Save Frankie Jackson Review

"Save Frankie" Jackson Jekyll, along with Clawdeen and Draculaura, make up the budget line created for release along with the Monster High movie "Freaky Fusion". 

Jackson is the only one I wanted from this line, although I did love the shirts and Frankie-inspired face tattoos. For those of you less enthused about the permanent facial tattoo, it can be easily removed.

Jackson wears a black polo shirt with a yellow collar and his own personal "Save Frankie" logo, including his yin-yang tattoo in blue and yellow. His shorts have a plaid pattern in blue, yellow, grey, and white stitches (which looked like barbed wire to me) on a black square background. He wears blue and yellow loafers - a recolor of his "Picnic" loafers. He also comes with yellow hexagonal glasses (not pictured), a blue-framed Frankie poster, a black three-band arm cuff, and a blue stitched / barbed wire bracelet.

His shirt is made of a slick, shiny polyester blend that feels a bit like Spandex and leaves little black puffs on everything it touches. I had to pick bits of the shirt off his torso and face for photography, and the darn thing never even touched his face.

The shorts are stiff and have a plastic feel to them. They fit well, but look and feel very stiff.

His shoes are simple recolors. I typically hate recolors, but in this case I'm glad to have a pair in Jackson's preferred color scheme.

I like his bracelets - the bands on the arm cuff are separate, joined in a way that makes them look a bit more realistic, which is a nice touch - but the glasses shipped with this doll were just weird. Jackson wears glasses, yes, but I don't think he'd be brave enough to wear yellow hexagonal ones. Holt might, if he didn't think nerds were so unfashionable.

The poster seems like a useless prop, but I love the detail that went into it. Frankie's green skin looks exactly like it was colored with markers. I wish they had created a new pose for her instead of recycling the same old stock image, but it looks like a black-and-white photocopy of a school photo, carefully colored in. Nice detail work. My only gripe, aside from her pose, is the fact that the handle should have gone on the front, so dolls could wear it like a ring and it would look like it was gripped in their hand. I think I might either snip off the handle on the back and use it as decor for Jackson's room (once I get around to doing dollhouse rooms), or remove the poster from its frame and just keep that.

Jackson's hair is stiff with glue all around. In fact, this Jackson's face and neck were coated in glue as well. I'm a bit concerned I might have another glue-head on my hands. I like the hairstyle, but I have to remove the glue. Hopefully that won't wreck his severe side part.

I love the yellow streak in Jackson's hair. This style is very becoming for his face shape.

It's worth noting that this Jackson has lips that turn upwards at the corners, giving him a satisfied smiling expression, as opposed to previous dour-looking Jacksons. Mine has lips that are offset from the actual sculpt, making him look as if he's trying to keep that smile secret.
 

I'm always happy to add another Jekyll or Hyde to my collection. These boys are my favorites, and I'll probably continue snatching them up when they hot the shelves. However, this one deserves some decent pants, and his hair needs some definite work.

Coffin Bean Twyla and Fairy Tale High Alice Review, Part 1

Howdy y'all! Found these beauties at the local Family Dollar a few weeks back, and finally decided to go back and get them. 

 

 Coffin Bean Twyla is part of a budget line released in "alt channels", meaning the line has very specific distribution, usually in nationwide chains that are not Wal-Mart, Kmart, or Target. While both Wally World and the Super K carried Abbey, Frankie, and Toralei, this is the first Twyla I found in this line. Exciting!

The same store carries Robecca and Venus, but I have no real desire to get either of them, though Robecca's green-tinted mason jar and Victorian booties are very tempting.

There were two Twylas in stock today. One had slight eye wonk with a gob of misplaced green paint in the corner of her eye and wicked box frizz. I chose this one, partly for the less wonky eyes (these are still off-balance but not as bad) and the better visible hair. But there was another distinct difference which I have to investigate. The other Twyla appeared to have a rounder face, more upturned nose, and less defined cheeks. I think, then, this doll might be a variant.

As you can see, there's still quite a bit of box frizz going on, and I'm concerned about that comb-over hairstyle. 

Her head pegs came out easily, no breakage, not greasy, oily, or sticky. Her hair feels great. The comb-over bangs are stiff but not rigid and should soften quite a bit in a few days.

Her right arm came loose and detached during deboxing. This is the third time it's happened to me with recent dolls in the Freaky Fusion Inspired or Coffin Bean line. I suspect the staging cardboard on the backing creates a weakness on the opposite side, or the dolls are packed without the opposite arm fully inserted to relieve stress. I've also seen Creepateria line dolls with the arm opposite the cardboard "bump" hanging by its plastic tags or fallen to the bottom of the box.

Apologies for the crotch shot, folks, but.. I thought this was a cute babydoll dress. Skorts? Really? Wow. Well.. at least her skirt won't be creeping up to her neckline like it did with the Original.

Here's her wardrobe. The belt is quite nice -- and I uniformly hate MH belts in general. It's a thin, shiny strip of fabric with a teal skullette-shaped clasp. No Velcro or plastic peg to hold it in place, just gravity and tension. I'm concerned about the longevity of the fabric, though. Will probably replace it with a watchband ASAP.

The shoes are cute, but are single-color recasts of New Scaremester Twyla's mary janes. They're so detailed, they practically beg for a decent repaint. Same with the cup -- it has adorable cobweb details and spiders circling it. I'd love to have one in human-scale for myself.

