I got in touch with my uncle to discuss my grandfather’s medals in further detain, and much to my dismay, found out that they are in fact not authentic to my grandfather. Rather, my uncle bought them at the Navy Store in 1991, and says the original copies are lost, and that he never saw my grandfather with them. He did help me pull up my grandfather’s military record, which lists that he was a Carpenter’s Mate Third Class, Construction Battalion (CB), and earned the Victory Medal, American Theatre Medal and the Asiatic Pacific Medal. That at least confirms that the medals are correct for his service record, but they’re still not authentically his. My uncle says he picked them up for between $8 to $10 each, along with the pin.
And so, with a bit of disappointment in my findings and the story of the medals completed, I decided to post about something from my dad’s side of the family; Advanced Dungeons and Dragons.
The Advanced Dungeons and Dragons Figure Set clocks in at 8” long by 4” wide and 1” tall, and has on its surface the image of a Beholder, a floating mass of snakes and flesh with a giant eye. He seems to be watching a Fly Man, or Aarakocra, fighting against a Snake Man, called a Yuan Ti. It has a number 2012, placed above the phrase “Dwellers Bellow”, and has two yellow sides with “Advanced Dungeons and Dragons Figure Set ” and two green sides that say “Advanced Dungeons and Dragons ” again, with the company information “Grenadier Models Inc. PO Box 305 Springfield PA 19064, and Made in USA in the bottom right corner. It’s made of cardboard that is beginning to deteriorate at the corners, and has a brow cardboard backing. Inside the box are several figurines kept in rectangle cutouts that are set in blue foam.
The box is filled with figurines representing various characters and monsters. They are all about as big as a quarter, though the larger ones are almost 1.5” long. In particular, there’s a drawing of a man with red hair, and a painted Aaarakocra with two shields and a sword, along with my favorite monster, the beholder.
The figures are made from a soft gray metal that I’m 90% sure is lead from the way it rubs off on my fingers, giving them a slimy (perhaps toxic) feel that renders them far from pleasing to touch; quite a contrast from DeWall’s netsuke.
Grenadier Inc. is a company long out of business, so it took some digging to find just where these came from. The company ran from 1975 to 1996, and produced this particular set in 1980 at its plant in Springfield, PA (Cook). They were made from a die mold, and were indeed cast out of lead, prompting me to wash my hands. I was able to confirm that these figures are authentic 1st edition casts, since there were no reprints.
I picked these up because they belonged to my father, who played D&D with his brother and his friend Chris when they were in high school in the early 80’s. The Aarakocra is my dad’s work, and the drawing was done by Chris, representing one of his characters. My father used to tell me about the adventures they’d have, how my uncle would try to kill every creature he stumbled upon, and how my grandfather, a self-proclaimed bodybuilder, played a few times as a barbarian. These figures would be at the center of the table, standing menacingly on hand-drawn grids representing dungeons and caves, helping the players imagine the sinister obstacles their heroes had to overcome. Chris would write all the encounters, and went on to make a side job for himself telling ghost stories at “haunted” places.
My father somehow ended up with all of the D&D materials, and gave these to me when I turned 12 in 2009. We played a few adventures with my younger brother, and I later became an avid board game player. Whether I like these figures so much because I like board games or I like board games because I played with the figures remains to be answered.
Now that they’re with me, the figurines (and four similar sets) have transitioned from pieces used to play a game into a shared memory with my father. I display the figures in their box and never take them out; partially because they’re lead, but mostly because I’d be afraid to lose the characters that connect me to my father when he was close to my age, doing the same things I do.
Works Cited
Cook, Jim. “Grenadier’s AD&D Solid Gold Line.” Paintbrushes for Miniatures, http://www.dndlead.com/Grenadier/Grenadier.htm.
The Materials of History, Thought, and Art 
Nick, you choose a very interesting object to analyze for this blog post. While I did not play Dungeons and Dragons a lot during my childhood, I have an appreciation for old board games and video games. I found it interesting and a little disturbing that the pieces included in the set were casted out of lead. I never thought a game for adolescents produced in the 1980s would have consisted of a known toxic substance. It makes me wonder if board game materials are produced any differently in 2019. I also found it nice how this set belonged to your father when he was a child growing up. The fact that he enjoyed the game when he was younger, kept the set for decades, and then passed it on to his children must be a nice feeling for him. Overall, nice job!
Nick, as a fellow board game enthusiast, I really appreciate your post. I collect board games and I never thought about how they have changed over time from a manufacturing stand point. I have also never thought about them as something to be passed down from generation to generation, though I am now inspired to pass my own down one day. I appreciate that you keep and admire these pieces, despite not actually using them while playing. I think that it can add a certain value when an object is produced with the intent of being used, yet kept for sentimental and display purposes.