Massive Monster High update

Recently, I had the occasion to buy stuff from the USA and have a friend pick it up and mail it to me. Of course, dolls made the top of my list! The price difference is significant, especially if we're looking at used or deboxed dolls (we don't have a secondary market for brand name toys here). I decided that I had to have Cleos, especially the only fringeless Dead Tired version, which I find the most beautiful; more 'Lauras, because of the amazing hair and soft skin tone, and a Ghoulia with longer hair. I will not describe how much effort went into hunting down the seven MH I ended up buying, but I'm very proud of myself now that the package is here! 
Let's take a look at the goodies :)

The Nude Dollies

I have Scaris Ghoulia and Laura, and Picture Day Laura. All were new, but I took down Ghoulia's hairstyle and immediately braided it because it was a cloud of tangled curls floating around the head. Everyone will have the hair straightened, so it doesn't matter. I would have loved to get the original Ghoulia with the whole outfit, but it was too expensive, and even the clothed Scaris with the ribcage dress was not worth the extra 10$, so I'll figure something out for a nice punk outfit.

A dirt cheap Draculaura

I planned to get as many 'Lauras as possible for makeovers, this one had all limbs and was really cheap, and I wanted one without a fringe. I hate fringes. I swear the missing hair wasn't visible in the pictures, both from the listing and what my friend showed me (though he didn't take it out of the bag because of the sticky goo - who can blame him?). In real life, however, it's very obvious that half of the hair is gone:

A smaller chunk is missing from the other side

I had no problem cleaning the goo, but I don't know yet what to do about the hair. Ironically, this is the nicest, softest hair of all my 10 MH. If I can justify spending a boxed doll's worth of $$ on a single head of hair for rerooting, I would love to give it floor-length black hair. But knowing me, I'd just use the hair money to buy another doll. It doesn't make sense in my head that a bunch of hair costs as much as a new doll WITH hair. Another quick idea I had was to glue cock feather tips in a sort of wig/half wig, with or without some of the original hair. I don't know about this. I'm more of a long hair kind of person. What do you think I should do?

Scaris Rochelle  

I fell in love with Rocky's shoes at first. Then the dress. Then the tights. I quickly realized it was easier to add a couple of dollars and get the whole doll, although I'm not a fan of dolls with animal parts (what is a gargoyle anyway? is it a dragon/mammal hybrid?) So... I kind of promised the body to a friend and bought the whole box, and now hubby likes it. It's not as bad as I thought, the hands are nice and the ears are soft. Would look amazing with yellow cat (dragon?) eyes. The hair seems thicker than other characters', probably because of extra hairlines at the ears. It's soft and long, but loaded with gel (also dripped on the face). I washed it all the next day and even the fringe looks decent now.

Toys'R'Us exclusive Cleo from the 2-pack with Lagoona

All Cleo dolls are amazing, but I knew I had to have this one because:
1) kitty shoes!
2) little fringe
3) no tinsel
Of course, there were quite a few problems. For one, it's a TRU exclusive and there are no TRU stores in my country, so my only chance was the friend in the USA. Second, it's packed with Lagoona, which I could bear if it came with a lot of many other non-Lagoona dolls, but not as much as to spend over 15$ on it just to get Cleo. Of course, many ebay people split the pack to sell the dolls separately, nude or clothed, but here comes the third problem - the kitty shoes which I wanted so much were an extra pair, and everyone was selling the doll with the fugly blue shoes. I found the nicest lady who agreed to change the shoes, but shipped the wrong pair, and sent the other later for free. I like to imagine the bug shoes are instead a blue hummingbird with its wings spread to the ankles - it would have actually been a lot cooler this way. 
The other accessories are nice. The dress looks better than in the pictures. The purse opens, although the construction doesn't allow to put stuff inside. The hair pin really opens and closes too. The kitty shoes are very hard to put on, impossible to do so over stockings. The scarf has two plastic ties!! One in the knot and one holding the ends. I almost tore it off because of the second tie. Do they put them in just to annoy us?   

