But I opened these a week or so ago and finally go up the nerve to try to edit the pics again.
Eugh.
So, new Monster High characters for the season. Whoo?
Lorna and Marisol are the two new characters from the Exchange line, so our two newest "non animated special" characters.
I got mine from Amazon.co.uk using vouchers I had left over from christmas, they're retailing at a rather eyewatering £21:99 in several places, though some stores have seen an iota of sense and dropped that to £19:99.
Still, it's nothing on the £23:99 Haunted price tag, but we'll talk about that when we get to the Haunted dolls.
Can I just say... I really... really... omg really hate hate hate these new plastic boxes. I HATE THEM. Seriously Mattel, there's no way these are better for the environment nor are they easier to open, they're nasty horrible sharp things that slice and snap fingers and are just awful in every possible way. They're disgusting and a children's toy packaging should NOT HURT THE CHILD. These boxes are a hazard as far as i'm concerned, the amount of damage i've done to my fingers pulling those razor sharp little tabs.
I shouldn't injure myself opening a fricken toy. Get your shit together Mattel, these boxes are vile.
-_-
Rant aside, the boxes are orange... ish? with a school hallway behind the character and then a big illustration of the character to one side. There's a bunch of stamps from various places included in the line. Monster Picchu, Madread and so on. There's some stamps not spoken for (Hexico, Goreway, Ghosta ricca) which presumably tie in with the second wave of these that's supposed to come out... at... some... point?
There's a little symbol of a diary telling me the book that's poking out is "included" just in case I missed the bright blue and pink booklet... uh... thanks?
The back of the boxes has giant portraits. Lorna's is a bit scary, she looks kinda pyschotic.
I think the US boxes have bios on the back too, but yeah... not the case for these ones. Just giant scary staring Lorna instead.
Eeep.
They're on the side of the box too. There's no escape from Lorna's scary huge face and blank soulless grin. HEEEELP!
The top of the box has this on it. I think it's telling me the stand and brush are inside this triangular gap in the packaging, like the EAH boxes. Hmmm.
Anyway, let's start with Lorna.
Her doll thankfully is far less terrifying than her artwork. Jesus that artwork... *shudder*
The new boxes have an entirely plastic front cover that pops off by pulling out the razor sharp tabs. It is much the same as the old card boxes, only with added slicing plastic bits to demand blood.
I found using a pencil to jab into the slots in the tabs and shoving worked better than risking my fingers.
But then there's a problem... how do I get into the cavity with the stand?
Behind the portrait (which is a flap of card) there's a hole showing the stand taped in there. Hello stand! How do I get you out!??
I finally figured out that I had to open the card spine of the box which wasn't actually very easy to do as it was taped to hell. Then inside the stand is taped several times into this very narrow little cavity. So you have to yank it off and yeah... it tore the box a bit.
Eugh. What the heck was wrong with the old card loop that held the stand in place? Why the secret compartment and so much tape?
Have people been nicking stands or something? So we gotta all suffer hard to locate and extract stands?
After completely taking the stupid box apart, putting it back together again wasn't very fun. I keep my boxes, as do a lot of people, but these new ones make that sort of behaviour a huge chore.
While we're talking about boxes, those diaries the dolls appear to be holding? Yeaaah.. they're part of the packaging. They're just a flat piece of card with nothing on the back. Previously this sort of thing would have been a teeny accessory but Mattel is cheaping out massively on us now and expecting more for less. It's quite frustrating.
A little play passport would have been cute and honestly, would it have been that expensive to make?
Ahh whatever.
Instead each character has a unique backdrop... because um... that was necessary? I mean it's cute and all, but for a box they seem to expect you to trash in order to open, one has to ask.. what is the point? Why bother creating unique graphics for all four dolls but then not giving them actual passports to put into their luggage? Just... feels like a strange choice of where to spend the money you know?
Anyway, Lorna's background has a bunch of lockers with celtic knots and her locker contents includes a set of bagpipes.
Here's everything that's actually in the box.
The doll, stand and brush, a bag and a booklet.
The booklet is a piece of crap, one paragraph and a bio repeated over and over in different languages. Eugh. Stupid international versions.
Now, what's especially frustrating here is that SOME uk stores have the full US versions, others have the international, and some have a mix of the two. So it's really pot luck finding the full version and adds an extra element to an already irritating search. So many stores are yet to even put these dolls on the shelves, I haven't yet seen them available anywhere except online.
