I haven't seen the animations, so I can't really comment on that. For the textures, the old one was a little bland, but I don't much care for so much red on the new ones. They don't even look stone anymore... more like really evil mushrooms. The wide part that looks kinda like an umbrella looks cool, though. Maybe mix-and-match the textures? The particles look evil and cool, so I'd say keep them.