Hank (Dungeons & Dragons) Review

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Hank (Dungeons & Dragons) Review

Hank
Dungeons & Dragons (Hasbro)While Dungeons and Dragons is a well-known role-playing game, not everyone who's heard of it knows there was a cartoon in the early 80s. Despite its short run, it's still fondly remembered by those who've seen it, and 40 years later, it's finally gotten action figures thanks to Hasbro. To be honest, I had no interest in the franchise beforehand, but when my local Ollie's got the first wave of figures for $10 apiece, I couldn't resist.

The cardbacks for these figures are interesting, as they don't use any plastic, a current Hasbro tradition. The contents are kept inside a closed-window box made part of the card, and the artwork on both the backing and side is great, and the spine artwork lines up with one another, so getting them all will make for a good display for you in-box collectors (or those who don't throw out the boxes). Being plastic-free means there's no trays or twisties to worry about; just snip off the tape holding down the top, and open up the paper baggies with the figures and accessories.

First there's Hank, the ranger and leader. The head sculpt is accurate to the cartoon, and I like the expression they chose for him. The paint on the face is clean, though the eye color is inaccurate, they should be blue, not purple-ish. He comes dressed in mostly-green clothing, covered in various studs, and it looks fine sculpt-wise, but the paint suffers from bleed, slop, and uneven edges. I will give Hasbro credit for sculpting the upper and lower parts of the tunic out of a softer material, so they won't get in the way of posing, along with slits for the arms and legs to go all the way out. Our ranger stands 6" tall, yet he's a 15-year-old, so I guess he had a growth spurt.

Next there's Diana, the "acrobat" (not sure that's a D&D class). She's a little shorter than Hank at about 5 3/4" tall, but still very close to his height. She also isn't as dressed as Hank, with just fur clothing covering her chest and pelvis, golden armbands, and boots. Little skimpy, isn't it? Still, the fur detailing is nice, and the paint makes good use of metallic gold, but still suffers from a lot of bleed and fuzziness. She has a good portrait, another instance of the head having cleaner paint than the body, though her pupils seem too big, comparing them to the packaging art. The hair looks a little clumpy and off, but it's still sculpted pretty well.

Lastly, there's the young barbarian Bobby. Like Diana, he wears a fur loincloth and boots, but the (presumably) leather vest, cuffs, and viking helmet are unique to him. The helmet has an intentionally crooked placement on the head, and it's also glued onto the hair, so it can't be removed. His paint's a little worse than the others, due to the silvery slop. How did paint applied to just the wrists get onto not just his right bicep, but also right under his head? Anyways, sculpt is good, paint on the face is clean, and as the youngest main character, Bobby is also smallest, coming up to about 4 3/4" tall to the tip of his helmet. His expression is another nice one, with more of a combat-focused look than the other two, and the little freckles are nice. Looking closely, the eyes seem to have a printed look, which helps keep them clean.

The articulation for these three is pretty good, and the set-up is as follows: ball/hinge head, swivel/hinge shoulders, elbows, wrists, and ankles, ball chest/waist and hips, double-hinged knees, and swivel shins. Hank has a barbell head instead of a ball/hinge joint, and also gets a ball neck. Plenty of joints for the figures, but the lack of thigh swivels does limit leg poses a bit. Tight joints is what you'll want to be most mindful of, and I've heard stories to these figures breaking right out of the box. The elbows on all three and Hank's ankles were tight, but I was able to work them carefully, and sitting in a warm car before being opened probably helped. Still, you'll want to pose them with care, and use heat with necessary. My Bobby had a left hip glued to the pelvis somehow, and some twisting and turning helped get it free.

Not a lot of accessories are included with these kids, but they fit them well. Hank comes with two versions of his bow: one regular and one with an energy arrow. The second version is cast out of clear yellow plastic, including the bow, even though it should be solid. Still, the sculpt is nice, but he can't hold it very well due to both of his wrists having vertical hinges, and at least one of them needs to move laterally to make it work. Diana comes with her green staff, and there's a second staff with smears on both ends, creating a "twirling" effect, making for some good display options. Bobby has his big club, but being the smallest figure, he also has a pack-in in the form of Uni, the team's pet unicorn. At about 3 1/4" tall, Uni has a cute, show-accurate sculpt with somewhat cleaner paint than the main figures, and she also gets a barbell-joint for the head, allowing her to look around. Each figure also gets a D&D die; 8-sided for Hank, 12-sided for Bobby, and 20-sided for Diana. I'm probably not gonna use these, but they're there for those who want them.

These aren't quite perfect figures, but for those who like the franchise or at least just the cartoon, they'll be pretty fun additions to your collection. They look accurate to the show, and the useful articulation and accessories help, but the paint could've been better, along with a few joint touch-ups. Since they're dirt-cheap now, they'll be hard to resist, and hopefully wave two drops in price soon.

- 5/20/24