Review: Clawdeen as Little Dead Riding Wolf and Draculaura as Snow Bite

Scarily Ever After has been positioned as a "collector's quality" set of dolls within the Monster High line. Exclusive to Target, this is a small line -- only three dolls are being released. And the idea, in my opinion, is pretty brilliant: the MH girls have been re-imagined as classic fairy tale characters. Frankie Stein has become Threaderella (Cinderella), Clawdeen Wolf is Little Dead Riding Wolf (Little Red Riding Hood), and Draculaura appears as Snow Bite (Snow White). As much of a Frankie fanboy as I am her doll doesn't really appeal to me. I love her dress -- a deconstructed take on the classic fairy tale princess dress -- and the name Threaderella is undeniably cool. But I don't care much for the doll's faceup or hair. But the other two grabbed my attention immediately, and it's not hard to see why...

Since this is a dual review let's cover a few commonalities between the two. They both come with a storybook of sorts, telling an updated version of their respective fairy tale, complete with pictures. The books are 12 pages long and each one features five full-page illustrations inside. The covers of these books are foiled (very eye catching), and the artwork inside is pretty incredible. Take a look...

Typically store exclusive dolls don't come with stands but I'm happy to report that, as "collector's quality" dolls, these do! And they're really nice stands; the base is black while the standing portion and waist clip are clear. The stands make a nice snapping sound when you put them together. These are definitely of higher quality than your standard MH stand. Lastly, both dolls also include a black brush.

Let's take a closer look at Clawdeen. Oops, I mean Little Dead Riding Wolf!

She has long brown hair with ruby red streaks in a sidepart. The sides are pulled back into a tight ponytail. There is a light wave throughout the hair. I wouldn't exactly call her hair silky, but the quality is good. She has the usual Clawdeen eyecolor of yellow-brown. They don't seem quite as bright as her eyes usually are. She has very dark purple eyeshadow that surrounds the eye and above this is a layer of light purple shadow that goes all the way up to her eyebrow. There is a fairly thick layer of glitter over all of it. Her lips are deep red.

Her dress is gorgeous! It's one piece and made of a satiny, ruby red material. The bodice has black criss-crossing ribbon running down the center. This is framed by purple ribbons that travel upward and function as the straps of the dress. They also travel downward and extend over and past the flared skirt. At the waist each one has a molded, gold bone detail in the shape of an "X". These same two ribbons also do this in the back, minus the bone detailing. In total there are six purple ribbons over the skirt. They all have a gold buckle at the skirt's hem and hang over the skirt by about 3/4". Under the skirt is a layer of black tulle that has a nice hem about an inch up.

Her shoes are purple molded platforms with six gold buckles. They are molded to look as though they are made of thick fabric that has been folded over. I like these shoes, but wish they had used actual fabric instead of just a mold.

Her cape is pure red felt on the outside and red satin with a black leopard-esque print on the inside. The spots have glitter on them. There are holes in the hood for her ears and they actually fit quite well! The cape has a white plastic snap at the neck; the outside portion here has a small gold bone. I'm pleased they used an actual snap here rather than velcro, as I can't imagine velcro would hold very well at all, especially with her thick hair in there when you want to put the hood up. The cape ends just below her calves. I like the cape a lot. It holds it's shape well, fits her ears, and just plain looks nice.

Her accessories are minimal. She has two earrings in each ear. They're small gold hoops. She doesn't wear a necklace or bracelet. There's enough going on with the cape and dress, I don't think any more jewelry was necessary. Sometimes less really is more. She also wears a purple cuff on her left arm. It's made of a soft material and covers her entire forearm. At the wrist is black tulle.

She carries a black picnic basket in the shape of a coffin that opens in the center. The basket exemplifies the marriage of fairy tales and Monster High that is this line: the picnic basket is what Little Red Riding Hood was carrying in the story, but the coffin shape makes it uniquely MH.

