Review: Monster High "Die-ner" Playset (Walmart Exclusive)

Hey y'all! How's summer treatin' you?

I've had my eye on this "Die-ner" playset for a few months now, and seein' as it was my birthday just a few days ago, I figured I'd quit mooning over it and just bring it home.

The "Die-ner" playset exists in two variations: one with a single Draculaura doll, and a Walmart exclusive with both Draculaura and Operetta. Now, bein' the die-hard Operetta fan that I am -- and havin' a soft spot in my rotten heart for the 1950s diner aesthetic -- you know I had to get the one with my gal Operetta.

It's a mighty big box, mainly for the sake of the dolls and the sizeable tabletop for the grill / serving counter. Here you can see both Draculaura and Operetta, along with some of the serving accessories; an image of the set fully assembled; and Lagoona Blue & Spectra Vondergeist in their "Ghouls Night Out" outfits.

Back of the box includes some detail on the contents. Um.. on another note, my buddy little T helped with all the photos for this post (because he wanted that thing out of the box as soon as it showed up at home). So some of them, while not great, were taken with great enthusiasm.

Here's what you see when you first open the box. The booth and grill / countertop fill the central area. The big cardboard backing on the right houses the dolls, and it's locked up tight with tape, plastic pegs, and elastic loops. Everything else is either loose or bundled into that chunky plastic bag you see at the top left.

Here's a shot of the instruction sheet and piece manifest, where Draculaura suddenly looks an awful lot like Cleo. Ordinarily I'd chuck this, but there are so many tiny pieces it'd be useful to hang on to for when I'm re-packing the set.

Let's look at some of the cute details on this set, shall we? First, the re-styled MH logo for the die-ner itself. Looks like a warning sign for a cannibal campsite.

There's an adorable little three-strip illustration on the side of the box, showing Draculaura in her uniform tending to the needs of hungry customers.. and exhausted at the end of her shift.

On to the actual stuff. The set comes with two stools in spiderweb patterns, meant to be used at the counter. They're sturdy, solid construction, but could stand to be weighted down at the base a bit more. Dolls can sit comfortably in them if their legs are extended slightly, not bent straight down. The weight of a doll doesn't knock the stool down, especially if you place them carefully.

The booth and the table fit together nicely, and both are very stable. However, with legs straight down, the table knocks into the 'lip' of the thigh, over the knee joint, so dolls can only 'belly-up' to the table if their legs are extended slightly.

In this pic you can see several of the accessories that come with this set. I'll be honest: the clincher for me, beyond the valuable Operetta and the nifty '50s aesthetic, was the abundance of accessories. I'm a sucker for doll scenery. The serving tray holds a half-eaten sandwich, molded to the tray and painted. The molded red plastic cups have a slanted top, which makes it easier to get them in and out of the ice scream mixer (not pictured). There's a bat-winged bowl of ... soup? ... knowing Draculaura, we can assume it's tomato .. and the jukebox includes molded alphabet and numeric punch-keys for song selection.

Perhaps one of the best overall accessories is this cash register. It's designed to resemble a tombstone, with molded cracks and a square base. The top piece wobbles a little but the entire piece feels sturdy. The drawer opens and is divided into slots for bills and coins. The interface is smeared with streaks of grease, and shows such delectable treats as hot coffincino in a cracked cup and an angry green cupcake with spider legs.

Neither side of the box shows off the grill side of the set, so here you go. There are four inset burners, made of molded black plastic, two spiderweb-shaped and two asterisk-shaped. Beneath them are molded details of a very small oven. None of these pieces move. The burners are flat, unlike those in the Home Ick kitchen, which means you can easily 'cook' some food without trying to balance it first.

Most of the set's kitchen accessories are pictured here: the spiderweb-shaded hanging lamps, the rotating ticket holder and three individual (unmarked) tickets, the coffin clock (attached to the counter-facing side), the ice scream mixer, a very frosty slice of pie in a covered display, an empty cauldron, and the bat-wing crock and cup shown earlier.

As playsets go, I feel this one was worth every penny. Its design and construction are well-done, with lots of details on every piece. Putting the legs onto the table and grill / counter pieces was very simple -- the grill legs have a key shape in the back, to mark them as being different from the table legs. All parts fit together well and are made sturdy enough to handle occasional bumping. Every piece is made with thought for another piece: the ice scream mixer snugly holds a cup, and the cup is designed to be easily removed; the pie display lid can be removed but 'clicks' securely on again; the space between the booth and the table is just enough to accomodate a doll's legs. Bravo, Mattel playset design team, and thanks.

On to the dolls!

