Almighty Hat (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
hat_plays_dolls) wrote2023-03-26 11:11 pm
hat_plays_dolls) wrote2023-03-26 11:11 pm
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Doll Review: Monster High G3 Ghoulia Yelps
... Been a while, hasn't it? Well, I never claimed to be consistent, and there's been a whole chunk of plague and a health event (guess who's diabetic! I miss bread and rice) and a fifth (and hopefully final) nibling since my last post, so I've been busy even aside from dolls.
This is the first of a few backlogged unboxing reviews I have, even though I think I have some earlier ones I never got around to. I'm just. I'm doing them in the order the photos pop up in the hopes of getting through them all in the next week or so.
So here's Monster High's freshly-rebooted Ghoulia Yelps, a Target exclusive! And several months out of date, cos I got Ghoulia in October and this whole damn ass hell line vanished from store shelves by January.
Way to sustainability, Mattel and/or Target.
Closeup behind glass!
Ghoulia comes with glasses with lenses, which is nice, and they're positioned on her face, which... as a glasses-wearer, I like in a character way. As a doll collector long familiar with Mattel's Wonk Issues, I would much rather have her glasses packaged on her head, or on the backing, or in her hand.
G3 Sir Hoots-A-Lot!
... Lemme get a couple things out of the way regarding the G3 pets immediately-- meh, MH pets as a whole.
I like the idea of the characters having pets and coming with those pets. I do! I have even genuinely liked some of the pets as the little figurines they are! And I readily acknowledge that I found Classic/G1 Monster High pets a little... hit or miss. G3 is an opportunity to start over, so I get to say the following about G3 pets:
1. I do not like the new aesthetic. Like at all. This owl has human eyes. Twyla's dust bunny has human eyes. Why. Stop that. Yes, they're all consistently stylized now, you don't have Rheun and Roux at one end of the stylization scale and Daddy-O Longlegs and Count Fabulous at the other, but for pity's sake let the animals have animal eyes.
2. I do not like that Ghoulia still has an owl/some of the characters have zoo animals as pets. Howleen'scat husky Crescent? Fine! Frankie's construct mostly-dog-shaped thing Watzie? Not sure why it's Watzie and not Watzit now, but also fine! Deuce's rat Perseus? I am confused by his The Mouse And The Motorcycle subplot, but fine! Rats are great pets! Toralei's smilodon Sweet Fang(s) and Abbey's mammoth Shiver? Great! Clawd's gargoyle-bulldog Rockseena and Twyla's dust bunny Dustin? Fantastical! Ghoulia has an owl, Draculaura has a bat, Cleo has a jackal. These are not undead, mythological, fictional, or extinct animals. These are real live animals that do not make good pets. Might it be hard for Little Tiffany to get a jackal puppy? Sure, if she's middle class, or doesn't live in, you know, northern Africa. But owls are pretty common, and all it would take would be chancing on a nest of owlets to make a very bad decision-- or worse, a goddamn bat. Bats have fucked-up immune systems as a result of all the hoops evolution had to jump through to get mammals in the air, and as such they're horrendous vectors for a truly astonishing variety of zoonotic diseases... like rabies.
In conclusion, as I continue picking through MHG3 for things I like, I predict that most of the pets are either never coming out of the Pet Box-- or are going up on eBay pretty much immediately.
Box art, front!
It's... cute? It's nothing special, nothing like what Mattel has provided in the past, and while it's stylized, it wasn't stylized the same way as anything that had come out so far.
It looks kind of like it's meant to be drawn by a talented-but-not-prodigiously-talented high school student, which I'd like... if G3 had given us any artists.
It has not, yet, to my knowledge. I find this weird.
Back of the box! Ghoulia is the closest to on-doll-model of any of the rest of the girls.
As Mattel moves away from custom-printed copy for the US vs multi-language packaging for a global market, the doll profiles get increasingly brief.
This saddens me.
I do dig the little character-specific graphics, though.
Also, please note, Ghoulia was made in China. While Chinese dolls tend to skew lighter-skinned than their Indonesian counterparts (or they did), the Chinese factory has fewer problems with wonky features.
The little brain heart! Sorry about the focus, Mom's camera has crapped out on me, too, and I'm stuck using my phone.
