I think that Catty will be loved by customizers who just want to have a cuddly looking cat doll. I agree the face is cute and I also love the tail! Better than MH's other cat tails, they always reminded me of a rope.
The outfit is a big NO from me. I don't understand these choices at all. So much pink, so many hearts and chains, she still has those high boots and the chunky belt. It makes the doll's proportions look weird. In real life, the fabric of the dress and material of the belt might work together to pull in her waist more but since she's a doll that stuff doesn't work

G3 has a big chunky belt problem in general. They love to slap that onto a doll to elevate a look since the belts have lots of moulded details (not so much paint apps though). It's just like with the end of G1, it just makes the dolls look incomplete. I also just hate that everybody gets chains. Chains are for ghosts and sometimes Frankie and Clawdeen. And then they add that big old heart backpack onto a doll with massive hair and shoulder flares. Why?
I miss the themed styling choices. Wait a moment, hearts and chains... Unchain my heart, set me free. Maybe Catty likes Joe Cocker now, or - Boo Shocker as his MH name would be
Happy Valentines Day!


Post Merge: February 14, 2024, 03:29:32 AM

This makes me wonder, has anyone done any G3/G1 bodyswaps? Like, a G3 head on a G1 body, or vice versa. In general, I mean, not specifically Catty. That'd be interesting, but I don't think I've seen it anywhere...

G1 Scarah and Frankie and G3 Ghoulia seem to have the same skin tone. I saw a really good looking G1 Scarah head on G3 Ghoulia body swap once. This way you can create curvy G1s.

https://www.youloveit.com/dolls/3481-monster-high-monster-fest-dolls.html

High quality Monster Fest pics, almost no changes made to the prototypes. Only thing I could see was Cleo's food. They look actually worth their money, has Mattel stepped up their game? I see a lot of plastic printing and different cloth textures. Frankie's leg is an all new sculpt, there's removable fingerless gloves. Very fun line overall. I'd give Cleo, Lagoona and Clawdeen a 9 or 10 out of 10. Only outlier is still Frankie to me. That outfit is thematically all over the place and we've already seen similar make-up on older dolls. Would have liked seeing something more rave-ish (allthough I don't think Coachella is a rave but you know what I mean).

https://www.youloveit.com/dolls/3547-monster-high-jinafire-long-fang-vote-year-of-the-dragon-skullector-doll.html

This page is being updated with the voting options and winning looks. I am really impressed with all of these. Some might say the doll is overdesigned but for 90$ she better be
I am curious what the final look will be like. I assume people will want to give her the golden headpiece and the flower make-up, those seem to be popular based on the comments on social media.

That's a Coachella theme, right? I think the boho stuff looks good on all of them except Frankie.
There's a Target exclusive Frankie that looks kinda Avril Lavigne that I like:
https://www.youloveit.com/dolls/3247-monster-high-welcome-committee-frankie-stein-doll.html

I am a teensy bit saddened I won't be able to get this one but glad, too, because Germany is only now rolling out more lines and we are so far behind we skipped the first Skulltimate Secrets alltogether. I was able to get Abbey for a non-scalper price for Christmas, was able to pick her out in store and everything. So I now have two of the new MHs and both have horrendous plastic hair (my first was Skulltimate Cleo with the light blue hair).
Without excessive hair treatment beforehand, what kid is able to enjoy hairplay with these? It feels and sits like straw.

Belated happy holidays, everyone 

The odds of a Ghoulia and Slow-Mo one are slim, despite being an OG, consistant couple

I remember there used to be a Ghoulia/Slomo two-pack in which Ghoulia had a beehive. It never made it here, so I don't know how well it did but Ghoulia is a fan favorite so maybe we might even see them before Frankie gets a Valentines. Gil/Lagoona also ever got one two-pack (the roller rink date) so if Mattel is smart they'll get fun themes like those back for the sets should they continue the trend.
The Cleo/Deuce one is the big shelfsitter of the alumni releases, it seems. Honestly, I would have gotten it for the side-glancing Cleo alone but the price point is just nuts, 70€ for that mess of garish colors.

Pre-owned collecting is the opposite of wasteful to me (unless it starts to occupy space in your house/flat that should be used for something else, like a child ).

Speaking of kids, I have always been of the opinion that snatching kids toys is @#$% and I really don't care about the "we have money so we should be the real customers, kids have to ask their parents so they should be secondrate consumers" mantra that really picked up steam with the B.... fandom in G4 days.

In this case, yes I'd agree it would be a waste because the item you buy to showcase at home could go into a kid's hands and be appreciated as the toy it's supposed to be. If someone had snatched all the G1s from shelves when I was little I'd think of them as a crazy and mean adult.

Same goes for scalping.

As for hving too many items... well, that's really a question of psychology. When is too much too much? When does collecting become hoarding? As someone who sold all of her G2-G3-G4 MLPs and Funko Pops I have to say I started to feel like a hoarder after a while and found that collecting didn't "spark joy" anymore as soon as I have had the items for a couple of years.

