Aug 7, 2012

It came from the Toy Chest: 3 sisters who shared Bow's Magical gift!

And no, the Magical gift is not an euphemism for Bow's penis... I'm talking about The Controversial  Star Sisters!

Before you ask:
Hey Nefty, What are the Star Sisters and what do they do?
OK, the Star sisters were supposed ot be released on the Original Princess of Power Toyline in the 80s. They've appeared on books, magazines and a catalog... They even had their 15 seconds of fame on a She-Ra episode... I'll give you a hint: Bow's Magical gift! For some obscure characters, they did have a bunch of appearances...
Spector's Magical gift: Immortalizing the Star Sisters in Plastic!
The Star Sisters: They had a TV appearance, still people say that they're more obscure than the  Monogram Riders...WTF!?

You can read the story from the Princess of Power Magazine #6 with the Star Sisters at He-Man.org's archives

Now why do I call them Controversial... They are Triplets... they are Unreleased figures from Princess of Power... AND Mattel doesn't grasp the concept that MULTI-CHARACTER PACKS should be at least a bit cheaper than buying the same amount of characters separately...
Now with the whole Crisis of the 2013 subs, some are blaming the Star Sisters as a cause of decreased sub sales... (they also did on 2012 when the Spector said that the subs were the lowest yet... I will do a full-fledged rant about the whole sub thing sometime after August 7)
Yes, the anti-POP people who would prefer MOTUC to stick only to the first 12 vintage figures... (maybe even without Teela or Evil-Lyn cause female figures are icky or something) hate them.
Prototypes vs Poster Art... I'm more inclined towards the 80s toys...
Then again that's what I always say about Princess of Power.

Should I get going with the Ratings part of the Review? Must I say that 1 = crap and 5 = awesome? And that I'll be looking at each Sister separately and then combine their scores to see the rating of the overall package? No? OK Then!
If I was in charge Snout Spout would have never made it, but Jewelstar would have...

Miss Jewelstar will go first! The Pinkiest of the Star Sisters is very pink! (I can almost hear the complaints from the scantily clad sweaty barbarian lovers about them being NOT MOTU enough cause of her colors... I'll quietly point out at Adam, Sy-Klone, Roboto, Photog, Sir-Loser-Lot, etc.)
They DO look alike... Now if they made Princess of Power Barbies...

Articulation:
She's a 2.0 female, which means she has a waist twist! From above the waist, she's got the same amount of Articulation as Bubble Power She-Ra. From the waist down, things change... Sadly, she has Battleground Teela's thighs that have one less POA on each thigh. To make matters worse she lacks a boot swivel due to her special Jewel encrusted boots. That's 4 POA missing boys and girls who are keeping the scores. I COULD have given her a pass if she had lost one or the other, but not both sets of points...
3.0
Her poseability might be very limited, but she can complement other figures in action poses.



Paint and Sculpt:
These are based on the poster art, which are kinda like a halfway point from prototype toys and Filmation. It's OK, but Personally I like the toy designs and colors a bit better... Especially the Ruby Red Jewelstar...
00-Logistics always gets the Girl
Now, I can't judge her for what I wish she was, so, based on the poster, she DOES look like a nice 3D representation of herself. One thing that now bugs me out a lot... (thanks for pointing it out Kelly!) is her hair... Hair doesn't behave that way!! A Ponytail NEEDS something to stay a ponytail... a ribbon, a band, a piece of string... something she doesn't have... Small nitpick, but when we have a sculpting team that sculpts the inside of Tri-Klops viewing apparatus that we CANNOT SEE UNLESS WE POP OFF HIS ROTATING VISOR, not adding a "ribbon or band on Jewelstar's hair so it can hold off it's ponytail seems odd... Now, she's got a bunch of crystalline formations popping out of her body... rounded off so kids won't hurt themselves with an Adult collector toy...

Jewelstar became 20% cooler in 10 seconds flat!
The ones on her back kinda look like Translucent MLP wings... Her cape has a tournesol-ish effect on it! There's a slight bit of paint slop on her hair where it meets her tiara.
She can't turn into a Rock this time, but she can pretend to be a Statue... Just like Tanuki Mario.
4.5

Accessories:
I'm gonna get Glory bird out of the way first... Since it's also pink, I'll let her hang with JS... It shares Sculpt with Zoars I & II, and Screech... there is a Zoar III coming in a Weapons pack... Is Zoar the next Power Sword that can be cloned repainted, etc... Aside being pink, Glory Bird is different than her Falcon sculpt brethren in its accessories. The Carnival-esque Fether Mohawk  and the more Elaborate Stand... (Personally I'd replace the Zoar and Screech Stand for Repaints of the GB Stand). Jewelstar also comes with a Pink Star Wand... It's Pink and glittery and it makes the anti-PoP crew puke with it's pink and glittery magic!
Carnaval do Rio Zoar was not a popular variant...
4.5

Overall:
Jewelstar gets a 4.0 the less articulation limits her poseabilty, but adds one crystalline babe to Spector's Harem.

