#there’s a lot of g1 dolls I have that could use it…

[lemonyfrog]

Cleaned up Gigi and Draculaura earlier! I’m too tired to clean the rest up, but doing their hair was fun (especially Gigi’s) 🧡🩷🧡

[rarepairqueenmochi]

Monster High and East Asian Representation

Alright MH fans, we need to have a semi-serious conversation about how East Asian rep has been handled in the franchise. Representation itself has been a big point of conversation in the community, so it's important to talk about all of its aspects. The good, the bad, and the ill-conceived.

For context, I am an East Asian-American who has seen time and time again her culture be misrepresented, boiled down to stereotypes, and even mocked by other Asian cultures. Am I the all-time expert? Absolutely not, which is why I encourage other East Asian/Asian-American fans to give their comments about the franchise's handling of Asian characters.

Now then, we'll start with G1 since it probably has some of the most infamous pieces of representation

There is a lot to unpack with G1 Jinafire's design and personality. Not only the choice of golden skin, the misguided outfit choices, and emphasis on honor and discipline, but also the oriental riff often accompanying her in every backing scene. Highly encourage people to look into the Asian Dragon Lady stereotype, because unfortunately, that is what Jinafire is.

It is acknowledgeable that Jinafire's voice actress, Stephanie Sheh, is also Chinese, but there is still error with her character as a whole. Jinafire was personally one of the first Asian characters in media that I was introduced too, so it's upsetting to reflect on how negative her character design is.

Shibooya is... not great. The exchange program as a whole feels like a minefield of issues (though I don't have much liberty to discuss the other transfers), and this one especially rubbed me the wrong way. They gave the vampires of Shibooya yellow skin, and the doll is supposed to kimono-inspired while hardly even resembling one.

Harajuku style was right there and easily fit the fashions of Monster High. There are also a number of Japanese yokai that could've been featured within the short and would have likely been better representation than the vampires.

Kiyomi is okay, and certainly an improvement compared to the previous G1 characters. She's based off the Noppera-bo, aka the faceless ghost, and it's used decently in her design. However, her personality is boiled down into being shy, quiet, and reserved, which is a stereotype many Asian girls face under the name "Lotus Blossoms". She even has blossoms on her dress sleeves, and her outfit again is a loose interpretation of a kimono.

There are a number of modern Japanese outfit designs that could be used, and kimonos are often associated with modesty and respect. Kimonos are not meant to be revealing in any way, covering the body in full and being intricately wrapped. I personally take issue with the designers noting her chains meaning to resemble the sailor collar, which is used in middle school uniforms, not high school uniforms.

Kiyomi is, of course, hardly mentioned and refined to a movie role, in which she copies and mimics the personality/style of an European character.

Now onto G3!

Honestly, nothing really to critique here! Draculaura's been canonically been confirmed to be at least half-Taiwanese and speaks Mandarin. Now would it be nicer to get more appearances of her culture other than a couple throw-away lines? Yes it would, but there isn't anything really negative about this portrayal. I think it'd be interesting if Draculaura had a Taiwanese name she went by around her mother, or just casual moments of her eating scallion pancakes or aiyu jelly.

aaaaaand here's where we automatically fall back on representation. This may not seem that major to people, but considering this is the first Japanese character we get in G3, it's not great. Points for the writers looking past the most common yokai, but I don't know any person that wants to be represented by an animal.

I really do need people to realize how this is compared to the other characters. I wasn't initially reactive to Kuma's introduction until I realized they were making him a consistent character. Considering we don't have many other anthro/fully monstrous characters, and they chose to make him the Japanese representation doesn't seem right. Especially since they gave him the lead in the cultural appropriation vs. appreciation episode. An excellent episode, but it loses some sentiment coming from a literal bear.

Plus I would implore you all to rewatch Horrorscare and take a close look at the Japanese water dragon Pearl. And I'll remind you she exists in the same world as Jinafire.

now this is what I'm talking about! Not only has the skin issue been resolved, but the creators took a step in the right direction and made Jinafire more akin to Chinese dragons, who are often connected to storms and rain. Her outfit is also much more akin to street fashion in China. I still wish there was more to see with Jinafire's character, but she absolutely an improvement to her G1 iteration!

Well that's a lot to unpack there! Again, I am in no way the expert on East Asian representation and I'm going to miss some things. I encourage other fans to think about these characters and how you feel about them, and maybe even point out things I missed, good or bad! I did this simply out of my own feelings and wanted to see if anyone else felt the same.

[inkabelledesigns]

Belladonna Nightshade - Halloween Dark Fairy

Base Doll: G3 Twyla from Monster High Clothing Pattern: Dollightful's Asymmetrical Dress (read to the end, I have notes about this)

Happy Halloween everyone! Since becoming a doll customizer, my Halloween dolls are usually related to my favorite indie horror game, Bendy and the Ink Machine. However, seeing as I've completed two Bendy dolls already this year, I felt it was time to give myself a break and try something a bit different. My friends over in DollyAnna's Discord server wanted to do a collaboration, so we decided to all make some Dark Fairies for Halloween!

