Monday, September 3, 2012

Review: Dot Dead Gorgeous Lagoona Blue

When I first discovered Monster High Lagoona Blue was the doll that drew me in. I was fascinated by her unique look, interesting body modifications, and beautiful face. To this day Wave 1 Basic Lagoona is still one of my favorite MH dolls. Unfortunately since then I haven't always been impressed by her dolls. I loved the dress and accessories on her Dawn of the Dance incarnation, and admired the ambitious hairstyle, but felt her faceup was too overdone. Her Classroom doll was the exact opposite -- I found her outfit boring and her face a bit mundane. Really, aside from that first Lagoona doll the only other one I've really loved is her Skull Shores doll. There have only been eight Lagoona dolls released to date, peanuts compared to Frankie's 15 dolls, and Draculaura's 16. But in two of the most recent lines - Dot Dead Gorgeous and Skultimate Roller Maze - we've gotten a brand new Lagoona. Considering that's literally a fourth of her total dolls available, it's the toy equivalent of a Lagoona tidal wave. And I'm happy to report that they're both beautiful dolls! Today I'm gonna take a look at her Dot Dead Gorgeous incarnation.


Do you like my shell?

Let's start with the hair. Lagoona dolls are infamous for having bad hair. It looks so pretty in the box, but the moment you take her out it turns into a mess of frizzy, gnarly, yellow puffs. Combing it doesn't help; in fact over time I've learned to simply not comb it at all. If I want to rearrange a Lagoona dolls' hair I just use my fingers. Unfortunately this Lagoona is no different, and in fact there's been a new development here: it's also crispy. We've seen this crisping gel used on Lagoona's bangs in the past but never on the back of her hair like it is here. That said, the gel does have a bit of an anchoring effect; her hair is staying put a bit better than usual for Lagoona. Not dissimilar to DDG Operetta, having Lagoona's hair in a ponytail also seems to mitigate the frizz problem. She has an interesting thing going on with her bangs. Like her ponytail they've been gelled, then set in a large curl. In her box these gelled pieces were laying on top of her head and jutting out in four directions. This worried me when I bought her but happily I was able to gather them into the large wave you see above. I actually really like the look. Check it out in profile...


Talk about catching some waves...


Her ponytail is held by a hot pink, open shell. There's a pearl inside that has a bit of a sheen to it. It's a great accessory. Her earrings are white bubbles -- on her left is one simple bubble (it could be a pearl, but I'm saying bubble because it's not shiny like the pearl in her hair). On her right is what you see above. It looks like another bubble, but this one has a molded detail hanging from it. It's pretty elaborate, to the point that I can't entirely make out what it's supposed to be. But it looks pretty cool anyway.

This is a beautiful faceup for Lagoona. She has a thin strip of magenta eyeshadow over which is an even thinner strip of blue eyeshadow, which is all surrounded by a large layer of light pink eyeshadow. It all has a thin layer of glitter over it. Her eyes are the usual olive green with a hint of light green. Her lips are also light pink and have a light sheen to them. Her eyebrows are the usual lavender color and her freckles are green.




She's wearing three necklaces in pink, blue, and pink again. Surprisingly these aren't molded together but are individual pieces. They get progressively larger as they go down. The top of each one is jagged. She wears a strapless slip dress with a print of blue stripes and white bubbles. There's a little bit of pink in there as well. The hem at the top and bottom is black. Around her waist is an electric blue belt with a molded pink starfish attached on her left. The belt is attached to the dress. Under the belt, also at the waist, are three layers of tulle in an asymmetrical cut. The top layer has the same print as the dress while the other two layers are hot pink. I really love this dress. I like that they used bubbles as the "dots", the use of different materials for each piece of the dress creates visual interest, and the materials they've used all feel nice.




Lagoona's shoes are open toe wedges. The wedge of the shoes work similarly to how DOTD Lagoona's shoes worked -- that is, the wedge is a flat piece attached to the front of the shoe but not the back. I love this style of MH shoe - DOTD Cleo's shoes functioned the same way -- and here it creates a visual effect of an open clam holding her foot. This coordinates with her hairpiece nicely, especially since the strap over her toes has another shiny pearl on top. The plastic used for the shoes feels sturdy, but not as hard as her DOTD shoes.




