Robecca Steam Deluxe Fashion Pack Review

I think Robecca and I got off on the wrong foot. It wasn't that I disliked her. Quite the opposite, actually. I just felt overall that she didn't quite live up to the hype. To me she seemed a bit cheaply made. I went through not one, but two basic Robecca dolls who had faulty necks. It just left a bad taste in my mouth. But I've always thought she was gorgeous. And unlike others, I didn't hold her somewhat lacking steampunk theming against her. Over the last few months I've gotten more and more MH dolls with the faulty neck problem. So basic Robecca has been exonerated of that charge since it isn't just her dolls suffering from this.

How could anyone get off on the wrong foot in such fabulous shoes?

In a nice little bit of irony, her second doll, from the tepidly-received Dance Class line, immediately became a personal favorite of mine. While others were writing DC Robecca off as a weird-looking cheapie doll that paled in comparison to the basic doll, I was admiring her exaggerated eyes, her colorful face, her all-around uniqueness. It took a few days from when I first bought DC Robecca to realize what she really reminds me of: an anime character. The gigantic eyes (enhanced by the pulled-back hair which puts more focus on them), the bright lips, the overall cartoonish look she has; all seem a bit anime-ish. Mostly it's the eyes, though. They look huge on DC Robecca! Especially from a distance she looks like a Japanese cartoon character come to life. In other words, she's loaded with personality and I absolutely love her. Also, she doesn't have a funky neck. That helps a lot, too. But we're here to talk about her deluxe fashion pack. I just wanted to share my current thoughts on these dolls before I begin.

Robecca's a lucky girl in that her first ever fashion pack was a deluxe one. Fellow character-reveal cohorts Rochelle and Venus didn't get any fashion packs, much less a deluxe one. Then again, considering Robecca's dolls came in either a halfhearted steampunk getup (basic), or a simple leotard and wrap (Dance Class), she probably needed some new clothes far more than anyone else. Her pack includes a dress, separate top, shorts, "shrug", earring, earring/eyepatch/headband (yep), purse, belt, and pair of shoes. We need two models to show these outfits off; seeing as there are only two Robecca dolls, model selection was easier than usual for a deluxe review. In the first outfit will be basic Robecca. DC Robecca will take on "B outfit" duties.

The first outfit is a halter dress in Catalina blue. It hugs the middle before flaring into a skirt that ends well above the knee with a ruffled hem. The skirt swoops a little in the front. It has a high Victorian collar fronted by a simple ribbon bow in light blue. The print is amazing. It features scattered, shiny bronze gears hanging from dripping liquid; sometimes the gears have a skullette in the center. Mixed in with these are light blue, smoke-like wisps; the wisps also have the occasional gear connected to them. Holy crap, y'all, I'm loving this dress so hard! Everything about it works: the Victorian collar (swoon!), the fun and flirty cut, the eyecatching, unique print, the colors. It all comes together so perfectly. Seriously, love it.

Paired with this dress of life is a bronze belt of molded rivets, chains, and clock faces. The chain portion droops a little and hugs her thigh, creating a nice visual effect. She has a matching bronze tote. It looks mechanical, with rivets and two spouts (or are they antennae?). The tote opens on a hinge. Best of all is that one side has blue painted detailing, giving the purse the look of a face. Give it up for anthropomorphized purses, y'all!

Robecca wears a lone earring that's a bronze gear with a larger bronze gear dangling below it. Why the lone earring? Because the other one is more a contraption than an earring. Plus, it's completely different from the gear one. So Robecca's pack includes an accessory that brings new meaning to the word multifunctional. It's a translucent blue headband of chains. It's also an eyepatch. And an earring. I'm being pretty glib here, but honestly, it's very cool. The earring portion is a gear (of course) that connects to the headband; at the front of the headband is a patch that covers her left eye. The patch is a simple circle surrounded by beads. Since the entire piece is translucent you can still see Robecca's eye a little when she's wearing the patch. Although it closes with a tab in the back, it's not really needed. The headband fits perfectly. Once you've got the earring portion in just slide it over her head and you're done! The piece can be worn without the patch covering her eye and still look great, to me anyway. I like it both ways, really. All in all, it's a really cool, unique accessory that functions extremely well and looks very good.