Tombstone and beanie! Seriously I feel like I have to be able to Do Something with these, but I don't know what.
Definitely Not A Switch!
Venus-approved packaging, and a barcode!
More graphics on the side, including a severed hand and Sir Hoots-A-Lot!
Ghoulia, free of plastic. It was about at this point that I started to suspect something I'll prove to myself later.
As you can see, Ghoulia comes with a three-piece outfit, hat, boots, skateboard, pet (with glasses), glasses of her own, iCoffin with non-removable custom case, earrings, a backpack, a pack of what appear to be Flamin' Hot Brain Puffs, and a handheld gaming system that cannot be the Nintendo Switch, but is also unlikely to have gone for the obvious monster pun of Nintendo Witch, because G3 is doing weird stuff there.
Dude these things are plastic, they're great, I've kept mine.
Sorry about the focus, but, iCoffin from the front! These are UV printed for lots of detail without resorting to stickers, but... I legit think stickers would have resulted in crisper detail. Maybe I just got a funky one.
The D-pad on the little gaming system is bones, and the pull on her backpack is a coffin!
Sweet sweet freedom!
And Ghoulia demonstrating one of her chiefest flaws, which is actually one of her outfit's chiefest flaws.
Close on the outfit.
The windbreaker is adorable, and big enough to fit a boy in case you want to steal it for Slo-Mo. The shirt is... okay, but it's kind of wrinkly in the package and doesn't like to sit right. Cute graphic, though!
The skirt...
Okay listen.
The skirt has four main problems.
First, it's pink. Which is only a problem because MHG3 seems to be putting pink in a lot of places, and should probably tone it down and look at other colors. (Did Lagoona need to be pink, instead of maybe a stronger blue? Did Ghoulia need her red replaced with pink?) But that's a matter of taste.
Second, it's pleather.
Pleather is an archival gamble, sometimes it's fine, sometimes it disintegrates sitting in a cool dark place, like a doll box in a closet. If there isn't a reason to use pleather, don't use pleather. Now, I'm not advocating Mattel make a kid leather skirt for Ghoulia in order to use a sustainable, biodegradable material on a doll that's already made of plastic, but they could've used a synthetic fabric (to singe the drip-pattern hem) in a sateen/denim weave and it woulda been fine.
Third, it's a skirt.
Ghoulia comes with a skateboard (with no pads or helmet) and a short skirt. Could she not have had pants? She should probably have had pants. Jeans.
Fourth and finally, and the part that really bugs me?
That slime-green faux zipper?
Prevents the skirt from bending.
Ghoulia can't ride her skateboard in her skirt because she can't strike action poses in her skirt because part of her skirt will not bend with her hip. Ghoulia, a student at Monster High, cannot sit in her skirt.
Mattel no.
Her accessories are likewise a bit of a mixed bag, at least as far as my opinion goes. More details on the props later, but my opinion on Sir Hoots remains unchanged: Owls do not make good pets. They do not make good ambassadorial animals for wildlife rehabilitation charities, they do not make good companion animals for undead teenagers, and the Harry Potter craze is over. Ghoulia could have had a canary. Sir Tweets-A-Lot. Even peacocks are domesticated birds. It did not have to be an owl.
Glasses off! Gosh she's pretty.
Okay, here's a spot where I'm going to talk about how I'm approaching G3, as a doll collector with roots in Transformers (which fully reinvents canon almost every time there's a new show). I do understand that this is not G1 Ghoulia Yelps. This is not Classic Monster High, and that is fine. Keep it fresh. Get kids into it, which is how you farm the nostalgia factor for future generations.
G3 Ghoulia does not feel like Ghoulia Yelps to me, and I say that having seen very little of the new show.
So on my shelf, she's not going to be Ghoulia yelps, she's going to be someone else. Who? Not sure yet. But she's beautiful and I'm keeping her, I'm just not letting her keep the name she came with even if I don't make any tweaks to her face. Might even pick a new monster type for her.
She is, after all, my doll now. I'm allowed to name her Chungus Pancake if I want to.
Outfit without jacket.
The ribbon on the skirt is cute, but... the zipper, guys. And the skirt is pleather so I can't even unstitch it!
