Review of Harley Quinn Action Figure
One:12 Collective

Introduction

One of the great things to come out of the show Batman The Animated Series was the character of Harley Quinn. As popular has she has been over the last 30 years (almost!), it's hard to believe she's such a relative newcomer to the DC Universe.

Comics and films have taken her in a number of different ways, but us old schoolers still love the original incarnation. Mezco has done (and will do) a variety of Harley's in their One:12 line, but the latest release - they are calling it the DC Comics version - is easily my favorite design. Like the rest of their comic based figures, this is their own design, but stays true to the core of the original.

This figure shipped awhile ago - I'm catching up on a few older figures right now. She will run you around $90, and a few places still have her available or on pre-order.

Packaging - ***1/2
The standard packaging looks great, using a nice red and black diamond design that is perfect for Harley, but somewhat unique as well. The entire thing is collector friendly of course, and it's quite sturdy as well.

Sculpting - ****
A key selling feature - at least for me - with the One:12 series is the addition of extra portraits with every figure. You always get at least one additional head, sometimes more. Harley falls into the 'more' category, coming with two. She is wearing a great portrait right in the box, sporting a slight smirk and squinty eye. There's also a yelling (or perhaps laughing maniacally) portrait, and one without the hood and ponytails, much more like her recent movie look.

All three have excellent sculpts, with nice skin detail, realistic looking texture on the hoods, and a very life-like appearance. Remember, this figure is only 6" tall, making these sculpts much smaller than what you expect with macro photos. The detail work - like the hair strands, cloth wrinkles, or stitching - is really impressive in hand.

From the neck down, you have mostly cloth costume. The boots and hands look good though, and the overall appearance is pretty consistent and clean from plastic to actual cloth.

Paint - ****
Considering the scale, the paint operations here are pretty amazing. The lips, eyes, and eyebrows are super clean, with no slop at all. The bright white face paint makes that all the more critical because any slip with the darker colors would be instantly noticeable, even at this scale.

They also did a good job with the blonde hair, always a tough color to pull off, and they've added some terrific tiny details with the accessories - like the lips on the bomb or the bat symbol on the cork - that add a lot to the visual appeal overall.

Articulation - ***
The underlying body isn't as posable as I'd like, but you can get some decent natural stances.

The ball jointed neck is great, and I had no trouble swapping heads. You'll get good tilt and lean out of it, particularly useful for adding some cocky attitude to your poses.

The rotating hinge shoulders and wrists work well enough, but the elbows lack enough movement to create great two handed poses. The torso tilts, bends, and turns, and the hips, knees, and ankles can handle short to medium stances well.  The ankles don't have as much rocker movement as I'd like - the high tops cut some of that off - but you can get a good fighting stance or two.

Accessories - ****
She has a great assortment to go along with the three portraits. While there isn't quite as much here as we see with some characters like Batman or Punisher, what is here is all very useful.

Like I said, there's those two extra heads.  While I prefer the cowled versions, all three work well with this costume. They swap easily too, making it more likely you'll use them.

The hands do not swap as easily this time.  I had visions of Catwoman - remember the issues there? - and was terrified I'd break something. The hands require a good amount of pressure to attach, which had me worried. There's six hands to go with the pair of fists she comes wearing - tight grips, wider grips, a gun grip right, and wide open left that works well with the bomb.

Harley does love explosions, and she has a modern grenade and old time bomb. The bomb has the lipstick kiss on it, a cute touch.

To get the silly side from the old show, she has a cork gun. The cork is attached to the gun with a string, and the front of it has a bat symbol printed on it.

To give her a bit more of the modern take on her weapons choice she has a rocket launcher, compete with a rocket that can be attached, making it look like she just fired it. She can manage a two handed pose with it, although it takes a little patience to get there.

Her final weapon is both old school and new, the giant mallet. The sculpt and paint work are quite realistic.

You know she loves Mr. J, and she has a stuffed version, with X's for eyes and a few rips where the stuffing is coming out.

Finally, there's a display base with either the simple foot peg or the complex clear plastic rod system.

Outfit - ****
I was a little nervous working with this costume, but I love the way it looks.

There's a lot more cloth here than I was expecting. Most companies would have gone with a sculpted version of the collar and cuffs, but Mezco went with the real deal.  While the little puff balls on the cloth collar are impressive, it's really the folded cuffs that blew me away. Be careful with them when swapping hands and don't squeeze them! You don't want to mess up the perfect appearance.

The costume itself is two types of material to capture the look of the black and red. The stitching is good, and the overall quality is excellent.

The crotch can get saggy, but all you have to do is pull up a bit on the material on the legs to fix it. There's enough of it, and it's stretchy enough, to easily correct any sag.

Fun Factor - ***
As I mentioned, I spent a lot of time worrying while I was posing this figure. I had Catwoman flashbacks. Now, nothing happened, and nothing felt weak or likely to break, but I was still hesitant, especially when swapping hands. That makes her less fun, at least for me.

Value - **1/2
At $90, Harley is pushing it. We are accustomed to the $75 - $80 range these days, but I cut them some slack thanks to the excellent work they did on the costume and accessories, going with an average score in this category.

Things to Watch Out For -
As I mentioned, take some care with the cuffs and collar. They look great, but I suspect that any rough handling could damage them.

Overall - ****
I really like this Harley - this is the one I've been waiting for. While I have nothing against the other designs, this classic look is more to my taste. She has three excellent portraits that are all quite unique, a very well made costume, and some great extras. The price is really her only negative, but it's a minor nit for most.

Score Recap (out of ****):
Packaging - ***1/2
Sculpting - ****
Paint - ****
Articulation - ***
Accessories - ****
Outfit - ****
Fun Factor - ***
Value - **1/2
Overall - ****

Where to Buy 
She's sold out through Mezco, but you can jump on the wait list if you'd like. Online options include these site sponsors:

- or you can search ebay for a deal.

Related Links -
Other recent One:12 reviews include the Supreme Knight Batman, Gambit, John Wick, and Captain Marvel. I've covered many of the previous releases as well.

You should also hit the Search Reviews page, in case any other applicable reviews were done after this one was published.

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