There’s been no shortage of Dungeons & Dragons love in the toy aisles lately! While Hasbro has been delivering toys based on the 80’s cartoon and the recent movie, NECA has been showing lots of love to the old LJN toy line by giving us modern updates to those characters. And while Hasbro seems to have wrapped up their run at D&D toys, but it feels like NECA is just getting started. They came out swinging with two amazing figures, Warduke and Grimsword, and now they’re finally adding a hero to the lineup with Strongheart!

If you collect NECA then you already know what to expect from the packaging. It’s a window box with a front flap fastened by velcro. The character art on the front of the box is… OK, but really nothing special. Thankfully, you can open the flap, peep into the window and let the figure sell itself. As a kid, Strongheart was the only hero I had in this line for a while so he was kind of just generic adventurer exploring dungeons and getting constantly set upon by Warduke and the rubber monsters like the Grell. Seriously, the poor dude had to fight that Grell a lot.

Like his rivals, Warduke and Grimsword, this new Strongheart figure takes the original LJN design and juices it with a dose of realism and boy is the end result glorious. NECA grabbed enough of the LJN design beats from the armor to make this unmistakable as the noble Strongheart. The silver and blue armor is absolutely gorgeous! The wide gorget has the two circular points and the shield crest in the middle, his ab muscles are sculpted into the armor, and the winged knee guards are all straight off the vintage figure. NECA extrapolated the blue striping on the original figure’s forearms into belted bracers with each tiny buckle sculpted and painted. They also added some beautiful chainmail sculpt to the upper arms and legs, as well as an armored skirt. The only major change here is going from black boots on the original to blue here, and I do indeed love it!

The bright blue and shimmery cape is tailored from a thick and premium feeling cloth and is anchored to the gorget near the neck. Pull it to the side and you can see all the little details that NECA put into Strongheart’s back, even though you’ll rarely ever see it. This includes sculpted chains connecting the gorget to the back of his belt.

Strongheart is the first figure so far to actually have a face, and I think NECA did a wonderful job depicting the character with this more realistic portrait. The epic mustache is present, along with some rather dominant eyebrows and a prominent, manly chin. The face just exudes nobility, courage and heroism!

With the figure in hand, I was surprised and delighted to see that the visor is articulated and can be closed. The wings on the helmet have been streamlined and swept back, whereas they jutted out to the sides on the original figure. I think this manages to keep the overall design while giving him a much cooler looking profile. The white plume is still present, here spouting from the top and cascading back like a feathery ponytail

The original figure lacked a scabbard, but here we get one that not only holds the sword but also has an integral sheath for a dagger. The scabbard hangs from the belt on a loop and while I was skeptical as to whether this would work, it actually works very well. Indeed, it’s a much better design than pegging the scabbard into the figure and less delicate than the chain that hung one of Warduke’s sheathes from his belt.

The sword is pretty much an original design, since there wasn’t a lot to go on with the old LJN figure’s very generic weapon. It has a serviceable yet still attractive design that suits the figure quite well. It features a simple crossguard and pommel and a black ribbed grip. The sword has a broad blade that tapers quickly to a point near the tip. The blade is painted silver hand has some nice weathering.

The dagger design matches the sword, making them en suite. It’s pretty small and it doesn’t look like it would be much of a threat to Grimsword’s armor, but a well placed thrust would probably ruin Warduke’s day. Again, I really love the way the dagger’s sheath is incorporated into the scabbard.

Strongheart also comes with a shield, and I’m pretty sure this is an entirely newly designed piece as well. My old LJN Strongheart didn’t come with a shield, but I’m not sure if he was re-released later as part of the Battlematic figures with shields that fired missiles. Either way, it’s a very simple and knightly heater-type shield with silver paint around the edges intended to be reinforced steel with sculpted bolts. The reverse side of the shield has two straps, which work well with either the grippy or relaxed left hand. I think this was a great addition to the accessories as the shield really suits him well.

The final accessory here is the magic golden hammer, which is a wonderful nod to Strongheart’s appearance in the D&D cartoon, as that was his weapon of choice. Off hand, I don’t remember what it looked like and it didn’t have a lot of screen time as I recall, but this is a great looking piece and even includes a wrist strap hanging off the pommel.

I continue to love what NECA is doing with this line and to be honest it worries me that we’ve only seen one more reveal in the form of Elkhorn the Dwarf. Obviously, I want to see this line go deep and there are at least a half dozen more characters I’d like to see get this modernized treatment. I know that the reception for these figures has been extremely positive, so it’s just a question of whether that is translating to sales and I guess we’ll have to wait and see. In the meantime, I still have Zarak to check out and I’ll give him the spotlight in the next week or so.