Monster High Review: Ghouls Rule Frankie
Nov. 12th, 2012 11:01 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
leia131Finally! I know you have all been waiting with bated breath for this. :)
Let's take a look at GR Frankie in all her shiny, glittery, glory:
Of all the GR dolls, this one probably has the most obvious theme. With Draculaura, the wings are only moderately bat-like, and not all vampires can turn into bats anyway. Clawdeen's outfit doesn't necessarily evoke werewolf, and I know I haven't covered them yet, but Abbey's and Cleo's ensembles are also not SUPER blatant. (Not that this means I dislike any of their outfits, I'm just saying that this one is the most obvious). There is no way you can look at this doll and not know that she's supposed to look like the Bride of Frankenstein.
GR Frankie's hair is still a mix of white and black like her other dolls. But this version has far more black than usual, with only a few white/silver parts, so that she looks more like her 'mother' than ever before. Her outfit is also covered with lightning bolts, for obvious reasons, a theme carried through in her mask.
A closer look at the mask:
As far as hiding her face goes, it's not great, but as far as looking pretty awesome, staying in her hand, and being made in such a way that she can hold it to her head without help, it's fantastic. This is probably my second favorite mask; I love how they even made the handle part of the lightning theme, instead of just putting a lightning mask on a basic stick. You will never hear me say that Mattel doesn't pay attention to detail.
The other two themes in this doll, which I mentioned before, and which you will see in other Frankie dolls, are bolts (of the non-lightning kind), and stitches. Frankie was sewed together, you see, and so sewing and stitches are a common thread in her clothes. (Pun intended.)
The coat is really neat, with lots of themed details, and its collar makes a cute heart shape:
Also, it is SHINY.
Here's a shot of Frankie's outfit without the coat over it:
The top of the dress is a relatively see-through teal-colored sparkly mesh. It's the kind of thing few people can pull off in real life, but which looks stunning on a doll. Here you can see the thread theme on her skirt, as well as the earrings and bracelet thingies made of nuts and bolts. She has her trick-or-treat bucket here too, which I managed to get a decent close-up picture of to show you later.
One of the things I like best about this doll is that, as opposed to Draculaura and Clawdeen, her various outfit pieces come off easily, and I think they would be fun to play mix and match with. (I haven't, really, mostly just because she's a GR doll, and therefore on the mantle with the others, but it wouldn't be hard to do so.)
The outer mesh-skirt combo, for instance, is easily removable.
Shot of the jacket and skirt bit. You can really see the lightning and stitching details of these pieces here. I LOVE all the details on this outfit, seriously.
And here's Frankie without those pieces:
Tell me about it, Stud. (No idea why, but she seriously reminds me of Sandy from Grease here.)
The black bodysuit she has on is all one piece, and covered with a pattern of shiny, teal, hardware. (Technically they're nuts, but saying her outfit is covered in nuts elicits like, cashews or acorns or something.) This shot also gives you your first real glimpse of her awesome, glitter covered boots.
Let's take a closer look at those boots, shall we?
I'm 1000% sure I could never EVER walk in boots like these in real life, but DAMN. They are covered in glitter, they have cool stitching up the sides, and they are really easy to get on and off her feet (which is not always typical of MH shoes, especially boots). Someone on the MH LJ community said that people have experience problems accidentally putting Frankie's feet right through the plastic these are made of, since it's relatively thin and malleable, but that has thankfully not happened to me.
This version of Frankie also has a neat facial detail that no other Frankie has:
I'm not sure if this is supposed to look like her skin is crackling with electricity, or just cracking, or like it's a scar from her being zapped, but it looks really cool. It also makes her stand out from other Frankies, as does the light blue lipstick. Oh, and the neck bolts are also shiny on this doll, because EVERYTHING is shiny on this doll. Yay! (BTW, how crazy does her hair look in this pic? I swear it doesn't look that frizzy in real life.)
See? Much better here. It is a MASS of curls, but it works really well for her. My doll's hair is a little flattened in the back from being in the box, but a little floofing usually perks it up (and no one stares at her back anyway ;)
Please, no more pictures.
And finally, here is a shot of Frankie's trick-or-treat bucket:
It has a skull with bolts on its head, and there are also bolts on the bucket. I love it, as I love all the themed buckets.I also love my engagement ring that you can see in this picture. :P
And on that note, I'm going to conclude my GR reviews for a little while. I think the next review is probably going to be of Cleo, which is going to be interesting as I don't actually own a basic Cleo... She was the next doll I bought though!
Let's take a look at GR Frankie in all her shiny, glittery, glory:
Of all the GR dolls, this one probably has the most obvious theme. With Draculaura, the wings are only moderately bat-like, and not all vampires can turn into bats anyway. Clawdeen's outfit doesn't necessarily evoke werewolf, and I know I haven't covered them yet, but Abbey's and Cleo's ensembles are also not SUPER blatant. (Not that this means I dislike any of their outfits, I'm just saying that this one is the most obvious). There is no way you can look at this doll and not know that she's supposed to look like the Bride of Frankenstein.
GR Frankie's hair is still a mix of white and black like her other dolls. But this version has far more black than usual, with only a few white/silver parts, so that she looks more like her 'mother' than ever before. Her outfit is also covered with lightning bolts, for obvious reasons, a theme carried through in her mask.
A closer look at the mask:
As far as hiding her face goes, it's not great, but as far as looking pretty awesome, staying in her hand, and being made in such a way that she can hold it to her head without help, it's fantastic. This is probably my second favorite mask; I love how they even made the handle part of the lightning theme, instead of just putting a lightning mask on a basic stick. You will never hear me say that Mattel doesn't pay attention to detail.
