Monster High Review: Ghoulia Yelps
Nov. 5th, 2012 10:30 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
leia131So, Ghoulia and I have a complicated relationship.
Rant time: (And this is going outside the cut, because I feel like everyone needs to know this about me, for future reference) I FUCKING HATE ZOMBIES. I hate the idea, they scare me, I hate that they're so popular, I even hate the word, and usually try to avoid saying it. I wish everyone would just get over their fascination with the stupid things, so I could stop hearing about them. If The Walking Dead had never existed, in any form, that would be WONDERFUL. If you like them, fine, great, but don't try to convince me to. I am terrified of them (seriously, even that one episode of Castle scared me, and I couldn't sleep for a week after I (erroneously) watched Shaun of the Dead, I don't think jokes about them are funny, and I wish the whole stupid craze over them would just GO AWAY ALREADY. *breathe*
Anyway, you're free to like the damn things, to each their own, but I don't.
This is Ghoulia, 16, daughter of the Z-words:
When Andrew first bought her for me (who knows if I ever would have bought her for myself) I was... less than thrilled. I mean, I love her outfit (red is my favorite color), I like her geek aesthetic, and I LOVE her boots (seriously, look at those things!) but then there's that unfortunate undead thing. For a while, I'm ashamed to admit, I always re-dressed Ghoulia last, in whatever clothes I had left over, and she was just kind of there. A doll I had to tolerate because I liked her outfit and pet.
Then, and I'm not sure if it was the love for her in the MH LJ community, her being Mattel's voice at ComicCon, or something else, I decided that Ghoulia wasn't all that bad. I started to see her in a new light, and decided her hair (which is a mix of dark and light blue) was pretty awesome, and she was quite pretty. Ghoulia is also the 'studious' MH girl, who likes reading and learning (like an undead Hermione) and I'm also geeky and like reading and being smart, so she's kind of right up my alley there. (Although, I do have to say, her being the only character with glasses and being the nerdy one is kind of cliche, Mattel.)
Ghoulia has grey skin, which kind of creeped me out at first, but which fits her. It also provides a great contrast to her red outfit and stand, and her very blue hair. Her pet is an owl named Sir Hoots-A-Lot (I'm telling you, someday I will meet and congratulate whomever named these pets) who can sit on her arm if you try real hard. I... didn't, but I swear he can. Her purse is shaped like a tape, and has what I guess is supposed to be a brain pattern on it.
And, please ignore the stars on Ghoulia's headband. I added those for a photoshoot I did of my dolls dressed as Disney characters, (which you can see on my Flickr if you want to) and then I liked them so they stayed on there. Ordinarily, her headband is just neon green with no embellishments. I also want to cover a few other details about Ghoulia's outfit. First of all, the cherry patterned shirt is sewed to the red and black striped one, and the striped thing actually is constructed like a bathing suit/leotard. I like that, because it saves me from having to try to tuck that shirt into anything, and it looks really nice with her pants. The black mesh arm coverings aren't attached to anything, and although they have come unsewn a tiny bit at the ends, have held up to multiple redressings much better than anticipated. They also look pretty cool.
Showing off her boots a little better. I wish I owned those boots in real life, no joke. You'll hear me say that a lot about MH shoes.
I think we're ready for the rundown.
Theme: In almost every other version, Ghoulia's theme is body parts/blood, but that is mostly absent from her signature version (thank GOD). The overall theme in this outfit, I think, is red.
Evidenced in: The brain pattern on her purse is (again, thankfully) the only body part themed thing about this outfit. However, EVERYTHING is red: her lipstick, stand, shirt, pants, much of her purse, and bootlaces.
Favorite thing about the doll: Ghoulia's face sculpt/paint is actually really pretty, even though it took me a while to see it. I'm going to post a pic of her without her glasses (if I can find one, I forgot to take one during her shoot for the reviews) so you can see it better, but there's something about her eye shape and full lips that really appeals to me. I also love her super-straight blue hair.
Least favorite thing about the doll: Her parentage.
Favorite thing about the outfit/accessories: BOOTS. I mean, I like her outfit as a whole A LOT, but those boots win.
Least favorite thing about the outfit/accessories: For some reason that eludes me, they decided to give Ghoulia hot pink, zipper pull shaped earrings, and a necklace with a hot pink jewel on it. I really don't think hot pink matches red very well, and don't typically like to mix those two colors unless it's Valentine's Day. Her piano key belt also confuses me, as she doesn't have a music affinity/theme. It's like they just threw some accessories at her, which she didn't really need in the first place. (Also, they totally reused the piano belt thing on Operetta. Couldn't they have just waited?)