I didn't stop entirely. I still have collections I appreciate. Like my G1s that I started in childhood. But culling the others felt right and it was like getting rid of clutter. I felt good afterwards and I think that's what counts.
If your collection starts feeling like a guilty hobby or even burden (financially, space, etc) just sell some stuff and see how you like it.

Taffeta, the movie canon and cartoon are once again different from each other. I don't mind them not being super connected because we all know G1 had several different media as well. Also Cleo is pretty much a background character in the first movie. In the show she is a partyplanner and managing school activities. She is friendly and outgoing and there is no character development as grand as it was in G1 webisodes.

There is a slight sibling rivalry with Nefera, who is still the first-born on her way to inherit the throne. But aside from occassional envy and self-dount Cleo seems to accept that she will never be pharao and instead calls herself "queen of the school". But she isn't even the student body president or head cheerleader anymore - that's both Draculaura. I don't need G3 to copy G1 to a T, but seeing Cleo so set in her path like this is boring and makes her an jnderused character. Same goes for Nefera and Toralei. Toralei is still antagonistic sometimes but Nefera is barely a character in her own right anymore. Similar to Ghoulia.

In the cartoon, most characters are this generic brand of nice to each other. I guess because the episodes have a very "lesson of the day" vibe. I don't mean to say that's bad. But the conflicts often come from monster shenanigans or the forced (literal) witch hunt the monsters are on.
They have an aczual witch trial in place where students accused of witchcraft are being expelled forever. Can you imagine that taking place in G1 "everyone is welcome" MH or G2's Hotel sanctuary? G3 can just kick students from MH if they do magic. I just hate this. Whoever came up with this idea needs to sit in the silent corner for a while

And yeah, I know the lesson in the end will be to accept witches and put the monster vs witch mentality to rest. But why have it in the first place? In G1 the also removed the human vs monster stuff after a while. Probably because it was too risky? But literal witch trials enacted by Headmistress Bloodgood (now black so I guess it's fine she discriminates against her students?) are worse in my opinion.
Also, only sligjtly related to my rant, but Lagoona now has piranha urges similar to Clawdeen having "wolf mode" in G1. Why was it problematic for Clawdeen to have that flaw/power but Lagoona, who is now Latina, is fine to freak out?

I get that sinking feeling some character traits or plot points - similar to Ghoulia - got removed for the "problematic" factor but in turn they created more problematic content in form of these - I repeat myself - weirdly realistic witch hunts. People, mostly women in medicine or midwifery, were actually killed due to being witches and some cultures still practice witch hunts.
Zombies however, are not realistic like that. What G1 did with zombies (what Lady Frostbite) said, is now done with witches. Except that MC Draculaura is one and the entire conflict is front and center due to her.

They really could have thought up a better way to insert an ongoing storyline or problem. G2 Ghoul Squad and movies aped Hotel Transyvania's concept a lot but I would prefer the "everyone belongs" message and "freaky flaws" concept over " all monsters are cool because we have powers and are different from humans - except those filthy witches".

90s Sabrina the Teenage Witch handled RL witch hunts with more grace than current MH. That's just strange to me.

Andfor the record, I'm not clutching my pearls here. I am not offended by G3. I just think thematically it's a mess and the "diversity" is tacked on and really only shines if you consider the dolls completely separate from their movies/shows/books. Like, my favorite doll in G3 right now is Abbey. Her body is amazing, she is sturdy but very poseable similar to the curvy Barbies. But canon Abbey is now so boring. She is just the one with the ice powers now and was immediatly thrown together with Heath. Remember when Abbey had a personality other than "nice and ice"? I loved her so much, I used Abbey's characterization to pull a friend of mine into MH and she started collecting Abbey dolls just because of how she was written on the webisodes/movies.
We were two twenty-somethings bonding over yak jokes and this character who was perceived as weird and cold just because she was foreign (and literally cold, lol). Now she's just a pretty doll and curvy rep. Sad.

G3 Toralei and Ghoulia have FINALLY hit UK stores! I saw them both at Smyths Toys last week. Still can't click with G3 Ghoulia... she's so different, I wish they'd just gone ahead and given her a different name instead of trying to "remake"

I don't understand why Ghoulia had to be so drastically changed. Rumor has it that her moans were "offensive" because she didn't talk like the others. But then why is she turned into a gamer? Gamers are some of the most offensive people out there 

I'm also still miffed about Lagoona but it has become unpopular to say the peachy pink looks weird on her. The newer characters all look very close to G1, just a different spin. Abbey, Spectra, Catty, Venus... their themes and color schemes are all so similar to the originals. But Ghoulia and Lagoona stick out like sore thumbs (to me).

I'm also still not over Clawdeen being a fangirl and nothing else. Can't they make her a little cooler again? She was business-minded, creative, fashionable and a little sassy in G1 and in G3 she's just a geek with Urkel glasses.