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. 

Doll Restoration: Summer (2014)

Hey y'all. Meet Summer.

Summer is part of the Barbie Fashionistas line. Here's how she'd look in the store.

This Summer, however, has been through quite a lot. I found her torso on the ground while passing a park by my house. Her arms were still attached, but her legs and head had been twisted off.

Little t told me he'd seen her inside the park a day earlier, and she was whole, but nude. He wanted to pick her up but he thought she belonged to a kid living nearby, so he left her there.

We went back to the park and, after hunting around for a little bit, found both her legs and her head, and brought her home in pieces.

Both of Summer's knees had been snapped off at the hip, and the knees twisted in circles and pulled. The plastic at the knee joint had suffered pretty intensive damage. The right hip-joint knob was still attached to the torso, so I was able to just snap her right leg back on. For the knees, I boiled a pot of water, bent the legs at the knee, and dipped only the knee area for about ten seconds at a time, then pressed the socket in towards the thigh until the plastic gradually receded. Her knees are still in bad shape and one leg juts out further than the other, so she has some trouble balancing.

Her torso casing suffered minor damage and is partially split at the hip only on the left side. Because the left hip-joint knob was missing, I had to use a short drywall screw to re-attach her left leg. It moves front to back and has limited outward movement, but a bit more effort is required to get it in action.

Pardon me for blasting your eyeballs with plastic boobs, but I wanted to show the damage. I could sand down the divots or possibly use the boiling water treatment to coax the divots closer to their original place, but I chose to leave them since they're more cosmetic damage than structural.

Summer's been restored with minimal effort, and is now the new friend of little t.

There's very little that I can do to help people who have suffered attacks like this, but I can fix plastic. Or at least I can try.

Have you ever restored a broken doll? What has your experience been like?

Review: Barbie Glam Breakfast Set

Howdy y'all, and a good mornin' to ya!

Not too long back I spotted these nifty Barbie scene sets, and I just knew I had to check one of 'em out. So, after picking up my "Die-ner", I figured I'd grab one of these to go with it.

Here's a picture of the box, so y'all know just what I'm going on about. Now I am not usually in the market for Barbie stuff, but the detail that drew me in was the promise that all items would stay in place on the table. Guess what? It's true! Sorta.

Here you can see the table set for a delicious breakfast. Two plates, some syrup, flatware, and folded napkins. Most items have a circular peg on the bottom, and the table has nine matching spots to fit those pegs. They fit well enough that the table can be held upside down and nothing falls!

Here's the table set with tea for two. I was planning on re-painting the teapot, as it's far too pink for my tastes, but then I realized it fits perfectly with Draculaura's preferred aesthetic, so.. now she has her own handbag-slash-teapot.

Here's the lady herself enjoying breakfast. Barbie flatware has come a long way since my own childhood; you can see the ring fits well and the fork rests naturally in her hand.

The price was right -- a complete doll scene (in this case, breakfast) for less than $10? I'm sold. However, if you want to set the table for two, you can't fit all the pieces. The set is ideal for a doll having breakfast in bed, not sharing brunch or teatime with a friend.

The good news is, the incredibly tiny table can be broken down, its legs removed so that it can be a serving tray. This discovery was a huge relief to me. The legs pop on and off easily, are made of sturdy plastic, and are keyed to each side so re-assembly is a literal snap. There are small circular pegs on the bottom of the table which could either be leftovers from the molding process or an implication that the tabletop can snap on to a larger scenery set.

After one day of play, the silver paint decorating the tabletop is scratched and rubbed off around the table's edges, indicating the table will need a re-paint in the near future. Otherwise all pieces are sturdy and well-painted.

I'll be honest -- until I found I could break down the table, I was not very pleased with this set. I liked the pieces but I felt the set's largest item was a design failure. Knowing now that it can be broken down into a serving tray changes that outlook for the better!

I plan to get the microwave set as well, though I'm not sure if I'll keep that very very pink microwave. You can pick up the Glam Breakfast Set for yourself here, or, if you'd prefer, the Glam Microwave or Glam Vacuum sets.

Thanks for reading, and here's hoping you and your dolls enjoy their breakfast. I've got another review coming up for New Scaremester Clawdeen. Have a fangtastic day!

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!

MH Care & Repair: Fixing Broken Legs **UPDATE 2**

Hey! Remember Christmas, when I received the thoughtful gift of an honest-to-goodness Battle Damage Ghoulia with real amputee action?