Next we have the shoes. Man, Robecca seems to have a lock-down on amazing shoes! Even Operetta, our previous fab-shoe go-to girl, has had a dud pair at this point. But so far every pair of Robecca shoes have been rather stunning. After the rocket boots of her basic doll (best MH boots to date, period), and the surprisingly detailed and whimsical gear-tap shoes of her DC doll, come these gorgeous little numbers. They're open-toed heels with a blue body and brown heels. But let's talk details, because that's where things really get interesting. The body is tall, ending well above the ankles. It has straps that cover the foot and rivets holding the front portion on. The back portion of the body is molded piping. The soles are bronze piping, giving way to matching bronze heels. The heels are made of tiny sheets riveted in place. Another bronze piece frames the actual heel of the foot and is also riveted in place. What I love about these shoes, besides the beautiful colors of course, is that they feel like a true update of Victorian shoes. They're tall, piped, and have a riveted front -- all authentic. Yet, thanks to the super-high heel and extra-thick sole, they also feel very modern. On top of all this, the rivets and copper sheets play into Robecca's theme. These are stunning shoes -- no hyperbole. They work on so many levels, and just plain look gorgeous. Although basic Robecca's boots are her best shoes overall thanks to just how unique and well-made they are, from a fashion standpoint these are easily Robecca's best shoes to date. In fact, these are some of the best MH shoes to date, period, up there with the Skeleton CAM shoes and SO Clawdeen's boots. Great job, Mattel! Truly, well done!

Okay, after all that gushing I've gotta gather myself before we continue on... Okay, I'm ready. For the next outfit we have DC Robecca taking on modelling duties. You may notice that she's an extremely cool-looking doll. Or you may find her weird and cheap-looking (your loss). The only things included with the pack here are the top, "shrug", and shorts.

I can't be the only one who finds that face to be at least a little cartoony. 

I also can't be the only one who loves it... right?

I'm not gonna lie: this outfit is ridiculously simple, perhaps the simplest fashion pack-related outfit we've seen to date. Luckily, the colors here are pretty luxe and the prints are interesting. She wears a black, short-sleeved top in a smooth knit. The neckline is hemmed with electric blue thread. It has a large diamond print of turquoise and purple chains connecting gold rings. Basic but pretty. Over this she wears the shrug. Well, it's not really a shrug, I'm just calling it that for lack of something better. But it works pretty much like a shrug. Anyway, it's also made of a smooth knit and has a print of alternating blue and lavender diamonds. Again, basic but pretty. With these she wears shorts in vertical pinstripes of blue, lavender, gold, and black. Gold gears line the front and it has a hemmed waistband. Should I say basic but pretty again? Well, I just did. The key to making this outfit work is accessorizing. Even with the nice colors and good prints there's no denying this outfit is pretty boring. But with the right extras I think it works remarkably well! I didn't use the accessories included in the pack with this outfit because they felt much more right with the dress.

Seriously, look at that face. So adorable! So much personality! What's not to like?

Here are a few pics of the second outfit without the "shrug", and a couple without the belt.

Overall: The dress in this pack is really amazing -- in fact, I'd say it's probably my favorite Robecca outfit yet. That's including her basic and Dance Class outfits. I really love her in it! It's eyecatching, fashionable, touches on her theme nicely (the collar is especially impressive), and simply works for this character in ways her previous outfits should have but didn't. The second outfit is lacking on it's own, but with the right accessories it totally works. The extras here are very good, especially the headband eyepatch piece. The shoes are mindblowing. 

For some reason these two strike me as sisters rather than two dolls of the same character, and I think they look great together. I couldn't stop taking pictures of them! Take a look...

Til next time!

