Monster High - We are Monster High 5 pack

omg omg omg omg omg... you guys... seriously...omg.

Ahem.. ok, allow me to compose myself...

holy crap GILDA!

Ok, let me explain. This backgrounder, this one right here... has always been my absolute favourite backgrounder. I freaking adore her. So when we were told she was getting a doll? I think I may have squealed a bit.

Sadly, she comes as part of a 5 pack which means crazy expensive, but thankfully, the rest of that five pack is kinda interesting as well. We'll get to that.

I ummed and ahhed about ordering this set from Argos when I saw the price. £70 ($120 USD) is absolute INSANITY and made me angry but I had birthday money burning a hole in my pocket and Gilda... she called to me. I needed her... like NOW.

I practically tackled the courier when he arrived with my parcel. I haven't been this excited about a doll release in a very long time.

Yeah that's right, it's a big box. Slightly squished, but it's MINE ALL MINE.

I tore that sucker open straight away.

And here they are! Slo Mo, Lagoona, Cleo, Gilda and Scarah. Oh yesss.

Now I admit, i'm not overly fussed about yet another Cleo or Lagoona, but more boys? hell yes, and another Scarah? yes please.

The back of the box has little adverts for each character. I suspect the US box will have more info on it, this is a euro box so we just have very basic "for president" "for vice president" etc. Seems these are campaign posters or something?

Those who care about these things may be interested to know that these are made in China, not Indonesia.

The box has a funky design of 1s, flags and skeletal hands. I wish the foam fingers looked more like that, they'd look cool.

First impressions, I really like the green lips on Scarah and oh my god the screaming mouth print is adorable! It's very pop art.

Gilda is an interesting matte gold tone, slightly shiny but not overly so. She has no eyebrows and only 2 eyelashes which is a very interesting move. She's surprisingly close to her art actually, considering the constraints of 3d.

Cleo's hair is short, I always love a short haired Cleo, and red is a new look for her. It's a nice change from the purple she's been sporting lately.

Lagoona has straight hair, booo. Her makeup is very muted, almost not there. She reminds me of a dead tired doll. She seems very plain.

Another Slo Mo! With pants! and hair that doesn't make him look like a paintbrush!

But let's get on with this review.

First up, Gilda of course! She's the main attraction!

Gilda Goldstag

She's beautiful! Of course, I may be biased.

She has bubblegum pink hair gelled up into a spiky troll do, i'm not certain I want to rinse it as i'm not convinced it'll stay up if I do.
The pink continues in little spots that freckle her forehead.

She has huge horns that are a seperate moulded piece glued into special slots in her head. 

Interestingly, her ears are moulded with her head. They stick out a lot more than any other MH doll thus far. They're fabulously goat like and they make me think, if you can do this Mattel, why the hell did Cerise from EAH not get ears like this!?

She has huge hoop earrings.

She has, as I said, no eyebrows at all. no eyeshadow and just very thick black eyeliner with two flicks. No obvious lashes here, which is true to the artwork but still an unusual stylistic choice. I'm actually very glad they did this, she'd look wrong with brows and lashes I think.

Her horns are great, they're moulded with ridges and curve along her skull. I'm a sucker for horned characters.

 

Gilda has a leather look jacket with a bullseye on one shoulder. Under that she wears a stretchy green vest, a bright orange belt and stretchy brown leggings.

She has knee high boots that are very simple but work well. Like SDCC Scarah, this outfit is basic but webisode accurate. Which is nice. I'm glad they took this route for releasing her instead of bloody comic con exclusive like Iris and Manny. -_- Mattel.. you guys suck for that.

but moving on.

Gilda has a standard body in a slightly shiny matte gold.

She's not quite as shiny as Jinafire.

And Gilda is a much more yellow gold tone than Jinafire.

I believe these boots are a brand new sculpt. They're similar to Scarah's I heart Fashion boots, but not quite. I love the moulded wrinkles ehehe.

Ok, i'm totally biased but I love Gilda. She's flawless in my opinnion so i'm giving a rare 10 giant fangirlish thumbs up out of 10.

Scarah Screams

Next up is Scarah. She has vivid green lips and bright pink eyeshadow. It's a bold look and it works really well.
Her hair is in a high ponytail, a little wavy and has a slightly greasy texture. Hmm.

