NECA Dungeons and Dragons 50th Anniversary Warduke Figure
Category
😹
FunTranscript
00:00It's almost like this figure came directly from the 80s. Here's a look at
00:03the NECA Toys Dungeons & Dragons the 50th anniversary Warduke Evil Fighter.
00:10Warduke fights as remorseless cold-hearted mercenary who works for
00:32coin. The evil swordsman serves Kallak as cohort and adventuring companion from
00:36time to time. He wheels a flame-tongued longsword and wears a dread helm. He
00:40never removes his helmet to reveal his face to others but the visage beneath it
00:43is that of a grim hideously scarred gladiator. Sure, yeah, his allegiance may
00:47have been with LJN before but NECA gave him the better offer. Just before, of
00:51course, we get a closer look at the Dungeons & Dragons 50th anniversary
00:53retro-inspired Warduke, I'd like, if I can, to thank the folks over at NECA that
00:57provided the sample we could have a look at. Warduke and the earlier look at
01:00Strongheart are available right now in either stores or online depending on
01:03where, of course, you pick your poison and where you'd like to purchase your
01:06figures. The figure, though, is gonna stand the same as the original Ultimate
01:09version of Warduke simply because they're using the exact same body. The
01:12figure, though, is gonna stand with the wings, of course, on the sides of his
01:16helmet at about seven and the three-quarters of an inch in height. If
01:19you don't want to include that, which I think is kind of rather silly because he
01:21can't remove his helmet, then the figure is only gonna be about seven and a
01:24quarter inches in height. But if you translate the full height of the figure
01:28then in centimeters it's about 20 centimeters tall. Unlike the earlier
01:32looked at 50th anniversary Strongheart, which I didn't have in that case, the
01:35Ultimate version of him, I can most definitely, though, bring in the Ultimate
01:38version of Warduke. The figure, as you can see, is gonna be using, again, the
01:41same mold but paint is so much more gloriously applied to the Ultimate
01:45release. If, though, you are a big fan of the original 83 line that LJM produced
01:49the Dungeons & Dragons figures for, I mean, obviously, the newer retro inspired
01:53ones are more a throwback to that original figure line. I haven't yet
01:57looked at him either, though, in the 50th anniversary release but here's also as
02:00well what the figure looks like with the Ultimate version of Elkhorn. Again, it's
02:04gonna be the case that with the 50th anniversary figures you're not gonna be
02:07getting as high of an accessory count as you would with the Ultimates. You do
02:11still get three different blades, you still get the fire attachment that goes
02:13on to longsword, and you get a super shiny shield. You would have all those
02:17same things with Warduke before but then the Ultimate figure would also have had
02:21three interchangeable hands on top of that. Backing up, though, a bit, let's look
02:24at this super shiny shield that comes included with this version of Warduke.
02:28This is about the only thing that I actually like a little bit more than the
02:31original release of Warduke, bringing that shield right now. The shape and the
02:35skull are exactly the same, although you can very obviously see the chrome has
02:39now been finished here on the front of the shield where it would have been more
02:42of a dark gunmetal gray with the original approach. I couldn't help but
02:45notice, though, putting the two side by side without actually having a scale in
02:49front of me, that the one we get here for the 50th anniversary does feel a little
02:53heavier than the original Warduke shield. Flipping around, though, to the back, you
02:58have still again that chrome finish on the back side of this but now the
03:01leather strap that would have been more of a lighter brown on the original
03:03release gets more approached in a darker leather on the strap on the back.
