Monster high Fierce Rocker 2 pack and 3 pack

It's taken me weeks to both these damn sets, rargh.

Okay, so fierce Rockers, a surprise release from Monster High and exclusive to Toys R Us. By some miracle tru UK actually got these in only a month or so after the US, instead of the usual 6 months later *sigh* but they then promptly started a 342 deal along with a load of vouchers which meant surprise surprise, multipacks sold out.

Because tru uk's website sucks,  you can't can't check stock prior to a trip out nor can you order into store to collect, these haven't even made it to their webstore and likely won't for several more months because tru.co.uk is a worthless rubbish website of pointlessness.

Anyway...



I ventured out to one of the big tru stores, an hour or so away by train to try my luck at finding these while the 342 was on. Sadly the store had very few multipacks left, their shelves had been rather picked clean but I managed to find two of the 2 packs. They had a few other 2 packs, the frankie/jackon one, the ghoulia/slo mo one and I think one of the deuce/gil ones but they had no 3 packs. Not even the londoom 3 pack, which was disappointing.

So I picked up Amanita and Dragon games Darling, who were also in the special offer. It made Amanita's price of £21 a little more swallowable if she was part of a 342 deal, her price just wasn't dropping to a point I was willing to pay. Lowest i'd seen was £18 which was still way too much imo. I'm cheap okay? lol

So I earned a £10 money card for spending over £40 in tru, which wasn't valid till the 342 ended naturally. So I waited till the end of the month and tried the other tru. As the first one, their shelves had been picked clean of multipacks. They had NO multipacks at all, and very few barbies (also included in the deal). I didn't see any EAH but tru keep hiding the EAH dolls and the Bratz stuff they've decided doesn't belong in the doll aisle and instead shall be shoved next to the toddler aisle that sells Thomas the tank engine stuff.
Wth?

Anyway, I digress.

I managed to find TWO 3 packs on the bottom shelf, so I grabbed the one with the best eyes. They didn't have anything else I wanted that wasn't horribly overpriced, they put everything up to "full" inflated price for the 342 and with that ended, stuff was just horribly expensive. £19:99 for budget releases? COME ON!
They wanted £35 for I heart Fashion Iris! I mean wth? Who's gonna pay that kinda money for one doll when you can get a 3 pack for the same price?

Anyway,

I finally had my 2 multipacks, relief. I was kinda annoyed they were multipacks because as always, there were only a couple I REALLY liked and typically, they were split across 2 packs.

Toralei I wanted. Catty I didn't.
Clawdeen I wanted, Venus I didn't and I was kinda "meh" about Jinafire too. I'd have liked to have been able to just buy them individually but of course that's never an option. I tried ebay but nobody seemed to be splitting the packs the way I wanted. Everyone wanted Toralei! argh.

So the back of the boxes features huge portraits of the ghouls. I kinda like these newer style box backs, the big portraits are very attractive.

I am a bit baffled by the assortment of characters though. Wasn't it a plot point in BYBY that Toralei couldn't sing? And.. since when were Venus, Clawdeen and Jinafire in a band? Yet again the not previously musical characters are rammed into a music themed line when it makes no sense. Operetta, Johnny Spirit, Holt.. all established as musical, but they never get music dolls. It's so confusing.

So we'll start with the two pack. 

MOULD SISTERS! Pretty sure these two use the same face, it's amazing how something like skin colour or makeup can make such a huge difference isn't it?

Toralei really stands out, orange against a purple backdrop.
(note what looks like Deuce on drums in the background. Wth? Why didn't he get a doll then? How'd Venus end up the drummer?)

Their artwork on the front is the same as the art on the back of the box, edited to remove the raised arms so you can see more of their faces.

I like how dynamic these pieces of art are, they're really fun.

Also unexpected bonus! the 2 pack has stands! I REPEAT, 2 pack HAS STANDS!

it also has a diary, but being an EU release it's very very abridged. It's actually double sided. One side is Toralei's, the other side is Catty's.

Toralei talks about it being a talent show and the winner gets to sing with Catty. Ahhh that explains a lot. Also she bribed people for votes.

