Review: DCD: Blackfire

Review: DC Direct: Teen Titans Blackfire

Those of you familiar with the Teen Titans might want to skip the next paragraph.

Blackfire is the evil sister of Starfire, who is an alien princess and member of the Teen Titans, as well as the ex-girlfriend to Dick Grayson, who was the original Robin, but went by the name "Nightwing" for most of the time he was with Starfire.

There: now those of you without a background in comics are wishing you'd skipped it, too.

Today, I'm going to be looking at Blackfire, from DC Direct. We picked her up for the bargain price of $3 in a comic shop looking to unload these. I guess there's not a huge demand for an obscure super villian from a moderately popular comic book.

Appearance: 9

I'll have negative things to say about Blackfire later in the review, but none are evident at a glance. The work here - both in terms of sculpt and paint - are beyond reproach. The colors are vibrant, and the cape looks great.

In all honesty, I probably could have given her a perfect 10.

But she isn't entirely perfect. The paint work is a little inconsistent, particularly on the uniform. That's just about the only complaint I can come up with, though - at least as far as the appearance is concerned.

Packaging and Extras: ----

The packaging is pretty cool: I like that they used her base as the title:

One nitpick: the blurb on the back has a typo: her name appears twice, once as the correct KOMAND'R and once as KORNAND'R (click on the back for a larger picture). It's a little surprising no one caught the error. None of this matters, of course, since packaging has no effect on her score.

Neither does her base. There isn't anything wrong with it, but it's kind of required: without it, you'll never get her to stand. In fact, you'll have some trouble getting her to stay put WITH the base... but more on that later.

She doesn't come with anything else, but that's fine: she doesn't really need any accessories. Since the base is required for her to stand, I can't justify increasing her score.

SPECIAL DEDUCTION: Arm broke off: -3

I have had more problems with DC Direct figures than any other company. This isn't to say that EVERY DC Direct figure I've ever owned has broken... but a disturbingly high percentage are now missing an appendage.

As soon as she came out of her box, her right arm came out of its socket. What's more, it was the peg that broke, so it won't just pop back in. That said, because of the way she's built I can still *place* the arm back in the socket and it will balance there - even retaining articulation. If it didn't, I'd be hitting her with a -4 deduction.

But this is a serious issue with an otherwise good figure. DC Direct really needs to do something about quality control.

Play and Display: -1

Blackfire actually has some fairly impressive and innovative articulation. The shoulder - at least the the one that didn't break - is a ball joint, albeit a limited one. Still, without damaging the sculpt at all, it provides a good range of motion.

The wrists are also nice. They're cut joints, but along with the shoulders and some good design and sculpting decisions, you've got some options.

Why am I not rewarding such options? I am. Consider the above a "+1."

Now lets talk about the knees. The joints are loose - a common problem with knee joints - making it hard for the figure to stand. Her high heels don't help the matter, either: even WITH the base she has tendency to wobble and fall. I've said it before, I'll say it again: I expect an action figure to hold a natural pose. When it can't: it's serious.

In addition, the head articulation is limited by the hair, but I won't penalize this: I like the hair too much.

It's the figure's inability to stand that drags her down from a +1 to a -1. Is a two point deduction harsh? Perhaps: but that's the world we live in.

Price Tag and Final Analysis: 4 out of 10

I'm not entirely sure how much Blackfire would have cost new: my guess is in the range of $14. I don't think I need to tell you that she's not worth it. Even without the broken joint, that's more than this figure is worth. The paint work is nice, but overall she's still not as nice a figure as what you'll get with Mattel's DC Universe Classics at a similar price. That's my opinion, anyway.

But how about $3? Well, sure. Even with one arm falling off, she's worth that kind of money. And remember: there's no reason to expect the next one on the shelf will have the same problems. If it weren't for the arm, she'd be worth quite a bit more - still not $14, obviously, but easily $7 or $8. Assuming you have some use for a Blackfire figure.

We actually don't. My wife bought Blackfire for use in a custom project.

I'm not sure why I've had so many DC Direct figures break within seconds of coming out of their packaging, but it's been more common than with any other company. I hope the company corrects it: it's a shame to see design work of this caliber hurt by production and quality control issues.