Belladonna Nightshade is a mischievous fae that loves to play tricks and tempt mortals. That said, she's easily bribed with a sweet treat or two, and will usually let you be if you have a little candy or pastry to give her. I haven't decided what I want to do with her yet in terms of a story, but there is a part of me that would love to have her in my Equinox story.

When you consider the fact that most of my other Halloween dolls are black and yellow, it's no surprise she ended up super colorful. XD Would you believe this is my first doll with rainbow hair? Yeah neither did I, but she is! Part of my style is having really colorful and vibrant dolls, it surprises a lot of people that I've never done a rainbow before, but honestly? I'm glad to have finally tackled one! I'm also glad to have worked with another G3. Twyla is very near and dear to my heart, and I was so psyched to work with her mold! You can't see it in any of these photos, but I used glow in the dark varnish on her eyes and neon markings, so that her eyes still glow like the original. I will say, this doll has a lot more acrylic paint than my others, just by the nature of I don't have any pencils in neon colors. It was nice to get the practice in, I feel more confident than I did before in my brush skills. It was also nice to have a doll with dark scleras for a change! I haven't done that since I made Dreamer, it's surprisingly fun to draw on!

I was inspired by a LOT of different things with this one, and I went back and forth on my concepts a lot. Black light skeleton make-up, butterflies, fairies with non-traditional wings, candy, jesters, these were all sources of inspiration, and I think most obviously of all, Dollightful herself. This wasn't intentional, but I ended up using a doll of one of her favorite characters, with a lot of saturated colors which we know she loves, and even her dress pattern! I've been wanting to make this garment for ages, and finally I had a reason to try it!

So those of you who know how this pattern works are probably asking "Kat, how did you make this fit a G3? This dress is supposed to fit a G1 Monster High doll!" Believe it or not, Requiem Arts has a method for easily adjusting G1 patterns to fit G3 bodies. It's as simple as scaling a pattern up to 104% and printing it that way. It's meant for her garments, but I don't see any reason why it wouldn't work for other doll patterns. So I tried it with Katherine's dress, and I'm happy to say it worked out just fine! I think I probably should have adjusted a bit more on the skirt though. This outfit is essentially two pieces, and the skirt with all the ruffles is a little tight around the booty, it could have used a little more sizing up. So if you own this pattern and want to try this yourself, do keep that in mind!

Do let me know what you think! I had so much fun working on Belladonna, she's so vibrant and fun, I wanna try more fairies like her someday. I also need to try using props more. I got these pumpkins and hay bales on sale, and it was fun using them to craft a little temporary set for photos.

[ghostlymarauder]

MONSTER HIGH G3 IS NOT AS INCLUSIVE AS MONSTER HIGH G1

EDIT: THIS IS JUST A RANT, DON'T TAKE IT SO SERIOUSLY LOL

Maybe that sounds crazy. Maybe it's been said a million times. Anyway, I'm just ranting about my 3 am thoughts.

I know in G3 we have non-binary Frankie (who also has a prosthetic leg), and the Draculaura doll is more curvy. But as far as I'm concerned, they took everything else that made Monster High inclusive.

For starters, and I know it was never actually confirmed, but still, Clawdeen is lesbian (bisexual at best). Once again, it was never confirmed, but in my opinion is a theory popular enough for the Monster High management to hear about it.

If they really wanted to make it more inclusive, why did they not confirm Clawdeen sexuality and give her a female romantic interest?

No, they had to break up one of their best couples. This leads me to my next point, what the fuck are Cleo and Deuce doing being separated?

The first G1 dolls literally came as a package. If you got one, you got the other. That's how much of an obvious couple they were. And not only that, in the Boo York movie, they broke up for like five minutes before realizing they didn't want to be without each other.

Which, in my opinion, it's so fucking cute because they come from completely different worlds. Cleo is royalty, Deuce is just a normal guy. Cleo is a little too superficial, and Deuce looks like he never showers. But they love each other and that's enough.

And you know who else loved each other and that was enough? Clawd and Draculaura. What do you even mean with "Clawd likes Cleo"? That man was in love with Draculaura, that man would've done anything for her, and you're telling me they also broke them apart?

Especially since they made Draculaura curvy, it would've been beautiful to see them together. Because it would've been a great plot point to have jock, almost-bully Clawd evolve into falling in love with curvy, smart, witchy Draculaura. But no, they just separated them.

On a completely different note. What the fuck is Gil doing without his tank? Do I even have to explain why this is taking inclusivity out of the Monster High concept? He couldn't live without his tank outside the water. Ergo, he was limited without his tank. If you ask me, this is Monster High equivalent to something like hearing aids (and this is just an example, there are many other things you could compare Gil's tank to)

Also, Ghoulia talking bothers me a lot. First of all, she was the smartest of the group, but we couldn't understand what she was saying, which added a lot of comedy since us, the spectators, were only pretending to know what the fuck Ghoulia's plan was. And I repeat, she was the smartest of the group.