Catty actually mentions that Toralei can't sing, so yay! they remembered continuity! phew. I was worried for a bit there.

I'd love to read the complete diary though, as the abridged EU version only has 4 sentences for each character and is massively abridged.

So here's Catty!

I really really hate her outfit. As I deboxed her it just got worse and worse, and then I got her out of the box and I just burst into laughter. What the hell even IS this? It's like.. there's one sleeve and one leg and it's silver and shiny and terrible.
I don't get it.
It's SO ugly. I thought Ghoul's Rule Clawdeen's outfit was ugly, this is worse.

It has this plastic collar in bright pink, and a plunging neckline with a blue bra sorta top underneath. There's a fake zip and this bit belt.... thing that winds around Catty's body. Then there's this strange belt garter around her upper leg that just serves no purpose and is held on with elastic bands because it's slightly too big and keeps falling down her leg.

I am so baffled by this outfit. It's just a hot mess.

Her shoes are... not to my taste either. They're blue and a cracked glass motif like her jumpsuit, but I just find them kinda ugly. They're okay, and with the right outfit could look cute but I dunno, something about them just doesn't work for me.
On the plus, I think these are a new sculpt. Certainly they don't look like any other Catty shoes. Go figure.

Under the belts, the outfit is still dire. I find my eye constantly drawn to her groin and it's creeping me out.

Under the terrible jumpsuit Catty has a blue bra on. It's shiny and kinda cute.

Catty's face is kinda cool though. She has silver lipstick which stands out sharply against her dark skin and this elaborate cracked mirror effect over one eye. I feel like she'd redress really well, I just can't stand any of her default outfit. The cracked mirror makeup is very glam rock though. I suppose so is the jumpsuit, but yeaaaaah..

Her hair is dark pink streaked with a lovely deep teal blue colour toward the back. The streaks match her bra top and shoes.

Catty comes with a silver microphone, it has a little skullette on it and has to be elastic banded to her hand to stay on.

So here's all Catty's stuff. Her tail is hard plastic and removable, in fact it likes to fall off constantly. SUPER annoying.
She has her jumpsuit (bletch) and bra thing, her shoes, a little cat collar style bracelet (it has a little bell on it), mic, garter belt thing and body belt... thing.
Phew... a fair bit of stuff then.

I actually only own one other Catty, I never saw any reason to buy more but while her original doll is pretty awesome facially, fierce rock does have that cool OTT makeup which is quite fun.
Fierce rocker's hair seems to be a slightly pinker pink and of course there's the teal streaks, she also has no earings unlike original Catty.

Fierce rocker's hair has a tendency to cover her ears which I think is a bit of a shame. It doesn't really have a style, it's just.. there. I think I prefer it with a bit more style.

Overall, she's a pretty doll. I just can't move beyond that outfit. It... it haunts me.

Speaking of dreadful outfits...

Oh Toralei, what ARE you wearing? #

The cape is kinda 80s glam, but the leotard with tacked on skirty bits is just... awful.

That face though.. this is why I wanted this Toralei. I hate her clothing, but that face. Black lippy, black streaks in her short hair, yesssssss.She has silver around her eyes and these three jagged teal blue lines under one eye.
She's so dark and gothy and I love it.

Her outfit is uh... odd.

She has this really big feather cape thing, a huge cracked mirror belt and then this shiny black leotard with orange fabric really messily tacked onto it. There's no ribbon or anything to hide the ugly seam, making it look honestly a bit unfinished and amateur. I think the belt is supposed to cover it but it just seems lazy not to finish it so that ugly seam wasn't showing.

She has very cool boots though. They're long boots with a spike trim around the sole, a zip up the side and what looks like jagged claw marks moulded in.
they have a sorta sabre toothed heel like a lot of Clawdeen boots too.
I think they might be recoloured "Catastrophe" boots.
They do kinda look like something Clawdeen would wear though.

Under the belt and cape Toralei's outfit is just... not working. I think maybe if you removed the orange... things and put shorts or a proper skirt over the top it would look better. I mean the base garment as a leotard/bodysuit isn't bad, it's those crappily tacked on orange skirt bits, they look like such an afterthought.

