Voicething Returns! ... to talk about a car.

Bonjour, readers! Your eyes do not deceive you -- I really am back! With a new review and scans and pictures and everything! Why the long absence? Without going into too much boring detail I had a one-two whammy of family stuff combined with an extra heavy workload. What little time I had away from work was spent lulling myself to sleep each night watching Brian De Palma and Val Lewton flicks. Luckily the work stuff was temporary and I'm back to my usual schedule. And that means we can convene with our regularly scheduled blogging! An unfortunate casualty in all this is the Clawdeen Extravaganza, which was supposed to happen this month. Response to the extravaganza was muted anyway, so I suppose it's no big loss. I have to admit I was hoping to return with a review of Catrine DeMew but alas, her purple perfection has evaded me so far. Dot Dead Gorgeous 3-Packs and Ghouls Rule Abbey came in droves, and quite quickly, but the doll I actually want more than oxygen itself is a very elusive creature. I can't even find any of the new swim dolls to serve as a consolation. There is much sadface here at Voicething headquarters at the moment because of this. But the show must go on! And what we're covering today is pretty cool, especially if you like convertibles...

You're doing it wrong, Frankie.

For their second MH car (after Draculaura's Roadster), Mattel kept things succinct, labeling this one simply Convertible. It comes in a large window box showing off the car and features cardboard cutouts of Frankie and Rochelle sitting inside it.

The box back features a large drawing of the convertible being driven by Ghoulia with Frankie riding shotgun and Rochelle sitting on the back (quite literally... we'll get to that). Clawdeen is standing nearby, so near in fact that she looks in danger of becoming a vehicular homicide statistic. Given the car's color scheme and wrought iron decor I assumed this was Rochelle's ride, but a quick read of the supplied blurb reveals that the convertible was in fact a POS that Ghoulia found and restored. First the scooter, now the convertible -- Ghoulia sure loves her some wheels, doesn't she?

The convertible comes in a nice dark lavender (well, purple) shade, with touches of grey, black, and silver. The basic idea behind the design seems to be wrought iron and webs, and lots of it. Not that I'm complaining; this baby looks pretty damn cool. The hood, the sides, and the rear all have curling, fanciful designs molded into them. In places the designs have been cut out of the plastic completely, creating a peek-a-boo effect with the car's nonexistent innards. At times these cutouts flow naturally with the molded designs while at others they're overlapped on the molding creating a nice contrast.

The hood of the car features a small skullette in the center front and is flanked by clear headlights. The headlights have a curlicued web design that matches the rest of the car's detailing. I like them quite a bit but wish they lit up -- how cool would that be! Below the hood at the very front of the car is a grill of silver webs, a nice touch. Underneath it is more molded detailing.

The car doesn't have working doors. Where the doors would be is more molded detailing combined with swooshy cutouts. They start at the bottom of the vehicle's body and work their way up over each back wheel, getting smaller as they progress backwards.

The back of the convertible is where things really get interesting. Surprisingly, this tiny little car seats four. Two in the front, two in the back on top of what is ostensibly the trunk. I have a feeling this seating arrangement makes this car officially not street legal. But who cares, the dolls look great sitting here. It's even wing and dragon tail compatible. And at least they threw some seatbelts back there, just in case. Seriously though, I was surprised how well my dolls sat on this uniquely placed seat. And as I've mentioned in previous playset reviews, if nothing else this gives your stand-less dolls a place to rest, and look good doing it.

Jinafire, why you gotta go and steal Rochelle's thunder, looking all cool and fierce and stuff.

The trunk/seat has a molded spiderweb pattern; lift it up and you'll find a skullette inside. A sticker license plate bares the word SCARIS in red and white. It's awfully cute, but my very favorite thing about this car is the taillights. Check 'em out -- they're silver dragon (or gargoyle?) heads! And with those glaring eyes and snarled grins, they ain't the friendliest-looking things, either. So cool! 

The inside of the car has two purple bucket seats, a teal steering wheel and matching seatbelts. There's a fairly large console that has a working gearshift in teal and two drink holders. There's also a display that looks like something straight out of the 60's Batman TV show -- it's weird and anachronistic and I love it. The dashboard is solid black and has more molded cobwebs.

The windshield is clear, of course, and is held in place by metallic silver, curlicued plastic. I love the design in particular here -- it reminds me of Operetta's deluxe fashion pack mask for some reason. There's also a black roll bar decorated with more wrought iron. You'll notice this car is a convertible in name only -- it has no top to convert. This makes sense as I imagine that would've been a manufacturing nightmare, but how cool if they could've somehow pulled it off. Oh well. All four wheels have shiny rims of wrought iron centered by a skullette -- flashy!

