I don’t think the Dungeons & Dragons movie was anywhere near the marketing hit that Hasbro was hoping for. They barely got most of the figures out by the time the movie had come and gone. I liked the Honor Among Thieves a lot, but I wasn’t interested in the figures. I am, however, especially happy that Hasbro seems to be utilizing its D&D license beyond the movie tie in, because the subject of today’s review shows there’s a lot of potential here!

Enter Xanathar! The mysterious crime lord of Waterdeep. Art Connoisseur, Gourmand, and Lover of Goldfish. Oh, and he also happens to be a Beholder, one of the most iconic beasties of D&D lore. When the credits rolled on the movie without a Beholder making an appearance, I didn’t know whether to shout in disappointment or admire the restraint. Nonetheless, here we are with a Xanathar figure and you could knock me over with a preverbal +1 Feather of Shocking! Xanathar comes in a fully enclosed box with an awkard slice taken out of the upper right corner. There’s some wonderful art as well as some pictures of the toy itself. He comes wrapped in tissue and there’s some assembly required, as you have to plug in each of those eye stalks to get him ready for display!

And with the full eye stalk installation complete, I have to say this is an absolutely fantastic looking figure with a lot of potential in cross compatibility. There’s some superb detail in the sculpt, which includes scaly, somewhat reptilian looking skin. He even has a pair of subtympanic shields like an iguana, in this case situated on each side behind his main eyeball. There are horns jutting out, ridges running down his back, and plenty of leathery creases and folds to the skin that all look great. Other great little touches include the intricately sculpted gold bands placed around some of his eye stalks, one of which is a Ring of Proof Against Detection. He even has a sculpted golden ring through a piercing on his bottom lip. Each of the eye stalks are connected with ball joints, so while there isn’t any articulation in the stalks themselves, there’s a decent range of motion where they meet the body. The paint is also excellent with a pale blue on the upper part of the body gradually becoming yellow for the face and undercarriage.

And wow, is there a tremendous amount of detail in his mouth, which can be placed on full display by opening his hinged jaws, and boy is it gross in there! In addition to the rows of jagged pointy teeth, he’s got pink gums, and the papillae on his tongue are fully realized in what is an incredible sculpt! So what’s that translucent thing up at the roof of his mouth? Well let’s talk eyeball!

Xanathar’s one big eye is very well done with a glassy lens and a very detailed retina. My only complaint here is that I wish the eye were opened a bit more. It’s quite narrow and while it does make for a somewhat devilish look, I would have loved to see that eyeball showcased more prominently. The eyeball is fully articulated and can be manipulated via that translucent lever-knob thing up at the roof of his mouth. Fiddling with this control can make his eye turn left and right and even up and down. It’s a lot of fun!

Xanathar comes with two accessories: A stand and his fish bowl. The stand is a pile of gold with a concave top for him to rest in and it works pretty well. It’s also a fantastic sculpt with individually sculpted coins and a skull and other pieces of treasure peeking out from the pile. I’d also bet I can find a lot of crossover uses for this pile of wealth with some of my other fantasy lines. With that having been said, I think it was a huge oversight not to include some kind of translucent stand to make it look like Xanathar is levitating.

The fish bowl may confuse some, but Xanathar did indeed have a pet fish named Sylgar. It’s actually likely that he had several fish named Sylgar, with his attendants swapping out new live fish for the deceased ones, perhaps without the Beholder knowing. This is a fun accessory with Sylgar appearing to float inside the bowl thanks to a translucent plastic stand… JUST LIKE XANATHAR SHOULD HAVE HAD!

Xanathar is intended to be roughly 6-inch scale, which would make him compatible with the Honor Among Thieves figures, but he also scales incredibly well with Hasbro’s own figures from the D&D cartoon. I also think the aesthetic fits really well too and they look great together! While I didn’t have time to include a comparison shot, I think he’s scales a little too small for NECA’s D&D figures or for Mythic Legions, but heck it still kind of works.

On the flipside, I think he looks fine with smaller scaled figures. If you like your Beholders huge, he’s pretty damn intimidating beside a Vitruvian HACKS figure. And I think he fits in perfectly with the old LJN AD&D figures. I don’t know how many more D&D figures we’ll get out of Hasbro so it’s fun to explore the crossover potential.

Make no mistake, Xanathar is a bizarre release. It’s the kind of stand out piece you might expect to get from a robust and successful toyline. Instead, he’s one of a handful of releases that exist outside the cartoon and the movie. With that being said, he is a fantastic figure, and I think he was well worth the $50 price tag. My guess is that lack of demand will mean he’ll turn up at a discount eventually, but I wasn’t willing to take the chance, and I really wanted to encourage Hasbro to do more figures like this. I love him!