New Teen Titans - STARFIRE!

DC Direct Action Figures - The New Teen Titans - Starfire - DC Direct 2000

Every time I get an old DC Direct figure into my photo tent I am blown away by the sculpt and attention to detail. I was very excitedly buying lots of toys back then. I loved all the Silver Age and Legion of Super-Heroes figures in particular. But in general, I was really taking this early-aughts toy renaissance for granted. I should have been buying ever single toy put out there. I think Starfire is a tricky character to get right. Especially when trying to replicate the early-80s George Pérez design. Honestly I've only seen it done right twice in toy form: the 2018 Funko mini figure, and this DC Direct figure from 2000. I desperately tried to find who sculpted this, but the information seems lost to time. My best guess is Tim Bruckner. But it could easily be Sam Greenwell as well. Both were very active with DC Direct at the time, but the sculptor names being featured on the packaging was inconsistent in those early years. Whoever the artist is knocked it out of the park though. Let's check out Starfire below!

DC Universe Classics - STARFIRE!

DC Universe Classics - Starfire & Adam Strange (Mattycollector Exc) - Mattel 2009

This figure stirs up a lot of old feelings for me. I remember the campaign for the first DC Universe Classics in the Mattycollector Exclusives program. The pictures online (and maybe in ToyFare?) looked great. But the reality of the figures were very different when they arrived. I felt a little ripped off. When the final product had such drastic differences from the preorder prototype images, the whole subscription process seemed unreliable and scammy. All these years later, I can appreciate her for what she is; scrawny limbs, limp hair, and anatomically bizarre cleavage and all. (Seriously though, she has more modest costume options that should have been used if they had to use this cloth-sculpted torso). In photos it doesn't look that bad, but in person there are a lot of sculptural details that just look off. The perfection of the Four Horsemen prototype compared to the sloppy Mattel tooling felt insulting to collectors who purchased these on good faith. 27 years later and I'm almost over it. Let's check out Starfire below!

The New Teen Titans - STARFIRE!

Legion of Collectors - The New Teen Titans 3.75" Figures - Starfire - Funko 2018

The new Entertainment Earth DC Super Powers line from McFarlane Toys has me very excited. The main retail waves of these figures were pretty cool, but they were a total boys club (aside from 4 repaints of a Wonder Woman mold). But since the EE-exclusive waves were announced, we've already seen pre-orders for Supergirl, Power Girl, Starfire, and Raven. Anticipation for the latter two has put me on a bit of a Teen Titans kick. I've recently been photographing a lot of older figures that I never got around to posting about prior, and I'm really obsessed with the classic look of the characters. The 2018 Legion of Collectors Teen Titans subscription box from Funko contained 2 of 4 potential 3.75" classic Perez-era Titans figures. These are in the same style as the Batman '66 figures (Batgirl and Catwoman) from the year prior. For years these fetched about fifty bucks each on eBay, but now they can be found for less than retail. It's just a shame they didn't make the other characters. Let's check out Starfire below!

The New Teen Titans - RAVEN!

Legion of Collectors - The New Teen Titans 3.75" Figures - Raven - Funko 2018

Around ten years ago, collector's subscription boxes were all the rage. The most I ever subscribed to was two at a time, and honestly even that felt a little overwhelming. You would get a shoebox of surprise goodies every other month and it was an exciting aspect of the hobby for a while. I say "for a while" because the novelty wore off quickly. After several consecutive boxes with nothing particularly appealing to me, I started to feel like a sucker. That said, there were plenty of true gems that came out of these subscriptions. Funko was one of the leaders and I distinctly remember a Marvel subscription and a separate DC subscription. The second to last DC box was (in my opinion) the best of the bunch with two (of 4) 3.75" New Teen Titans action figures included. It was sad because it was hard to get all four, and even sadder that they never made more (like Beast Boy and Wonder Girl) like they hinted at in their YouTube videos. But the figures we were able to get are amazing. Let's check out Raven below!

DC x Sonic - WONDER WOMAN!