Hat's cute. Is G3 Ghoulia keeping it, I dunno, but I've got Ghoulia and Slo-Mo and Moanica, so, somebody's getting the beanie.
I do not like the camera on this phone. That is the best I got.
But I can say this much for Ghoulia's outfit-- it is at least three actual pieces, and not three implied pieces!
Well done clearing the most basic quality bar, Mattel!
Backpack! Again, cute, again, not sure who's getting it. It doesn't go with anyone else's color palette, but I have paint so that's not an obstacle.
The straps aren't padded, but do have a woven look, and the back is smooth, which is an interesting touch that sort of implies the brain fabric is... quilted, or maybe shave-sculpted fur?
Yes, this is the best the focus got.
In order: I like the case on the iCoffin, and the concept of the little finger loops, but heck if I can get any of my dolls to USE those very well.
The Flamin' Hot Brain Puffs delight me, as does the fact that all the dolls come with snacks. Let teenagers eat! Provide more tiny food with which for me to stock the Coffin Bean, or my student lounge vending machine, or a Zom-Bake sale table!
The game system is adorable and I want twelve in different decorator colors. Kjersti needs one and Heath needs one and Slo-Mo needs one and-- you get the idea.
The UV printing used on the accessories may be a little fuzzier than stickers would be on the iCoffin and game system screens, but... the Brain Puffs have nutrition facts. Are they legible, they are not,but the printing isn't going to peel off, either!
Twelve I want twelve.
For as detailed as the rest of Ghoulia's accessories are... boy the phone case sure stops being interesting at the brain, doesn't it?
I love the skateboard, I would not trade the skateboard, Ghoulia might not get to KEEP the skateboard, but I would in fact like to know why the skateboard is pink. Same mold cast in black plastic woulda been just fine.
And, like. I can paint that, and probably will? But just because I can doesn't mean I should have to.
That said I'm thrilled with the graphic.
Deadfast! G1 Deadfast, at that, this graphic has been used before. I hope some future G3 Ghoulia comes with a comic book.
And something about this UV printing gives the graphic a pretty interesting texture!
The owl has human eyes and glasses.
Hit me up if you want to buy this owl, you can make me an offer, I can make you a private eBay listing if you want to hold my feedback score accountable. I haven't listed Sir Hoots-A-Lot, but I'm seriously considering it.
Now, these handles, I could make work!
This one, I could not. I have tried these danged iCoffins with G3 hands, G1 hands, G2 boy hands. They are Uncooperative.
Or I just can't figure it out.
My blurrily photographed discovery!
There's some speculation floating around that the reason G3 Frankie is bluer and no longer has neck bolts is because Mattel broke with Universal (home of the Boris Karloff Frankenstein) to work with Paramount (parent company of Nickelodeon and owner of Paramount+, the two spots to find the new series).
But if you're looking for a G3 body to swap your G1 and G2 Frankies onto, may I suggest Ghoulia? They're damn near identical!
Or, use Frankie or Scarah if you want a wispier G3 Ghoulia for Reasons, I won't judge your tastes in stylization.
While I've got naked dolls...
In a (painted) Deadluxe High School playset chair! Ghoulia's feet dangle a little, but so do the Classic and Reboot/G2 girls who aren't wearing shoes, so that's fine. (Classic and Reboot boys also fit fine in these chairs. Manny sits acceptably. ... I forgot to test them with a G3 boy.)
And she poses quite nicely! I do like the underbust joint, it adds a lot to a doll's expressiveness.
She's leaning on my backdrop.
G3 dolls are MUCH less swaybacked than G1 or G2, and have more muscle tone.
All right, let's give the dolls their dignity back.
... Sort of.
This right here is my chiefest gripe with MH G3.
They're not backwards-compatible with Classic, Reboot, and EAH shoes.
Sure, the shoes go on-- some of them-- but the Classic arch is much higher.
Much higher.
On top of that, the toe box is wider-- these shoes are from a fashion studio Frankie and are pretty soft. I would absolutely not try this with any shoes without a good amount of stretch, and I did not leave these on Ghoulia.
What this means for me is that even if I get Curvy G3 Draculaura, she's not going to be my Draculaura, because I have, like. A literal quart of Classic and Reboot Draculaura shoes.
This is the stupidest problem to have and it's something Mattel had to have done deliberately.
