Monster High and Midnight Magic - together again, for the first time !

Current Mood : Darn busy ! 

Current Image Notes : Clickee for biggie ! 

I have been having soo much fun with the MH and the MM dolls ! I owe you a review, though, so here ‘tis :

Once I saw the ‘Lovely Patsy’ logo on the box bottoms, I was half-convinced (and all afraid !) that these dolls were as inexpensive as the Queen of Blow Mold Dollar Store dolls. Heck, the Family Dollar I bought the Midnight Magic (MM) dolls from had the ultra-light Lovely Patsy dolls on a nearby hang-pin, for $1.50. And they haven’t changed from the mid-80s, when I’d occasionally look at them for clothes-harvesting potential.

But the MM ghouls are definitely *not* Patsy ! If I had just once sentence in which to describe them, I’d say they were a Monster High / cheap Barbie hybrid. They’re not even close to blow molded, although their boots are. More later on that. Their 11 ½” bodies have inexpensive ‘click’ Barbie knees, made of much the same material as most 80s - 90s Barbie legs. Their hips go ‘out’ a bit, but they’re nowhere near as flexible as an MH doll’s. Oddly, the hips click when you move the MM doll into a seated position, and they only go backwards one ‘click’.

The torso and arms of the MM ghouls are much like the MH ones. Molded-on panties, swayback posture, ball-socket shoulders. They have much the same poseability in the elbows, arms, and wrists as an MH doll, too, which is remarkable in a doll that retails for five bucks. I can’t tell if the wrists and arms are detachable, though. There’s no reference to it, no leaflet, no box directions, and a couple tugs didn’t dislodge anything, so I assume they don’t. This makes dressing a challenge, or I should say, one of the challenges these dolls have with clothing.

Their heads are slightly smaller than MH ones, but they have large, expressive eyes, and a simple ball neck joint, which gives them more head positioning than some of the authentic ghouls. I have a couple MH dolls that can’t look down, and darn few of the guy dolls can. These dolls can, and do. I tried a quick head-swap, but the head-holes are noticeably different – and the MH ones have a hole much too small for the ball neck joint. However, if you wanna, swapping MM to MM heads is darn simple.

These dolls did not get the best rooting in the world, but they got plenty of hair ! All three dolls came with a simple ponytail style, but ‘Pippa’, the grey doll with black hair, has the least and shortest. However, her style frames her brown eyes beautifully, and gives her a sort of Snow White look. ‘Kaley’, the lavender brunette, has so much hair, her head tilts back from the weight of it. It has gentle waves in it, and like aqua girl ‘Mila’, it was a tangled mess in the box. But a quick brush got it flowing and lovely again, with minimal pull and shed. Mila’s hair is stellar – the color is gorgeous, and the purple highlights are perfect. They all have the same soft hair, but it just stands out more on Mila.

They share the same head mold, which I’m sure you can tell, with normal ears that have dimples for earrings. Which they don’t have. They come with the clothes they stand on shelves with, and that’s it. No brush, no stand, no leaflet, zip. Their clothes, frankly, make mine look good. The stitching is awful, the fabrics are cheap, and they really don’t fit MH dolls well. They’re baggy, but they can be altered with a nip or tuck or dart very easily. Or just shift the Velcro ™ over. It just hardly seems worth it. MH clothes are super-tight on MM ghouls, especially in the hips. Several outfits I couldn’t get to their arms enough to try getting the sleeves over the splayed hands because the skirt just would not stretch over the hips. And Barbie clothes are as baggy on them as their clothes are baggy on MH dolls. I don’t have a Nefera doll, but these clothes would probably fit her – if she could be convinced to wear the stuff.

The boots, however, fit. It’s a bit hard to get them on MH legs without cutting a back slit, but once cut even just halfway down, they slide on and off easily. All four MM dolls have the same boots, but in different colors. These *are* blow-molded, and are nearly transparent. MM dolls, however, have six-toed feet (perhaps that’s a mold accident) that are both longer and wider than MH feet, so they can’t wear MH shoes. The single pair of Harumika (dress form /model sets) shoes I owned didn’t fit either. I found a pair of Moxie Teenz boots that did, along with a guy pair of sandals and a purple pair of Beauty Cutie purple sandals I could fudge along.

In my opinion, these dolls are well worth finding. They’re different enough to be fun, similar enough to blend fairly easily into an MH environment, and cheap enough to not stir up many regrets. Great to distract small kids from your more fragile MH ghouls ! If you wanna find ‘em, I’ve heard they’re available at Roses’ department stores (haven’t seen one since the East coast) in addition to Family Dollar. If you think you’ll want the whole set, the FDollar website has a printable coupon good for $5. off $25., so you can score some free candy or something. It’s good through Sunday, Oct. 7^th.

I’m gonna rest my hands, then go play ! Lemme know if you have any questions I forgot !