I had Crossbows and Catapults, but I forgot about all the expansion sets. It’s obvious now that the game, while revolutionary in its way, was a simplified, physical expression of D&D. The problem with pen and paper role-playing is that you need time to play and people to play with. Toy companies began to exploit this limitation early on. Still, Lakeside’s “the fun is only limited by your imagination” is a crude mockery of TSR’s “products of your imagination” motto. You don’t need imagination to play Crossbows and Catapults. You just need what’s in the box.
There was apparently a set that included both the Cyclops and the Minotaur, and the sprawling box art (below) was scanned by some kind soul at Board Game Geek. The artist is Ken Kelly, who was illustrating LJN’s AD&D toy line at the same time. Kelly also did the art for the Crossbows and Catapults: Trojan Horse (1984) expansion set.
I wrote a piece on how Kelly changed the toy industry here.
(Images via eBay)
2 Warps to Neptune 