I thoroughly enjoyed the recent Dungeons & Dragons movie and when Doric changed into an Owlbear during the movie it was certainly impressive, but honestly they had me at big six inch scaled fantasy monster. Let’s take a look at Doric’s Owlbear form!
The box is a plastic free number with a lot of space up front devoted to some lovely artwork of the Owlbear in a forrest. There are also renders on the front and back to give you an idea of what you are getting in the box. The figure comes tied down to a plain brown cardboard sleeve and the chest and back pieces have to be snapped on to the body.
The figure comes with two extra flat front paws so that the figure can be posed in a four-limbed walking pose. It is a bit light on the accessories, but does have the essentials. If I had to add anything, I’d say a closed or articulated beak head would have been nice or perhaps more open claws.
The sculpting is good and the owl bear has a nice thick build with a ton of feather details. It’s tough to make something so intrinsically soft and fluffy translate into articulated plastic, but I think they made good compromises. The beak and claws have a nice sharpness to them for mass market figures too. The style is more realistic and works pretty well with the Hasbro Golden Archive figures and Drizzt but is almost fudgeable with the cartoon D&D guys.
The articulation is pretty good allowing for four-limbed or two-limbed poses. There is a huge hinge in the neck that allows for good up/down movement (the above pic shows the range), though I do wish there was a smidge more down movement there for looking down while walking upright. The figure has:
- Ball and socket head and mid-torso
- Swivel/hinge shoulders, elbows, hips, knees and ankles
- hinged pecs and neck
The movement is pretty good for such a bulky beast and it balances well on wide, flat feet. The knees and elbows only hit about 90 degrees, but the limbs are pretty bulky.
The paint is decent and while it is mostly white plastic, the black beak and claw applications are clean and the crystal clear blue eyes are striking. I like the gray pattern they applied on the arms, back, chest, and thighs, I just wish there was a little more of it. I am tempted to do a bit of a gray wash to bring out more feather detail.
The figure is about 9.5 inches standing straight, but doesn’t look right like that and in a more appropriate crouch is about 7 inches.
Overall I like this figure a lot as it is surprisingly mobile, fun to pit against other fantasy characters, and the snowy Owlbear is also just a great take on a classic D&D monster even if you skipped the movie. Playing around with it does take me back to my childhood Wampa toy a bit. It does remind me a lot of the Lightning collection monster figures in that the sculpting and overall feel of the figure is nice, but the figure is a lot of one color plastic and could use a little bit more paint.
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Source: The Fwoosh
