Monster high - SDCC Kieran Valentine and Djinni Whisp

They arrived a few days ago, and i've been waiting till I had the time to sit and review them.
But with Matty Collector's after sale on, now seemed as good a time as any so here they are! Valentine and Whisp!

First a bit of background.

Valentine was a character who featured in the first Monster High CGI special, "Why do ghouls fall in love?". He was the antagonist, an emotional vampire who collected girl's hearts and for... unknown reasons had an entourage of singing clouds... uh...
But for whatever reason since his debut in 2011 people have wanted him to get a doll.
He hadn't appeared since in any media till the second comic book "I only have eye for you" where he's suddenly back atoning for his sins (spoiler?)
His appearance in the comic fueled speculation he might finally get a doll, and lo and behold, he was one of the sdcc exclusive characters this year.

The second doll in the set is Whisp, another antagonist from a more recent special "13 wishes". People really liked Whisp, and customs of Gigi Grant's shadow twin were popping up shortly after the special aired. But that was back in 2013, it's only taken Mattel... how long?

Anyway, two random antagonists from two specials have now teamed up to... atone or something.



But before we look at the dolls, i'd like to talk a little about Ebay and their global shipping program.

So, my parcel dispatched on the 13th of July, now for those who don't know how the ebay shipping program works here's the basic lowdown. The seller parcels up the item and ships it to Erlinger in KY, where they then fill out the customs declaration and forward the parcel for export. Once it arrives in the destination country it's then handed from courier to courier and eventually hopefully will end up with the correct recipient.
It doesn't have a good reputation.

So... my parcel dispatched on the 13th as I said. it arrived in KY where it sat for several days. Finally on the 18th it got on a plane.
The flight landed the following morning, somewhere. Tracking doesn't tell me where, but judging by the subsequent tracking I suspect either Manchester or Birmingham.
From there it passed from courier to courier, clearing customs on the 21st. Excellent I thought, it'll be here in a day or two.
Ooooh no.

it then passed to another two couriers, and then to a service centre somewhere outside of Birmingham. Then to a further 3 couriers before ending up... somewhere outside of Birmingham. In 4 days my parcel travelled a grand total of 15 miles. I could WALK that in less freaking time. it then handed to another couple of couriers.

Finally on the 25th, just as I was losing hope a Yodel delivery driver appeared and handed me a box that looked like it had been kicked the whole way from freaking Birmingham.
He mumbled some vague appology and promptly ran off.

This is what he left me with:

So, this is a home depot box. A small home depot box at that.
this is the good side.

This is the not so good side. There's two large gashes in the box (on either side) and the whole thing looks pretty rumpled up. but hey, it's an outer box right? It took abuse but it's there to protect the contents!

This is inside. No bubble wrap... no packing peanuts.. nothing. The box is actually too small for the doll box inside, so it was rammed in at an angle. ALL the corners are scuffed and damaged.

Isn't it a good thing i'm not a MIB collector?

The seller assures me he packaged this thing well, and honestly i'm inclined to believe the guy. They sell exclusives a fair bit, I have to assume they know how to package a doll box. I can't think of any reason they would send something without bubblewrap, that's not the sort of thing a decent seller does and I get the feeling this guy is a genuinely decent seller. So giving them the benefit of the doubt on the packaging situation, what happened to the bubblewrap? (and indeed the reciept the seller told me was included in "the shoe box")

So... they opened the box? Now, here's the thing, Pitney Bowes, who Ebay use as their shipping people have a bit of a reputation for not only opening parcels but actually removing packing material to save costs shipping.
did they do that this time? I have no way of knowing, because I have to trust the seller on this and believe they wrapped the thing in bubble wrap. Somewhat tellingly, the customs declaration lists the weight of this HUGE freaking box at "0kg". Uh... pretty sure this thing weighs something guys.
Also worth noting, the customs declaration ONLY declares the value of the item, not postage. Usually you have to declare both, and in fact the VAT fee they charged me most certainly was calculated using the value + postage equation. So what happens to the extra? Straight into Ebay's pocket I have to guess.

for the record, vat on item without shipping added is £9:66
With postage, £13:81
and while I think it's pretty crappy to charge VAT on fricken POSTAGE, not declaring that surely is fraud?

Odd.

