#monster high knockoffs

[teatime-tangents-and-toys]

Two years ago, I took a look at the Mystixx doll line, which blatantly imitated Monster High while introducing a compellingly weird "human to monster" transformation gimmick with two-faced heads and wigs. I took a Mystixx doll, put her on a Monster High body (you'll never believe whose) and customized her into a Jekyll/Hyde character. Read the full review, discussion, and customization process here.

[spookberry]

had this dream that these two weirdly high quality g3 knockoff dolls went viral on twitter, so obvi I tried to draw as much as i could remember of them

[dat2ndaccount97]

Guys help i'm kind of obsessed with this Fake/Knockoff Doll she's so cute and her gimmick is really cool!!

[abominableabbey]

And here she is! The $5 walmart Skelita knockoff, wearing the disney ily 4ever haunted mansion fashion pack

Her name is Mona Lisa Gravebones (you can blame my friend James for the Lisa part, and my friend Hyl helped pick the last name)

[finisnihil]

If you are writing/designing for something based off Greek Mythology and you give Apollo fire hair I will send an eagle to eat your liver

[cloverlink]

y'know what? fuck it *creates a secret society but it's just adults playing with dolls in secret hangouts*

[adi-dolls]

this post from @eileenguy changed my life btw

[travistoys]

Actually no I'm gonna say it. The Tiffany doll looks like she's dressed as "Wife of Killer Doll" from Party City.

[coconutcows]

The fact that you can’t buy Monster High parts is super stupid, especially considering Gen1 style dolls are available again.

There’s no way they are that expensive to make, they’re in production again (some anyway), I’d pay at least a dollar a pair, I’ve got at least ten missing arms, the only other place I know to get replacement arms for anywhere near reasonable is Ali Express and I *know* there’s no guarantee you’ll get them from there (I got my father to order knockoff Wydowna and some shoes and bodies from there before and they never came)

[mortaljoy]

redid my doll shelf!!

[englishknightsky]

a moth girlie to add to my collection 🥰

[sparrowlucero]

thoughts on The Sea Beast 2022 (if youve seen it)

when I was ever so briefly at netflix for concept work that movie was in pre production (?) and I was actually hoping they'd put me on it, they did not 😅

but yeah I like it! weirdly I find the first third of the movie (when they're killing the dragons) way more engaging, the tone and pacing falls off a bit once they befriend the sea monster. Kind of goes from "traditional high seas adventure movie" to "cute kids movie where not a ton happens"; if they had kept up that former tone while still telling a story about a sea monster hunter realizing the value of conservation when he befriends one of the monsters, it would be a 10/10. Oh well, still pretty good for what it is.

Creature design wise, I think a lot of the concepts for the titular sea beast are a lot more cool and charming. It feels very possible they just couldn't render markings or complex details because of the size of the character? Who knows.

The final design never really escapes the knockoff toothless look to me. I guess it's a bit hard to do a toothed whale inspired dragon with front facing eyes that doesn't look a bit like that, but yeah, it doesn't quite click and feel like it's own thing.

also i hate the way it walks on its flippers. I think they wanted to avoid having it look awkward like a seal and accidentally made it look way worse

am i being too mean here or does the way it walks look crazy stupid to everyone else

[lobautumny]

Alright, guess this toy's gonna talk about Palworld, because it's seen Discourse™️ start to crop up about how "supporting the game is immoral because it's stealing designs from Pokemon!"

Now look, this toy's not about to sit here and tell you that all of the monster designs in Palworld are completely original and the game isn't, on some level, a bootleg. Obviously a lot of the designs are bootleg pokemon. That's not the point it wants to get at. The point is that it doesn't really matter.

First of all, nobody is being hurt by Palworld having knockoff pokemon among the ranks of its monsters. Game Freak is not some tiny indie developer struggling to make ends meet having their work unfairly co-opted by a big, bad corporation. Pokemon is, in fact, the largest, most profitable media franchise of all time, and Palworld is an indie game. The reason that something like this would hypothetically be scummy/shitty is if someone were taking someone else's work, changing it slightly, claiming it as their own, and thus depriving the original creator of credit/visibility that they should've had. But that literally can't happen here, because everyone already knows what Pokemon is. So unless it gets found that they're stealing designs from fakemon artists or something (there was one alleged instance, but it seems to have just been a coincidence of two different people having the idea of "what if Chimecho but with big, bulky arms?"), Palworld is hurting nobody through having bootleg designs, so the moral argument against the game falls flat.

