Tag Archives: Star Sapphire

#3390: Star Sapphire

Posted by Ethan Wilson in Reviews and tagged with , , , ,

STAR SAPPHIRE

JUSTICE LEAGUE UNLIMITED (MATTEL)

Outside of DC’s main trinity of Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman, when the shift from Golden Age to Silver Age occurred, most of the heroes rogues galleries were restarted completely from scratch.  Since a good number of the heroes were really just re-using the name, and applying it to a totally new character, there was very little reason to carry anything else over.  One exception of note was Star Sapphire, a Golden Age Flash foe whose name would be re-used in the Silver Age as an antagonist for the new version of Green Lantern.*  Like GL, she got a re-work to update the concept.  She was now Hal Jordan’s love interest Carol Ferris, imbued with the powers of the Zamarons, who sought to prove that women were a superior force to men, by using their own Star Sapphire to bring down the male Green Lantern.  Carol held the title for a while, with the persona manifesting as a split personality that she retained no memories of, and after she was rid of it, others were granted the power as well, before it was ultimately re-worked into a parallel Lantern corps to the Green Lantern.  But, before they went that crazy with it, a version of the character was featured in Justice League and its follow-up Justice League Unlimited, where she’s just kind of a run of the mill villain with unexplored ties to Green Lantern.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Star Sapphire was added to Mattel’s Justice League Unlimited tie-in line in 2007.  She was part of the seventh series of three packs under the “DC Universe” branding, in a set that also included Sand and the extra articulation version of Superman.  She was subsequently re-released on her own in 2010.  Star Sapphire is, of course, based on her animated design, which marked a fair bit of a departure from her comics look.  It’s not a bad one, though, and certainly paired well with the redesign for GL.  The figure stands about 4 1/2 inches tall and she has 5 points of articulation.  None of that articulation’s particularly useful, mind you, since the neck is effectively rendered motionless by the hair, and the v-hips offer no practical movement of any sort.  She can move her arms up a bit, I suppose, so, you know, there’s that.  Star Sapphire is based on Mattel’s generic female body, which was never a particularly good one.  It’s got kind of funky proportions and an odd stance.  It also doesn’t really stand up well.  She got a new head sculpt, which is at least a pretty decent recreation of her appearances on the show.  Unfortunately, it’s not very well served by the paint work, which is thick, sloppy, and has a rather uneven texture.  I appreciate what they were going for with the gloss finish on the pink sections, but they don’t help with the odd texture, and the face is even worse.  She looks unwell.  Star Sapphire included a display stand with both releases (all the figures on this body did, since it was so poor at balancing on its own feet), and the single also added an effect piece.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

While I’m certainly a GL fan, I’ll admit that the animated version of Star Sapphire never much clicked with me.  She always felt like more of a space filler than anything.  Even when it came to this line, that was kind of the case, since it’s not like there’s any sensible reason for packing her with the two characters she came with.  What’s more, the actual quality of the figure feels kind of lackluster, making her the weakest entry in a three pack where one figure was a total re-hash.  It’s kind of a shame, but at least she got a figure, I guess.

*The Golden Age Star Sapphire would also later be connected to the Zamarons, who created the Silver Age incarnation, via a retcon establishing her as a someone who was vying for the Zamaron throne and had been exiled.

#1664: Green Lantern & Star Sapphire

Posted by Ethan Wilson in Reviews and tagged with , , , , ,

GREEN LANTERN & STAR SAPPHIRE

DC MINIMATES

It’s been almost two years since I last looked at any proper DC Minimates.  Plenty of other Minimates in the mean time, but not DC.  It’s sort of sad, really.  At the time, they were a beacon of hope, combating fears that the brand might be dying out.  They came in, stepped things up, and then ended up dying out themselves just before Minimates as a brand really took off.  We got eight series, a decent enough run, with most major players covered.  The Green Lanterns did alright, starting from day one, in fact, with a Hal Jordan and Star Sapphire pairing.

THE FIGURES THEMSELVES

Green Lantern and Star Sapphire were part of the first series of DC Minimates.  Initially, they were meant to hit at the same time as the second and third series, to jumpstart the line in a similar fashion to the Marvel line, but delays set in, and the first series ended up hitting on its lonesome.

GREEN LANTERN

Green Lantern was just at the beginning of his upswing in popularity when this line launched, so his place in the first assortment was definitely a sensible one.  They went with Hal to start, which was certainly the smart choice.  He’s got his Bronze Age design, which has always been my personal favorite.  The figure is based on the standard ‘mate body, so he’s 2 1/4 inches tall and he has 14 points of articulation.  His only add-on piece is for his hair.  It was shared with this series’ Superman.  It’s an okay piece, but lacks the higher detailing of more recent offerings.  I myself have never been really big on the s-curl piece for Hal, since it just feels a bit too distinctly Superman, and doesn’t match Hal’s usual style.  I ended up replacing it with another piece, though he’s seen un-altered here.  The rest of the work is paint, which is actually pretty top-notch, apart from one or two small issues.  The detailing on the face is very clean, and very true to the character, and the torso detailing is spot-on.  There’s even a little bit of detailing on his right hand for his ring.  My only minor complaint is the epaulets on his shoulders, which here cover a much larger section of the arm, making them look more like t-shirt sleeves.  Far from terrible, but a minor annoyance.  GL includes his power batter, which is a fantastic piece, and expertly sculpted.

STAR SAPPHIRE

While Batman and Superman both got their primary villains in Series 1, GL’s main bad Sinestro had to wait for Series 8.  Instead, we got Star Sapphire, who’s still a pretty solid choice.  Like GL, she’s the classic incarnation of the character.  By far the best.  Presumably, this is Carol Ferris, but in a pinch there are probably others it could be.  She’s got two sculpted add-ons; one for her hair/mask, and one for her collar.  Neither’s as good as they could be.  The hair/mask combo was perhaps not the best way to handle it; sure, her mask sticks out in the comics, but I feel it would look better as a painted element.  It’s just a bit bulky as is.  The collar’s a good concept, but execution is once again just too bulky.  It ends up removing most of her neck.  I think just the collar, without the flesh bit attached, would have worked better, but this was at the time when a Marvel figure of an equivalent design would be using a whole bulked-up torso, so this was better.  At the very least, the collar is easily removed if you don’t like it.  Her paint’s not quite as good as GL’s; the actual detail lines are fine, but the base colors seem a little sloppy.  Overall, though, not bad.  Star Sapphire had no accessories.  I feel like an energy effect, or an extra hair piece would have been cool.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I got this set, like every other DC Minimates set, from Cosmic Comix, as soon as they were released.  Prior to their release, I was hugely excited to get them.  As a big GL fan, this is actually the set that got me back into Minimates after a bit of a break, and kept me in the game for a solid decade.  The ‘mates themselves aren’t anything amazing, but they were rather momentous for me, and I still really like them.