Bratz Boyz Masquerade

I reviewed Bratz boyz last time, but considering my love/hate relationship with all things MGA, I couldn't just leave it with the Cool Boyz. Not when the Masquerade Boyz are also available in TK Maxx for £4:99.

So let's dive into this obvious bandwagon leap. What bandwagon you ask? Monster High of course.
Bratz Masquerade came out shortly after MH became seriously popular, and of course was trying to do it's own take on the "kids like monsters" deal. Bratzillaz came soon after.
But we had this attempt first, Bratz dressed up in random costumes.

The girls included a mermaid, a vampire, an ancient Egyptian inspired girl, a fairy, a witch and an er... tea party princess? wth?
Uh...

The girls, naturally, all came in outfits that seemed to be pulled straight from the Ann Summer's catalogue.

The Boyz however?

We'll let's take a look.

There's three new boyz in this set. Gable, Brogan and Penn.
Continuing the theme of naming characters things no sane human would ever name their kids.

Gable is a knight.. apparently.
Brogan's a pirate
And Penn is uh... a vampire.

What strikes me immediately is how pissed Brogan must be that he put so much effort into his costume while the other two clearly didn't give a damn.
My theory is that he called them up saturday afternoon all "Hey dudes, you gonna be at the fancy dress party tonight?"
and the other two were all "wait.. fancy dress!??? it's fancy dress!? Ahh crap!"
And subsequently raided the dollar store for quick costumes on the way to the party.

Penn spent his buck on some hair gel and plastic fangs.
Gable spent his on a child's knight tabard to stick over the top of his sweater. And an eyebrow pencil to draw on his ridiculous facial hair.


Brogan was actually added later in the wave. Gable and Penn were released with the first wave of girls, then it was clearly successful enough that MGA decided to make a second wave and Brogan was shoved into that wave. Why more effort was put into his costume, I have no bloody clue. Maybe someone at MGA really liked pirates.

The back of the boxes makes it clear these are two seperate waves.
Penn and Gable's boxes feature the first wave girls (Vampire, witch.. princess... uh... ) but also show the boyz in their prototype outfits.
Gable had a crappy plastic crown apparently  while Penn's shirt was black and red. All the charactes had sticks to hold their masks, like a proper masquerade.

Brogan's box features a different background, a fountain this time with the mermaid girl and Cloe dressed as an angel.
I honestly when this line was first released assumed the blonde tea party princess girl was Cloe but no, all the girls in the line minus Cloe are totally new characters. because Bratz didn't have enough characters already huh?
New characters... who would never feature in any line ever again. Wow...

Penn and Gable's boxes have this little image at the bottom of the box. it's a cute scene featuring both the masquerade characters and a few random other bratz in hasty dress up outfits. Penn and the vampire girl are front and centre, they look kinda cute together don't you think?

Brogan's box however has a different image. This time outside and featuring ONLY Masquerade dolls. He's chatting up the Egyptian chick while Penn's in the background with his vampire girl. Where's Gable? Maybe he's reapplying his fake moustache in the bathroom.

But.. wait.. what's this? There's a watermark on this image. Before you ask, this is my photo, that blue throw thing is my sofa. I took this photo, I didn't add a watermark. Oh no, the "FPO" (For promotion only?) watermark is there ON THE BOX, and it stops where this picture ends and the rest of the box art starts. Clearly MGA failed to remove their own watermark when they put the box art together.
*slow clap* how proffessional.

But enough about the boxes. Let's look at the boyz.

First up, Penn.

Penn

I wanted Penn the most because he's a dweeby looking vampire boy. What's not to love about dweeby vampires with stupid hair?

Here he is in his box. See how half arsed his outfit is? The only thing that screams vampire are those fangs.

 

They all come with these masks which elastic band on, instead of being on sticks. Presumably because sticks were too difficult to make the doll hold? I dunno.
Penn's mask is red and kinda.. batty?

The boyz also all have a name font and logo. Penn's is a bat and his font is um... odd. The N's look like they're made of arrows to me.