03:07Attaches, of course, the exact same way on his arms. Now, obviously, I would love to
03:12have used this with the other version of Warduke. The thing about it, though, is it
03:15does match more closer to the gauntlet arm that he has on the sides. If you were
03:18to, say, for example, swap things around, then the shield would look a little out
03:21of place and, again, vice versa as well. The figure also, as well, comes included
03:25with three different weapons. We'll start first with the smaller blades. He comes
03:29included with this version of sword. Now, I'm gonna again bring in all the ones we
03:32got from before with other Warduke. Slightly more darker washed blade here
03:36on the original release. A lighter blade, of course, very little in the way of
03:39paint additionally added to outside the silver, of course. We also get, as well, the
03:43guard and the hilt are notably darker with this one actually from the newer
03:48version 50th anniversary being a more lighter blue with some additional silver
03:52accents added on the end of the hilt. The ultimate version obviously would have
03:56traded then the silver for an all metallic blue finished hilt. Again, it's
04:02just a matter of preference. If you are looking to display the figure, you're
04:04probably gonna stick with all the accessories that come included with that
04:07designated Warduke. The figure also, as well, comes included with a sword that he
04:11can sheath on the side of his body. I just happen, again, to bring in the
04:14original one here. Very, again, darker colors approached here with the ultimate
04:18version than there was with the lighter. I mean, obviously, here, as well, when
04:21you're looking at the hilt. Instead of one thing, though, approaching this with
04:25golds and kind of more, again, that darker metallic blue, you get much this time
04:29around a much brighter yellow and brighter blue, again, to match the colors
04:32of the original 83 line. This is one of those weapons, though, that, unlike the
04:36other one, well, I shouldn't say that either. The other one also could have the
04:39means to sheath on the side of his body. It's just, again, making sure you're
04:43matching up to the appropriate sheaths or holsters on the sides of his body.
04:46Let's just move his arms out of the way, for example. Before we actually look at
04:50his longsword, he has two places to store the shorter blades. So, really,
04:54conveniently, Warduke has the means to store everything. Say, for example, though,
04:59and with this case, too, as well, you're gonna be matching the colors. So, again,
05:02like, this one's gonna have about the same length of sheath. That's just gonna
05:06slide really nicely there on the side. Even though this is more kind of based
05:09on the original vintage toy, it's nice to see that they still kept the retained
05:13chain, something that the original Warduke also had, as well. If we flip
05:17around the figure on the other side, then there, again, is storage space. I want to
05:20make sure I grab the right sword here. There's a storage space here, then, to
05:23sheath this version of sword. The thing about it, though, is this one's a little
05:26harder, I find, to get to, and you want to make sure, also, as well, that when
05:29you're putting it in his arm, you always put it the right way. I don't know how
05:32many times, and I'm still continuing to do this, I always end up putting it the
05:35wrong way. This one, you also have to fight a lot more, I noticed, to get
05:39actually sheathed in there. I don't know why, what it is. It's just something that
05:42seems to be holding up the blade from being all the way fed in there. Once you
05:47get it in there, it is, again, a struggle. I don't know why. Maybe it's just some
05:50additional paint that they added to this, but this is a harder blade, I noticed, to
05:53actually get holster on the side of his body. For the sake of that, and obviously
05:56when we look at the figure's articulation, let's just go ahead and
05:59remove the sword for right now, because I just don't want to get that in the way.
06:01Unfortunately, though, one other thing, too, is because the quarters
06:05are so close, you can see that it starts to now rub off the paint on the blade.
06:09I've only done this now a couple of times, but you can already see, as well,
06:12the results of that are already starting to happen. Oh boy, look at that little
06:16wear away paint. I don't know, again, like, if this particular holster... I didn't
06:20have as many of the issues, though, when it came to the other Warduke.
06:23Something, though, about this figure... I don't know if there's maybe a built-up
06:26paint inside the sheath here that's causing the resulting wear away on the
06:30paint here on the blade. Again, I've only done this a couple of times, but a couple
06:33of times was only the number of times I needed to do that. Anyways, though, let's
06:37look at the other accessory, though, that comes included with the figure. He also
06:39gets his longsword. Again, bringing back in the original longsword here. What
06:44would have been, obviously, yellow here on the newer release was originally gold.