Cross-gen clothing!
I actually like Ghoulia's shirt better on a G1 body-- more of the hem detailing shows. The skirt is a bit big, and retains its stupidity. Ghoulia's shoes fit Frankie okay, but Frankie does have the advantage of socks, and her heels aren't all the way down in the shoe.
Ghoulia has an unfair advantage in that the Frankie outfit she's borrowing is a modified Reboot outfit-- a little roomier in the shirt, and I separated the two pieces so the fact that the skirt's waistband rides a little high on Ghoulia doesn't matter much.
In conclusion... dang this is a pretty doll. She is not Ghoulia to me, but considering I bought her to see the new MH body and part out her clothes and accessories to other dolls, that's fine! If nothing else, I have a most-common-body example to sew for.
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 a few backlogged unboxing reviews I have, even though I think I have some earlier ones I never got around to. I'm just. I'm doing them in the order the photos pop up in the hopes of getting through them all in the next week or so.
So here's Monster High's freshly-rebooted Ghoulia Yelps, a Target exclusive! And several months out of date, cos I got Ghoulia in October and this whole damn ass hell line vanished from store shelves by January.
Way to sustainability, Mattel and/or Target.
Closeup behind glass!
Ghoulia comes with glasses with lenses, which is nice, and they're positioned on her face, which... as a glasses-wearer, I like in a character way. As a doll collector long familiar with Mattel's Wonk Issues, I would much rather have her glasses packaged on her head, or on the backing, or in her hand.
G3 Sir Hoots-A-Lot!
... Lemme get a couple things out of the way regarding the G3 pets immediately-- meh, MH pets as a whole.
I like the idea of the characters having pets and coming with those pets. I do! I have even genuinely liked some of the pets as the little figurines they are! And I readily acknowledge that I found Classic/G1 Monster High pets a little... hit or miss. G3 is an opportunity to start over, so I get to say the following about G3 pets:
1. I do not like the new aesthetic. Like at all. This owl has human eyes. Twyla's dust bunny has human eyes. Why. Stop that. Yes, they're all consistently stylized now, you don't have Rheun and Roux at one end of the stylization scale and Daddy-O Longlegs and Count Fabulous at the other, but for pity's sake let the animals have animal eyes.
2. I do not like that Ghoulia still has an owl/some of the characters have zoo animals as pets. Howleen's
In conclusion, as I continue picking through MHG3 for things I like, I predict that most of the pets are either never coming out of the Pet Box-- or are going up on eBay pretty much immediately.
Box art, front!
It's... cute? It's nothing special, nothing like what Mattel has provided in the past, and while it's stylized, it wasn't stylized the same way as anything that had come out so far.
It looks kind of like it's meant to be drawn by a talented-but-not-prodigiously-talented high school student, which I'd like... if G3 had given us any artists.
It has not, yet, to my knowledge. I find this weird.
Back of the box! Ghoulia is the closest to on-doll-model of any of the rest of the girls.
As Mattel moves away from custom-printed copy for the US vs multi-language packaging for a global market, the doll profiles get increasingly brief.
This saddens me.
I do dig the little character-specific graphics, though.
Also, please note, Ghoulia was made in China. While Chinese dolls tend to skew lighter-skinned than their Indonesian counterparts (or they did), the Chinese factory has fewer problems with wonky features.
The little brain heart! Sorry about the focus, Mom's camera has crapped out on me, too, and I'm stuck using my phone.
Tombstone and beanie! Seriously I feel like I have to be able to Do Something with these, but I don't know what.
Definitely Not A Switch!
Venus-approved packaging, and a barcode!
More graphics on the side, including a severed hand and Sir Hoots-A-Lot!
Ghoulia, free of plastic. It was about at this point that I started to suspect something I'll prove to myself later.
As you can see, Ghoulia comes with a three-piece outfit, hat, boots, skateboard, pet (with glasses), glasses of her own, iCoffin with non-removable custom case, earrings, a backpack, a pack of what appear to be Flamin' Hot Brain Puffs, and a handheld gaming system that cannot be the Nintendo Switch, but is also unlikely to have gone for the obvious monster pun of Nintendo Witch, because G3 is doing weird stuff there.