Review: Create-A-Monster Ice and Blob Girls

Create-A-Monster has always been a fascinating line. The idea behind it is pretty great: you buy starter packs containing enough parts to build two complete dolls. The dolls come unassembled and you put them together yourself. The starter packs can be augmented with several different add-on packs, bought separately. The idea is that you can mix and match the parts any way you like, creating your own unique monster. Sounds pretty cool, right?

Well, there were a few problems. Initially the two doll starter packs only came with one torso, meaning you could technically only build one doll at a time. This was met with much consternation from fans and collectors, and Mattel quickly went about re-releasing the first wave packs with two torsos. Now all starter packs include two torsos. The add-on packs didn't include torsos, or upper limbs for that matter, either. Again, fans were rather displeased about this. In response to the add-on torso controversy, Mattel released a special set of add-on torsos you could buy from their online store. Unfortunately, Mattel insists on continuing to release add-ons sans torsos. They learned with the starter packs so I don't really understand why they're still not including them with the add-ons. Seems kind of cheap and stingy if you ask me.

It's worth noting that CAMs have been a real blessing for customizers, who can build, paint, and mod their customs much more easily using CAM parts. The CAMs have also been influential on the designs of full-scale character dolls. Most notable is the Skeleton Girl add-on, an obvious  precursor to Skelita Calaveras.

We've seen a lot of unique monsters introduced through the CAM lines. Witches, Insect Girls, Sea Monsters, Dragons, the list goes on. Today I'll be looking at one of the newest CAM starter kits, the Blob/Ice Girl set. Starter kits come in a large, clear plastic box. The box doubles as a case, holding all the various doll parts in different compartments. This is actually pretty handy as it helps you keep everything in order. This becomes more helpful the more starter kits you accrue. Unfortunately, one bad thing about this packaging is that, rather than using a drawing of the characters like you always see on the boxes for the standard dolls, here a real picture is used. Aside from the fact that it's just not as fun as a drawing, there's the fact that the dolls are shown "mixed up", with their body parts all mismatched. I know this is done to highlight the "anything goes" nature of these sets, but it's really just not very attractive. And who besides maybe small children actually use the CAMs this way? If people were actually using them this way then there never would've been any controversy over the torsos and upper limbs in the first place. Not helping matters is that the Blob Girl looks like some weird elfen pixie in the cover pic. Not flattering, and not indicative of the actual doll you'll be getting. But hey, it could be worse: at least these aren't as bad as those AWFUL, TERRIBLE CGI renderings they used for the Ghouls Rule boxes. (Seriously, hate the CGI!)

But I digress. Let's talk about the dolls. This set contains enough parts to "create" two dolls. Our characters here are a Blob Girl and an Ice Girl. Since these two have fairly straightforward body types there are no "odd" pieces included, like tails or wings or clip-on ears. You get two wigs, one of kanekalon fiber, the other of molded plastic. You'll also get two dresses and one pair of shoes. I have to admit, loving shoes as much as I do, that I wish we got two pairs here, but only having the one pair isn't a deal breaker or anything. Looking at the pieces it's pretty clear which ones are for Blob Girl and which ones are for Ice Girl, and I'm not gonna deviate from that for this review. First, let's take a look at Blob Girl.

Miss Blob has a body of translucent, glittery, hot pink plastic. Since the body is translucent you can see the inner workings of the joints pretty well. The only place you can't see through are the lower legs, which aren't hollow. They're also just a tad darker than the rest of her body. She has some floating "blob" liquid molded onto her lower arms, otherwise her limbs are smooth. She also has the "finger point" hand mold, one of my personal favorites because it gives the dolls a little more versatility of expression. Although from the beginning I've felt the CAMs feel rather sturdy, Blob Girl feels a little sturdier than usual once put together. I'd say she actually comes very close to a standard doll in terms of how tight her joints feel, and how well they hold poses.

Blob Girl's head is made of hot pink, glittery plastic. Her face is both adorable and pretty. She's cute! She has large, orange eyes in a human shape -- no dragon-slit pupils or anything. Her makeup consists of hot pink eyeliner above the eye, and electric blue below it. It's all surrounded by a thick layer of light blue eyeshadow. She has fuchsia eyebrows and matching, glossy, fuchsia lips in a puckered shape.

