Hat Plays Dolls

The last of my Monster High Unboxing backlog! At least until I open up my Music Class Ari.

It's the G3 Coffin Bean playset, which was of course absolutely irresistable to me.

Tiny food, my great weakness!

I also love useful doll furniture and shop-related items but tiny food!

The G3 Monster High Coffin Bean playset has an MSRP of $50, but I haven't even seen a planogram for it at my local Target since Christmas. I got it in October, I think, and clever use of the Target app meant I mostly use points on it-- I did not pay $50, I paid $13. (I meant to pay $3 but the cashier did not properly scan my gift cards.)



Anyway, $13 is thematic so I rolled with it (and now I have gift cards burning a hole in my pocket.)

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These pictures date to October 15, 2021, which... is the day I received this, I think.

Usually with mint-in-box Monster High stuff, I hang onto it and unbox it on a day when I need a little boost, but I pre-ordered these-- I set an alarm to make sure I was online and sniping in order to pre-order these in the six-minute window between 'going live' and 'selling out'-- and I was frickin' excited to see them.



And I'm going to post a lot of pictures of the unboxing process, as Skullector dolls are fairly comparable to SDCC dolls in terms of how schmancy the boxes are... and unless you can drop serious money on eBay or were lucky enough to get into that six-minute window...

Yeah these are hard-to-find. I paid $90 plus shipping.

And I'm probably gonna talk about that price a lot.

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So, I do believe I finally own and have reviewed the entire Monster Family sub-line of Monster High-- I've got single-packed Pawla Wolf, Fangelica Van Bat, Sandy de Nile with high chair, the Vampire Kitchen with Dracula and Draculaura, Pharrah de Nile and the de Nile Family game Night set with Cleo, Lux, and Sandy #2, the Blue beach picnic two-pack with Lagoona and Kelpie, Alivia Stein andb Gigawatt, the Wolf bedtime three-pack with Clawdeen, Barker, and Weredith, the Wolf Family bunkbeds with Pawla, Weredith, and Packlyn, Howleen Wolf and allegedly Cushion, the Stein family cookout two-pack with Frankie and Alivia, and as of May 2021 (yes I am super backlogged, why do you ask?), the doll I hesitated on in stores because I could never find one with both her eyes on the same plane of existence...



Little Ebbie Blue!

It took a damn ass hell long time to find her on eBay, too-- I paid about $20 shipped for her, and that was my ceiling because she's such a small doll.

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The same day I picked up G3 Ghoulia, I also picked up G3 Cleo (and a 5-surprise ball, because there was a discount on $50 worth of toys and 4x$24.99 does not = $50).

Do I like her? Yes, with a couple of caveats. Is she going to bump Classic Cleo out of her spot as Definitively My Cleo?

... You know what? Read on and see.



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My Monster High grail doll list has gotten shorter!

I have had '"Monster High" Cleo Fashion' as one of my saved eBay searches for... uh, a couple years now. Back in July, the right combination of 'not highway robbery' and 'listed at a time when I have money' appeared and I JUMPED.

I paid about $77 shipped (from Australia to California) and I'm STILL kinda proud of myself. I would not have gotten her if I hadn't been idly browsing eBay on my phone in bed the instant she was listed. I don't think she was up for an hour.

So!



I finally freaking got her!

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Hm that's two Stein-based reviews in a row and I have one more to do, let's space these out a bit.



Pre-reboot this time-- I got the Student Lounge! I found this one on eBay for about $16 shipped, which I actually think is below the MSRP. I needed this set. Look at it. It's got a vending machine.

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Well, it's been a while! And I've accidentally piled up a few stacks of deboxing photos, so as is usual for me, after silence comes a glut of content.

Anyway, today's doll is Lots of Looks Frankie Stein, a spiritual successor to the classic I <3 Fashion line. Lots of Looks was an alt channel line, which of course meant I never saw them in stores. I snagged mine last month on eBay for just under $20 shipped, which was the highest I was willing to go for her. For Draculaura, I'd have to be willing to pay a little more.



Boxed! Frankie comes with two pairs of shoes, a clutch handbag, a belt, two shirts, a skirt, a dress, and rarity of rarities, a pair of long pants.

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Second of the three dolls I got from Mattel to replace my jacked-up Lunchtime Ghouls, Beach Beasties Draculaura (officially on my packing slip as '2013 Swim Draculaura') is wearing one of the very few Draculaura outfits I wanted, but didn't already have.

And that's how nice Mattel's CSRs were-- I wrote in and explained the problems with the Lunchtime Ghouls set (which, remember, I got at Tuesday Morning for $10), Mattel wrote back and said 'oh no that's not good AND we don't have that set in stock, can I interest you in I Heart Shoes Draculaura and Haunted Twyla?' I replied saying those were such great dolls that I got them retail the first time around and is it rude to ask for different replacement dolls, I keep meticulous lists of what I have vs what I need would you like a list? Mattel said send the list, I sent an abbreviated version of my wishlist, and Mattel sent me three dolls off of it, with a total MSRP of, like, $42? $47? Somewhere in that zone.

They knew I paid $10 for that two-pack. I think maybe they were just really, really nice to the person who wrote them in December saying things like 'is it okay if I' and 'take your time, I'm not in any hurry' and 'thank you for your patience!'

Okay, doll.



The 'gimmick' of this line was bright colors and clear plastic details.

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There's one more doll Mattel sent in their mission to overkill my Lunchtime Ghouls issues, but that'll have to wait for tomorrow.

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I 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.

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One of the bigger boxes that had been piling up, and the one that has most sorely tempted my three-year-old nephew-- the box was pristine when I brought it home, but somebody likes to open things. I got this one for either half or 40% off at Toys R Us.



And you know what, it's great to see this much mold reuse, actually!

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