Angelique

Okay, so let's go over what we know so far: NECA? Good. NECA's Hellraiser line? Very good. Angelique, from Hellraiser Series 2? Very, very... wait, what happened? Angelique is a summoned demon who took the sensuous form of a woman and tried to destroy the order of the cenobites and the gateway that is the box. When her plans failed she was violently inducted into Pinhead's order, emerging as an erotic collision of beauty and manipulated flesh, truly The Princess of Torment. For the most part, NECA has been doing some great work with the Hellraiser property. After years of Todd McFarlane lying to his fans about the availability of the license, NECA landed the property and immediately launched themselves into the upper levels of the toy industry. Good as the line has been, not every effort has been flawless. Sure, Angelique is sculpted well, and she'll fit right into your Satanic Sorority, but she just seems... "lacking," for want of a better word. Like Pinhead before her, Angelique is a technical accomplishment as far as her aesthetics: the portions of her outfit that would be leather are sculpted to wrinkle and fold appropriately; her anatomy is decent, though her butt is a little smaller than an actual human's would be; the paint apps on her skin fade nicely from highlights to shadows, and the blacks of her clothes are varied enough to not blend into a shapeless mass. Not a dynamic action character by any means, Angelique moves only at the neck, shoulders and forearms. That would be fine for her, though, if not for her main disfigurement: Angie's scalp is pulled back to reveal her skull, and the flaps are tied to hooks embedded in her shoulders. In the film, these are thin wires; for the toy, NECA gave us thin nylon strings, much like dental floss, wrapped with strands of silver. A good effort, the wires ultimately fail: connected to her head and shoulders, they restrict the movement of both; at the same time, their varying lengths keep all six ties from being ever taut at the same time. You have to give credit to NECA for trying something this complex in the second series of their already-ambitious line, but it didn't fully work. All six figures in this line come with one section of the third film's Pillar of Souls - Angelique's got the bottom, which doubles as a great base for her. There's a peg on the underside, but the figure's balance is good enough that you can display her on top. There are intricate designs carved up there, and a screaming face on each corner. Additionally, the figure comes with the same tiny replica of the puzzle box that came with Pinhead. Since she can't really move her arms, she also can't hold the box. Of course, if you clip her wires to give her some freedom, you'll be all set. What is wrong with yo, that he only collects such abused women? Tell us on our message board, the Loafing Lounge.

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