If you're buying online like I did, tough luck chump, you're likely to end up with the crappy international version whether you want it or not.
(I emailed Mattel and moaned, they sent me the full diaries, but I shouldn't HAVE to email Mattel and complain at them. We shouldn't get these stupid half arsed diaries in the first place. Nobody likes them and i'm pretty sure even if it wasn't my first language, i'd prefer full content I could google translate than one page in my native tongue.
Lorna's bag does open, thankfully. but it feels cheap and flimsy particularly compared to many of the other Monster High bags. It's also a really strange size, too big to be a handbag and too small to be proper luggage size like the scaris roll bags. It's just not practical for display so back in the box it goes.
but here she is, Lorna!
She's a cute little thing.
her skin has a sort of pearly sheen to it, particularly her face which seems slightly glittery even. Seems appropriate for a sea monster.
She has big poofy red hair with a darker section tied up in a strangely babyish top-knot. I dunno, this hairdo seems a bit 5 year old to me, not 14.
The top section is gelled while the rest isn't, so the top sits in a fat clump while the rest of her hair tumbles down in messy curls.
For a curly haired doll, I don't think Lorna's box hair is really too bad. It's flat at the back but all things considered, it's not bad at all.
The top section is a lovely deep orange colour while the rest is a sort of peachy orange tone with lighter streaks of peach. I ran a brush through it and it doesn't really frizz like I thought it might, so bonus!
Lorna's face sculpt is sweet, she has a very straight very sharp nose which is unusual. Her ears are dragony fins and one side has this viney... kelpy? chain earring wrapping around it.
Her eyes are a lovely sea blue colour and she has pale orange eyebrows. Nice to see eyebrows that match hair lol.
Her eyes are quite round and rimmed with a thin line of pink and then thick rings of grey.
She has pink lips with two little tusky fangs.
She also has a slightly longer than normal neck.
Her outfit consists of a little red blouse with capped sleeves, a sort of belt harness thing and a kilt-like skirt.
The blouse has dashed lines and crosses on it, maybe a map reference? and her skirt has a broad plaid with Nessie silhouettes rising up out of waves.
interestingly, some of the panels feature multiple Nessie heads, one larger than the other. Adult and child? Male and female? Who knows.
The skirt is designed to look like a wrap around skirt but isn't actually one.
(more outfit photos)
(photo of sole of shoe)
Her body has scale texturing and intricate celtic knotwork all over her belly. I'm not entirely sure WHY she has celtic knotwork on her tummy as it doesn't make a lot of sense, but it's cool looking detailing non-the-less.
Her hands are webbed but unlike Lagoona, her webbing is solid not translucent. I dunno, it makes me think of the create a monsters and feels a bit cheap to me. The clear webbing made the doll feel more finished, without it I feel like Lorna's hands look not quite done.
I wonder if perhaps painting them a little darker would help to differentiate them from her fingers. Hmmm..
She has a tail as well, which has a finned end and unlike the werecat tails and Jinafire's, doesn't seem quite so eager to pop out and get lost. Thank goodness.
Her top knot annoyed me so I took it down and brushed it into the rest of her hair. I prefer this, she looks less like a little girl now.
Seriously, only toddlers wear top knots Mattel, not teenagers.
Annoyingly her little hat was plastic stapled into her head and had to be removed to take her hair down. That means it doesn't go back on, but a bit of elastic from the box wrapped around her head and voila, it's back in place.
Still, would a strap have killed you mattel? These are fashion dolls, they're supposed to be redressed! you can't give them clothing items that cannot be put back on once they're removed! that's insane!
Here's Lorna and Twyla. Lorna uses the little sister body mould, though her shoes are quite platformed and her neck is just a teeny fraction longer which makes her seem a bit taller.
I massively prefer Lorna with her hair down. Her outfit is cute, her hair is actually nice quality and she has a sweet face. But she does suffer from Mattel's cost cutting. Her hands feel unfinished, her hat can't go back on once you take it off unless you find an elastic band (and it'll never look quite right) and her box is a nightmare that makes me honestly reluctant to open more of them.
Opening these boxes is now a chore and I hate it.
it means the others are likely to remain in their plastic prisons a little longer while I summon the courage to tackle the razor sharp tabs again.
I do like Lorna, and it's about time we got a Loch Ness Monster character. The orange and green colouring is an interesting and unusual combo but it works (and i'm a sucker for orange). Her character is amusing (photobombing hahaha) and her tail actually stays on... which is a bonus.
