Rly old fairy mythology books.Drow, illithid origins. Gamera's influence. D&D artist from 1993. Star Wars funnies.

Fairy Tale books, Gygax mentioned in interviews:

Keightley’s The Fairy Myhology

And

The Secret Commonwealth

Drow word origins:

See yt “daddy rolled a 1” episode The surprising origins of D&D’s most iconic monsters, … https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XW3DINrksfI

at time 45:21. Drow origins… but keep watching because more.  A dictionary.  But then keep watching at time 49:12 a Norse mythology book The Prose Edda has dark elves, under the ground with skin darker than pitch. Sure sounds a lot like Drow.  

At time 1:11:19, illithids came from The Caller of the Black, by Brian Lumley.  See cover.  (But of course also had to have been based on Cthulhu). 

 

"Pachisaur" AKA Hong Kong dollar store plastic monsters, ripped from Gamera or mostly Ultraman, Gygax, etc. mentioned: 

Time 1:22:26, yt,  The Bulette is from a bag of 14 ancient creatures, but it looks like Kaiju… it looks like Gamera’s fish enemy, Zigra. The rust monster and owl bear also come from the same dimestore bag of 14 monsters.made in Hong Kong. And SNL’s Landshark. 

Umber Hulk… umber like umbral , like dark. Based on an Ultraman enemy? 

Better info and see pictures that the funny toys (wait… they say the toys were first, the drawings  were based on the toys to poke fun)!! https://www.reddit.com/r/Ultraman/comments/1ff3hxr/umber_hulk_origin/

https://www.etsy.com/listing/1851073915/dd-70s-original-umber-hulk-2-patchisaur?ref=landingpage_similar_listing_bot-2&sts=1&logging_key=3dd8d7f6de04027d49cacba0b408f596cf32fc25%3A1851073915&listing_id=1851073915&listing_slug=dd-70s-original-umber-hulk-2-patchisaur

Quote

Recently read the connection between Ultraman kaiju and D&D monsters through bootleg toys. People know Gabora, Kemular and Gokinezura became the Bulette, Rust monster and Owlbear respectively.

But no one has seemed sure about the Umber Hulk besides Antlar's tusks, Until now. After much soul searching I have determined the Umber Hulk's inspiration is based on three kaiju.

The head is based on Seagorath, which much like Gokinezura has been mishapen. The pincers are indeed Antlar. The body meanwhile is not from an Ultraman kaiju but is actually based on on Daigoro's Mother from Daigoro vs. Goliath, theres the ribbed arms, the correct hands and feet, a textured front, visible breasts and a behind the scenes photo even depicts Daigoro's Mother striking the same pose as the toy.

Excellent stuff here- https://awesomeliesblog.wordpress.com/2024/09/15/the-origin-of-species-aliens/

Antlar probably inspired the Umberhulk.

There once was an unknown company in Hong Kong that made a bag of weird animal-things that were then sold in what once were called dime stores or variety stores for like $.99. Gary [Gygax] and I talked about how hard it was to find monster figures, and how one day he came upon this bag of weird beasts…He proceeded to invent the carrion crawler, umber hulk, rust monster and purple worm, all based on those silly plastic figures.

More here: https://www.enworld.org/threads/the-ultra-mysterious-history-of-d-ds-iconic-monsters.672346/

This fella, Tony DiTerlizzi, did D&D official TSR art in 1993 book(s) when he was fresh outta school:

BTW, that lead me to this hand drawn art guy, OH WAIT he did D&D book art in 1993, very interesting fantasy art: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KBVE2LkX3fo

His DnD videos: One and Two. Probably more. Cool analysis. Goes over some Frazetta stuff (he owns now?). 

Star wars funnies: https://comicbookmovie.com/sci_fi/star-wars/star-wars-the-return-of-the-jedi-we-need-to-have-a-conversation-about-that-giant-spider-a156725