06:48The gold is now nicely done here. Of course, this stone there in the
06:51middle is more darker red. Everything, though, about the newer figure is much
06:54more approached in lighter color schemes, more primary colors. The hilt
07:00and the guard, as you can see, there is a much brighter approach, both the yellow,
07:03the brown, and some additional yellow on the end. I mean, if you're looking more
07:07for the realism, the Ultimates version of Warduke Breath, I think, covers it a
07:11little bit better, but if you like, again, the way that the LGN toy originally was,
07:14maybe if you even had the original toy as a kid, these would be nice, again,
07:18upgrades with some additional sculpting and some additional articulation there
07:21as well. So there's a couple things that you can actually do with the long
07:25blade here, the longsword. First of all, you get yourself a fire attachment. The
07:28attachment slides on the exact same way as the original one. You basically have
07:33to, when you're feeding this through, want to make sure everything's kind of
07:35lined up right, and when you're feeding it, there's a little section right here
07:39that you want to make sure you kind of guide the blade through there, just to
07:43make sure that it gets on there all the way. Now, one thing they actually have
07:46done differently, though, is the actual fire. If you look at the differences
07:49between the fire, the one that we did get here from the Ultimate, as you can see,
07:53approached it more with a pastel yellow with outer trims here in orange. This one
07:57actually just goes with one singular color, and the color more is kind of a
08:01yellowish green. Again, it works the exact same way. So if we got the guard, the
08:05actual sword here, and just feed the fire onto it, which, again, is a really hard
08:10thing to do. I mean, again, looking at the differences between the two, I probably
08:13could have fed that on just a little bit longer. You can see the way that the fire
08:16attaches onto the sword. Technically, it can go all the way up, but again, it's
08:20very close quarters. Just even try to feed that onto the blade. The other thing
08:24that you can obviously do, as well, when it comes to the longsword, obviously, is the
08:28fact the figure does have gripping hands on both sides of his body. One thing
08:31he doesn't actually have, that we'll talk more about in a moment, is three
08:34additional hands. Not that he necessarily needs it. So, I mean, with the hands that
08:37they are right now, the plastic is pretty good in that you don't have to
08:41actually heat them up. Actually, in fact, I noticed this also when we
08:45looked at Strongheart. Strongheart, the plastic for his hands was pretty soft. I
08:49didn't have to worry about heating it up at all for him to properly hold any one
08:52of his weapons. So, of course, you can have the longsword or any one of the
08:55weapons in Warduke's hands default, without having to change anything out.
08:58Which you can also do, as well, take the longsword out of his hand. There we go.
09:03Flip the figure around on the back, and again, storage for everything that the
09:07figure comes included with. He's got also, as well, a scabbard or sheath on the
09:10back of his body, that you can then sheath the sword. The sword actually
09:14sheaths better than it does on this one here. Again, I don't know why this one... I
09:18fight so much to try to get the blade in there. The sword actually fits really
09:21nicely on the back of his body, without having to fight at all to do that. So,
09:25like, again, I like the idea that Warduke does have available means to store
09:29everything that the figure comes included with. And, of course, the other
09:31thing, as well, is that you can also get, as well, the shield on his hands.
09:35You just basically clip the hands around the handles, and he also would have
09:38himself a shield, as well. So, let's go ahead and just remove all the things we
09:42just finished talking about. Just put those off to the side, getting a closer
09:45look at Warduke. I feel like, unlike the other figures we've already had a look
09:48at, this is the figure I may have actually had as a kid. Although,
09:51obviously, the fact I don't have the other figure being brought in right now
09:54probably tells you the fact that, between then and now, I've parted ways with the
09:58figure. I probably picked it up also at a garage sale, and if memory serves me
10:02correctly, it didn't have any accessories whatsoever. It was just literally a pretty
10:06cool-looking figure that I saw inside of a cardboard box, and it was probably
10:09going for, like, ten cents. I mean, ten cents as a kid. If you happen to have, like,
10:13an allowance, I mean, I had very little of an allowance, but just enough that if you
10:16hit the local garage sales, you could probably just walk away with just a
10:19handful of figures. Bringing, though, in the original Warduke that we looked at
10:23from before, again, obviously, the difference between the two is more the
10:27way they approach the paint. Kind of more, really, just a primary coat of paint, a
10:31blue that gets added to his helmet, for example. The Ultimates version, for
