Review: Dungeons & Dragons Golden Archive 'Legacy Monsters' Owlbear
- Mephitsu
- 5 days ago
- 5 min read
"You smell very delicious, but I will not bite you."
Hasbro’s Dungeons & Dragons line of 6-inch figures has had a checkered past, starting as a one off release of Drizzt Do’ Urden back in 2020, moving onto the animated 1980’s cartoon figures in 2023 and in the same year a series of figures called The Golden Archive based on the new Dungeons & Dragons movie, Honor Among Thieves. Hasbro then attempted to expand on what they hoped would be the success of the new movie figures with what they called Legacy releases. Only three of these were ever released: an updated Drizzt, the brand new sculpted Xanathar the Beholder, and a D&D Legacy version of the Owlbear.
With the exception of the early 2020 release of Drizzt, all of Hasbro’s D&D figures have been released in plastic-free packaging. That means no window to show off the figure and the boxes relying on artwork and photos of the figures to promote the content. For the larger Deluxe ‘Monsters’ this is a rectangular box with a cut-out corner to pay homage to D&D’s iconic D6 dice. There is an ornate golden trim framing the box front and the images headed with the Golden Archive logo, and with the bold red D&D logo sitting at the bottom of the box front. The front contains an illustrated image of the Owlbear and a smaller inset picture of the contents, which is not posed to show off the figure particularly well.
The illustrated image is used again on the side art, while the opposite side carries a brief overview of the Owlbear and its ‘reputation for ferocity’ and that it is one of the most ‘feared predators of the wild’. The back of the box is turned off to further showing off the figure with a larger posed image of the Owlbear against a forest backdrop and a confirmed height of nearly 8.5 inches, although that illustration is misleading as the measurement is with the arms raised and essentially presents the figure as smaller than it actually is. An inset confirms the inclusion of extra feet but doesn’t really sell the reason why, as we will see later on. All in all, the images are lacklustre and do not quite sell the figure as intended.
Inside the box our Owlbear arrives wrapped in waxy paper inside a cardboard tray. There is a need for assembly on arrival with the chest and back separate hard plastic pieces that need connecting to the main body. This is not overly difficult, but there is a small instruction manual to help - the trickiest element is getting both pieces in around the head.
Contrary to the box art, the figure stands a full 8.5 inches toe to head when in an upright position, larger than the box indicates the figure to be. It is cast in a brown plastic throughout with a sculpted feather texture across all of the body, translating to fur around the feet and claws. Colouring is added with a lighter brown tan colour across the chest, inset with some feathers picked out in black. This tan tone fades out to the edges and towards the stomach. On the arms and legs, the fur is darkened with a darker brown blended tone. The arms include extended feathers to the back as you would find on an owl's wing, and in contrast to this darker tone, these are picked out in a stark white colour. The body details are finalised with jet black gloss claws on both hands and feet.
The figure utilises the original Owlbear release from Honor Among Thieves, the white Owlbear that Doric transforms into. While the body is identical, Hasbro has changed the head to a new piece, more reflective of the source material and artwork within the D&D game system and similar to the Owlbear seen in the Baldur’s Gate 3 video game. This is also brown plastic, with the facial section using more of the lighter tan tone, but interspersed with darker brown - almost black feathered panels. Into the centre is the open beak in orange with the mouth interior painted a glossy red. The eyes feature a black ring, amber sclera, and black iris with a white dot added for reflection to the right-hand side.
Our Owlbear sports 17 points of articulation, all pinless, and built around the Owlbear anatomy and feathered coating, which does restrict certain movement. The legs are solid and the hips, knees, and ankle rockers combine to hold the oversized figure in an upright position. The arms feature butterfly shoulders and a hinged shoulder feathered panel that moves with the arm, allowing the arms to be raised up and outward. The elbows are more limited in their movement, as are the wrist joints. The torso ball joint and dual neck joint support variations in the upright position but are mainly designed around converting the Owlbear to an all-fours look.
That look is achieved by swapping out the ‘hands’ on the arms for the alternative pair of feet. You can then raise the head up using the dual neck joints and the rear end backwards with the torso joint. The legs can then be swung down to meet the floor, allowing your Owlbear to be displayed on all fours. This look is much better than the solitary box art picture makes out, and the articulation here still allows for some more attacking poses with the front legs still having the ability (one at a time) to be raised and into a swiping attack motion.
The Owlbear has not performed particularly well at retail, something true of much of the Golden Archive series which is a shame. It won’t have been helped by closed box packaging, but it also seems there is not a huge market for D&D figures out there. The Owlbear initially retailed at circa £40 here in the UK, but I have now seen it as low as £12.99, which is a bargain for such a large and relatively well-designed figure. Overall looks are consistent with the D&D source material, and it was good to see Hasbro use a new head rather than go for a full repaint of the Doric Owlbear figure. Articulation does its job, and the conversion from an upright stance to all fours works well enough, considering the limitations of the joints. With a limited number of D&D Legacy figures to display with the Owlbear, it is currently sat with my Drizzt and Xanathar figures. Maybe we will get lucky and be able to add more to this small collection in the future, although I am not holding out much hope.
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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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