Now let's look at Snow Bite:

She has long black hair with pink hair rooted at the scalpline in the back. Like Clawdeen, she has a sidepart. She has a barrette that is a translucent green apple with the skullette face molded into it. It is dripping with poison (or juice). This skullette apple will make several more appearances so from here on I'm just gonna call it an apple; just know that it's a green apple dripping poison (or juice).

Snow Bite's eyes are a beautiful lavender with some pink as well. Green eyeshadow in the same shade as the apple surrounds her eye, topped by a layer of yellow-green that goes to her eyebrow. There is a very light sheen over all of it. Her lips are a deep magenta color. Draculaura's cheek heart is the usual pink, but it has a green stem and green dripping from the bottom, giving it the appearance of an apple.

Her dress is one piece. The bodice is made of green felt and has a wide, puffy, off the shoulders collar. At the waist the felt hangs down over the rest of the skirt in an asymmetrical, dripping shape. The skirt underneath it (they are attached), is magenta and made of a satiny material. Printed on it are large green dripping skullettes that overlap, which give way to smaller black skullettes that also overlap. The edge of the skirt is unhemmed and looks like it has been shredded. Underneath the skirt is a layer of black tulle. At her waist is a white belt with a print of pink apple silhouettes. It has a large matching bow attached.

Her shoes are amazing! They are black high heels with a molded pink bow and sash on the hood. The heels are molded green translucent dripping poison (or juice ;) ). An apple covers the very back of the heel and has a green leaf protruding from it. Seriously, amazing shoes!

Her accessories include an apple purse that opens; the leaf is the handle. Her earrings are also apples, and her necklace is dripping poison (or you know what). The earrings and necklace are a shade lighter than the other apple accessories.

Both of these dolls get a solid A+ from me. There are so many great little details on them both! The theme is unique and executed very well. They're beautiful dolls (this may be my favorite Draculaura yet). The included storybooks are incredible; the illustrations alone are almost worth the purchase price. And despite being exclusives they have stands included, and very nice stands at that! I'm totally loving these dolls.

All images: yours truly

More Human Than Human: Ghoulia Yelps Character Spotlight

Okay, so the idea was to have each of these character spotlights use the name of an 80s song as it's title. But I'm at a loss for a good 80s song featuring zombies as a running theme or as part of the title. So I just went with the name of a White Zombie song I loved back in high school. ...It's a bit of a stretch, but it'll do I suppose.

So today I'm going to be covering Ghoulia! Hooray! There's a lot about this character I like; for a girl who speaks only in grunts and groans she's surprisingly multifaceted.

Image: Mattel

Ghoulia is based on zombies. The idea of the zombie was first introduced to audiences in it's original incarnation: as a corpse reanimated by means of witchcraft, derived from African practices. But our Ghoulia isn't influenced by those zombies. Her biggest influence is the more modern idea of the zombie, first seen in George A. Romero's 1968 horror film Night of the Living Dead. 

Images: Image Ten

This film set the template for the zombie seen in modern popular culture (despite the zombies in the film actually being referred to as ghouls, never zombies). Romero's cult film has been hugely influential on subsequent horror films (including his own slew of follow-up zombie flicks). With Night of the Living Dead he established the modern zombie tropes we see today: the dead becoming reanimated, a gun shot to the head being the only way to take them down (well, fire too). And these reanimated corpses have only one desire: to eat human flesh. Brains later became they're more specific, uh, "food of choice". Being reanimated corpses, they move very slowly; despite this, they're hard to defeat. They're virtually unstoppable. And as more people are bitten (a zombie bite kills you, then reanimates you) the more dangerous they become -- a strength in numbers kind of thing.

