When G1 did "representation", they didn't beat you over the head with it, the character didn't feel like a token.

The adult(ish) fandom seems to eat this up, tho. Maybe I am too old to understand.
I was never a fan of "this is YOU" marketing/propaganda because this way you would usually only get one character who was "you" and only more othering and bullying occurred. I am talking about childhood when you'd play with some kids and as a girl you had to fight with five other girls for the role of token girl.

I finally got a glimpse of the G3 cartoon and of course it skews very young. The animation is cute but there is hardly any humor in it anymore and very little edge - for lack of a better word. The King Kong parody in Skull Shores could never be done in G3 because the source material is racially insensitive.
In general, the G3 cartoon retained a lot from the G2 Hotel Draculaura era. Draculaura is a very important character only this time she's secretly a witch and monsters are hateful towards witches and teachers will have students repeat anti-witch slogans like - wasn't G3 supposed to be all about being inclusive? Maybe I need to watch more to find out why G3 monsters have an ongoing, almost Christian Far Right hate campaign against witchcraft but I don't want to I find it odd.

For me the more important aspect has always been that despite her different communication, she wasn't excluded by her peers - who all understood her fine. Cleo is the kind of queen bee character who in real life bullies kids who are different, but although she can be spoiled and demanding on Ghoulia's time, she also understands her and appreciates her friendship as well. Kids who are different need to see that being different really doesn't matter. OG Ghoulia was intelligent, active, included in things. She was still part of the group despite being different - she was still accepted for who she was, rather than being forced to change or conform.

The Cleo/Ghoulia friendship was so special and is sadly no longer existent in G3. Sure, it wasn't handled too well at times in G1 with Cleo being a big old diva and meangirl stereotype but especially in the diaries I loved their BFF status.
In G3 Cleo is in some kind of will-they-won't-they with Frankie and Deuce is her friendly ex. No more "abusive" Cleo. Ghoulia is just a one-note nerd/gamer girl who interacts with the Core Ghouls on occassion.

In a way G3 canon feels like they drew prompts from a hat... or very "hello fellow kids! We know what you want", heh...

Post Merge: November 24, 2023, 06:45:19 PM

It was like "Well G1 Ghoulia was okay but we wanted to do representation Very Deliberately! But don't worry we'll add a non-verbal character too!!!"

Forgot to add this, this just sounds very corporate and by the numbers. Oh, you want non-verbal? We have that in the works. In the meantime, enjoy the wheelchair merman. He's handicapped! You love this, yes?

Will we ever see Operetta in G3? I know she's the next G1 Ghouluxe doll for the Mattel Creations subscribers but would G3 have the guts and give her an actually disfiguring scar instead of artsy scarification? I doubt it.

Congrats, Shockponie!

I'm a bit tired of some characters always side-glancing. Is there any Draculaura that looks straight ahead?
The glance is cool if you don't end up with ten dolls side-eyeing in a row.

G3 Spectra's doll leaked. Anybody seen her? I'd show a pic but I only saw her in people's youtube vids and I'm too lazy to search for the sources
She looks like a budget version of the recent collector Spectra. Something about her eyes/face doesn't sit right with me but the outfit is nice. I'll always love G1 Spectra (and detest G2 Ari) and G3 Spectra seems to sit somewhere in the middle. I just don't get why the G3 gjouls all need these giant foreheads. They look cutesy enough as is, they don't need a toddler's head.

There is also rumors about Skullector Wednesday and Morticia Addams, Sanderson Sisters and celebrity Skullector line in the vain of the Zombi Gaga doll.

They seem to be pumping out a lot without really adjusting the way they drop the goods. They should finally reveal the production numbers. I'm tired of the distribution stress. I'm always a tad anxious that one day they are gonna release something I really like because then I'll have to pay those inflated costs and hate myself

https://www.youloveit.com/dolls/3174-monster-high-venus-mcflytrap-g3-doll.html

The concept from months ago got translated almost exactly! So happy to see they are staying true to the old characters, Venus was always my girl. She's got sculpted braids, which makes up for the missing flocking, imo. The slogan on her shirt is silly. It's redundant. Should have said "natural" instead of "nature" or nothing at all. I hate Abbey's snowflake for the same reason.

Chewlian is horrific. Sorry to the designer but that thing sucks. Should I ever get my hands on that Venus I'll sell him. I usually keep all the accessories to a Sig doll but that godawful pet is too much for me. I also have to nitpick and bemoan that G3 Venus seems to have a plastic basket to carry Chewlian in. Remember G1's cute totebag? Why would eco friendly Venus carry a plastic bag? Unless it's recycled or whatever but it's still weird.

They sold out super fast. I am thinking of biting the bullet and joining the MH club just to see that behind the scenes material they're posting.

https://www.youloveit.com/dolls/3206-monster-high-skullector-the-nightmare-before-christmas-dolls-sally-and-jack.html

Here's all the high-res pics. I adore Sally, she looks perfect and that Stitcherella purse is a fitting recolor if I ever saw one. The shading on her eyes is lovely and makes her look so alive. Jack is cute but the highlight are the shoes and his body is gonna be interesting. He looks like they designed new hands so he might have an all new body or maybe a highly altered Skelita? Very cool.

Better than the Chuckie/Tiffany travesty for sure. That Tiffany looked yellow, uninspired and her outfit kinda cheap.