The smartest of the group couldn't communicate like everyone else. I won't even explain why that is fascinating in itself, because it just is and it added so much depth to whole story. And to add more to my problem with G3 Ghoulia, why is she standing straight and walking at a regular speed?

Ghoulia standing like a zombie was, again, to me, a form of inclusivity to all the kids out there who had some walking impediment, or, in general, had any chronic illness that stopped them from moving around. And her walking slow as fuck was just straight-up funny (especially that one web episode where she got a motorcycle).

There's a lot of things I do like about G3, as I think it improves the brand in wonderful ways, but they definitely took some of the most essential things that made Monster High what it was.

[dolljunk]

Even though I am very happy to own him due to how sought after he is, he is unfortunately suffering from a few issues I felt I needed to express.

First off, his clothing is not worth the $90 price tag, let alone whatever is going on in the secondary market. Having laser-cut single-sided printed cheap satin for the majority of his outfit is not it, especially since it isn't even separated, unlike other Skullector dolls. I'm genuinely shocked at how low-quality his clothes are since they should have a minimum level of quality. His sleeves aren't tailored correctly; they bunch up a lot, and with the cheap satin, they're heavily wrinkled.

For the price, his waistcoat should have been removable as it was an extraneous design element, and it added bulk to his outfit that shouldn't needed to be added. Mattel's use of the cheap-looking shiny satin is ridiculous as they could use an equally cheap matte cotton fabric instead, which would improve the appearance. Also, the fact it's black print on white fabric means the underside of the coat looks really unfinished, whereas I think a black fabric with white print would have looked much better and suited the animated style better.

With the plastic form to go over his skeleton torso, it isn't shaped like a torso piece, unlike G1 Skelita's plastic piece. Rather, it's an ill-fitting rectangle of plastic that floats about and doesn't sit flush with the torso, so it actually deforms his clothes to the point his pants don't cover his behind. This is just a really poor toy design, plain and simple.

I also do hate that his bowtie clips aren't sculpted to go around far enough around his neck; there isn't enough grip on the neck, so you're dependent on an elastic band to keep the thing in place.

Also, randomly, his torso plate unclips off. There is no glue; nothing attaches it together. There's nothing I can see why this design is here aside from saving money on a manufacturing level, as having it glued together would require more labour costs and more room for error for quality control.

And the most irritating thing is the fact that Jack's head is so squatly shaped that his long neck peg actually deforms the top of his head if you pose it too weirdly, so I ended up having to clip it off before boiling his head to get it to be undeformed.

Like, if I didn't have a very random set of circumstances that led me to own him, I would be very upset at how poorly designed this doll is and that I'm going to have to make my own outfit that meets a level of care that is lacking in this doll.

[sadly-never-after]

I decided to retake an old hobby and start customising dolls for the eah characters who didn’t get a doll (ex. Sparrow, Hopper, Ramona) + some book only characters (Coral, Candy Witch)

Trying to come up with a possible body mold for Nathan will be the end of me. He has to be smaller than Apple White (at his tallest).

As of now I’ve narrowed it down to three possibilities, all of them quite difficult to work with and none of them guarantees a successful doll

Howleen Wolf G1 body mold. I would have to get rid of her boobs and would try to sever the limbs as to give him non heeled feet. However given The Nutcracker is a ballet, maybe I can leave the heeled feet. I would probably paint the body because she is a tad too light skinned for what I imagine Nathan’s complexion to be. Eventually I could try to flatten out some of her curves. Carving on it would be a challenge but it will be a challenge on all bodies.

Clawd Wolf G1 body mold. Pros: dark complexion, a lot leaner than the eah male bodies. Cons: is too tall. I would have to sever his legs and probably torso and arms as well in order to make him shorter.

Clawd Wolf torso, we are giving you your little sisters arms and legs and then we are severing her feet so we can give her legs yours again. We are destroying two dolls in the process but who knows maybe I can use the Howleen torso for the Coral Witch Custom which I’m planning as a possible next challenge.

[mrnnki]

Whats your favorite transformers fic to read?

Favorite fic is definitely a hard choice! There are a lot of fics I really like. I'll list some that weren't on my Starscream-sympathetic reclist. :3

Can't stand him - Continuity soup/nonspecific continuity. Skystar. Mechpreg. Starscream is captured while he's in emergence and tries to hide it.

Optimus on Earth series - TFA. Optimus is the one lost instead of Elita, and he ends up on Earth with no memories.

Megatron doesn't understand Seekers series - Magatron × elite trine. Lots of fanon Seeker stuff, which I love.

Send us a blindfold, send us a blade - This was recommended to me when I shared my previous list and it's amazing!

The sphere of influence - Shattered glass TFOne.

Broken doll - Cold constructs are kept as drones/servants. Skyfire finds Starscream, an injured drone, and tries to save him.

Complicated relations - Earthspark. Soundwave has issues with fuel. CW: EDs.

He's a giver - more TFOne shattered glass! :D

Fractured continuity - TFOne time loop fic focusing on Optimus. Megop.