Deboxing was actually pretty painless. No swearing and the usual blood sacrificed required. The outer plastic just clipped off and opened up. Nice.

So here's Penn! His outfit is SUPER plain. He wears a white shirt (white cotton cheaper than red and black stripes? A shame because the red and black at least tied in with his outfit. This just looks like he pulled a coat on over his regular clothes and went to the party) blck pants, boots and a satiny black coat with red stitching detail and a high collar.

the coat feels SUPER cheaply made which is a shame because it could have been a really cool piece.

His shirt is sleeveless and tight, his jeans have a white stitching detail. Both pieces are decently made but the fabric of the shirt is very thin.
I am however pleased they're all individual pieces, the shirt can be worn tucked in like this, or untucked.

The mask seems a bit too big for the face. Penn's elastic is actually way too loose as well, so the mask doesn't stay on right and keeps slipping down.

Penn's got a pale skintone (obviously for a vampire), painted fangs and pale blue eyes. His eyes are actually a really pretty colour, a sort of cornflower blue with a touch of grey. He has dark shadow around them to give them this sunken appearence.

His hair is very dark brown and spiked up into this ridiculous style, he reminds me of Slo mo's paintbrush hairdo lol.

 

The sides of his hair are painted, but not flocked. None of the post 10/10/10 Bratz Boyz have had flocking, clearly flock is expensive or "too hard" to do. *eyeroll*. The painted head looks cheap, flocking really would have helped.

It's so... shiny....

These boyz use the same bodies as all post 10/10/10 boyz and you can see nude examples of those  in the previous review.

Overall, Penn's costume feels like the sort of costume a teenaged boy hastily cobbles together at the last minute. Which is about accurate for teenaged boys and costume parties really.
The collar can be worn popped up, or down. Though with the collar down he looks more like a boy wizard than a vampire.

Gable

Gable is apparently a knight... or a prince.. or something. His outfit is random, the only thing that says "costume" really is that badge/crest on his shirt and his mask.

He REALLY reminds me of Cary Elwes, or at least Wesley from The Princess Bride.

Or perhaps from his role in Robin Hood: Men in Tights

This makes me stupidly happy... ok?

MGA totally missed a trick not dressing him up as Robin Hood or a pirate.

So here's Cary.. I mean... Gable, deboxed.

He's got warm brown eyes, dark brows and blonde hair in a funny fluffy style. The longer bits at the front refuse to sit down and just get in his eyes constantly. It must be a really super annoying haircut.

He has painted on facial hair. A curly moustache and a teeny goatee.
To my recollection, Gable is the first Bratz Boy to have a painted on moustache. Goatee's they've done before, but not moustaches.
It looks a bit silly, like he drew it on.

His outfit is really plain. He's wearing blue jeans, grey sneakers and a sweatshirt with grey sleeves and a turtleneck. The purple and blue tabard is part of the sweatshirt, it's somewhat remincient of a high school sports team sweatshirt isn't it?
He as a printed crest featuring a lion and a sword, it's a familiar symbol. Heraldic Lion Rampant with Sword. It looks very uh.. cliparty. The lion isn't even holding the sword, it's just sorta tacked on there. *snort*

 

Gable also has a cape made from super thin, plasticky feeling purple fabric. It attaches with two velco squares to the back of the sweatshirt, but the velcro isn't placed correctly so the cape puckers oddly.

It looks ok from a distance though. But damn does it feel cheap and nasty.

His hair has an undercut, which is just painted. Here it kinda works though, because it's not a large area and it's at the back so you're not really gonna see it much.

Gable's mask's elastic is a lot tigher than Penn's so his mask actually stays on. It's a stylised knight's visor in silvery grey. It's about the only thing about his costume that screams "knight" honestly.

Gable's symbol is a crown (obviously, despite him not having one and being a knight prince), and his font is a strange mix of curly G and sharp spiky other letters. 

Much like Penn, this costume screams "couldn't be bothered putting effort in". I maintain my theory that Penn and Gable weren't told it was a costume party till the last minute.

Brogan

Finally Brogan, the only boy to actually put a degree of effort into his costume.
He's dressed as a pirate and unlike the other two, this is obvious without even looking at the box that closely.