The last three accessories we have to talk about (yes, there's three more to go -- girl got DRESSED for this dot party!) are her purse, bracelet, and armband. Her purse is a thin, translucent orange piece with a kelp design and little dangly bits hanging off of it. I think these are supposed to be choral but I'm not certain. They look cool, though, and I like that the purse is the only orange used on the outfit. It keeps everything from being too matchy-matchy.




On her left wrist is a white tentacle bracelet that matches her earrings. It has two layers of bands and several twisted arms hanging down from those that frame her hand nicely. Lastly, she has an electric blue armband on her right arm that wraps her elbow. It's a soft mesh material and perfectly accents the blue of her belt.




Overall grade: A This would've been an A+ but that hair is still a problem for me. Although it's much more manageable in the ponytail I'd like to see a Lagoona doll who has thick, silky hair that isn't impossible to maintain. Otherwise this is a great doll! I love her dress, the color scheme is nice, and the bubble dots are a simple but creative way to execute this theme. She has plenty of accessories and her faceup is beautiful. Quality control was very good for this doll, or at least it was for this particular one.


"I like me, too."
 All images: yours truly

4 comments:

  1. this is one of my favorite dolls to date and the dress is definitely one of my favorites, soooo beautiful... i wanted to give you a little helpful hint when it comes to lagoonas hair, her being one of my favorite characters i was really having a problem with the frizz so i tried a couple different things and what i found worked best is... get some smooth and shine creme (alcohol free) i used loreal ever style but i guess you could use any brand but all you do is squirt some in your hand or on her hair work it through and then divide it in to sections as you get each small section give it a easy comb through and then take and twist the hair with your fingers then just let go and let dry then after dry you can let the twist be or you can use something small and straight like a tooth pick to run through each twist strand separating it and it will just lay in curls and not be frizzy and wont damage the hair !!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Awesome, thanks for the suggestion. I'll be using it! :) By chance have you tried this on Operetta's hair? If it works on Lagoona I'd assume it would for Operetta as well. I hate the texture of her hair and would like to fix it so I can be completely happy with her dolls, rather than "She's awesome... except that awful hair." *shakes head*

      Delete
  2. yes it works for operetta as well... this works great if you want curly hair that's not frizzy... another move you can make is if you want to have them with straight hair you can remove all accessories and pony tails easily brush hair out get a large pot and fill with water bring the water to boiling point turn the stove off wait just a second because if its to to hot you can melt the hair because the hair is actually plastic nylon so it can be molded when hot but can melt if to hot but get to just a boil turn it off wait just a second then take the doll and hold her upside down dip her hair all the way in the hot water to the roots but don't submerge her face because the make up can melt and run or come off, so you want to dip her hair to the roots in the hot water for about 45 seconds 3 or 4 times swirling and her hair around the pot while dipping after 3 or 4 dips put her on the counter or a hard surface it will get wet so have a towel but don't lay her on a towel because it will be hard to comb her hair on the towel but have it to clean up or pat dry her hair but anyway use a comb with fine teeth not a brush and just go through and comb her hair while hot and a little wet and as you comb it will straighten because you will be pulling it into a smooth position with the comb and it will make her hair straight and to make sure there is no frizz you can spray it with a leave in conditioner while brushing it... this also works for curling a dolls hair do the same steps but separate the hair in to sections and wrap the hair around cut to size drinking straws place a bobby pin in the middle of the straw over the hair to hold it in place then dip in the hot water the same way you would to make it straight but when you remove from the last dip lay the doll on a towel to dry let it completely air dry (if its not raining put her outside because her hair will dry faster) remove bobby pins and straws and it will have beautiful curls ( i did this on dead tired ghoulia and it looks great ) don't comb or brush after removing the straws instead separate with a tooth pic or something like that and style it how you want... hopefully this info will help you out especially with the frizzy haired dolls !! i would try it first on an easy to replace budget doll just till you can gauge the hotness of the water because it needs to be hot hot but not extremely hot :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks for the tips, Ricky! I'm glad it works on Operetta too. I think her hair needs more help than anybody else, it's pretty terrible. :(

      Delete