Novi Stars – What Could've Been… - Crystalline Toybox

As we all know, MGA’s Novi Stars were discontinued in 2014, having been released in 2012 to compete with Mattel’s Monster High line. Lasting for a total of two years, with 24 dolls released overall, it is a tiny line that had amazing potential and beautiful dolls, but was bogged down by their high price, lack of articulation and the MGA-typical practice of using the higher-quality prototype dolls for advertisements and promotional material, making the dolls actually available in stores look pretty poor by comparison. Scouring the net, I’ve found a few images that give us a glimpse into the future of the line – or what it would have been had it not been cancelled.

Courtesy of Varner Studios (the guys behind Bleeding Edge Goths!) we have completed digital sculpts of several unreleased characters, plus a few of characters who were released, but changed between the prototyping and release stages.

This is Tily Vizon, one of the two Curl ‘N Coil Novis – and as you may notice, she is fully articulated! She also sports Roe Botik‘s head, likely due to Tily’s head sculpt being just the regular Novi one with no character-specific alterations.

This is one of the unreleased characters, whose name is not known – and likely never will be. As you can see, she is a gorgeous Eastern-style Dragon sporting partial articulation! What I would give to own a physical version of her… Another interesting thing to note is that she appears to be ‘Super-Nova’ sized – eg, on the taller Novi body. Given her moulding continues pretty far back onto her head, I wonder if she was supposed to have a wig, therefore meaning an electronic feature of some sort? Maybe she breathed fire, who knows, it’s all speculation ’till someone with knowledge confirms it 🙂

Art by yours’ truly 🙂

 

Another unreleased and unknown character who continues on the mythological theme from the Dragon (perhaps they were intended to be part of the same wave), we have this beautiful little Mermaid. Unlike the Dragon, she is on a version of the original Novi body (you are to tell by her neck length and general proportions, among other things). Given the lack of detail on her tail, I can’t help but feel that it may have featured some kind of gimmick instead – perhaps it was water-filled, like Una Verse’s legs were? It certainly seems suitable for a mermaid – which is why I utilized it in my hypothetical concept as seen right 🙂

Furthering the theory of a mythical/monster themed Novi line, we have this lovely Zombie!  I imagine her having a sickly green/mint and pink/red colour scheme if she was fully realised. She sports a partially articulated Super-Nova body, and is notably lacking elbow joints, likely due to them interfering with the moulded stitches on her arms. I love the gory details this girl has, like the obvious moulded stitches, bandages, and visible vertebrae – something not even Monster High had done at the time! The little heart-shaped joint bones are also incredibly cute, and her hand mould is unique among Novis, a kind of Thriller-zombie curled claw-hand – just another amazing detail that makes me so sad she was never produced 😦

This little fellow is an unreleased pet, and with his ice crystal-like appearance, I can’t help but wonder if he was meant to belong to Anne Arctic? He also looks vaguely like a porcupine – and also Crash Bandicoot, at least to me XD

Another unreleased pet concept, this one seriously creeps me out! It’s the lack of face, I think, and the empty, reaching sucker-holes… 0.o Thankfully, when viewed from behind you can see he has a cute little button-up flap thing, which makes him a bit cuter. With his resemblance to a horn or speaker, I wonder if he was intended to go with a music-themed Novi? Alternatively, if you were to interpret his shape as a shell, he could be the pet of the Mermaid discussed earlier. His file name is ‘invisible pet‘ so maybe even the Zombie…?

Ok, this guy just adds further fuel to the fire about lil’ ice crystal being Anne Arctic’s pet, because this little fire fiend looks like he’d match perfectly to Anne’s setmate, Ina Ferna! Did the Invasion Novis originally have pets? It seems awfully likely considering how close these two match them thematically. Anyway, I like how this little guy looks like a chameleon made of magma! He reminds me of a Skylanders figure, to be honest XD

…What on earth? This little creature looks like a punk sheep/lizard hybrid, and I absolutely love it! He seems oddly detailed for a pet though he could’ve been intended for a deluxe character. His scale pattern matches the Dragon mentioned earlier, though I don’t seem much of a connection otherwise. Dragons were reported to eat sheep in legends though, so maybe there’s some weight to that…?