With that out of the way, there's a much more interesting topic to discuss here: Why is it that when someone's fangame gets C&D'd, everyone immediately jumps to the creator's support, accurately assessing that our copyright system is broken and primarily serves to hurt independent artists, but the moment a developer makes the changes necessary to make sure their fangame doesn't get hit with a C&D (and to allow them to make money off of it), it's suddenly bad and cringe and unoriginal?

The argument that "Palworld is lazy and unoriginal and therefore bad because the monster designs are too similar to Pokemon's designs" is something that this toy would be willing to hear out if Palworld were a turn-based singles-format RPG with similar systems/overall structure to those found in Pokemon games, but, uh. It isn't. It's a third-person shooter with monster-catching mechanics and, like, Factorio-ass automation and base-building, from what this toy can tell. And it doesn't know if the game is good, as someone who has not played it (or even really seen gameplay of it), but it can absolutely tell you that the game's not lazy.

Sure, they could have done more to make the monster designs feel more unique, and that's absolutely a valid criticism for the game. This toy doesn't want to come across like it's saying otherwise. It just wants people to recognize that that's kind of a nitpick when the game is, on a mechanical and genre level, something completely different from anything any Pokemon game ever has been or ever will be, and that nobody would be complaining about laziness or a lack of originality if this came out as a fangame literally just using actual pokemon. In that reality, people would've been popping off at how high-effort it is, actually. And like, even putting money aside, this game literally could not exist as a fangame. A while back, someone uploaded some videos on Youtube showcasing a fangame they were developing that was an FPS where the enemies were pokemon. They got hit with a C&D and their Youtube account was terminated within a couple days of the videos being uploaded. The game was not monetized, and in fact, never even had a download link, to this toy's recollection. Palworld would have suffered the same exact fate if it wasn't its own IP.

[abominableabbey]

Waiting for the outfit I bought for her to arrive but in the meantime I found this sweater in my bjd clothes box

Also her name is Mona

[girlymobilegamearchive]

MONSTER HIGH

CURRENT GAME LIST: MINIS MANIA, GHOULS AND JEWELS, MONSTER MAKER, FRIGHTFUL FASHION

KNOCKOFF GAME LIST: MONSTER SALON, MEMORY GAME, HOUSE CLEAN, QUIZ GAME, DRESS UP, DOLLS DRESSUP

INSTRUCTIONS BELOW:

MINIS MANIA INSTRUCTIONS (Developed by Animoca; Files sourced from Apkpure) :

Prepare your ears for a nightcore remix of the frightsong being played on repeat. It has near identical game play to Tea Party Dash. Minis Mania was actually released after Tea Party Dash, so it is interesting that Mattel made an eah game before a mh one and remade it but monsterized.

MONSTER SALON INSTRUCTIONS (Developed by Sagemcom Ca; Files sourced from Uptodown) :

OK, so unless you have an android device running 7 or less, the game won't even install, let alone run. The game asks you to connect to a server, and it is safe to connect to select connect. The game runs extremely slow and doesn't respond at times. Also, Draculaura does have a system for liking her hairstyle, but I don't know what hairstyle she wants.

GHOULS AND JEWELS (Developed by BluBox Games; Files sourced from ApkCombo) :

This app was built for Android 8. It won't install if you have anything above that. Before you start, just make sure to turn off the game reading your contact list. This is a match 3 game so not the most interesting thing ever, but you do get to use the coins you make from matching to dress up your character and at some point get to use some of the g1 ghouls as avatar.