Her cape.. I don't actually know what it is. I thought it was feathers but there's no detailing making me think maybe it's just shredded fabric. It's very odd, and i'm not totally sure WHY it's plastic.

It's actually made in two parts that come off, and is a bit awkward to get on and off the doll because it attaches with well.. a body harness.

And here's all her bits. Toralei comes with two bracelets, a big chunky belt, the two pieces of her cape thing, her boots, her terrible outfit and a teal blue mic.
Her tail doesn't come off. I don't think any Toralei's tails come off. It's made of bendy stuff, unlike Catty but it's more.. rubbery than it is actually bendy. Original Toralei's tail actually bends and can be shaped, this one can't, but it's not the solid hard plastic of the other werecats. Odd.
This is only my second Toralei so i've never really thought about her tail as being different before.

My Toralei has a bit of a problem, she can't actually lower her arms any further than this image, they stick. I don't really understand why, but her arms will NOT lay down properly in the shoulder sockets. Bizarre. 

My original Toralei is a lot paler orange than this one, her face splotch isn't as obvious either. Later versions of her have always had much more noticable face markings. Like Catty, Fierce rocker toralei doesn't have earrings. Her hair is parted on the opposite side to original but a similar short bob style. I like Toralei with short hair, so I approve wholeheartedly.
the new doll's eyes are a LOT bigger as well, but I love how those black lips stand out.

New vs Old, I can't decide which Toralei I prefer. Catty though, well, my original Catty lost her pink princess poofy dress a looooong time ago. I hate frilly pinkness. I think new Catty would redress really nicely, I just can't be bothered trying to find her something unawful to wear.

So, overall on the two pack?

Terrible clothing, but some awesome face and hair from these two dolls. They both desperately need new clothing, but their shoes look to be unique and their makeup is super unexpected and awesome.

But what to score them?

7 camel toes out of 10

I hate both outfits, but I love Toralei's shoes and I think they both have really cool faces and hair. Put in new outfits, they could both be spectacular dolls.

 Now the three pack. The art is again really vibrant and dynamic. I love the movement in venus' hand and sticks there.

this box was a lot harder to open than the 2 pack. There's like a billion of these nasty plastic tabs with the sharp edges.

So once you pop all the tabs I found some strangeness. It didn't hinge the front open, oh no, it hinged the BACK open instead so I was confronted with this:

A whooooole mess of cardboard and then yet more teeeeny even sharper little tabs to get the front piece open. Wtf?

Why the hell does this thing have so many tabs!???

though I have to say, having the backing card NOT glued down is helpful for the deboxing.

What a colourful trio!

The background looks to be the same as the 2 pack's, just extended on the sides. Deuce is totally still drumming behind the girls lol.

With such easy access to the back of the box, it wasn't quite as nerve wracking cutting the tabs out of the girl's hair. Venus' head was resting on a plastic "pillow" thing though, that I couldn't really get access behind. Boo. way to defeat the point guys.

Unlike the 2 pack, there are no stands here... and no diary either. A shame, i'm curious about how these three ended up in a band together man!

I decided to look closely at Jinafire first, mostly because she was the one I was unsure if i'd keep. I already knew I wanted Clawdeen and didn't care much for Venus, but I was on the fence with Jin so wanted to really get a closer look to decide if she'd go in the "sell" pile with Catty and Venus or get to stay here.

She has really striking hair, it's bright acid green on the bottom layer with a shorter layer of beautiful jade green.

She has her usual angry eyebrows but they don't look quite as "rip your face off mad" to my eye, and her eyes are heavily lidded. She has a fire motif around her eyes, which is really cool even if her whole fire theme makes no sense mythologically. Chinese dragons don't DO fire, maybe she has a European dragon relative somewhere in that family tree.

Her hair is styled in this odd side swept manner, with the very top layer held in place with an elastic band and the rest flowing free. Most of her hair appears to be rooted in this bright acid green, and the style does mean her hair constantly flops over her face and obscures her eyes. She either needs a clip, or a rethink to this hairdo.