This little creature appears to be some kind of moth/plant/tentacle monster, and if my theory about the previous pets belonging to the unreleased ‘mythological’ Novis, then following that logic, he should belong to the Zombie. I mean, I can kinda see it… Bugs eat decaying corpses, as do plants. Its’ file name is ‘octopus pet’ so it may have actually belonged to the Mermaid? Nonetheless, this little guy’s adorable, and I’m, yet again, sad to see him go un-produced.

This is the digital sculpt for Doe A. Deer‘s shoes! It’s far sharper and more detailed here than it appears on the actual produced doll, where it seems everything has been (somewhat clumsily) ‘smoothed out’. I love how the little horn, which is more of a ‘bump’ on the actual product, is like a jagged piece of horn or crystal here, as well as the little stitching line visible on the side. It’s all in the details! ^.^

These are the shoes for Tily Vizon, and again, the only difference here is the much sharper rendering VS the produced product. It’s nice seeing all the little circuitboard markings in detail as opposed to the blurry mess we got on the final shoes 😉

The original concept for the attachment of Vera Tebray‘s wings! Oh man, I would’ve loved this SO much more than the kinda clunky attachment we ended up getting! The wraparound rib cage is genius, and far more elegant than simply pegging them into her back. Kinda reminds me of Monster High’s C.A. Cupid and her gorgeous rib cage wings – I wonder if that’s why they changed it? o.0

 

My oh my, I believe these are the shoes for the aforementioned Zombie! The bandages and stitches all match up design-wise! I love the cute little running banages on the heels, that’s such a clever detail! A real shame this gorgeous ghoul never got to the production stage, she seems to have been the closest to ‘making it’ out of them all.

These next few peeks into the unknown are courtesy of the portfolio of Youngsin Kwon, a designer who works for MGA. She’s also worked on Bratz and Moxie Girls – check out her designs here!; http://pinkmochikitty.wixsite.com/youngsinkwon ❤

This concept shows a ‘Red Carpet’ edition of Alie Letric, which is fitting considering that Novi Stars conspicuously lacked a ‘formal’ line. Alie looks completely gorgeous here, and I love the colour palette – pink orange and green, something you don’t tend to see on fashion dolls, space-patterned underskirt and the metallic pink of the rest of the dress (knowing this line, it’s most likely meant to be metallic). She also seems to have a computer ship implanted in her forehead – or maybe it’s just an OTT makeup effect? Alien fashion! XD I also love her little pet, all done up to match her, and I’m pretty sad that this never amounted to anything.

Matching the Alie we saw before, here is a ‘Red Carpet’ Mae Tallick, although she is mislabelled here as Ari Roma XD I love the fringes on her dress – would this have been thread, or like clear tinsel? and her metallic pop-art/Gaga style style is amazing! I’m not sure if those are white/teal streak in her hair, or just lighting, but either way, she looks great! Her little pet seems more than a bit disturbed though…. XD

Finally, here’s Ari Roma (again mislabelled, this time as Alie Letric) in a ‘Slumber Party’ set, something we kinda got in the form of the ‘Space Dreamer’ fashion pack. We also got ‘Galactic Gown’ as one as well, so I’m now starting to winder if these scrapped line ideas were turned into the fashion packs. Date-wise it makes sense, as all of these drawings are dated prior to the release of Wave One. Ari looks adorable here, but I can see why this outfit might’ve been a bit complex to produce. I love the matching sleep masks for her and her pet though!

So, what do you all think? Personally I’m left saddened that we didn’t get all of this great content, I feel kinda cheated – also with the knowledge that this line is extremely unlikely to be bought back. However, in some alternate reality, I can image Novi Stars were a big hit, and overtook Barbie as the #1 fashion doll on the market… I can dream…. ❤

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