Light up the night - Continuity soup/fan continuity. Father-son Megatron and Starscream.

And Seekers shall seek - Starscream fucks strangers to cope.

Road to hell, paved - G1. Skyfire captures Starscream, intent on reshaping him.

Fledgling fever - G1, post-war. Skystar. Skyfire, having been trapped under ice when the disease originally circulated, catches fledgling fever. Starscream cares for him.

Tired - G1. Megastar. Starscream attempts to shoot himself using Megatron.

Catastrophe - Starscream adopts a cat.

The end of an era series - Father-son Megatron and Starscream. Starscream falls ill, and while he recovers, Megatron discovers that he himself is terminally ill.

The darkness within - G1. Skyfire joins the Decepticons, and Starscream soon finds that wasn't something he truly wanted.

Hypocrite smiles - Earthspark. Mechpreg. CW: Referenced rape/non-con. Starscream, while held prisoner, hears news he never wanted to hear.

It happened - G1. CW: Rape/non-con. While trapped in a cave, Optimus does something terrible to an unconscious Starscream. It has consequences.

Second chances - Starscream is reborn through Vector Sigma and adopted by Optimus and Ironhide.

Darkest darkness - Optimus has started putting his own life at risk in battle. Starscream notices and tries to pull his out of it, regardless of the cost to himself.

Falling for your own con - Soundstar. Starscream seduces Soundwave so he can dump him, but catches feelings along the way.

All the stars are closer - Starscream dies. He wakes up as a sparkling, and must relive his life.

Meltdown - Earthspark. Megop. Optimus has a meltdown during an interview.

Mutually assured naptime - Ratchet sits on Starscream to force him to rest. This proves beneficial for both parties.

TFA clone fics series - Dadscream, and the Starscream clones! What more could you want?

Exchanging fire - Starscream discovers Jetfire is not who he thought he was. Shattered glass and non-shattered crossover.

Two birds, one cell - Mechpreg. Starscream is captured by the Autobots while unknowingly sparked.

Return me to the stars - TFA. Megop. The Decepticons find Optimus floating in space.

Delicacy - Fanon Seeker stuff. Seekers lay eggs, and many mecha eat them. This has resulted in the formation of a black market.

[taybatwo2]

G3 Hissfits Review Part 2

I covered Toralei in the first post, now time for the werecat twins!

First up: G3 Meowlody. She has a super sweet face

and a new face sculpt (both her and Purrsephone do). She looks a bit different than her animated counterpart.

Taller boots, no extra body stripes, her hair is longer, and she doesn’t have the bracelet. Despite her G1 counterpart being the colder one, G3 switches it and has Meowlody be the sweeter (and a LOT MORE naive) of the two.

She has a lot of separated clothing pieces. I was certain the tube top was going to be attached to her shirt underneath (which snags REALLY easily on the Velcro). Her skirt is a call back to her G1 doll, but I wish they would not have mixed the red and pink colors again.

Here are her accessories. A yarn ball earring, a studded earring and a cute little bell necklace (I love this).

Her boots are really cute! Look at the cat ear buckles and the little yarn ball shoe-laces. I love these more than her animated counterpart’s.

The bottom of shoes have “Meow” for Meowlody and a cat laying down on the other. Now Purrsephone’s turn.

She is totally my favorite. I love her outfit, her boots, her hair style, the colors they used for her, her face sculpt. So good. She is much friendlier than her G1 counterpart (who was already the friendlier of the two in G1), and is more serious and snarky than G3 Meowlody.

Her animated counterpart has more white stripes, more detailed shorts, her boots have more paint on them, longer socks, and her sleeves are a different colors and wider.

Here are her clothing pieces (a bit less than her sister’s). I quite like all of them and their limited color pallet.

Her jewelry! Lots of simple hoops and then a clawed cat paw necklace.

More cute boots. I like the little cat head front and the stripes in the back.

The soles have “purr,” short for Purrsephone and another cat laying down (to match her twin).

Yup, no extra body stripes, which is a shame. They also don’t have toe claws (boooo) like Clawdeen/Toralei/Catty and they have the exact same tails as Toralei (I was hoping that they would flip one of theirs so they could hold tails like their G1 counterparts). Their tails are not removable. Their body type is the exact same as Cleo’s (minus the bandages), while Toralei has the exact same as Clawdeen’s.

More under the cut!

I wanted to switch some of their clothing around to see if I liked it better.

First I switched their shoes to see if having shoes that match more of their color scheme would make me like Purrsephone’s outfit more. Ehhhh……no.

Then I switched their skirt and shorts…I don’t hate it!! Meowlody is trying to convince her sister to keep the red skirt.

Yup, they miiiight stay like this after I wash out their hair. Or I at least need to make a black skirt for Meowlody.

Now onto a quick look at the accessories the Hissfits pack comes with:

That’s a lot of pieces!

Many of these molds we have already seen, but they’re still cute and coordinated with what the dolls are wearing.

