Gargo (Blackstar) Review

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Gargo (Blackstar) Review

Gargo
Blackstar (Galoob)Ah, Blackstar. The almost-He-Man. Our hero has roughly the same origin as Queen Marlena, he's got half a legendary weapon while the villain has the other. Sorcery and science coexist. And all of this has very little to do with Gargo.
What we have here is possibly the only character exclusive to the toyline: a colorful warrior with no identifying info other than the title of "Vampire Man". No fictional representation or lore. Do the rest of his people look this weird? Maybe. Is he Overlord's servant, or rival? Hell of I know. Can he sell on design alone? It worked on me.
As a design, he owes a lot to medieval depictions of demons. And maybe some dime-store novel art. Piercing eyes, enormous ears, cartoonish bat-wings and a sagging posture pair with garish colors to really stand out on the shelf. The musculature is subtly inhuman and sharply sculpted. It looks both powerful and wretched. Fine work indeed.
This being the "Laser Light" edition, Gargo sports the standard flint-and-steel sparking mechanism of the time, behind a trans red disc with an ornamental sculpt. I can't in good conscience fault Galoob for not adding in some sort of necklace or whatever to hide the way it's clearly built right into the torso, but it's worth mentioning.
My only real gripe is the articulation. The peg shoulders and neck are the usual fare, but then the hips are designed in such a way as to be nearly useless. Built something like the rubber-barbell balljoint on a MOTU figure, they're a straight cut rather than Mattel's rounded sockets, making them effectively near-horizontal swivels. Can't even sit down.
This is compensated for by the accessories, however. We start with a vaguely Indo-Persian knife that, while sculpted into the scabbard, does look nice on the wrist, apart from a lack of paint. GITD accessories were one of the themes here, you see. This does not hinder the staff, which is presumably magical anyway, and is topped with an adorable little bat-dragon.
And finally, the wonderful old series 1 Alien Demon, done in a nice two-tone blue. I always loved these guys, and they still look decent today. No articulation, no frills, just neat little monsters in bright colors, made of remarkably tough material.
Blackstar was never high on my list; I mostly gravitated towards He-Man and Bravestarr. The toys have their flaws, particularly the humans. But honestly, some of them manage to be kind of cool anyway. And "kind of cool" isn't bad at all for the era.