Back in 2012 Mattel decided to hold a little "contest" at comic con. They presented three prototype Monster High characters and asked everyone at the con and fans online to vote for which they'd like to see made into a doll.
Of course, we fans all dutifully voted. I myself voted for the spider girl but that's neither here nor there (Oh Weberella, why can't I own you? *sob*)
One of those three dolls was Headless Headmistress Bloodgood, the school principle.
An odd choice but kinda awesome when you consider the photo story opportunities.
(Image from Fanpop)
As it turned out, Headmistress lost the popularity contest, but that evidently wasn't going to stop her and the horse she rode in on.
After Scarah Screams won and was subsequently released in limited quantities as a SDCC exclusive (in a move that came as a huge slap in the face to those who voted for the damn doll) somehow, the loser character managed to garner a regular store release.
When SDCC 2013 rolled around, it was again time for a comic con limited release exclusive. Who got made? That's right, that spider girl right there (albeit in a different costume).
So both the other dolls were produced as SDCC exclusives, yet the loser of the contest got a regular release? How does that even make sense?
CONSPIRACY!
Obviously HHMBG won! It was all an elaborate ruse!
Yessss.
Anyway, she's a Toys R Us exclusive which in itself is annoying, more annoying, she's an overpriced "playset" doll who comes with her horse Nightmare.
Ok, coming with Nightmare is a nice idea... IN THEORY, but we'll get to how they managed to utterly screw that one up shortly.
First let us look at the Bloodgood we got in stores.
The box is MASSIVE, but there doesn't seem to be too much wasted space. That horse is huge after all.
It's a nice little display, with a cardboard desk, some windows... the quote is Latin for those wondering, it means: "No reliance can be placed on appearance."
In other words: "Don't trust a book by it's cover" or "Appearances can be deceiving" depending on what particular idiom you'd rather go by.
Funny, here I was thinking they'd work in some sort of head pun. You know... "Striving to get a head." that kinda thing. *drum snare* yes thank you, i'm here all night.
The back of the box gives Bloodgood her bio, which is nice to see. It's amusing to me that they kept all the student relevant categories when she's a teacher lol.
The back of the box also shows you that her head can be put on and taken off again, you know.. in case you weren't sure.
The box is pretty easy to open. It's held closed with two pieces of tape and that's it. The inner card just slides out.
I do appreciate an easy to open box, and Monster High are usually pretty fantastic for this.
While Bloodgood is held into the box in the conventional elastic band and plastic strap method, for some reason Nightmare is tied into the box with... string? No joke, it's actually string. Wth?
Well, makes for pretty easy deboxing. Just untie the string.
As a result, Nightmare was the first to be released from the backing card.
Poor Nightmare.
Now she is an interesting character in her own right, because there is no denying Nightmare is "just a pet", she really does have attitude in the show. Heck, in the latest diary of Jane Boolittle, she even gets dialogue!
But why.. oh why Mattel.. did you have to cheap out and make her static?
Monster High is a line where ALL the dolls are highly poseable, yet the horse... you give us a lump of hollow plastic? Wth? It's so disappointing because had she been articulated the dynamic head throwing poses you could achieve with this set would be AWESOME. It's a huge missed opportunity and it was the major factor putting me off buying this set.
Toys R Us want £35 for this pack, which when you consider the cheap as hell plastic static horse, is way too much.
I'd have happily paid more and had an articulated horse, as i'm sure would a lot of people. I mean, it's not like Mattel can't do articulated horses for a reasonable price either. Look at how many walking horses Barbie's got? So why did Nightmare get shafted? Poor poor Nightmare.
Anyway,
the horse herself is a lovely shade of blue with multitonal purple hair.
I do really like the attitude in her face paint. And her stylistic shape is a nice touch. She has really large feet and very slender legs which is totally in keeping with the MH style aesthetic.
She wears a detatchable bridle and a saddle.
Her hair only falls on one side which leaves this side looking a little well.. unfinished. Though that musculature in her neck is lovely.
she's a strangely proportioned creature though, not simply an edited recast of a Barbie horse, she's obviously designed totally to MH proportions. Her neck and head are oversized with a comparatively short body and those aforementioned stick legs and giant hooves.
Not only is Nightmare REALLY light to handle (she's obviously hollow), but being cast in two halves, she has quite obvious seam lines. It's most obvious here where the hair isn't even rooted fully to the top of her head, leaving a big gap and a bald patch... ew.
She also has random hairs sticking up through her body where it's obviously gotten caught as they've glued the two halves together. I yanked those stray hairs, they looked gross coming out of her like, haunches and shoulder area. Poor horse has enough problems without arbitrary excess hair growth.
Without her bridle she looks strange... unfinished, naked and just.. .wrong.
I do love those eyes though.. and that snout.. so full of character.
But it's a real bummer she's balding at the top of her head. Look at that gap! Wth? Surely her hair should be rooted right to behind her ears? Right? riiight?
