GOLIATH

 After 20 years Diamond Sleect Toys exist no more...just like Palisades, Sota, Quantum Mechanic, Epoch and many other figure brands that dissapeared sudenly, Diamond Select stoped existing a few months ago and cancelled an awfull lot of stuff that was on pre-order. Certainly Diamond had its ups and downs, it released an amazing collection of Ghostbusters with a build diorama and had some really great Universal Monsters pieces as well but it also had some really awfull The Nightmare Before Christmas figures, but in the end, it leaves a huge hole in the collectors field and pretty much stop us from getting some trully stuning pieces, like the Gargoyles statues.

The Gargoyles statues.....i dont even want to think about them ebcause they looked really amazing but the good news is that Diamond managed to actually release some merchadise of the series in the shape of resin mini busts: Goliath, Demona and Xanatos. And while i love all of them Goliath is always my number one soo i decided to get him before it gets too rare and expensive.

Firs of all, this is a statue soo theres no articulation at all or accesorys and is made with resing, soo is EXXXXTREMELLY HEAVY specially fir its size!! This is exactly the same size as the NECA Gargoyles Goliath but given its a bust, the scale of the upper body is different, but just like the NECA Goliath, th wing take a huge amount of space on the shelf. This piece demans a pretty specific place to be displayed not only for its size, but for its weigth as well.

This is completelly based on the animated series visual style, soo unlike the realistic style action figures, this Goliath lack sompletelly any texture soo he looks completelly clean, like an animation cell in 3D. Designed by Barry Bradfield and sculpted by Varner Studios, this piece show Goliath turning around with a closed fist and an open claw, a pretty simple pose that showcase his manly character pretty well.

The anatomy is soo perfect......HUGE shoulders, HUGE back, HUGE pectorals and biceps with a thin waist, his shape is exactly the same as in the animation and his claws and spikes on his elbows are actually quiet pointy. The wings are evidently not as big as they had to be but they are big enough to have a strong presene on the bust.

The face tough is ALMOST perfect but not quiet rigth since his jaw must be much more square and his cheek bones are too protunding. This is specially evident on the sides but from the front he looks much better. The shape of the nose, eyes, mouth, pointy ears and spiked eyebrows looks perfect and his hair have the perfect shape as well as is quiet long and flows on top of the wings.

The hair is a separate piece that must be removed in order to put the wings tough it dosnt rest on his head as good as i want too since there is always a gap between the hair and skull but this is because the hair is resting on top of the wings. Each wing as well as the hair comes with magnets soo they attach pretty strongly into Goliath´s body.

The base is a stone structure made with bricks and some medieval designs and this is the only section that actually have a rocky texture and it feels really really nice. The paint is grey with black airbursh to give a little bit of shadows but not too much. Same for Gpliath´s body, is perfectly purple with a darker purple brush to highlight the muscles but the paint is extremelly basic to keep that animated feel.

The hair is plain black and the wings have a beautifull looking dark blue/purple that stands out nicelly with light. Eyes are perfect as well as mouth and the brown loincloth and belt have no shadows at all tough some of the paint is invading other areas, like the brown invading the yellow buckle and some of the blue of the wings invading the purple "fingers"....i guess this is because of the material, it seems paint is extremelly runy on it soo i dont know how posible is to make a perfect paint aplication but the mostakes are at minimum.

Under the base is the numbered print of the piece, this is the number 500 out of 3000 but the bust also include a printed autenticity certificate that replicate this same number. 

I usually dont buy bust, i tough this was my very first one but i have a few Universal Monsters busts that are actually banks, soo i am not sure if they count, but this piece is really fantastic for any Gargoyles fan and it suits perfectly with the Applause vynil figures or other retro 90s merchadise of the series. I am not sure if i will get Xanatos but i will deffinetly try to get Demona to have the perfect Gargoyle couple.

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. 

GOLIATH

 I was questioning the existance of Beetlejuice a few weeks ago but he isnt the only big interrogant around, that medal goes to Gargoyles. Gargoyles has been completelly ignored for 24 years to the point Disney even refused to release it on Blueray or DVD or even recognize its existance at all. Now we got Funko Pops, board games, statues, plushies and action figures....i got the feeling something is gonna happen and i may not like it, but unti then i will submerge in the blisfullnes of this unexplained Gargoyles fever.

When NECA continued the work McFarlane Toys leave inconcluded with the horror movies figures, fans were pretty existed. When they feed Kenner´s by relaunching the old figures of the 90s with brand new sculpt and features, many people sayd NECA was doing the work of god. Now NECA is releasing Gargoyles action figures, an unfullfilled dream that has existed for 25 years, because, i LOVE Kenner, but honestly, when i was 10 and played with the Gargoyles action figures it was the very firs time i feelt like the toys didnt live up to the characters. They are pretty "90s", with all the ups and downs of that time period.

