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hat_plays_dollsI mean I thought I was going to have a couple image-heavy posts back in April but I only did the one. Instead here I am in October, with a HUGE backlog of stuff.
This is the first of those backlogged posts: I got the Frankie-Alivia Monster Family two-pack!
I found it on eBay for... uh okay it's been six months. I want to say around $22? In the neighborhood of MSRP, which was $20. And while cost is always one of my chief concerns, when I shop on eBay I'm also always looking to see who has a photo of the actual item they actually have for actual sale. It is true that no one can rock wonk-eye like a Stein but I'm only so willing to gamble.
Also I'm going to start varying the size of my images more. Sure, uniform sizes are nice but sometimes 800x600 is enough.
Box art 1! It's hard to see the blob of glue but it's there. Seriously, one of the few things I dislike about this kind of packaging is that it's next to impossible to save the art.
Box art 2! Also I will have you know that this is more emotion than Alivia showed in her entire first (er, only) canonical appearance.
Back of the box! The same art again, but with text, and a blurb--
-- in four languages.
Let's let the light hit these girls (who am I kidding I opened this box in April) so we can get a better look.
I wasn't too pleased with Frankie, but first my cat sat on her and then my niblings ran off with her so Frankie is serving the highest calling for one of her kind: she is now a children's plaything.
I'm not gonna lie, fully half the reason I got this set is a straight-armed Alivia with slightly more canonical hairstyling. Yes, her lips aren't great (again) but again, that is a very easy fix.
So here's the whole set! It comes with Frankie and Alivia (5 points of articulation each), outfits, a sort of... industrial zeerust grill, a tray, an apron, three ears of corn to grill, and a pair of tongs.
TINY FOOD I do love tiny food and tiny food accoutrements.
Each ear of corn has a dismayed face. This is fair, they're being grilled, but also... it's corn. You don't have to make it spookier, Mattel. Corn is inherently spooky. It's fine.
I actually do like the tray, although it feels like there's a lot going on. Does it need stitches AND rivets? If so, what exactly is it made of? (When I paint it, it'll be metallic.)
And the reason I needed in-hand pics: Indonesia.
The tongs are lime green and look familiar. Home Ick?
The grill, though. The grill is one part 1950s spaceship barstool, one part tesla coil, and fortunately, one part backyard grill. It's a GREAT shape and makes me want to figure out a Poppa Stein custom, but, you know, heads are difficult.
The grill itself snaps off, so if you need to store the corn somewhere or want to get ambitious with the innards of a flameless candle and some black beads for charcoal, totally doable.
It might even come apart further, but I didn't need it to. (Made in Indonesia!)
Okay so the props are only MY secondary reason to buy this set, let's look at some dolls.
Frankie comes wearing a cute little romper, a molded apron, her Gloom Beach shoes in blue, and... uh, a ponytail. She has five basic points of articulation and that spiffy contrapasta sculpting that helps the 'five points of articulation' thing look... less stiff.
I actually do like Frankie's coloring here-- the blush stands out a bit but not TOO bad, and the pink lipstick is a good shade. ... It's just. Also kind of a mess. Oh well, she belongs to my niece and nephew now. Her hair is nylon and melted inside rather than glued or properly chain-stitched.
Frankie's apron is so Sally Ragdoll and it's got such fantastic texture that I gotta paint it one of these old days. It just sort of clips on.
Shoes! Gloom Beach in blue, nothing to write home about but still a very useful addition to Frankie's wardrobe.
ROMPER. Okay, listen, this is WAY cuter than I thought it was gonna be, I will not lie. It's a nice woven cotton-ish fabric with true-blue horizontal stripes, black stitch patterns, and monster watermelon wedges. It's SO summery, and although it's... sort of a base piece? It's so cute that I just kind of fell for it.
AND IT'S FULLY PRINTED!
It's Alivia! Alivia comes wearing a gear-and-graph half-printed dress with ruffles and what are effectively her single-pack boots. Recast? Are they a recast when both pairs of boots are unpainted black? (What a great excuse to paint the heck out of one pair or the other, though.) Unlike her single pack version, 2-pack Alivia has both arms straight, allowing for adorable lurching poses.
Alivia's makeup is similar to Frankie's, though her blush is softer, her eyeshadow nonexstent, and her (still wonky) lipstick is more coral. She, uh, has a bit of box hair going on here. Alivia has soft saran hair, melted inside the head.
Her dress is cute, but I gotta say I feel like the print could have done with one less element-- it's a combination of gears in four colors, gingham in four colors, and a spiky line desperately trying to look like a heart rate monitor (but that's a single line so it doesn't). On the other hand, with one less element, they might have had to add another accessory.