Anyway, pretty sure Pitney Bowes stole my bubblewrap. Jerks.

Aside from the edges though, my box is mostly ok. it's a bit squished but it's ok.

It's a cool outer box with swirls and open bits.

This side has an awesome portrait of Whisp herself. The artwork on this set is beautiful.

The bottom of the box has this on both inner flaps. Why the bottom of the box? I don't know. But notice the details about the tail? We'll get to that.

The inner box is a strange curved shape. Val looks like he's scolding Whisp. "Girl, now is NOT the time for dancing."

For some reason (probably trademark reasons) Whisp and Valentine both have new first names. Kieran, and Djinni.
Kieran? Whut?

The top of the box has this airbrushed colouring that looks to me like an oil slick.

The back has awesome dynamic genie art.

Even though her spine/neck is clearly broken, she's a freaking Genie, she can totally twist herself into this unnatural pose and it looks awesome.

Valentine doesn't really look surprised, more kinda "aww maaaaan". What the heck is up with his face here? It cracks me up, and i'm not sure that's what they were going for here. but he looks so bummed out by the Genie.

The box was only a little evil to open, plastic tabs hissss. It didn't claim blood though, whoo.
The backing card looks like some sort of cathedral, there's some 3d bats and a little alcove wall thingie... but what's this hiding behind the wall?

Disembodied legs! AIEEEEEE

Interesting thing to note, Whisp's ties that were presumably meant to be around her body had been cut. All her other tabs were in place, but the one around her waist was snipped. Hmmm...
Suspicious.

Val's hair is caked with gloop, it's gross. He needs a rinse.

Now, Val first. his eyebrows are painted oddly. one has this sorta... spiked up bit and both are painted so they're fuzzy looking. it looks a bit messy to my eye, particularly as no other MH doll has eyebrows like this. The asymmetry I dig, but the fuzzy edges? not so much.
Also one of his eyes is hugely bigger than the other. Is that just my doll being a bit odd or what? how do you even manage to do that?

Giant bug eye aside, he has pretty pink eyes and very pale lips. So pale you can barely make out the fangs.

He has pointed ears that are pierced, both have a single gold stud.

His outfit is beautiful. Absolutely beautiful.

His jacket has a ribbon trim and embroidered roses on the lapel, one cuff and the lower edges.
The pockets are false pockets.

his waistcoat is satiny and has gold buttons.

His pants are faux leather with a gold braid train.  

His boots are super hot and have painted buckles.

All the items are individual pieces. His shirt has frilly cuffs but no button detail down the front, which seems an oversight.

The back of the waistcoat has one of those little buckley belt things even. How cute is that?

Val also comes with his glasses, which apparently allow him to see into people's hearts or something. They conceal his bug eye so they're staying on.

Look at this pretty boy! He looks so peeved.

So Val's head has 2014 on the back, making me think it's a new mould. He looks nothing like the vampire cam, nor does he look like Billy (his nose, lips and jaw are all different). He has broader features than Heath but finer features than any of the other boys. Hmmm.
Suffice to say, I think he's got a whole new sculpt which is a suprise. Everyone was saying he was just a recolour/elaborate custom but i'm not convinced that's actually the case.

Billy seems to be the closest looking, and certainly they could be brothers were it not for their colouration but nope, not the same sculpt.

And despite having the same colours as the vampire CAM, there's no mistaking these two for one another.

"Why hello ladies... "

Now what about Whisp?
Whisp most certainly IS a recolour, being the shadow twin of Gigi Grant.

however, there are a few important differences.

Firstly there's that tail, an amazing little piece with lots of curls and look! A joint so she can SIT DOWN!
It's made of semi opaque plastic, you can see through it if you hold it up to the light. 

She also has a bust joint, but this means she's a bit wobbly as the joint is very loose.

This tail...

I thought it was just a static piece but no, it actually has three extra joints in it so you can pose it.

One at the very bottom.

One a little further up.

 And a third right at the first curl which. All three can turn a full 360 so there's quite a range of different poses you can get.

That said, there's only one pose where she's really at all stable standing without a stand.

but she can coil around the stand anyway so it's all good.

And if you don't like the tail, Whisp also comes with a pair of legs.

The two bottom halves of her snap on and off with a neat click.