Her dress is a simple shift dress with screaming faces all over it. These faces seriously make me think of those pop art prints by someone like Roy Lichtenstein

It's a cool dress and nice to finally see Scarah get a Banshee specific graphic.

The print continues the whole way around the dress, no Barbie style half prints here.

Her belt is a recast of SDCC Scarah's belt. I can't help but wish it had a teeny bit more colour on it though. A splash of pink would really tie everything together.

  

I don't know if these are reused shoes, but they're extremely cute regardless.

Alongside the other Scarah's in my collection, this new ghoul really does stand out. The pink makeup really pops and I really do love that all three have such different hair.
When several MH characters end up with a lot of versions that are honestly pretty damn similar, Scarah here has already managed multiple releases that are very different. I like this about her, and her mod fashion style certainly helps my love of the character lol.

one random thing I did notice about this new Scarah is her hands. While both SDCC and I heart fashion have "expressive" hands, this ghoul has your standard generic hand sculpt. Kind of a shame, I love those expressive hands but interesting and perhaps useful to those who want a more neutral hand pose? I dunno.

She's beautiful and very different to her other releases. Her outfit is very simple, but coupled with I heart fashion's ample wardrobe, I think this ghoul could scrub up amazingly.

I've always liked Scarah's big blank eyes and i'm a sucker for unusual lip colours. Green looks great of her, it's like the Banshee version of a human wearing bright red lippy. It's striking and beautiful.

Simple, but lovely. I give Scarah a solid 8 screaming ladies out of 10. She just needs a few accessories to pull her whole outfit together.

Cleo De Nile

Cleo is one doll I was rather "meh" about when I heard the news of this 5 pack. She's had a fair few releases of late and she's always been one of the least monstery looking characters of the franchise.
Of course this Cleo is no more monsterous, but she certainly is different.

First of all, this is the shortest haired MH doll i've ever seen. It's such a chic look.
Red is a totally new colour for Cleo and one I wouldn't have expected in the least. I'm still not certain about it, but at least it makes more sense for an Egyptian theme than purple as with her recent releases. I mean, I get it, purple is a regal/imperial colour but it's not exactly screaming "ancient egypt" now is it?
Red at least feels less anacronistic.

 Poor Cleo's box hair is terrible. Her hair is, as expected, a gelled helmet mess. Flyaways everything, gloop all over the place, loose hair shedding like crazy. Gross.

Her lips are an interesting colour, a sort of deep pinkish red tone. I expected bright red like her accessories, but they look nice.

her makeup is VERY similar to Scaris Cleo with wide, narrowed eyes lined in teal. There's a sort of olive green under the eyes here, and her gem is um... cream? I don't really like the way this gem is painted honestly, it looks squashed and strange.

Perhaps a red gem would have been too washed out with the rest of the red, i'm not sure. but the creamy colour (is it supposed to be gold?) just looks odd to me.

Cleo's dress is slightly asymetrical and the neck line is quite cool, all textured with what looks like... scales?
I feel like she needs a legging or something though. Cleo often has leggings or socks or something odd going on, her legs feel bare to me without something on them. Maybe i'm just odd.

Her dress is nice though. It's yellow and black, good solid bandage colours right there. (I added the bangle for this shot)

She comes with a little red necklace which is a recast from another Cleo. It's small, it's simple but it ties the outfit together nicely.

her shoes are also a recast of those shoes SDCC Scarah uses and I think the bee cam. They're a little too big for the MH feet but thankfully came elastic banded to her feet.

Though her makeup is most similar to Scaris, this is certainly one unique Cleo. Her hairstyle is fabulously Egyptian to me, I always like it when Cleo has a short bob like an Egyptian style wig. The fact her hair is SO short is refreshing to me as well, it's chin length at most and makes her look very grown up.
the red tinsel is much like the gold tinsel in texture, it feels like it'll fray and be annoying to brush but thankfully the short bob style means i'm less inclined to have to or want to brush her hair.

The short style is always unforgiving of any thinly rooted sections. The hair has to be "just so" in order for her not to look bald. Once rinsed and combed into position, she looks great but straight out the box I was a little worried by a few patches of scalp peeking through from her hairline.

She has no earrings but indents for earring holes, should you be inclined to stab a needle through them to let her wear earrings. Her short hairstyle could lend itself quite nicely to some ornate dangly earrings.