Dude these things are plastic, they're great, I've kept mine.
Sorry about the focus, but, iCoffin from the front! These are UV printed for lots of detail without resorting to stickers, but... I legit think stickers would have resulted in crisper detail. Maybe I just got a funky one.
The D-pad on the little gaming system is bones, and the pull on her backpack is a coffin!
Sweet sweet freedom!
And Ghoulia demonstrating one of her chiefest flaws, which is actually one of her outfit's chiefest flaws.
Close on the outfit.
The windbreaker is adorable, and big enough to fit a boy in case you want to steal it for Slo-Mo. The shirt is... okay, but it's kind of wrinkly in the package and doesn't like to sit right. Cute graphic, though!
The skirt...
Okay listen.
The skirt has four main problems.
First, it's pink. Which is only a problem because MHG3 seems to be putting pink in a lot of places, and should probably tone it down and look at other colors. (Did Lagoona need to be pink, instead of maybe a stronger blue? Did Ghoulia need her red replaced with pink?) But that's a matter of taste.
Second, it's pleather.
Pleather is an archival gamble, sometimes it's fine, sometimes it disintegrates sitting in a cool dark place, like a doll box in a closet. If there isn't a reason to use pleather, don't use pleather. Now, I'm not advocating Mattel make a kid leather skirt for Ghoulia in order to use a sustainable, biodegradable material on a doll that's already made of plastic, but they could've used a synthetic fabric (to singe the drip-pattern hem) in a sateen/denim weave and it woulda been fine.
Third, it's a skirt.
Ghoulia comes with a skateboard (with no pads or helmet) and a short skirt. Could she not have had pants? She should probably have had pants. Jeans.
Fourth and finally, and the part that really bugs me?
That slime-green faux zipper?
Prevents the skirt from bending.
Ghoulia can't ride her skateboard in her skirt because she can't strike action poses in her skirt because part of her skirt will not bend with her hip. Ghoulia, a student at Monster High, cannot sit in her skirt.
Mattel no.
Her accessories are likewise a bit of a mixed bag, at least as far as my opinion goes. More details on the props later, but my opinion on Sir Hoots remains unchanged: Owls do not make good pets. They do not make good ambassadorial animals for wildlife rehabilitation charities, they do not make good companion animals for undead teenagers, and the Harry Potter craze is over. Ghoulia could have had a canary. Sir Tweets-A-Lot. Even peacocks are domesticated birds. It did not have to be an owl.
Glasses off! Gosh she's pretty.
Okay, here's a spot where I'm going to talk about how I'm approaching G3, as a doll collector with roots in Transformers (which fully reinvents canon almost every time there's a new show). I do understand that this is not G1 Ghoulia Yelps. This is not Classic Monster High, and that is fine. Keep it fresh. Get kids into it, which is how you farm the nostalgia factor for future generations.
G3 Ghoulia does not feel like Ghoulia Yelps to me, and I say that having seen very little of the new show.
So on my shelf, she's not going to be Ghoulia yelps, she's going to be someone else. Who? Not sure yet. But she's beautiful and I'm keeping her, I'm just not letting her keep the name she came with even if I don't make any tweaks to her face. Might even pick a new monster type for her.
She is, after all, my doll now. I'm allowed to name her Chungus Pancake if I want to.
Outfit without jacket.
The ribbon on the skirt is cute, but... the zipper, guys. And the skirt is pleather so I can't even unstitch it!
Hat's cute. Is G3 Ghoulia keeping it, I dunno, but I've got Ghoulia and Slo-Mo and Moanica, so, somebody's getting the beanie.
I do not like the camera on this phone. That is the best I got.
But I can say this much for Ghoulia's outfit-- it is at least three actual pieces, and not three implied pieces!
Well done clearing the most basic quality bar, Mattel!
Backpack! Again, cute, again, not sure who's getting it. It doesn't go with anyone else's color palette, but I have paint so that's not an obstacle.
The straps aren't padded, but do have a woven look, and the back is smooth, which is an interesting touch that sort of implies the brain fabric is... quilted, or maybe shave-sculpted fur?
Yes, this is the best the focus got.
In order: I like the case on the iCoffin, and the concept of the little finger loops, but heck if I can get any of my dolls to USE those very well.
