Novi Stars were a line of fashion dolls released by MGA Entertainment. It was released in 2012 and stopped production in 2013, with the last set coming out in 2014.
The franchise revolved around a fleet of alien girls who land on Earth and want to be like humans. The inital "Core 4" lineup consisted of Alie Lectric, Una Verse, Ari Roma and Mae Tallick. Each girl has a specific trait to their character, a mission how they plan to use their powers on Earth, and a certain skill they'd like to learn. Their dolls each have a special effect to it (Alie lights up, Una has glittery legs, and so forth).
The toyline also has its own short-lived web-series.
Tropes:
- Alien Among Us: The whole point of the toyline.
- Aliens Speaking English: In the webshow (and Mae Tallick's doll), the characters speak English despite being aliens. However, it's justified and downplayed in that they learned English, and the characters - especially Nita Light - are shown having trouble adjusting to a new language.
- Amazing Technicolor Population: Each girl has a different colored skin tone.
- Animesque: The alien girls have large eyes with distinct colors and reflections.
- Beach Episode: The Orbit Beach line has the Core Four visiting the aforenoted beach, and features them in beach clothes.
- Benevolent Alien Invasion: The alien girls arrive on Earth to understand human society, with some of their missions is to help their Earth friends in many ways possible (i.e., Alie Lectric wants to teach her Earth friends to think like a star).
- Big Applesauce: The alien girls land in the Manhattan borough of New York City precisely, according to the music video and the webseries.
- Birthday Episode: This is the focus of the webisode, "Happy Birthday Alie!", in which Ari, Una and Mae (somewhat haphazardly) plan a Surprise Party for Alie.
- Carrying a Cake: In the webisode, "Meet Nita Light", Mae comes skating in with a cake meant for Nita. Being The Klutz, naturally, it drops.
- Chromosome Casting: All of the dolls are female. The only male character in sight is Derek, who is exclusive to the webshow, and we don't even see his face! The possibility of male characters joining the roster was discussed in a comment section on the official Novi Stars Facebook page once upon a time, but this turned out fruitless because of the doll line's sudden cancellation.
- Comically Missing the Point: For Alie's birthday party, Ari suggests they celebrate like Earth girls on their 16th birthday - hiring a celebrity to sing to Alie, renting her a yacht, flying her to Paris to buy her a dress, and buying a car with a giant bow. (Ari's only point of reference were videos she found online.) So Una does the calculation for what it'll cost:Una: For a private yacht to cruise the harbor for four hours, and a new car...Ari: With a giant bow!Una: With giant bow... Alie's party will cost us... just a bit over 2 million! And now we convert that to our currency... That's... FOUR HUNDRED BILLION INCTERS?!Ari: What if we take off the giant bow?
- Covers Always Lie: A lot of the promotional artwork portrays Alie with a pair of glasses. She lacks these in both the toys and webisodes.
- Cyclops: Sila Clops is this.
- First Kiss: Ari Roma’s mission on Earth is to kiss an Earth boy, which is deemed impossible for her inability to breathe the atmosphere.
- Fishbowl Helmet: Ari Roma wears one, given that she cannot breathe Earth air like the others. She only takes it off when in Nita's energy pod.
- Four-Fingered Hands: Justified, they are aliens after all. However, that makes mundane tasks such as wearing gloves difficult.
- Hypnotic Eyes: This is Mimi Merize's power.
- He Who Must Not Be Seen: All we see of Alie's crush, Derek, is his hand. Alie tries to take a picture of him to show her friends, but all she could get was, again, his hand.
- The humans in general, really. All we ever see of any of them is their hands.
- Humanoid Aliens: They all resemble human teenagers, the biggest distinctions being wild hair colors and skintones.
- I Just Want to Be Normal: The overall goal of the alien girls is to live just like ordinary Earth teenagers without using their powers.
- Innocent Aliens: The cast fits this to the tee.
- Interspecies Romance: Alie Lectric has a crush on a human boy named Derek, and he asks her out on a date.
- Older Than They Look: Each girl has a specific age, specifying they're much older despite looking like teenagers.
- Punny Name: Each of the Novi Stars' names are a pun on something. From the core cast alone, there's Alie Lectric ("electric"), Una Verse ("universe"), Ari Roma ("aroma") and Mae Tallick ("metallic").
- Really 700 Years Old: Exaggerated. They all resemble human(oid) teenagers and do things typical of that age group, like attending high school and learning to drive a car, but most of them have impossible Time Abyss ages - Alie Lectric, for example, celebrates her 200 trillionth birthday in one of the webisodesnote . Possibly justified in that they are aliens - it's possible they age differently or simply use a completely different calendar.
- Lending credence to that theory is the fact that Frostina Sprinkles is "17 Shelf Lives" old (which, if we use the shelf life of unopened sprinkles) comes out to about 51 years, yet she's on the same level as the other Novis. Meanwhile, Carmela Sweet is also on the same level as the other Novis and she's only 15 years old.
- Rise of Zitboy: Alie gets her first pimple in "Beauty Crisis" and she and the other Novis try to get rid of it. What makes it funnier is that just like in the Trope Namer, she's also a green alien with pinkish eyes.
- Robot Girl: Mae Tallick, Roe Botik, and Tilly Vizion are all robots, as part of their gimmicks. And they're all adorable, to boot!
- Surprisingly Realistic Outcome:
- In “Makeover”, the girls dye Ari’s hair. After they put her bubble helmet back on, Ari starts to feel nauseous from inhaling the c* Loncentrates fumes from the dye.
- In “Beauty Crisis”, Alie’s obsession with greasy foods causes her to get a pimple. At the end of the webisode, the girls are unsuccessful in their attempts to quickly get rid of it.
- Tag Line: "What on Earth is going on?!"
- Theme Tune Roll Call: The full version of the theme introduces the core four.Alie Letric, electrifying!Una Verse, gravity-defying!Ari Roma, a head in space!Mae Tallick, talking in your face!
