Monster High is the doll franchise that I was mad about in my preteen years. At one point I abandoned all interest in Barbie and just played with my MH and EAH dolls. I’m not really going to explain why I liked it so much, there are no deep reasons why, I just thought the dolls were cool.
My favourite character was Draculaura, although I still find her personality annoying. It was probably just her character and fashions that appealed to me so much. I even made this OC which was basically an edgier version of her who only wore black. My other favourites are Elissabat and C.A. Cupid. I just liked Cupid because I thought it was mind blowing how she could be found in the other doll franchise too. Nowadays I just like Elissabat, Jane Boolittle and Operetta. Does anyone else wonder why they made giant dolls of the main three ghouls, and then also Elissabat? It was also so strange to me, why they chose a more minor character to release instead of all the other main ghouls they could've picked.
G1 Monster High dolls are mostly high quality and well designed. It’s just a shame that you can’t really mix and match the fashions that much without the clothes looking out of place on the other doll. Each character has such a particular colour scheme that they can’t really wear anything from someone else. They did sell fashion packs that were character specific, but I never saw them on sale in the UK. Sometimes I prefer dolls like Barbie because you can mould them into whoever you want them to be, and make them wear any outfit without it looking weird.
My favourite doll lines are the original 2010 signature dolls, School’s Out, Freaky Fusion, Frights Camera Action, and probably also some of the Boo York, Boo York releases. If I was still collecting dolls, I would like to find an Elissabat, a Catty Noir, and definitely Elle Eedee because of her colour scheme. One day I’ll take some more pictures of my collection for this site.
The Freaky Fusion line is honestly super cool. I found it super cool how they merged characters together. I always wanted the Draculaura/Robecca Steam mashup, Dracubecca. She doesn’t look as interesting as she did back then, but the concept is still a great idea for a doll line.
Out of my personal collection, here are some of my favourites:
(Images arriving, eventually….!)
Signature/Basic Draculaura, she’s actually a reproduction from around 2014. I just love the Victorian style of her outfit, it’s in my opinion still the best out of all Draculaura’s worn throughout the years. This is one doll that actually looks better in real life than in the stock photo. I do have one other Draculaura, she’s more of a budget doll so sometimes I let her wear Signature Lala’s outfit.
Signature/Basic Jane Boolittle, I’ve come to appreciate this doll a lot more over time. Somehow, she was found for only £8 at Sainsbury’s, back when the doll had just released! Her hair is so soft, if you take out all the hair bands it’s super long and beautiful. Jane’s outfit can be worn in multiple different ways, which I like. Her face is also very cute.
As for the movies and webisodes, I can’t say that I’m the biggest fan of them, but then I haven’t actually seen all of the films. Even when I was part of the target audience, I still thought the movies were a bit cheesy. I’ve never liked the 3D animation much either. The webisodes are OK, I remember watching them a lot. On DVD I do own Frights, Camera, Action! , it’s been some years since I’ve seen it, but I remember liking the vampire themed plotline, as well as Hoodude’s comic relief role. It inspired a lot of weird OC daydreams.
The second generation of dolls is, in my opinion, rubbish. Mattel watered everything down, making everything cheaply made and more childish. I think the only doll I liked at the time was Ari Hauntington, at least she’s cute. At this time I went back to just caring about Barbie.
I already wrote my thoughts on G3 on the main site, I’m not that interested in it honestly. Some of the dolls are cute, but the quality still isn’t as good as G1. Mattel are still using the G1 style bodies on the collectible dolls to make money out of older fans. I’m not the biggest fan of adult collector dolls, so this also doesn’t interest me much. Out of this new series, I think Draculaura and Lagoona are the best. I’m not even going to comment on the new movies and TV series, because I haven’t watched them and never will. I do think that turning it into a low budget live action movie isn’t a very good idea, however.
Although this site has a massive focus on Barbie, I wanted to make this page just to give some of my thoughts on Monster High. It once played a big role in my doll collecting interests, so it deserved to at least have some recognition here.