DFC: Dragonriders of the Styx - Figures

Dimensions for Children, or DFC, produced the first true fantasy themed toy soldiers and playsets.  They tried to cash in on the Dungeons & Dragons craze of the early 1980s.  The line includes 20 original figures, all marked "DFC 1981" and "Hong Kong." DFC made five playsets and sold figures in header bags.   Sadly for DFC, they copied some of the figures right out of the AD&D Monster Manual and TSR either sued them or threatened them enough to get them to remove the faces from two figures.  They also had to change the name of the Dungeons of Castlelon playset to the Demons of Castelon, and use new box art.  

DFC was taken over by another company called Multi Toy a year or two after the line was first introduced.  Multi Toy continued to produce bags of figures, added two new playsets, and eventually moved production form Hong Kong to mainland China.  A few other small changes were made to a few more figures after the move to China and they started being marked "PRC" (Peoples Republic of China) instead of Hong Kong.  The figures were made in a much wider range of colors in China and a few were made in soft rubber rather than plastic.  They also started using a distribution company called Sky Kids after the move.

DFC Hong Kong originals.





Demons & Gargoyles

These are the only ones actually called demons.

These are called gargoyles on the playset boxes but they seem more like demons to me.



These red demons/gargoyles are a little less common than the black.

These PRC plastic versions turn the chain into a rope.

These are PRC soft rubber demons.  Fairly rare, but not super rare.

Some PRC figures are bright orange/red plastic. These are very rare.

These pink soft rubber demons are super rare.

Super rare hot pink rubber demons

Insanely rare orange rubber demons.

I think these gray demons are knockoffs, but still very rare.

Orcs & Ogres

Hong Kong ogres.

PRC ogres came in several shades of gray.  Make your own joke about that.  

Rubber PRC Ogres.  Eight colors so far.

Rare color PRC hard plastic. 

A custom and two mold flaws.

These pig faced orcs are a little bit harder to find than other DFC figures.  As far as I can tell, they were not made after the move to mainland China.  

These guys are dead on copies of the orcs in the AD&D Monster Manual. 

These faceless orcs are the result of TSR's aggressiveness in the early 1980s.  Harder to find than the original figures.

Nagas / Snakemen

Naga high class of 1349.

Original Hong Kong produced nagas with face and ears.

DFC and Multi Toy nagas with face removed thanks to TSR.

These are Hong Kong made, and seem to be a short lived run with ears but no face.  Fairly rare.

Soft rubber PRC Nagas.

Lavamen / Flamemen

These flamemen (lava creatures) are copies of the shambling mound from the AD&D Monster Manual, but they were never altered for some reason.

Wizards

Hong Kong made wizards have stars on the end of their wands.

These Multi Toy versions have balls in place of the star on the end of their wands and are marked PRC rather than "Hong Kong."  The white wizard is a very rare exception that has a star wand but is marked PRC.  I think just a very few figures were made in China before the molds were changed. 

The unmodified PRC wizard also came in blue and black.  White is the rarest.  

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This is a mold flaw that looks like a different pose. 

Old wizard and really old wizard.

Titans / Barbarians

The Hong Kong made Titans have spiked weapons.

Multi Toy rounded off the Titan's weapons.

These are very rare blue Titans that are PRC marked with unmodified weapons. 

These green Titans are also marked PRC.  Almost as rare as the blue. 

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Knights

Most of the Hong Kong made knights come in shades of blue.

Very rare original Hong Kong production brown knights.

These are the same bright red/orange as some of the Multi Toy demons.  The larger bases also give them away as made in mainland China.

These black versions are a little harder to find than the orange.

The larger bases are about the only thing different about these Multi-Toy knights.

Multi-Toy also made several shades of blue.

These are soft rubber versions of the knights.

Only Multi-Toy made these green knights.

These are rare PRC maked knight that have the original smaller base.

These are slightly smaller knockoffs with modified weapons.

Dragonriders

Original Honk Kong DFC Dragonriders made of plastic.

PRC Dragonriders made of hard rubber.

PRC.  The one on the far right is made of soft rubber.

Rare version with no marks other than DFC 1981.

Dragons

The yellow dragon is extremely rare. 

Green dragons are the most common.

Flat black and glossy black.