She comes with the Cleo eyes I prefer, narrower, less wrapped around her skull. So I think she's a keeper. How many short haired dolls do we really get with MH after all?

Overall, I give her 9 helmet heads out of 10. I really do like her, she's unique and different, a breath of fresh air when it comes to Cleo dolls. She just needs a teensy bit more to make her outfit perfect in my eyes.

Lagoona Blue 

 

Lagoona has surprisingly understated makeup. When you consider that the others in this set are all looking quite striking, her "nude" makeup seems all the more out of place.
It makes a degree of sense for her character of course, but it still feels jarring to me.

It also bothers me that her hair is straight. Isn't Lagoona kinda supposed to have curls?

And purple shoes when nothing else she's wearing is purple? huh?

She has a sweet face, the smaller lips of her earlier releases though and I really do prefer her with fish lips lol.
her lips are a very soft blue and very similar to her skin tone. It's almost like she's not actually wearing any lipstick at all, much more like the "nude" lips you'd see on one of the boys.
Her makeup is a really lovely dusky purple shade and she has dark grey freckles, darker than I recall ever seeing Lagoona freckles actually.

Her hair is a bit boring, it's a buttery yellow blonde with light blue streaks, side parted, butt length, no real style. It's oddly crunchy on one side, dunno what that's about.

her dress is unusual. I thought it'd be a simple shift dress bit it's not, it actually has a dropped waist on it.
The design is an abstract tentacle design, the criss crosses bring to mind the rigging of a ship (there's a mast and a flag there, can you see it?) and the upper portion reminds me of clouds. The dress makes me think it's a kraken attacking a ship in a storm and that is AWESOME. It's so abstract but so effective and in lovely shades of blue, black and purple.

I love this dress, the pattern is honestly just incredible and a bit macabre when you think about it.

Lagoona also has a recoloured seahorse necklacethat Skull Shores came with.

Her shoes are another reuse of those high tops. Given how many awesome shoe sculpts Lagoona has, it's a real disappointment she got these boring and generic shoes. I'm gonna have to dig through my box of spare stuff, see if I can find her something better.

Her hair isn't very nice out of the box. It's got some sort of product in it and it's just a bit choppy and kinda meh. I think i'll try curling it.

Alongisde other Lagoonas in my collection, this new one looks so washed out, almost ghostly. it's kinda cool in a way, but also rather odd. Her hair is a brighter yellowy blonde than Skull Shores here and even the blue in the new Lagoona seems more vivid. So it's odd that despite having brighter hair, she still ends up looking SO desaturated.

To be perfectly honest, her makeup colourations remind me most of freshwater Lagoona. They also both have that really wide faced childish quality some Lagoona's have.

Overall, this Lagoona is a bit disappointing. I love her dress but her outfit feels rushed and cobbled together, her hair is so meh and she looks like a dead tired doll, not a doll campaigning for student council. Oh she's pretty, but she's bland... very very bland. I give her a depressing 4 inexplicable shoe choices out of 10.

Slo Mo Mortavitch

It would seem Mattel somehow managed to completely balls up the release of Ghoul Spirit Slo Mo, resulting in patchy distrubtion and a lot of frustrated consumers. So it's nice to so rapidly get another release of a much in demand boy doll.

And it's a relief to see this Slo Mo isn't a straight repackaging either, they actually bothered to fix the ridiculous paint brush hair GS had. Thank goodness.

Now Mo is sporting more of a ridiculous Elvis quiff. It's kidna adorkable.

Now, up till now i'd been pretty lucky with the qc of my set. No major eye wonk, no massive bald patches, just a few slightly loose arms or stiff joints, nothing unusual or catastropic.

then this happened...

"What the fudge?" I hear you say, well it would seem some gloop from his hair seeped behind Mo's head and glued the backing card to his flock.
The to add insult to injury, some bright spark decided to stab two packaging tabs through poor Mo's skull leaving two gaping holes in his head.
I mean come on guys, I know he's a zombie and all, you gotta go for the head shot, but this is ridiculous.

Thankfully, most of the card came off the back of his head with some very cautious scratching with my finger nail. It's left a mark though, he has some pink staining boo.

