Bug-Eyed Monster

I believe my first encounter with science-fiction literature was Andre Norton’s The Last Planet (sometimes entitled Star Rangers). My parents read the book to me when I was quite young. I say ‘parents’ because I can’t actually remember which parent. Mom was the big Andre Norton fan, but Dad did more of the reading… In fact, it may be that both read it to me at different times.

I can’t say whether or not it is a great book, but I certainly loved it at the time. It features a small team that crash lands on a remote world. I don’t remember much about the plot, but I do remember the ‘team’ consisted of a human, a bird-man, a reptile-man, and a human with large eyes adapted to low-light who had to wear large goggles in normal sunlight. I also remember that the non-humans were called ‘Bemmies’, short for ‘Bug-Eyed Monsters’. Not overly PC, but certainly believable. Amusingly, the cover features 3 humans and a robot!)

I hadn’t thought about the book in years, until it popped back into my head while I was working on Stargrave. It popped in there again as I was painting my most recent miniature (above).

This is completely a ‘for fun’ figure. I have no specific purpose for him, but I can see him getting use in all kinds of scenarios. He could be a medic, or the guy carrying the case full of money, or maybe just the Ravaged Galaxy’s equivalent of a travelling shower-curtain ring salesman. Who knows.

Anyway, he was fun to put together and even more fun to paint!