Here are the ladies peeled fresh from the box. If you're the sort of person who likes to keep your MH boxes, for whatever reason, you probably won't be able to keep this one. The cardboard backing on these dolls invites thorough destruction if you want to get the dolls out.

Draculaura's face-up for this set is adorable -- dark pink wet-look lipstick, pale pink and grey eyeshadow. The pink in her hair is more hot pink, almost bright red, to match the furniture and details of this set. Her headband is plastic-pegged into her head.

Operetta sports a classic 1950s fresh-faced look, with shimmery silver and pale yellow eyeshadow over a dark grey shadow base, and classic matte red lipstick. She has a single black streak in her hair, located just left of center. If you look closely at her arm towards the front of the box, you'll see it has been deformed slightly due to the stiff plastic brace holding it up. Her hand now flares outward a bit.

This photo of Draculaura's wardrobe does not include her pink scarf patterned with little black hearts or her dress. Both ghouls wear scarves, which I didn't want to remove, and both ghouls wear clothes made of a stiff, thin fabric which I'm afraid will not stand up to repeated use.

Pictured here are Draculaura's hot pink bow earrings with dangling hearts, her charm bracelet with dangling hearts, knee socks in black and hot pink, white and red shoes (more on those), and pale pink headband.

The shoes are made of a gummy, pliable, thick plastic, similar in texture to rubber. They're molded to resemble saddle shoes, with a batwing pattern at the top of the heel and laces finished with a big floppy bow. Patches across the midsection of the shoes, as well as the laces, have been painted a vibrant reddish pink to match the die-ner decor, and they look great.. sorta.

Inside the box, shoes pressed together, paint rubbed off from one shoe onto the other. There are obvious brushstrokes on the shoes themselves. It's unevenly applied and very thick. Personally, I kinda like it, but another collector might think twice about keeping shoes so haphazardly painted.

Draculaura's headband is fangtastically detailed, with little cut-out hearts aligned in rows and two big bows with skullettes on the right-hand side. The headband is shaped well, too, able to gently cling to her head without popping up or sliding forward. It's just small enough that her hair covers the bottom edges, the way most girls wear their headbands.

Draculaura's panel dress in black and hot pink has spaghetti straps (tied at the back of the neck), an Oxford collar, four heart-shaped "buttons" (painted on), a silohuette image of Count Fabulous (why?), and a short ruffle of black tulle around the bottom edge. As I said before, the fabric is stiff and thin; the dress stays puffed out even if Draculaura lays down. I'll give Mattel the benefit of the doubt and assume this was a design choice meant to mimic starched dresses from the 1950s.

This is the back of Operetta's head right after removal from the box. Those two red strings hold her facemask in place and can be easily unlooped from the front of the facemask. Her hair is so thoroughly glued it feels hard. Given four or five days, the glue should relax in this heat, and then her hair may be manageable.. or she might need a boil and re-set.

When I saw (and felt) her hair, I was disappointed. It looks almost nothing like the pictures on the box. Once her hair relaxes, though, that black stripe will fall forward and define the curve of the rest of her hair, and she'll look very much like the full-haired Operetta pictured on the back of the box.

Operetta's plastic accessories -- spiderweb earring, facemask, belt -- are all exact duplicates of previously seen items, cast in red plastic. I'd gripe that the jagged piano keys belt isn't painted, but really, a black-and-white belt with this ensemble would look awful. The shoes -- molded saddle shoes with a peekaboo slot above the toes -- appeared first, if I'm not mistaken, on Dance Class Operetta, in white with black painted details. This time they're red with black toes. Her off-the-shoulder top has a crosshatch pattern in grey, with skullettes appearing at every intersection. Her fitted black pencil skirt has two inset triangular patches in the same pattern. Not pictured: Operetta's scarf, black with a tight white polka dot pattern.

As I said before, I feel the playset is worth the cost and very well-made. I'm a bit disappointed in the lack of original accessories for Operetta, but it's enough to know she was designed for this specific set and she fits the aesthetic perfectly. These are two characters I'd like to see as unlikely allies, and having both of them in one set is delightful.

If I had one wish, it would be that this die-ner had more of a presence in the Monster High universe. It's been referenced in a couple of character diaries but I don't think it has appeared in any webisodes or featured prominently in anything. Mattel's new policy seems to be "make a webisode to promote upcoming merchandise". Does that mean this die-ner will remain forgotten forever? Why, when it would be such a scary cool fangout?

You can get this exclusive set for yourself or a loved one right now by clicking here.

Or, if you'd prefer the set without Operetta (but why??), you can get the standard Die-ner set here.

That's all for tonight, ladies and gents! Next: a review of Barbie's Glam Breakfast Set and New Scaremester Clawdeen. Hope y'all are havin' a fangtastic evening and I'll see you here soon!