REVIEW: DC Superhero Girls Starfire

Thanks to the always helpful people at Toot's Toys, I have the stunning Starfire to introduce to you all today! (She was supposed to be here on Saturday, but the people at USPS are not so helpful.)

The Starfire doll is the only new character doll we will be seeing for the rest of the year, just as the Katana action figure is the only new character in that lineup. There are many new DCSG products, but all are playset or gimmicky toys of characters that already have dolls. I don't know that this was the best move on Mattel's part, considering many of us have already had the majority of this line since February, but it still seems to be selling well and doing well with kids.

Mattel has changed the packaging on the DCSGs to be more like the newer EAH and MH packaging. It is much easier to open now that you just peel the front piece of plastic off the cardboard backing.

You can read some facts about Starfire on the back of her box. I find it curious that they didn't mention her real name, but then again, everyone at DCSG goes by codenames mostly. You don't hear Diana, Kara or Pam very often, if at all.

Katana is listed as Starfire's best friend, although I don't remember them sharing much if any screentime together. Both have an interest in fashion, which is likely where this comes from.

Starfire's card is different from the cards the first girls came with. It lacks the fancy shiny details.

And the back has similar information to the back of her box.

Starfire is the same height and has the same body as the other girls in the line. She can stand on her own, though I find her a little bit less stable than some of the others. I compared her headmold to the most-used mold and while they are very similar, I believe Starfire has a new mold. Her nose is different and looks pointier than Wonder Woman's, Supergirl's, etc.

Starfire comes wearing her starbolt, which was not a good packaging choice. It hides her hand and Mattel has a bit of a reputation for occasionally selling dolls with two of the same hand. The starbolt makes it much harder, though not impossible, to ensure the doll has two different hands. It also did some damage to her fingers. The photo below is how they looked when I pulled her hand out of the starbolt. That was very challenging. The entire gauntlet piece came off and then when I pulled on that, it came free of the hand, leaving it inside the starbolt. Thankfully, I have fairly small fingers, so I was able to grab the hand and pull it out of the starbolt, but it was jammed in there pretty good. I do not recommend keeping the starbolt on your doll unless you plan on leaving it there permanently. It is both really hard to get off and it damages the doll's fingers. I didn't even try to put it back on to see if that was difficult or not, because I was not dealing with extracting her hand all over again. This is easily the worst DCSG accessory I've dealt with yet.

I personally think they should have designed an extra hand for her that was molded in the shape of her firing a starbolt. Then you could have switched out the starbolt hand for the regular hand and there would be none of this green plastic, finger-crushing lump nonsense.

Anyway.

Starfire does stand on her own, even with the starbolt on, as you can see here. She's got a really cute profile.

Here she is from the back. I love her hair! But I don't love the gaping boot cracks. You would think they would have figured out a way to have boots easy to get on but without those gaping open spaces by now, but no, we're not there in doll technology yet.

Here's the back of her dress. Most of her dress does not have a print. Does it in the show? Hang on, let me look. Hmm, it's just plain purple in the show, so I guess some pattern is better than none.

Here's the front with all the accessories again. Her fingers are starting to straighten out a bit. I might boil treat them. Not sure yet because I've never done that before except with hair.

Speaking of hair...

Her yellow is only a thin layer on the underside, but it's so cool. I love the colors of her hair and it's very silky. I think she's got the best hair of the line.

And here she is with the other redheads: Poison Ivy is on the left and Batgirl on the right. Starfire definitely has the brightest hair.

She has the longest hair, too.

Makeup-wise, she has a little bit of lavender eyeshadow and purple lipstick, both of which photograph much lighter than they actually are. She also has purple eyebrows, which is such a Mattel thing. I'm not sure who the joker is that keeps giving these dolls odd-colored eyebrows that don't match, but it's been going on for years.

Here's Starfire with just her dress. The torso on my doll is a different, lighter color than the rest of her body, but she photographs just fine. Very strange!

And here is the outfit all broken down: dress, boots, belt, gauntlets and shoulder piece.

Like the other girls, all the pieces are easy to get on and off. Excellent for kids. I do think they missed an opportunity for some details here. The shoulder piece is supposed to have silver edging, which would not have been hard to paint, and the boots are supposed to have silver soles. I don't mind the shoulder piece so much, but the boots are just giant slabs of purple and really would have benefitted from the silver paint.

Overall, I really love Starfire and I think she's an exciting addition to the cast. She looks great on my shelf! I do think they made a large misstep with the starbolt and a more minor misstep by not painting the boots especially, but on the whole, Starfire is awesome and I recommend her.

PHOTO CREDITS: All mine.