Bratzillaz Switch a Witch

Never ones to let a bandwagon go unleapt upon, MGA quickly decided to take a stab at the "make your own doll" thing.
Now, while hardly a new idea, Monster High sort of popularised the whole mix and match fashion doll thing specifically, so it's hard to look at the Switch and Witch packs and NOT see Create a Monster.
The packaging does NOT help matters.

I do however LOVE the little jabs at the Mattel product here.
"2 doll bodies" it proudly proclaims, a jab no doubt at the original Create a Monster packs having only one torso. "2 FULL dolls" it tells us, again, a dig at the Create a Monsters often only having one wig and one pair of shoes to share.

And honestly, yeah, the pack IS more generous. 2 torsos, 2 heads, 2 wigs, 2 legs, 2 arms, 2 wigs , earrings, full outfits... shoes..

I've been delaying getting this set however for one VERY big reason. Like with all the Bratzillaz, the price point. When the S.A.W packs showed up in the UK they were retailing at... wait for it... £30. Yeah.. that's right, THIRTY pounds.
For perspective, the C.A.M packs? They're up to £20 in stores, but usually closer to £17.
That price point is not just ridiculous, it's flatly insulting. Who in their right mind would pay that much over the odds for what is, effectively, the off brand Monster doll?
So when Argos got them in for £20, husband insisted we buy the set to have a play.

He's going to be helping me review these things, mostly because his commentary throughout the opening of the pack amused me so much.

First let's look at the back of the box. It claims 2000 mix and match combinations, a claim i'm not prepared to put to the test but it seems a bit of an exaggeration to me. But ahh well, whatever MGA.

So the other packs kinda confused me for a bit until i realised that the ones of the left are one starter pack and add on, while the coming soon ones on the right are the OTHER starter set (released at the same time!) and it's add on. I dunno, this just confused me as I expected the two starter sets to be pictured together and then the add ons together so I was all "wait, why is there only three dolls?" lol. Duuuh I is smart honest.

I think the crazy clown/black and white set is the better of the two if i'm honest. The other one is just a bit too messy madness.

Anyway, we don't seem to have got the add ons over here so it's a moot point regarding them.

So, before we start anything, we got to get this box open. I've told husband on countless occasions that MGA packaging is stupidly over done and like trying to break through armour plating, so I left him to open this pack all on his own bwhahaha.

Step one: Pry backing card loose. Lots of glue, involved a bit of force but "oh" he says "that's not too bad"
I just smile, knowing there's more to come.

Step 2: Pry the second layer of the backing card loose, remove inner box
Yes, that's right, there's a box within a box... it's just baffling to me. I assume the inner box is so you can close it up and store the parts or something? But you have the parts to make two full dolls, why would you not just do that? Why would you need to store parts? And why does this box have to be contained inside another box anyway? Argh... mga packaging you baffle me!
Husband is equally baffled but shrugs it off.
"i'm in!" he tells me.

So we take a look at the contents. We have a crazy cube-o-wig going on, the blonde and purple "why is this here?" wig that doesn't go with either doll's look, more mad clowness and those dolls.
Why MGA decided to go with two toned dolls a lot of people ask, I think I know the answer. It's another dig at Monster high's create a monster! "Our bits are SUPPOSED to be mismatched!" get it?
least that's my theory. But it's an act of madness that just doesn't quite seem wise.
Of course, a set in just human tones like the actual Zillaz would probably be really boring, but still. These dolls are just a bit "too much" for a lot of people I feel.

Anyway, I note the "easy wipe clean vinyl" fabric of the first wave zillaz which I mocked so much in my previous review. But at least neither outfit looks like it belongs in a soho sex shop. You have a ... clown outfit... and a 60s inspired little mod thing.

For some reason there's only 1 bracelet, despite there being 2 of everything else. Evidently crazy clown doesn't deserve jewellery.

The front of the box claimed there were "45+" pieces. There are, but you have to count each shoe/earring individually and the brush as a piece to gain that total which kinda feels like cheating.

So even in the box, you can see the leg pieces are a different length to one another. The black bits are longer than the pink/greens. The torsos are also different. Husband didn't notice this at first, and I probably wouldn't have had I not read previous reviews stating the fact.
I kinda like the idea of different sized dolls and different shaped torsos, only problem is it means you have to use each colour coded piece as a pair. 2 black upper limbs for 2 green/pink lowers, you can't mix and match completely or one leg is gonna be shorter than the other. Still, it does offer some interesting combos to have a shorter torsoed girl with really long legs or vice versa. I like that idea, but perhaps advertising this fact would have been wise. The pictures on the back of the box picture the doll with her limbs totally mixed up, but you'll notice if you look back up at that picture, she ALWAYS has one leg bent which hides the whole, leg longer than the other thing. Tisk tisk.

