Tag: dc collectables

Harley Quinn – Arkham Knight – DC Collectables

This one I bought at Hawkins Bazaar, who had a few characters on clearance. But some of them are being sold at B&M for cheaper, so if you see figures there, check if they’re in B&M or TK Maxx first. 

Here is Harley Quinn, based on her appearance in Arkham Knight (not played the game, but does she appear in both of her outfits?):

Most of the paintwork is well done, but there are a few dodgy bits here and there. The paint quality varied between figures, so I picked the best one. Some of them, the white paint was encroached upon by the black/red paint. 

This figure is very shiny. Not sure if I’m a fan of the look or not. Wish the black line on her left side was a bit straighter. The diamonds on her leggings are painted nicely though. 

Close-up of her face:

I like the rouge on her face, the lipstick and eyes are painted very well. Not too much of a fan of the “blow-up” hat look. The hat has been given seams like it’s an inflatable, not sure if this is intentional detail, but not really a fan. The creases are nicely realised. Some of the white n her collar does seem to let some of the undercoat show through, but not too badly on mine. 

Left:

Here you get to see the extent of the shiny. Does make it look like she’s wearing some plastic-y fetish suit. The colours are very vibrant though. 

Right:

Looks fine from this angle, other than some previously made points. 

Back:

Quite a bit of creasing detail throughout her body and hat. The pom-pom balls are nice. Her neck looks odd from this angle though, from the way they’ve done the joint. 

And now for some notes about posing her:

Why, DC, why?! No hopes in her feet to add a stand, so you’ll either have to go for no stand or a claw stand. Without a stand, she’s a bit finnicky to stand up. You can get her to stand, but she will be prone to falling over. Also getting her to hold her bat can be troublesome, though looks good once you get her to hold it properly. 

Overall, I can see why this figure was reduced. She’s a bit of a pain to pose, and I think the shiny look would be polarising between collectors. She articulates well, but this is let down by the lack of stand. If you see this for around a tenner, and you like the look of her (and prepared to throw in a stand if you can’t prop her up), I’d recommend her. But I’d recommend also leafing through the stock to ensure you get one with a minimal amount of paint flaws. 

Swamp Thing – DC Deluxe Action Figure

This one I picked up on a recent trip to Swindon – I missed getting him when he was originally released, so I gave up and forgot about him. Found him for sale for what I think was his original RRP, so decided to buy him this time around :D. And glad I did:

This guy is huge. Or at least his wings are – was fun getting him to fit in shot :P. The sculptwork and painting gives him a very wooden and organic appearance. 

Close-up of his face:

I love the texture on his face, those red eyes and his antlers/horns. A decent amount of sculptwork went into is face, and the paint has been well done to emphasise the correct areas. 

Left side:

He doesn’t have too much depth, if you don’t flap his wings back, but they do flap backwards and up/down if you wish to. However, they only go so far down, before they foul on each other, if they’re spread out like I have them. 

Right:

This shot has better focus.. here you can see the wooden texture is present throughout, and his head has a good shape to it, with the wooden antlers. The stand I’m using is a Play Arts Kai stand I got as part of a lot of miscellaneous items. Sadly Play Arts Kai do not sell these separately, so your only real chance of getting these is by buying them secondhand. I have NOT bought any of the China fakes, so don’t know what flavour of Chinesium they’re made out of. If they’re made of the brittle plastic that the Bandai fake ones are, I’d be worried the stand would break with this dude. Failing a PAK stand, a doll-style stand of a sufficient size may work well. 

Back:

And here he is… exceeding the size of my backdrop! Love the fact the textures run throughout the figure – there’s no “plain” sides. The mossy effect on his wings is nice, along with the other wooded textures. He also has a flower on his right calf, but this has gotten covered up by the stand in this shot ><. 

But why the stand? His wings make him back-heavy and are not removable. This means, despite his articulated feet, he is prone to overbalancing and falling over – a stand will help prevent this, and from him trying to tear a hole in your collection with his massive size. 

Though he does have some removable accessories:

Initially, he has two bits of twig in these holes (see the first photo in the blog), but you can also equip him with a “sword” and shield:

I think this choice of accessories was a neat addition to the figure, and allows you to customise him to your preference. The holes are different sizes on the two sides, so he can only equip his weapons this way around. 

Close-up of the shield, as the sword was in earlier shots:

Looks a bit like an oversized walnut shell to me, but could easily also be hewn from wood, which is what I think was intended. 

Close-up of a twig:

You can see where these plug into when you look carefully at the figure, but they’re not immediately apparent. Looks like I didn’t have it pushed in all the way in for this shot. 

Overall, I really like this figure, and glad I got him in the end :). If you like what you see, and don’t mind you can’t remove his wings, I’d recommend getting him, if you can find him for a good price. Bear in mind he is a deluxe figure, so his price is higher than that of “regular” Western action figures. Watched a review from around the time of his release, and they quoted $50 for him (I paid £40). You may also want to factor in the price of a stand, unless you’re willing to put the work into making him balance, which may limit posing.