In a new development for the CAMs, Blob Girl's wig is made of molded plastic rather than fiber. When I first learned of this I was skeptical. I love being able to brush my dolls' hair, and obviously you can't brush molded plastic. Once I actually had the doll in my hands and her wig in place I was totally won over! Miss Blob's wig is a hot pink flip. It features some "oozing liquid" molding, tying to her Blob theme, and flips outward just below her ears. Unlike the fiber wigs, which use a spear placed in the doll's head to hold it in place, the molded wig just clips lightly onto the head. It's rather heavy but stays in place remarkably well. There's something retro about it, a bit 60s. It's totally cute!

Blob Girl wears a minidress of aqua blue with a print of hot pink, liquid splotches on the bodice. It has short sleeves worn off the shoulder. Mine came out of the box with some frayed hemming on the left sleeve, but the dress can still be worn just fine. The material for the dress is a smooth knit. Although it's simple I really like this dress! The colors are pleasing and the print is interesting. I also like how the sleeves are worn off the shoulder. Paired with the dress is the set's shoes, simple hot pink numbers with dripping liquid heels, and matching ankle straps. Not amazing shoes, but not bad, either.

Next we have the real draw of this set for me, Ice Girl! Like Blob Girl, she has a translucent body showcasing her joints inside. Her non-hollow lower legs are a tad darker than the rest of her body, and look a little smoother, too. Being an Ice Girl, her entire body is molded of sharp angles and flat surfaces. Think of her as a really big, anthropomorphized Abbey purse.

Ice Girl's head is made of a beautiful, translucent blue plastic. Her eyes feature irises of blue and lavender stripes (very cool), and her simple makeup consists entirely of lavender shadow that surrounds the eye. There's no other colors here, just the lavender. Her eyebrows are dark purple while her lips are a gorgeous frosted pink. I gotta say, I love this doll's face! The striped irises are such a great, subtle effect -- it's just very unique. The frosted pink lips really pop! And the translucent plastic gives her an otherwordly radiance; she really glows! She's simply stunning.

Her hair is a wig of kanekalon fiber. It's not rooted very thickly but it looks good just the same. In fact, I'd say these kanekalon wigs look much better with the thick wig caps than the other hair fibers do. Ice Girl's hair is straight, landing above her rear. She also has bangs. The dominant color is ice blue although there are quite a few hot pink streaks mixed in, as well. Those pink streaks play off her frosted lips perfectly.

Seriously, this doll is gorgeous. Can we swap her out with Abbey as the "icey cold" main character?

Ice Girl's dress is another triumph of simplicity. She wears a halter dress in black. It has a print of snowflakes encased in blue diamonds. Interspersed among them are hot pink embellishments. There are also horizontal stripes of light pink and white icicles. It's not as busy as it sounds; in fact, it looks great! The colors all compliment her body, face, and hair, and the black anchors everything. Since Blob Girl wore the shoes with the pack, I paired the purple heels from Abbey's most recent fashion pack with Ice Girl's outfit.

Overall grade: A In general the materials used for the CAMs seems to be improving. There were a lot of complaints about the quality of the CAM wigs and Mattel seems to be responding with the higher quality kanekalon wigs, augmented with the new molded wigs. The bodies for this set feel sturdier than previous CAMs. Using translucent plastic for the bodies adds a lot of visual interest, and in general this set feels particularly creative. The Blob Girl feels retro and a bit kitschy, while the Ice Girl comes across a tad more glamorous and ethereal. Both faces are incredibly pretty, and the translucent plastic of the heads, particularly on the Ice Girl, gives off a beautiful, otherwordly glow. The outfits, while simple, are colorful, visually pleasing, and play into each character's theme in a fun way. All in all I'm very pleased with this set. The Ice Girl, who I'm totally loving in particular at the moment, may be my favorite CAM yet. She's stunning.

For a bit of fun I swapped their wigs. Take a look...