... And it's half-printed, even.
Big stompy boots! Stitches and straps and laces and buckles and they are the exact same mold as Alivia's first release. But they fit and Alivia can balance in them.
So here's Frankie in Alivia's dress and Alivia in Frankie's romper! Frankie needs opaque tights but the dress fits okay (might look better on Robecca Steam, though), and the waist and crotch on the romper are dropped as heck on Alivia but it's still adorable.
In conclusion! I needed this set.
Okay okay I wanted a straight-armed Alivia, a pair of boots to paint, and Tiny Food And Accoutrements. Frankie's romper being super-cute under that apron is a bonus. I'm still bummed all the kids (not just Alivia, all of them) only have five points of articulation each (six with wolf tails) but I am also still of the opinion that five good-looking points of articulation are better than eleven where six of them are gappy and weird.
I paid about retail and I feel like I got my money's worth; I'm glad to have a more signature-styled Alivia even if her dress doesn't really work for her, and I admit that grill makes me want to build a deck.
That said, I waited for a good price on a set where I could see clear in-hand pics of Alivia, because Mattel's 2018 quality control was not what it could've been. So I'm satisfied if you're looking to purchase this set yourself, I hope this review helped you.
Oh right one more thing! Comparison shots of the Alivias!
Pocket Pets Alivia (the one with the bent arm) has had her hair washed, but I haven't gelled her bangs back down because I DO plan to paint me some stitches. Forgive hair on everyone, please?
ANYway! Their dresses are very similar styles-- Pocket Pets Alivia has fabric straps rather than ribbon, and no ruffles on the bodice. Boots are identical. Pocket Pets also has a plastic bow.
Listen the lipstick on both of them is just a disaster I will repaint lips when I paint stitches. It's fine. It's fine! But you can see that Pocket Pets Alivia has a much pinker lipstick while Grillin' Alivia has coral. Why one is so underpainted and the other is so overpainted, I do not know.
And there you go.
I actually genuinely do like Alivia as a character-- even as she was presented in the Howliday Special. How often do you see a nine-to-twelve-year-old girl presented as the strong, silent type? I could easily wish she'd turned up pre-reboot, because I think the Frankie-Alivia storyline could have benefited from Frankie having contact with her friends' sisters. (Although I do like that Alivia came about basically the same way Hoodude did-- Frankie takes after her grandpa, she got all wound up and made a person she didn't know what to do with. Twice!)
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.
This is the first of those backlogged posts: I got the Frankie-Alivia Monster Family two-pack!
I found it on eBay for... uh okay it's been six months. I want to say around $22? In the neighborhood of MSRP, which was $20. And while cost is always one of my chief concerns, when I shop on eBay I'm also always looking to see who has a photo of the actual item they actually have for actual sale. It is true that no one can rock wonk-eye like a Stein but I'm only so willing to gamble.
Also I'm going to start varying the size of my images more. Sure, uniform sizes are nice but sometimes 800x600 is enough.
Box art 1! It's hard to see the blob of glue but it's there. Seriously, one of the few things I dislike about this kind of packaging is that it's next to impossible to save the art.
Box art 2! Also I will have you know that this is more emotion than Alivia showed in her entire first (er, only) canonical appearance.
Back of the box! The same art again, but with text, and a blurb--
-- in four languages.
Let's let the light hit these girls (who am I kidding I opened this box in April) so we can get a better look.
I wasn't too pleased with Frankie, but first my cat sat on her and then my niblings ran off with her so Frankie is serving the highest calling for one of her kind: she is now a children's plaything.
I'm not gonna lie, fully half the reason I got this set is a straight-armed Alivia with slightly more canonical hairstyling. Yes, her lips aren't great (again) but again, that is a very easy fix.
So here's the whole set! It comes with Frankie and Alivia (5 points of articulation each), outfits, a sort of... industrial zeerust grill, a tray, an apron, three ears of corn to grill, and a pair of tongs.
TINY FOOD I do love tiny food and tiny food accoutrements.
Each ear of corn has a dismayed face. This is fair, they're being grilled, but also... it's corn. You don't have to make it spookier, Mattel. Corn is inherently spooky. It's fine.
I actually do like the tray, although it feels like there's a lot going on. Does it need stitches AND rivets? If so, what exactly is it made of? (When I paint it, it'll be metallic.)
And the reason I needed in-hand pics: Indonesia.
The tongs are lime green and look familiar. Home Ick?
The grill, though. The grill is one part 1950s spaceship barstool, one part tesla coil, and fortunately, one part backyard grill. It's a GREAT shape and makes me want to figure out a Poppa Stein custom, but, you know, heads are difficult.