10:34example, would have had now metallic blue, so there's definitely more of an upgrade
10:38between the two figures. If you're kind of more partial to what LJN did before
10:41with their original Dungeons & Dragons from the 80s, then you might maybe
10:45like the idea of getting an upgrade to him by getting the 50th anniversary
10:49release of him versus going with the more fully, like, metallic, fully more
10:53realistic approach to Warduke instead. The body, from a color scheme standpoint,
10:59definitely seems like he's got a little more tan there on his body. The straps, as
11:03well as his necklace, are all approached kind of more of the metallic finishes,
11:06where, again, like with this one, sticks to the primaries of the blue, the yellow,
11:10and the red. Now, he has also, additionally, down below here with his
11:13loincloth, what again would have been more of a darker brown with gold there
11:16on the front of this really cool-looking belt buckle. He also now has this, but he
11:21has it more, again, in a very simple-looking yellow. The yellow is, in
11:25one area, generally painted. In other areas, though, on the front of it, kind of
11:28looks like he probably could have used a secondary finish. Just a second coat
11:32could have gone really a long way, but it does look good. I really like the look of
11:34that quite a bit. Obviously, his chainmail is also something that was originally
11:38metallic blue on the first Warduke release, and, again, now just goes kind of
11:42more just a solid straight blue, but I like the color of the blue that they
11:46actually chose. I kind of want to go back and look at the original images of
11:49Warduke. Really, again, regretting that I never have the
11:52original figure that I could have brought in for comparisons, but even, like,
11:55looking back on the original LGN83 release of Warduke, the color schemes are,
11:59again, pretty close. They're much closer with this version of him than they are
12:03closer than this version. Obviously, for the figure's articulation, it's gonna be
12:07exactly the same as the original Warduke, so that's gonna be on a
12:10bulge, right? I know we haven't really spent a whole lot of time talking about
12:13the figure's actual features. Again, this one would be a case where, like, Warduke
12:17never removes his helmet, so you really never quite understand what how grotesque
12:20and gruesome he looks like underneath. I love the glowing eyes on this figure. The
12:24original figure also would have had that as well. Some additional red there
12:27also on the top of his crown there, and I love, just again, like, these fins on the
12:30sides of his body. I don't know why it kind of reminds me of Merman, but again, like,
12:34for the figure's articulation, the head's gonna be on a bulge, right? It looks down a
12:37lot more than you would think it would. Head looks down about that far. It looks
12:40up, and again, that's the only more limitations on the figure's head sculpt
12:43is the fact it only goes to about that high. The head also moves back and forth.
12:47The thing, unfortunately, about that, though, is because he does have the fins
12:50on either sides, I mean, you can feel right away that it's hitting shoulders
12:53and you can't go any further than that. Of course, the necklace, though, is not a
12:57separate piece. It was probably a separate piece at one point, but they
13:01definitely have glued it in place, so you can't try to move the necklace around.
13:04The upper torso is gonna be on a bulge, right? It's a little bit more limited,
13:07obviously, because he's got, first of all, a shoulder here, and he's got then these
13:10straps here for his armor. The arms do come out at about 90 degrees, a little
13:15less than that. I did actually have to fight a little bit more to get the arms
13:18to go beyond 45 degrees, and even now I feel like I'm fighting just a little
13:22bit more to get them past this point here. The arms do, by the way, rotate all
13:26the way around. A little bit more hung up, though, obviously, because he's got the
13:29strap there on the top. The figure does have a bicep swivel, a single hinge only
13:34in the elbow. The arms rotate back and forth this way, as well. The hands also
13:38rotate with a hinge there, as well. The lower body, by the way, not only
13:43does he have a bulge right here, but he also seems to have the makings
13:46of a waist swivel, where you can get a little bit of movement happening in the
13:50waist, as well. Legs split out. Even though he does really have these, again,
13:54the little sheets there on the side, little scabbards, this one isn't attached
13:58at all, other than just the chain. This one here, on the other hand, is actually
14:01attached to the side of his loincloth, so when you are moving it, you kind of feel,
14:04especially when you bring the legs out, there's a little bit more resistance
14:07here. There's a swivel there on the top of the thigh, a single hinge only on the
14:11knee. The lower leg rotates. The boot itself also does rotate, and that may
14:16have more to do with just the way the figure was assembled. There is also an
14:19ankle pivot back and forth, and also, as well, there's an ankle rocker on the
14:2350th anniversary version of War Duke. Again, when it really comes down
