Review: Dungeons & Dragons Golden Archive Displacer Beast from Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves
- Mephitsu
- 5 hours ago
- 5 min read
“So we just go through the maze?”
In 2023 Hasbro’s Dungeons & Dragons Golden Archive series was in full flow as it tried to capitalise on the release of D&D: Honor Among Thieves on the big screen. The line suddenly expanded beyond its one special release of Drizzt Do’Urden & Guenhwyvar to figures from the movie and, ambitiously, a number of larger creatures including the Owlbear, a Beholder, and the figure we are reviewing here, the Displacer Beast.
The Beast is seen as one of the key threats in the High Sun Games Arena in Neverwinter, has its origins in D&D lore, but its part in the movie would prove to be limited despite Hasbro’s investment to develop and release such a large figure. The ‘Beasts’ in the D&D Golden Archive series come in larger and wider boxes but still feature the same shaped corner paying homage to the D6 dice used in Dungeons & Dragons. The boxes are windowless, as was the entire range at the time of release, with the front cover carrying an illustrated image of the Displacer Beast with an insert showing the figure itself. Another image of the figure, this time expanded to fill the full space, is used on the back of the box, with the size of the beast confirmed and the functionality of the Tentacles. The rest of the box space is taken up by a zoomed in head shot of the illustration on one side, and a short bio text on the other.
Inside the windowless packaging we have an inner cardboard sleeve and the various components for the beast with the tail and the two upper tentacles supplied separately to the rest of the figure. A basic set of instructions are included, although it isnt hard to work out where each go. All three pieces plug into the sockets on the main body and click into place with sufficient (but not excessive) force.
The figure is impressive in terms of size, measuring over 11-inches nose to tail, and the tentacles creating a height in excess of 8 inches if you pose them as seen on screen. The body of the six-legged cat is cast in black plastic with fur detailing including on each sculpted and assembled part. A purple hue is added over the top to try and give a shimmering magic effect, although this is not overly successful. Pink is used to pick out battle scars down the body although rather than picking out sculpted wounds, they are painted over the fur which makes them look more than a little fake.
Painted detail is then included on each of the Displacer beasts clawed feet in a sickly yellow colour, with the same tone used for the teeth in the open jaw. This jaw also features a purple tone for the gums, while the eyes above are yellow with a black pupil. The final detailing is on the two tentacles with the upper flattened portion coloured in a fleshy-pink and then with rows of flexible plastic grey fronds protruding outward.
Articulation on such a multi-limbed creature is a feat of engineering and we can count 31 joints in total of which 24 are across the six legs. Getting all six of these legs aligned for a standing position takes a bit of work, but once stabilised the Displacer Beasts stands securely even allowing you to extend a front paw in an attack mode or extending those upper tentacles outwards.
The tentacles themselves are articulated by a ball joint where they plug into the body, but are then flexible in terms of being a softer plastic on top of a metal armature. In theory this should make them poseable in any direction or configuration, but the thickness of the plastic does make them extremely difficult to move and poses and the plastic fights against the internal armature and often simply drags them back into the same position they were in to start with.
The final joints are at the tail, allowing that to be raised, lowered or rotated, at the midsection of the body, and at the head end. These include two neck joints to move the head around to the side and to raise it and lower it, as well as an opening jaw. Not all of these work as you’d like, with the neck and mid-sections joints feeling overly springy and not moving to the extent we might expect them too.
Posed with your D&D 6-inch figures, the Displacer Beast is scaled well enough with its head reaching their waist as we see it on screen as its stalks its prey in the maze. The figure suffered, as did much of the linen, with the initial reception for the movie and coming at a point where the Hasbro lines were all windowless boxes which drove a downturn in sales across nearly all lines.
The Displacer Beast is an OK figure, ambitious and executed well in places, but with flaws in others. The paint job is the worst element, and I’d have preferred the team to ditch the purple hue and the false scars and to do a two tone paintjob on the fur to give it the sheen it deserves. The eyes and mouth are also amateurish considering the quality paint work we’ve seen on similar size figures in the Legends and Star Wars lines and the job the team did on Guenhwyvar a couple of years earlier who’s golden shining eyes and realistic mouth do put this version to shame. And of course the upper Tentacles, the key element of the figure, do not work particular well with the wire armature fighting the plastic in nearly every position and loosing.
With an RRP of £44.99 on arrival in the UK, the Displacer Beast has hung around for quite some time and the price has continued to drop. At the time of writing you can still get one new and boxed with the price as low as £12.95 on one site we checked. This is a shame and another sign that a D&D line just hasn’t got the popular support to succeed in depth, I just hope that Hasbro do consider the line worthy of some kind of future with so much source material to go after and dedicated fans out there that will buy these figures albeit most likely in a limited run and exclusive to Hasbro or another retailer. For now, The Displacer Beast does complete my D&D collection and provides some background to the display albeit overshadowed by the more impressive Owlbear and Xanathar releases.
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About Me : As a child of the 70's and 80's I grew up in a golden age for action figures and in my youth bought and sold myself through collections of Star Wars, G.I. Joe (Action Force) and M.A.S.K. while also dabbling in He-Man, Transformers and Ghostbusters. Roll forward and I am now reliving that Youth with the action figures of today and am a collector and fan of the larger 6-8 inch figures from my favourite movie and TV licences - including the ones mentioned above, but also the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Doctor Who and the Aliens. I launched The Mephitsu Archives in 2015 with a view of creating a UK focused site or these figures where fans can pick up the latest action figure news, read reviews and get information on where to buy their figures and what is currently on store shelves. I hope I am delivering that to you guys...
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