More snacks!!! I like the little details they put on these. On mine, the stickers on the tuna and the water bottle will NOT stay on.

Their paperboard poster. It’s even signed by the band mates and is not too terribly pixilated.

They have three detailed hangers.

The guitars got flipped molds of each other (so why couldn’t they do the same for their tails?!?). They are very light and very hollow, but have colorful fronts.

My Catty (she’s still in the middle of getting a full head of micro braids). Is trying on the band’s merch and the shirt fits great! She might not give back that boa.

Another look at the gym bag. It has so many details on it!! It has the Hissfits cat logo on one side (and a gold feather).

And it’s curled up tail on the other side?!? I love that detail!

But my surprise favorite accessory was: the caboodle!

It looks like a miniaturized Gorganizer!! It has all the sculpted detail! The top tray comes out and it snaps shut (but, the plastic hinge joint already has wear).

And finally, I wanted to do a quick comparison of both generations of werecat twins.

I really don’t know why they made them purple. :/ I would have enjoyed more stripes, and mirrored tails.

I appreciate the extra personality in G3’s face sculpts. And the lack of glue head (these ghouls need a LA’s Totally awesome head dunk).

G1 is more cohesive in their outfits though. My G1 Purrsephone is so wonky, hahaha. I wonder if Meowlody’s sweeter style and personality was inspired by the bows on G1’s shoes. They make it look like she’d be the sweeter ghoul (nope!).

Anyways, a very quick and slightly rushed review of these long awaited dolls because I COULD NOT WAIT!!

And here they are slightly redressed and hair washed. Purrsephone is still my favorite and looks so good with her hair washed.

[mewizard]

mh if i made the reboot pt 1. essentially thinking about my personal headcanons, if it was marketed to a larger audience and had unlimited budget, as well as catering to pop culture

flats n deets below!!

the goal i settled on was like. aspirational career monster high dolls but for weird tweens who might not otherwise play with dolls

so they keep the darker/edgier lurk and each would have a specific field or subject associated with them

which is inspired by the mythological world of teens being able to do whatever that's present in a lot of 2000s media,. high school movies yknow. mean girls type stuff. i miss that from g1.

frankie is ib medicine/biology + engineering to a degree

i think being a man-made freakshow kept pumping by electricity and stitches would mean frankie would be a good poster child for the medicore tumblrinas

their doll would come with an iv drip and teeny pillboxes and their prosthetic could pop off to be switched between dolls

main colours are pastel blue and pink with neutral white and yellow highlights

their possible legs include a shaker. like novi stars but with eyeballs

i imagine loads of frankie leg shaker keychains lmao so maybe you could turn them into charms

spin offs include plasters, science kits like lemon clocks and circuits, entirely take-apartable anatomy doll, and a lolita style monster ball dress with trousers bc thats just obligatory

i dont know whats going on with the sock i just saw it and im sorry

put yourself in clawdeen's shoes. youre an outcast kid in the 2000s, always felt a little different, always buried your face in your artbooks... only to find out at 16 you're actually the wolf you always dreamed you'd be. of COURSE this one is for the sparkledog girlies

her tagline is kill the part of you that cringes. <- joke. soz

clawdeen's academic focus is finance/marketing/graphic design

i did think about making it fashion but thats kind of boring for a fashion doll. sorry rainbow high

also she had that whole thing in g1 where her fave subject was economics iirc. eekonomics, even

anyway she would run the fake social media for monster high. maybe the magazine. tweens still read magazines, right?

spin offs include furry cover artbooks galore, a colour-your-own set

for some reason i keep coming back to the idea of those how to price commissions/adoptables guides everyone was all over making on instagram back when i used instagram but idrk how to work that in

tosses her. idk i just thought id draw my ideal texture doll.

main colours are neon purples and pinks with green highlights (also a smidge of yellow i might scrap)

[h3rmitcrabz]

Hermitcraft x Monster High thingy

Thinking of drawing Hermitcraft peeps in a Monster High inspired style. I'm probably gonna try for a more G1 inspired fashion style and artstyle but I'm taking inspo from all the generations. Not every monster is gonna be super detailed or intricate, especially considering some of the hermits skins, which is probably where the G3 inspo comes in.

Not sure if i should make them those G1 info pages they used to have on the MH website with the pet, friends, etc on them. I could also try to put them in a doll box? Or I could try to do a more G3 inspired thing? Not sure. I really want to do something along those lines but I'm actually a really casual fan of many hermits and I don't realyl watch a lot of the streams and videos so I'm not sure what I'd put down. And then there are some hermits I barely watch at all.

Anyways, at the very least I want to draw all the current hermits in a MH thing! I have a few ideas for what monster each hermit will be but others I still need to iron out. I'm probably gonna do just a general vibe rather than season 10 specifically but season 10 will still play a role in their design.

