If you’ve watched any of our video interviews, you’ll know my studio is packed with collectibles. Over the past twenty years, I’ve written about and collected all sorts of toys from all over the globe, and not once has a Donald Duck toy ever found its way into my office … until today.
We’ve been covering Beast Kingdom‘s Disney collectibles for a long time now. The company’s Dynamic 8ction Heroes (DAH) line of toys has appeared several times in our articles. Thankfully, Beast Kingdom provided us with DAH-042 (aka Dynamic 8ction Heroes Classic Donald Duck) specifically for this review.
So, how does the DAH line of toys stack up regarding displayability and features? First, let’s look at what the 6″ tall Disney icon offers.
Considering Donald has been around since 1934, everyone will have their favorite version of the sailor. I prefer my easily frustrated fowl to be surly. It’s a good thing Donald Duck comes with several swappable parts that allow us to show off his temper.
Each of the two portraits comes with four sets of interchangeable eyes. Each pair of eyes allows Donald to look up, down, left, or right. The figure also comes packed with three pairs of hands and a magnetized cap. That’s it for the accessories.
Donald’s sailor shirt is made from a fairly starchy fabric. Soft goods clothing is always tricky on figures of this scale. The tailoring has to be small enough to look good and durable enough not to tear when putting the figure in multiple poses.
The material withstood our stress test as we bent Donald Duck’s arms around to remove and apply the different hands and heads properly. The shirt’s color is a shade darker than what’s pictured on Beast Kingdom’s product page. It looks more like his cartoon counterpart.
Donald also includes a base and stand. However, unlike other mounts we’ve seen, the one here is not adjustable regarding height. This means the clamp, typically for the waist, goes around the figure’s neck. Thankfully, this accessory isn’t noticeable once in place due to Donald’s large noggin.
The arm isn’t necessary unless the figure is put into a one-legged pose. Donald stands very well on his own two webbed feet. The legs connect via ball joints at the base of Donald’s torso and do an excellent job of keeping him stable once both feet are flat.
Speaking of joint movement, let’s talk about the articulation in his upper body. The shirt also comes just low enough to hide the joint at the waist, allowing for rotating and a slight ab crunch.
Ball joints are located at his shoulders, wrists, base of the neck, and base of the head. Although sturdy, they allow enough flexibility to remove the head and hands for easy swapping parts. Sadly, the ball joints at the wrist are noticeable, but this allows for greater articulation.
The issue with visible seams also comes into play with Donald Duck’s head. The front part of his skull separates to allow you to swap out the eyes. Unfortunately, there’s just enough of a gap where the two halves connect that gives it all away. However, once you’ve got this DAH figure in the pose you want, you’ll probably never notice it again.
Speaking of the head, interchanging the parts is a snap, literally. Each set of eyes has a large tab at the back, making them easy to remove and insert. Once you push the new set all the way in, they’ll snap into place.
I toyed around with Donald Duck until I found his right pose. Then, thanks to the soft plastic used for his grabby hands, I could arm him with the tool he needed to take on a bothersome addition to my collection.
The $71.99 DAH-042 Classic Donald Duck is a solid figure, with its strengths being in all the display potential. I’d undoubtedly suggest him to any fan of the fiery-tempered fowl.
I’d love to see more interactions of Donald make their way into the DAH line or maybe an accessory pack giving him more expressions and different colored shirts. Or an alternate head that looks like his early days in the Disney cartoons.
If this DAH figure caught your eye, head over to Beast Kingdom and use our promo code PNPDAH10 for 10% off. This discount applies to first-time buyers of in-stock Dynamic 8ction Heroes products. I’d suggest picking up Darkwing Duck!
For more news on Beast Kingdom‘s line of products, check out our coverage here. Want to see more Disney merchandise? Click here to see everything that’s caught our eye!
Pirates & Princesses (PNP) is an independent, opinionated fan-powered news blog that covers Disney and Universal Theme Parks, Themed Entertainment and related Pop Culture from a consumer's point of view. Opinions expressed by our contributors do not necessarily reflect the views of PNP, its editors, affiliates, sponsors or advertisers. PNP is an unofficial news source and has no connection to The Walt Disney Company, NBCUniversal or any other company that we may cover.
