I've had this set a while now, I put them aside thinking "yeah, i'll review these" and promptly forgot about them. Oops?
SO I was dug em out and decided it was time they got deboxed. After all, I was impressed enough by Nemonia (I still giggle over that name) and their sister line the Super Models.
The "signature" line for these girls includes a fourth character named Ghoolivia, who is identical to Zombia but in a different outfit. I... have no clue. I've only seen the signature dolls once, and even then, only the ghost girl. These school ones I picked up several months ago for £6:99 each. Bargain!
For the school line Simba seems to have done away with Zombia's inexplicable twin and stuck to just three girls. A zombie punk, a ghost and a... snake girl?
First to be deboxed was Zombie, because she happened to be closest lol.
She's got a real Venus McFlytrap vibe with that hair.
Like a Monster High Zombie, Zombia is grey skinned but that's about where the similarities end. This girl... or should that be ghoul? has strange pink eyes ringed with green that match her pink and green half shaved hair style. Those arched eyebrows give her an angry sorta attitude, but I kinda like it.
Well, i said no scissors needed. I was wrong. For whatever reason Simba likes to encase their doll hair in those annoying plastic stitched in things that leave dents in the hair and are a pain to undo. I hate these things. Surely there's a better way to secure hair and make sure it looks good in the box?
Each girl has a little sign with their name and "graphic" on it. Zombia's is barbed wire... for some reason.
Free of her box we can take a look at her outfit.
Each of the school girls comes with a pair of giant glasses and a teeny clutch handbag. The bag is pretty pointless imo, they can't really hold it and it doesn't open or DO anything. The glasses however, i'm a sucker for doll glasses. I love doll glasses, I need MORE doll glasses in my life. I'm pleased to see these ones are giant gender neutral ones and kinda ugly, I live for ugly glasses ok? It takes me hours in the optomistrist picking out a new pair for myself because they gotta be just the right blend of ugly and statement, and still sorta suit me. It's a really tricky process! The amount of frames i've rejected because they're "too tasteful" lol.
Anyway,
Zombia gets some cute little stappy heels, which are really soft and easy to get on and off. Her dress is a one piece in purple plaid cotton. It's hemmed nicely and while not the most fantastic item of clothing, it's decent enough for a cheap doll. The fabric feels nice to touch unlike Nemonia's plasticky outfit.
she has a lace cuff on one arm and a ribbon tie that fastens with elastic behind her neck.
For some inexplicable reason, all three ghouls are wearing tiaras which are stitched to their heads. Zombia's is purple.
The glasses are ugly, but I love them for it.
The tiara makes no sense.
Zombia has the same somewhat flat face of all the twilight teens and super models, with thin arched brows, fairly subtle pink makeup and a beauty mark just under one eye. Her lips are a frosty pink and somewhat small, giving her a kinda pursed lip look.
Her hair is rooted to fall to one side, with the other side of her head painted to look like a shaved style. Flocking would have been nice but for such a cheap doll, I understand why they didn't bother. There's a sorta skull with a rose? hat? on it. I have no clue what that is. It's cute though.
Despite being a zombie, Zombia's inspiration is clearly more Venus inspired. They have mirror image hair! And a similar dress sense (they're both punks apparently).
Zombia's hair is a much paler shade of pink and a brighter shade of green. I actually like the pink in Zombia's hair, it makes me think of watermelon candy or something.
Her articulated ankles make her impossible to stand up, they just flop all over the place. Argh. These dolls need stands desperately. I'm not even sure WHY they have articulated ankles, because they all come with heels and not flats, so it's not like they need to be able to wear both styles of shoe or anything. the stability to static ankles would have been helpful here I think.
Next up is Snakey, who's name is just so lazy lol. Ok Zombia wasn't exactly marvelously inventive but Snaky? What kind of a name is that?
She's some sort of snake... monster... I really don't know. Maybe she's a gorgon? Whatever she is, I do love me some reptilian characters.
Her shoes are really making me think of Bratzillaz Cloetta here. One pink, one black. They're the same mould as Nemonia's. There's studs on the front and bows on the back.
Snaky's outfit is a little more complex than Zombia's. There's a puffed sleeve and a puffball hem which is kinda cute. The belt is a seperate piece and made of soft bendable plastic, it's a lovely chunky belt and gonna be crazy useful in my accessories collection. Belts are an outfit completer I never have enough of with my dolls. So many dresses just seem to NEED a belt to pull the whole outfit together, yet so few dolls actually come with belts. I like how chunky this one is, I think I actually own a belt similar to this in human size heh.
Again a lace cuff. They all have a single identical lace cuff.