MONSTER MAKER (Developed by FRIMA Studios; Sourced from ApkCombo) :

This game is for android 5, but I've gotten it to work as high a 7. This is a doll making game and has incredible esthetics. It has pretty in-depth customizing. The game runs insanely slowly. It has a built-in tutorial that also runs very slowly. You do have to drag body parts onto the doll rather than just clicking them, which is odd but you'll get used to it. ALSO, apparently if you have the actual create a monster printer you can connect it to your device and actually print your designs! Which is incredibly cool. I don't have the create a monster printer but if you do definitely check it out!

MEMORY GAME (Unknown Developer; Files sourced from Uptodown) :

Android 7 or lower is required. Not too much to say it's a memory game. It does have a leader board which is as far as I can tell just against yourself. I'd also be fairly cautious with this game as it's one of the more permission heavy games. So make sure to go into settings and disable any permissions before you play.

FRIGHTFUL FASHION (Developed by Budge Studios; Files sourced from Uptodown) :

Runs with modern and old versions of android. This game has a couple more steps to get running. You will need the apk installer for this one. It runs ok. It has some things you need to buy with real money. Obviously, don't buy those, or you'll get scammed.

HOUSE CLEAN (Unknown Developer; Files sourced from Uptodown) :

Android 7 or lower is required. This game has absolutely nothing to do with Monster High. It just has the brand attached to it, so it feels weird calling it a knockoff its more just IP infringement. Aside from that, this is the most stressful house cleaning game I've very played. Also the most infuriating and headache inducing. Play at your own risk. It actually runs well and doesn't have an in app purchases (or credits in game.) Make sure to turn the audio off in the the home "menu". The game also doesn't save your progress.

GUESS THE MH QUIZ (Developed by Gamers Dream Studio; Files sourced from APKPure) :

So this is an Android 7 device or lower NO MATTER WHAT thing. The developer codes ads loading in a way that absolutely breaks anything about an Android 7. It's the same bug mentioned in the enchantimals post. So, absolutely do not play on modern Android. Aside from that , it plays like wordle but for monster high characters.

DRESS UP (Developed by DressUpWho; Files sourced from APKPure) :

This is the first game I've encountered that is directly claiming to be a fan game. Although, if that was accurate, I do not believe they would have whitewashed Clawdeen. This game is a fairly simple flash esqe game that I suspect is the mobile port of a flash game. The name of the game suggests that EAH characters are present, yet there are none. I'm pretty sure EAH is only in the title to boost the game in search results. Most outfits seem to be either generic outfits or be outfits from popular MH dolls. The game does claim to be incompatible with modern android but seems to work perfectly fine with Android 14 (It may break with Android 15). Id recommend muting the audio as it plays about 20 seconds of We Are the Monstars on loop. The audio also plays when you have closed the game but it still appears in your recents. To get it to stop, simply hit the "Close all" button.

DOLLS DRESSUP (Files sourced from APKPure) :

Another flash port game that claims to be incompatible with modern android. (may not work with Android 15 but works fine with 14) There is a play and pause button in the top left corner of the screen that I think should play audio, however, Ive never been able to get it to play audio. The game seems to be unable to properly fill the screen and displays a white bar at the bottom. Sometimes, the game reports to be "Loading Ads ..." yet no ads ever played for me. This may be because Im missing some Google Play Services or it may be the game just not being able to play ads. So, your ad experience may very. Id also recommend you be weary of the ad orientation bug that effects games created by Gamers Dream Studios, If you play on modern android and an ad loads, the orientation of your device may start rapidly changing in a clockwise direction. If you encounter this, simply restart your device and I strongly recommend that you stop playing.

[littlefluffbutt]

No Procrastinating November: Day 21 Meet Brittany! (like the spaniel, I'm so punny)

Brittany's head is Pumpkin, Cinderella's dog from the Palace Pets line and her body is an Equestria Girls Rarity. The body is not as articulated as I would've liked (no knee or wrist joints) but I like this body's proportions better with her head than a Monster High body. Her outfit is also Rarity's lol.

Her face is adorable! I just wish I could keep her bangs out of the way...

I didn't want Missy (VIP dog head on knockoff Barbie body) to be lonely so that's how Brittany came about lol.

I think they look cute together:)