What am I talking about:

[beemers-hell]

I've seen a lot of fashion doll posting on your twitter and like, I don't exactly know how to ask but if you ever want to infodump about it on here that would be so genuinely interesting

Not pressuring you in any way of course! I just like seeing your fashion doll posting

rubs my hands together maliciously

Ok so I don't actually have anything I feel like talking about doll wise atm, I prefer making one off posts here n there about the dolls I'm into on twt more than tumblr cause I feel like twt is better suited for one off thoughts while tumblr is better suited for dedicated n thought out posts, at least with how I use it. Which is why you see a lot more wips/shitposts from me on twt than tumblr. so instead I'll just show yall my current collection!!! ANYWAY long ass post time

I've been working on finding and filling out various release lines from different doll brands im fixated on and have been rearranging my collection set up a lot cause of it lol. My shit is scattered all around my room because of how me and my little brother have divided up space for us to display both of our separate collections of things (we are both autistic and insane about our special interests) so there's gonna be a lot of photos lol

TO BEGIN: here's my display case of all my old g1 Monster High dolls I managed to hold onto since I was a kid! I got all of these back when MH initially debuted (when I was around 8 or 9) and all of these dolls have survived through my childhood/teenage years, hence why they're not in super great shape unfortunately lol

the only exceptions to this being the Día de Muertos Howliday Skelita, since obvs that's a recent release, as well as the misc. dolls I have scattered around the top of the case, those are dolls that s0uless has gifted to me over the past 2 years teehee

Moving on, to my current collection of dolls I began purchasing for myself over the past year: starting with this set of shelves next to my bed! I'm mainly using this as my Bratz shelf, but I ran out of room to fit my Skultimate Secrets Fearidescent Dolls where I usually keep my Monster High dolls, so they're there for now.

I only have Jade's reproduction doll because when the Bratz reproductions first began releasing, I was being strict with myself about not indulging in dolls again so I only let myself get Jade since shes my fav. Which I'm sad about, cause I'd love to have all the girls together for both their 20th anniversary reproduction dolls and their Alwayz dolls together. Also, there's a spot left empty next to my Alwayz Cloe bc I have Not been able to find Alwayz Sasha in stores like ANYWHERE for the past 2 months, so I gave up and ordered her online. She'll be arriving here in a couple days!!

Next up is this series of shelves above my dresser that I mainly use to display misc. figures n other shit I've come to own since I was like 12 (you can tell bc of the MHA stuff lmao) but I recently cleared some space so I could fit my Skultimate Secrets Series 1 Dolls (and Spa Day Lagoona + Scare-adise Frankie and Draculaura) somewhere, as well as having a place to display my current set of LOL OMG dolls! And also Bank art doll cameo lmao

Then we have the top shelf of my desk, which mostly has various Knicks knacks compacted into a corner but I put my two LOL OMG Tweens together there, as well as my single Licca doll that s0uless got me for this past christmas and the custom doll they made of my sona for me! <3

(fun fact me and s0uless are currently in the process of making more custom dolls of Eb, Bank, and the triplets but you'll have to wait n see on that one hehe)

And finally for dolls, here's my desk setup, where I display my main Monster High dolls! I mostly just display each Signature Doll + Their Core Refreshes here, but Monsterball Draculaura didn't have space anywhere else so she gets to chill there too lmao

Thats it for my actual dolls, but I have two other photos to share, which is just how I set up my Skultimate Secrets Series 1 Lockers + where I put the posters that come with each Bratz doll I have lmao

ok thats all I'm done now, ill update this when Sasha gets here lmao

[eponadolls]

I’ve been thinking of making a custom marcille doll, especially since if Delicious in Dungeon DOES get any official dolls it might be a… dollfie, Azone 1/3, or Azone 1/6. I’d probably get an Azone 1/3 Marcille, to be honest, but a 1/6 Azone might be a difficult buy since even re:zero Emilia just had normal human ears. Poor half-elves being relegated to just the human half, lol. If Dollfie Frieren and Sailor Moon are any indication, I might not be super keen on a Dollfie Marcille — even if I was, though, she would probably be like $800+ usd and I am not sure if I would want to drop that much just to have a little Marcille.

Which leaves me wondering… if I do make a Marcille, what would be the best base for her?

So far I’ve mulled over the following: obitsu fairy (inset eyes only, unfortunately), big headed Barbie fairytopia elf fairies, momoko, or a “generic Bandai 90s doll”

Photo is pulled off of eBay but occasionally I see these fairytopia elf-eared fairies for reasonably cheap secondhand. They have elf ears already and I think they could probably be repainted with a “anime influenced” face up pretty well, and the blonde one would be a good candidate for a reroot or wig for Marcille. Purple is a little too fantasy pink and I’ve noticed a lot tend to age weird, sometimes like old G1 Draculauras.

Which… ok, on that note, Draclaura wouldn’t be terrible either? She would probably need a body donor and painted to a light flesh color, but Lala’s G3 dolls are really cute with prominent pointy ears.

Obitsu fairy is my next candidate and probably my most promising, but I wish I could find some without the inset eyes. They’re long discontinued, though I can stalk Mandarake.