On a personal note, while I can admire and appreciate the earlier horror films Frankenstein and The Mummy, Night of the Living Dead is simply one of my all-time favorite films. The steadily rising sense of dread, the subtle social commentary, the claustrophobia you feel as you watch these characters try to survive the zombie onslaught while trapped in a rural farmhouse, and that gut wrenching ending -- it all adds up to an amazing movie. It's well-acted, with superb direction, and, most impressively, was made independent of the Hollywood studios, and on a shoestring budget. The original is in black and white but later releases were colorized. My advice -- go for the original black and white. And if you haven't seen it, get thee to the video store (well, or Netflix streaming) immediately!

Another influence on Ghoulia, or rather Ghoulia's clothes, is Michael Jackson's outfit in his iconic 1983 music video Thriller. Her red capri pants with black detailing is a direct nod to MJ's outfit in the video. And of course his backup dancers in the video are zombies. It all comes full circle.

MJ and his zombie dance crew. Image: Epic Records

In the webseries Ghoulia is one of the most interesting characters. No small feat considering she only speaks in those aforementioned grunts and groans. With Ghoulia we see some of the irony that makes the webseries so fun: despite being a slow-moving zombie she is the smartest girl in school (must be all that "brain food"). Ghoulia often seems annoyed by the insignificant dramas the other girls get caught up in; it's quite often that she rolls her eyes at them. At times she plays lackey to Cleo's demanding diva but she's not afraid to put her foot down when she's feeling a bit too taken advantage of.

Image: Mattel

She is also one of the most respected students at Monster High. Everyone looks up to her and comes to her for advice (or help with their homework). Although Ghoulia is always around, she enjoys time to herself, especially when she's reading her favorite comic book, Dead Fast. I really love how they've incorporated fangirl-ism into Ghoulia's character. Their approach to this is very clever, and has been incorporated into Ghoulia's character dolls (more on that in a bit). It's also refreshing to see a female character presented as a rabid comic book nerd. Usually those types of characters are male.

Although Ghoulia doesn't get as much screen time in the series as the other core characters (except Lagoona), the episodes that feature her among the series' best. We've seen Ghoulia have an elaborate daydream in which she takes on the role of Dead Fast, defeating the Dead Fast villain thanks to heroic derring-do. And when others aren't looking, Ghoulia can move much faster than she lets on, saving Monster High from destruction, all in the span of a couple of minutes. Far from being the nerd others think she is, Ghoulia is actually one of the coolest characters in the MH universe.

Basic Ghoulia

Dawn of the Dance Ghoulia

San Diego Comic Con Exclusive Ghoulia

Basic Ghoulia's outfit is very 80s influenced, but her subsequent dolls' outfits reference a wide range of eras, everything from 1950's bombshell to 1960s biker babe, and more. Her clothes use a visual motif of "brain matter" and stylized gore. Her signifying colors are red, black, and white, although there's been a wider variety of additional colors used on her compared to the other dolls. She always wears a pair of glasses.

Fearleading Ghoulia

Skull Shores Ghoulia

Dead Tired Ghoulia

Ghoulia always has pure blue and light blue streaked hair. There's been a lot of variety in Ghoulia's hairstyles -- short, long, straight, curly, bangs, no bangs. We've seen it all on Ghoulia. Although there aren't as many Ghoulia dolls as there are Frankie and Draculaura ones, she's nonetheless seen a lot of releases. To date there are 11 different Ghoulia dolls.

Skultimate Roller Maze Ghoulia

Gloom Beach Ghoulia

TRU Exclusive Ghoulia. All doll images:Mattel

She Blinded Me With Science: Frankie Stein Character Spotlight

There was a time when I didn't really care for Frankie Stein. When Monster High first caught people's attention Frankie was the breakout character; her doll was incredibly popular and she got the lion's share of attention on the webisodes. I felt she was kind of overrated. I was much more into Lagoona's doll and on the webisodes I felt Cleo was a better character. Over time her pretty dolls and endearing character won me over, and Frankie is now one of my favorites. It's hard not to love such a fun character.