14:27to picking out the figures, it's more of a matter of preference. If you're one
14:30that just really likes Dungeons & Dragons, you're probably gonna be
14:33collecting both the Ultimate lines and, as well, the 50th anniversary LJN
14:37inspired lines, but, obviously, if you're more kind of akin to the original ones
14:41that maybe you had collected in the 80s as a kid, I mean, there's something to be
14:44said, also, about the simplicity of all the 50th anniversary
14:48figures. Granted, we've only looked at two of the suggested four on the back of
14:52the packaging. We looked at, now, Strongheart and War Duke. We still have to look at
14:55Zarak. We still have to look at Elkhorn. Unlike, though, Zarak, we have already
14:59looked at Elkhorn, so when we do eventually get around to have a look at
15:01the 50th anniversary version of Elkhorn, like we had done here with War Duke, I'll
15:05have, actually, a chance, unlike the Strongheart from before, to bring in the
15:09original Ultimates figure so you can see the differences between the two. I think
15:12any one of us looking at the Ultimate Dungeons & Dragons line that NECA has
15:15been producing so far wouldn't at all be wrong to make the assumption that
15:19sooner rather than later the action figure giant wouldn't be producing
15:22figures based on the 1983 LJN line with slightly simpler paint jobs. Now,
15:28obviously, you may not be collecting both lines. If you aren't as familiar, say, with
15:32Dungeons & Dragons, or even what LJN was producing back in the 80s, you might just
15:35be more interested in sticking with the stuff that we got from the Ultimates. Any
15:38one of those figures from the Ultimate line definitely have a more upgraded
15:42even though they are essentially using the same bodies. If you, though, have
15:46sentimental value, or you have more, again, when you're looking at these figures, you
15:50like the idea that they look like the figures or, quote, toys I had when I was
15:53growing up, then you might more lean to the idea of collecting the 50th
15:57anniversary Dungeons & Dragons for that reason instead. If it wasn't the case I
16:01wasn't reviewing these, probably what I would have ended up doing, though, is
16:04having, honestly, the Ultimate figures, because, of course, they're coming in
16:07different type of packaging, would have the Ultimate figures loose on my shelf,
16:10which I have been doing that up to this point, and I might be more interested in
16:13the idea of keeping the 50th anniversary figures sealed still inside of their
16:17packaging. Because they have cardboard packaging with a little blister card
16:21there on the front that you actually have to cut it, there's no other way,
16:23unfortunately, to remove these figures from their packaging prison. I would
16:27rather have just kept the figure sealed and put them on my wall that way, which
16:30is one thing, again, I know based on the way they've done the packaging, they,
16:34again, were very heavily influenced by the kind of action figure packaging we
16:37would have gotten in the 80s, that once you open a figure out of the packaging,
16:40the packaging is just considered discarded. You're gonna throw it away in
16:43the garbage. Rather, though, I wish that the figure was that figure packaging was
16:47a little bit more collector friendly, so if there was a way at all they could have
16:51made it so you could have actually removed the figure out from it without
16:53having to destroy the packaging. But, again, like if it's gonna be based on the
16:56original 83 line, that's probably one of the biggest reasons why NECA made
17:01the packaging as it is. But I would definitely, if I wasn't reviewing these,
17:04like to have kept the Ultimate figures loose and on my shelf, because they are
17:07great-looking figures, by the way, and in fact kept the 50th anniversary's still
17:11sealed in their packaging. What do you guys think of this line? Let me know down
17:15below in the comment section. If you are a big fan of Dungeons & Dragons, by the
17:18way, did you guys see yourselves collecting both the 50th anniversary
17:22line and the original Ultimates, or would you more lean to one direction instead?
17:26Let me know what you guys think of these down below in the comment section. Big
17:29thank you, once again, to the folks over at NECA that did provide the sample of
17:32the brand-new 50th anniversary Dungeons & Dragons War Duke that we had the
17:37chance to have a look at in this review. If you guys, in the meantime, did enjoy this
17:40video, I want to throw out a like. If you guys are loving the content you guys are
17:43seeing and you'd like to stick around for more, if you haven't already, that is to
17:47say, make sure you hit that subscribe button down below and turn on the bell
17:50notification. We're gonna also, as well, be looking at more NECA reviews, so
17:53making sure you're staying here on a regular basis. You can also go and do
17:57other things, too. Eat, sleep, breathe, obviously, would all be the more
18:01important things to function in life, but make sure you're coming back here on a
18:04regular basis because we will definitely always have new NECA reviews on the
18:07channel. As always, guys, thanks for watching. See you guys next time.