Out of the Box: MegaConstrux Monster High Clawdeen Wolf

I had these photos taken in mid-October and had every intention of having this post up the day of Halloween. What better day to post a werewolf, right? But I promptly forgot about that, so now it's better late than never!

Being unboxed today is another block figure in the form of one from Mega Construx/ Mega Blox' Monster High line, the werewolf Clawdeen Wolf.  These figures have two more points of articulation (for seven points of articulation in total) than the WellieWishers of the same style, and two fewer than the Assassin's Creed line (The AC line is aimed at the 14+ collector market, while the MH and WWs are marketed primarily for the child market).  Interestingly, these figures have the least amount of sculpted detail to their faces of the three.

The figure comes packaged with a simple half-block stand, a bracelet and mirror accessory set, and a multi-block stand that requires assembly.  The stand was not particularly sturdy or attractive, so I was unimpressed by that addition.

Discount Shopping Adventures, May 2017

It's been a while since I checked out the local discount chains (in this case Tuesday Morning and Big Lots), so last week I decided to pay them a visit.  I took some photos of the toy aisle offerings and thought I'd share them with you guys!

Doll shelf at Tuesday Morning: Fashion dolls and play doll outfits.

Out of the Box: Monster High Hexiciah Steam

Mattel generally puts out a two-doll exclusive every year for the SDCC, and this year's was the father-daughter pair of Hexiciah and Robecca Steam.  I wasn't terribly interested in Robecca, so I split the set with another collector. As a result I can't do a review of the full set or the packaging, but I did think it would be fun to look at Hexiciah on his own.

Upcoming posts for August 2016

ME Minimates, SDCC Monster High, Carpatina Diya

August has been a rainy month here, so I haven't been able to take many photos, and that's translated into my not posting very much lately. I wanted to make a quick post to say hello though, and I do have three new arrivals coming soon, and hopefully the weather will give me a chance to share them.  The three in question are the Series 2 Mass Effect Minimates (which were available as a set this time versus the old blind bags), Monster High's SDCC exclusive Hexiciah Steam (I won't be getting Robecca as I'm splitting the set with someone else), and the newest Carpatina doll, Diya.

Hope your summer (or winter for the southerners) has been fabulous, and if you're following the Olympics, I hope your favourites have been doing well!

Out of the Box: Monster High Deuce Gorgon and Cleo De Nile

Every time I swear I'm not going to pick up any more Monster High dolls, something happens to make me eat my words. Usually it's a new release, but this time around it was a sale - this two pack of of Deuce Gorgon and Cleo de Nile from the Boo York, Boo York series were reduced to $14 USD - since that's normally the price point for a single doll, I decided I couldn't pass these two up.  

The gorgon and the mummy.

They both have fairly standard MH bodies, so I won't be doing a full review, but I did think it would be fun to share some photos (unfortunately we're in the rainy season here, so apologies in advance for the lighting).

Out of the Box: Monster High Finnegan Wake

I've said it before, but every time I think "No more Monster High after this one", they release another doll that catches my attention.  This time the release that brought me back to the line is Finnegan Wake, the blue merman in the black and red wheelchair.

In addition to the uniqueness of the wheelchair (a first from the line), the doll also has a unique body: the torso is both larger than the standard MH boy body and smaller than the SDCC exclusive Manny Taur body, while the fish tail lower body is distinct from those of the soon-to-be-released Scarrier Reef mermaids.

Out of the Box: Monster High Vandala Doubloons

Vandala Doubloons

In the past I've said that I didn't think I needed more than one Monster High doll (famous last words), and then it was two, and then three, so for now I'll just say that four is a good number but that I'm making no promises for the future.

Today's doll is Vandala Doubloons, the pirate ghost from the "Haunted" series.  This series is interesting in that, unlike the bulk of the Monster High dolls, there are no bright colours on the dolls.  Instead, presumably to go along with the ghost theme, they're all combinations of faded and muted tones. 

Vandala's body is a pale seafoam green while her hair is a darker green with white highlights.  Her dress is patterned with the same colours, while her purse and left shoe are a green tone that's in between the other two.  She also has a pink armour piece, pink hat (with a blue-green boat), a brown-pink prosthetic right leg (detachable in the style of the Create-A-Monster dolls), and a sea-blue stand.

In the box.

Her face screening is similarly muted, to the point that I actually had a hard time photographing it since the lack of contrast with her base colour made it hard to see if she was actually washed-out by the lighting in the photos or if it was just an accurate capture of her ghostly self.

The armour, purse and doll stand all reflect the nautical theme, and are sculpted with anchor chains (the purse and armour remind me of the barnacle-covered, semi-scaled characters from the Pirates of the Caribbean movies).  The stand differs from the standard Monster High stands in that it keeps the doll's feet off the base, so she "floats" rather than stands - appropriate for a ghost!

She's floating!

