Operetta Deluxe Fashion Pack Review

 

 This is the Operetta Deluxe Fashion Pack. Apologies for the potato-quality photos. It comes with everything seen above: two outfits, red heart / treble clef earrings, glasses / facemask, a red belt imaged after stacked dice, and a pair of red and white heels with stacked dice for the heel support. These heels were later recast and used for Frights, Camera, Action! Operetta, and the belt was recast in black for I Heart Accessories Operetta. The model used here is Freaky Fusion Inspired Operetta -- hence the Frankie-like hairstyle.

 

 

The dress and purple shrug are my personal favorites from this set. The dress mirrors 1950s fashion, with a wide, poofy "poodle" skirt and a narrow bodice. The shrug has an embossed treble clef on the upper left breast and a shiny purple collar with spiderweb-like edges. The dress is white with purple spiderwebs, spiders, music notes, and swirls. There's a black swirl detail from the waist to the bottom of the skirt, echoing the pattern of the included earrings and glasses / facemask. The dress and shrug combo look very nice with her tattoo and her facial scar.

  

 

 

The red off-the-shoulder top has a band of red and black musical motif fabric across the top, which pairs well with her tattoo. Her pencil skirt is black and has five white lines (like a musical staff) with very small white dots top-stitched along the lines. While I liked the lopsided appearance of the glasses / facemask in the package, I found them to look a bit dopey in reality. The earrings appeared too big and too heavy, and as they were molded rather than painted, their detail was hard to see. That's a shame, since the same motif is repeated throughout the other fashion pieces.

 

 

Like all the Fashion Packs, this one came and went pretty fast. Fashion Packs now demand two to three times their original price online and are very much sought after by collectors. I'm pleased with the larger pieces -- the clothing is definitely worth the cost -- but most of the plastic pieces lacked detail and quality production. 

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. 

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!

Updates All Around!

Howdy y'all!

FIRST: I won NaNoWriMo (yay!) with "The Abyss Gazes Also", but it's not over yet. If you haven't checked it out yet, you can right here. We're on Chapter 53 right now, heading into the climax, and it's getting good reviews, so come along for the ride!

SECOND: Look at these fine-ass ladies who recently came to stay.

Picture Day Operetta and Music Festival Abbey.

Our local Walmart is moving out all its old stock, and both these lines are on sale for $10 each. Check your local Walmart for end-of-season deals too! Spring 2014 dolls are coming!

Here's Abbey with just the front piece of the box removed, still attached.

Here you can see everything the doll comes with. The Music Festival line is a budget, or minor, line, but I think you get a good amount of quality accessories for the lower price. She wears a 1960s style blouse with one dropped shoulder, gathered waist and elbows, and ragged-edge three-quarter sleeves and waistline. She has a blue-and-purple faux denim mini with frayed edges. Her melting ice belt in blue translucent plastic is re-used, and I usually despise belts, but in this case it helps to keep the edges of the blouse from curling up.

The one stand-out piece of this outfit, for me, is the boots. Translucent blue melting ice boots, knee-high, with removable bright pink spiked shackles. You can't tell me that's not awesome. (Her blouse and adorable headband also prompted me to get her. I just love the style!)

I mean LOOK at those boots! You can also see her VIM pass and her earrings in the shape of one blue snowflake and one purple crystal. I wonder how many other Abbey dolls don't include her signature "ice crystal" choker?

Now on to that lovely lady from the catacombs...

Picture Day Operetta! I'd been looking EVERYWHERE for her, and B wound up running into her at Walmart, which was unexpected. She was on my must-have list for the following reasons:

- One, she's Operetta.

- Two, the Picture Day sets are fairly cheap ($10 - $15 in most stores right now, $19.99 on release) yet come with some of the greatest accessories and design for their price point. The clothes in this line are consistently well-made and gorgeous. The Fearbook is worth it if only for the sheet of stickers within.

- That jacket! Finally, an MH letterman jacket for a ghoul!

- Those shoes! .. OK, basically the fact that she's 1950s ghoul cool reincarnated. Spectacular.

However, as you might guess, that cute little "hairdo gone astray" image of her on the Picture Day boxes translates to "glue-stiffened unmanageable coil of hair" in 3D, which also left her face spattered with glue; and the back of her head has been pressed so firmly against the box that any shape her carefully crafted ponytail and pompadour might have had, has been destroyed. So, yes. She's on my "imminent boil and re-do" list.

I noticed also that her left hand is deformed and will require some careful trimming with an Xacto before it can bend as normal. Other than that, she's flawless.

The coat is cut just under the bust with three-quarter sleeves. The main body is purple pleather, with an MH logo printed on the upper left breast. The sleeves are white faux leather. The coat has knit acrylic trim at the cuffs, hem, and neck. It's well-made, though I worry about the longevity of the pleather, and it looks absolutely fantastic.

The corset is a removable piece with thin velcro closure and printed white stringing. It is structured just as a small corset should be, in panels, and it fits just right.

Operetta has a handbag shaped like a red and black dripping heart, with a music-note "tail" detail on one side. The bag is small, just big enough for a ghoul's iCoffin, but I do appreciate the nifty curve in its strap, designed to help its weight balance on a doll's arm.

On her left wrist she wears a simple black bracelet, common to the dolls released in this line and around this same time. On the right wrist she wears a bead-detailed red bracelet, a recolor of Lagoona's Dot Dead Gorgeous white bracelet.

Here are her amazing shoes, with molded and painted buttons and a red seam along the inside of the ankle. I can't get over these. They're gorgeous.

Her facemask is still heart-and-cobweb shaped, but this time the spider at its edge is bright red, adding some visual punch. On her right ear she wears a long earring of black vinyl records.

This is the full complement of accessories with this doll: jacket, corset, dress, fishnet stockings, bag, bracelets, facemask, earring, and shoes, not to mention folder with spiderweb patterns and closure, stand, and brush.

The jacket, shoes, socks, and corset could easily be added to other Operetta outfits, without disrupting her basic style themes.

The dress, leopard print interspersed with music notes and treble clefs, combines the "strapless" (clear plastic straps) look of the Ghouls Night Out designs with the tulle, patterns, and ruffles of the Dot Dead Gorgeous line. It's elegant, fierce, and adorable, all at once. That's Operetta in a nutshell!

So, in conclusion, I'd say the Picture Day line are worthwhile, for your own collection or for storing as a future investment. This is the second "basic" Operetta doll and in my opinion she's a gem. It's obvious Mattel put a lot of work into her design and the craftsmanship used to put her together.

As for the Music Festval dolls, I feel their costumes make them worth the cost, but they don't offer much else. If you have a favorite character, get them in this budget line if only to have some variety; otherwise, these dolls will soon be on deep discount, so keep your eyes peeled.

Up next: Pattern layouts for common MH outfit pieces!