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hat_plays_dollsI picked up this two-pack about two weeks ago at Tuesday Morning for $10, and let me just say that boy oh boy am I glad I didn't pick it up at Toys R Us for $25.
Now, I'm no stranger to Mattel's quality control failures. I've gotten dolls with two right hands, one badly-molded shoe, two right shoes, two right LEGS, wonky eyes, wonky mouths, wonky hairlines, epic cases of glue hair, missing hands, you name it.
I have never before had a two-pack with quite so many things wrong... while having so very little actually in it.
The box! This is the brown-bag lunch peanut butter & jelly two pack, implying either best-friendsiness or lesbian romance between Twyla and Draculaura, who are supposed to go together like PB&J. An interesting choice given that the last time Twyla and Draculaura had any significant one-on-one interaction was in Haunted.
Price tag et cetera, in case that's useful for anyone else looking to snag one of these sets.
Back of the box! With names, 'daughter of's, and the title of the set-- or line?-- in no less than thirteen languages. I legitimately do not remember if the boxes had all these languages in TRU or if they're still printing Americas vs Not Americas language packs. But hey, the art is cute!
Plastic front removed. This far into the unboxing process, I hadn't noticed anything amiss. The set is effectively two budget dolls-- Draculaura and Twyla are both fully articulated and wearing simple but fully-printed dresses, and though they don't have jewelry they do have shoes and three accessories each. At ten bucks it would've been a steal if I liked the entire set, and honestly I feel like if the dresses were cuter and the 'we go together like' pairing were... even a little bit more canonical, it would've been worth the original MSRP of $25.
Also that menu art is the only part of the box art I managed to rip when removing rubber bands. I'm bummed, I liked the menu.
Totally loose! The dresses are nothing special, although reasonably well-put-together. Twyla's dress... uh, isn't really in character for Twyla at all. I may take the thing apart and use the skirt to build Elissabat an outfit, who at least has a better reason to wear a fanged purple jelly skirt. Draculaura's dress... I honestly kinda dig the top? It seems like something she might wear. But the waist is so high that there's a slight maternity look to it as a dress-- I think it'd be cuter to separate the two pieces, even if 'bare midriff' isn't really Draculaura's style, either.
I have no complaints about Draculaura's facepaint; she's cute! Her hair is nylon, though, which means maybe she's a good candidate for an all-pink re-root. I really liked that look on Maul Monsteristas Draculaura, for all I didn't keep her. As I've said, Reboot Draculaura looks more like Draculaura to me, and hey! Now I've got a head with nylon hair and no major 'whoops I rooted this strand right through her ear, oh well no one will notice' quality control issues.
Twyla is also pretty darned lovely! Nylon hair which is no shock at all, because Twyla hasn't had a saran-haired reboot release. The vinyl of her face has a wonderful translucent quality to it, though, and her eyes do glow in the dark. I'm pleased to report that both dolls are singed, not glued, at the roots of their hair-- nice soft heads!
Closeup on Draculaura's dress. I dig the decal and I'm neutral on the half-a-sandwich print. It's all one piece, but hey, at least the skirt is printed all the way around!
And I don't count this as a problem, it's a way to save on the printed fabric and still give a cute ruffle at the bottom of the skirt.
Twyla's dress. I strongly feel like this set was poorly planned, like they chose a Tall Girl at random to use up some Twyla parts... except Draculaura's look actually looks more Draculaura-ish. Why does Twyla's jelly have fangs? Twyla doesn't have fangs.
I'm going to be real with you guys: This is the reason I bought this set. Tiny food! And shoes. Foodwise, we get recasts of Gigi's Freaky Field Trip sack lunch in paper-bag-brown, recasts of Creepateria Draculaura's sandwich in peanut butter and in jelly, and some BITEY JARS.
Also shoes! Draculaura's are nothing special, they're Ghoul Sports Spectra's tennis shoes in pearly white (Skulltimate Locker Room Frankie got them in flat white with lightning bolts), and Twyla's are Dance Class Howleen's, in purple.
You can just see the Wolf family claw marks on the back of one wedge. Seriously I wanted these because Little Sister Shoes, mostly. Also because all of Twyla's shoes are fairly dressy.
Draculaura, on the other hand, has a lot of shoes, so these are probably going to go to someone else. Who, I don't know, since they'd look weird on Ari (she's already pearly), though at least she's a ghost so the chain detailing makes sense.