This fine lady? Yep. Well, my initial attempt at fixing her leg (read all about it here) turned out to be a temporary fix. It held for a few days, but because the break was so close to the joint itself, the leg could not stay on, could not be used, and eventually had to be removed again.

So I went back to the sources I'd used in the original repair, namely, the tutorial on leg modification using CAM parts, and I scheduled a spa day for my ladies with broken legs. Join us, won't you?

FYI, this is a "Skulltimate Roller Maze" Ghoulia with custom haircut and clothes, and "Classroom" shoes.. possibly my all-time favorite Ghoulia shoes in existence. She and "Dance Class" Operetta were two of my first, and still my favorite, ghouls.



This is a Wave 1 ("School's Out") Abbey Bominable with original earrings and choker, wearing Scaris Abbey's dress. She joined us when her owner decided she'd "outgrown" her MH collection, and she came to us with this broken leg. She's also missing most of her sparkle along the cheekbones and the right side of her face.
The front of the thigh had been partially split, which implies the leg broke when it was forced forward out of its peg. There was no damage inside the peg cavity itself aside from minor scratching around the edges.

So, for this repair, all that had to be done was choosing a CAM leg for the repair, snipping off the top portion of the peg, and attaching the peg with super glue.

Abbey has a unique skin tone and texture, so her "new" leg definitely does not match.. but at least it fits her color scheme!

 Here you can easily see the difference between their injuries. Abbey's break, while it damaged the front of her leg, did almost nothing to the back, and resulted in a fully functional (though differently-colored) repair. Ghoulia's repair, however, involved a bit more work, as the initial repair attempt had damaged both sides of her thigh and the interior of the peg housing, and the original break had done some damage to the front of the knee joint.

Since peg breakage is common with these dolls and their super-long, skinny legs, here's a walkthrough on how to repair the damage.

Materials:

~ a CAM leg to use as replacement
~ cutting pliers or snips
~ tweezers
~ super glue or any super-strong adhesive

Step 1: If any part of the peg is still inside the leg, it will need to be removed. Insert the tweezers into the back seam of the thigh, and use them to pry open and brace the leg. Use your pliers (or a second pair of tweezers, if you've got 'em) to pull out the peg. Note: the peg is seated between two "gates" for a firm hold, so removing it does take a bit of effort. Try opening the thigh wider rather than pulling harder. Thanks to quality construction, you don't need to worry too much about breaking the thigh, though you may want to be careful about the length of the scar you're creating.

Step 2: Prep the CAM leg for insertion.

In this comparison, it's plain to see the difference in length between a CAM leg and a standard leg. Fortunately, snipping off the tip of the CAM leg reduces it to an accurate length, and a false "neck" for the leg -- so that it can be braced inside the two plastic "gates" inside the peg cavity -- can be easily created with a pair of pliers.

 Step 3: Insert the new leg.

Typically, super-strength adhesives like Krazy Glue have a very short cure time and a tendency to get on EVERYTHING. So my advice to you is: Be prepared! Remove ALL unnecessary pieces from your workspace. Clear away any little bits that might get blown into the glue or the peg cavity. Keep the glue sealed until you're ready to use it.

Prop the peg cavity open with your tweezers. Coat both the prepared end of the CAM peg and the inside of the peg cavity with a thin layer of adhesive. Then slide the new leg in and keep it positioned so that the adhesive will naturally bond into place. In this shot, Ghoulia's shoes are helping to weigh down her new leg!


 If you've used the back of the thigh seam to open the thigh, you'll likely be left with an ugly scar like this. You can glue and hold it shut after the peg cures into place, or you can repair the spot with epoxy, Milliput, or Sculpey. In my case, I've left the scar bare, but I hope to clean it up soon. In the worst-case scenario, just remember: very few people are going to notice it.

And voila! Two fixed fine ladies.

Some folks might be concerned about the lack of matching skin tones. For my part, I kind of like the way it looks on Abbey, but I admit I'm a bit bothered by my zombie ghoul having one healthy pink limb. I've read about using acrylic paints to correct skin tone but I have not tried it yet. My advice would be, if you know a mismatched doll will bother you, use the light-colored CAM legs so they *can* be painted over, rather than using the Sea Monster or Witch parts, which might lend an unpleasant background color to your paint attempts.

If you have any questions or comments, please leave them here. And if you've got a male doll who needs leg fixing, please check out this post!