Bloodgood is on hand to support her equine pal, if only she could put herself together first...
The body of this doll uses the taller "Nefera" or "Adult" sculpt, which makes complete sense but is a nice touch.
She's dressed in a purple riding coat with elaborate cuffs, a very simple undershirt with tie, sparkly leggings and knee high boots.
While the neck knob isn't the most attractive of things when she's got her head off, I really can think of no other way they could have done this.
Bloodgood uses the same neck attachment as the Create a Monster dolls, meaning you can pop that head on and off to your heart's content. Wheeee!
Put together she looks a lot better.
Her face is gaunt and has to my eye, something of Spectra to it. She has large green eyes and a severe expression on her face. Very in keeping with her character I feel.
Though i'm not convinced about the fabric choice for that jacket. It's a wierd plasticy feeling shiny material that just doesn't feel right for the cut. I imagined the coat should be well.. wool or some thick warm fabric, which would be impractical to create at this scale but something that felt similarly rough and well.. coat like would have been nicer I think. As it stands, the fabric choice feels cheap and strange. it's shiny and I don't like that.
Underneath the coat her outfit is VERY basic. The vest is a servicable under piece and the leggings are fairly dull despite being all shiny, it's all just a bit simplistic. Of course, it matches her artwork just fine but it still doesn't feel like £35 worth of doll here.
Her boots are very nice, but again, very simple.
Bloodgood's hair is a gluey sticky mess. The bangs needed rinsing as they were gelled into a crunchy mishapen mess and the bun is MESSY as heck. There's loose hairs everywhere, it's going to drive me mental.
The bun isn't even a bun, it's a fake bun. As in, it's a ponytail of short hair where the ends have been gelled and curled inwards to create a bun effect. Vintage Ballerina Sindy's did something similar, but it does mean I don't think i'd be able to replicate the effect if I rinsed the gel at all. So the gel stays and I just have to try to stick those loose bits down as best I can.
I did put another elastic band over the top of the existing one to try to stick down a few of the hairs that missed the original ponytail.
Reunited with her steed, the pair seem relatively content. Though Nightmare is complaining that her arthritis is playing up.
Bloodgood can mount the horse fairly well, though the lack of any stirrups or reigns seems a pretty glaring omission to me. How is she supposed to stay ON there? Does she just have super grippy thighs?
I do like how the coat flares out over Nightmare's back like that though. Damn I wish this horse could rear up and actually pose as well. *sigh*
As it stands, without anything to hold onto, Bloodgood while solidly in that saddle, looks a bit precarious and like she's not totally sure what to do with her hands.
I couldn't work out how to get her to "hold" her head, so I popped her hand off and stuck the head on the stump bwhahaha. Worked fairly well I felt.
So, final thoughts?
Of course I HAD to buy this set purely because "omg new character", but I feel the price is a bit rich.
I used vouchers and got 20% off, but i'm still not sure that wasn't too much.
Nightmare feels well.. like a cheap hunk of junk to be honest. Her only redemption is her face which is full of character, but her lack of any articulation is a MAJOR downside in what could have otherwise been a pretty damn cool playset.
She feels cheap, she's lightweight, she's hollow, she's balding. Her hair rooting is very odd and i'm not sure if that's just mine or if they're all suffering this big gap in their hair line issue.
The lack of any reigns makes posing Bloodgood on Nightmare's back look awkward and wrong, she needs something to hold onto damnit and would some reigns really have been THAT difficult to include??
I'm going to have to make some. -_-
Bloodgood herself also feels cheap and basic. Now of course, two pack dolls are often a bit more simplistic than the single packed dolls, but even so, Bloodgood's outfit design isn't exactly massively detailed like a lot of the students so why is her price point so high?
The fabric choice for her jacket is... odd and a bit disappointing, and her hair is annoying.
For starters, her bangs are utterly wrong and I had to restyle them to make her look anything like her art, and her bun is messy as anything. She just feels a bit... hastily thrown together. The quality really isn't there in terms of the little details that make MH so great.
To her credit, she does look like her animated form, once you fix her hair a bit. But this set should NOT be retailing at £35, it's far too much for what you're getting.
Overall, I give the pack as a whole 6 cripplingly arthritic equines out of 10. It's a must have for completests like myself who want one of every character, and it's kinda cool to have a teacher for play, but the set is too basic and too overpriced to really be worth your while.
Pick it up on sale, and hope like hell they release a Nightmare who can actually bend her damn legs!
Poor old girl ... it's the glue factory for her i'm afraid.
I don't understand why they couldn't make this a deluxe set and give the horse the same level of articulation as the dolls have. I'd have happily paid £40 for a horse I could POSE rather than a hunk of junk plastic model.
I also don't get why Bloodgood got a damn retail release when she LOST THE POPULAR VOTE! Wth Mattel? What... the.. hell?
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