Snaky's graphic is just a snake. Her windy font is cute though, so loopy.
Bright pink and pale green is a great contrast. I really do love her vivid crazy pink hair. It's a bit fluffy but that's not surprising. More expensive doll lines can't seem to pull of curly hair without the same level of frizz.
Her hair is soft, but frizzy. It can probably be tamed with a boil wash, but i'm lazy.
Considering this is how fluffy it became when I brushed it with a doll brush, i'm fairly impressed. I expected it to end up 10 times bigger than her.
again, random tiara. This time it's pink as is her clutch (not pictured, they're tiny and kept falling behind stuff)
Snaky has vivid green snake eyes and a sort of orangy pink lipstick. there's a very soft aqua colour around her eyes, it's nice and subtle.
Clearly my first thought with "pink haired snake girl" was Viperine Gorgon. Snaky I feel has a more attractive contrast of colours. I like the colour green and combined with the pink it's striking. I actually feel like she almost washes out the albino colouration of Viperine.
Of course, Viperine has much more detail to her design but Snaky's still a cute doll and an interesting alternative take on the idea.
Her design is understated, but really quite effective. The white skin and white and black hair combo do give her a suitably etheral quality.
Her shoes are strappy heels. I do love that all three girls have different shoes to one another.
Her outfit this time is a two piece ensemble. She has a black vinyl effect bodice and a tartan skirt. Around her neck she has a lace collar and she gets a chain belt with a random bit that sticks out oddly at the point it fastens.
Poor girl was the only one who had any real factory issues. Ghostilla had that annoying "hair coming out the neck hole" situation. I cut it off and tucked the excess back into her head as best I could.
Ghostilla's tiara is blue, all three are identical in mould. Her hair is mostly white with streaks of black through it. It's a bit coarse and frazzled at the ends but it's ok.
I think this one is actually the most striking of the three due to her white colouration, she really does look ghostly.
Her graphic is a ball and chain.
I'm not convinced this is the right outfit for Ghostilla though, she looks a lot better in purple.
She may end up stealing Zombia's outfit.
Their articulation may not be brilliant, but I do like these dolls. They all use the same face sculpt yet manage to capture a lot of individual personality, and while clearly influenced by Monster High, they manage to not just look like cheap clones. Their faces are strange and flat, but they have beautiful eyes. Their outfits are simple, but decently constructed and their shoes are actually really good. Simba are pretty good at making low price, but quality products and the Twilight Teens are a great example of this. Yes they use cheaper materials, but they still make sure dresses are hemmed and stitched together correctly, that hair is rooted in such a way there aren't huge bald patches (it's not the thickest rooted stuff but it's fine) and the face paint is always consistent. I've never seen any eye wonk or smeared makeup on one of these dolls, which is actually really surprising.
I also really appreciate that Simba save their promo photo shoot till they have production models. Their promos ARE their production dolls. No prototypes, no "subject to change" shoots, what's on the box is what you get. I wish more companies did that. I hate the false advertising of box images that are clearly prototypes that were massively changed during production. It's disappointing to fall in love with a promo and then the final product to be SO different (MGA is notorious for this, look at the Bratzillaz prototypes.. sheesh)
Simba know they make cheap alternatives, they embrace this and make the best alternatives for a low cost they can. I like this. I really do like Simba, their toys don't feel cheap and nasty and they really do feel like they could stand up to play in most cases.
I'm not convinced these twilight teens would be any less fragile than Monster High, but certainly their Steffi Love dolls can take a beating.
But of course, the final thing to do now is find out what other doll lines can fit those ugly glasses!
Yes Bratzillaz can.
As can Ever After High.
And sindy.
And they're a near perfect match for Elissabat's glasses from the special! She's keeping this set.
Also worth noting, Pixy Punks clothes fits the Twilight Teens pretty much perfectly (except those shoes).
And Twilight Teen clothes fit Bratzillaz and similarly sized dolls. Score!
Overall, I give the twilight teens school line a big 9 inexplicable tiaras out of 10. I really like them. Their face sculpt is an aquired taste i'm sure, but they're decently made, fully articulated dolls with decent outfits for £6:99! How can you complain about that? Plus they come with awesome glasses that most other doll lines can fit! SWEET.
Big thumbs up from me.
Wow, their faces are so chubby! I reckon they would be fun to re-paint. :)
ReplyDeleteThe glasses were a big selling point for me too, and now I really want Snaky's belt (but not Snaky). The floppy ankles are really annoying, though.
ReplyDeletePersonally I kind of like the skull-with-rose logo - it doesn't make any sense, and it's a really obvious MH knock-off, but it's also pretty cute!