Her dress features a longer asymmetrical cut Chinese style dress with a short black skirt underneath, it has a dragon motif and a stand up plastic collar that looks like fire.

Interestingly her dress is two pieces. The outer dress and then a stretchy lycra feeling black skirt. It's elasticated around the waist instead of having velcro, so it's a bit awkward to get on and off.

There's a hole in the back for her tail. Which incidentally, falls out constantly. My other Jin has this same problem. Drives me mental.

Her outer dress also has a hole for the tail, but it's a lot larger than really necessary, and it's rectangular. Random.

She has awesome boots with a dragon coiled around them, the dragon's tail forms the heel. There's also a flame motif along the sole and a moulded zip.

Her earrings are red fan dangle earrings with a sort of... tassel at the bottom. They get in a way a little when she moves her head, particularly with that silly collar thing but they also help keep the collar UP lol. It likes to flop, it's not quite stiff enough where it's sewn on.

Her bracelet is a coiled dragon as well. It's very very hard to photograph such a teeny thing.

Here's all the stuff she comes with. Earrings, bracelet, boots, skirt, overdress and of course removable constantly falling off tail.

Gosh her body sculpting is cool. I never stop loving all those scales and that belly. 

She also comes with this fantastic keyboard/keytar. It's bright green to match her hair and a wonderfully sculpted dragon shape. It has a clear plastic strap. I kinda wish the keys weren't green though, they'd look better white I think.

But the back of it is sculpted too! like omg what? Okay i'm not sure WHY the dragon is sitting on its tail in such an awkward manner, it's like.. between its legs or something, huh? but it's so cool it's sculpted on the back. there's no reason it shouldn't just be flat but it's a great added touch.

Jinafire can hold her keyboard quite comfortably, the strap is just the right length.

I actually only own one other Jinafire, I always found her giant bug eyes and angry eyebrows a little offputting to be honest, and my original Jin has super buggy eyes and really mad eyebrows.

New Jin looks somewhat less alien to me, her eyes are smaller, less bulging, and her eyebrows seem to be at a slightly less extreme angle.

Their hair is totally different colours too. Original Jin has a quite bright grassy green with black streaks, fierce rocker Jin has jade green and acid/neon green with no black.

(no i'm not sure why Rocker Jin is goosing Scaris Jin, I honestly didn't notice till now. Oops?)

She's so pretty, I actually think I like her more than signature. Her faceup is just so much more well... refined and less bugeyed. She has attitude, but doesn't look like she wants to punch someone and eat their face off.

I'm still not totally sure about the hairstyle though, I think she needs some spa treatment to get her looking absolutely perfect.

But yeah, she's a keeper!

Venus was next, and honestly, even in person she just doesn't wow me. She's pretty enough sure, but her eyes are so wide and vacant. I have other Venus dolls who's eyes have far more life in them.

Anyway,

Venus' eyebrows are done in a sort of swampy green colour, which is quite good on her I think. Her lips are the usual deep pink with teeny multiple fangs. Her eyeshadow is pink just on the lids, then purple and on one eye there's a big uh... spikey shape? Is it meant to be an abstract open flytrap? A leaf? A bush? I dunno man.
It looks kinda cool though.

There's no green in her hair, which is different. Instead she has a single pale pink streak down the middle of her puffed up high ponytail.
Also unlike any other Venus, she has BOTH sides of her head flocked, which really opens up a lot of styling opportunities.

She has safetypin earrings, the same earrings we've seen so many times now on various dolls. Eh, they're kinda boring. Whatever. NEXT

Her outfit is simple, but it's cute enough. She has a pink knee length pencil skirt with an abstract vine and geometric pattern in black and green. She then has a black sort of crop top with pink ribbon straps and a black plastic spiked collar.
I feel like there's something missing from this outfit, it just feels... incomplete to me.

She has no jewellery, just her usual vines. 

Her shoes are a rather boring pair of purple ankle boots with a spiked heel. The colour looks nice against her skin tone but matches NOTHING in her outfit so it's a bit odd to my eye.
The vines are as usual separate pieces and not part of the shoe mould.

Venus also comes with a pair of drumsticks, along with her earrings, crop top, skirt, leg vines, arm vines and boots.

