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Daultay Dofine

May 19, 2012 | By Errex More

Daultay Dofine (VC82) was the captain of the Trade Federation vessel that received Jedi Master Qui-Gon Jinn and his apprentice Obi-Wan Kenobi in the opening scenes of The Phantom Menace. Given that he had more than a few dialogue lines and is mostly remembered because Darth Sidious referred to him as “stunted slime” when he dared whine in his (holographic) presence, I find it strange that it took this long for Hasbro to produce an action figure of him. This figure is part of the Vintage Collection wave released roughly at the time of the Episode I 3D premiere, which was a pretty smart move although I think the figure turned out to be good enough to sell even in a non-movie year.

Daultay combines soft goods and sculpted robes in a very effective way. The outer shell on the torso is made of pliable rubber textured with puffy wrinkles and folds, while the skirt and the sleeves are made of the same thin blue fabric used for the inner robe of the Senate Guard. The sleeves are implemented in a quite ingenious way, each one being a separate piece inserted from the shoulder sockets in a very similar manner to the way fabric skirts are usually put onto the figures.

Without the outer plastic shell, Daultay’s physique is extremely thin, almost emaciated which is a regular Neimoidian trait. In contrast, his head looks huge without his outer garments, which further reinforces the skinny look. The face is very well sculpted and manages to capture the on-screen appearance of the character up to the perpetually stressed look.

Even though neither the sleeves nor the skirt are removable, Dofine’s legs are sculpted with a fair amount of detail and fully articulated. In fact this is the first ever Neimoidian character that gets the full super-articulated treatment with:

• Ball jointed neck.

• Pegged hinge shoulders.

• Pegged hinge elbows.

• Swivel wrists.

• Swivel waist.

• Swivel hips.

• Pegged hinge knees.

• Pegged hinge ankles.

All of the articulation points work well, but obviously, the leg separation range is limited somewhat by the narrow fabric skirt and sitting poses are simply not achievable while using the outer plastic robe. These I don’t count as design flaws in the figure, but rather as character design traits and there is still enough room for posing variety within these constraints.

Dofine ships with two accessories, one is his conical Captain hat and the other is a regular-issue Trade Federation blaster, the same model given to Battle Droids. The hat fits the head perfectly and the blaster can be held in both hands, although only the right has a separate trigger finger sculpted.

Even though packing a blaster with Daultay follows the same logic used for giving a weapon to Queen Amidala in this same assortment, at least the fabric sleeves actually allow this Neimoidian to brandish his gun around without looking silly, which is definitely a positive for me.

Daultay Dofine turned out to be something of a pleasant surprise for me in the end. The character might not be as flashy as your regular lightsaber-wielding folk, but nonetheless it is a fun figure by itself.