DC Universe Infinite Heroes - STARFIRE!

DC Universe Infinite Heroes - Crisis Series - Starfire (Teen Titans) - Mattel 2009

As SDCC approaches this week, I find myself remembering back to the late aughts when Mattel was regularly blowing our collective minds with new product. Both DC Universe Classics and Masters of the Universe Classics began in 2008 and revolutionized the toy industry (I know Marvel Legends had started way back in 2002, but I think their female sculpts were pretty terrible until 2013). With all the focus on Mattel's 6-7" scale back then, it's easy to forget that their 3.75" DC Universe Infinite Heroes line also launched in 2008. It only lasted two years, but it gave us an absolute flood of characters. I believe there were 67 individual figures and 17 multipacks. That's roughly 3 new characters each month for two years. I recently dug out my old Starfire and Raven in anticipation of their new Super Powers figures on Entertainment Earth. I find the Infinite Heroes to be a little weird, a little awkward, and sometimes they're downright hideous, but I still adore them. Let's check out Starfire below!

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!

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!

Titans Rebirth - STARFIRE!

DC Multiverse - Titans Rebirth (Collector Edition) - Starfire - McFarlane Toys 2024

For all of Todd McFarlane's crazy talk about female action figures causing young boys to become serial killers, his company sure does produce a lot of female characters (Google that cringey interview from March 2022 if you need a good eye roll). This Starfire figure is the latest in the Rebirth Titans lineup, and a character who was very notably absent from the Beast Boy wave last year. Starfire has gone through a lot of changes in the 44 years since her debut, but her orange skin, flame-colored hair, green eyes, and purple costume have remained consistent despite a ton of stylistic changes. She has an interesting distinction of donning more and more clothes as the years progress, but conversely becoming more sexualized in the story context (at least in the New52 reboot when her libido was making headlines). I always prefer Starfire's modern designs over her original. Her outfits are no longer ridiculously skimpy and her hair looks more flame-like. This figure is a great representation of that. Let's check her out below!

The Imaginext Ladies of TEEN TITANS GO!

Teen Titans Go! – Starfire, Raven, Terra, Jinx, and Ravager – Fisher-Price 2015-18

The Teen Titans have become such an unexpected presence in pop culture. I remember trying to explain the team to my friends way back in gradeschool only to have my excitement fall on deaf ears. But then flash-forward many years later sitting in a hotel room with my siblings on a rainy vacation day when the Teen Titans cartoon premiered on the Cartoon Network. It was a very weird re-imagining, and it honestly was not to my liking, but I felt a sort of vindication that this cast of characters I loved would be exposed to the masses. That original series from 2003 lasted five seasons and was rebooted with a more super-deformed redesign as Teen Titan Go! in 2013 (which is still ongoing). While all these shows are a bit too wacky and nonsensical for me personally, I keep getting drawn in to the merchandising. The character designs are fun and colorful. And when Fisher-Price started to release a Teen Titans Go sub-line under their amazing Imaginext brand, I was hooked. Let's check out the lady Titans below!

Kingdom Come - NIGHTSTAR!

DC Comics Elseworlds Series 3 - Kingdom Come Nightstar - DC Direct 2007

One of my favorite things about 1996's epic Kingdom Come comic, beyond the groundbreaking realistic painted art by Alex Ross, was seeing all the cool background characters. You knew at a glance that these weren't random fillers. Rather, you could literally interpret their story from their design. Nightstar first appeared on the 11th page of the first volume on a splash page. She was immediately recognizable as a relative of Starfire. Her skin color, green eyes, purple outfit, and trailing hair were a dead giveaway. Then when you think of who Koriand'r would likely have a child with in the not-so-distant future of Kingdom Come, and quickly conclude that Nightwing is her true paramour. I honestly don't remember if she had a speaking role in the series, but she was definitely memorable. Mar'i Grayson had follow-up appearances in The Kingdom where her story was fleshed out, but I never would have pegged her for merchandising. The Alex Ross DC Direct lines were extensive, but Nightstar was still a welcome surprise.

DC Multiverse - STARFIRE!

DC Comics Multiverse: Batman Ninja Collect-n-Connect - Starfire - Mattel 2019

I've really been liking all the modern redesigns of Starfire. I know her New52 look got a lot of flak for being too provocative (and her having a sexually disassociative personality), but I liked it. I thought it was an appropriate adaption of the character, considering she was historically always making awkward sexual advances and basically wearing suspenders as an outfit. She's had two noticeable design changes since then. One was her solo series redesign by Amanda Conner, and the Rebirth design seen with this new DC Multiverse figure. I like that she always has the same consistent color palette with orange skin, reddish hair, and a purple and silver outfit. Starfire is one of those characters that will always be provocative, no matter how much flesh is being bared. So taking that into consideration, I actually much prefer the more covered version that we see here over her signature strappy getups. I'm glad we got a figure of her in this version since I'm sure it was change again soon. Let's check her out below!

DC SuperHero Girls - STARFIRE!

DC Comics Super Hero Girls - 6" Action Figure Series - Starfire - Mattel 2017

Starfire is a character that has really grown on me throughout the years. When I was first exposed to her (in the glorious Uncanny X-Men and New Teen Titans crossover comic from 1982) I actually really despised her. I was very young and I know my distaste just had to do with her appearance. And I know my problems focused completely on her hair. I still have trouble looking at the rust-colored, poofy, and inexplicably parted hairstyle. Then years later, as much as people disapproved of her New 52 reboot depiction, I overlooked everything in appreciation of her long-overdue hair makeover. I suddenly thought she was awesome. And I even liked her detached over-sexualized alien attitude that was a major point of debate. I now saw her as aggressive, creepy, and interesting which was a total 180 from my previous perceptions. Since then, I've seen her in several other interesting incarnations including her 12-issue solo series and her role in DC SuperHero Girls. This figure is a great addition to the line. Let's check her out!

DC Collectibles STARFIRE!

DC Comics - The New 52: Red Hood and the Outlaws - DC Collectibles 2014
 
Starfire is one of the few characters in the New 52 that I actually prefer over the original.  For some reason her New Teen Titans look and persona always annoyed me a little.  I viewed her as clingy and bubbly with an awful hairdo.  I was just a kid then, but those early impressions stuck with me.  I didn't pay much attention to her until Red Hood and the Outlaws #1 and I suddenly thought she was awesome.  This new version was a cold, detached alien who was aggressively sexual and powerfully seductive.. not to mention actually powerful.  I heard a lot of gripes about her being nothing more than a vehicle for fanboy titillation and setting the plight of female superhero respectability back more than a few notches, but I liked her.  Sure, every criticism rang true, but on the flipside she also embodied a dominant empowered woman in every sense of the word.  Not to mention that her hair suddenly looked awesome.  The original solicitation of this figure was the moment that truly felt that DC Collectibles (née DC Direct) was finally back in full swing.  She was beautiful, unexpected, and not Wonder Woman.  Let's check out Starfire below!