When reviewing Mondo Toy’s X-Men animated figure’s we noted that even though their deco looks very much evoke animation cels, the body sculpts would also work for more realistic figures. For Harley Quinn, the design is simpler.
Batman: The Animated Series characters simply weren’t drawn with detailed muscles in the first place. As much as Bruce Timm’s designs owed to Max Fleischer, Fleischer’s Superman characters were frequently rotoscoped from real people. Timm exaggerated slightly, suggesting musculature through accentuated triangular torsos rather than ab and pec outlines.
Harley’s body on her Mondo 1/6 figure has a simple silhouette, with only the slightly Popeye-ish bulges in her forearms suggesting cartoon proportions. In theory, her costume would fit pretty tightly, but like an actual tight costume, it doesn’t do the comic-book thing of being so tight as to reveal every anatomical detail. There are no ear bumps, for example, because she’s not drawn with them. Linework and the color transition is super clean, like professional inkings on the comics page. The white of her face maintains an appropriately glossier finish than her costume.
Face of Fun
To keep Harley’s sculpt looking like animation, the articulation stays mostly unobtrusive. The mid-torso ball joint and ball-cut combo joints on the hips do a lot of heavy lifting for getting her into different poses. She also sports a ball-jointed neck, disc-and-pin shoulders, elbows, and wrists, and rocker ankles. Besides that, her knees have double-hinges. Though the ankles look like they also have cut joints at the top of her shoes, they do not.
On the review sample provided, her left elbow hinge was tight enough to induce fears of breakage, but nope. Judicious force revealed it as just a really tight ratchet. Her arm survives. The only issue it had is that her open-palm left hand, when switched out, popped off the wrist joint, which is supposed to pull out with the hand. It took some needle-nose pliers to pull it from the socket and get it back in the hand. None of the other hands had that issue, but in the end, no harm done.
Extra Baggage
The review sample Harley is the timed, Mondo exclusive edition, now out of print. Both versions come with five pairs of hands, Bat-cuffs, Bat-belt (which doubles as a dog collar), mallet, Joker staff, perfume, handbag, mannequin arm, and certificate of sanity. The general release includes two heads — open-mouthed smile and angry-face.
The timed edition adds a close-mouthed smile head, surprised head, and unmasked Harleen Quinzel head with blonde hair and flesh tones. She also comes with her two pet hyenas, along with a doggy dish, steak, and bone for their enjoyment. The hyena, with its tongue hanging out, can fit either the bone or the steak in its mouth. Neither hyena has articulation. Both versions of the figure come with a Batman logo stand that uses the crotch underhook style.
One thing Harley has in common with Wolverine is that her natural hairstyle hilariously takes the shape of her mask/headpiece.
Fooling the Eye
Cel-shading can be so subtle that the eye misses it, but take a look at the shadow under Harleen’s pigtails, underboob, or on the front side of her handbag. Or the little red spot on the Harley heads’ lower lips.
Harley stands easily by her own, so the display stand is mostly there for neutral poses. Should you prefer to place her in action in a scene, she’ll do pretty well by herself.
The timed edition gets some outsized asking prices on eBay as of this writing, nearing $500 in some instances. Considering the regular version can still be had for $184.99, that’s not a good deal. Some folks really love their hyenas. All the extras are certainly nice, and the Harleen head may be the best one, but for a Harley Quinn figure, the basic one delivers the primary goods. It’s not like you don’t get her mallet, for example.
Boxed Bad Girl
The packaging is as it should be — a nice image of Harley looking like she was drawn on black paper on the front. A Velcro-fastened flap opens to reveal the figure inside, and two plastic trays hold all the gear. The insert backdrop features a black diamond design and the back of the box shows the full Batman: the Animated Series logo. Mint-in-box collectors should appreciate the visibility of every accessory.
When it comes to 1/6 scale figures, a lot of collectors with the budget for them like the amped-up level of detail and photo-realism so many have. That’s not going to be the case with one based on simpler drawings. Harley’s design is basic, but it’s faithful, and there’s no other way to do her that’s as true to the source material. So in this case, accessories and alternate looks add a little complexity and variety. That and the subtle shading on the sculpt make her more valuable than some smaller action figures. Her size also lets her stand better than they do.
Is she the girl for you? Take a look at some more pictures and decide for yourself.
