Dominion Ghost Nova

Wait, this figure is a ghost, and we didn't review her during October for Horror Month? For shame! November "Nova" Terra is a ghost of the Terran Dominion and one of the most powerful psionic soldiers ever known. Nova is highly focused, determined, and extremely deadly. Even Jim Raynor wouldn't want to be caught within her crosshairs. Yeah, you better watch the eff out, Jim Raynor; this packaging just called you out! I don't know who you are, but then, I don't know who Dominion Ghost Nova is either (other than being from the same Blizzard-based Smash Bros. as Stitches). Presumably she originated in Starcraft, since that's the 40K/Warmachine to Warcraft's Warhammer/Hordes, which may be one of the nerdiest, most oblique sentences we've ever written. To translate that to non-geek speak, Warcraft is a fantasy setting, while Starcraft is sci-fi, and since Nova isn't wearing vambraces and animal pelts, she's probably from space. Deductive reasoning, bitches! Nova is a human, a pretty blonde girl, because apparently even in the grim darkness of the far future [wrong franchise --ed.] that will still be popular. She's got a ponytail so long that it actually comes unattached in the package, and a pair of highly technological goggles pushed up onto her head like a hairband. She also had time to put on bright red lipstick, because lady. In terms of the game, "Ghosts" are covert operatives for the Terran Dominion. They're kind of like the Psi Corps on Babylon 5, in that they find gifted children and sequester them for training; it's just that the Ghosts are more about combat than espionage. Space Marines have suits of armor big enough to make Marcus Fenix look like he's just wearing bodypaint, but the Ghosts' "hostile environment suits" are much sleeker. Originally developed for miners, it's basically a polymer skinsuit with armor on the chest, shoulders, forearms and shins. Usually there's a helmet too, but how are we supposed to be attracted to a videogame character if we can't see her face? Nova's colorscheme is blue. The undersuit is two-tone gray with light blue piping in the panel seams, while the armor bits are darker blue. The panel lines on the armor are black, though there are still light blue areas that are probably lights, and a few dots of silver for accents. Like we said, she's blonde, and the color chosen for the paint is a sort of dusty shade, rather than a bright fake yellow. The proportions of the figure are weird - very long legs and a very small head - but that's the Starcraft style, so it's not a fault on sculptor Adrienne Smith's part. And it's really only noticable when she's just standing straight up, something she won't be doing a lot of because of all the nice articulation she has. We're talking a balljointed head, swivel/hinge shoulders and elbows, balljointed wrists and torso, swivel/hinge hips, swivel thighs, double-hinged knees, and swivel/hinge ankles. One of the knee joints was tough to get moving, but that's all; nothing broke, not even the swivel for her ponytail (which was a real tough one to push into place). In addition to her Jean Grey mind powers and the spacesuit apparently made out of Harry Potter's invisibility cloak, Nova is proficient with all manner of weaponry. The figure comes with one of her favorite firearms, the BOSUN FN92 sniper rifle. It's a big gun, one that even Cable would be proud to carry, and the trigger is designed large so that even people wearing armor will be able to pull it. A peg on the handle fits into the toy's right palm, for extra secure holding. You can't really get her into a good sniping pose, sadly. She also comes with an alternate left hand, with two fingers pointing; maybe that's her "I'm using my psychic powers" pose? I've never played Starcraft, never played Heroes of the Storm, and never heard of Nova Terra, but none of that matters. This is a cool figure of a cool character, and NECA did a great job on her. -- 11/08/15

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