Bishoujo Harley Quinn Is Crazy, Cute

The latest DC Bishoujo statue from Kotobukiya brings us The Joker’s main squeeze Harley Quinn, with two display options and one big mallet.

Kotobukiya’s Bishoujo Collection has been going strong for a few years, and the latest addition to the DC series is Harley Quinn.  Given her animated origin, Harley seems like the ideal candidate for a stylized, Bishoujo treatment, and she translates just as nicely as you could imagine. Based on a design by Shunya Yamashita, the clown princess of crime is featured in her classic red and black costume, straddling a giant mallet.

The sculpting on this Harley statue is as amazing as we have come to expect from Kotobukiya, with an excellent sense of motion on display through her outstretched arms and legs, and every details here is immaculate, from the seams of her costume to the ruffles and puffs of her trim.  The colors are crisp and clear and iconic, although the decision was made that Harley’s entire costume would sport a gloss finish, that I’m still not completely sold on.  I always assumed the Bat-villain’s costume was simple fabric, lending itself to a matte finish like Koto’s Supergirl,as opposed to the patent leather-like gloss featured on Catwoman.  The gloss stands out even more in contrast to the matte finish of the wooden mallet, but the colors and the sculpt are so great it’s easy to pass this off as a somewhat minor concern.

Harley features two version of her wonderful “pretty girl” portrait, which can be swapped back and forth using the attached magnet embedded in her head.  The two faces give you the option of a slightly skin-toned face, or a pure white one to match her three-color look completely.  The choice is entirely up to each collector, but I think it’s very cool of Kotobukiya to include both options, instead of charging fans twice for a white-faced Harley like some other companies have.  As one more added bonus, your spare Harley face can be stored in a container hidden underneath her display stand!

The Harley Quinn Bishoujo is a very nice piece, with an amazing attention to detail, and playful sense of movement as the villainess is caught mid-prance around her giant weapon, not unlike a stripper pole.  The Bishoujo face is excellent, and the option of two different colorways only enhances the value we get here.  Despite the odd choice to go high gloss with the character’s costume, Harley Quinn is a great addition to the Bishoujo collection, and would fit in perfectly with any Batman The Animated Series display.  Having her in hand, I think I’m going to have to reconsider my choice to skip on Poison Ivy, and I can’t help but think these two femme fatales would look perfect together!