a couple emails, and an FB message since their last reply. The owner appears to be active & posting new coins on their FB group but no replies since.
...which is kinda e-scary as my friend already paid for a larger set of coins, including the VikingMix featured here, and all we asked for was a postal tracker code. The owner (the same person as on FB) sent us a wrong one first, for a different person from a previous month, and when we asked for the one for our purchase all contact broke off :C
[update since I prepared this message]
My friends' FB has been reported for the PM asking for the tracker code & suspended, no email replies received to my friends' account, BUT my email asking about another of their coin sets received an instant reply that "yes this expensive set is available" and that they can ship them ASAP. We got all the emails copied & screencapped, gonna give the guy one last chance before opening a PayPal dispute for refund. Friend sent one last email asking about the tracker code via the same store-contact form just earlier after I got my reply just to give them one more chance but this is feeling super nasty now.
I apologize for dropping this on you like that, but we did decide on that replica coin store because we saw your recommendation here (I adore your blog and you featured some of my works here as well, and the coins appear lovely, and a lot of people online seem to have gotten theirs OK, at least in the States).
Do you have any ideas what else to do? If you need us to show screencaps of the store messages or copies of emails and such, please tell, my friend kept them all for possible PayPal dispute/claim if nothing arrives in the next two weeks. If needed we can contact you via email I believe. :C
Hopefully this is a situation that will be quickly resolved.
From the private collection of Octavius Rookwood (August 16, 1853 – July 17, 1936), American British pharmaceutical entrepreneur, explorer and occult researcher.
This specimen was acquired by Rookwood during a stay with the Duke and Duchess of Devonshire at their home, Chatsworth House in Derbyshire, UK. A farmer from the village of Allestree, situated approximately 30 miles to the south of the Chatsworth estate, discovered the small fairy body when his faithful rat catcher left the limp remains on his kitchen floor. The cat normally left daily 'glory gifts' for the farmer which comprised of mice, rats and small birds but during the spring of 1902 it started to leave dead fairies. Rumours spread throughout the local villages and the farmer began to exhibit them at the pubs and cattle shows for a small fee. Rookwood got wind of the story and promised the farmer a handsome reward if he could supply him with a fresh specimen. The farmer promptly delivered two fairy corpses to Rookwood; one complete and another partially devoured by the farm cat.
Dan Baines returns to our pages with this mounted mummified fairy specimen. It defies belief that scientists continue to deny the existence of the fae despite incontrovertible physical evidence like this.
The talented Jason Soles returns to our pages with this creeptastic "Nightmare Sketchbook". I love the organic embellishments.
The Continuum blog over at Propology has some great behind the scene looks at the company's prop builds. One of the best entries is covers the creation of a massive "thermobaric bomb" for the television show Arrow. It was originally supposed to be a cheap one-off prop, so the build budget was extremely limited. The whole story is worth reading, but I don't think I'm spoiling anything major by saying it's actually an off-the-shelf septic tank.
This gruesome insect creature comes to us from artist William Nezme Zardain. It would make an awesome design for the martian insects in a modern remake of Quartermass and the Pit/Five Million Years to Earth.
This over the top set of winged armor comes to us from Arthammer LARP Workshop. Photography by Frederic Baclet.
This beautiful leather journal comes to us from the talented Alex Libris. Hand-tooled leather with custom brass hardware and embossment.
I'm not sure if this creature from Fabelrot is a example of an insectile fae or a demonic manifistation. Either way, I definitely wouldn't want it buzzing around my house.
This tabletop Cthulhu idol comes to us from Director and CG artist Fred Burdy. It's a background easter egg in his current film project.
The Wicked Makers YouTube channel has a great tutorial on creating a massive inter-dimensional gate prop. Well, it's great right up until the end, when you're directed to their Patreon to find out how the projected video effect was actually done. That said, the construction details alone are worth a watch.
I know this Cthulhu skull makes no anatomical sense, but it's still hella cool. Sculpted by artist James Ryman for giftware manufacturer Nemesis Now.
It's dim, plain, and grainy, but I was overjoyed to find this picture in my email today. These are the 4" laptop stickers for the ATMOM package. The company has a "Shipping Cam" that takes a shot of every order before it's posted off.
Everything is now in transit. I'll have more stuff to show off soon.
This trio of traditional sideshow-style shrunken heads come to us from Umbratheca. I was surprised to learn these gaffs have become a controversial example of colonialist cultural appropriation. I can see that argument in reference to actual human heads, but I'm not convinced it applies to fakes.
Sander Propworx returns to our pages with this collection of LARP weaponry. It's amazing how far we've come from the days of boffer blades.
Full Disclosure: I'm using Amazon affiliate links in this post. It doesn't cost you anything, and I get a commission from any sale. So buy lots and lots of stuff so I can get some more loot for the treasure chest.
I've picked up some more gold coins for my prop treasure stash.
The latest addition is a set of 100 replica Spanish doubloons from Leib Games. It retails for $38.98 on Amazon, but the listing has a perpetual 15% off coupon that brings the final price down to $33.14. I'm pretty sure Leib Games aren't the actual manufacturer, since they appear to be a game distributor.
All and all, I prefer the Leib Games coins to the Beverly Oaks doubloons. Weirdly, the larger coins are actually slightly cheaper on a per piece basis. That said, they're still expensive. Even at a discounted $33 a pop you're laying out some significant scratch to get a few hundred coins.
To be honest, I bought this set because I had a $10 Amazon Gift Card burning a hole in my pocket. As nice as these coins are I don't see myself buying more without another gift card to defray the cost.
Up next, we'll go beyond replica doubloons to a set of surprisingly affordable fantasy coins.
