Releases, Defects and Painting

Hiya followers,

Firstly, news: Mattel Australia have told me that we will be getting Ever After High dolls, but not until next year! Sigh. However, not all toy stores order from Mattel Australia, some get their stock directly from overseas. I guess the moral of the story is don't hold your breath, but it's still worth keeping your eyes open.

Secondly, Swim Class exclusives: In America, Frankie, Rochelle and Heath, of the Swim Class line, were limited to Justice stores. Since we have no Justice stores in Australia, we are somewhat lucky, in that these dolls are available in a variety of stores. So far I have confirmed K-mart and Toys-R-Us are both stocking them.



Thirdly, complaints. My Swim Class Frankie and Rochelle have some pesky and disappointing issues.

 Frankie has a lot of dents in her face from being packaged with her glasses on. I have seen this before on Ghoulias and other Swim dolls, but not to this extent. I altered the colours on the picture to better display the dents. (Click to enlarge) She has one above each eye, one on her nose and several on her cheeks. Quite annoying. Otherwise she is a very pretty doll. Love her colours, yellow and silver eyeshadow and the addition of blue to her hair. I will take a nicer pic of her soon. I am hoping some time without her glasses may allow her dents to heal.

Rochelle was a big shock. First of all, her hair was solid laquer. I wasn't shocked by that, it is more and more common in MH ghouls. The shocking part was the AWFUL haircut. It was very tough to photograph. A large chunk of the hair, just to the left of the face, has been cut. This big chunk is held in place by all the laquer. I have not yet washed her hair, but when I do I expect her to loose a LOT. Very unfortunate since it is such a cute flippy hair cut she has. If I wash it and it is really terrible I will have to send her back for a replacement, I think. Also, she has laquer all over her face. Very sloppy work.






Lastly, something a bit more positive. I got around to painting some Create A Monster limbs today. My handy hint is... PENCILS! As you can see below, the hip joints fit nicely on the top of a pencil, shoes too! With the arms I used masking tape to attach the plug to the pencil. By doing this you can paint all sides without ever touching the part. Tomorrow I will spray them with sealant, which will also be much easier with the pencils to hold them. Sit them in a mug like this to dry!

Let me know your best customising tip OR your worst deboxing nightmare!
 - Kat

Student Bodies

Hi guys!

I finally got the third MH body type so today is body comparison day. My models today are Twyla, Nefera and Frankie (Gloom Beach version). I just loved the colours of these ghouls together and got a little carried away with the photos. I guess all the below photo shows is the increasing cup sizes of the ghouls' breasts. Nefera sure is the most mature!

Twyla is on the left with the "Little Sister" body. This body is also used on Howleens. This makes 4 releases of the Little Sister size.

Nefera on the right is the "Big Sister" body type. For a long time she was the only one, which made sharing clothes/shoes very difficult. Recently Headless Headmistress Bloodgood was released with this body size. I also have hopes for Clawdeens upcoming sister to be on a Big Sister body.

Frankie in the middle with the Basic body size. Almost every other ghoul has this body. The only exception I can think of at the moment is Skelita. Not really sure how you would classify her body type! Heheh.






In the pic above, you will notice the difference in overall height of the dolls. Now notice the difference in lower leg length, from knee to toe. This is where Twyla seems to lose most of her height. As you will see in the picture to the right, her upper legs look about the same length as Frankie's, most of the height difference is because of those stumpy lower legs.

 On the other side, Nefera gains most of her height in her legs. More so in her upper legs than lower. I think Nefera is fabulous and I would love to see more ghouls released of the Big Sister size.

Thats all for today!
~ Kat

New Poll

Hi folks!

Time for a new poll, I thought. Here are the results for the old poll. Seems like Lagoona is most popular from the original crew. I'm kinda surprised, judging by photos from my flickr contacts I'd have guessed Ghoulia. No surprise to me that Cleo came last, it seems like her style is hard to vary and once you have one you really don't need any more. Oddly enough I am DYING for a new Nefera! Hehe.

Of course 34 votes isn't exactly a huge cross section of collectors. Still, interesting! The new poll features some of the newer additions to Monster High. Once it has recieved a similar number of votes I will compare them, and list a new poll with even more student bodies! Perhaps after that we can have a "finals round" between all the poll winning ghouls.

Must remember to do one for the boys. I always leave them out. How rude! We have 5 boys at home here and not a single one of them has had a photo. My boyfriend says I am a sexist doll collector. <<;
They just aren't as pretty, dagnabit.

As a bonus, meet Sula! She is my Create A Monster Sea Monster (named after Ursula of 'The Little Mermaid') who has stolen my CAM Dragon's custom torso. Cheeky ghoul. We have another body coming in the mail (SOON, hopefully! it's been ages).

In short: She is quite pretty. I hate the wig. Love her tentacles tho. Lovely colours, too. I plan on doing a photoshoot with all my CAM ghouls once the new bodies arrive. At the moment I have 5 girls fighting over 3 bodies. Tragic.

I shall have to do a 'Favourite CAM' poll, too!
Do I exclaim too much? (!!!) I guess I am just excited about dolls. ;D
 - Kat

Ghouls Alive!

Ohai blog readers!

