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.

Project MC2

MGA are back in the fashion doll game in a big way this year, not just with a massive relaunch of Bratz but with a whole new line called Project MC2.
Riding on the coattails of "girls in STEM" (that's science, technology, engineering and math for those who didn't know) being flavour of the uh... past few years they've finally produced a fashion doll that's both traditional fashion doll and promoting these subjects as cool and worth doing.
I can't help but applaud them on that front, because unlike so many "let's get girls into science" toys they haven't just painted a telescope pink and called it a day. Instead, we have a live action tv show on Netflix and four adorable characters to buy dolls of.

Bratz - Hello my name is Jade

it's 2015 and Bratz are BACK.
It's been a while, but finally the time has come and Bratz have relaunched... again.
This time with a wee bit more fanfare than the last, and not without it's own degree of controversy.
MGA have rehauled everything, new bodies, new face moulds, new art... old logo (lol) but the real question is, are these new Bratz any good?

Well, certainly when myself and several others saw the first images of them we weren't impressed. The community seemed divided, some welcoming the change and others wishing for the old. But I was curious, and one particular doll did appeal to me: Hello My Name is Jade.
So when Argos' new catalogue launched, I picked up Jade. The prices are a bit steep this year, but they're steep for ALL doll lines, not just bratz.
Even so, the cheapest Bratz line (Hello my name is) retails at £14:99, while the deluxe lines range from £25 to an eyewatering £33 for the snow dolls.
Ouch.
The US prices seem far more reasonable, but sadly we foreign scum just gotta put up with being ripped off. *sigh*

Anyhoo, given the newest budget Monster High line (Boo York) is £17:99 (yes, seriously) the £15 price tag for Jade wasn't nearly so hard to swallow.

And heeeere she is!

monster high - freak du chiq Gooliope Jellington

Gooliope, wow. I knew she was a big doll, I had a good idea of how tall she'd be but nothing quite prepared me for how BIG her head would be. It's pretty impressive and beautifully striking.

Gooliope comes in a box that's a bit bigger than the regular size, but even so she's still hunched over to fit. I love the cracks in the plastic as if she's been banging on it for release lol.
Though mine's hands are positioned a bit wrong for the illusion to really work, it's a fun concept and makes for fun packaging.

Monster High Boo York - Luna Mothews

It's my birthday on the fifth, wheeee.
I'm old. <_< >_> heheh.

Anyway, Smyths had 20% off all Monster High and were still the only place that actually even HAD stock of Gooliope here in the UK (everywhere else is backordered) and husband convinced me I should just bite the bullet and treat myself.

So Gooliope ended up about £28, while Luna was still a somewhat eye watering £21, but I really really wanted her so eh.

First time i've ever ordered from Smyths, as we don't have a store anywhere within about a 20 mile radius and they often don't have online stock. I've never been hugely impressed with Smyths business layout, their website is very deceptive but the past year or so they've been getting better and now the majority of what they have listed on their site IS actually available for home delivery (previously you were lucky to get maybe 10% of their online listings that weren't "collect in store only")
They offer free delivery on orders over £29 and told me it would take 3-4 days so I sat back expecting my parcel not to arrive till Monday at the earliest.
Surprisingly, despite ordering at 11:45pm on Wednesday night, they actually dispatched Thursday morning  and arrived Friday. Sweet!