We just keep on truckin’ through this latest round of First Looks and we have arrived at one that I have been looking forward to getting to for a long time. As you know, a big part of the Masters of the Universe Classics line is bringing us concepts and prototypes from the older lines that never made it to reality into action figure form for the first time. He-Ro really lead that charge and from there we have seen the likes of Vikor, Wun-Dar and more recently, Demo-Man. Well, you could not possibly think that realizing these concepts is something exclusive to the old Masters line and not Princess of Power could you? Of course not, because as we all know, this line is about incorporating EVERYTHING into one cohesive line. That is something I absolutely love about Classics. So, when I saw that the Star Sisters would be debuting in the line back at SDCC 2011, I was pretty pumped. What I did not expect is that over the course of the last six months or so these ladies would be causing more chatter online than the likes of Fisto, Kobra Khan and even the Sorceress. Yep, if you like them or think they hail the end of the line (hyperbole to be sure) the Star Sisters are here, and they are now alone in the MOTU releases for January. Come check them out and get a dose of some much needed femininity for your Masters shelves.
I am a Princess of Power fan, and I think I have made that clear in several of these First Looks. I came upon that rather recently as my wife has been a huge fan since the 1980s and when I bought all of the MOTU shows in DVD a few years ago, I quickly realized that the PoP cartoon was superior in story and quality to He-Man. The FilMation team was really firing on all cylinders by the time the PoP show started so the writing was tight and since the Great Rebellion was actually very small, it appealed to an “against the odds” sensibility. Heck, it has gotten to the point in time right at this moment that Frosta is actually my most wanted figure in MOTUC, and General Sunder is my second most wanted. Both PoP characters. Whoda thunkit?
So, while I (and most other fans) are acutely aware that the Great Rebellion is pretty lacking in the MOTUC line so far, and that girls like Glimmer, Castaspella, Angella and the aforementioned Frosta are still MIA, getting more Rebellion members in any format is great thing in my opinion. Plus, the Star Sisters really represent one of those PoP holy grails that have never had the change to be realized until now. Aaaaaand, they are going to bring a ton of variety to your muscle man shelves. I know that seems to scare some people for some reason, but I think that in the scope of all things MOTU, they represent a colorful corner and I that most people that are up in arms about them now might soften their edge once they have them in hand. Their release schedule faced a bit of a shuffle and they went from January to February then back to January, but love them or hate them, the time has finally come.
I think one of the reasons why there has been some backlash to these figures is due to their coloring, in fact, there are several sides to this shade story. Some have dismissed them off the bat; I have heard things like “too girly” and “doesn’t fit in with MOTU”, but I certainly don’t agree with that. He-Man represents a lot of things and I think that just about any concept, if realized correctly can fit into these worlds. So, we get a lot of the barbarian influence from Eternia, but Etheria has more of a fantasy feel to it and I like that Starla, Tallstar and Jewelstar are not a part of it.
Another color confrontation comes from the fact that the final scheme for these girls is based upon a promotion Star Sisters poster and not the original toy prototypes. Now, I have been clear that I want Style Guide/FilMation designs with toy accents added for these figures, but I wonder what the toy colors would look like on these. I like how the figures turned out, and Tallstar is totally 80s in a great way, but she would also look cool in silver and purple, and Jewelstar would be neat in a ruby red too (Starla is pretty much the same to me though). I am not sure what I would have preferred, but I would probably have been happy with either at this point. This color debate is valid for those that feel strongly about wanting them one way or the other, but they still make for a colorful and diverse bunch.