Bottom Line: I like basic Ghoulia, but I don't think I'm likely to get another Ghoulia any time soon. Every other version of her has just not appealed to me, either because I don't like her hair, her clothes, or she has too many creepy body part themed accessories. It's possible that Mattel will move away from that theme at some point, and another Ghoulia will speak to me, but for now she remains the only one of the main girls (Draculaura, Frankie, Clawdeen, Cleo, Lagoona, Ghoulia) that I have only one of. This doll, however, is beautiful. Her coloration works well (even the hot pink stuff has grown on me), her outfit is rocking, there's lots of different pieces to play with when redressing, her pet is cool, and she's the only girl who wears glasses. And they're really neat glasses to boot!
That being said, here's a picture of her without them:
Please ignore all the other stuff in this picture. That flamingo is not even there.
As far as I can tell, Ghoulia is pretty popular with older MH collectors. For this reason, it may be hard to get a hold of her basic version (which is selling for $99 on Amazon right now, ridiculously) but there are other versions of her, and you always might be able to snag one secondhand. I managed to get a complete basic Deuce not too long ago for just slightly over retail, so never say never!
Some of you may be asking: "where is the Ghouls Rule review we were promised?" Well, I went to take the pictures for it tonight, and my camera battery was dead, so I decided to do this one with pictures I already had instead. We'll get back to GR eventually. :D
Rant time: (And this is going outside the cut, because I feel like everyone needs to know this about me, for future reference) I FUCKING HATE ZOMBIES. I hate the idea, they scare me, I hate that they're so popular, I even hate the word, and usually try to avoid saying it. I wish everyone would just get over their fascination with the stupid things, so I could stop hearing about them. If The Walking Dead had never existed, in any form, that would be WONDERFUL. If you like them, fine, great, but don't try to convince me to. I am terrified of them (seriously, even that one episode of Castle scared me, and I couldn't sleep for a week after I (erroneously) watched Shaun of the Dead, I don't think jokes about them are funny, and I wish the whole stupid craze over them would just GO AWAY ALREADY. *breathe*
Anyway, you're free to like the damn things, to each their own, but I don't.
This is Ghoulia, 16, daughter of the Z-words:
When Andrew first bought her for me (who knows if I ever would have bought her for myself) I was... less than thrilled. I mean, I love her outfit (red is my favorite color), I like her geek aesthetic, and I LOVE her boots (seriously, look at those things!) but then there's that unfortunate undead thing. For a while, I'm ashamed to admit, I always re-dressed Ghoulia last, in whatever clothes I had left over, and she was just kind of there. A doll I had to tolerate because I liked her outfit and pet.
Then, and I'm not sure if it was the love for her in the MH LJ community, her being Mattel's voice at ComicCon, or something else, I decided that Ghoulia wasn't all that bad. I started to see her in a new light, and decided her hair (which is a mix of dark and light blue) was pretty awesome, and she was quite pretty. Ghoulia is also the 'studious' MH girl, who likes reading and learning (like an undead Hermione) and I'm also geeky and like reading and being smart, so she's kind of right up my alley there. (Although, I do have to say, her being the only character with glasses and being the nerdy one is kind of cliche, Mattel.)
Ghoulia has grey skin, which kind of creeped me out at first, but which fits her. It also provides a great contrast to her red outfit and stand, and her very blue hair. Her pet is an owl named Sir Hoots-A-Lot (I'm telling you, someday I will meet and congratulate whomever named these pets) who can sit on her arm if you try real hard. I... didn't, but I swear he can. Her purse is shaped like a tape, and has what I guess is supposed to be a brain pattern on it.
And, please ignore the stars on Ghoulia's headband. I added those for a photoshoot I did of my dolls dressed as Disney characters, (which you can see on my Flickr if you want to) and then I liked them so they stayed on there. Ordinarily, her headband is just neon green with no embellishments. I also want to cover a few other details about Ghoulia's outfit. First of all, the cherry patterned shirt is sewed to the red and black striped one, and the striped thing actually is constructed like a bathing suit/leotard. I like that, because it saves me from having to try to tuck that shirt into anything, and it looks really nice with her pants. The black mesh arm coverings aren't attached to anything, and although they have come unsewn a tiny bit at the ends, have held up to multiple redressings much better than anticipated. They also look pretty cool.
