The 2012 Masters of the Universe Classics subscription kicked off with some confusion, delayed figures and the Star Sisters. This three pack was originally scheduled to hit in January, but was pushed back to February to help subscriber’s budgets. Since the other two January figures were delayed, Mattel decided to move these ladies back to January. Oddly enough, my set actually arrived before my delayed December 2011 figures. This set has garnered quite a bit of controversy and I’ve seen a lot of chatter online that they do not fit in with the rest of the MOTUC line. Well, now that I have them in hand, I have a definite opinion on that. Click through for more pics of the first MOTUC three pack!
Star Sisters™ Bios
Starla™, Bright and Beautiful Leader™
Real Name: Gemma,Jewelstar™, Hidden Beauty™
Real Name: DevenaTallstar™, Lovely Lookout™
Real Name: CassandraIn ancient times, an evil sorceress became jealous of the Star Sisters’ youth and beauty and trapped them in a shooting star. It was sent hurling through the cosmos until the three women crash-landed on Etheria. There, they remained magically confined in the side of a mountain until the day Swiftwind’s hooves accidently loosened the stone that concealed their prison. She-Ra® quickly used her powers to melt away the star that held them captive. In gratitude, the sisters pledged their everlasting friendship. Jewelstar™ magically conjures gem armor to protect herself and others. Tallstar™ uses her magic to stretch to unbelievable lengths. Starla™, with her pet Glorybird, can sense danger and project spells of light against her foes. Together, they stand side-by-side with She-Ra® in the battle for freedom.
The bio is pretty short and sweet. I would have liked a little more info about the sister’s personalities since these characters have no real media representation other than a few brief seconds in a She-Ra episode, but I’m glad to have some description of what their powers are supposed to be and how they came to be members of the Rebellion. All three of the sisters seem to be pretty happy looking, so I guess their long imprisonment wasn’t too psychologically scarring…or was it? Perhaps their smiles are some sort of demented forced cheerfulness.
Accessories
The Star Sisters come with a repaint of the Screech/Zoar hawk sculpt (Glorybird), a new stand for Glorybird, leg/arm/neck extension pieces for Tallstar and three different color variations of the same Star topped staff. Glorybird also has a removable plumed headdress. The new stand is pretty ornate and reminds a lot of the feel of the old Crystal Castle playset parts. The staffs are clear plastic embedded with glitter. They are pretty girly, and take me right back to the toys my sister had as a kid in the 80’s, but look really nice with some light pouring through them. I think I would have liked to see a more offensive melee weapon for each one of the girls. Jewelstar does look very nice wielding Bubble Power She-Ra’s sword, but some sort of clear Crystar-like sword would have been neat for her.
The extensions for Tallstar pop off and on easily but stay secure. They are stack-able, so you can make one arm a little longer if you want instead of two evenly long arms. I stacked the arm and neck extension pieces in the above pic to make a super long neck. Even though the pieces don’t quite match up, it’s still fun to fool with for a bit. I’d have liked a couple more of each piece for maximum extension or maybe longer pieces. If they include more with say a weapons pack or something, I’d buy them. The original prototype also stretched at the middle and the costume looks tailor made for that ability, so I think an extension piece at the waist would have really sold these stretching powers better.
Sculpt
When we first saw the Star Sister prototypes at SDCC, I thought they were the most beautiful female head sculpts from the 4H yet and the final figures remain that impressive for the most part. Starla’s head came out a little pinched in final production and while it’s still pretty nice, it’s not quite as nice as it was at SDCC. Tallstar and Jewelstar both came out really pretty, though. They really capture the look of the female faces in the Filmation cartoon perfectly which works great for me as I’m a big fan of Filmation females. I also really like the hair sculpts as they all have a nice dynamic flowing look to them. I also love the sculpt on Jewelstar’s torso as it has a sharper angular shape to help with the jewel feel.
This seems like as good enough time to discuss the crotch piece on Tallstar and Jewelstar. There’s a pretty detailed rundown of the issues on mattycollector.com so I won’t go into it too far. Basically, the hip joints ride a little too low. It’s very noticeable on Tallstar as there is a gap between her leotard and where her hip begins.
Tallstar and Jewelstar’s underwear pieces are also not glued down to the underside of the the crotch piece which allows for a better range of movement, but doesn’t look as good as it would if they were glued down. It makes the underwear look a little baggy. I think I would have preferred them to come glued down.
Articulation
The Star Sisters have standard MOTUC articulation except for the standard missing ab crunch seen on all MOTUC females and the missing hip swivel due to the use of the Battle Ground Teela hips. I really dislike that hip design and while I can see why you would use it on the characters wearing bathing suit type costumes, I don’t see why Starla couldn’t have had the regular hips.
Starla and Jewelstar are also missing their calf swivel articulation. The nice thing is that the heads on Starla and Jewlstar have a good range of motion due to their hair designs (Tallstar’s is restricted somewhat by her hair), which is nice to see in this line where the females have had bobble heads in the past. Another great thing is they have the ankle swivels seen in Teela which really adds to their stability in posing.
Paint
The paint is nice and clean on these figures for the most part. There is one ding on my Jewelstar’s chest, but it’s pretty minor. I do like the pearlescent paint used here and there on all the figures. I especially like the pearlescent blue on Tallstar’s costume and Glorybird’s stand. It adds a bit of depth and interest to some bland sections of costume. Jewelstar and Starla both have some subtle drybrushing to bring out the detail in their fantastic hair sculpts.
In general, I’m a fan of the She-Ra characters being included in MOTUC. In that respect I am predisposed to like the inclusion of these three gals and was pleased to see them at SDCC. I did have a small nagging concern in the back of my head that these gals would look a little too outlandish to fit in with the rest of my MOTUC figures on display, so I did pull out a bunch of heroic warriors to pose them with. I have to say they don’t look at all out of place to me next to the Heroic Warriors. Actually looking at all the good guys together I was struck by how brightly colored they were. I guess I hadn’t really thought of that before.
The Star Sisters are on the bright side of a continuum of colors for this line, but it’s a slight variation as to be pleasing to my eye rather than jarring. I also absolutely love posing them opposite the monstrous Horde figures. There is a bit of contrast there.
I think that contrast is one of the things I find appealing about the She-Ra universe.
I do like these figures quite a bit. The beautiful faces and bright colors overcome my annoyance at the re-use of the BG Teela hips and Tallstar’s hip issues. It’s also really nice to bolster the ranks of your Great Rebellion by three in one go.
Previous reviews:
- Class of 2011
- Class of 2009
- Icarius
- Hurricane Hordak
- Man-E-Faces
- Megator
- Queen Marlena
- Clawful
- The Faceless One
- Battleground Teela
- Catra
- Panthor
- Battle Armor Skeletor
- King Hssss
- Bow
- Palace Guards
- Vikor
- Class of 2010
- Buzz-Off
- Grizzlor
- Roboto
- Chief Carnivus
- Whiplash
- Count Marzo
- She-Ra
- Keldor
- Optikk
- Evil-Lynn
- Moss-Man