Brogan's symbol is a compass (sorry the flash washed it out) and his font type is sort of hand written looking (and kinda reminds me of the Disney font if i'm honest. Pirates of the carribean reference? I don't think MGA are that clever sadly)

His mask is a brown uh.. leather I think, domino mask with a painted on eyepatch and moulded crossbones.

Brogan's outfit consists of a leather effect jacket (which is made of some sort of vinyl, it's a really nicely made piece) with a belt attached, a striped undershirt, fuzzy feel velvety pants and boots. This boot mould is seriously overused with the Bratz Boyz. Good thing I like boots huh?
I swear a good 75% if not more of the 10/10/10 Bratz Boyz used this exact same shoe mould.

Anyway, around his head he has a red silky headband.

Like Gable, Brogan has warm brown eyes, ridiculous hair and drawn on facial hair.
In Brogan's case, his facial hair actually looks a little less drawn on with an eyebrow pencil. He has a goatee and chin strap going on, plus a moustach. Very swashbuckling.

His hair is black and cut so it's longer on one side and swept to the side in this odd sticky outy.... thing. I really have no idea.
Honestly I think it's kinda a shame they didn't go with long hair on this guy, dreads or something would have been awesome huh? but his hairstyle is choppy enough that I believe he hacked it like this himself with a blunt knife. Which seems pretty appropriately piratical.

I really have no idea why his pants are made of sweatpant like fabric. They're soft and plushy and it's bizarre. It kinda ruins the overall look to me.
His jacket is awesome though, but I don't believe it'll stand up to much play. The plasticky vinyl fake leather stuff marks and creases very easily. But it looks sweet!

 

 I think he needs better pants. These breeches just don't work without the jacket.

The mask doesn't really add much, but it's a cool enough mask. The painted detail lifts it above the other two into a proper accessory rather than a plastic hunk of junk.

Brogan's outfit is basic, but it pulls together well. Only things i'd change would be a different fabric for those pants and the addition of a belt around his waist. He also totally needs a cutlass and flintlock lol. Damn i'd love dolly scale flintlocks.

Conclusion

So here are all three boyz.

Brogan and Gable are a pretty similar skin tone, Brogan's slightly more tanned. Penn's really pink and pale.

In terms of outfits, Penn's definintely comes across as the cheapest. That jacket fabric is just so thin and crappy, and it's a shame because had it been made from a decent material he could have looked awesome.

This image better shows the skin tones of the three.

Brogan seems smug here, probably because he knows he's the only one who has a decent costume.

BONUS photo! Pirate Gable! lol.

Anyway, overall, the Masquerade boyz could have been better, but again, they could have been a LOT worse.

Some of the outfit pieces feel a bit cheap, but everything is stitched together decently and all three dolls are solidly constructed. They'd stand up to play well I think.
They have limited articulation but MGA is yet to give us an articulated Boy, I honestly doubt it'll ever happen.
The three new characters are cute though, and don't look like any of the other boys (unlike the girls who totally look like one another very quickly. There's only a finite number of hair/eye/skin colour combos after all) and somehow the failure of Gable and Penn's costume only endears them more to me.
They couldn't be bothered, and that cracks me up.
While I know MGA were just being lazy, I prefer to think it's a characterisation thing. It makes me smile.
And this is why I love MGA products. For all they fail at things, there's a certain charm to that failure that I can't help but adore. You could say I love to hate them, but at the end of the day, these boyz entertained me and they're a lovely addition to my collection.

Penn is certainly the palest boy I own, and it's nice to have two more brown eyed boys in the group. Now I just have to wish that when/if Bratz relaunch (again) we're finally given articulated boyz with a more varied assortment of skin tones. I would kill for a boy the same deep brown skintone as Felicia, hell, even just Sasha toned damnit.

Overall, I give the Masquerade Boyz a solid 7 vials of Iocane poweder out of 10. They're cute, but very very cheap. For £4:99 I can't grumble at all, but there's no way these were worth full retail (except perhaps Brogan).