Did you ever think "Hey, those Ghouls Alive dolls look weird!" ? I did! Heheh. Well... my lovely boyfriend bought me one as a gift. It was so nice of him I didn't even tell him I thought they were funny looking. ;P So, please meet my Ghouls Alive Frankie Stein. I call her Storm.


First impressions, her face is shiny. I think this is the most off-putting thing about the Ghouls Alive line. Her hair is not good quality, but I can't complain much more than that. Her face mold is not quite right and she has a visible scalp line, but I gather these are to make her internal consruction / magic tricks possible.

Other differences she has to enable/enhance her light-up feature include:
 - clear plastic neck bolts
 - rib cage cut out in torso
 - "belly button"
 - battery compartment in left thigh
Click on the pic for a better look at them! (and pardon my messy lounge!)

I LOVE that you press her 'belly button' to make her light up. XD teehehe

So, although she may be a little odd looking, she is a lot of fun. Her outfit is based on her Wave 1 / Basic outfit (with some changes to accomodate the lighting), so a huge perk for me was (you guessed it!) THE SHOES! Heheh. I never did get a Wave 1 Frankie, so I was stoked to finally get those zebra style pumps. In the end, a lovely surprise from the boyfriend. ^_^

Bonus video: Click here to see her in action.
Thanks for reading!
 - Kat

Glamour Ghoulia

Just a quick post today to show off two of my all-time favourite Ghoulia shots. Deadfast SDCC Ghoulia is just SO photogenic. Her neutral makeup makes her very easy to redress in many styles. In these shots the theme was "Hollywood". I used Frankies for paparazzi which turned out really well, IMHO ;D.

Her dress is actually just a white ribbon wrapped around her repeatedly and tied in a big bow at the back. She wears Pullip Eternia's neclace at her waist, and matching earrings. Shoes are from Create A Monster Skeleton. It is so hard to choose a favourite Ghoulia, but Deadfast Ghoulia is definitely high on the list!

Hope you enjoyed!
 - Kat

Robecca & Rochelle

Heya guys and ghouls!

Today's catchup post is on the basic releases of Rochelle and Robecca! Yay! I was super excited for these two ghouls, especially Robecca, and I was not disappointed. :) Let's go!


Robecca Steam! I really love steampunk style so I was looking forward to her release. She is gorgeous, and the attention to detail on this doll is just stunning. Her eyes are shaped like gears, so cool, and she has gears in her calves that actually spin! Love. Love. Love.
Her body is molded as if it were made up of panels, riveted together.

I really do adore her. The more recent Dance Class Robecca did not interest me so much. Whilst the purple tones in basic Robecca seem to work well, the pale purples of the Dance Class Robecca, I feel, don't sit well with her colouring. Perhaps she would be interesting with a purple reroot? Another one to add to the list! Haha. Because of her bold colouring, I find her hard to redress. Very glad I got her fashion pack.



Next up, Rochelle Goyle! What a gore-gous ghoul! She is so much prettier in person than I had expected. Those big eyes make her just too sweet to resist. Because, I feel, all of her releases have been quite similar, I am not particularly tempted by them. I got Scaris version (and got rid of this basic version - although looking at this photo I almost regret it!), and I would like to get her in the Ghoul's Night Out 4 pack.

Her stoney skin tone is amazing - lightly speckled, subtle but effective. Her wings are "cracked", a lovely detail. Those ears, and her entire head mold in fact, are just beautiful. Honestly, I can't pick a flaw on this ghoul. She had the most glue in her bangs that I have ever seen, but that is easy fixed. Heh.

 

Rochelle's outfit is just as pretty as she is.
As usual, the shoes are my favourite part. The socks are adorable. Her shirt and jewellery are great pieces for reusing and building new outfits on various ghouls.

Well, I hope you enjoyed this post, even though it is many months overdue. I also got Venus McFlytrap from this wave and have still not taken any photos of her! Naughty Myoo. ;D

Thanks so much for reading!
 - Kat

Rolling Back In

I am so sorry for neglecting my blog for so long. Don't let my silence fool you, my MH collection is still going strong! So, I've got quite a lot of catching up to do.

First up are my Rock 'n Roller Ghouls. Their neon colours just had me thinking 80s pop so I found them each an album cover.

Lagoona was looking badass with her lanternfish. Welcome to her nightmare! Named Alice.

 Frankie couldn't resist Roxy Music, she was named Roxy.

Operetta chose The Rolling Stones and so was named Angie.


I really love the bright colours in this line, and their skates, surprisingly, very detailed! Abbey was released later on, I haven't photographed her yet. I was waiting for the 2 pack with Ghoulia, but ended up getting Abbey alone. Not really sure if I will be getting Clawdeen, either. (I have gone a little mad for Clawdeen recently, and there are a lot of her! Heheh)

Frankie is particularly cute with her flippy haircut and neon makeup. She is probably my favourite Frankie so far. Operetta looks fabulous with that pop of colour, and her hair pulled back. This style really suits her. Lagoona is a little dull, the main reason I got her was that "hang ten" hand that had previously only been on her Wave 2 release. I swapped that hand out and then traded her to a friend of mine.

I hope you enjoyed my first post back. Boy, do I have a lot of catching up to do!
 - Kat