Anyway, we aren't done with the deboxing, oh no.. not by a long shot. The Zillaz, they fooled husband.

Step 3: remove the pieces that aren't stitched into the box.

These are the only pieces that can just be removed from the plastic slots, everything else is either sewn in place or elastic banded in.
What gets me is WHY is one wig easy to remove but the other stitched in? This makes NO SENSE.
Also, why are they stitched in anyway? They're in a box, inside another box! and the outer box you cannot open without destroying! how is anyone gonna get into it and steal bits without someone noticing? eugh.

At this point, Husband is just baffled and somewhat bemused. He keeps saying "what... why?" over and over. I don't think i'm helping by laughing at his anguish.

Step 4: find some scissors.

So all these bits now have to be removed. yeah, even the bloody hairbrush is elastic banded into the box. OH NO! Can't have anyone stealing the precious broomstick hairbrush! They can totally have that clown wig though.

These pieces were relatively easy to get out, they just had a very loose elastic band holding them in. Yay! the brush is ours! I can... barely contain my joy at being able to add yet another broomstick brush to the pile. (I have like 10 of them now, argh.)

The box now looks like this. Husband is becoming more frustrated. It's been quite a while now since he started trying to open this damn thing. I'm still laughing at him.

Everything... sewn.. in... whyyy!?

So it's taken about an hour, but they're finally FREE!

The dolls are actually pretty easy to put together. Much like the C.A.M sets, you just click em together. They're constructed just like the regular Zillaz, with those frustrating rubbery lower legs, but they're a bit floppier due to the whole coming apart thing. Does however make them a LOT easier to dress. I love the whole removable hands thing, it's a great idea for tiny dolly sleeves.

Monochrome girl (We're calling her Mona Chromatic) is substantially taller than Clown (Who i'm calling Columbine D'arlequin ) but also more um.. busty. Her outfit barely fits her! Which feels a bit of an oversight. It's very very tight around the bust area, it hardly fastens at the back.

Here's a shot of their legs. Both upper and lower are longer on the black leg, while the pink leg is a lot shapelier. Mona has a long, slender figure while Columbine is short and curvy. I like the different shapes, it lends itself to a lot of options mixing and matching but ONLY if you 1: only use each leg piece in pairs and 2: don't mind your doll being black, white, green AND pink lol.

Interestingly, neither doll uses the same torso or limbs from the default Zillaz dolls. Cloetta here is somewhere between the two in terms of height and build.

Mona was the doll I thought i'd love more, but there's a few design choices in her default "look" that I feel just really let her down.
First and foremost, that random purple. Her wig and cape both feature purple, but it's nowhere else. Nor is it anywhere on the clown girl so wth? Why couldn't she come with the black and white wig the add on girl comes with? And a black and white cape or just a plain black one? It would have looked a lot better. As it is, she just feels unfinished and sloppy.

The doll herself is attractive with one blue eye and one green, with vividly red lips standing out against her black and white face.
I do kinda feel it's a shame her body isn't the opposite way around with the colours, I think it would have looked cooler if her colours weren't quite so "right side is white, left is black" and more mixed up. I also can't help but feel the chequered bits would look better plain white but oh well.

Her outfit is a cute little 60s inspired number in some sort of vinyl fabric. The style works with the fabric choice here, though I can't say i'm a great fan of the plasticy feeling material. She doesn't have a belt, just a buckle stitched to the skirt which is odd.
She has square bracelets and earrings which fit the vintage theme, so it's a shame her hair style couldn't keep with that.
The wig obviously intended for her is a simple pigtail wig (husband braided it but otherwise, it's just a generic pigtail) and while it's a nice quality wig and fits her head very nicely without falling off (good to see they learned from the Moxie Teenz and their endlessly slipping wigs) it's really not suited to the rest of her look.
I get these dolls are supposed to be mixed and matched, but if that's the case, why make each outfit so specifically suited to ONE look. There's no way the clown wig would suit this outfit either.
the cape also just feels kinda thrown on in there. It's not BAD quality, it's actually hemmed but it's just kinda quickly put together and chucked in as a bonus or something. It adds nothing to the outfit, it doesn't go with it at all (a short capelet would have worked better perhaps)

Something like this?

Anyway, the actual cape is a cheap quick little piece that really doesn't add anything to either outfit.

Her shoes are pretty simple little strappy shoes (I think they're the same mould as Magic Night out Yasmina), one is black and the other white. They serve their purpose, though some boots would have been better I feel.

Poor girl needs some style tweaks!

