DEMONA

 I am not really into busts, actually i dont remember owning any aside of some Devilman gashappon but for many this is theyr main collection and the one to blame is Diamond Select. Over the longest time Diamond released resin minibust  of Batman The Animated Series, Marvel, Star Wars and an awfull lot of other series and each collection had a huge amount of characters as well, all of them sharing the same scale and base and this was perfect to build a theme based collection, specially with the high quality of said busts.

Sadly, Diamond Select exist no more but before it was gone they release a set of Gargoyles busts into the wild and a few months ago i got Goliath and i was extremelly happy with him and how he looks along side the Applause, Quantum Mechanix and NECA figures soo of course i had to HAVE Demona deffinetly, its imposible to not get the pair together.

Demona is in the same scale as Goliath soo wath does this means: she is much more smaller since theres even a lot of empty space on her base while Goliath huge body covers the entire base. She is also shorter and also she is much much much lighter as well. Really, is hard to belive the weigth difference bewteen Demona and Goliath!!

She can stand on her own perfectly since the base have soft rubber tiny legs on each point and she have no accesorys or articulations at all tough her wings are detached. Put the wings on her back is easy but this are not magnetic unlike Goliath´s that have a strong magnetical lock on his wongs and hair. I guess this is because the wings are not as heavy as Goliath´s but this also means they ccan fall if you put her back down. Then again, no problem with that if she is being displayed but move her around demands to be a little bit carefull with the wings.

Designed by Barry Bradfield and sculpted by Varner Studios this is one amazing looking statue. While i had some issues with Goliath, like the shape of his head from a side view or the size of his jaw, this Demona is 100% acurate to the on screen character design and unlike the NECA figures this looks 100% like an animation cell. 

The nose size, the cheekbones, the shape of her jaw, everything matches Demona´s design perfectly and the sculpt is clean and defined, specially on her body since her muscular structure is really good looking as well. With her hands around her thin waist and the smile she looks feminine enough to be sexy tough her wings are smaller than expected, they dont have any issue for the base to work.

Demona have my favorite wings from the entire cast of character, with the claws on top and no "fingers" in the membrane yet the membrane is bat wings shaped. The hair is very similar to the NECA´s design and i guess theres no other way to do a 3D render of it with smal spikes on all directions tough i wish her hair piece was longer, i guess this would have created issues for the wings.

The base is the same as Goliath´s, with the brick design and the strange gargoyle face at the front, also this is the only part with a texture while the rest is clean. Painted in grey it contrast nicelly with Demona´s color palette; red, pruple and electric blue. The paint aplication is perfect except in the outer finger of the wings where the purple and blue mix a little bit but is nothing to evident.

The beautifull purple have some dark wash to give shadows to the wings and the blue of Demona´s skin have also soft black brushes to high light her muscular anatomy. The red in her hair looks good and theres a darker section in the middle and around her face that makes it looks acurate to her two color hair deisng. Eyes are big and clean while the link lips and white on her teeth is very delicatelly painted.

Her golden tiara as well as her earrings and the ornament on her arm also have an extra layer of shiny finish soo they looks metalic and stand out to the rest of the body. Everything looks really good and i think thats quiet a feat considering how difficult it seems to paint such clean to the touch material.

Also the bottom of the base points out this is actually a limited edition product of 3000 pieces and this Demona in particular is the 330 one and while not an accesory, they also included an autenticity certificate that points out the same number. Very classy.

I really dont regret getting this, she looks amazing on the shelf and specially, with Goliath close to her. There is just something ornamental on this bust sculpts that feels quiet elegant mixed with the heavy resin material tough it worrys me how delicate they are. 

Theres also a Xanatos and as much as i love sexy Xanatos, i think i wont get him at all. I got the feeling he would mess the display completelly since Goliath and Demona are the perfect pair to be together.

DEMONA

One of my main memories about Gargoyles aside of Goliath, of coruse, is Demona: some time before the serires was on TV my parents buy for me her action figure by Kenner, soo she was my very first glimps to Gargoyles and leave on me a pretty strong impression, when the serires started on TV i was really startled by her: not only she was beautifull but pretty tragic and sad and incredible evil and malignant as well, one of the most brillant villains i ever seen on TV and she kept her strong presence until the end.