Like Gigi, Whisp has this amazing scorpian carapice detailing all over her body. UNLIKE Gigi, she also has shadow tendrils running up her legs, an arm tattoo and that aforementioned under bust joint.

The ghouls share a face and body sculpt, but Whisp has slightly smaller eyes and a star and moon pattern across her face.

Whisp has a continuation of the tattoo/henna running down one arm and also on the back of her right hand. Both pieces feature scorpians.

Her earrings are like lightening bolts, while Gigi's are more like ornate shields or something. Whisp doesn't have bracelets like Gigi either.

but they come with matching lamps. Whisp's lamp is slightly shinier but honestly they're practically identical and very easy to mix up.

Just like Gigi's, the lamp opens up. The handle drives me mental, it's always falling off.

While Gigi's outfit was a one piece, Whisps is in two parts to accommodate her switching legs/tail. Her top has a stretchy shimmery black section and her pants are made of soft stretchy Lycra fabric as well with an elasticated waist band.

Her shoes are identical to Gigi's just in purple.

Whisp's skin tone and shadow tendrils of course made me think of Twyla, they're not an exact match but they're pretty close. Twyla's a fraction lighter.

I'm not totally sure Gigi's that happy about her "sister"'s return.

Valentine and Whisp come with stands, clear plastic ones with black bases. I think I prefer these to the standard black, they click into the base sturdier and the clips are less obvious because they're clear.

They also come with a standard black brush.

And a diary each.

Whisp's explains a couple of things, like why she looks like her shadow self as opposed to her redeemed self from the end of 13 wishes (uh.. spoiler?)

She states she chose to return to her shadow appearance because she wanted to change from the "inside out, not outside in". Fair enough I suppose.

She also explains that genies in the MH universe start out with only 3 wishes and gain more wish grants as they get older. So Val only gets 3 wishes, not 13.
Oh dear.

Meanwhile Val's diary talks about him wanting redemption blah blah blah and ties neatly in with the comic. I like when MH bother with their continuity.
He also name checks a random character "Spelldon Cauldrenello", which sounds like a witch. He's apparently travelling with his older sister? Hmm, wonder who this dude is and whether we'll ever see or heard from him again. Sadly just because a character gets a name in the diaries doesn't mean they get to well.. exist anywhere else. Toralei name checks a troll in her diary and has a whole story involving this girl, but she's never appeared since. Kinda bugs me as the nerdy troll ghoul sounded cute.
*sigh* And no, she's not Kjersti.

Whisp and Valentine, an odd couple but a rather sweet one. I actually enjoyed their diaries and I like that they've been fleshed out a little more. I'd like to see more of Val, but i'm not sure how they'll manage to crowbar Whisp into the whole thing, given after three wishes her lamp poof... disappears and she's off to find a new master. I'm sure they'll find a way though huh? Everyone ends up at Monster High, it's like there's no other schools in the whole world or something.

Is this a set worth picking up? Well for me it really was. When I first saw this was the exclusive I was relieved because I was honestly expecting Finnegan or something. I thought "awesome, it's two recoloured characters I couldn't care less about" but then photos happened and I started to warm to Val's grumpy little face and Whisp's sweet sad eyes.

I knew i'd regret not getting them, and i'm glad I did. They turned out far more interesting than the simple recoloured dolls several of us thought they were.

Whisp's tail is brilliant and I do hope it's a sign of things to come. It totally looks like a snake tail, so come ooooon Naga character.

And Val's outfit... wow. There's no way we'd have ever seen this outfit done this nicely on a general release doll. He has full pants! and embroidered detail and an actual shirt and waistcoat not all one piece sewn together! I'm glad he got the sdcc treatment so his costume could at least get the detail it needed.

Overall? A solid 9 bug eyes out of 10. The QC on these could have been a bit better and I do wish that Whisp's bust joint was a little less floppy but overall, they're really fun additions to my collection. I'm pleased to finally have a canon pink boy vampire bwhahaha, i've been waiting so long for a pink boy to add to my shelf (I don't know why but it makes me smile ok?)

Special bonus: Val's parents are emo vampires? *snort* I don't care they meant Emotional vampire and ran out of space, emo vampires conjure up such marvellous images. Shutup, Val's an emo vampire and nothing can convince me otherwise.