Her stand however doesn't work because her belt is in the way. It pushes the belt out of place and that really irritates me. (also the belt thing doesn't like to stay clasped shut, grr)
Like Lorna, Marisol came with a stand and brush hidden inside a cavity in the box, her box demanded blood and she also came with a crappy international diary with only two paragraphs of english in it. -_-
Her box art I didn't get an image of actually, I was too annoyed with the box by that point. The lockers have sort of Mesoamerican patterns on them and her open locker contains some books and... I don't know, some sort of bag.
oh, and a bag i'll never use:
It also opens and it has giant feet on it, but it's a strange size and feels cheap so nope.. back in the box.
Marisol though... she's a striking doll. Her face mould is unusual and very strong. She has a squared jaw which is very uncommon with female dolls, and big bushy eyebrows that immediately endear her to me.
Her skin tone is difficult to photograph. I thought she was going to be more a puce sort of colour but she's actually a deep brownish purple, she's an unusual tone that's for sure.
Her eyes are a similar colour, a purpley brown.
She tends to photograph a lot lighter than she really is.
Her eyes are rimmed with line green and bright pink, and her eyebrows have thick clear hairs which I like. Her lips are wide and she has a sweet little smile, with not much in the way of a chin.
Her hair is deep fushia with darker streaks. There are two lime green sections braided at the front.
Her hair is disappointing, not because of the colour, but because it's so flat and lifeless. In the animation she's has "BIG" hair, in fact, she makes a huge deal about her big hair, it's a major characteristic of her design so her doll having such flat hair is hugely wrong to me.
Unfortunately her hair isn't really very thickly rooted, so it just hangs limply. I considered curling it to give it volume, but wasn't sure how much that would really help.
She has a hat on a headband which is plastic stapled into her head like Lorna's. And just like Lorna's, it doesn't stay on once you clip those tabs. The headband is a bit too short to really hold onto her head so I had to elastic band it in place. *sigh* Seriously? I don't recall this sort of issue with any of the dolls previously.
She has indents in her ears but no earrings. Random.
Marisol's outfit is garish and I love it. Her jumper is bright orange with blue stripes and a traditional looking pattern. Under that she wears what looks like it SHOULD be a shirt and skirt, but is in fact a one piece dress. BOOOO.
This severely limits mixing and matching possibilities but also you're left with this unattractive seam down the middle and the whole thing just doesn't quite look finished. She needs a belt to hide that seam.
Her hair braids have little plastic tassles at the ends. they're a bit chunky and bulky to be honest, fabric tassles would have looked better but oh well, they work I suppose.
Marisol's hands are large, clawed and fuzzy. She has moulded on hair all the way up to her elbow. LOVE it.
Likewise her feet have moulded fur around the ankles and are ENORMOUS.
Her shoes are bright pink opened toes things that show off her clawed toes,
Marisol's hands look like scaled up Abbey hands, with added fuzz. Or Casta's... with added fuzz lol.
Her feet are substantially larger than regular Monster High feet and are quite a different shape too. Her eyes for a start begin further up the foot and the top of the foot curves outward. These are amazingly sculpted feet, I really want to paint those toenails.
This is about the best image I could get of her true skin tone.
Marisol is on the big sister body, but with altered feet so she actually stands even taller
She dwarfs poor Abbey.
She came with a standard stand though, which is ONLY JUST long enough. Phew.
(you can see the belt I got her) Overall she's a striking doll, but her outfit feels unfinished. Her hat doesn't stay on without the packaging ties and the plastic tassels in her hair get in the way constantly. Her hair doesn't live up to her character design AT ALL and she just overall feels a little... basic for the price point.
Yes her body sculpting is beautiful and amazing, and I do really love her character as this body positive sorta girl. I love that she's a big hairy girl and still treated as beautiful. This resonates with me SOOO MUCH like, you have no idea.
I just feel like for the price point, poor Marisol feels a little... budgety. Both dolls have details missing that really bug me, and it's a shame.
I like both dolls but both need a little tlc to be looking truely "right" to my eye.
Mattel really need to get better at making headgear that can STAY ON damnit. How is that hard? They always managed it previously. And while I love how much they're playing around with sculpted body details and different body sizes, i'm not convinced the thinner rooting and simpler outfits is really the right trade off.
Worth the £19:99 + in the UK? Not convinced.
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