So naturally, when NECA pick up the license i was really hyped for Demona, actually expecting to get her at the same time as Goliath tough Thailog and Bronx cames first, the wait for her was long and she is also a Target exclusive, pretty rare in my country and much more expensive than the rest of the characters, and yet she is really worth the price.

Demona is a head smaller than Goliath, in perfect scale with him and she is articulated on the head, shoulders, biceps, elbows, wrists, chest, waist, legs, knes, ankles, half feet and tail as well as both wings. All articulations are ball joint soo they have a huge range of movement and since she dosnt have Goliath´s big muscles, she have a much wider range of movement, her hair and loincloth are made with soft plastic soo they dosnt get in the way.

And she can stand on her own...sometimes...sort of...problem is, her wings are as heavy as Goliaths´s but her legs are much more thin and with all those ball joints her legs really strugle to keep her standing, her ankles joints get lose pretty easy so make her stand is really a test of patience, also her tail is shorter than Goliath´s soo it barelly can support her big wings.

I really didnt expect this, i tough Goliath or Thailog would have much troubles stading thanks to theyr huge frame, but while Demona have a much lighter frame, she feels like a card castle ready to crumble with the thinyest movement.

The sculpt is brillant, beautifull, perfect. Her build is very muscly and athletic and it matches perfectly the character design of the series. The texture on her loincloth and bra is very different to that of Goliath´s loincloth, it have a pattern that makes it feel extremelly realistic and yet dosnt looks busy.

 I love the small hands on her wings, tough th wings have a very leathery texture like Goliath´s  and even fingers dividing the membrain. In the cartoon she dosnt have fingers and her wings are just clean purple, i always tough of them like a velveth cape, tough that wouldnt be realistic i guess for the wings of an animal.

The hair is the most difficult part to make in 3D but the design here really matches the shape of her hair on the cartoon and is pretty easy to recognize her. Her face is pretty, soo pretty, with the golden tiara on her forehead and chiseled face features. From a low angle, her smile looks pretty childish, almost playfull and her long ears make her looks like some kind of elf or magical being, from a top angle, her smile looks pretty devilish and perverse, and the look on her eyes is really scary and menacing. 

Is pretty rare when a face sculpt says soo much of a character, is trully outstanding.

The color matches the sculpt perfectly too since she is mostly cast on soft blue with only a few shades of shadow that gives volume to her musculature, but is soo discrete is almost difficult to see it. The purple of her wings is mixed with some black and the back side of her wings have the same black pearly paint Goliath have.

Her red hair stand out a lot with the blue palette as well as her crimson red lips. Her eyes are perfectly defined and theres not a single drop of paint in the wrong place. This figure looks perfectly as the prototype show on the box, this really put to shame the shody and lousy job Super 7 has been doing with the Thundercats....

Another detail worth mentioning is that her jewerlly is realy, the rings on her ears as well as the bracelet on her ankle are real metal and really enhance the overall look of the figure, an awesome detail of feminity for a monster.

Her accesorys consist on 3 different sets of hands: closed fist, open claws and hands to hold her accesorys. Each hand can be exchanged pretty easy.

Then there is an extra face. Yes, not a head, but a face, a kind of plate that fits with two pegs under her hair. This extra face have her screaming with red eyes and if the normal face is impresive and menacing, this second face is just terrifiying!! Her mouth totally open, you can see the wrinkles on her nise as well as her tiny fangs, her face is totally distorted and is easy to see all the rage, fury and raw power thanks to such a brillant sculpt.

But the eyes....those eyes...they shine brightly in red without using a led light at all. They are just white with some airbrush crimson paint around them, but the paint is soo meticulous they have a strong light effect, they almost shine even from a distant....

She also comes with the Grimorium Arcanorum, the book Magus used to cast the spell on her clan, the book she steal from Brooklyn, the book that is soo relevant in the serires and the sculpt and paint on it is just perfect, it looks aged, old, heavy, with two winged snakes circling a sword in the cover, the texture and paint are soo natural it almost looks real.

This item cant be more perfect? Well, the strap on front can be removed and the book actually opens to reveal ancient pages with text on them and some missing pages...the pages Demona tear off in chapter 7 "Temptation". The attention to detail of NECA is sometimes really disturbing.

Another of Demona´s trait is her use of high techn weapons soo her other accesory is a rocket launcher that Xanatos gives her on chapter 5 "Awakening Part V". The sculpt is easy to recognize and full of intrincate details with a brown and green palette that also includes some grey scratches to make it looks real. Its fits perfectlya dn is easy to install and is kind of reminiscent to the rocket launcher her Kenner figure have. Even the laser sight fits perfectly with her eye.

