Monster High returns again!

[Carrehz]

I found a pic of the two Catty protos (and concept art) - I don't think they ever did get posted on here? Thought I'd share it for anyone who hadn't seen them yet

https://www.instagram.com/p/C3Uzn2DLBTW/

I do think the final doll is a definite improvement from the original proto, but I wish they'd kept the fluffy jacket thing and white/silver boots form the original art.

[Zapper]

Thanks for sharing, Carrehz. It's so interesting to me what their design process is like.

Still no international shipping at Mattel or Mattel Creations. No info on what is going on. I am starting to regret my Fang Club sub... I expected more transparency. Is anybody else a FC member? I find some of the perks were greatly exaggerated. It's nice to be asked what Skullectors we want but mostly it's just begging the single mod to tell us what is going on with the Jinafire pre-order 

PS: Sorry but I had to make this
visitors can't see pics , please register or login

[Taffeta]

I think with prices in Europe it comes down to two things. Import/export (a toy designed for a US market is going to go through more hoops to international markets, yes, that includes customs duties or whatever) and the perception (whether true or not) that average income is higher here (by which I mean the concept $1 is worth less than £1 in exchange but that $1 buys the same in the US as £1 in the UK. And ditto for Euros or whatever national currency in other places.

Since the £ has crashed so wonderfully, there's not a massive difference in value between them now. But we still get the price hike because import duty has probably gone up.

It sucks about Jinafire. :/

[Carrehz]

  I love that pic Zapper!

Oh wow, that sucks about the Fang Club I understand if they're having troubles but surely it wouldn't kill them to just pop in and go "No updates yet but we're working on it" or whatever? I hope it gets sorted out soon.

[Zapper]

Cover for the upcoming MH G1 comic book series. I hope this is not the art inside the comic as well because I hate seeing them with realistic features. It's like looking at MLP drawn like real horses

Spoiler

visitors can't see pics , please register or login

[Zapper]

https://www.youloveit.com/dolls/3433-monster-high-fearbook-dolls-2024.html

Fearbook dolls! Twyla reminds me of a little Victorian girl, very cute. Toralei finally with short hair and Draculaura is Draculaura. She is in everything. Why is she a movie director? This could have been a cool way to introduce Honey Swamp back into the line. Well, her black jacket looks cool, I guess...

[Carrehz]

Draculaura's alright, I guess, but yeah what's with the director theme? o_O How odd.

Omg I LOVE Toralei!!! She's amazing, definitely need to get her.

Twyla's sweet but somehow doesn't quite do it for me, not sure why. Her accessories are really cute though.

[Taffeta]

I admit, I am fundamentally opposed to dolls with short hair because of the styling limitations xD.

I always love Twyla's colour scheme, but still am not inspired to buy one, given the prices.

My eye was caught rather by the Spectra images on the side. It is good that she is coming back. I never understood the weirdness of G2 around her.

[Zapper]

I admit, I am fundamentally opposed to dolls with short hair because of the styling limitations xD.

(...)

My eye was caught rather by the Spectra images on the side. It is good that she is coming back. I never understood the weirdness of G2 around her.

To be fair, you can't really style G3 hair if it's that untreated godawful poly. And it mostly is.

The new Spectra stock photos are looking so much better than the ones we saw of the prototype! It looks like her massive forehead gets covered better and her face-up is more mature (as far as G3 goes). And she's got a hairstyle and not just long hair hanging down, very nice.

I just think some of the food items are a little silly. Is that hot sauce?

Spoiler

visitors can't see pics , please register or login

She is also very purple. I would have liked for her to get some black or that warm, dark pinkish shade they used on her in some G1 releases. Help me out here, what's that color called? It wasn't pink or purple, or magenta. I'm drawing a blank but I would have liked for another color to break up all that blueish purple and silver on her.

[DEStokes]

I bet it’s ghost pepper hot sauce, lol

EDIT: Saw a different photo, it is, lol

[Taffeta]

I know the colour you mean, not sure what to call it either. Fuchsia? I'm not sure that's quite right either though.

She does look a bit intense, but I don't dislike it. Spectra always did have quite intense features imo (at least at her best = iirc she had a weird variation in one of the releases? Was it Shriekwrecked?)

I have two Spectras on my shelf at the moment, and both of them have that dark pink woven into their purple. I feel like the ghost pirate whatever one had paler hair altogether...she's probably on my table but I'm too lazy to look behind me (*lol*)

I love the Rainbow High dolls because their hair is brilliant for styling. The negative comments on hair and styling for the MH dolls is another reason I'm steering clear of G3. I only have so much room, and RH has taken over the rest of my 2nd MH shelf. Original Ghoulia is still there, though. Standing proud 

I have no idea what the obsession is with Lala. I thought Clawdeen was the main ghoul in this version?

[Zapper]

I bet it’s ghost pepper hot sauce, lol

EDIT: Saw a different photo, it is, lol

Ok, that's funny. Allthough I generally am burned out on all the Sig dolls getting food and sunglasses. They already got stingy and stopped with the additional clothing item. Abbey was the last one to get it.

I love the Rainbow High dolls because their hair is brilliant for styling. The negative comments on hair and styling for the MH dolls is another reason I'm steering clear of G3. I only have so much room, and RH has taken over the rest of my 2nd MH shelf. Original Ghoulia is still there, though. Standing proud 

I have no idea what the obsession is with Lala. I thought Clawdeen was the main ghoul in this version?

