Wednesday, February 8, 2012

An Impressive Character Debut For A Pretty Lousy Character: Daultay Dofine! (My 400th Toy Review!!!!!)


The Good: Amazing coloring detail, Good accessories, Good articulation, Good balance
The Bad: Odd accessory choice, Cloth elements inhibit some motion.
The Basics: The new Star Wars Vintage Collection Daultay Dofine figure is an academically awesome figure with little real use.


I have long been a vocal opponent of action figures that blend plastic and cloth elements. There are very few figures that do it well so that they end up looking good. Or, by contrast, a figure with mixed elements may look just fine on its own, but when placed next to the other figures in a series, they look incongruent and that can ruin a display if you use your figures for that purpose. So, perhaps the biggest surprise for me with the brand spankin’ new Daultay Dofine Star Wars action figure is that the plastic elements that cover the cloth elements of the figure’s robes solve the appearance problems of cloth elements and the flexibility problems that usually plague robed figures with plastic or rubber robes. In other words, Daultay Dofine represents the best of both worlds!

If the name Daultay Dofine is not ringing any bells, it is no surprise. He was the minor villains from the Trade Federation in The Phantom Menace (reviewed here!). Leading the blockade against Naboo, Captain Daultay Dofine is in command of the Trade Federation Battleship that Nute Gunray is on when the Jedi arrive to put an end to the blockade.

The 4" Vintage Collection Daultay Dofine is the first version of this figure and with this level of quality, it might as well be the last!

Basics

The Vintage Collection Daultay Dofine figure stands 3 7/8" tall without his hat on. The figure is an incredible blend of the cloth elements and the plastic ones, with the main cloth robes actually hidden beneath the soft plastic robe parts. The molding of Daultay Dofine is a pretty simple one; he is a Neimoidian and with figures like Nute Gunray, Lot Dodd and Rune Haako (reviewed here!) on the market before him, he was pretty much the only Neimoidian left to do! The sculpt is a very simple one. He is a bald-headed alien that looks fairly fish-like. Underneath the soft plastic outer robe, Daultay Dofine has a skirt that completes the appearance of the floor-length robe and fabric sleeves that complete the illusion without inhibiting the figure’s range of motion.

As for the coloring detail, the Daultay Dofine colored very accurately, which is pretty easy when one considers that this was a figure based upon a character with a latex mask. Mostly blue for the costume, Daultay Dofine has large red eyes and green-gray skin tones. The real amazing detailing on the coloring comes in the skin tones on the face. In the nose and mouth area, Daultay Dofine is almost yellow, while the figure’s head gets progressively more green and gray as one moves away from the face! While I was impressed that the figure had molded on fingernails, they are not colored to look any different from the fingers and that was a (very) minor disappointment. This is a good looking figure for a character that was barely on screen.


Accessories

As an ineffectual battleship commander, Daultay Dofine needs very few accessories. He comes with only two: his hat and his Trade Federation blaster. Daultay Dofine’s hat is a conical, simple navy blue hat that sits perfectly upon the Neimoidian’s head. It adds about 5/8” to the figure’s overall height and makes him look mildly more imposing than without it.

Daultay Dofine also comes with a Trade Federation blaster. The blaster is the standard 1 1/4” firearm that comes with all of the battle droids. This version has exceptional surface detailing, so it looks like a manufactured weapon with several parts including dials and power packs, but with no real coloring detail. On the plus side, the blaster is colored gunmetal instead of hard black, so it matches the colorscheme of the rest of the figure fairly well. The use of the blaster at all is somewhat baffling for a Daultay Dofine figure. Most of the political figures from the prequel films, like Chancellor Valorum (reviewed here!) or the Attack Of The Clones Orn Free Taa (reviewed here!) come with staffs as accessories and it seems strange that this captain who is quickly excused from the bridge during The Phantom Menace comes with something as badass as a blaster!

Playability

The four inch toy line was designed for play and Daultay Dofine is very good in that regard. Daultay Dofine figure has good balance, not tipping over even when posed in some fairly outlandish positions, like in a mid-walk pose! The figure does have holes in the bottom of his feet to allow him to stand tall on any number of playsets in outlandish poses or attach to pegs on vehicles. The heavier plastic robes, however, inhibit his ability to sit down.

Daultay Dofine has amazing articulation, though, which is pretty cool for a figure making its debut. He has hinged ball and socket joints at the ankles, knees, elbows and shoulders, as well as a ball and socket joint which allows a great range of motion for the head, even with his hat on. The wrists, groin socket and waist each have simple swivel joints. This is an impressively-articulated figure and despite the inability to sit, he is virtually untippable given the support that comes from the robes.

Collectibility

The Daultay Dofine is part of the Vintage Collection line that was released in 2012 and he is pretty much guaranteed to sell out when the movie hits the big screen again, despite being a pretty bland character. The Daultay Dofine is Vintage Collection figure VC82 and he represents more value than the two unique-to-this assortment podracer figures that were released. While inaction figures like politicians from the Star Wars Saga never seem to appreciate in value all that much, Daultay Dofine may well be one of the few that should!


Overview

Daultay Dofine may be a pretty uninspired Star Wars character, but Hasbro makes the very best of him with their Vintage Collection release. The figure is dynamic, well-cast, well-colored and if he turns out to be collectible as well, he might just be the best stunted ball of slime in the galaxy!

For other Vintage Collection figures, please check out my reviews of:
VCP03 Boba Fett
VC01 Dengar
VC05 AT-AT Commander
VC10 4-LOM
VC11 (Twin Pod) Cloud Car Pilot
VC22 Admiral Ackbar
VC37 Super Battle Droid
VC41 Commander Gree
VC46 AT-RT Driver
VC48 Weequay Skiff Master
VC49 Fi-Ek Sirch
VC86 Darth Maul

8/10

For other Star Wars toy reviews, please check out my index page by clicking here!

© 2012 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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