And her last accesory is a laser blast, another weapon, the one she use to hunt Goliath and Hudson in chapter 11 "The Long Way to Morning". This weapon is huge and looks very futuristic, more sci-fi than the rocket pauncher (and is full of pretty delicate tubes as well) but the brown and green color palette make it looks almost cyber-punk.

Out of the 4 figures, she is the one loaded with more accesorys and the quality of them is really astonishing and fits perfectly to such a perfect figure.

Tough her lack of balance really bugs me, and i cant remove her wings at all thanks to her small frame, she feels more delicate than the other gargoyles, the fear to broke the pegs on her wings or tail is too real and i hear a lot of horror stories from collectors on the internet that complaing that her wings articulations are just flacid and lose. Mines are pretty strong, almost way too strong tough soo i am very lucky.

Despite her fragility and how hard to handle is her thanks to those huge wings, is really nice to finally have a Demona figure that looks like Demona since the Kenner figure leave a lot to be desired since 1994.

This figure is really amazing, along with Goliath she is the the most important figure for the display that lave in shame even female figures from other serires and companys and she is more than worth the price tag on her head.

GOLIATH & DEMONA

 And i keep asking the same question over and over again: why? Why a series die completelly and 26 years later it start to appeare again at stores? When no kids even know the characters or the existance of that particular serires, when fans are old and probably have no means to buy new products, when that said serires is no on TV or even on streaming......and the last few years i been spending my money on the same stuff my parents did last century: Batman, Beetlejuice, Ghostbusters and Gargoyles.

 I never expect it but after Funko put his filthy hands on Gargoyles, NECA jump on the line as well and now even Quantum Mechanix. I dont have any of theyr products but i know they release very expsnive statues, plushies and mini figures like the Pop line of Funko, with witch much more higher production value.

And after a year or pre-order wait and an antire second year or delay thanks to the pandemic, here they are, the Q Fig Gargoyles and i must say, i actually forgot about them for the longer time but i am glad they are finally out. They released two figures that sold separatelly: Goliath and Demona.

While the box they came in is just BEAUTIFULL and pretty cool, this figures are quiet small, the same size a Funko Pop, half the size an average action figure soo they are just mini statues for decoration. Tough the siilaritys with Funko stop there since this figures goes the other direction completelly.

With absolutelly no articulation, Goliath is standing on the wall of castle Wyvern, roaring like he always do when the moon rise, wings open. The anatomy here is totally chibi since the head is huge tough the body have the rigth proportions leaving him on a half cartoony-half realistic style.

Tough Quantum Mechanix got pretty close to Greg Guller character design soo the odd proportions fit pretty nicelly, the sculpt have no textures beyond a soft like peach texture, just to give it a look of a 2D character and the lack of paint helps a lot too, since the entire figure is cast on purple , black and brown and the paint is limited only to the eyes, mouth, wings and belt.

Demona is the same size and have a more menacing and dynamic pose, with a knee on the ground and a brave look on her eyes, the paint on the eyes and mouth is extremelly simple tough, but considering the tiny size of this figure it looks perfect. I wish the sculpt on her hair was much more defined tough since the strands seems too soft.

But gladlly, all the pointy parts are ponty enough here! I mean, the claws, both characters tails, wings and toes. Also, unlike Goliath, Demona dosnt have any evident division on her sculpt and she looks seamless (i really hate the division between the arms of Goliath and his shoulders).

The bases tough have a crazy detail!! Both share the same wall frpm Wyvern castle and the paint really does makes it looks like solid rock! Its really impresive since bigger figures dosnt have this paint quality and the ground is the same, looks like the floor of a riverm with small stones coming out fo the ground and giving it a pretty nice texture.

Both are round bases with the logo of Gargoyles and Q Fig as well as the name of the character under it. The shape of the base helps a lot to save shelf space and of course, this figures will never fall either.

The small scale bugs me a little, i would love them to be much bigger like a real statue but i guess that would make theyr chibi style much more awkard looking, but just like this, they feelt like much more classy and high quality than any Funko Pop, even theyr box was pretty damn impresive. Now i am waiting for Lexington and Bronx and i wonder if we will get the entire Manhatan clan.