David Xanatos (Gargoyles (Neca)) Review

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David Xanatos (Gargoyles (Neca)) Review

David Xanatos
Gargoyles (Neca) (Neca)In addition to the titular creatures, Disney's Gargoyles had plenty of human characters that were just as interesting, such as David Xanatos. He started out as your typical evil businessman, but he later developed into a more neutral character. That's the thing with continuity-driven series, you can have characters change and develop as they go on.

NECA's figure of Xanatos comes in their usual five-panel window box, with the front having a painting done by Djordje Djokovic and Raph Herrera Lomotan of the man overlooking a chess board with various characters as pawns. This signifies his position as the show's "chessmaster": one who uses those around them to their advantage. Everything else is no different from the other figures, but I wish NECA would stop using the same generic text for every release.

Xanatos' head sculpt was provided by Tomasz Rozejowski, employing the same mixture of animated style and realism that the line has. With Xanatos, he looks more animated than realistic, but it's accurate to how he appears in-show, and I like the raised eyebrow expression. Alternatively, you can swap it out for an angry head with gritted teeth, and both portraits bear pretty clean paint. I noticed the ponytail is sculpted to lay flat on the back, that way you can get his head positioned properly.

At about 7" tall, Xanatos wears a outfit composed of various shades of gray, and while Tomasz did the portraits, everything else was done by Kyle Windrix, Thomas Gwyn, and of course, Djordje Djokovic. It looks very nice, adhering to the show's style while adding a slight bit of realism. The coat, shirt, and pants have a couple wrinkles sculpted into them, along with clean paint. The pants notably have a bit of wash to them, as well as a shinier finish to them and the shoes. As with almost everything NECA puts out, Geoffrey Trapp and Mike Puzzo handled the paint, as they did a great job here.

Xanatos' articulation isn't actually all that different from the gargoyles, and there's plenty of movement to him. He gets a barbell head, neck, and chest, swivel/hinge shoulders, elbows (double-jointed), wrists, knees, and ankles, swivel waist, thighs, and calves, ball-jointed hips, and hinged toes. All of the joints moved for me with no issues (likely because he was sitting in a car at warm temperatures), and there's good range to everything, allowing for a lot of nice poses. While the default head pops off easily, I'd recommend using some heat to make the alternate portrait fit on better.

A good mix of accessories is included with Xanatos, and they all suit him well. The laser rifle is the main thing here, with a simplistic design that matches the show, and it even gets a translucent pink blast effect that plugs in with ease. He also has a little floppy disk, and the Eye of Odin necklace (don't remember which episodes they exactly came from). In addition to the extra head, Xanatos gets six hands - a pair of fists, a pair to hold the rifle, a tight grip right, and a splayed left. The forearms have a snug hold on them, and the somewhat soft plastic for the hands means there's a risk of ripping the joint out, so use heat on the arms when swapping. Lastly, like Eliza, Xanatos comes with closed wings for one of the gargoyles. These ones are for Demona, and they pop into her back with ease.

The Gargoyles line continues to be a hit for NECA, with great designs and plenty of fun factor to them, and Xanatos is no exception. Now that we have him (two versions, in fact), it makes me wonder when NECA will get around to giving us Owen Burnett, another important character for reasons I don't want to spoil.

- 12/17/23