The other two themes in this doll, which I mentioned before, and which you will see in other Frankie dolls, are bolts (of the non-lightning kind), and stitches. Frankie was sewed together, you see, and so sewing and stitches are a common thread in her clothes. (Pun intended.)
The coat is really neat, with lots of themed details, and its collar makes a cute heart shape:
Also, it is SHINY.
Here's a shot of Frankie's outfit without the coat over it:
The top of the dress is a relatively see-through teal-colored sparkly mesh. It's the kind of thing few people can pull off in real life, but which looks stunning on a doll. Here you can see the thread theme on her skirt, as well as the earrings and bracelet thingies made of nuts and bolts. She has her trick-or-treat bucket here too, which I managed to get a decent close-up picture of to show you later.
One of the things I like best about this doll is that, as opposed to Draculaura and Clawdeen, her various outfit pieces come off easily, and I think they would be fun to play mix and match with. (I haven't, really, mostly just because she's a GR doll, and therefore on the mantle with the others, but it wouldn't be hard to do so.)
The outer mesh-skirt combo, for instance, is easily removable.
Shot of the jacket and skirt bit. You can really see the lightning and stitching details of these pieces here. I LOVE all the details on this outfit, seriously.
And here's Frankie without those pieces:
Tell me about it, Stud. (No idea why, but she seriously reminds me of Sandy from Grease here.)
The black bodysuit she has on is all one piece, and covered with a pattern of shiny, teal, hardware. (Technically they're nuts, but saying her outfit is covered in nuts elicits like, cashews or acorns or something.) This shot also gives you your first real glimpse of her awesome, glitter covered boots.
Let's take a closer look at those boots, shall we?
I'm 1000% sure I could never EVER walk in boots like these in real life, but DAMN. They are covered in glitter, they have cool stitching up the sides, and they are really easy to get on and off her feet (which is not always typical of MH shoes, especially boots). Someone on the MH LJ community said that people have experience problems accidentally putting Frankie's feet right through the plastic these are made of, since it's relatively thin and malleable, but that has thankfully not happened to me.
This version of Frankie also has a neat facial detail that no other Frankie has:
I'm not sure if this is supposed to look like her skin is crackling with electricity, or just cracking, or like it's a scar from her being zapped, but it looks really cool. It also makes her stand out from other Frankies, as does the light blue lipstick. Oh, and the neck bolts are also shiny on this doll, because EVERYTHING is shiny on this doll. Yay! (BTW, how crazy does her hair look in this pic? I swear it doesn't look that frizzy in real life.)
See? Much better here. It is a MASS of curls, but it works really well for her. My doll's hair is a little flattened in the back from being in the box, but a little floofing usually perks it up (and no one stares at her back anyway ;)
Please, no more pictures.
And finally, here is a shot of Frankie's trick-or-treat bucket:
It has a skull with bolts on its head, and there are also bolts on the bucket. I love it, as I love all the themed buckets.
And on that note, I'm going to conclude my GR reviews for a little while. I think the next review is probably going to be of Cleo, which is going to be interesting as I don't actually own a basic Cleo... She was the next doll I bought though!
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2012-11-13 05:11 pm (UTC)I love love love this doll, I think she's my 2nd favorite behind Scary Tales Clawdeen. She's so over-the-top & they did an excellent job keeping with her "theme/heritage". I agree with you about the shoes and the detailing around her eye. I never thought to take off her outer covering to see what she looked like in just the body suit. It's cute! Mine had a SEVERE case of box-head, to the point where it was flat everywhere not just in the back, so I boiled it & hung her upside down to dry and now her hair is SUPER-WILD lol.
no subject
Date: 2012-11-13 11:53 pm (UTC)Yeah... You know that girl who couldn't wait to get her Barbies home to take off their original clothes and see how they looked in everything else? I'm that girl. I even wrestled GR Clawdeen out of that bodysuit once (but only once, yikes). I was pleasantly surprised to see that Frankie's outfit wasn't all one piece!
Wild hair totally works with this doll. :) BTW, I am TERRIFIED to boil any of their hair; I'm so afraid I will ruin it. There's a couple that could probably use it though...
no subject
Date: 2012-11-14 12:54 pm (UTC)I was afraid the first time I tried "boiling" one of the dolls hair (I call it boiling but I've never used anything more than steaming hot tap water), but it's always worked out fine for me. I've luckily never gotten a doll with the glue-in-the-hair problem that so many people have, but so many of the dolls I buy have really bad "box hair" or frizzy curls or straight hair with "dents" from all the rubberbands they strap it down with. I just turn the hot water tap on and get it as hot as I can (or, as hot as my fingers can stand lol) & fill a bowl. Then I dip their hair in it...if they have really bad frizzies, I use a drop of that John Frieda Frizz-Ease serum on my fingers & work that thru then dip their hair again. After blotting with paper towel, I brush it gently and then brush again every 2 or 3 hours after until their hair dries. I've done about 15 dolls & haven't had a single problem...and I've only ever had to re-do 1 doll because I didn't get it right the first time. I got the Dance Class Howleen & she's so cute with her curly pink pigtails, but they were sooooooooo mashed & frizzy so I gave her the same upside-down treatment as GR Frankie & they look awesome IMO ;)
no subject
Date: 2012-11-16 04:08 am (UTC)Also, I really appreciate the hair boiling tutorial! Have you tried it with any of the girls who have tinsel in their hair? My new I <3 Fashion Abbey has some serious plastic tie lines that I'd like to get rid of.
no subject
Date: 2012-11-16 01:04 pm (UTC)The ones with (regular) long hair are the easiest to do, you don't have to worry about messing up curls or getting out frizz or any of that jazz. A dip in the hot water & brushing every couple hours takes care of it!
no subject
Date: 2012-11-18 11:38 pm (UTC)