COI's Harley Quinn Premium Format Review

[COI]

HARLEY QUINN PREMIUM FORMAT

Scale: Premium Format Figure (1/4 scale)

Manufacturer: Sideshow Collectibles

Product Size: 21" H (533.4mm) x 12" W (304.8mm) x 6.5" D (165.1mm)

Product Weight: 9.00 lbs

Artists (prototype): Kat Sapene (Paint), Steve Schumacher (Sculpt), Pascual Wawoe (Sculpt), Jennifer Johnson (Costume), Kristafer Anka (Design), Stan Lau (Design), Dylan Forman (Design), Chadwick Andersen (Development)

Like a Kardashian, but Cooler...and Less Crazy

An original creation for WB's Batman: the Animated Series, Harley Quinn has risen from her humble animated beginnings as a rambunctious and fairly one-dimensional sidekick for the Joker, to what can only be described as a pop-culture phenomenon. She is adored and imitated to an almost fetishistic degree, as evidenced by the plethora of collectibles and comic book appearances made for her, as well as the army of cosplayers dedicated to bringing her to life in all of her incarnations. This loyal following can be attributed to her brilliant design; she's cute, sexy, and psychotic all at the same time, and whether you're looking for a character with a cute outfit to mimic, or a compelling, psychologically damaged character who can make you laugh one minute and cringe in horror the next, Harley fits the bill.

The difficulty with making a statue for a character like this - given that's she's many different things to many different people - is designing a piece that encompasses all of these seemingly disparate elements, in order to appease her massive fanbase. In that respect, I think Sideshow did a tremendous job, as I will attempt to show here.

Hey! My Perfectly Straight Eyes are up Here

Steve Schumacher and Pascual Wawoe did a fantastic job bringing Stan Lau's much-loved concept art into the third dimension. This piece is in perfect 1/4 scale, sharing a similar base motif with the rest of the "Batman family" line of PFs, and the Joker in particular. The base on the Joker and Batman PFs are outstanding, and while Harley's base is smaller and a little less pronounced, it's just as detailed and fits right in:



Moving up from the base, we see that Harley is in sort of a bow-legged stance that some have termed the "pee-pee dance", which I find to be distinctive and much more interesting than if she were just standing with her legs straight. It almost looks like she's awkwardly shifting around, trying to find a way to pose with that gigantic mallet, which to me demonstrates a certain playful restlessness that suits the character quite well:



Both her heads, hands, feet, the mallet, and the ruffles around her collar and wrists are sculpted, and they're fantastically detailed.The "regular" head has her wide-eyed and sporting an even wider grin; the exclusive version of this statue comes with an additional portrait featuring Harley without the makeup and headpiece of her costume, sticking her tongue out with an expression that is simultaneously petulant and enraged. It's hard to tell if she's simply annoyed with you, or is taunting you right before attempting to land a fatal blow with her mallet. Either interpretation works well, and is consistent with the nature of this character:





The body sculpt is also really well done. Again, whether you see this character as a sex-symbol or that cute animated sidekick for the Joker, the sculpt plays to both crowds. She isn't overly voluptuous, nor is she either too skinny or too muscular. Her body-type is actually somewhat realistic, and they give her enough muscle-tone to suspend your disbelief in regards to the size and apparent weight of the mallet. Also, silly as it is, this needs to be mentioned: you can see her nipples. It's certainly pandering to the "sex-symbol" crowd, and while I understand that it may seem unnecessary to some, they're there and it's no big deal. Each of you can decide whether or not they add something to the piece. I say look her in the (un-googly) eyes, lest she get the drop on you.





Gotta Look Nice for Mistah J

The paint application and tailoring on the costume are amazing, and in my eyes, the real highlight of this piece. My feelings on cloth integration on statues have been mixed over the years, given the fact that cloth works much better for some pieces than it does for others. I've always felt that the Joker PF had the nicest mixed-media application of any statue I've ever seen; then again, the Joker is a skinny character, wearing a suit, and where mixed media costumes often falter is in the fit of the cloth to the sculpt. The number one complaint with cloth seems to be the material obscuring the finer details of the sculpt, particularly in regards to musculature, so any time a tight-fitting spandex costume is done with cloth, people are apprehensive. I'm happy to report that this is not an issue with Harley. The material of her costume hugs the sculpt beautifully, obscuring none of the details. Additionally, the costume is incredibly vibrant and really "pops" in person. The diamond decals on her costume are done in a different material than the rest of the costume, and are shiny almost to the point of being reflective. It's hard to demonstrate this in pictures, but it's just really beautifully done; the whole thing screams quality:





The paint application is of a similar caliber. No misapplications, bleed-through or blemishes on the painted elements. Some have reported the infamous "googly eyes" on their regular heads, but as you can see by the pictures I've posted, mine are perfect, and from what I've seen in the various HQ threads, that's more the norm than the exception. The skin-tone on both heads is beautiful; the regular head doesn't look like a girl with grey skin, but like a girl wearing white makeup, which is great.

The mallet is also worth mentioning. It's beautifully detailed and looks like actual wood, thanks to both a great sculpt and paint application. And the wood floor on the top of her base was painted the same way that the wood on the Joker's base was painted, with that green, grimy, almost rotten-looking finish.



Love ya to Pieces

The Harley PF comes in four pieces (five with the exclusive): the head(s), mallet, body and base. Like the Joker with his cane, Harley's mallet and hands are one piece, and it attaches to the body at the wrists of each hand via magnets. The heads also attach via magnet, and on my particular piece, the body and hands fit well and feel perfectly secure and balanced. This is a piece I have no qualms about moving around as a single unit, because everything fits together well and with zero effort.

I should also mention the PHENOMENAL job SS did with designing the packaging on this piece. The box is extremely compact, yet everything fits securely. The box for this PF is less than half the size of the box for Poison Ivy, which is incredible really. I don't normally think the packaging of a statue is too important, so long as it gets the piece to you safely, but they simply did too good of a job here for me to ignore. Not to mention the fact that, like the Poison Ivy's packaging, the box features the concept art by Stan Lau and the image is embossed, so even on an aesthetic level the box is great.

How d'ya Like me Now Bats?

Overall, this piece is an excellent addition to the DC line and, IMO, is a MUST for any Batman collector or Harley Quinn fan. Besides the quality of the piece itself, what's remarkable to me is that they managed to convey all of those seemingly disparate and contradictory elements that make this character so compelling to so many people, in a single offering. Many Harley statues exist, and I have no doubt that Sideshow will re-visit, given the Kardashian-esque cult of personality thing that this character has, but I'm not sure that any subsequent offering would be able to really top this PF in any meaningful way. I couldn't imagine my Batman collection without this piece, so whether you get the exclusive or regular, just go buy it.

Sculpt - 8.5 / 10.0

Paint / Mixed Media - 9.0 / 10.0

Design - 9.0 / 10.0

Production / Build Quality - 8.5 / 10.0

OVERALL SCORE - 88%

[JP Sarri]

Excellent review and quite entertaining, COI. You raise the bar once again. Amazing job!!!

[THECLOWN KNIGHT]

You lose me at the Kardaskank.....

Nice pics though.

[THECLOWN KNIGHT]

You lose me at the Karda...shi....

Nice pics though.

[JP Sarri]

Originally Posted by THECLOWN KNIGHT

You lose me at the Kardaskank.....

Nice pics though.

Originally Posted by THECLOWN KNIGHT

You lose me at the Karda...shi....

Nice pics though.

She still hot though..