Face wise, this Slo Mo is identical to his last release, he's gotten a nice hair upgrade though. His hair is a bit longer and curled forward to better resemble his artwork. it's still not quite right, but it's a start.

Adorable Slo Mos. I definitely prefer this newer hair style, it's far less ridiculous and the longer length makes for a few more styling options when it's rinsed of gel.

It's VERY solid with gel.

New Mo's flock is a bit indented from the packaging, another annoyance. I'm not sure why they didn't fix his head in place the same way they did Gilda, with a plastic pillow instead of just stapling his damn head straight to the box. Grrr.

Slo Mo has a very geeky shirt. It's Dead Fast! Look at all those Dead Fasts! eeeee. I think it's adorable.

Regular hand mould, no claws here. And annoying elastic band scars. Why the hell did they elastic band his hand to his leg anyway?

New shoe mould here as well. They have studs at the back and no laces. What the hell is that all about? Apparently it's some trend to forgo shoe laces. Do guys just really like losing their shoes? Sheesh.

Sadly no cool hidden detail under the shoes. Not like other Mo's brain tread or Jackson's yin yangs, no, here is a kinda waffle pattern. Boring. I wonder if these shoes were intended for something else, they certainly aren't Slo mo specific in any way. Kinda a bummer. Nice to have new shoes though.

Why is Heath here? He's casting doubt over Slo Mo's choice in pants. now, I know everyone was SUPER excited to see a boy in pants again at long last, but I have to say, i was not expecting these pants.
They're bright blue, they're shiny and they're stretchy... i thought they'd be jeans, not jogging bottoms!
They're HIDEOUS frankly, honestly hideous. And a huge disappointment. I was keen for another pair of MH jeans or pants, but these are super ugly pants. They feel like dance fabric, like.. wth? they're lycra trousers... shiny lycra trousers. Well, i suppose Mo can dance if he wants to... right?

It's a real shame, because Mo's shirt is fantastic and his hair is a huge improvement over the previous release.

Overall, his pants let him down. I give Slo Mo 8 giant S's out of 10.

This set doesn't come with any stands, but it does include two plastic flags and two plastic "foam fingers".
It's a pain to get Lagoona to hold either due to her finger webbing. I honestly doubt i'll ever use any of them but the foam fingers are kinda funny. I preferred the proper fabric foam fingers the first fearleading 3 pack came with, but oh well. This way isn't going to stain hands and actually looks more like the rather stiff modern fingers anyway.

These flags are almost identical to the ones that came with Ghoul Spirit, but the graphic is simplified.

There's no colour present, just a black blocked pattern printed on a pink background. Kinda a shame, it looks substantially cheaper than the ghoul spirit flag.


So.. overall? Was this set worth £70?

HELL NO, but then I knew that when I ordered it. Argos are taking the piss charging that much for it, and I hope most people are patient enough to wait for them to drop the price to something more reasonable. I'd happily have paid £60 for this set, that's not a bad price for 5 dolls in the uk but when you know you're paying double what the US pays, it does make you rather bitter.

But is this set worth picking up for a reasonable price? Yes yes yes!

Gilda is amazing, one of the best translations from art to doll yet. She's a brilliant design and I honestly cannot wait to get a scaremester version of her with a diary. Come ooon Mattel!

Also, HELL YES a character who features a few of my favourite things. Horns, yellowish skin, brown and green clothing. She's perfection to me... absolute perfection.

You also get a unique Cleo and Scarah, and only the second mainstream release of Scarah (i'm not counting that freaky fusions.. thing. Wth is that?).
Lagoona's boring and bland, even her cool dress can't really salvage how thrown together at the last minute she feels.
Slo Mo is a welcome addition, even with his terrible pants. A lot of people struggled to get a hold of his initial release so this is a nice option to fill that gap.

Overall, Lagoona is definitely the weak link. While all three repeat ghouls need a bit of tweaking to their outfits, she's the most clearly super budget out the box. Some people may like how understated she is, but personally I think she just looks cheap.

Now if you'll excuse me, I have accessories to add to these girls, more photos to snap and cackling madly as I rub my face all over my new dollies. BWHAHAHAHA.

UPDATE:

I dug through my box o stuff, here's what i've come up with for finalising these outfits:

Cleo

Lagoona

Scarah

And finally,

We can dance if we want to....

 I... i'm sorry, I don't know what came over me.