What I discovered when I took her skirt off surprised me. This loooooong loop of ribbon. At first I thought it was a strap to keep her skirt from slipping around on her, as often dolls have, but then I keep pulling and it got longer and longer. It's fully stitched at both sides, but it's way too long to be a thong strap, it's as long as the actual SKIRT! wth?

Is it a single suspender?

What is it FOR!??

I don't understand Mattel! I don't understand.

That oddness aside, her drumsticks are black and have a vine and uh.. aries pattern. What? that V shape is totally the symbol for the ram.

Why does she have this on her drumsticks?

Weiiiird.

She also comes with a teeny little electronic digital drum kit. This thing is small and bright pink, but has quite a lot of detail. There are what look like pedals at the base, there's a vine running up the stand and there are spikes around the sensor pads.

The two "drums" to either side are coffin shaped, the middle two are round with skulettes inside.

And there's moulded speakers on the "front" of the base too! cool. The vines continue up onto the back of the drum pads.

I kinda want to paint the vine in green and brown so it really stands out, in fact really i'd like to paint the whole thing so it wasn't bloody pink. What drumkit is pink? seriously, shouldn't it be black or grey or something? *sigh*

It's kinda small and pathetic, maybe that's why the band needed Deuce to back Venus up on a real drum kit. Hah.

Alongside signature Venus you can see what I mean about her eyes being so... blank and staring. Original Venus has lovely eyes, they're elongated, almond shaped and with this thick sultry lid. Fierce rock Venus looks a little startled.

Interestingly, like with Jinafire, Venus' hair on her new doll is a totally different colour to her original doll. Original Venus' hair is this sort of watermelon colour, a very vivid pink and a dulled mossy green. Fierce Rock's hair is closer to Catty's dark pink, it may even be the same colour. It's pretty blooming close that's for sure.

Overall, she's a cute doll but she's not "wowing" me. I love her hair with the two sided flock, I think t that's really cool but her blank eyes disappoint me. Particularly when I have the gorgeous dark I heart Fashion Venus who really suits the rocker title far better.

Clawdeen... oh Clawdeen. It's no secret, I love Clawdeen. LOVE her.
She so often gets such unique and different dolls.
Here she has for the first time got hair that's a sort of indigo colour. A gorgeous blue streaked with purple very reminiscent of Amanita Nightshade's hair. It's a new colour for her, Clawdeen hasn't really rocked blue hair before so this departure from the norm is very much appreciated.

Her hair is actually a proper blend of purple and blue, creating this shimmering colour changing effect depending on what angle you look at her.

Her eyebrows are coloured purple, which looks great and she has this big purple crescent moon painted on one side of her face.
Her eyeshadow is a deep purple around the eyes and then a layer of yellowy gold that's very very subtle. Her lips are gold, a colour she's sported a couple of times previously and it looks excellent here against that dark hair and clothing.

She only has one ear pierced, with a big chunky two ring and chain piece I believe we've seen before. This time it's in black.

Her hair has some sort of styling product in it, it left a bit of a grease spot on the backing card that had me worried but her hair doesn't actually feel greasy. It clearly has product in it, but it's not sticky or unpleasant, it's soft and shiny and in beautiful soft curls.

Her hair shimmers so many shades of blue, it's so pretty!

Clawdeen's top is fully fur, the whole top is made of dead muppet. This surprised me actually, I thought it would only be a sort of fur shrug or shawl or maybe have a plain back but nope, it's totally made of fake fur and sheds like crazy.

It actually feels rather flimsy, I don't think it'll hold up to play well at all. It's thin under all that fuzz, very light and fragile.

Clawdeen's necklace is a reused piece, a chunky moon or... tooth? or.. claws? thing, it works really well against her shirt, the size of it balances nicely. I think it's Clawdia's necklace... I wonder if she knows her sister nicked it. Heh.

Clawdeen also has a spiked cuff bracelet, lots of spiked bracelets. It's one moulded piece and I think is a reused piece too.

Clawdeen's leggings do remind me of the leggings from one of her earliest fashion packs:

Only these ones are a far more flattering cut.