My Preciousss - Dead Tired Cleo

Several weeks on ebay convinced me that everyone is after this doll. It's the only version without a fringe, which allows to see the beautiful head sculpt. It goes for ridiculous dollars, new or used. Somehow I managed to win an auction for under 20$, and it included everything, except the slippers, mask, jewellery and sleeve. I didn't think I'd like the lamp, but I do. It's a pyramid when it sits down, and opens to reveal an hourglass when held by the handle. The pyjamas are too tame for my taste, but I'll try to trace the patterns for basic clothes from other fabrics.

I don't know how tinsel hair behaves new from the box, but this one looked awful. I'm not very crazy about tinsel and gold in general, but this is objectively bad:

What is the main eye colour here by the way? It's exactly like my eyes and I have 2 IDs with contradicting information.

This isn't regular holiday tinsel. It's fused to some white thread, which turns into shreds from just looking at it. It's like someone fell head first into cobweb while wearing a piece of a party wig.

I cut it all off with a thingy for ripping stitches:

The right side is done

After I removed the tinsel, I washed everyone and now I'm going to boil all the hair, we just got a few days of nice cooler weather!

So these are all the dolls I bought. After I promised I finished shopping, I discovered I want Spectra and Operetta too. Eh, maybe another time...

The inevitable comparisons

I know there are tons of reviews everywhere, but this doesn't mean I can't have a little fun of my own ;)

Cleo

Leaving aside the fact that everyone will be repainted, Dead Tired Cleo is a lot prettier out of the box. Scaris' eyes are too big and far apart; the closer you look, the worse the effect. It's like a pigeon's head, with eyes on the sides. The hair, even though it's short, is much better without the tinsel and the blue highlights fit it nicely. Gold strands may be pretty in theory, but thready tinsel that can't withstand brushing is a bad idea. One word on the hair style, if you want to get the Scaris version, the rooting is a little weird. The fringe looks like a last minute addition. There is no hair behind it. On the other fringed dolls, like Rochelle, the fringe is actually the second line of hair; the first line is crossed with it to ensure no bald spots. Scaris Cleo has only one line of dense plugs at the forehead, and it's cut short.



I couldn't resist comparing Cleo's skintone with Barbie:

OK, this is Courtney, but it's the same colour

They are identical. I always thought Cleo would be darker.

Oh and one more thing I noticed when I was standing them to dry the hair - since PJ Cleo is an older model, I got the strung hips and now I see why nobody likes them.

Draculaura

I put the clean ones with my previous Skull Shores Draculaura. I picked up Racoon Eyes because of the amount of black in the hair. The face is horrible. Dark makeup is possible to rock with close-set, downturned eyes, but not like this! As soon as the hair is fixed, this one goes straight on the painting table.

I chose the Scaris version because the length of the fringe should allow to straighten it and move to the sides.

Beach Laura wins the longest hair award, with Scaris Ghoulia and PJ Cleo coming very close.

Ghoulia

The oversized lips have to go, but the hair will be over the butt if I manage to straighten it. Long hair is always a good thing in my book.

Bonus - Rochelle's tights

This was the first time I got my hand on factory-made tights, so I was very curious about them. I should mention that I extended my stockings pattern into tights and made a pair (someone remind me to write about that), so here they are side by side. I imagined the bought tights would feel like pantihose; instead, the fabric is stiff and crunchy, like organza, but has a little stretch.

Mattel tights hold their shape, and mine are all floppy

The back is quite a picture...

The seams are really bulky and the fit is loose in some places, mostly at the crotch and left ankle. I wouldn't have imagined the sewing to be so sloppy! (My seams get twisted across the calf because of the soft fabric, otherwise they are straight). Rocky's tights get bonus points for the nice stripes, but still, I win.

I have so many ideas for these dolls. I wish I had more time. Last night I made jam. Next week my mother-in-law's cat is coming to live with us, which means there will be a live white featherduster exploring all the unfinished parts of the apartment. Sigh.

So I was thinking, if knotted bracelets for people are made with embroidery floss, and embroidery floss has 6 threads, it means that a 1/6th scale knotted bracelet is made with... Okay, random thought is out of my head now. I'm off to get some food.

Love, Arina
~The Black Kitty (^^)~