The Flamin' Hot Brain Puffs delight me, as does the fact that all the dolls come with snacks. Let teenagers eat! Provide more tiny food with which for me to stock the Coffin Bean, or my student lounge vending machine, or a Zom-Bake sale table!
The game system is adorable and I want twelve in different decorator colors. Kjersti needs one and Heath needs one and Slo-Mo needs one and-- you get the idea.
The UV printing used on the accessories may be a little fuzzier than stickers would be on the iCoffin and game system screens, but... the Brain Puffs have nutrition facts. Are they legible, they are not,but the printing isn't going to peel off, either!
Twelve I want twelve.
For as detailed as the rest of Ghoulia's accessories are... boy the phone case sure stops being interesting at the brain, doesn't it?
I love the skateboard, I would not trade the skateboard, Ghoulia might not get to KEEP the skateboard, but I would in fact like to know why the skateboard is pink. Same mold cast in black plastic woulda been just fine.
And, like. I can paint that, and probably will? But just because I can doesn't mean I should have to.
That said I'm thrilled with the graphic.
Deadfast! G1 Deadfast, at that, this graphic has been used before. I hope some future G3 Ghoulia comes with a comic book.
And something about this UV printing gives the graphic a pretty interesting texture!
The owl has human eyes and glasses.
Hit me up if you want to buy this owl, you can make me an offer, I can make you a private eBay listing if you want to hold my feedback score accountable. I haven't listed Sir Hoots-A-Lot, but I'm seriously considering it.
Now, these handles, I could make work!
This one, I could not. I have tried these danged iCoffins with G3 hands, G1 hands, G2 boy hands. They are Uncooperative.
Or I just can't figure it out.
My blurrily photographed discovery!
There's some speculation floating around that the reason G3 Frankie is bluer and no longer has neck bolts is because Mattel broke with Universal (home of the Boris Karloff Frankenstein) to work with Paramount (parent company of Nickelodeon and owner of Paramount+, the two spots to find the new series).
But if you're looking for a G3 body to swap your G1 and G2 Frankies onto, may I suggest Ghoulia? They're damn near identical!
Or, use Frankie or Scarah if you want a wispier G3 Ghoulia for Reasons, I won't judge your tastes in stylization.
While I've got naked dolls...
In a (painted) Deadluxe High School playset chair! Ghoulia's feet dangle a little, but so do the Classic and Reboot/G2 girls who aren't wearing shoes, so that's fine. (Classic and Reboot boys also fit fine in these chairs. Manny sits acceptably. ... I forgot to test them with a G3 boy.)
And she poses quite nicely! I do like the underbust joint, it adds a lot to a doll's expressiveness.
She's leaning on my backdrop.
G3 dolls are MUCH less swaybacked than G1 or G2, and have more muscle tone.
All right, let's give the dolls their dignity back.
... Sort of.
This right here is my chiefest gripe with MH G3.
They're not backwards-compatible with Classic, Reboot, and EAH shoes.
Sure, the shoes go on-- some of them-- but the Classic arch is much higher.
Much higher.
On top of that, the toe box is wider-- these shoes are from a fashion studio Frankie and are pretty soft. I would absolutely not try this with any shoes without a good amount of stretch, and I did not leave these on Ghoulia.
What this means for me is that even if I get Curvy G3 Draculaura, she's not going to be my Draculaura, because I have, like. A literal quart of Classic and Reboot Draculaura shoes.
This is the stupidest problem to have and it's something Mattel had to have done deliberately.
Cross-gen clothing!
I actually like Ghoulia's shirt better on a G1 body-- more of the hem detailing shows. The skirt is a bit big, and retains its stupidity. Ghoulia's shoes fit Frankie okay, but Frankie does have the advantage of socks, and her heels aren't all the way down in the shoe.
Ghoulia has an unfair advantage in that the Frankie outfit she's borrowing is a modified Reboot outfit-- a little roomier in the shirt, and I separated the two pieces so the fact that the skirt's waistband rides a little high on Ghoulia doesn't matter much.
In conclusion... dang this is a pretty doll. She is not Ghoulia to me, but considering I bought her to see the new MH body and part out her clothes and accessories to other dolls, that's fine! If nothing else, I have a most-common-body example to sew for.
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.