Demoman (Red) (Team Fortress 2) Review

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Demoman (Red) (Team Fortress 2) Review

Demoman (Red)
Team Fortress 2 (Neca)As one of the most well-known online FPS, Team Fortress 2 has brought together a large online community, for better or for worse, and has stayed popular even after major updates have dried up. However, the game hasn't received a huge amount of merchandise, at least not like Overwatch or Fortnite. Still, NECA took a shot with the license long ago (as in, I still remember seeing their figures at Toys R' Us), paused for a few years, then spat out a few more before calling it quits. Nowadays, the figures can be hard to get ahold of for good prices, but who says you can't get lucky every now and then?

The figure comes packaged in a clamshell, certainly something NECA doesn't do anymore, if at all. The graphics are simple in nature, but they work well, and there's a bio of the included character on back. Also included inside the box is a card containing a code you can use in-game to get a special cosmetic, because TF2 is more of a hat simulator than anything else. I believe the code can only be used once, so don't expect it to work when you share it with your friends.

The Demoman - Tavish DeGroot - is sculpted by Chris Gawrych, and the likeness is pretty on-point. TF2's artstyle is more like a CGI movie than real-life, and this figure reflects that. The sinister grin fits the character well, as his whole lifestyle revolves around drinking and blowing stuff up. The skin tone looks nice, and the paint is consistent with relatively clean edges.

As with any NECA figure, the Demoman stands in a 7" scale, being 6 3/4" tall. The body looks nice, although the torso is a smidge taller than it should be. One nice detail that they managed to include here is under the protective crotch flap is a drawing of a smiley face taped onto his pride, calling to mind one of his taunts in-game. The paint on the body is okay, as while it does keep up the consistent coloring, it suffers from various small marks and a lot of bleed from the pant cuffs. There's also a lot of rub-off onto the elbows when you bend them, and it continues to happen ever long after I've opened him. By the way, there's two versions of this guy, RED and BLU, and I got the RED one.

The articulation is nice, but doesn't work as well in some areas as I had hoped. Both the head and neck are swivel/hinge joints, and it allows for the Demoman to jut his head forward, but I really would've preferred a ball-joint for the head, and tilting it up on the hinge causes it to cock to the side for some reason. The swivel/hinge shoulders, elbows, and wrists are somewhat good for weapon poses, but the elbows are restricted a bit by the sleeves, making specific poses difficult to achieve. The ball-joint hidden under the torso tilts forward and back well, but that's about as much as it can do. The legs have ball/socket hips, swivel thighs, swivel/hinge/swivel knees, swivel/hinge ankles (no rocker unfortunately), and hinged toes, allowing for decent poses. Stability is a big problem with this guy, however, as he topples over a lot, and the peg holes are too big to work with any stands I have, so that sucks.

The Demoman's default load-out is represented in his accessories, including his main firearms: the Grenade Launcher and Stickybomb Launcher. Both look great with accurate sculpts and clean paint, and they fit well into the figure's hands, but the hindered articulation restricts what can be done with them. It would have been great if NECA threw in a few of the little projectiles they shoot out to make for some interesting displays. There's an extra left hand sculpted to hold the Grenade Launcher, as well as another hold holding his melee weapon: a bottle. The bottle is permanently in there, and it would've been better if it could be removed and held a different way. A broken bottle would have also made for a nice extra.

The Demoman proved to be rather pricey on eBay, and I've seen people want at most $300 for him. But last year, NECA decided to clean out their warehouse by dumping a lot of their old figures on Costumes, including the RED version of this guy. Suddenly, a figure that goes for over a hundred could now be bought for the low price of $32.99. Of course, I had to jump on him, and I noticed they had the Pyro as well, but he was already sold out by the time I saw. If I had known sooner, I would've grabbed him as well, but oh well, I'm happy with what I got.

The Demoman isn't quite as good as I thought he would be, but he's still a fine figure overall, and one I'm happy to have gotten for far less than a hundred, if not hundreds, of dollars. I know it's probably not on NECA's mind right now, but I would love to see this line re-released with improved sculpts and articulation, along with more accessories. A man can dream…

- 5/4/23