Years ago I discovered Toobs, and have made effective use of them over the years. They are produced by a company called Safari Ltd., a name known to many miniature modelers. The company mainly produces really nice plastic replicas (some folks don't like it when you call such things toys, but that's what they are.) You have probably seen them at the craft store before, and they are similar to companies like Schleich and Papo. They make animals, dinosaurs, mythological critters and all sorts of other stuff, mostly in sizes that are less useful for 28mm gamers.
But what sets them apart from the aforementioned companies (beyond being far less expensive in my area,) is that they also make a line of smaller figures, sold in clear plastic tubes (whence, 'Toobs.') Each 'toob' is filled with about a dozen or so (it varies) little prepainted figurines, all corresponding to that toob's theme, of which there are many (more on those later.)
The sculpting on most of the figures is quite good. Maybe not to the level of fine detail that 'proper' miniatures are sculpted, and the undersides are embossed with 'China' along with the company name and a description of the figurine's subject, but for most gaming purposes, they can stand their own against any other minis you want to put down on the table. Being made of dense PVC-type plastic, they are sturdy enough to keep their shape firmly, but still easy to slice and carve for modifications. You can glue them with superglue, or a more elastic adhesive like Amazing Goop.
The stock paint jobs are generally good enough, but are meant as toys or figurines, so lack the shading and details that miniature modelers are used to, but I have used many of them as is without repainting. Of course you can easily paint over, although I have never tried stripping them first, so I don't know how the material responds to acetone or other strippers.
The real draw here is price. The MSRP on Toobs is about $12-$14, but you can often buy them cheaper at craft stores or online (I get mine at Michael's with a 40% off coupon.) For that you get about a dozen minis (some less.) Even if you only needed half of them, that would make each one about two bucks.
But why would you need them? What good are they?
Well that's where the trick lies. They make all kinds of toobs (mostly animals,) and if you run games with giant critters, it's pretty much certain they will have some figurines that will serve in your games. Most of the figures fit on a 2" base, making them size Large in the D20 world. Their poses sometimes leave a bit to be desired, tending toward being pretty laid back, which can be underwhelming when you plan to use them in combat, but they can still make excellent giant critters.
So in order to make a Toob pay off in value, you need to find one with multiple minis that are useful to you. If there's only one in there that you want, you will be paying 13 bucks or so for a mini, and at that price, you might as well look for a fancy pewter or resin job.
So here are some of the Toobs I have acquired over the years, and which I felt were worth the expense.
Up first is one of the most useful Toobs in my opinion, the Venomous Creatures Toob:
This toob is so good, I picked up two. Although there are only nine models, most of the critters in this set are exactly the kinds of critters you need in a fantasy game, and the others can still find use with a little creativity. Let's explore them shall we? (I pinched most of these pictures off the interwebz, as I had already modified many of mine, and wanted to show you the stock models.)
I'll start with the least useful. Unless you do a lot of aquatic adventures (I don't, but I'm not going to judge you if you do,) you will probably not have much need for these two. The stone fish is pretty cool-looking, and can sub in for any size L fish-type critter when needed. The bat ray could work as an ixitxachitl (sp?) or a cloaker, perhaps with a bit of modification.
Moving up the usefulness food chain, we have a a Komodo dragon. The dragon is size H, and is well sculpted, but its usefulness is limited by it's pose, which is not only decidedly relaxed, but is stretched out, making it hard to place it on a grid, if one uses such a thing.
Now we are talking. Here we have a couple of staples of fantasy RPG encounters (what? you don't use giant toads in your games? For shame!) The toad is pretty much perfect as is, or repainted as I did below, and could work as L or H, although I might be tempted to add a few horns or ridges with putty and repaint.
The cobra is just great for a Large snake, except for that stretched-out pose. I ended up fixing one of mine:
I dunked it in hot water to make the plastic more pliable (i.e. plastic,) and squished it up to fit on a 2" base. Then I glued it to the base using E9000 or Amazing Goop (can't remember which,) and clamped it in place. Worked great, and I didn't even bother to repaint it. The Sea snake is less cool, and is likely to be chopped up for parts if he doesn't get reposed.