The pattern is interesting, it's part Sister's 2 pack sock with the purple and green stripes, part scales, part animal print. I can't quite pinpoint exactly what this pattern IS, it looks like a mesh of lots of different animal prints. It's rather trippy and starts to move if I stare at the pattern too long... wheeee.

Clawdeen's shoes are inexplicably pink, I don't get why. Like Venus' shoes they don't go with anything she's wearing so... colour me confused. Why pink? I kinda feel like Venus should have had boots this colour and Clawdeen's shoes should have been black or purple.

The shoes are quite detailed. There's a moon and slash pattern on the bottom of the sole, the sole itself has slashes down it. The toe is studded, then there's what looks like a fur trim and a curved spiked heel.

I don't recognize these shoes, are they new? (edit: found them! Her I heart fashion doll had a black pair and Scaris had a gold pair. How'd I miss that? Scaris is ON MY DESK right now!)

I'm still not totally sure what the necklace represents.

Here's all Clawdeen's stuff. I couldn't get her earring OUT so I gave up.

She then has her skinned muppet, those trippy leggings, her heels, a bracelet and a necklace.

don't look at the leggings too long, i'm certain they may actually induce hallucinations. they're making my eyes defocus.

Clawdeen also comes with a guitar. And holy crap this thing is amazing. It's gold, it's solid plastic (not hollow backed like I expected) and it's SO detailed. It has 6 strings, unusual for a doll scale guitar, they usually fudge it, and just look at the swirls and shapes all over the body!
It has a purple clear plastic strap.

and it's freaking moulded on the back too!

I mean DUDE! It's a really chunky solid piece. One of the best doll guitars I think i've ever seen, most of them have a blank back because it's against the doll's body, you never see it, but no, that wasn't good enough for Mattel here. I applaud the design team for this. The level of detail on all these instruments is really quite surprising.

Again the strap on this instrument is just the right length for the doll to hold it fairly naturally. I'm not convinced the little hand loop thing was neccisary or really helps though, as Clawdeen's hands are too wide to actually fit INTO it without squishing all her fingers together.

She's a great doll though, only thing I might change is the shoes. The pink just jars against everything else.

so here's my band, though i'm not sure who thought it was a good idea to put Toralei on vocals. I suspect her mic is actually switched off.

I heart fashion Venus just to me fits in better, particularly with Clawdeen. Toralei looks so much better out of that ridiculous showgirl outfit too. I couldn't find her neck scarf annoyingly, so she stole Frankie's vest till I figure out what I did with it.

I love this line though, it's not perfect sure but the level of detail on the dolls and their accessories is astounding, particularly the three pack. The funky makeup is a touch of elaborate wierdness we thought we'd never see again once Mattel declared a reboot and "softening" of the brand, and while the two pack's outfits were... questionable.. the three pack's costume choices were bang on. Jinafire's outfit is fantastic, a great blend of modern and traditional and some really nice colours, Clawdeen's outfit is bizarre but works and Venus' outfit, though simple, is beautifully made and very cute. With some accessories, maybe a belt? it could be terrific.

I don't usually keep every doll from a multipack, so 3 out of 5 dolls as "keepers" isn't bad odds there.

There's some reused bits here, but also some apparently unique new shoe sculpts and accessories which is really cool.

Definitely recommend the 3 pack, it's really nicely done. A shame there's no stands, but for the price point, it's not surprising.

The 2 pack retails for £29:99 and the 3 pack is £34:99, both are exclusive to Toys R Us.
I got both mine with vouchers so they worked out a fair bit less, but to be honest, the full retail price is more than fair for what you're getting.

I'm delighted with this surprise release, a last hurrah for Monster High's original style before it's all rebooted and blandified. *sigh*

I give the Fierce Rock 3 pack a solid 9 trippy pants out of 10. Seriously, don't look at them too long! they're a health hazard! 

It's a great set, 3 really nicely done dolls. They lost a point for breaking the "don't wear shoes that don't match anything else you're wearing" rule. I'm a stickler for fashion rules (which is funny given I don't give two hoots about fashion).