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Disney's Goliath
Electric Tiki
"The
following is a guest review. The review
and photos do not necessarily reflect the opinions of Michael Crawford
or Michael's Review of the Week, and are the opinion and work of the
guest author."
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Bryon Stump steps up with a
guest review of one of the cool Electric Tiki Disney Classics statues -
tell us all about it, Bryon!
Gargoyles! One of the best shows to come out of Disney in the
90s. Intelligently written and boasting a remarkable voice
cast. It is something of a tragedy that Disney has not seen
fit to release all of this classic series on DVD. The toy
line that followed the series was not particularly inspiring.
None of the action figures released were accurate representations of
the characters. The Applause figurines were better, but
still… Electric Tiki, as apart of their “Classic Heroes” line
has recently released a limited edition statue of gargoyle clan leader,
Goliath.
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Packaging
- **
The packaging is sturdy and features large, colorful pictures of the
assembled statue. There is fun piece of text promoting the
item written by Greg Weisman the show’s main writer and
producer. I’m not sure the Styrofoam packing was as well
designed as it could have been. My statue suffered a small
bit of damage which I will elaborate on later in this review.
Sculpting - ****
Oh yeah! This is what Goliath looked like on the
show! All the details are sharp and show accurate.
The lines are smooth and simple, but totally in line with the animation
style of the show. His pose is dynamic, yet it works to give
an impression of the character in action while still giving you an
excellent overall view. I find that many animation maquettes
are perfect renditions of the characters they portray, but always seem
to look stiff, static, and lifeless. This statue manages to
find a nice balance between giving an accurate reproduction and a nice
sense of motion.
I have also seen the new Goliath statue coming from Bowen
Designs. I much prefer this rendition. The Bowen
statue is quite striking and full of action, but it is far too stylized
for my tastes. It simply doesn’t represent the character as
he appeared on the show. This statue does that extremely well.
Paint
- ****
This is another area in which this item excels. The paint
lines are clean and crisp. There is little to no bleed
between colors. The color choices reflect the dark nature of
the show. It should also be noted that a significant amount
of airbrush work has been done on the statue to intensify shadows and
to add definition to the physique of the gargoyle. This all
adds to the impression that we are looking at a figure at night, even
in a bright lighting.
Value
- ***
This is a large, heavy statue produced in extremely small numbers
(limited to 200). I suppose a $200 price tag isn’t at all
unreasonable for such an item, but it kind of hard to justify spending
that much for a cartoon character statue. I’ve done it
before, however, and I’ll probably do it again. If the
cartoon meant a lot to you or if you really admire a nicely done
sculpture, then this piece is definitely for you. My answer
was yes to both questions. If you are interested in
purchasing one, I’d suggest you act quickly. There are only
199 of them out there somewhere and there are a lot of Gargoyles fans!
Things
to Watch Out For –
When I opened the packaging, I noticed that the cross from the steeple
had broken off. I’m not sure if this was a packing fault or
an isolated case. I got mine from Big Bad Toy Store and I’ve
always found them easy to work concerning returns. I decided
not to return it. Having it in hand made it very hard to part
with. It was a very easy fix, one drop of glue.
Yeah, I sure it’s value has been drastically reduced, but, since I’d be
very unlikely to ever sell it, I don’t really care. Still,
spending that much money for a statue, most people expect perfection.
Overall-
***
It is a fantastic representation of a classic cartoon character in a
dynamic action pose. It is nicely rendered and expertly
painted. It really captures the look of the character and the
feel of the show. If it had been slightly cheaper, I might
have given it the extra star, excluding the minor damage. I
would really like to see more characters from the show get this
treatment, but I don’t know how much of that my wallet could stand.
Where to buy
Entertainment
Earth
Big
Bad Toy Store
Or
you can try
eBay!
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This product was purchased for the review by the reviewer.
Photos and text by Bryon Stump.
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