Image: Mattel

Frankie Stein is based on Dr. Frankenstein's monster. The original story was written by Mary Shelley and first published in 1818 as Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus (talk about a mouthful). The story touches on themes of obsession, responsibility, and self-awareness. Frankenstein is widely considered the first true science fiction story and has been adapted numerous times for the stage and screen. The most well known of these, the 1931 film, Frankenstein, starring Boris Karloff as the monster, is the biggest influence on the character of Frankie Stein.

Boris Karloff as the monster.

Images: Universal Pictures

 As directed by James Whale, the film focuses more on the monster and the isolation he feels as a creature who is reviled by those who don't understand him. The film establishes many elements that inform the look of Frankie, most notably the stitched together skin and neck bolts. Our Frankie also has mismatched eyes (one blue, one green), and green skin. The film Frankenstein also has green skin, which surely influenced the design of Frankie, but since the film is black and white it's fair to say the film as a phenomenon is the influence here, rather than the film itself (I know, splitting hairs).

Speaking of hair, there's another important influence on Frankie. The 1935 film sequel, Bride of Frankenstein, introduced a female companion to Frankenstein's monster. The Bride is constructed in the same way the original monster was and once again brought to life by the doctor. As portrayed by Elsa Lanchester, the bride has black hair with bright shocks of squiggly white streaks on each side. This has become an iconic look that you see every year at Halloween, and was the influence on Frankie's own black and white streaked hair. Frankie's visual motif of lightning bolts is a reference to the lightning strikes that breathe life into the monster and his bride. The monster is often wrongly called Frankenstein. That name actually refers to the doctor who created him; the monster itself has no name.

Elsa Lanchester as The Bride.

Images: Universal Pictures

In the webisodes Frankie is the main character. She functions as our portal into the world of Monster High; as a creature who was brought to life only a few weeks ago we share Frankie's first experiences of life and her introduction into Monster High. Frankie is upbeat, positive, dependable, and outgoing. She also functions as the voice of reason within the show. When the other characters are getting caught up in whatever drama is currently going on, Frankie is usually the one who takes a step back to view the situation from a more even point of view. She likes to solve problems and bring people together. As such, Frankie is the unifying force of the entire series. She is usually the first to tune in to a problem and see the resolution; though Cleo is the one who leads the group, Frankie is the one who sets things in motion.

Frankie heads the monster group.

Images: Mattel

Frankie's dialogue is littered with puns -- she declares things voltageous and often has to bolt. Her sewed together body works as a metaphor for a teenager who is falling apart; parts of her body seem to come undone at just the wrong time. Her upbeat nature keeps her from staying down too long. When she gets excited electricity crackles around her bolts, and she can't get in water with others or she'll electrocute them. Initially Frankie was perhaps a bit too much of a goody-goody but as the series has continued she has gotten a little more rambunctious (though she still always makes the morally correct choice in the end).

Image: Mattel

As the main character there are a lot of Frankie dolls. More often than not you will see her in the themed lines, and so far every wave that introduces new basic versions of some of the core group includes her. Her dolls always have black and white streaked hair though the arrangement of the colors varies. It is usually long though her recent Skull Shores doll featured short, chin length hair. Sometimes she has bangs and sometimes she doesn't. She always has two different colored eyes, a stitch mark on her right cheek, and additional stitches spread across her body.

I <3 Fashion Frankie

2.0 Basic Frankie. Images: Mattel

 Lightning bolt patterns adorn her clothes and her jewelry and shoes often feature lightning bolts as well. Another detail sometimes used on her is scissors, usually appearing as earrings or as the heels of her shoes. These refer to the thread used to stitch her together.

Classroom Frankie. Image: Mattel

 Bright, bold colors are used on Frankie, especially blue, and her style could be described as goth (but peppy). Her face mold looks human but her stitches, skintone, and neck bolts signify that she is, in fact, a monster. She always looks very pretty; though she's a monster, her upbeat, positive nature is always reflected in her dolls.

