Monday, October 22, 2012

Carol Ferris Defends During The Blackest Night As Star Sapphire, A Pretty Cool Figure!


The Good: Good sculpt, Decent accessory, Cool coloring, Surprisingly good balance! Great collectible value!
The Bad: Could use just a little more articulation, Lantern handle detaches very easily.
The Basics: The Star Sapphire figure from the DC Direct Blackest Night figure manages to hold up well over the last few years!


There are so many times my wife and I are out and she gets annoyed with me because I express some ambivalence over whether or not I want something when she takes me to a new comic book or toy shop. So, it was actually a pleasure to her when we went downstate to see a preview screening of Argo (reviewed here!), went to a new (to us) comic book shop and I saw, the moment we walked in the door, a Blackest Night Star Sapphire figure for the ridiculously low price of $16.00. So, when my wife asked if I saw anything I wanted, I immediately said, “Yes, please!” She picked it up and gave it to me for my recent birthday and now I am enjoying the figure, more than I expected to based on the quality of some of the figures released around the same time!

For those unfamiliar with her, the Star Sapphire is Carol Ferris infected by the violet powered Star Sapphire. During Blackest Night (reviewed here!), Carol Ferris took up the mantle of Star Sapphire with Hal Jordan and Sinestro to take out the Black Lanterns!

It is Star Sapphire in sparkling, powerful Star Sapphire costume that is the subject of the DC Direct action figure of the character.

Basics

The Star Sapphire figure is a wonderful sculpt and is pretty close to perfect on the sculpt front! She looks very accurate based on the artwork in the Blackest Night Saga! The loving version of the Carol Ferris stands 6 1/2" tall to the top of the figure's head. The Star Sapphire figure is available from DC Direct, though there is a lesser DC Universe version of the figure now on the market as well. That one features more joints which look incredibly sloppy.

On the sculpt front, this version of Star Sapphire is the archetypal version of Carol Ferris (who doesn’t have the universe’s most consistent rendering in the books). This version of Carol has bright pink eyes, flowing black hair and the tiara from when she was Star Sapphire. The outfit also features the giant white collar that is distinctive to the character. This outfit has Carol’s midriff showing, her boots rising up to her thighs and her breasts supported by very little. She also has her arms obscured mostly by her Star Sapphire energy that terminates in gloves that start at her shoulders. The facial sculpt looks like some of the best artwork of Carol Ferris and this figure looks distinctly like Star Sapphire.

Star Sapphire's costume is colored translucent lavender. This leaves a lot of the character’s skin exposed and provides a very cool effect that slightly contrasts the metallic sheen to the other Lanterns in the line. While she does not appear to have much in the way of depth and shading for her skin tones, the Star Sapphire figure looks realistic enough, especially considering she comes from comic book source material. The head, face and hair all look great.

Accessories

The Star Sapphire, pilot suddenly turned to the standardbearer of love in an embattled universe, comes with only two accessories. She has her stand and her Lavender Power Battery. The stand is a sapphire and white disk with the Star Sapphire logo. It is 3 3/4" in diameter and 1/4” tall and it has a single peg which plugs into the hole in Star Sapphire's right foot. She is completely stable, but only on her base.

Star Sapphire also comes with a Star Sapphire power battery, which is molded to be in the same scale as the figure. Her four-pointed battery is 1 5/8” tall and 1 1/8” wide and 1 1/8" deep. It looks like a classic lantern with cylindrical ends and is molded bright purple. It matches the figure very well and is, unfortunately, not metallic either. Like the early figures in the Blackest Night toy line, the Star Sapphire’s lantern handle falls off it easily. Unfortunately, neither hand is molded to actually hold the lantern battery!

Playability

The DC Direct figures were designed more for display than play and this is especially true for this figure. The Star Sapphire has surprisingly good balance, but only when she is flatfooted. Because she lacks joints at the ankle, the Star Sapphire figure is annoyingly limited in her posing and cannot take on dynamic stances. Off the stand, the Star Sapphire tips when not flatfooted. On her stand, she is stable, even in a few dynamic poses (I’ve had her “leaping” on one foot and she’s solid that way!

The Star Sapphire figure comes with only nine points of articulation, which is pretty pathetic for a DC Direct figure. Star Sapphire has joints at the knees, groin socket, shoulders, elbows, and head. The shoulders are proper ball and socket joints, while the elbows and knees are both hinge joints. The head is on a ball and socket joint, which would allow her to look in virtually any direction, except for the high, ugly collar and the hair which seriously inhibits the head’s movement!

The only other real strike against Star Sapphire on the playability front is that one of her hands is molded as a fist and the other is wide open. This makes it impossible for Star Sapphire to hold her Star Sapphire power battery.

Collectibility

The Star Sapphire is part of the DC Direct Blackest Night Series 3 line which was fairly uncommon, though it was usually only distributed through comic book shops and specialty stores like FYE. Star Sapphire is one of the many heroes in the Blackest Night line and this is one of the only ones of Carol Ferris. The Star Sapphire figure is unique to this series and has doubled in value almost everywhere (except a very small, obscure Michigan comic book shop where I found mine!).

Overview

The Star Sapphire is a surprisingly good figure on every front!

For other Blackest Night figures, please check out my reviews of:
Wave 8 Black Lantern Black Flash
Wave 8 Indigo Tribe The Atom
Wave 8 Orange Lantern Lex Luthor
Wave 7 Arkillo
Wave 7 Red Lantern Mera
Wave 6 Blue Lantern The Flash
Wave 6 Star Sapphire Wonder Woman
Wave 5 Black Lantern Deadman
Wave 5 Nekron
Wave 2 Indigo-1
Wave 1 Boodikka
Wave 1 Saint Walker

7.5/10

For other toy reviews, please check out my index page!

© 2012 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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