A blonde momoko might have potential if I keep her in the normal momoko style, and don’t try to replicate the anime’s style. If I got a My First Momoko, who has a different face shape, I could maybe see about her getting a repaint.

Photo is from plasticyears on dolldreaming and my goodness are the marmit elves cute 😭 this would probably be my ideal base for Marcille, but I can’t seen a Marmit Rurufi or Rarafi go up for sale on Mandrake, so I won’t hold my breath getting one for Marcille.

Most 1/6 azones have really sweet, round babyish faces which I don’t think would be my preferred for Marcille, but some of the character dolls like Emilia have more pointy heads, which might be worth it depending on how hard this head sculpt is to find secondhand. (In general - not Emilia specifically). I already have an inset-eye’d Emilia and while I do like her, I wish Azone made the original sculpt with inset eyes too, since like 90% of their new inset-eye dolls use the same base sculpt which I think it’s a tad too round and I don’t like my dolls to all have the same sculpt… but if I do get Marcille a head without elf ears, I can probably easily enough print some off on my 3d printer and then attach them.

Some things to think about…

[dollsorwhatever]

The neck issue

So after my Creeproduction Spectra review where I mention that a lot of the Creepro dolls have much shorter necks than their original dolls, I got curious and started taking dolls apart lol Here's what I found: the reason the Creeproductions have extremely short necks and slightly deformed neck holes and chins is...the dumbest reason you can possibly think of! It's literally that Mattel is using the wrong neck peg for their newest MH dolls lol. First, the evidence (in the form of screenshots taken from Ebay): G1 Frankie vs Creepro Frankie!

Original Frankie has a much longer neck with the head sitting right on top of the 'bulb' of the MH neck, while Creeproduction Frankie's head is placed much further below the bulb and her lower head is visibly deformed and..like....puckered? Around the neck? Visibly caving in on itself.

So, I ripped off my personal Creepro Frankie's head and compared it to an original G1 Spectra body I have lying around:

The Creeproductions (and if I have to guess, some collector g1 dolls but not all) have a much thicker and lower neck peg than the originals, and it is literally pushing the heads down lower than they were made to go! Resulting in a slightly deformed head and a short stubby neck. To confirm this is the cause of the short necks, let's look at my Frankie on her original body:

Stubby neck Now let's see her on the original Spectra body and a G2 body (which has the same neck peg as original g1)

Suddenly she has as much neck as any original G1 Frankie would have had! I imagine this is more obvious on some heads than others, but it's incredibly obvious on almost every Creeproduction to the point where I have been scratching my head for weeks trying to figure out why their lower heads seemed to be caving in like that! I think some if not most Skullector character dolls are safe, and I think most new Cleo dolls are fine? I think some of the Haunt Couture dolls are safe, if not all of them? I'm just kind od flabbergasted that this is the reason why I've felt like the Creepros have sort of stubby necks and slightly deformed heads- a simple problem that could have been easily avoided if people paid attention. Luckily I already prefer to rebody my g1 dolls onto g2 bodies I guess lol

[fulgurbugs]

It’s time for another doll review!

today, i’m unboxing venus mcflytrap, the newest in the series of core students for monster high g3. she’s been showing up in targets sporadically, though my targets tend to be late on the pickup so i ended up ordering her for delivery as soon as she was up on the website.

she was delivered a few days early and i sent her to my moms house, so i was dying to go back there to open her up for those few days. here’s her in box! she’s quite tall, though without an abbey to compare im not sure if she’s about the same size as her?

freed from the box! once again the star jar is my prop-up instead of a proper stand, though venus is actually sturdy enough to stand on her own without too much trouble.

of course we’ll take a look at the shoes. g3 loves a gradient boot, and i’m a fan here. the look like concrete planters before they fade to pink, and the teeth are just hilarious.

the vines are rubbery and removable. the bottoms of them have a peg that secures them to the boots.

another detail i wanted a close up on is venus’s molded vine details. i love that g3 is going more in with the monsterey details, and these are awesome. they peek out just above her mismatched legging pieces

the face: venus’s mold and makeup are both great. instead of the shaved side of her g1 version, she has molded braids, which still give her that asymmetrical look. her ear mold also has a leaf look to it as well. her hair is some kind of yarn, i believe. i’m not sure how durable the ends are, though, so i may see if there’s a need to seal them to preserve them. (in addition, one minor defect i have seen people have with their venus rooting is that the larger yarn plugs seem to sometimes tear her scalp slightly, so it may be something to check for if you’re buying her in person.) i’m a very big fan of the black features they’ve added to venus this generation, which i think has been the general consensus on her design that i’ve seen online. her reception has been overwhelmingly positive, and she is the doll that has many people warming up to g3. and id have to agree! i’m a little picky with what dolls i want (unless they’re draculaura dolls, lol) and she was an instant note on my wantlist as soon as those stock photos were out.

accessories! venus comes with a clear open backpack, icoffin, energy bar, water bottle, a hair product bottle (if someone knows specifically what product it is please let me know, im not sure off the top of my head), sunglasses shaped like venus flytraps (of course) and her pet, chewlian.