Skull Shores Frankie

Basic Frankie. Images: Mattel

Review: Skultimate Roller Maze Frankie Stein

Skultimate Roller Maze is an interesting line. Based on the price point and accessories it seems to be a "budget" line, a la the beachwear lines. SRM obviously isn't a beachwear line so I guess it fills the same slot Dead Tired did last year. If this is true it looks as though Mattel will be releasing two Monster High budget lines each year, a beach line and then a second one that will vary it's theme. I like this since it means an even wider variety of dolls, and keeps Mattel on it's creative toes. And while I don't always love the outfits and accessories within these lines the dolls themselves are another story. The doll I'll be covering in just a little bit, Skultimate Roller Maze Frankie Stein, is a perfect example of this.

Spoiler alert: this is gonna be a positive review.

There are five dolls in the line. Frankie, Lagoona Blue, Operetta, and Ghoulia Yelps are wide releases that are sold individually. Abbey Bominable is also available but only as a K-Mart exclusive (packaged with the Ghoulia doll). When the line was first announced I wasn't that excited about it; the only doll I planned on getting was Operetta. But when I saw the dolls in person I fell in love with them and now I have them all (yes, I have a MH addiction). While I'm not that into the outfits, and I don't even use the helmets and knee pads on the dolls, I adore their colorful faces and streaked hair. Frankie is my favorite of the five.

John is my fanboy.

This Frankie doesn't stray from the established template of her dolls -- her motif is lightning bolts and her signifying color is blue. Her helmet is solid electric blue with a lightning bolt molded into each side. It has a strap that can be fastened and unfastened on one side. She has electric blue knee pads with a skullette molded into the front of each one. Her roller skates are once again electric blue with little bolts molded into the sides of each one. The soles are solid black and use a jagged bolt as the heel. Each skate has two sets of working wheels, one green and one yellow. The skates are really cool. They are very pliable and incredibly easy to slide on and off. I wondered if the dolls would stay put on their stands since they are on wheels -- they do. In fact, if you balance the weight just right, the dolls can stand on their own in the skates.

Even though I don't particularly love the dresses on these dolls I have to say I think Frankie's is one of the better ones of the line. It's a one piece dress that goes about halfway down her thighs (it's pretty short). It's solid black with a print of small gears in magenta, electric blue, and neon green. It only has one strap, on her left, but there's a strap made of electric blue mesh sewed onto the other side. The side seams have a satin-esque detailing over them, light pink on her left, neon green on her right. It's a simple dress but it gets the job done. She doesn't have earrings or a necklace and bracelet. Let's take off that helmet and take a closer look at her face and hair.

Helmet hair

Her face is beautiful. She has neon green eyeshadow the goes around her entire eye in a thin strip. Above it is a strip of pink that goes partway to her eyebrows. The rest is filled in with an extremely light layer of silver, so light you can only see it from certain angles. Her lips are a very bright neon green. Reaction to it in the fan community has been pretty mixed, but I absolutely love it. This is a colorful, fun, youthful faceup for Frankie.

The base color for this Frankie's hair is white. The black streaks are a bit thinner than usual. Mixed in with them are neon green streaks. Of all the dolls I feel the green streaks look the best on Frankie, mostly because the neon is simply a better match with the black and white than it is with the other dolls' haircolors. I love her hairstyle. She has a sidepart and her bangs are sideswept. The hair goes about halfway down her back, too long to be considered short, but a little shorter than usual for Frankie. There is a very mild wave at her neckline. It's a loose, laidback hairstyle and I'm in love with it.

She comes with a neon green stand and collector's card featuring a drawing of her in her helmet. There's no brush or anything else in the way of extras. It seems the budget for accessories went to the helmet and knee pads, which makes sense, but is kind of a bummer for someone like me who isn't into the theme and doesn't use the skate gear.