Showing off her boots a little better. I wish I owned those boots in real life, no joke. You'll hear me say that a lot about MH shoes.
I think we're ready for the rundown.
Theme: In almost every other version, Ghoulia's theme is body parts/blood, but that is mostly absent from her signature version (thank GOD). The overall theme in this outfit, I think, is red.
Evidenced in: The brain pattern on her purse is (again, thankfully) the only body part themed thing about this outfit. However, EVERYTHING is red: her lipstick, stand, shirt, pants, much of her purse, and bootlaces.
Favorite thing about the doll: Ghoulia's face sculpt/paint is actually really pretty, even though it took me a while to see it. I'm going to post a pic of her without her glasses (if I can find one, I forgot to take one during her shoot for the reviews) so you can see it better, but there's something about her eye shape and full lips that really appeals to me. I also love her super-straight blue hair.
Least favorite thing about the doll: Her parentage.
Favorite thing about the outfit/accessories: BOOTS. I mean, I like her outfit as a whole A LOT, but those boots win.
Least favorite thing about the outfit/accessories: For some reason that eludes me, they decided to give Ghoulia hot pink, zipper pull shaped earrings, and a necklace with a hot pink jewel on it. I really don't think hot pink matches red very well, and don't typically like to mix those two colors unless it's Valentine's Day. Her piano key belt also confuses me, as she doesn't have a music affinity/theme. It's like they just threw some accessories at her, which she didn't really need in the first place. (Also, they totally reused the piano belt thing on Operetta. Couldn't they have just waited?)
Bottom Line: I like basic Ghoulia, but I don't think I'm likely to get another Ghoulia any time soon. Every other version of her has just not appealed to me, either because I don't like her hair, her clothes, or she has too many creepy body part themed accessories. It's possible that Mattel will move away from that theme at some point, and another Ghoulia will speak to me, but for now she remains the only one of the main girls (Draculaura, Frankie, Clawdeen, Cleo, Lagoona, Ghoulia) that I have only one of. This doll, however, is beautiful. Her coloration works well (even the hot pink stuff has grown on me), her outfit is rocking, there's lots of different pieces to play with when redressing, her pet is cool, and she's the only girl who wears glasses. And they're really neat glasses to boot!
That being said, here's a picture of her without them:
Please ignore all the other stuff in this picture. That flamingo is not even there.
As far as I can tell, Ghoulia is pretty popular with older MH collectors. For this reason, it may be hard to get a hold of her basic version (which is selling for $99 on Amazon right now, ridiculously) but there are other versions of her, and you always might be able to snag one secondhand. I managed to get a complete basic Deuce not too long ago for just slightly over retail, so never say never!
Some of you may be asking: "where is the Ghouls Rule review we were promised?" Well, I went to take the pictures for it tonight, and my camera battery was dead, so I decided to do this one with pictures I already had instead. We'll get back to GR eventually. :D
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no subject
Date: 2012-11-06 04:54 pm (UTC)(Randomly, I finally bought GR Draculaura yesterday. I had to go to the ~big city~ for a dr's appt and this one store I always stop at before appts had all the GR dolls on sale for $17...they were $5 cheaper than the DDG & Basic dolls, $7 cheaper than the Sweet 1600s!. They had 2 Dracualaura's & luckily, one of them had nice bangs. Was a bit bummed because their Sunday circular advertised the Skull Shores dolls and the photo in the ad was of Ghoulia & Gil and I just kind of assumed they'd have him in stock. I'd never seen a Gil before & I don't want one, but I know a lot of people do so I was going to snag up as many of him as I could & sell them for cost plus shipping. Of course, the only SS dolls they had were Ghoulia.)
no subject
Date: 2012-11-06 11:24 pm (UTC)I hope you like Draculaura! I would have killed to get her for $17. I paid waaaay too much for her at TRU because I got it in my head (wrongly) that GR was a TRU exclusive.
And Gil, man, I bought him just because I knew he was meant to go with Lagoona and I like Lagoona, with no idea how rare he would become. The prices they seel him for now are outrageous.
no subject
Date: 2012-11-07 12:33 am (UTC)My brother (of all people) saw the MH section of the toy circular Sunday morning & told me about it. I could believe they were only $17! I paid $24.99 each for Frankie & Cleo. They had 2 of each GR girl (except Cleo & of course Abbey since she's an exclusive). I was just glad one of the Draculaura's had good hair! I have yet to debox her though because I need to make room before I unbox any more dolls.