HARLEQUIN DEMON

 As silly as it sounds, its pretty easy to feel excited when finding unknown merchadise of a favorite series, movie or character, an item that holds a mistery of where it came, when and for wath porpuse. And a few weeks ago i found a mistery like this: statues based on NECA´s The Nightmare Before Chsitmas action figure series from 2004. 

I found two of them, with no presentation at all (with no window box to see the figure or a box with TNBC art al around or the NECA logo, they came just in a brown cardboard box with a bar code) and based in one character from series 2 and one from series 3. The one from series 2 is non other than the Harlequin Demon, one of the most "Burton-esque" designs of the movie since every bit of this character is reminescent of Burton 2D artworks and have his own twisted and childish visual cues.

I alsready did a review of the original action figure version of this character FIVE YEARS AGO !!!! Soo since its been soo long i will review this as a brand new figure instead of a variant. First of all this guy have an amazing balance and can stand on hiw own perfectly and unlike the action figure version, he have no base of any shape.

This guy is literally twice the size of the action figure and instead of plastic he is made with resin, soo he is also really heavy and have no articulations at all, even the tentacles on his head are not bendy, this is a solid resin piece, a single piece sculpture that is more for decoration than the actual action figures and comes in a pretty neutral pose (not like his body let him take many different poses anyway).

The sculpt is very good, with all the dragon scales that looks like a dress sharply sculpted as well as the spiky arms with a hairy texture, the odd alien like hands (he have no thumb!!!) and the short legs and feet with 6 fingers, all body proportions are great but the realy eye catcher is of course, the head: The big bowl shaped jaw full of sharp fangs and the skull levitating on top, covered in fangs as well, with the sharp eyes and tentacles that looks like horns.

Compared with the action figure, this sculpt looks even more faithfull to the on screen puppet. I mean, the action figure was always damn close but this version on a much bigger scale is even closer, if not perfectly match the on screen image. The lines on the tentacles are sculped as well as the expression line on his evil looking eyes as well as each torn on his hairy arms.

While the character is cartoony, the paint is really well done as well. The feet and arms are kinda simple with only the thorns painte din white in between the hairs and while his jaw is pure grey, the dragon scales have irange and yellow with a dark wash around that makes them looks....well, kinda dark, kinda dirty, a little old, the perfect texture the puppet had in the movie. 

The head too have a fascinating finish of blacks and greys that gives him a pretty elegant and silk texture to it. The orange on the tentacles is perfect and the yellow eyes with green framing have a weet and shiny layer that makes the Demon looks more alive.

One of the accesorys of the action figure was a mallet he uses to create his hats and in here the mallet is present but is part of the whole sculpture and cant be removed. The texture and soft brown coloring makes it looks like a tiny piece of wood despite the reson material.

His other accesory is his table, a wood table with a piece of paper on top, scissors and a yellow ribbon on it as well as a dead rat. In the action figure the rat was a separate accesory but here it is part of the table and cant be removed. The sculpt in the table texture is really sharp as well as in the fur of the rat.

The grey tones in the table paint makes it looks old and real and is a totally different grey than the one on the rat. The ribbon looks vibrant and the scissors are painted in silver soo everything stands out perfectly despite having mute colors that gives it a gothic look. 

Also, unlike the action figure, the table have a long peg in the side that must be inserted on the Harlequin Demon belly. This is another difference with the action figure version, tehres a hole on his belly.....and is rpetty odd looking but the table cover it. I am guessing they expect the table to be used as a sort of base and keep the figure in balance but the reality is that the Demon can stand on his own and dosnt need the table at all. I hate the hole on the figure but nothing can be done about it.

There is also the bat hat Jack put on the Demon´s head in the movie. The scupt of the fur is really really good and the grey paint of it is extremelly sharp and well defined, unlike the smaller sale version that is just plain grey, this one have different tones of grey in between the hair strands as well as in the wings. Tough for some reason it only have a single leg and of course, it cant be put on the Demons head since it made with resin and not soft plastic.

And finally he have a gift wrapped in orange paper with spiders and a grey ribbon. The irregular shape as well as the color palette mix perfectly the Christmas and Halloween spirits of the movie and the material make this little gift quiet heavy as well.

This character is a pure representation of Burton in his best moment and while this is an exact coy of the action figure eveb to the accesorys, the difference bewteen the two are quiet sharp and this version looks more luxury and perfect. Of coruse i am afraid to broke his head, the fangs of the pointy tentacles, this piece is really relicate but looks soo good on the svhelves, specially in this season!!