Overall grade: A The only drawback is that I don't love the dress and skate gear. That's not a knock on their quality or design, it's more that the theme simply doesn't appeal much to me. The doll itself is amazing! She has a beautiful face and the hairstyle really appeals to me. It's also pretty unique among Frankie's dolls. This simple, carefree style of doll generally appeals to me more than the fussiness of the Ghouls Rule and Sweet 1600 type dolls.

All images: yours truly.

Review: Kohl's Exclusive Operetta and Clawdeen Wolf

Like everyone else I was discouraged when the Monster High product line for 2012 was revealed and there were so many exclusives included. It can sometimes be so hard to find wide releases; make something a store exclusive and it just got 10 times harder. I was especially disappointed to see that Kohl's department store had not one but two exclusive dolls. I haven't had much luck with my local Kohl's and their Monster High section. In fact, since I began collecting MH nearly two years ago I have never bought a single MH doll at Kohl's -- because they never have any. I simply stopped checking Kohl's when I would go on a doll run because it was a waste of my time. When I learned that they would have two exclusive dolls (both of which I liked) I resigned myself to the fact that I would either have to pay an outrageous price for them online or simply not own them. But yesterday by chance I found myself at the store, and much to my surprise (more like shock) they had boxes and boxes of MH dolls, including both exclusives. Even better, they had a sale going on in the toy department, buy one, get one 50% off. I grabbed Operetta and Clawdeen and did my happy dance (on the inside).

"Dude, you're such a nerd!"

These are two of the more interesting releases this year. They're not part of a line but instead stand alone dolls (they're sold separately by the way) that are wearing slight variations to their most recent fashion packs. The actual dolls are rather different from their other releases (Operetta more so than Clawdeen). This is similar to last year's Killer Style Frankie and Draculaura dolls, who were sold wearing variations on their Day at the Maul fashions. These two are exclusives so they don't come with stands (you know how I feel about that), and they are also missing a few of the accessories that came with the fashion packs. So no bonuses at all for these two. Even the boxes are simpler than the standard MH box; they have an illustration on the back but none of the glossy texture over it. Luckily this cheapness doesn't transfer over to the dolls themselves. Let's look at Operetta first.

This is different...

Right up front you'll notice she's wearing the earring mask (Ear mask? Mask ring? Eh, I'll just stick with earring mask...) that her Dot Dead Gorgeous doll wears. If you've read my review of that particular doll you already know that I approve of this development. This one is a translucent dark grey, otherwise it's exactly the same as the DDG one. The other thing that immediately stood out to me as I de-boxed her was her hair. In the box it looks like it's gonna be the usual rattiness that is Operetta's hair, but once loose from the box this hair is bouncy and soft. You could even call it silky. This is easily the best hair on an Operetta release so far. It makes me wonder why her Skultimate Roller Maze hair is gelled into oblivion if they can get it to be this nice.  Although all the Operetta dolls look fairly different from one another this one especially stands out. They've gone for a monochromatic look that is very unique. Her eyes are the usual steel blue, and they're topped by a thin strip of eyeshadow that's the exact same color. This is surrounded by a layer of grey-ish light purple eyeshadow that goes partway up to her eyebrows. Very light yellow shadow goes the rest of the way up. It all has a very light sheen to it. Her lips are a beautiful deep purple. Her skin is the usual color for Operetta but a little less bright. The overall effect is, as I mentioned, monochromatic, and gives her a muted, ethereal vibe. I really like this look for her. It's dramatic and mature.

If you own Operetta's fashion pack you're already familiar with this outfit. The only differences are in the shoes and purse. The look is very late 50s, very vixen-y (new word alert!). It's one of my favorite fashion packs so I don't mind seeing it repeated on the doll. She wears a black tank top with purple trim over the bust. The straps are black and white stripes and there's a matching stripe down the center of the bust. There's a molded red cobweb attached to the right strap. The skirt is a separate piece that goes over the tank top, covering her abdomen and stopping a bit above the knee. It's white with black music notes mixed with a leopard print. Over this goes a molded red cobweb belt in an interesting symmetrical pattern. The shoes are platforms with a white hood and black leopard spots. The soles are solid white and there's a strip of red in the middle that also covers the heel. This is where you'll find a difference from the fashion pack outfit. Those shoes feature black stripes on the sole and the heel is black instead of red. The fashion pack shoes are more visually interesting but the shoes with the doll are nice too.