Up next is Starla with her yellow, red and orange Explosive color combination...
Articulation:
If she had her starburst backpack this image would have been 20% cooler!
She's a 2.0 female, which means she has a waist twist! From above the waist, she's got the same amount of Articulation as Bubble Power She-Ra. From the waist down, things change... Sadly, she has Battleground Teela's thighs that have one less POA on each thigh AND her skirt is a bit tough so it slightly limits her already limited movement range. To make matters worse she lacks a boot swivel due to her special boots with a cute star where the boot cut should have happened.. That's 4 POA missing boys and girls who are keeping the scores. I COULD have given her a pass if she had lost one or the other, but not both sets of points...
3.0
Draego-Man getting his butt kicked by a Star Sister

Paint and Sculpt:
These are based on the poster art, which are kinda like a halfway point from prototype toys and Filmation. It's OK, but Personally I like the toy designs and colors a bit better... But Miss Starla is very faithful to the poster... Being objective and impartial here. Mine has a bit of slop on the red trims throughout her clothes, but other than that, no biggies in the paint department... Like her pink Sister before her, her hair is magical or she's wearing an invisible hairband.
4.5

Accessories:
Miss Starla only has the Star Wand... Kinda looks like a lime lollipop but it's not...
2.0
Draego-Man better lick the lollipop before he gets another asskicking... She seriously needs a ribbon for her mutant ponytail.


Overall:
Starla gets a 3.17 the problem is the lack of accessories AND the limited Articulation...

Now we go with Tallstar!
she's got Pink Hair... that's Glimmer's turf right there! also Tallstar kinda reminds me of Famke Janssen... circa Goldeneye (pro-tip: wear headphones or mute the sound)
Tallstar: Making Extendar seem redundant

Articulation:
Her head articulation is a bit peculiar due to her Action Feature. It is NON-removable from it's neck... meaning you can't put Tallstar's head on Adora's body. Her neck pops off for her action feature. Her arm articulation is similar to Teela's due to the special cut on her bicep for the action feature.
She twists at the waist like BG Teela, or the other 2 star sisters. Her thighs are like her sisters or Battleground Teela... Blegh! Luckily for Tallstar, she has a boot cut, due to her action feature. when you plug in the extensions at her neck, arms and legs, she gains 5 more POA.
4.0

Paint & Sculpt:
Like her sisters before her she's a poster child of the Poster... and like them she's a nice 3D version of the poster. My Tallstar appears to have NO paint issues... AMAZING!
5.0

Accessories:
She's got her Wand, the same as her other sisters' no big whoop here... She's got 5 tiny extensions that make her slightly taller... (I kinda wish they sold extra extensions with different sizes to make Tallstar Extra Tall...)
4.5
Not as TALL as I expected, but she's Taller than KG's buck...
Overall:
Miss Tallstar gets a whopping 4.5 due to her excellent paintjob, awesome sculpt (even if it's not my favorite version of the character... the Prototype toy rocked some awesome Hammer Pants!)

Now let's see how the package fares... I'm talking about the 3 figures, not the physical package itself, cause that is very wasteful... there's a huge empty space on their package.
The Star Sisters combined get a 3.89 The limited accessories, the reduced articulation were the main culprits here... also, makes them feel overpriced for a $60 MOTUC set... ($66 if you were a cherry picker) Maybe it they had added the Bursting Stars backpack for Starla and the hammer pants for Tallstar or something more than the same old wand 3 times in a row... Maybe Jewelstar's "Meteor" form... Anything more to make them POP! The Star Sisters 3 pack is not a bad set, but it suffers from "IdontcaremuchaboutPOP-itis" that some people that work on this line suffer from... On the other hand they DO have a bit of a Magical Girl vibe...


Staa Siistaa Powa! Make UP!

SPECIAL THANKS
Kinda like a credits section... but excluding Mattel, the 4 horsemen for making the toys... cause I've already thanked them too many times!
Special thanks to Jukka Issakainen, Kelly Edmonds and Arthur Burlo from TGR's council of the First Ones for helping me with the research.
Facebook users from the Great Rebellion Collector's Club: Luis Santos
Also I wanna thank Pinkie Pie for making me Smile Smile Smile!

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