And then I noticed this.
Draculaura has two left hands, and because these are the Weird Thick-Pegged Non-Removable Second-Stage Reboot Joints, I can't just pop her hands out and replace them. Which means I can't even sell this body. So that's a bit of a loss.
And while Twyla has flashing like this on both arms, I can fix that with an Xacto knife and some sanding.
What I can't fix is that her right knee won't bend. So I can't sell this Twyla nude, either.
It's hard to see, but Draculaura has whatI really hope is dirt turned out to be a smudge of dirt on her cheek and...
... A pretty intense hairline wobble.
So.
Am I happy with my purchase?
... Kinda?
I did not get this set for the dolls, I got it for Tiny Food and Twyla Shoes and a nice basic Draculaura head to give a guilt-free all-pink re-root. My quality-control spotting in the store was centered around those goals-- did this particular set have all the foods, a left and a right for both pairs of shoes, and level eyes? Well hey it did, so that's pretty good right there.
That said, I had really hoped to be able to sell Twyla, and possibly also Draculaura's body, and they're both flawed enough that I can't do that. What I can-- and in fact will-- do is contact Mattel's customer support and tell them about Draculaura's hand and hairline and Twyla's jammed knee and see if they'll send me a rebate check. UPDATE: They are sending me replacement dolls. Which I'll review when they get here.
I don't feel like the dresses in this set are cute enough to be worth the original $25 price tag. Is the $10 price tag worth it? Yes, if you A) like both dolls and all the pieces in the set and B) luck into a set that deserved to pass quality control and hit store shelves.
I bought this set for the shoes and the accessories and kinda for Draculaura's head; $10 was more than I wanted to pay for ten useless little lumps of plastic, but considering I can usually sell nude dolls for $4.50 easy on eBay? Well, that'd bring the price down to $5.50 if I only sold Twyla, and that's not bad for ten useless lumps of plastic.
But neither doll is what I'd consider salable.
So!
If this is a set you're interested in snagging at your local second-run shop, ten dollars is a bargain indeed!
But check everything over very carefully before you buy it.
Like what I do and want to help me feed my cats, but don't need anything I have for sale on eBay? You can always support me on Patreon or throw some change in my tip jar.
Now, I'm no stranger to Mattel's quality control failures. I've gotten dolls with two right hands, one badly-molded shoe, two right shoes, two right LEGS, wonky eyes, wonky mouths, wonky hairlines, epic cases of glue hair, missing hands, you name it.
I have never before had a two-pack with quite so many things wrong... while having so very little actually in it.
The box! This is the brown-bag lunch peanut butter & jelly two pack, implying either best-friendsiness or lesbian romance between Twyla and Draculaura, who are supposed to go together like PB&J. An interesting choice given that the last time Twyla and Draculaura had any significant one-on-one interaction was in Haunted.
Price tag et cetera, in case that's useful for anyone else looking to snag one of these sets.
Back of the box! With names, 'daughter of's, and the title of the set-- or line?-- in no less than thirteen languages. I legitimately do not remember if the boxes had all these languages in TRU or if they're still printing Americas vs Not Americas language packs. But hey, the art is cute!
Plastic front removed. This far into the unboxing process, I hadn't noticed anything amiss. The set is effectively two budget dolls-- Draculaura and Twyla are both fully articulated and wearing simple but fully-printed dresses, and though they don't have jewelry they do have shoes and three accessories each. At ten bucks it would've been a steal if I liked the entire set, and honestly I feel like if the dresses were cuter and the 'we go together like' pairing were... even a little bit more canonical, it would've been worth the original MSRP of $25.
Also that menu art is the only part of the box art I managed to rip when removing rubber bands. I'm bummed, I liked the menu.
Totally loose! The dresses are nothing special, although reasonably well-put-together. Twyla's dress... uh, isn't really in character for Twyla at all. I may take the thing apart and use the skirt to build Elissabat an outfit, who at least has a better reason to wear a fanged purple jelly skirt. Draculaura's dress... I honestly kinda dig the top? It seems like something she might wear. But the waist is so high that there's a slight maternity look to it as a dress-- I think it'd be cuter to separate the two pieces, even if 'bare midriff' isn't really Draculaura's style, either.