The other difference is the purse. First I have to say I really love this purse -- it's easily one of my favorites from the entire MH line. It's circular and has grooves, similar to a record. (It looks to be a 12" LP based on scale.) It has two molded straps. The fashion pack purse features red trim, red cobweb detailing over the grooves, one white stripe, and a white skullette in the center. All details are repeated on both sides of the purse. The purse with the doll has the red trim and cobwebs but no white stripe or skullette on one side, the other side is blank except for the red trim. Like the shoes, the fashion pack purse has more details and looks more interesting. The doll doesn't come with the sunglasses you'll find in the fashion pack. This is disappointing as the sunglasses are one of the best parts of the look, but since the doll comes with a mask I guess it makes sense she wouldn't have sunglasses.

Overall grade: A+ I love the doll. She's unique among the Operetta releases, and the look itself is very interesting. The best way I can think to describe her is dramatic -- she just really stands out and grabs your attention. The outfit is a repeat but like I said earlier, I love this retro, vampy look on Operetta. Not including a stand is cheap on Mattel's part.

Now let's take a look at Clawdeen.

Beautiful!

There are some bigger differences here from the fashion pack than there was with Operetta's outfit, but I'll get to those in a bit. What really attracted me to this Clawdeen was her hair. It's not particularly unique among the various Clawdeen dolls but something about the placement of the green and the loose waves really appealed to me. The hair is nice on this doll; it's silky and smooth and the curl is big and lush. The green is rooted all the way around the edge of the scalp making for a great contrast with the brown hair. Her face is nice, too. She has the usual bright yellow-brown eyecolor. She has a thin strip of deep green eyeshadow, a reddish-brown line above that, and then a surrounding layer of lime green. It goes all the way up to her eyebrows. It has more of a matte finish but is still a bit shiny. Her lips are a deep purple that's a shade brighter than Operetta's lips. This faceup is very similar to her Dawn of the Dance doll. The green here is a little brighter though and stands out a lot more. She's very pretty. I tend to prefer simpler faceups like this to the more elaborate, Ghouls Rule-style faceups.

One of these is better than the other.

Her outfit is taken from her most recent fashion pack but with one big difference: she wears a dress instead of a top and pants. The jacket -- a lime green bolero with purple faux-fur collar -- is exactly the same between the two. Ditto the shoes, gold open toe platforms with an extra-thick sole. They're just the one color and molded to look like they have zippers and a mesh-like cover. The heels are open as well.

The purse matches the shoes; it's the same color and molded to have a bit of texture. There's a molded strap on one end that loops around the hand. For the fashion pack she wore a knit tube top with a camouflage-like print of black, purple, and lime. This was paired with black knit harem pants with purple and lime spots. Those two pieces have been completely replaced on the doll; now she wears a cocktail dress made of the exact same material as the pants. The dress is ruched at the seams so that it hugs her body and creates a rippling effect. It appears strapless but actually has clear bands holding it up. It looks great on her; definitely a huge step up from the odd looking harem pants. Unfortunately the sunglasses in the fashion pack aren't included with the doll. It made sense not to include a pair with Operetta since she has her mask but Clawdeen's would've looked just as good with this dress as they do with the other outfit.

Overall grade: A- She's very pretty and the bright makeup really grabs your eyes. Her hair is silky and shiny. The outfit is an improvement on the fashion pack. Although this Clawdeen is gorgeous she's not especially unique. Also, there's the stand problem again. Have I mentioned how much that annoys me?

All images: yours truly.