“Over the last few years Harley Quinn has become one of
my favorite characters.”
Is a statement that pretty much every comic book nerd in
the world would make, except they wouldn’t admit to the “last few years” part.
They’d claim she was their favorite from the start.
Don’t get mad at them. It’s not their fault. That sort of
thig comes from the toxic environment created by the self-appointed gatekeepers
of our pop culture. You almost have to qualify every statement you make about
your fandom, lest some hoary hobgoblin emerge from the nerd strata above yours
to crush you with their psychopathic, encyclopedic knowledge of the matter at
hand, thus proving that your fandom is fraudulent and that they have once again
triumphed over a lesser being.
This sort of thing is why I don’t discuss Doctor Who in
public anymore.
So now I’ve got a shelf of Harleys similar to my shelf of
Batmans and I buy any Harley Quinn figure that catches my eye. Within reason.
This figure is one of NECA’s Christmas surprises for
2016. The other is a Batman
Begins figure in the same scale. I don’t know that they’re necessarily
Toys R Us Exclusives, but that’s the only place I know of to get them right
now.
When I first saw this figure my first thought was that I
already had the DC Collectibles version. This NECA Harley looked like an
upgrade, but did I really need the same costume again?
Then I went and looked at that DC (at the time) Direct
figure.
WOW. It’s amazing the difference a few years can make.
The DCD Harley is downright primitive. Credit where it’s due, if they made this
Harley now it would probably look as good as NECA’s, but it would also cost nine
dollars more.
FIRST
GLANCE
If you do find these in the wild – and you should,
barring scalpers; they come in cases of eight – you’re going to want to examine
them closely. There were two areas of wild variations on the figures I looked
at. The paint on the faces was crazy. The makeup looked vastly different from
figure to figure, to the point where one didn’t actually have any white on its
nose.
The other problem spot was the belt/pants piece. It’s a
soft plastic overlay and it was glued out of position on every figure. I got
the one that it was least crooked on. More on that in a bit.
Otherwise, this is a gorgeous figure. The sculpt and
paint are wonderful and the proportions are far more realistic than the DCD
version. Not to mention the hugely superior articulation.
Which I will mention later.
PACKAGING
The box is my favorite one of these so far. Rather than
just lifting the look of the Arkham
games, NECA created a very Harley-centric aesthetic. Her trademark diamonds are
all over and the graphics have a leather-like texture to reflect her costume. I
like the logo quite a bit, as well. The scrawled letters under the fancy “Harley
Quinn” is a nice touch.
The back features a bio – something the DC Direct/Collectibles
lines lack – and the bottom of the box has creator credits. My pictures of
these turned out unbelievably shitty, so just check it out when you see one.
LOOKS
With this version of Harley Quinn the starting point is
the hair. Those ponytails have become the
signature look for the character, which makes since because they are a nod to
her original costume’s headgear. The sculpt here is excellent, with enough fine
detail to look right for the scale. The way the ponytails hang looks great and
the bangs create a great profile. The paint on the hair ties doesn’t bleed out
onto the hair. The hair itself is the right shade of blonde with great blending
at the ends of the ponytails.
The face sculpt looks just like Harley from Arkham City. It’s oddly blank, but that’s
just how that game was. There was definitely some uncanny valley action going
on with her facial expressions and dead eyes. Things got much better by the
time Arkham Knight rolled around. The
makeup on the figure I selected looks great. The white face paint isn’t as
heavy as these pictures make it look. NECA managed to make it look like Harley
has greasepaint or maybe even white pan cake on. The lipstick is glossy and
placed perfectly. The eye shadow is “smoky” or whatever. Looks good.
The sculpt of the collar has clean, clear details. The
buckle and studs are painted precisely with silver.
The arms are clad similarly in sleeves, fingerless
gloves, and studs. The studded bracelets are nicely detailed with texture and
depth. The diamonds on the backs of the gloves are sculpted and not just paint.
There’s a lot of fantastic work here – even her fingernails are painted. The
armband tattoo on the figure’s right arm is amazing. Not just the intricacy of
the design or the multitude of colors used, but the way it is slightly faded
into the skin to look more realistic and less like a paint app.
Harley’s corset and top are super busy. Lots of buckles,
straps, stitching, and laces. NECA got it all. The depth of detail is
impressive. It almost looks like separate layers and pieces. The great paint
job helps with this. Each piece is carefully colored and every stud and buckle
has a thick coat of silver to stand out.
The lower abdominal piece is soft plastic and covers the
hip joints. The sculpted layers are impressive. Harley’s oddly dated
thongderwear is sticking out of the top (Arkham
City was released in 2011 and Lita had switched to more conventional
underpants at least six years prior) and this is where you will notice things
being slightly off-kilter. The sides of the thong had greatly varying degrees
of visibility on the figures I inspected. The one I got was the closest to
being level. The skewedness didn’t look like it affected the leg openings too
much, just the top of the pants. The chain is an actual chain, and that's great.
Harley’s hip tattoo looks just as good as the one on her
arm. The paint on the crotch piece is excellent compared to what I’ve seen on
soft plastic and rubber on other figures. The straps hanging down onto the legs
also look oddly better than the same design in other figures. Also, most
figures have boring pants. I’ll usually just say, “The pants look fine”. But these
pants have seams and sculpted diamonds and an asymmetrical paint job. They look
great.
Harley’s boots are every goth girl’s dream. They’ve got
thick platforms (rather than heels, which is great), lots of seams and trim,
and studs.
ACCESSORIES
Harley comes with two extra
hands, two submachine guns, and a baseball bat.
The pistols are your classic
Uzi-looking guns. They seem a bit large, but whatever. The sculpts are oddly
soft. I feel like the edges should be a little harder and that maybe these
would look better glossy. They’re not bad, they just seem off to me compared to
what the figure looks like.
The bat is just a nicely
sculpted baseball bat with a great paint job. It’s great.
The extra hands are posed to
hold the bat. They look great and switch out easily. The pegs are sturdy and
short, so you don’t have to worry about breaking them.
FUN
NECA’s Harley has already owned DCD’s with looks alone,
but there are a good number of useful articulation upgrades, as well.
Since this is a new and different figure, here are the
points of articulation:
Head – ball joint
Ponytails – swivel(!)
Shoulders – hinged swivel
Elbows – hinged swivel
Wrists – swivel
Abdomen – rocker
Hips – hinged swivel pegs that the thighs also swivel on
(MOTUC-style)
Knees – hinged swivel
Ankles – pegs
On the one hand I really wish NECA would develop some
better ankle articulation. On the other hand, this figure is more poseable than
ninety percent of the DC Direct/Collectibles figures I own and their Arkham City Harley doesn’t even have
ankle joints. The minimal movement of this figure’s is a step up.
Everything else works great. Her head has an excellent
range of movement that is not impeded by the dangling ponytails because they are on swivels! I love that.
The elbows could bend a bit deeper, but they’re okay. For
the most part the arms are very good. The torso joint is the one I’m really
impressed by. You have to carefully loosen it up, but once you do it becomes a
really dynamic point of articulation.
The hips and knees are good. You can do as much with them
as the relatively static ankles will allow. To the naked eye the crotch piece
does a very good job of covering the hip joints, which are pretty good.
Between the fancy new joints and the accessories, this is one of those figures that's probably going to linger on my desk for a while. Next to Batman.
OVERALL
Ankles aside, this is a great Harley Quinn. If you can
get one with good makeup like mine, you’ll be happy to have it.
4
out of 5
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