Overall, she's not bad. She could be better but I expect that from a C.A.M so why wouldn't I expect it from a S.A.W doll? It's just that wig that really bothers me, it's totally wrong and just shouldn't be here. I think I know why they put the black and white wig in the add on pack though, it's so we'd buy that add on. Certainly I find myself wanting that add on JUST for the wig that suits this doll. Curse you MGA and your cunning marketing ploys!

So Mona Chromatic is cute and I love her taller body, but she's in need of a lot of work to make her really awesome.

I give her 5 out of 10, she's pretty average.

Columbine surprised me. In promos I was all "wth crazy clown girl!?? What are you on MGA!?" and thought she'd be the one to languish in a storage box, but in the plastic... she's awesome. Something about her screams personality, she's insane, she's vibrant, she's FUN.

Her wig is a bit crazy out of the box, I tied it into pigtails which seemed to work great. It's rooted straight down the centre as if it's supposed to be in pigtails anyway, I wonder if they just forgot to put the elastics in to finish it off or something.
The little hat is adorable and really adds to the whole look.

Doll herself is mad, she doesn't really come to life till you dress her in all this insanity. She's green down one side, pink down the other. It's a very strange colour choice and not hugely attractive, but it's certainly striking. This girl stands out.
One eye is pink, one is green and the makeup is done in a darker shade to the skin on each side. Dark green on the green side, dark pink of the pink side. It's quite extreme makeup and it really works well. Even her lips are split down the centre much like Cloetta's.

I'm sure her shoes are a recast mould but I don't know who's shoes they are. They're cute though and work well enough. I don't think you could make actual clown shoes chic no matter how hard you tried.

The outfit is again made from that strange vinyl, I don't know why MGA are so obsessed with this stuff. It feels like a table protector! Hell, I think this top and skirt IS a table protector cut down into clothes! I'm sure i've seen some in this checked pattern before now.

There's soft net poofy sleeves attached to the top, which are ugly but the overall hideousness of the outfit is appealing to me for some reason. If she was dressed tastefully she wouldn't be crazy clown girl!

Over the top of all this, she has a blue ribbon with netting attached. It seems to be able to be both a belt with overskirt/train or a cape. I like it as a belt/skirt and it's a much cooler piece than that lazy cape Mona had. It fits with the rest of the outfit, the netting ties it in with the sleeves on the top so it all comes together as one cohesive, if not ugly, outfit.

I love her, I really do.

I give her 8 out of 10, she's insane, she's not particularly pretty and I LOVE her for it. I have no idea what MGA staff were on when they designed this chick, but she's wonderfully nutty. Who can't love a totally random fashionista clown? What about that concept isn't fabulously insane?


And so, I end. Final thoughts? I don't regret this set. It provided a lot of amusement with Husband's anguish opening it (what can I say, his pain amused me ok? I'm a terrible wife) and the dolls were well worth the £10 each. Mona may need some work, but Columbine is taking pride of place in my "wtf" toy collection. She's got character, and the little misfit has endeared me to her.

Switch a Witch, for entertainment value was worth the money for me. I had fun with the dolls though I doubt i'll buy any others from the line. The other packs don't seem as interesting to me, they're just messy looking.

Are they worth the price being charged? Probably not. Unlike the C.A.M sets these do NOT come with stands, though they do come with 2 sets of shoes and 2 wigs which C.A.M is yet to manage (no, those plastic caps don't quite count though they are a step in the right direction.)
Like C.A.M they do suffer from very specific pieces. The mix and match aspect hasn't been truly embraced by either product due to each complete outfit being too obviously designed to go together (Who'd wear green and pink shoes with a black and white dress?) and the body pieces following that same "the green bits go with the green bits" thing. MGA have tried to make the mish mashed colours thing part of their design, but failed when they made each doll two toned only.
I still don't know why they don't release a monochromatic set of two dolls, where both sets of limbs were the same colour as one another so they COULD be mixed together without looking strange and incorrect. I'm sure there's a way to do it which would better encourage mixing, because as it is, I still don't know anyone who doesn't just construct the two dolls in the box with the pieces that are one colour for one doll and the pieces of the other colour for the other.

The S.A.W packs feel a bit more restrictive than the C.A.M purely because there's not quite so many places you can go with "witches" as you can with the much broader "monsters" so I doubt we'll see a second wave of Switch a Witch. The S.A.W girls are SO different in design to the regular Zillaz that they stand out like sore thumbs. Meanwhile the C.A.M dolls can fit right on into the regular Monster High collection quite comfortably.
So in the end, i'd have to say Create a Monster wins the "who did it best" contest, but Switch a Witch is still an entertaining little novelty. I can't see it being as useful for customisers though, the two toned bodies are a bit too specific and wacky.