Ghoulia Yelps Deluxe Fashion Pack Review

Back when I did my first review of the new deluxe fashion packs I doubled up, covering both Frankie's and Operetta's packs in one big mega-review. The plan was to do the same with the remaining two deluxe packs but honestly, doing the Frankie/Operetta review turned out to be more than I had bargained for. By the time I was finished I felt like I had run a marathon. It didn't take me long to realize that I should take a divide and conquer approach to the remaining two deluxe packs, so Ghoulia and Robecca will be covered separately. It's been over two months since I wrote a Ghoulia review, and as you know I can't go too long without bringing her up, so that's whose duds we'll be looking at today!

Ghoulia's pack includes a dress, shirt, pair of jeans, vest, glasses, shoes, belt, purse, and earrings. One important thing I forgot to mention in the Frankie/Operetta review is that all the accessories included with the deluxe packs are brand new! Considering all the goodies included with the four packs, it really is a lot of new stuff! There are two outfits included, so two models are needed to show them off. For the first outfit I went with Scaris Ghoulia because she's new and cool and I'm nothing if not a shill for new Mattel product (heh). For the second look I chose Classroom Ghoulia because she's a really great doll that I don't feature on here enough. Also, she looks pretty damn amazing in the second outfit, if I may say so.

First up is Scaris Ghoulia in the "A" outfit. Everything you see on Ghoulia is included in the pack. She wears a one piece dress with a print of alternating grey and white gravestones. The stones are cracked and decrepit-looking -- very cool. There are horizontal stripes between the gravestones in alternating red and black. The red stripes are shiny. The cut of this dress is pretty simple. It has tank sleeves, hugs the middle, and the skirt flares a little. There are no embellishments -- no pleating, ruffles, etc. The real draw here is the print. The gravestones are pure MH, and their aged look adds a lot of personality. The sparkling red stripes add a hint of glam to the look. On it's own the dress is alright, but it definitely needs some accessories to liven it up. That's where the belt comes in. It's a nice aqua blue shade and fairly wide. It has a simple diamond pattern molded into it. At the front is a skullette buckle with a portion of the belt dangling next to it. This is a non-functioning buckle; the belt actually closes in the back with a tab. Surprisingly the aqua of the belt perfectly matches the grey and red of the dress. This isn't the most amazing MH belt we've ever seen but it gets the job done.

The glasses included have thick black frames and a somewhat blocky design. If they weren't horn-rimmed these would be perfect for Clark Kent. They definitely have the nerd-chic thing going on! I really love these; they're easily among my favorite Ghoulia glasses, and being a big Ghoulia fanboy who always loves her glasses that's saying a lot. I especially like them on Scaris Ghoulia. Something about the wide, dark frames really compliments her dramatic, blood red lips. Ghoulia's earrings are squiggly pink worms. A zombie girl wearing worms as earrings -- how can that not be considered amazing! Yes, when she wears them it looks like worms are crawling into her head, and yes, I absolutely love it! Mattel, I love you. I probably don't tell you that enough.

Ghoulia's shoes are open-toed sneaker-heels. The body of the shoe is black while the sole and heel are light blue. There are molded strings and squiggles on the body while the sole and heel have the same grid pattern as the belt. They're not amazing, to me anyway, but they look good enough and are definitely "Ghoulia". Her last accessory is her purse, a medium-sized tote of red... brain matter? I'm not entirely sure. The texture looks kind of like the brain matter molding they often use on Ghoulia's accessories, but the little bubbles have circles molded into them. You biology experts care to fill me in? Whatever the case, I like the purse.

I would say overall this look is better than the sum of it's parts. The only pieces I really love here are the glasses and earrings. I do love the print of the dress; the cut is a bit boring. The belt has some so-so of it's own going on. But put everything together and you've got a pretty awesome look happening! The lighter tones of the earrings, belt, and shoe soles compliment each other well. The red purse highlights the red of the dress while the black glasses play off the black portion of the shoes. Everything here comes together really nicely. Like I said, the total look is better than the sum of it's parts.

Next is Classroom Ghoulia showcasing the "B" outfit. The only things here that are included in the pack are the top, jeans, and vest. Everything else is a hodgepodge of different pieces. The top is black and has a fairly wide collar and short sleeves. The collar and sleeves are hemmed with white thread. A tiny red bowtie with a print of black gore is attached. It's really cute; the bow adds a lot of personality to an otherwise rather plain shirt. Over the shirt she wears a white vest with a red and black cherry print. This is really cute, too! Her jeans are capri length and come in pure red. Just below the knee the red breaks into a dripping pattern laid over solid black. This whimsical take on gore is very Ghoulia, and just plain looks cool. The sharp red against the black is striking, and it perfectly matches the red and black shirt and cherry print on the white vest.

I definitely love this look! It has a youthful, rebellious vibe that really works for me. All the pieces are well-made, although the pants fit a little too snugly at the hips and have a tendency to get caught in her joints. The Velcro closure doesn't always want to stay shut, either. In any case, this striking look is pure Ghoulia -- a little gory, and a lot cute!

While I'm finding myself more in like than in love with most of the accessories included in this pack, the ones that that I do love -- the glasses and earrings -- are among the best we've seen for Ghoulia. The earring worms are just plain hilarious. While I don't like the dress on it's own, paired with the right accessories it definitely works. The second outfit is near-perfect and has become one of my favorites for Ghoulia.

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.