So first things first, the box. It's an attractive box. Nestled inside a black and white outer box which i'm sure you've ALL seen pictures of by now, is your standard binder shaped box with a flap over one side of the coffin shaped window to hide Hoodude. Not totally sure why he was hidden but go figure.
Inside the flap is a little blurb about where backgrounders go when they aren't on screen. It's adorably meta.
Both characters come with diaries in the usual style, packaged loose inside the outer box which struck me as odd. I can only assume they would ruin the presentation/display effect of the pair in box if included the usual way or something? That or they were an afterthought. The diaries are always something I love to read though, so it's nice to be able to take them out and read them without actually deboxing the entire set.
The box is typically annoying to open without causing a small amount of tearing damage to the tabs. But i'd rather have these card tabs than the plastic prisons MGA seems intent on using. Flip a few tabs, slide the backing card out and voilà, dolls. Other companies could learn a lot from the way MH is packaged.
Anyway, Hoodude is a regular plushy. No articulation, no movement. He doesn't even really fit into the stand that comes with him. He is however freaking adorable so we can forgive his simplicity. I do wish his jacket was an actual piece of clothing though, rather than simply printed on.
I'd have loved for him to have had some sort of wire armature so he actually could pose, but given this set sold at the con for only $25 I really can't complain.
He's cute and chubby and floppy lol.
Now Scarah wasn't too difficult to free from her backing card. Held in with a few elastic bands and the usual plastic ties around the waist and ankles, I was pleased to see her head wasn't stapled into the box too hard so snipping those tabs was easy to do with my blunt scissors.
However, once free, a big issue with her hair becomes painfully apparent.
From the front you can already see her hair is split into two sections, both rock hard with gel which has spread across her face leaving it tacky to touch and shiny. Ewww.
From the back it's even worse.
Solid, sticky, mess. Poor girl deserves better than this damnit! So a damp cloth to her face to remove the goop and a quick rinse under a tap to soften up the gel so it can be combed back together. I'm not even sure WHY her hair is in two chunks like this.
It's not very thickly rooted but it doesn't have to be for the style. Her bangs have gel as well but it feels minimal and keeps them looking even, so I didn't touch the front of her hair in my rinse.
I had to brush through her hair (No shedding, that's gotta be a first! it's also very very soft, despite the stickiness.) and spent a fair while trying to get the curl back into it. While it was happy to fall in soft curls, getting it back into a flip curl took a bit more effort. A sausage of tin foil and a few hours to sit and she's looking fabulous again!
Once dry, her hair goes back to being hard and gel filled but it holds the style so I don't mind. I don't intend to comb her hair again so i'm quite happy with it being nicely set.
Scarah's face mould seems unique to my eye, and she's quite striking. Those huge white eyes and pointed ears are fabulous and I love her vintage style. Her outfit may be simple, but it works. Sometimes less is more and certain I feel that's the case with Scarah. Of course, that's not to say I would have objected to her having a little letterman jacket of her own like the promos, but her outfit works without it. She has no jewellery, no earrings, no necklace, no bracelets. Just a headband and a belt as accessories but again, I feel this works for her. She's rocking a vintage 60s vibe and i'm loving it!
.JPG)
Skin tone wise, Frankie and Scarah are almost the same colour. Frankie seems, to my eye, slightly more saturated in tone but that could just be an optical illusion or this individual doll's colouration (there's some variation from batch to batch). I think it's pretty safe to say they're the same skin tone. A gorgeous mint green, which both pull off equally well.
They do however have totally different face moulds, which is lovely.
The same can't be said for Scarah's shoes, which are a recolouring of shoes we've already seen. The black shoes are from the Create a Monster Bee, the green ones are Scarah's. They're exactly the same down to the stitching detail and both are too big for MH feet. I've elastic banded them onto Scarah's feet to stop them falling off.
It's a bit of a cheat, but given the simplicity of Scarah's outfit I can't see a more complex shoe design really working for her.
Overall I think Scarah and Hoodude are awesome and i'm very pleased to have them in my collection. Scarah is striking and gorgeous and while her outfit is simple and understated, she pulls it off well. Hoodude feels like he could have been MORE, a wire armature for pose-ability perhaps, and a separate jacket, but he is adorable and his fabric face just makes me smile.
Given the price point ($25), these are totally worth it for me. Would I pay the price these are now selling for online though? Probably not. These two aren't nearly as detailed as the previous year's Ghoulia, and Hoodude, while a cute addition, is hardly a "doll". As a collector piece, given the limited run, I totally understand why these are so expensive now, but as a doll to play with? Scarah holds up against the more basic lines, but isn't quite as detailed as the other "core line". She doesn't have a handbag or a pet even, unless you count Hoodude hahahah.
It'll be interesting to see if we ever see another Scarah doll. I hope we do, because she's beautiful and rather unique with those huge white eyes of hers. I love her skin tone against her dark hair, I love her 60s style, just be aware of gel and sticky goop. I have to wonder if the gel might cause an issue with the backing card over time in those kept MIB...
No comments:
Post a Comment