Recharge Time

Oh my! I haven't posted in such a long time. Apologies! But maybe it's because there hasn't been anything which excited me like this in a while. Monster High releases having been coming out thick and fast, as a collector it can be overwhelming and maybe dull the joy of individual releases a little. The limited availability of some releases, gouging prices on the internet, rising prices in stores, increasingly poor quality control, and Australia's crazy release dates. These are the challenges of the hobby. Maybe I have been feeling burnt out on dolls... how appropriate that the item to snap me out of this mood should be the Freaky Fusion Recharge Chamber.

I found it in store, shocked at first as Australia is often months behind in release dates, I balked at the price, walked out the door thinking I really shouldn't have bought this. Got home feeling guilty, de-boxed, popped in the batteries. Zap! So much fun, huge smiles and laughter! Haha! This release is fantastic, the set is sturdy with nice details and the Frankie doll is just beautiful. I haven't been this impressed since Clawdeen with the Coffin Bean set (Which, funnily enough, was  around the last time I posted).





 Enough of my banter! You will need 3 AAA batteries. A waist clip and two leg clips hold Frankie in place, a pair of "neck-bolt clips" are a cute decorative feature. Pressing the skullete button will start multicoloured lights at the base of the Chamber. Holding the button will start Frankie's hair standing on end! This runs for 15 seconds. I made a quick video of it in action which you can see here. It really is a lot of fun. ^_^

The Chamber itself is nicely detailed. Tubes at the top shaped like a heart, molded cushion back with lightning shaped buttons, stitches in swirls, and the little skullette charms which adorn the base can be clipped on to Frankie's belt too.






Frankie is a gorgeous and refreshingly unique release. From her predominantly blue hair to the lightning make-up, she is like no other Frankie before her. Her hair is bright and silky, unfortunately a bit kinked from the packaging, hopefully this will fall out naturally or I will have to straighten it (a problem recurring in the MH line lately). Her make-up is bold and fun with little yellow lightning bolts streaming over her eye and cheek. The usual stitches on her body are replaced by little blue lightning bolts.




Her outfit is simple but very nice, I especially like the print of the dress fabric. Very pleased with the shoes! Hooray! Mattel have been lazy with shoe molds lately, in my opinion, so I was happy to find this little electric pair. Definitely enjoying the dashes of yellow used in recent lines, it really brightens up the collection.



So, if anyone is reading this, sorry I've been absent. I did begin with all that moaning, but the only reason these things bug me is because I do love the line so much. I highly reccomend this set, it is great fun and well worth the money. Truly voltageous!
 - Kat

Club Clawdeen

Warning: Seriously picture heavy!

What is most ridiculous about this Clawdeen collection is that I didn't really LOVE her until relatively recently, when I first saw 13 Wishes Clawdeen. Boom! Clawdeen explosion. So... let me introduce the ghouls.

First up, the red lipped ghouls. Scarily Ever After Clawdeen is simply beautiful. The red highlights really set her apart from other versions, her hair is lovely and soft and her stock outfit is gore-gous. She really is much prettier in person than I had expected. Wave 2 Clawdeen was one of my first MH dolls (streaks added by me; blogged here). Poor thing was pretty neglected, but I have finally found my Clawdeen love!

 The golden ghouls! 13 Wishes Clawdeen... what is it about her? Maybe her softer colouring makes her look more gentle? I really don't know, but she stole my heart and suddenly I can't get enough of her. Sister Pack Clawdeen, goodness me, took SO long to get. I ordered her online through Target about 6 months ago and finally got her a few weeks ago. So frustrating seeing her in stores everywhere the last few months. Ah well... at least I finally have her!

 I'm not especially fond of the dark-purple lipped pair. Dawn of the Dance Clawdeen and I Heart Fashion Clawdeen. These two dolls are not in the top ranks of my little Clawdeen army, but they do both come with some must have stock. Really fabulous clothes and accessories.

(Don't forget you can click on the pictures to view a larger version, or, as always, visit my flickr for more!)

 I really love the wolves with pink lips. Sweet 1600 Clawdeen even managed to join the family before my Clawdeen attitude change! She is a lovely beast, beautiful thick wavy hair, and absolutely killer stock outfit and shoes. I have some great photos of them too... I may have to do a "Club Clawdeen - Part 2!".

Coffin Bean Clawdeen is a stunner too. Her colouring (makeup and hair) is perfect, natural beauty. I also have further pics of her that will need a seperate post.

I have also received a Wave 1 Dead Tired Clawdeen since this shoot and am hoping to add a New Scaremester Clawdeen to my collection. SO! To all the Clawdeen lovers out there, I can promise you another Club Clawdeen catch up.




I leave you with the most incredible and unique Monster High doll ever made. Ghouls Rule Clawdeen is stunning. Her hair is gorgeous, soft, looong and wavy. Her styling, hair and makeup are artistic and bold. She is truly one of a kind. I can't wait to play with her in more styles and different kinds of photos! I bet she will be fun.

 Thanks for reading!
 - Kat

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