Yeah, the hair is a mixed bag on some dolls and just bad on others. Clawdeen has been getting bad hair from the start. Her first doll was hated on quite a bit just for the hair. One simply cannot pay for this low quality.
Word of god is that they can't get some colors in Saran so they are using untreated poly hair, but come on! At least treat it! The first Cleo release had that type of hair. It was poly but it was silky. Maybe they did that because of the tinsel blend and have now stopped. Mattel in general is such a non-transparent company. None of their decisions are communicated, we are still waiting on an answer as to why we can't order internationally at the moment. In two weeks the most anticipated OffWHite doll will drop and they are saying nothing.
So it would be a miracle to find out the real reason why they are not investing in good hair suitable for hairplay. Well, the new dolls seem to have more curls and waves and also microbraids so it seems the hair department is doing something, lol.

Draculaura is their secret main character. They did Clawdeen so dirty, depowered her and made her all about her family. That's a boring character. Draculaura on the other hand has many different powers and jobspositions at school. She is the queen not Cleo. She is always speaking for others. That's a main character, no one can tell me otherwise. And she's pink so she sells on her own.

I'm just miffed because Clawdeen was honestly so perfect in G1. She was a family girl but she was also opinionated and a go-getter. She had very specific career aspirations, she was an entrepeneur. They slowly demoted her to self-insert character, that's why she's so bland now. Her dolls still have some of that G1 spark but her wonky giant eyes and bad hair have got to go. She looks like a poodle more than a wolf thanks to the strawlike nature of the poly hair she almost always has (that light brown, blondish shade is the worst).

Oh, and while I am rambling. You simply can't trust these MH reviewers. Some are sponsored and some are just happy to get more MH so everything (aside from the hair) is being praised. The quality control on my Twyla was bad. Everyone was just saying "oh, there is this and that error but I don't mind because Twyla is my gurrrrl" - I hate that. I thought she'd have some minor issues but a chunk of plastic came out of her arm and she's wounded now, lmao.

[Taffeta]

I was never a fan of the Clawdeen dolls in G1 - I don't know why - but I agree she was a solid character. Although the age thing was awkward and sometimes I wanted to shake Lala for her unnecessarily 'teenage monster' vocabulary, I felt like the dynamic between Frankie, Lala and Clawdeen was pretty well worked, with these other 2nd string-main and then additional characters flitting in and out.

All that said, Clawdeen always did have a strong family vibe, given her brother and sister were also in the supporting cast. G2 went a bit overboard with the family stuff for all the main characters, but I guess it's continuity...?

I admit I only saw that brief snippet you linked, but Lala feels like infodump character. "Hi, x character, here's your whole past which we never mentioned before!". I don't know if that is the overall feel though.

I loved Rochelle as a character and as a doll in the original. I don't think there's a G3 one (I know there was meant to be a collector one). Rochelle is actually one of the few I really liked in G2 because she had hair that didn't sweat or become sticky. So many pretty G1 dolls were ruined by the sticky hair glue leakage issue, that although most of G2 was anathema to me, I do have a few Rochelle (and Lagoona) dolls from that release because nice hair O.O.

I also loved Abbey as a character, but have very few Abbeys for same reason. Looking at my shelf I think I can only see one.

...Kind of bummed to know that G3 has solved glue ick but made the dolls unstyleable.

[Lady Frostbite]

I'm genuinely surprised Spectra was allowed to keep Ruen, considering the 'cutification' of so many pets. Ferrets are cute, don't get me wrong, and are super popular ... I'm just surprised they didn't make them even 'cuter' akin to what happened to Crescent or replacing Hissette to whatever the pet Cleo has is.

For the Fearbook dolls, it makes sense to me that Lala is a director, as she got into acting as part of a G1 cartoon when she unexpectedly wow'd the acting teacher. What I will say is the fact the shoes are unpainted and are pretty much just big galumphing lumps of plastic is SUPER obvious on these dolls. Would it kill them to at least colour in the straps or soles of the shoes to make them pop better??? These look like unpainted prototypes!!

Skulltimates Secrets Wave 4 has pictures and ... I REALLY am not sure how I feel about Abbey??? When I saw the small preview image, I thought 'wow Frankie is in dark colours before realising it was Abbey. I might need to see her in person before I fully judge, it's a darker palette from her G3 Sig which was FLAWLESS. The headdress thing I'm REALLY not feeling, although I do like her hair ... I don't know, this will be an in-person decider for me.

Cleo's washed-out eyes still bother me, and adding blue to her hair is still very much a Nefera-like look I can't get over it. Cleo, I love your G1 incarnation and blue naturally works with you, but in your hair? Nefera is going to rip that out of your head for stealing her sig look!

I don't mind all the itty-bitty food accessories, they're super-cute honestly lol What DOES bother me a lot in lines is the over-reliance on pastel shades that just make it seem less edgy, none of the intense colours that made Monster High stand out against other dolls.

[Zapper]

I'm happy they are turning the Skulltimate series into something more interactive. Allthough I would have liked them to provide a window to see the doll's face because the lockers might give you an eyewonk surprise along with the accessories.
These seem to be popstar and ballet themed. I guess ballet/dance on its own is no longer cool. I am happy I dislike all of them and happy for the kids who will be able to finally use the lockers for play instead of just storage. These also use the new printing technique on the shoes and makes you wonder why they can't use that on the Fearbook dolls as well. I agree the unpainted shoes on the Fearbook dolls look lazy. Their sculpts are so nice, especially Lala's has fine spiderweb detailing all over the shoes but from far away they look like pieces of ham.

I really like Skulltimate Abbey's make-up and hair blend. I welcome shorter hair if it means they are using higher quality. Fingers crossed, I am still not happy with my Sig Abbey's hair. Ever since Christmas she is receiving spa time once in a while and we are slowly getting to a point where the hair kind of holds a shape.