The grill itself snaps off, so if you need to store the corn somewhere or want to get ambitious with the innards of a flameless candle and some black beads for charcoal, totally doable.
It might even come apart further, but I didn't need it to. (Made in Indonesia!)
Okay so the props are only MY secondary reason to buy this set, let's look at some dolls.
Frankie comes wearing a cute little romper, a molded apron, her Gloom Beach shoes in blue, and... uh, a ponytail. She has five basic points of articulation and that spiffy contrapasta sculpting that helps the 'five points of articulation' thing look... less stiff.
I actually do like Frankie's coloring here-- the blush stands out a bit but not TOO bad, and the pink lipstick is a good shade. ... It's just. Also kind of a mess. Oh well, she belongs to my niece and nephew now. Her hair is nylon and melted inside rather than glued or properly chain-stitched.
Frankie's apron is so Sally Ragdoll and it's got such fantastic texture that I gotta paint it one of these old days. It just sort of clips on.
Shoes! Gloom Beach in blue, nothing to write home about but still a very useful addition to Frankie's wardrobe.
ROMPER. Okay, listen, this is WAY cuter than I thought it was gonna be, I will not lie. It's a nice woven cotton-ish fabric with true-blue horizontal stripes, black stitch patterns, and monster watermelon wedges. It's SO summery, and although it's... sort of a base piece? It's so cute that I just kind of fell for it.
AND IT'S FULLY PRINTED!
It's Alivia! Alivia comes wearing a gear-and-graph half-printed dress with ruffles and what are effectively her single-pack boots. Recast? Are they a recast when both pairs of boots are unpainted black? (What a great excuse to paint the heck out of one pair or the other, though.) Unlike her single pack version, 2-pack Alivia has both arms straight, allowing for adorable lurching poses.
Alivia's makeup is similar to Frankie's, though her blush is softer, her eyeshadow nonexstent, and her (still wonky) lipstick is more coral. She, uh, has a bit of box hair going on here. Alivia has soft saran hair, melted inside the head.
Her dress is cute, but I gotta say I feel like the print could have done with one less element-- it's a combination of gears in four colors, gingham in four colors, and a spiky line desperately trying to look like a heart rate monitor (but that's a single line so it doesn't). On the other hand, with one less element, they might have had to add another accessory.
... And it's half-printed, even.
Big stompy boots! Stitches and straps and laces and buckles and they are the exact same mold as Alivia's first release. But they fit and Alivia can balance in them.
So here's Frankie in Alivia's dress and Alivia in Frankie's romper! Frankie needs opaque tights but the dress fits okay (might look better on Robecca Steam, though), and the waist and crotch on the romper are dropped as heck on Alivia but it's still adorable.
In conclusion! I needed this set.
Okay okay I wanted a straight-armed Alivia, a pair of boots to paint, and Tiny Food And Accoutrements. Frankie's romper being super-cute under that apron is a bonus. I'm still bummed all the kids (not just Alivia, all of them) only have five points of articulation each (six with wolf tails) but I am also still of the opinion that five good-looking points of articulation are better than eleven where six of them are gappy and weird.
I paid about retail and I feel like I got my money's worth; I'm glad to have a more signature-styled Alivia even if her dress doesn't really work for her, and I admit that grill makes me want to build a deck.
That said, I waited for a good price on a set where I could see clear in-hand pics of Alivia, because Mattel's 2018 quality control was not what it could've been. So I'm satisfied if you're looking to purchase this set yourself, I hope this review helped you.
Oh right one more thing! Comparison shots of the Alivias!
Pocket Pets Alivia (the one with the bent arm) has had her hair washed, but I haven't gelled her bangs back down because I DO plan to paint me some stitches. Forgive hair on everyone, please?
ANYway! Their dresses are very similar styles-- Pocket Pets Alivia has fabric straps rather than ribbon, and no ruffles on the bodice. Boots are identical. Pocket Pets also has a plastic bow.
Listen the lipstick on both of them is just a disaster I will repaint lips when I paint stitches. It's fine. It's fine! But you can see that Pocket Pets Alivia has a much pinker lipstick while Grillin' Alivia has coral. Why one is so underpainted and the other is so overpainted, I do not know.
And there you go.
I actually genuinely do like Alivia as a character-- even as she was presented in the Howliday Special. How often do you see a nine-to-twelve-year-old girl presented as the strong, silent type? I could easily wish she'd turned up pre-reboot, because I think the Frankie-Alivia storyline could have benefited from Frankie having contact with her friends' sisters. (Although I do like that Alivia came about basically the same way Hoodude did-- Frankie takes after her grandpa, she got all wound up and made a person she didn't know what to do with. Twice!)
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.
