Angela

Hey 1996 Fleer/SkyBox trading card #33, can you tell us who this character is since NECA didn't? Raised on the mystical island of Avalon, Angela is only now exploring the world of her mother, Demona, and her father, Goliath. Inquisitive, brave, yet somewhat naive, Angela is on a journey of discovery - of herself, her clan's history, and her ultimate destiny. Gargoyles don't think of family the same way humans do: Angela may be the direct biological offspring of Goliath and Demona, but that doesn't really matter to any of them; all the Gargoyle eggs produced in a mating season are put together and tended, and when they hatch, they're all are considered to be siblings, and they're all considered to be the "children" of the entire clan. So, like, Broadway is the son of Hudson, but neither of them are aware of that, and it wouldn't change their relationship if they were. Growing up on Avalon, Angela finds it perfectly natural that humans and garoyles would live together, so he's often confused when modern-day New Yorkers react badly to them. Consider her "sheltered," like a homeschool kid - which makes sense, since she was raised with medieval values and hasn't yet had time to acclimate to the modern world like the rest of the Manhattan Clan have. She's not afraid to stand up for herself, though, and does display flashes of temper that are reminiscent of her mother. Angela was introduced in Season 2, when the artists were fully comfortable in the show's style. The toy is much more detailed than that, favoring "hints of muscle" over "simple smooth lines." The cartoon certainly never showed any kind of texture on Angela's dress, which here is sculpted to look and feel like rough-woven linen. She wears a wide leather belt with a clasp that looks like a stylized A, and has real metal rings through her ears and around her left wrist. Her clothing is more modest than Demona's, which means we get to see more wrinkles in the fabric, particularly around the waist. Fittingly, wherever possible this figure uses the same molds as Demona, which makes sense: Gargoyles may not trace lineage the way humans do, but Angela's parentage couldn't be more apparent if her name was "Golmona"; she's got her dad's coloring, but her mom's physique. One thing that couldn't be reused is the hair, because rather than Demona's chunky she-mullet, Angela's hair is smoother, and is pulled into a ponytail by two large rings. We still do get the problem of her wings pushing her head forward, unfortunately. Angela may not wear a little crown like her mother, but her face is still conducive to swappable faceplates, rather than fully alternate heads. Her second face is angry and hissing, and displays another feature she inherited from mom: her eyes glow red, rather than white like everybody else's. So maybe that's not a sign of Demona's evil, but rather a form of secondary sexual characteristic? It's not like there were any other girls in the main group to compare her to (which is why Brooklyn, Broadway, and Lexington were all over her when she showed up - Broadway ultimately won her attention because he was kind, attentive, and respectful). Since so much of the body is reused, we know for sure those were sculpted by Djordje Djokovic, but the packaging credits "sculpting and fabrication" jointly to him, Adrienne Smith, and Marty Henley. "Fabrication" generally means "building the accessories" - weapons, props, that type of thing, rather than anything anatomical. Angela may have the same alternate hands as the previous toy, but her actual accessories include a large, spotted egg, and a version of herself as a newly hatched baby. Aww! The baby moves at the head, shoulders, wings, and hips, and the egg can be split in two to have her emerging from it. Though the little scrap of cloth she's wearing as a diaper probably didn't come out of the egg with her. Gargoyles are larger than humans, so while this figure is in a 7" scale, she'll reach the 7¼" mark even if you've got her with her knees bent in the way of the gargoyles' natural stance. Her wings are the same Demona had, measuring 9" from shoulder to tip, and the joints that allow them to move are exceedingly stiff - it sounds like they're snapping when you move them. They're made from a very stiff ABS, verging on brittle. As is the style of this line, she doesn't have any folded wings - we'll have to wait for some future release to provide those. The figure has swivel/hinge toes, swivel/hinge ankles, double-hinged knees, swivel thighs, balljointed hips, swivel/​hinge bendy tail, balljointed chest, swivel/hinge wrists, double-hinged elbows, swivel biceps, swivel/hinge shoulders, and a barbell head. Angela didn't get a figure in Kenner's 1990s line, so this is her first-ever toy. And she may be ¾ repaint, but that's not a flaw, it's true to the character. She may not have been a part of the clan at the start of the series, but she's still an important member, evidenced by the fact we got her before some other top-tier characters. -- 02/22/24

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