I’ve
fallen off a little bit with these DC Collectibles Animated figures.
After
six years of reviewing action figures and toys, the thrill isn’t
what it once was. I still like reviewing stuff, but I have to switch
it up a lot more frequently. Regardless of how many different
characters inhabit any given line, there’s a certain sameness that
gets old. I actually have to give this line credit for keeping my
interest as much as it did last year.
This
is an internet phenomenon I do not understand. If someone posts a
thing and you don’t like or agree with it, move on. No reason to
shit on another person’s thing (unless they’re spoiling stuff, of
course). So all of these people were posting about how Harley is
worthless and pointless and anyone that likes her is stupid, etc. I
don’t particularly care what these people think of Harley Quinn,
but I found it so odd that they needed to express their vitriol in a
forum that was not devoted to that.
Anyway,
I like Harley. I liked pre-New 52 Harley, but I actually like her
more now thanks to Amanda Conner and Jimmy Palmiotti’s ridiculously
fun run on the solo book. I like diversity and appreciate her in all
kinds of different costumes. I think changing clothes fits her
character and actually makes a lot more sense than her just wearing
the harlequin onesie all the time. But this is the definitive Harley
Quinn as most folks tend to think of her. This is how she first
appeared on Batman:
The Animated Series
and is pretty much the only look she had until a few years ago.
FIRST
GLANCE
This
is the somewhat more reserved Harley that appeared on The
Animated Series.
She got cuter and more exaggerated on The
New Batman Adventures,
which is how I prefer her. In all honesty I didn’t really think
about that until DCC showed the latter version at Toy Fair this year.
The
colors on this figure pop nicely. The red is bright and the black is
flat and dark. The proportions look good and what little detail there
is seems solid. She is super tiny, though, so I’m a little nervous
about opening her.
PACKAGING
These
come in just about the simplest blister card you could ask for and I
love it. The character specific information is all on the plastic
blister because the backing cards are all the same.
It’s
classy packaging, but it’s as simple as can be – much like the
style of the cartoon these figures are adapted from.
LOOKS
They
nailed that wicked smile. The shape of the mouth and the way the
teeth are lined up gives Harley an almost feral look. The eyelids are
sculpted a bit low so that the eyes also have a menacing look to
them. This is the Harley Quinn that’s going to delight in your
pain. She’s not as whimsical. Her hat has the right shape and the
pom-poms on the ends are distinctive but simple. The lines between
the paint colors are super clean, which is impressive when you’re
dealing with strong contrasts like red, white, and black. Her pale,
blue irises sit perfectly in the center of her eyes.
Most
of her body sculpt is as plain as can be. One of the advantages this
line has is how simplistic many of the characters are. I’m sure
many of the females will share this buck. Harley’s distinctive
collar is sculpted nicely and the little pom-poms are even raised and
distinct from the rest of the sculpt. Ideally this would have been a
separately sculpted piece, but it’s fine the way it is.
The
arms are plain sculpts with the appropriate markings painted on. The
lines are, again, precise and distinct. Harley’s cuffs don’t have
the ruffle detail I expected, but they’re fine.
The hands are
great. I love that we seem to be past the “everyone has mitten
fists” stage of action figure development. More and more figures
now have individual fingers and relaxed hand poses.
The
feet look great and are cleverly engineered. The tops of Harley’s
boots are that Peter Pan style thing. The ends of the legs terminate
in a forward-facing peg and Harley’s feet are sort of like little
slippers that plug onto those pegs. This is a huge problem that I’ll
get into below.
ACCESSORIES
Harley
Quinn comes with four extra hands, a gun, a Joker fish, and a stand.
The
hands are two fists, an open hand with a trigger finger, and an open
hand. They switch out easily – but as always with pegs this tiny,
be careful – and interact with the accessories.
The
Joker fish looks just like it should. It has five(!) colors of paint
that all look great. This thing is hilarious and I’d buy a ten pack
of them if I could.
Harley’s
pop gun is mostly solid grey with a cork in the end. The proportions
are nicely goofy. It fits perfectly in the trigger hand and stays
put.
The
stand is a fancy bit of business with Harley’s design references on
the base. I liked these at first, but now I’ve decided that they’re
just too darn big. They take up so much space on the shelf.
Fortunately, most of these figures can stand on their own. Most of
them. More on that in a bit.
I’m
a little let down that there aren’t more accessories. I’m going
to assume that Harley’s trademark giant hammer didn’t come into
play until later, but you’d think they could have come up with a
couple more items to throw in here. And alternate, unmasked head
would have been great. But again – I don’t think we saw that
until The
New Batman Adventures.
FUN
The
shoulders, elbows, hips, and knees on this figure work pretty much
like the rest of this line. They’re designed to provide
articulation without detracting from the aesthetics of the designs.
That’s important to me, as there’s no point in doing the line if
they don’t get the smooth, simple lines of the characters right.
That
being said, I don’t think that they could have out of this figure.
Harley’s head barely does more than rotate. That’s disappointing,
but it hardly cripples the figure.
The
feet do that. The lack of ankle pivots limit the figure’s ability
to pose so severely that it almost isn’t worth playing with. On top
of that, something about this design has given the figure awkward
balance so that it is one of the few that I simply cannot get to
stand up on its own. That’s pretty bad.
The
accessories are great and the bulk of the articulation is solid, but
the feet ruin this figure for me.
OVERALL
Dammit.
This is a great-looking figure. They nailed the paint and I love the
facial likeness and expression. But those feet ruin it. I can’t
give Harley too
low of a score because everything else works, but I can’t recommend
this one. I hope they figure out a better way to do her feet on the
next one.
3
out of 5
If
you have to buy one, buy from Amazon and help Needless Things pay the
bills!:
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