I's rank these as high as Beetlejuice/Lydia in the pop culture sector. Except BJ's clothing was cheaply made as well. For these special dolls you should expect thicker fabric. Cheap-tel squeezing the fangirls and -boys as always.

I don't really want to give them my money but a "Ghouluxe" Venus or Scullector Carmilla would really tempt me. After the female Dracula I don't know if they'll do one but hey.
Ripley + Alien would also be a cool set. They can use the old Crescent to be Jonesy
Since they did Nightmare they could also do Corpse Bride. Or Coraline + Other Mother. Would love to see the latter especially.

Post Merge: October 31, 2023, 05:27:19 PM

I still have a huge soft spot for G1 media.

So do I and they are going to release an IDW comic book run of 10 issues I think. I hope they pic a good illustrator and keep the diary canon. I'd hate for this to be fanfiction with IDW MLP G4 tier art. The covers always looked better than the inside.

Clawdeen looks like a massive improvement over the first one with the horrible hair. Let's hope the hair is actually a better quality and not just styled that way
I like the dark purple and teal on her. Looks like these are G3's equivalent to G1's School's Out aka Sig 2.0.
I still have that Frankie and Lagoona in my collection. I'm curious what the other characters will look like. Fingers crossed for Cleo in a mummy wrap suit.

PS: Lala finally got some tights!

https://www.youloveit.com/dolls/3063-monster-high-howliday-winter-edition-clawdeen-wolf-doll.html
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https://www.youloveit.com/dolls/3064-monster-high-howliday-skelita-doll-2023.html
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https://www.youloveit.com/dolls/3231-monster-high-draculaura-vampire-heart-collector-doll.html
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I am so sick of Draculaura getting another special doll so fast after the winter one last year (should have been Abbey) but she looks interesting and kind of like a companion piece to the fan's choice Rochelle. I know this is related to the vampire heart story, but the way they did the gown with the plastic cage thing, etc. looks like they got inspo from the Rochelle design.
I think the winter Draculaura looked more luxe compared to this year's winter Clawdeen. Price point seems to be the same. If next year's winter doll isn't Abbey I don't know what to say.

The only Draculaura I really like so far is the one that comes with yet another giant plastic box
She's so overpriced because of that but I love her E-girl face-up and 90s strappy dress over shirt with combat boots combo. Very simple yet it works so well. I wonder whether she'll ever be affordable because she seems to be everybody's favorite.

The other Lauras I have to say look too over the top for me. She always has one design element too many, imo. A problem a lot of G3s have (they are print-happier than G1 and G1 already had many overdesigned looks).

I also hate how they made her half Asian but never commit to that part of her. The G1 Japanese exchange student Laura was going all in with the cherry blossoms and paper art but G3 Laura is just a weird Ita most of the time. I'm not saying she needs to look stereotypical like Jinafire but they should really do more with these new heritages they have given the characters.
Put her in a true Lolita inspired outfit like they did with G1. Put her in some bloomers, give her longer skirts because her hips are so wide these minis she's in ride up and expose her butt quite a lot. She's supposed to be Thai, I think? Then take inspiration from that culture and put her in a nice dress for one.

The new beach Draculaura looks very cute with the sunhat:
https://www.youloveit.com/dolls/3176-monster-high-scare-adice-island-dolls-draculaura-clawdeen-wolf-frankie-stein-lagoona-blue-and-heath-burns.html
She should have had a hat from the beginning since they also made her a witch. Frankie also looks cute in a hat.
I have always loved the swimlines so maybe I am biased. Heath truly is the worst. I don't like how they are releasing new characters in their sig looks in random lines now. Heath looks like he is wearing a pyjama and they should have at least given him a top to swap. Maybe something cropped or mesh to tie in with the beach looks more.

For all that "diversity" they claim to champion, the guy dolls are still super bland and less fashionable than the girls. What they did to Clawd gave me late G1 slimbox vibes.

I felt the need to post again after saying a while ago that I was out of the MH collector zone. Well, I'm semi back in

I was initially very happy that the new MH didn't appeal to me. I still have no urge to get into the show or movies (I stand by my opinion that they look super cheap and some character changes didn't serve any purpose such as witchy Draculaura) buuut they finally released a Cleo I couldn't resist and that was the blue-haired Fearidescent one.

I loved her overall look so much and she was one of the few new MHs available in my country in physical stores. She was still way too expensive. I didn't like paying for a big plastic locker and the fact her face was obscured annoyed me. I got two with uneven eyes, so I just chose the one with less flaws and returned the other one.

Now here's the thing: there seem to be no clues as to how many future lines will be available here in Germany. So far we got Sig, Fearidescent, the new Coffin Bean and the car. That's it. No store or Amazon exclusives either. Amazon doesn't stock them.

Would anyone be up to becoming my personal shopper? I am interested in Abbey and the future Venus but I have no confidence in ever being able to get them here. The face-up situation bothers me a lot so ordering from Amazon.com would pose another challenge.
I used to trade and buy for others back in the day but sadly the doll market here has been pretty bad and we are no longer getting any exclusives I could get for you. So it would be on a simple pick-up (product price + shipping costs) basis. Maybe if you are going to pick out your own dolls, just get one for me as well? I'd appreciate it.
Get in touch with me here or via PM if you feel like it