Here is an interesting figure. I got this in about 1975 from a newsagent in Morecambe, Lancashire, where my Grandmother lived. At the local newsagent, there was a box of various monsters (2 others I have/had are a wingless red dragon standing on it's hind legs and a sort or green concertina like lizard) and I was already showing promise by buying one each time I went with my Dad to get the paper.
It's clearly the same as the Bulette illustration from the Monster Manual, but in production before the book was published
Having typed this, I have just found this fascinating thread in which one of the inventors of D and D (presumably Dave Arneson) explains that Gary Gygax based the monsters on the plastic figures. Answered my own conundrum thanks to the wonders of the internet.