Her dark purple jumper has a dreamcatcher pattern with spiderwebs and spiders connecting them. It's not very visible in this shot, but the top of the bodice is a bottle green bib with vertical spiderwebs, an Oxford collar, and a tiny black bow. She has two bracelets, one in milky green beads, one in lavender bands.

While I opened this post with a shot of Twyla and Fairy Tale High Alice, I wound up taking no pictures of Alice, because she was thoroughly unimpressive. Her face is flat and long, her eyes sleepy. Her hair is coarse and shedded with brushing. Her clothing is cheaply made and began to unravel as soon as I undressed her. My expectations weren't high -- she's an EAH knock-off, after all -- but she still failed to meet them. I plan to use her for custom practice now.

This Twyla is an odd one. Her colors are so bold, her style so severe. I've since redressed her, but she retains this air of intensity. I like her quite a bit, though original Twyla is still my favorite of the two.

Neighthan Rot Review

 

Here's one of my favorite guys-- Neighthan Rot. If Mattel had sent a representative to my house and asked me what I'd like to see in their doll line, this is pretty much it. More boys, more zombies, maybe a unicorn or two, some rainbows, more spikes, more glitter. This guy is like a cheap Frank Frazetta knock-off spray-painted onto the side of a van, come to life. And I love him dearly. 

 

I mean LOOK at that handsome face. Look at those big horsey ears.

 

 

For those who don't know, Neighthan Rot is a character in the Monster High TV Special / movie "Freaky Fusion". He's a hybrid monster. His mother is a unicorn, and his father is a zombie. So, on his right side, his body molding shows detailed exposed muscle and bone, while his left side is just an uncommonly muscular teen boy. His body parts are patterned and divided; multiple parts are zombified opposite healthy limbs. He has an opaque blue horn spiralling out of the top of his head, two large horse-like ears, and black hair as well as a tail accented with red, yellow, and blue streaks.

 

 

This is everything included with signature Neighthan. You'll notice his pants retained his body shape after removal. This definitely speaks for the quality of the fabric. Many fans and collectors have raised holy hell over his outfit, both for its design and for its cheap construction. He has a 3/4 sleeve shirt in primary colors with a skeleton and internal organ design. His pants are divided, with one black leg and one leg continuing the shirt pattern in an enlarged form. He wears yellow spiked boots and a yellow spiked baseball cap, both flecked with blue and green glitter, and includes brush, stand, and diary. 

 

Neighthan's tail had somehow gotten twisted and tucked up inside his shirt (!!) during packaging. It remained kinked like this for a few days, but after some brushing, it has calmed down and now his tail only has a minor bump in it to show where it got messed up. All of this hair was fully rooted and I had no shedding issues with him.

 

 

I noticed, while removing him from the box, that several strands of his tail were abnormally long. These were fully rooted and had to be trimmed to match the length of the rest of his tail. I had the same issue with his hair, which was uneven and, for the first few days, very coarse.

 

 

The Freaky Fusion line (and movie) may have their own flaws, but this guy, as I said, is one of the favorites in my collection. I always love it when they come out with new boys, and I have an unhealthy addiction to everything unicorns, so this is perfection. It's the doll I wanted when I was seven. I'm glad he's finally here. The doll itself is well-made and includes all accessories expected of a signature doll, except possibly a pet, but sig dolls have been lacking pets for close to a year now so that's nothing new. All in all, worth the money, especially for those who collect every new character or those ensuring the future of Mattel's boy lines. 

Freaky Fusion Inspired Operetta Review

 

Here she is! Freaky Fusion Inspired Operetta, all jazzed up with Frankie Stein's fashion notes!

 

 

Operetta wears a black (leather?) stitched-up half-mask in place of her usual mask. I couldn't quite make out what the image on the side of the mask might be -- a lightning bolt, maybe, or a lever? Her hair is mostly red with a severe strip of black starting at the temples and swept back on the top, tied back with a rubber band. Her eyes are bright blue with light green shadow and her lips are coral pink. She has a detachable Frankensteinian neck bolt choker with three large silver stitches in the middle.

 

 

She comes with everything seen here. Apologies for the blur; it looks like I had a young friend helping me with photos on this day. Her shoes are red and black Mary Janes with heels. She has a detachable silver headband with lightning bolts in the top. She wears a two-tone plaid sleeveless dress split down the middle with a silver stripe; on one side the pattern is pink-purple with black musical staves and notes, on the other side the pattern's colors are inverted. The dress has thin sheer black netting around its bottom edge. She wears this over a two-tone pair of tights, one leg pink-purple, the other leg black. She has a shiny red tie as a belt, a quilted purse with a silver skullette embossed on the front, and a single hexagonal red bracelet. The doll has no earrings but the left ear is pierced as an anchor for the facemask.

 

 

I love Operetta, as y'all know, so any new doll is one I'm happy with -- but I was none too pleased with the amount of pink in this Oppy's design. She's usually given a darker purple in the spectrum, and Frankie isn't known for wearing pink, so it seemed an odd design choice. However, I love her clothes, I love her severe new hairstyle, and I just love the fun, wacky atmosphere of all the Fusion Inspired dolls. It's as if they were invited to a costume party and told to dress like one of their friends -- everyone has their own spin on it, and it's all a little over-the-top and goofy.

Perhaps my favorite pieces from this doll are her new, darker facemask and those excellent two-tone tights. Those have made the rounds on my display dolls due to their flexibility and their fun colors.