Now, even though I came to love the PoP corner of the MOTU-verse a few years ago, I have been aware of it for a long time. I would occasionally catch an episode of the cartoon when I was a kid because the Horde was so strongly featured, and I did actually own a She-Ra figure, but that was pretty much it. I did not even know the Star Sisters existed until a few years ago when I started to delve deeper in the MOTU lore than I ever had before. So, I don’t have any long-held attachment to the characters (they were on the cartoon for about 3 seconds) that I can bore you with for several paragraphs, but that is kind of refreshing. Like I said before, while these are certainly PoP girls, they are also concept figures and I love getting them. In fact, I think these ladies rank right up there with Vikor for me (my favorite concept figure yet) and that is kind of funny in its own right since they are about as far from Vikor as possible. But again, that is beauty of MOTU. I have already enjoyed integrating them into my PoP corner of the display and I think they fit in just great. I am fan of diversity and while you might have made up your mind about these girls awhile ago, maybe seeing them a bit more close up will offer something you have not yet seen in them yet. The good news is that, regardless, the quality on this set is very high, as good as anything else I have gotten recently and that includes the awesome Fisto. I am convinced, but let’s look at each of them individually to highlight the highs and even some of the lows.
Starla
Right off the bat, I think that Starla is probably my least favorite of the three Sisters. I think that comes from the fact that she is probably just the least interesting of the group. She looks good, and she has a “warm” color scheme so that makes her stand out from the other two. The thing is, her power is doesn’t lend itself to being “toyetic” like the other two. She is the defacto leader of the bunch so that makes her important for that fact alone. Her construction is the strongest of the three and she has tight joints and good plastic. I cannot catch any real paint issues to raise and that is a great thing when you are dealing with this much yellow. She certainly has the most “star” motif going on with her broach, boots and tiara so when you look at her, she looks like a star.
As a Frosta fan, I can’t help but look at her skirt and see some future reuse for my favorite PoP girl but the skirt comes down low enough to cover the hip articulation. Herein comes my biggest rub with the figure – she has the new Battle Ground Teela hips. Now, you probably know that those hips provided more limited movement than the original lady hips, but when the legs are exposed, they look better. The thing is, the skirt would cover those hips so I wish they would have used them for more movement. I want to challenge Mattel to be aware of this for future females: if the hips are covered, use the original legs for more movement. As it stands, this also means that there is no twist movement in her legs because the boots don’t allow for it. The lower articulation is probably my biggest issue with the figure, but it doesn’t hamper her movement as much as I originally thought it would, she still poses quite well.
An issue of discussion with Starla (since the Power Con) was how her face would come through production. The prototype had one of the prettiest faces in MOTUC so far so getting that through production was a big deal. I think they actually did a good job of this and she retains most of the features seen on the handmade article. Since she has bare shoulders he face is cast in the flesh tone plastic (something that I am not a fan of), but unless you have a light cast directly on her, it is not very noticeable. Her hair DOES have some wash on it to bring out the detail, it is just very, very light and think they could have been slightly more liberal with it.
Overall, while she is probably my least favorite of the three, Starla turned out to be a very nice figure and she carries the star theme very well. Even if she was not recognized as such, she LOOKS like the leader of the group to me, so in that regard, she is very successful. Plus, of all of them, I think she tows the line the closest to the prototype look so she should please the toy diehards the most.
Tallstar
My second favorite of the group is Tallstar, but she ran really close to being my favorite, even though I was expecting her not to. Let’s get this out of the way right now: off the bat she is the biggest departure from toy design and color and she is certainly the most garishly dressed, and that is even for a chick whose sister looks like a pink diamond. But I have to say, I like the scheme. It is loud and bright with all of the blue and purple and orange, but she somehow pulls it off. I can see how the silver, red and purple scheme would have been interesting so I am looking forward to the customs that will come out in the days and weeks to come. I will say though, that I love her hair color. I dunno, I guess I have always had a thing for chicks with pink and blue hair, but I know I am looking forward to lots and lots of the PoP girls. Tallstar ushers in the more colorful side of PoP (since She-Ra and Bow are fairly tame) and I am ready to welcome more.
My favorite part of the figure though is her head sculpt. While it is strong, I think she is very pretty and the paint job does a lot of hammer that home. I have always said that a crappy paint job will always ruin a beautiful sculpt so fortunately, she cam through great. She has nicely shaped eyes with subtle eye shadowing and her lips are shiny and clean. My main beef with the figure is the shape of her “crotch” piece. She shares this trouble with Jewelstar so maybe their mother had a long crotch, but I wish it was more like the prototype. At any rate, the waist certainly needs to be lowered to make the lower form look a bit more feminine.