Overall grade A I have one complaint about the Scaris Convertible -- the dolls sit way too low in the bucket seats! Seriously, it looks like grandma's out for a drive, the doll's heads rest so low when seated. All you can see are the tops of their heads. It took some finagling to get my dolls to sit down just right without sinking too low so I could get these pictures. Other than that the Scaris car is pretty great. I love the design, the colors sync up well with the cafe cart playset, and it has some nice little touches (the working gear shift, the headlights, the mag wheels). The dragon/gargoyle taillights in particular are way cool. The trunk seats in the back may not be legal but they work great and show off your dolls well, especially compared to the deep bucket seats up front, which seem to be on a mission to hide your dolls from the world. At the very least this is a step up from the roadster, which I only got because I wanted the Draculaura doll that came with the re-release. The Scaris Convertible, however, sells itself. No doll necessary.

Review: Jinafire Long - Scaris Deluxe

Ugh, you know... you know, sometimes it's just hard. Because sitting in my position, I know that if you've found yourself here it's because you wanna know more about this doll. Or because you want to see if my opinion of her reflects yours, or if it's different, then why. But damn if it's hard for me to not just pound out "Holy crap, this doll is awesome, y'all! She's the perfect plastic embodiment of why we all fell in love with dolls in the first place, for real, y'all! If you ain't got her yet, go find her now -- don't think about it, just do it! Y'all." And while that would certainly be good for a laugh, and reveal that spastic side of myself that occasionally rears it's geeky head, it wouldn't exactly make for a good read. And it would definitely be doing Jinafire a disservice. Because there are so many great details here, so many unique little touches, that make this doll, well, special. (Forgive the preciousness, but it's the truth.) And so we dig in...

First, how about some box back?

The box back is bigger than my scanner. Hence the "piecey" feeling of this scan.

So before we've even opened her we're already given the basic set up of this line (rather enigmatically, no less), and the basics of Jinafire, the character. Our girl Jina is a Chinese Fire Dragon, hot-tempered and headstrong, but also artistically driven. I like this girl already. Once opened, you'll find a diary of sorts inside. Although her booklet does have a few diary entries it also doubles as her sketch pad. I like this approach a lot. The diary entries give us a lot of insight into her personality and motivations, while the sketch pad portions offer some fantastic artwork -- a feast for the eyes, really, considering it all looks so good. The sketches, fabric swatches, and color studies all tie into the story that plays out in her diary entries. Smartly, Mattel has used these entries to establish Jinafire's character pre-Scaris. So rather than just throwing us right into "Jina does Scaris!", we get to know more about her personal life, with the final entry only hinting at her upcoming Scaris adventure. For an 8 page booklet that has as many drawings as it does words, it successfully establishes the whole story and character. This booklet is a master of multitasking, and it looks great doing it. See for yourself--

So we know her personality and her motivations, but what about the doll? I'm not even sure where to start. Okay, so being a Chinese dragon, instead of skin Jina has golden, shimmering scales. They cover her entire body except her face, lower hands, feet, tail front, and chest and tummy (I'll come back to that). Even the non-scaled portions have that set-in shimmer, and this is nowhere as evident as her face. It just seems to glow, to radiate. It's impressive and just plain beautiful. While I'm on the subject, yeah, that face. Yowzers. Jina's faceup is so detailed, so unique, so beguiling. She must be the prettiest dragon girl the world has ever seen. She has gigantic yellow dragon eyes with little strips of green surrounding the pupils. There's a white reflection dot accompanied by a white streak. These striking eyes could give Toralei a run for her money. Her eyeshadow is purple and follows the contour of her eyelid before sprouting dramatically in two directions at the edge -- upwards and downwards. There's no shadow under her eyes or above the purple layer up top. There's really no need for it -- the shadow is already enhanced by the natural shimmer of her golden skin. Her lips are the same shade of purple as her shadow and have a fair bit of shimmer going on themselves. Her eyebrows are a grey-ish brown color and have a unique tip that juts down sharply before going into the actual brow. It's a small touch but adds immensely to the uniqueness of this face. Her eyes and brows seem to be all about dramatic, sharp points and rich, striking colors.