Creepy crawlies! That brown tarantula is very dynamic I feel, and a better paint job would really make it pop. But I felt the eyes were too small and uninspired, so I grabbed some putty and gave it a hideous makeover.
 |
| Meant to give him a shot of Dulcote... |
The eyes were simple to add, but I thought it would be cool to make a wolf spider, and so for the other guy, I built up a structure on the cephalothorax and gave him some terrible peepers:
 |
| Say hello to Mr. Angry Eyes! |
As for the centipede, it's one of my faves, since appropriately-sized centipedes are hard to come by. Unfortunately, it too suffers from its linear pose, making it awkward to base. I contemplated cutting it in half and having its top half bursting up from the ground, but in the end what I did was to cut it in two places, wire it together and then bend it into position so that it looks like it is rearing up to bite. I think it really improves the whole piece.
I needed two, so the other guy was heated up and twisted in a bit, to look more "coiled." Both got a new paint job:
The last guy is my absolute favorite, and is one of the coolest scorpions I've come across. It is a fat-tailed scorpion, and it just looks bad ass, You could repaint it or not I feel it works either way. In addition to using him as a standard giant scorpion (size large,) I have some funky plans for later on...
But that's just one of the Toobs. Depending on what kind of campaign you are running, there are dozens of others that may be of use to you. For example:
This Toob is called "Alligators Alive!", which I assume refers to some show or demonstration at an aquarium or park somewhere. It is chock full of crocodilians appropriately sized for size L critters, along with another snake and a couple of turtles. None of them even need painting, and I have put them to good use in both fantasy and modern games.
This is another crazy useful tube. It is the cave animals toob, and is full of useful critters (I've got three of them.) I mean look at the options here: a spider, a scorpion, a crab, a crayfish, and a millipede. I'll grant you that I'm less likely to use the salamander, eel or catfish (although I have some interesting thoughts for a Fallout creature on a river encounter...) but the rest are like a dungeon critter sampler pack. I actually lucked out the first time I picked up one of these toobs, as it was mispacked with an extra scorpion in it (can never have too many!)
The crab and the crayfish are ready for repainting as they are (I have to confess, I have always liked using giant crayfish in D&D games, I don't know why. My current campaign is a wilderness exploration-style game, and I've already sprung one on them at low level (fear the river!) In addition, I think I will convert one or more of my crayfish into cave fishers, which could be pretty cool. As for the crabs, they make cool enemies, and I especially enjoyed using them for a pirate-themed one-shot (more on that in its own post.)
But since they are cave critters, the spider and the scorpion do not have eyes. So for the scorpions, I used putty to add an extra plate on the top of the head, into which I made some eye indents, and also sculpted some chelicerae in front to give them a bit of character.
 |
| He's primed with black gesso and waiting for paint. Maybe some toxic green as a radscorpion for Fallout? |
The spider was the first time I sculpted eyes (and a brow ridge for expression,) onto a spider, which gave me the inspiration for the tarantulas above.
 |
| Eyes so shiny! |
To add variety, I made a row of eyes for another of the same model, based on a different species:
Safari Ltd. makes a line of dragons in their larger scale figures, and the sculpting is usually pretty good. But these are massive critters, gargantuan at least in size. However they also have dragons in their Toobs, as well.
These are size Large, which can be hard to find from other sources, which tend to be larger, and of course these are the best deal going out there. I rarely bother to convert them at all, and just prime and paint away. Here is one I used in my Mummy's Mask campaign for a large blue:
 |
| Never painted the base. One day... |
As you can see, there is enough detail to pick out individual scales in paint.
From the same campaign, here's two more that I used as drakes:
These are just a few examples; there are plenty of other Toobs you might find useful. The horse Toobs in particular are scaled well to use with 28mm scale, and although I've never used them myself, I've seen many folks do so to great effect.
So head to your local craft store and check 'em out, and see how you might use them in your games.
