ELISA MAZA

 I already say this but i remember the long wait for Goliath to start the Gargoyles action figures series of NECA and the struggle that was wait for Demona, and after that Hudson, it was almost a year of wait between figure, but it seems NECA wants to finish this asap this 2023 and is releasing the rest of the line pretty fast to the point we are now getting the human figures.

Of course, theres not a more important human to the Gargoyles than Elisa Maza. I always aprecate how such an strong and independent and smart woman she was without needing to take spot light, shame the male characters or just being a Mary Sue since she was brave enough to admit she needed help  and could not do everything. She was a strong female model but the rest of the Gargoyles universe didnt saw it as something extraordinary, it was just natural....i really wish more female characters were like this in modern media, we really need more like Elisa and less like Sypha from Castlevania.

Sadlly, i have issues with this figure. First thing first, she is the same price as the rest of the line despite being really small and coming in a tiny box. Bronx have the same problem tough being a smaller than the rest figure but this seems a problem NECA will not aknowledge. 

Elisa is one head and a half smaller than Goliath soo this makes her the second smaller character in the line after Bronx wich is a good thing, she looks great with the rest of the figures, specially with Goliath and she can stand on her own most of the time, tough he thin legs feels strangelly flimsy since the knees are made with soft plastic, but most of the time she can keep balance and no need base.

She si articulated on the neck, shoulders, biceps, elbows, wrists, waist, legs, knees and ankles. Theres a double articulation on the elbows and knees and the rest are ball joints with good mobility except for her shoulders and waist. The shoulders dosnt move uo too much thanks to the jacket for some reason and the waist only moves left and rigth but the up and down is extremelly restricted. This mean is almost imposible to pull of a "Elisa on the arms of Goliath" kind of pose tough given to her simplicity she have a really good range of mobility even in her head with long hair.

The sculpt is good tough she is dressed in the most simple way the 90s had to offer. Her shoes have some sculpted details but i am not sure if they are boots or wath since they are just....black shoes. Her jeans have some nicelly placed wrinkles and het jacket have a good amount of zippers added for more realism but overall, its difficult to say more beyond this sicne theres not much detail. Tough she is not as curvy as she is in the cartoon, she have a very blocky shape.

Maybe is her face shape but theres something that dont convince me here and i cant point it out. Her nose, mouth and eyes are perfect looking but my biggest problem is deffinetly the hair....that hair!!! While the sculpted strands are good looking the shape is not...she dosnt have the bang covering her eye or the puffy section around her neck, in here the hair is just like some kind of hood or nun veil.

It open to the sides in a pretty unatural way and for some reason is long, very very long. It looks fake...like a wig and that really broke with the character. Is made with soft plastic and i am sure they did it this way soo it let her move her head with freedom, but i dont know....it looks shabby.

The paint is as simple as the sculpting. The shoes are just black and each part is cast in color plastic to avoid an unatural look. The shadowing and high ligths on the pants is really good and helps give them a denim look with different tones of blues and a pretty soft noise texture. The jacket have some dark shadows here and there and the silver in the zippers is perfectly painted.

Her skin color is perfect as well as her eyes, with the cat like eyelashes, they match nicelly Greg Guler character design. I wish tough that her lip stikc color was ligther but her face is looking great. The hair is black and while it have some dark blue high ligths here and there, i think is not enough, since the mass of hair is way too big it needed more softer blues to stand out.

In the accesorys part she comes with 3 pairs of hands: closed fists, hands to hold a gun and hands to hold her flashligth and badge. The hands change is pretty easy tough i wish they give her open relaxed hands as well to toucb Cagney. 

She have two extra heads aside of the serious base face espression. One have a warm smile pretty familiar to the character and looks nice and another with a weird lusty expression. I hate this last one...is the classic "hey! I am a strong and cool girl in a Disney movie poster" face expression that all Disney princess show on every single poster and artwork: with an eye brow up and half a cocky smile pretty out of character.

There is also an extra hair wig thingy being blown by the wind. At first i hated this second hair, it looked way too dramatic, but in the end it looks much better than the basic hair and the shape resembles much more Elisa´s hair from the cartoon. This second hair dosnt block any of the articulation and is made with soft plastic, the flowing of the strands is really really good tough i still thing is missing softer blues to make it looks better.

She also have a flashligth and her police badge. Both pretty small and easy to lose. She use the flashligth on the thrid chapter to explore Wyvern Castle and socover Bronx for the first time. The flashligth is all black with a tiny red button and a white bulb while the badge is even smaller and only have gold paint tough is a really good detail and looks good on her hand.

My favorite accesory tough must be Cagney the cat, her pet companion on her apartment. We didnt see much of Cagney beyond Hudson took care of him while Elisa was away traveling with Goliath and Bronx, but i am glad they added this little furry friend. 

The fur sculpt is noce looking while the whole creature is just grey his yellow eyes and black mouth painted. He is tiny tough have a ball jointed neck soo he can be posed looking at any side. Sadlly, the lack of articulation beyond of the ehad means he can be hold in a natural position by any of the characters and he is just posed walking on the ground.

And of course, the bigger item of the pack is Brooklyn´s closed wings. They have exactly the same leaterish texture and red colors in the inside and dark brown in the outside tough they are made with soft plastic. They fit nicelly into him tough they curl in the pointy ends and i love the way his little hands holds in the front. To be honest this was the most hyped part of this figure for me...this closed wings MUST be included with each character given they basic nature for the whole display.

And at last, an item thats is not here at all...her handgun. I mention this because she does have hands to hold a handgun, but she dosnt have any....i dont know if it was due to the fact she is a police and police are soo hated in USA or if it was because of the Disney logo on the box, but i find pretty ridiculous and dissapoitning to see a cop with no handgun, an item she constantly used over and over again in the show.

Elisa is a nice character and an important one, but as a figure she is pretty boring and the weird hair and lack of handgun makes her the weakest of the entire series of figures soo far. Tough despite of that she is a HUGE improvement over the Kenner version from the 90s. Kenner really play dity to her back then with her horrible blue space suit and robotic wings and she was pretty much the worst figure from the series.

This figure finally make justice to the character after 28 years. Is still not perfect but is the real Elisa Maza at last.