Unlike the hard plastic of the purse and armour, the large floppy hat is a thin, flexible vinyl (although the ship that decorates it is in the harder material).   Although it's a lighter shade of pink than the armour, it's a very close match to the doll's lip colour, which I thought was an interesting choice.

The hat.

I've mentioned before that I specifically collect dolls and figures with prosthetics, and this doll is an interesting addition to that collection.  The promotional material refers to it as a peg leg, but it actually isn't one since it has a foot.  I'm not sure why they elected to not make it an actual peg, since the main reason I can see for not doing it (allowing her to shoe-swap with other dolls) doesn't apply since a shoe is sculpted onto the foot. The sculpting it nicely done (in addition to the shoe, there's a chain and anchor pattern running the entire length of the leg), and I love the concept, but the shoe part baffles me.

A closer view of the "peg leg".

Annoyance over the sculpted shoe aside, I really like the concept behind the doll, and I'm impressed at how well this doll and the others in the "Haunted" series work with the rest of the main line Monster High dolls, even given the very different colour palate.  

Out of the Box: Monster High Neighthan Rot

Neighthan Rot

I hope everyone had a great Halloween!  In keeping with the haunting season, how about a new monster?

Neighthan Rot is a (relatively) recent release from Monster High's "Freaky Fusion" series ("2 monsters in 1") and is a zombie unicorn.  A "zombicorn", as it says in the included journal.

In box.

I was surprised the first few times I saw him on the shelves since I rarely see the Monster High boy dolls (or "mansters" as they say on the boxes), and to see one sit on the shelf for more than a month was even more unusual.  I passed on him originally because I wasn't sure I needed more dolls from this line, but he was unique enough that he finally won me over.

As an aside before I get to the doll itself, as someone who doesn't particularly follow the character elements (the webisodes, movies and books), I was actually charmed by the journal with this one (part of which is the character sharing how his zombie father courted his unicorn mother). 

On to the doll!  Neighthan has a unique head-sculpt that includes horse ears, a blue translucent horn and sculpted zombie-style rotting flesh on half his face.  There isn't a huge amount of colour or detail to the face screening (probably since the grey vinyl does the job for a zombie), but the paint centred as it should be and gives the doll a pleasant expression (probably fitting for a unicorn).

His rooted hair is primarily black but with blue, red, and yellow stripes, all of which are quite vibrant.  He also has a tail (rooted at hip level in the back) that's made of the same hair type and colours.

Equally vibrant are his stand, hat, and boots (all a bright yellow) and his outfit.  The outfit continues the zombie theme with its brightly coloured internal organ theme on the shirt and muscles-and-ligaments themed pants.

Interestingly, given how many accessories were included with Jane Boolittle and the Music Festival Clawd and Draculaura, the baseball cap is the only accessory aside from the standard MH comb.  The cap is decently made (a soft vinyl with holes for the horn and ears), but does hide the colourful hair (or should I say mane?) that's my favourite feature on this doll.

Neighthan has what (at first) appears to be the standard MH boy body, but upon removing his outfit it turns out that his torso and every-other limb part were are actually unique and have the same zombie-style sculptural details as the face.

Clawd Wolf's Standard MH body vs. Neighthan Rot's half-zombie one.

Side view.

 Interestingly, I've found him to be easier to pose than any other Monster High doll that I've handled.  Since I don't see any engineering differences between this guy and Clawd, I think it's just random luck but I thought it worth mentioning in case anyone else has had similar experiences - I'd be curious to hear about it, if so!

 For a doll that I was hesitant to add to my collection, I've ended up deciding that he's actually one of the most endearing playline dolls I've owned - the absurdity of a zombie unicorn is just too much to not be charmed by, I think.

Classic Zombie Pose.

Height Comparisons Across Doll and Figure Lines

Earlier this morning a co-worker asked me about the relative sizes of BJDs with American Girl dolls, and at almost the same time I read Vanessa's question about the size of MA's International Travel Friends relative to playline dolls over on Black Doll Collecting.  And since a couple of weeks ago I also received a PM on Den of Angels asking about Teen Trends to MSD comparisons, I decided that I've amassed enough comparison photos to warrant it's own post.

First up is the Travel Friends/Playline line-up:

Back Row (L-R): Disney Classics (Li Sheng), Barbie (Princess of South Africa), Monster High (Clawd Wolf)
Front Row: Bratz (Cameron), International Travel Friends (Namaste), American Girl Mini (Ivy)

 The AG comparison:

 

 

L-R: Iplehouse EID model body (Chase), American Girl Cécile,
Illusion Spirit mini (ZhuQing), Monster High (Jane Boolittle)

The Teen Trends comparison:

L-R: Volks SD13 Long-leg body (Irvin), Soom ID51 (London),
Illusion Spirit Mini (ZhuQing), Teen Trends (Deondra)

And finally, a larger one:

Back Row: Angelheim Elderheim Angelo, Volks SD13 Irvin, Souldoll Vito Rouse, American Girl Cécile
Row 2: Iplehouse JID Boris, Ellowyne Wilde Lizette, Monster High Clawd, Girls of Many Lands Neela, AG mini Samantha
Row 3: Sideshow Toys Krycek, Hot Toys Wolverine, PlayArts Commander Shepard, DC Direct Tali, Figma Yukiko Amagi
Front Row: Hasbro/Marvel's Greatest Battles Captain Britain, Star Wars Black Series Mace Windu, Heroclix Pete Wisdom

The Wish List: Dolls, Figures and... throw pillows?