When the promo pic of this doll leaked all those months ago I was immediately taken with her unique hairstyle. It certainly looked impressive. The thing is, Mattel can occasionally be a bit overly ambitious in their designs of these dolls, and while promo pics often look flawless, the reality of the doll you buy in the store can be a very different story. I'm happy to report that this ambitious hairstyle, however, has been manufactured perfectly! No weirdness with accessory placement, no odd rooting, no crispy gel. First things first: her hair is long, straight, and bright green with black streaks. The texture is comparable to Spectra's hair (that is, it's quite silky and soft), though maybe not quite as thick. She wears a hairpiece (I'm not even gonna pretend to know what it's called) that's a black wand that bares a golden ball of sorts (it's flat in the back), flanked by orange-red molded tassels at each end. Although they're molded the tassels hang loosely, creating a nice kinetic effect when the doll is in motion. Jina's hair looks like it may be sideparted, but I have my doubts. The front portion of her hair is split in two on her left. Some of it is banded at her right ear while the rest is pulled up into a circular crown that rests behind that golden ball. The strands of hair left hanging out of the crown rest naturally to the right. The rest of Jina's hair simply rests behind her unfettered, ending just below her rear. This is an extremely fussy hairdo and I'm amazed Mattel has been able to mass produce it successfully. For all that's going on here it really is flawless; it looks amazing. Good job, Mattel!

Jina wears a satin dress in royal purple. It has a print of red flames mixed with blue and black stylistic clouds. It ends above the knees in a diagonal cut. The right sleeve is made of the same material and leads into a high collar. The left sleeve is purple gauze and features a print of orange scales. It flares out dramatically. Over the dress she wears a gold belt; the shade is a bit brighter than her scales/skin. A medallion baring the infamous skullette hangs from the belt, in addition to a swathe of that purple and orange gauze. This dress is stunning. It feels extremely high quality; to say it's well-made is an understatement. The colors and textures are rich, a bit luxe even. The textures remind me of some of the best Blythe clothes out there. The belt is a great touch and I love the contrast the hanging gauze creates.

On her feet are platforms; the body is orange-red and wraps her ankles. The heel is gold and molded into the shape of a horn of some sort. The actual platform is molded as well and looks to be a round pad clutched into place by claws. They're stunning. She wears matching orange-red earrings that echo the detailing of the ankle wrap on her shoes. Her last worn accessory is an orange-red arm cuff wrapped around her right arm.

Jina is a fire dragon and as such she has several body mods reflecting this. Most notable is her tail. It's shimmery gold and curves into a green, leafy end. Although the tail isn't posable in that you can bend it around, it does twist within it's groove (a la the werecat twins), so there are some posing options here. I've also noticed it stays in it's groove remarkably well. The next mod is one I particularly love. Although her whole body is covered with scales, even her back and rear, in true reptilian fashion her chest and tummy are scale-less and instead broken into wide portions. This is one of those details that's rather small and perhaps even unnoticeable (you don't really see it unless you remove her clothes), but adds so much to the doll once you do notice it. These are the little details that I always say put Monster High above any other playline dolls. After all, Mattel could've just as easily left her entire torso scale-y, or just not modded it at all. The last dragon-y detail is her ears, which point upward sharply. Small, but worth mentioning.

As a deluxe doll, Jinafire comes with many extras -- stand, hairbrush, and booklet. Since she is a "travel doll" she comes with a rolling suitcase instead of a purse. The suitcase is red and opens on a large hinge. The front features a lot of detail -- a dragon, bursts of flames all around, and fans in each corner. It is topped by decorative golden flames. The back is a bit simpler but has some nice molded detailing as well. It's also here that you'll find the rolling wheels. Inside are molded pockets and padding. The handle is black and has a cool decorative shape similar to a pagoda. I've heard it said that these handles are retractable but I have my doubts on this one. Although you can pop the handles out of their sockets easily, once you do the handle becomes very loose and "clattery". Contrast this with Skelita's suitcase handle, which very obviously is retractable, and I feel my suspicions are confirmed. Not that it really matters; not being retractable doesn't take away from the suitcase at all.

I know these pics make you feel like you're in an Inception-like dreamland, but it was the best way to capture the details without a tripod.

Overall grade: A+ and then some. The design of this doll is ambitious and Mattel has pulled it off without a hitch. She's unique and very beautiful. But lots of MH dolls are unique and beautiful. Something about Jina feels "special"; she comes across to me as just a bit elevated above other MH dolls. The materials of her dress feel nicer than usual, her hair is elaborate and has been manufactured successfully, and the overall setup of the character is detailed and interesting. Her booklet is a step above the usual MH diary in that it both establishes the character while giving us some beautiful sketches to look at. To be honest this doll feels more "collector's quality" than the recent Scarily Ever After collector's doll line. When I took her clothes off to inspect her dragon tummy I hesitated, simply because I didn't want to "mess up" her look. Luckily her clothes went back on just fine. Bottom line: this doll is truly special, something you'll want to hold on to and cherish. You don't get that often in playline dolls. Jinafire Long is nothing short of remarkable.