DC x Sonic - 5" & 2.5" Hero 2-pack - Wonder Woman & Amy - Jakks Pacific 2026

It's been quite a while since we've had a non-McFarlane, non-preschool Wonder Woman figure on the shelves. There was an under-the-radar 9.5" figure from Spin Master in 2023, but before that was 2020. That's six years without fun little off-scale Dianas filling the gaps between McFarlane releases. The DC x Sonic comic and toyline isn't something I would have expected to work so well. Mashups can be a tricky thing.. they have the potential to bring together two large fandoms. But if either one of the fandoms is misrepresented, it can easily be a double failure. I'm glad the decision to keep the DC heroes untouched while having the Sonic characters don DC costumes was a very smart move. Having Wonder Woman in animal ears would look goofy, but Amy in a star-spangled costume looks cool. It gives sidekick vibes and I love it. These hero multi-packs are unexpected. I assumed true DC action figures were already tied up in existing licenses, but apparently not. Let's check out Diana below!

DC x Sonic - BLAZE as STARFIRE!

DC x Sonic - 5" & 2.5" Hero Multipack - Starfire and Blaze - Jakks Pacific 2026

I am having a great sense of vindication about owning these figures. Back in November, I posted an image on social media featuring the lineups of the next few waves of DC x Sonic figures. The post was several blurry graphs of character renderings, but no actual figures. I knew this leak was authentic (and it was proven to me when I was officially asked to remove it). But the collector community (outside of my amazing network) jumped all over me in the few short hours the post was up. The majority consensus was that it was fake and I was lying. Comments like "Blaze and Starfire don't even make sense. And it's blurry. Fake" flooded my feed. I made sure to screenshot them for posterity (read:grudge holding) before removing the post. About five weeks after the post, the next series of DC x Sonic comics was announced with promo images of the exact characters I leaked. Flash forward six months and I have the first few figures in hand. It's a smug sense of satisfaction that I'm loving. Let's check out Blaze below!

DC x Sonic - STARFIRE!

DC x Sonic - 5" & 2.5" Hero Multipack - Starfire and Blaze - Jakks Pacific 2026

I love how modern interpretations of Starfire have been so covered up. I know her original barely-there costume is iconic and classic, but I always found it so cringey - especially in a team of teenagers. Ironically, the first time I truly started to love this character was in the New52's Red Hood and the Outlaws when her outfit was even tinier and her actions were portrayed as much more cold and sexual than she had ever been before. Something about the art and older appearance of Koriand'r made her super appealing to me. But since then, DC has really course-corrected and she's mostly been costumed in an almost prudish way. But honestly I love it. This DC x Sonic design is new to me, but I realize it's her primary costume in the most recent (2023-present) Titans series. She still has the iconic orange skin, firey hair, purple outfit, and bright green alien eyes, but the pulled-back hair and more utilitarian uniform really makes this design stand out. It's crazy that Jakks was the first to give us a figure. Let's check out Starfire below!

DC x Sonic - ROUGE as CATWOMAN!

DC x Sonic - 5" Series - Rouge the Bat as Catwoman - Jakks Pacific 2026

Something about this Rouge the Bat as Catwoman design just looks right. Having an anthropomorphic bat character be pink and white with a heart motif never seemed weird to me before, but now seeing her clad in black/gray with goggles suddenly makes for a very nocturnal and aeronautical design. If you didn't know this was a Catwoman crossover (and you ignored the little cat icon on her belt), you might think this was just Rouge in a cool new stealth suit. I think this figure is a must-have for Sonic fans, even if you aren't into the DC x Sonic crossover. The leaked lists of Sonic products from last fall didn't include any of the 5" Sonic characters from this line (only the 2.5" figures in both blind bag assortments and the DC hero 2-packs), so when this 5" Rouge as Catwoman started hitting Gamestop two weeks ago, it was a total surprise. Not necessarily an unexpected figure, but it was pretty amazing there weren't any leaked factory pics or inventory lists. Let's check out Rouge as Catwoman below!

DC Comics - HAWKGIRL!

DC Multiverse Collector's Edition - Hawkgirl (Kendra Saunders) - McFarlane 2025

When the Superman (2025) movie hit the theatres last year, it really rekindled an old obsession I had with Hawkgirl. Nearly 20 years ago I was quite in love with this character and had quite a large collection of figures. I was drawn to her palette of primary colors and animal-themed characters always grab my attention. But something about the toys themselves put me off. They were always difficult to display - taking up much more space than the average action figure, and often toppling over due to the weight of her wings (taking down a whole shelf of toys along with them). I eventually made the sad decision to sell them all. But I always regretted it. Her role in the cinematic Superman movie brought on a new surge of classic products, and with that refreshed supply of collectibles occupying my brain, I eventually went to eBay and picked up all those old figures I had parted with ages ago. I'm a more patient collector now so I'll figure out how to display them safely. Let's check out her newest figure from McFarlane below!