I haven't been making any major collection purchases this summer (in part because of all the travelling), but every now and then a preorder item pops up somewhere and catches my eye - and just these week there have been several, so I thought I'd take a break from sorting through the older items in my mother's basement and share a few upcoming items that I'm watching.

Photo credit.

First up is a re-release of Soom's Chrom, with brown tan as one of the resin options.  He's on their Super Gem body which, while not their largest, is still 65cm tall - and I've been holding off on adding any SD+ sized dolls to my collection for three years now.  Still, I've admired this sculpt before, so it's tempting.

He'll be available for pre-order through the end of the month, so I have time to think it over.








Next up is Titan's upcoming (January 2015) release of a series of Dragon Age mini figures, to be sold as blind bags (or boxes).  I'm generally grumpy about the idea of blind bags over the price of $2, but knowing my ridiculous fondness for the Dragon Age games (and the franchise as a whole) that fan-feeling is probably going to get the better of me.

Photo credit

I didn't follow SDCC this year (aside from checking for a couple of game demos), but when I noticed the new Monster High Vandala Doubloons, she ended up on my watch list as well (both because I like the pirate concept, and because she needs to join the figure-with-prosthesis collection).

 And then last night I came across this Captain Britain throw pillow over on Studio6.  It might not be my favourite piece of fan art, but I can't help but think that it would look fantastic in my Captain Britain-themed guest room...

Photo Credit

And finally just this morning I was scanning recent posts over at toyhaven and discovered that Fewture/ArtStorm is putting out three figures based on characters from Fringe.  I was slow to get into that show (I'm currently working my way through season 4), and I'd always wondered why there wasn't more merchandise.

The Olivia isn't a great likeness, but the other two look decent.

And that's it!  At least for now...

Out of the Box: Monster High Jane Boolittle

She's purple! 
Who doesn't love a purple doll, right?

Just a short post today, but remember when I said my Clawd Wolf would be my lone Monster High doll?  Seems that was a lie (or at least an overly optimistic view of my collecting self-control), because somehow Jane Boolittle and her pet sloth have found their way onto my shelf!

I won't go into too much detail, since she has the standard MH body and style, but I will say that I'm very impressed with the bright colours they used on this one, and on the detail of her accessories.  She came with a staff (which doubles as a pen), a very cute purse/suitcase, and her adorable squishy sloth.  The sloth itself is probably what sold me on this set.

"Needles" the sloth

The girl and her sloth

Lone Wolf (Monster High Clawd Wolf)

Checking out the doll groups on flickr is always dangerous, and while I've always considered it lucky (for my wallet at least) that I hadn't fallen for the Monster High dolls it was probably only a matter of time before one caught my eye.

It was a boy wolf doll that grabbed me, and a quick google showed him to be "Clawd Wolf", the brother of the girl werewolves that I've seen so much of.  Unfortunately he also seemed to be harder to find and more prone to doubling in price on the secondary market, and I was on the verge of giving up when I happened across a listing that didn't have much of an increase over the retail price, and thus did the wolf make his way here (along with his vampire girlfriend, who came in the set).

Since it was my first time buying a Monster High doll, I was excited to see how they were packed - and I have to say I was impressed.  My general experience of unpacking kid-aimed dolls has been of needing to cut through piles upon piles plastic tabs and layer upon layer of sticky tape, but this set surprised me - one layer of plastic and some minimal tabs and soft elastic.  Brilliant!

The clothing is decent - well cut with good use of colour, and I like that the stands seem to work reasonably well with these dolls outfits (although I understand that that's often not the case with this line).   I'm neither impressed nor disappointed with the accessories - I feel like they'd be quickly lost in a play situation and yet they're not really detailed enough for display pieces.  Still, they're a nice touch and certainly work with the theme of the set.

The pose-ability of these dolls is well-known, but even so I was impressed by how expressive the arm movements make these dolls - they really do have an extraordinary level of pose-ability.  I'm also quite fond of the paint work on the eyes - they're much more detailed than I'd expected.

A final surprise was the hair on Draculaura - it's much softer than it looks in the box!  I'm still not sure what I'm going to do with her (she's not really to my taste), but the hair makes me tempted to keep her and turn her into a project doll!