I have no complaints about Draculaura's facepaint; she's cute! Her hair is nylon, though, which means maybe she's a good candidate for an all-pink re-root. I really liked that look on Maul Monsteristas Draculaura, for all I didn't keep her. As I've said, Reboot Draculaura looks more like Draculaura to me, and hey! Now I've got a head with nylon hair and no major 'whoops I rooted this strand right through her ear, oh well no one will notice' quality control issues.
Twyla is also pretty darned lovely! Nylon hair which is no shock at all, because Twyla hasn't had a saran-haired reboot release. The vinyl of her face has a wonderful translucent quality to it, though, and her eyes do glow in the dark. I'm pleased to report that both dolls are singed, not glued, at the roots of their hair-- nice soft heads!
Closeup on Draculaura's dress. I dig the decal and I'm neutral on the half-a-sandwich print. It's all one piece, but hey, at least the skirt is printed all the way around!
And I don't count this as a problem, it's a way to save on the printed fabric and still give a cute ruffle at the bottom of the skirt.
Twyla's dress. I strongly feel like this set was poorly planned, like they chose a Tall Girl at random to use up some Twyla parts... except Draculaura's look actually looks more Draculaura-ish. Why does Twyla's jelly have fangs? Twyla doesn't have fangs.
I'm going to be real with you guys: This is the reason I bought this set. Tiny food! And shoes. Foodwise, we get recasts of Gigi's Freaky Field Trip sack lunch in paper-bag-brown, recasts of Creepateria Draculaura's sandwich in peanut butter and in jelly, and some BITEY JARS.
Also shoes! Draculaura's are nothing special, they're Ghoul Sports Spectra's tennis shoes in pearly white (Skulltimate Locker Room Frankie got them in flat white with lightning bolts), and Twyla's are Dance Class Howleen's, in purple.
You can just see the Wolf family claw marks on the back of one wedge. Seriously I wanted these because Little Sister Shoes, mostly. Also because all of Twyla's shoes are fairly dressy.
Draculaura, on the other hand, has a lot of shoes, so these are probably going to go to someone else. Who, I don't know, since they'd look weird on Ari (she's already pearly), though at least she's a ghost so the chain detailing makes sense.
And then I noticed this.
Draculaura has two left hands, and because these are the Weird Thick-Pegged Non-Removable Second-Stage Reboot Joints, I can't just pop her hands out and replace them. Which means I can't even sell this body. So that's a bit of a loss.
And while Twyla has flashing like this on both arms, I can fix that with an Xacto knife and some sanding.
What I can't fix is that her right knee won't bend. So I can't sell this Twyla nude, either.
It's hard to see, but Draculaura has what
... A pretty intense hairline wobble.
So.
Am I happy with my purchase?
... Kinda?
I did not get this set for the dolls, I got it for Tiny Food and Twyla Shoes and a nice basic Draculaura head to give a guilt-free all-pink re-root. My quality-control spotting in the store was centered around those goals-- did this particular set have all the foods, a left and a right for both pairs of shoes, and level eyes? Well hey it did, so that's pretty good right there.
That said, I had really hoped to be able to sell Twyla, and possibly also Draculaura's body, and they're both flawed enough that I can't do that. What I can-- and in fact will-- do is contact Mattel's customer support and tell them about Draculaura's hand and hairline and Twyla's jammed knee and see if they'll send me a rebate check. UPDATE: They are sending me replacement dolls. Which I'll review when they get here.
I don't feel like the dresses in this set are cute enough to be worth the original $25 price tag. Is the $10 price tag worth it? Yes, if you A) like both dolls and all the pieces in the set and B) luck into a set that deserved to pass quality control and hit store shelves.
I bought this set for the shoes and the accessories and kinda for Draculaura's head; $10 was more than I wanted to pay for ten useless little lumps of plastic, but considering I can usually sell nude dolls for $4.50 easy on eBay? Well, that'd bring the price down to $5.50 if I only sold Twyla, and that's not bad for ten useless lumps of plastic.
But neither doll is what I'd consider salable.
So!
If this is a set you're interested in snagging at your local second-run shop, ten dollars is a bargain indeed!
But check everything over very carefully before you buy it.
Like what I do and want to help me feed my cats, but don't need anything I have for sale on eBay? You can always support me on Patreon or throw some change in my tip jar.