Kikai Sentai Zenkaiger - ZENKAI MAGINE!

Kikai Sentai Zenkaiger - Change Heroes Zenkai Magine - Bandai 2021

When I was lamenting over the lack of new Power Rangers seasons a few weeks ago (during my Armorsaur reviews), it made me wonder about the Super Sentai seasons that never make the jump to the US market after Hasbro slammed on the brakes back in 2020. And the funny thing is, when I started to to look at the six un-translated series since Dino Fury/Cosmic Fury, I realized I had purchased this toy years ago and promptly forgot about it. The 45th Super Sentai series from 2021-22 was Kikai Sentai Zenkaiger. Without any western-hemisphere version to help me fully understand the series, I am admittedly a bit confused. But I know that the main team is made up of one human and four kikainoids - mechanical humanoid aliens. Magine is the Pink Ranger of the team and the token female kikainoid. This figure is depicting the powered-up Zenkai Magine who transforms into Magine Dragon. She has an amazing design and I'm so glad I picked her up years ago. Let's check out Magine below!

The Creature Cases - KIT & CUBBY!

The Creature Cases - Action Agents Adventure Crew - PMI Kids World 2026

I can't visit a toy store without checking out what's going on in the preschool aisles. I very rarely buy any of the toys, but I like seeing how the preschool toy industry is growing and adapting. A few months ago I noticed these Creature Cases figures from PMI based on the Netflix show featuring young anthropomorphic animal agents solving animal-related mysteries in an educational format. It's the kind of show I would have loved as a kid. However, what made the adult me purchase this set was the fact that one of the two main characters, Kit Casey, is a Kit Fox - and I'm obsessed with anthropomorphic foxes or any vulpine-themed characters. If fact, when I bought this, I had just won an eBay auction for one of my holy grail fox characters (arriving in the mail tomorrow hopefully and review coming soon). So I was on a bit of a fox kick when I saw this set again and Target and took the plunge. The addition of the female dog character, Cubby, was a bonus. Let's check out the Creature Cases below!

Transformers Cyberworld - AIRACHNID!

Transformers: Cyberworld - Armor-Up Cyber Changers - Airachnid - Hasbro 2026

Transformers: Cyberworld is a YouTube web-series that began in 2025 and currently has 36 five-minute episodes (with a Season 2 premiering sometime this year). I've personally only ever watched these episodes in preparation of posting a review for the toys, so I don't have a lot of context for this toyline. Both the toys and the show itself are heavily geared towards young kids. Not necessarily preschool (like Rescue Bots), but not quite the audience for the G1 cartoon or other recent (slightly more mature) iterations either. Despite it being a YouTube show with a very limited cast of characters, there have been at least 23 Hasbro action figures so far, including Elita-1 and now Airachnid.  Plus I recently noticed a collection of Cyberworld figural keyrings from Monogram. So this show is definitely getting  peculiar merchandising push. I hope the upcoming Season 2 introduces more female characters, because a this point they've made toys of everyone. Let's check out Cyberworld Airachnid below!

Armorsaurs - PRISCA!

Armorsaurs 5-Pack (Armor-Up Aquatech Pilots) - Prisca Silva - MGA 2026

I'm a little sad that this is last Armorsaurs figure I will be reviewing for the foreseeable future. This line hit the market fast last month and has significant shelf space in both Target and Walmart in the US. MGA was smart to fill the void left by the absence of modern Power Rangers shows. The last Power Rangers show was Cosmic Fury in 2023, and that show wasn't merchandized. Hasbro seemingly bought the franchise and then scuttled it. 2024 was the first year in 30 years without new Ranger content/product. And coincidentally, that final unmerchandised Cosmic Fury season featured a female Orange Ranger (Fern) that I was really looking forward to adding to my collection. So this Aquatech Prisca figure from Armorsaurs is especially satisfying since she looks like spiritual successor to the neglected Cosmic Fury Orange. I know there is supposedly some big Rangers reboot coming, but dare I say that the biological dinosaur element in Armorsaurs adds a dimension that is more exciting than Power Rangers.