Monster High returns again!

[Lady Frostbite]

... That's supposed to be Jinafire?? If you hadn't told me, I never would have guessed!! The comment about her being the Gremlins special edition ghoul is right on the money; SO many comments on a Monster High page recommended to me on FB are full of comments either saying 'that's not Jinafire/they did her so dirty' or comparing her to Greta. Some other comments are going 'it's for kids, not for you'.

Yes, but that doesn't mean older ghouls can't go who the heckity heck is this???

[Zapper]

Some other comments are going 'it's for kids, not for you'.
Yes, but that doesn't mean older ghouls can't go who the heckity heck is this???

I'm usually on the "it's for kids, it's not that serious" bandwaggon in case of adults getting mad on social media where kids can see, but I really have to wonder who decides which ghoul to change drastically and which ghouls should practically stay the same. Is there any evidence that kids didn't like Jinafire's colors? Because she got a bunch of beautiful designs, imo, and back when in stores the Jinafires always disappeared rather quickly. Or maybe my area is just a gold/green/red loving Christmas town, I dunno...

Funny thing is, her tail looks exactly like G1. Maybe they wanted to reuse the mold

PS: I did some spying myself and found a bunch of comments insisting that IS the Gremlin character but come on... Greta is liscensed, she can't just appear on the show. Then there's the Chinese looking clothing and then there's this:

Spoiler

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Comparison to concept art from last year

[Taffeta]

Hang on, why does she have gold ears but not face? I am wondering if this is more of an animation screw up than what Mattel intends her to look like. Otherwise why gold ears?

The concept art looks decent albeit not sure why there'd be green.

She's a Chinese dragon. I don't remember green being a particularly prominent Chinese dragon colour...

[Zapper]

Taffeta, I'm seeing comments saying she is supposed to look like a jade sculpture and the golden ears are based on particular jewelry. I'm not versed in Ancient China but I simply don't understand why these changes were necessary when the original doll sold well. We'll see how the final doll will look like, we'll be getting her later that year (maybe she'll be revealed soon).

I just can't get over the Gremlin comparisons

[Lady Frostbite]

I am so stumped ghouls ... Like, yes I get they might want to make her green to mimic being made from jade, but they don't play with that. She doesn't have carvings on her skin, she doesn't have embellishments, she's just ... green and that's it. Why is this line so allergic to golden colours? Gold was Cleo's colour (and her favourite colour, along with Clawdeen as per their facts, but purple is Clawdeen's colour) and they are taking that away from her and putting her in blue tones instead.

I said before the lines are heavy on the pastel colours, and they just seem allergic to putting a ghoul in a stronger colour apart from maybe Toralei. She doesn't look like a Chinese dragon; she doesn't seem to have scales as she did in G1, I can't see slit pupils, her tail is almost an afterthought. Can she breathe fire? (more a Western dragon thing, Eastern dragons are associated with water). Why not give her horns? Apart from that being a different mold and oh my Ra we can't push the boat out for anything! And why is her hair so bland? It just sits on her head, Jinafire always had elaborate hairwear and her hair was a mix of green and black. I didn't like Jinafire's colour scheme myself but at least I could TELL she was meant to be reptilian!!

Side note: I miss Hissette, her backstory was so cute in that she's Cleo's boyfriend's mom's first grey hair. How cute is that?!

[Taffeta]

Taffeta, I'm seeing comments saying she is supposed to look like a jade sculpture and the golden ears are based on particular jewelry. I'm not versed in Ancient China but I simply don't understand why these changes were necessary when the original doll sold well. We'll see how the final doll will look like, we'll be getting her later that year (maybe she'll be revealed soon).

I just can't get over the Gremlin comparisons

I have a feeling there are some other shades of Jade (the stone) as well as the green one, but even if that's the inspiration, that's not jade colour. That's playdoh/sims alien colour.

If they made her an actual rich green jade colour, that would be pretty awesome. But this...this isn't it xD.

I'm not an expert in ancient China either, I just taught it for one semester, and anything else I've picked up from doing old Japanese stuff because of the occasional reliance on Chinese texts/legends - but I still can't see anything that suggests that's a dragon, Chinese or otherwise.

And yeah, Jinafire has always been a questionable name for me given that asian dragons aren't associated with fire. I've a whole lovely scene in the text I studied for my PhD where a rather arrogant monk announces he's threatened the dragons causing the rainstorm in order to stop them sinking the boat...

This is from Wiki, from new year in Singapore, of the Azure Dragon (I know it as Seiryuu, I think it's qinglong? Something like that? in Chinese)?

Spoiler

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Admittedly this is specifically the azure dragon, rather than all asian dragons, but...it is about as far from the Jinafire animation as you can probably get.