chewlian is well… definitely a pet! he does come out of the pot, though. i said this in a previous review, i think core lagoonas, but i’m continually baffled and amused at the ability of g3 to turn every pet into a dog or cat version of it. while the pets have never been a draw for me, this is just comical. i think i’ll stick by a previous joke i made that chewlian just ate someone’s dog, and that’s why he looks like that.

the backpack can hold one (1) chewlian or all of her other accessories. something about the way this backpack sits on her or the silhouette or something is awesome to me, i love it a lot. it’s super cute, and i want to display her with the bag instead of storing the backpacks like i usually do.

one last little thing, while i don’t have abbey, my draculauras, or even twyla to compare her too, i think venus is about abbey height, though i think she’s got a slimmer body and hips. here’s her next to frankie. venus also uses the clawed hand mold.

of course, we have to have the obligatory .5 shot

and that’s venus! one last note i want to make is there’s been a lot of fomo around her, but i want to remind people she is going to be widely available as abbey and clawd are. she is going to stick around for a long time compared to other lines, so there’s no need to pay scalper prices for her (i know i say this as someone who bought her as soon as i could, but that was as soon as i could for strictly retail price. i’m just saying i get it, lol.)

i also recognize that that’s a bit america-centric, but she also did start showing up in person in the UK before the US, so hopefully her international release isn’t as frustrating as other lines and characters.

thanks for reading! big g3 venus fan now and forever, and i’m excited to see her eventually show up in other lines, too!

[the-crystal-femmes]

This post isn't mostly aimed at the Tumblr portion of the fandom but more so those who just apply to this.

G1 stans, if you cannot like g3 that's perfectly fine. No one is forcing you to like it and everyone is entitled to their own opinions.

However, it's getting extremely tiring to see the same old points as to why g3 "sucks" and that they should "bring back the old Monster High".

Firstly,

"But she's Lagoona Blue, not Lagoona pink!"

This has been discussed many times before. Lagoona is not named after the color skin she had in generation one and two, she was named after the blue lagoon. Lots of people in real life have last names that are colors. Secondly, wasn't this change made because children playtested the dolls and decided Lagoona being pink was more appealing? I swear I've heard that before but could be wrong.

[Insert long rant about how Frankie and Cleo should not be together and that Cleuce is the better ship, or alternatively insert something about Frankie ruining the relationship]

Cleo and Deuce are still a thing in g1. G3 is not erasing anything. Secondly, in g3, Deuce does not romantically like Cleo. They used to be in a relationship but they broke it off mutually, no hard feelings. Deuce is perfectly fine with Frankie and Cleo being together.

There's so much more points I could add. It's horribly disgusting that some of you jump to defend g1 by being bigoted towards others, especially with queerphobic, fatphobic, ableist remarks, etc. It's like you miss the point of Monster High. I'm glad that this doesn't often show up on Tumblr anymore, but unfortunately I see it a lot on other platforms. It's saddening.

Also the final point, monster high g3 is not aimed towards us who liked it as children. Generation three Monster High is a reboot made to cater to the young demographics of today. We are not necessarily their target audience anymore. We may be for g1 releases like skullectors, creeproductions and other alumni dolls, but the playline dolls are being marketed towards the children of today. G3 is not here to cater to what we once knew of the ghouls, and are supposed to be fresh spins on the characters. As much a lot of us may enjoy g3 now, or as much as some of us hate it to death, it's not for us anymore.

[ashleyleedarlingdolls]

WIP: Cartoon Accurate Abbey Bominable

I love g3 Abbey but her face doesn't at all fit in with the rest of my g1 collection. So I waited until I was able to get a g3 Abbey for $5 + shipping to make this custom. My absolute favorite thing is making cartoon accurate-sized dolls, and when g3 Abbey came out with a near-exact skin match (minus glitter) I had the perfect match.

Here's a few ghouls in ascending order vs their movie counterparts.

Through buying lots from Ebay and Thrift stores and such I've come into possession of exclusively the g1 OG Abbey dress. So I've had to get creative with finishing the rest of her outfit. Her head is picture day Abbey because she's the only doll I had with purple in her hair. I think maybe Scaris Abbey could be a good match also, but I'm not sure.

The arm/leg warmers are the arms and ears of a cute little easter teddy bear that I had to maim. I would just buy regular faux fur but since Mattel is a toy company they used the materials available to them which means teddy bear amputation.

The shoes are just Abbey's g3 shoes painted white quickly, so I'll need to actually touch those up. The other things that I need to do before calling this ghoul finished are

-Buying some eyehole grommets to corset the back of her dress

-3d print her little front pouch/necklace

-Fix up her hair

-Leggings! I have no clue where I am going to find an even remotely comparable fabric, but if I ever find it I'll make her some tights too.

-Headband. I can either find her og headband or buy one, it really depends.

Anyway, I just enjoy writing out these little posts to keep track of where I am in my projects and I hope some of you might enjoy doing something similar.