Unexpectedly, NECA is starting the action figures serires with now days standar quaity and they did something unbelivable. The first of the serires is of course Goliath and he is a little bit taller than your average NECA figures soo he is on a considerable size and quiet heavy as well thanks to his huge frame. Now take the wings in consideration and you got a HUGE and extremelly HEAVY action figure since his wing span is as long as 7 figures in a row!!!

Goliath can....and cannot stand on his own, is complicated. I mean, he ave huge feet and can stand perfectly tough the wings are soo heavy he needs the tail to help him balance. He is articulated on the head, shoulders, biceps, elbows, wrists, chest, waist, legs, knes, ankles, half feet, tail and both wings. All this articulation works great since they all ball joints and moves up and down but at the sides too with a few exceptions: while Goliaths skimpy clothing is made with pretty soft plastic and gives his legs totall freedoms, his chest area barelly moves. Also his shoulders are limited thanks to his big chest muscles being of hard plastic and his hair, while made with soft plastic, get sin the way of his wings as well.

His wings are a totally different beast tough, since they have this internal cogs system that deminds a lot of brute force to move them. This is because they articulations needs to be strong to keep with the weigth, but i fear they may be too delicate and the pegs could broke and they dosnt have too much range of movement at all.

The tail, the wonderfull tail is made in woft pastic and have a wire inside soo its totally bendy and a total blessing to keep Goliath standing since, thanks to the weight, his ankles articulations got very lose pretty quick keeping him falling over and over again. I fixed this with a little glue to strong the ball joint, but still this is a temporary measure, its better to give him a base soo the  legs dosnt sopport all his masive weigth.

Aside of articulations getting lose and risk of being delicate (maybe i am being over protective) the entire figure is brillant and perfect. Its not a cartoon Goliath tough but a NECA interpretation of how would he looks if he was real. I saw many of this "realistic"intepretations over the years and i hated all of them, i tough Goliath only worked in 2D but i am glad i was wrong since NECA manage to sculpt and totally realistc creature while keeping enough stylisation to make him easy to recognize.

The big eyes, shape of his jaw, the hair cut, the head size and body structure, even the huge claws on his legs, everything follows Disney¨s original design while adding instead toons of details, like the inside of his long hears or giving him a pretty realistic muscle structure. You can learn anatomy perfectly with this figure even with the monster sections since you can even see the veins on his arms. Unlike the cartoon, the wings are not plain blue but instead have a "scale" texture, like the wings of a dragon, even with veins as well.

The paint work is excelent, with the figure cast in purple plastic of the same color used on the cartoon, but with plenty of dark purples washing to give vlume to hos body and face features in a pretty natural way. His hair is black but in the back side it have pretty silverish blue tones and his wings as well are not entirelly black, but they have luminiscent blue tones to makes them looks lamots like the wings of an insect.

The texture on his loincloth as well as the bwon color and golden on his belt are perfect. The only section with no detailec olor or texture is his tail, but i dont think it needed it at all.

Aside of the closed fist hands, he have an extra set of hands with his claws open as well as an extra left hand to pick items. The gesture of the hands is soo perfect is hard to belove, it reminds me Goliath too much and i love how the nails have a stronger purple color to make them stand out (same for the claws on his feet, they are soo cute) and they can be exchanged pretty easy.

His other accesory is an extra head with a roaring expression and white eyes and can be exchanged pretty easy (and carefully thanks to the wings). This is my favorite head sculpt, since his original calm expression fits him good, this fierce one is beyond perfect and quiet frighing. The scupt of his fangs is amazing as well as the sculpt and paint on the thongue inside and the big eye bags framing those white eyes is just striking!!!

His other accesory is a beautifully done book, and i say beautyfull because it is stuning. The leather texture on the cover, the yellow pages, even the writing on the pages, its soo  amazinglly done it can be sold as a separate item and fits Goliath contemplative character perfectly since he spend entire nigths at the library of the police station.

His last accesory is a pepper, a green and tiny pepper that fits on his hands as a joke in episode 32 "Protection"  when he suffers by eating a pepper. A cute little detail but pretty forgetable compared to the book and thats it, thats all the accesoryes he got since theres not a whole lot of stuff for hiem to use on the cartoon anyway, even Kenner had to take artistic lisence and give to his Gargoyles figures pretty silly accesorys like tridents, swords, rocket launchers....is obvious NECA would never do such a thing.

Honestly, this was my most expected figure of the entire years, i was eager to reach Christmas point just for this and was a torture wait an entire year for it, and even soo, getting him was quiet a feat since the place i pre-order it never got him and other places had him 3 or 4 times more expensive. I ended up paying twice the base price but even with that, this figure was really worth the price.

NECA somehows managed to erase the gap between prototype and mass produced product, since this guy looks exactly like he does on the photos and almost ALMOST reach perfection: a base would have been a wise movement and also the wings, while i love the wings, its odd to have wings open all the time, i wish they hive him closed wings as well, this is a vital detail for display and posing.

I am very happy with this. I am very hyped for Demona last year and the rest of the characters. I am loving NECA more than i never did before and next year i am going to be poorer thans to them as well. Its in moments like this that i am very happy for being a toy collector.