[Lady Frostbite]

I think Jinafire was a pun on Jennifer, combining the common name Jin with, well, fire although fire is more a Western dragon thing.

This poor ghoul is getting called Greta, the fandom has decided 

[Zapper]

I think Jinafire was a pun on Jennifer, combining the common name Jin with, well, fire although fire is more a Western dragon thing.

Yeah, you are correct. I think making her fire-based was also a conscoius descision and had nothing to do with cultural unawareness because Jina was introduced together with Skelita and the design team at the time must have done basic research.

Lagoona was already a water monster and at the time MH didn't have that large cast they'd have a few years later and they wanted each character to be distinct. Having a dragon character and market her as a water dragon to a Western child audience was probably just a little before its time and that's it.
I always thought it was funny how her name sort of translated to Golden Fire Dragon. Her name was one of the punnier ones.

They would also release a webisode some time later very nicely showing how Jinafire would use her fire breath to manipulate other elements and solve problems:

https://www.youtube.com/embed/TF-mY0igqvc?si=_UYWbWIvjEMXXW5G

They never portrayed her like a typical Western dragon who breathes fire to destroy stuff. Quite the opposite.

Heh, turns out I'm passionate about G1 Jinafire. I'm currently trying to get a Sig one that is complete without droopy eyes, a feat of impossibility if you don't want to pay 50€ and more for a used doll. People seem to know that Scaris Jinafire with a good face is rare, lol.

[Taffeta]

Well, yes, it was obvious what they did with the name and with the more familiar western association, it's just a bit odd. It's as awkward as "Lila Yamamoto" in the Rainbow High line, with an English first name, a Japanese origin backstory and an outfit which was partly Korean-inspired...

I like Lila fine, but I hate her name, because L is literally the least Japanese sound you can get, and they chose a name with two of them. If they wanted to use that colour, with the wisteria patterning, why not call her Fujiko? Or Murasaki? Nope. It has to be nice and Englishy...

Jinafire is like that to me.

I think I only have two Jinafire dolls. Are there more than two? The Gloom and Bloom one is my favourite one and the only one on my shelf, but I think I have the Scaris one somewhere. I don't remember being quite so taken by that one though.

I think I may need to take some of my dolls down and primp them up a bit. I haven't for ages.

[Zapper]

Mattel just teased a brand new G1 doll/character, Lenore Loomington:

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[brightberry]

That is a nice photo of a toy lamp.  I hope that means it will be a ghost.


I have Gloom and Bloom Jenifire. She’s very eye catching.  One of my favorite monster high dolls.

[Zapper]

Brightberry and Taffetta, you two are in luck because GnB Jinafire is very sought after these days. I would love to have one but she goes for crazy prices. Recently saw one for 200€ on ebay.

That is a nice photo of a toy lamp.  I hope that means it will be a ghost.

I hope that means she'll have that lamp as an accessory instead of a bag/purse/hot sauce!

Post Merge: March 15, 2024, 09:28:29 AM

Here's a couple high quality images of Jinafire and Venus in the show:

Spoiler

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Jinafire really needs the jacket to tie her look together.
Up close she looks better but I still wish her colors were inversed. Gold with mint green instead of mint green with gold.

[Taffeta]

Jinafire still doesn't look much like Jinafire to me, honestly. Venus is fine.

Didn't they basically do the whole of the blue colour spectrum already? Another ghost is fine but...?

I was lucky to pick up my GnB Jinafire at one of the last carboot sales I went to before I moved back from London. Someone had a big box of MH dolls and I grabbed her and GB Catra right away. I just squinted at my shelf and realised I have Cleo up there too so I guess she was there too. I know I got Venus from new, and Amanita. I'm not sure if I have Jane or not - I thought I did but she isn't on my shelf. Maybe I put her away...

Gloom & Bloom is one of my favourite sets, I guess because of the plant themeyness of it.

I know I got GB Venus and ILF Venus together. I didn't move to north London till 2016, but Brent Cross TRU often had old stock there that would randomly appear on the shelves. It was a good store. Sad it's gone.

[Lady Frostbite]

Jinafire just doesn't look like Jinafire. Her ears look tacked on, fake, or dipped in gold and therefore useless for hearing.

Venus looks better, even if I do miss her unique overlapping fangs (plenty ghouls have fangs over their bottom lip, Abbey is unique in having tusks curving over her top lip like inverse fangs, and Venus had overlapping fangs on her upper and lower lip)

[brightberry]

I really do like all of the G3 dolls.  My favorite being Draculaura.  She’s just adorable.  Not really interested in the show although the episodes I’ve seen are cute.  I just don’t like poly hair surprises.  I wish there was a list somewhere of who has what because I lost interest when I got a poly drac.


Zapper, I didn’t know that about Gloom and Bloom Jenifire.  That’s crazy!  The cartoon G3 version does not look good so far.