Of all of the girls, Tallstar has the most implemented “action feature”. Can you guess what it is? Yep! She gets really tall! Lovely lookout indeed. The figure was designed so that you can insert “spacers” at the biceps, shins and neck to make the figure taller. I was worried about how this would ultimately pan out, but I have to say that it works well. She does not get quite as tall as I would have like since she doesn’t have the waist extension, but I can say this: I will be posing her with all of the extension pieces in. She looks really cool and tall and that is what Tallstar should be. I have visions of Mekaneck and Extendar swimming in my head so I would bet that they will include extension pieces to form their features too. Either way, it works well and makes Tallstar what she ought to be: tall!
Jewelstar
Overall, Jewelstar is my favorite of the three sisters. I think she is the most visually striking and I think she could certainly hold her own in a big time Etherian rumble. Her body is supposed to be made out of “jewels” so the Horsemen did a great job of giving her strong lines that make her more geometric than organic. This is especially apparent in the overlay on her chest. To add to the jewel effect is the translucent forearms, crown and boots. I LOVE that they did this here and it adds a dimension to the figure that really helps sell the look and theme of the figure. They are crystal clear as they should be and them make her look delicious (I like rock candy).
Her face is also very close to Tallstar in terms of execution, and that is to say that it is very well done. It is painted so there is no plastic look to it and all of the lines in the eyes and lips are crisp, clean and smooth. I have a touch of paint gunk above the right eye, but I did not even notice it until I took the close-up pictures. Her hair has a cotton candy look to it and is a soft and flexible ponytail that doesn’t hamper the articulation. This is where she has it over on her sisters, you get 100% of the intended neck movement. My favorite part of the figure is something I recognized immediately at SDCC 2011 and that is her cape. It is genuinely very, very cool. It is cast in a clear plastic (so you can kind of see through it) but it is finished in pink and green pearlescent paint that really sells the jewel/mineral effect. I was praying that this would make it through production and I am very glad it did.
As for the nitpicks, she does have that same elongated crotch as Tallstar so I would certainly change that, but more than her sisters, I think I would have loved to see her in her toy colors, at least for the base body. The pink looks good, no doubt, but I think the red would have been even more striking for the figure. I don’t know of any natural pink jewels off the top of my head, but her looking like a ruby or garnet could have been really, really cool. That is just a personal preference. Still though, she is my favorite Sister overall.
For accessories, the girls comes with matching star staves and their guardian Glory Bird. The Star Staff sculpt is nice and I love the clear glitter plastic effect that was used. The color choice for each girl is appropriate but you can mix and match as you like. Glory Bird was also included and she (he?) is a repaint of the original Zoar figure. Gone is the traditional armor though and instead come the collar with the “mohawk” down the back. GB also has a unique stand that matches the old prototype to he (she?) can be displayed appropriately. Sure, this is the fourth time we have seen this sculpt, but I like the birds and it matches the original toys just right.
I am a fan. Yep, I like the Star Sisters. I am not here to give you a “Come to Light Hope” speech about wether or not you should too, but I think you should at least give them a chance. Will they be everyone’s bag? Of course not. But, I think that there will be some cases of people liking this trio a lot more once they have them in hand. $60 for subscribers is a lot of money (and $66 for non-subbers is even more) but I am very glad that they are here and I hope we see more three packs in the futures (Rock People!). The Great Rebellion got a major shot in the arm with this release but I am going to take this chance to request a more traditional member be made in the near future. We need them! The Star Sisters are here and they are a long time coming. I am happy for people like me and to the rest, well I suppose that Haters gon’ Hate.
*Thanks for reading and thanks to Toy Guru and MOTU forces at Mattel for sending them along and Horsemen for finally realizing them. More to come soon!
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