STARFIRE
SUPER POWERS (McFARLANE)
“As brilliant as the sun from which she derives her powers, Koriand’r of Tamaran has refused to let the torments she’s suffered crush her spirit.”
During the original Kenner Super Powers run, the line only just barely touched on the Teen Titans. Obviously, Robin was there from the start, but he wouldn’t be joined by any additional members until Cyborg showed up at the very end of the line, in a notoriously difficult to get release. Up til now, the McFarlane line has really just retreaded on the Titans, with an assortment of Dick Graysons, as well as an updated Cyborg, but, after four decades, we’re finally up to three whole Teen Titans, thanks to today’s figure, Koriand’r of Tamaran, aka Starfire!
THE FIGURE ITSELF
Starfire is the second figure in Series 14 of McFarlane’s Super Powers continuation, where she is numbered 68. Though Starfire wasn’t amongst the figures planned for Kenner’s original line, she is nevertheless a rather spot-on choice of character for the line, as a central part of one of DC’s top books at the time. She’s seen here sporting her original Perez design, which is likewise perfect for her inclusion in the line. The figure stands just shy of 4 3/4 inches tall and she has 7 points of articulation. The sizable hair somewhat restricts her neck movement, as well as making her *slightly* difficult to balance when standing. Structurally, she’s using the new female base body built on the updated Wonder Woman mold, used thus far for both Supergirl and Power Girl. She gets a new head sculpt, which is, honestly, one of the line’s nicest. It feels very much authentic to how Kenner might have done the figure, with a sufficient amount of Perez’s style present, while still keeping her in line with the overall Garcia-Lopez stylings of the original run. The hair is big and very present, but it’s got a nice dynamic flow about it, and looks like hair, while also being slightly simplified. The base body is without any adornments or extra sculpted pieces, which isn’t really how Kenner would have done it (her outfit would have almost certainly been sculpted on), but is what we’ve come to expect from Kenner. The use of the generic body means the torso is definitely meant to be clothed, so there’s no cleavage to speak of, which is sort of an issue when it comes to Kori’s classic design. That being said, they’ve spaced her top in such a way that it’s not too obvious, and it’s certainly a better look than the DCUC Starfire, which had a similar issue. Given the bank of parts they’re working with here, I think it works out alright. The paint work does the heavy lifting on the outfit, and generally does it well. I like the shades chosen for sure, and the line work is nice and clean. I do sort of wish the line work covered all of the outfit, rather than just parts of it, though.
THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION
Of the figures in this particular set, Starfire was probably at the top of my list. Once it was confirmed that the EE waves would be adding a female base body into the mix, I was really hoping she might be one of them, so it was nice to see her crop up so quickly. In a perfect world, she’d get a unique sculpt with her outfit as a proper raised element, but this works well in a pinch, and it really helps that the head sculpt is so nice. She’s one of the McFarlane figures that really does slot in almost seamlessly with the original run.
