Monster high SDCC Robecca and Hexiciah Steam 2 pack - Comic con exclusive

I know I know, I promised you guys DC dolls but then my SDCC 2 pack arrived and it was way more pressing to review.

I'll get the other stuff done at some point but i'm a slacker *ducks* Don't throw stuff!
Heheh.

So here it is, the SDCC exclusive Steam 2 pack!




The outer box is as always MASSIVE, and designed to look like I think a steamer trunk, or a crate.

The inner box is mostly plastic which is a bit disappointing it's the newer style box and I just know it's gonna be a bitch to open.

Inside the outer box, taped to the lid are the diaries. There's 2, one for Robecca and one for Hexiciah.

The inner box is a plastic nightmare with a huge cog wheel on the front.

I freaking love the artwork though. Hexiciah is one hot daddy (lol) and Robecca's art is adorable and sassy. I dig it.

The cog actually turns, though I really don't know why. it says on it "remove gear for inspection" but I couldn't work out how to get it off without damaging it. it's held on with a plastic toggle thing.

The backs of the boxes. I kinda think it's a shame the outer box doesn't open where the hinges are printed.

The back of the inner box has a note from Robecca talking about waking up, and a short message from her dad telling her "welcome to the world!" which is cute. There's also drawings and presumably his notes.

This box.... oh man.

So usually the SDCC boxes are designed so you can open them without doing any real damage and remove the dolls right? but noooo, the new style boxes involve a lot of tearing and way too much glue.
Despite being as careful as I could be, you can see the sections where the glue was so thick it tore the backing card.
Then you get access to all the plastic tabs that lock in under the backing card. Eugh...

Once those are carefully pried off (and there's a lot of them) you get the whole front off and the dolls on their card. I don't like this, it means the box is gonna be a nightmare to put back together and for SDCC exclusives, the box is part of the artwork right? But if they wanted them kept in box they'd have a better display front and wouldn't come with stands.
Arghhhh.
I just resent having to ruin a box to get into the dolls.
And I resent the plastic tabs that hurt my fingers.

Interestingly on the inside of the cog, on the inner side so you can only see this if you open the box or pull the cog off, there's little bios of the two characters.

Robecca's powered by hope lol, well, I suppose it makes a change from being powered by love.

So here they are. Hexiciah who is MASSIVE and Robecca who's so damn shiny.
I wasn't totally sold on the shininess, it always makes me think of those cheap crappy 90s toys. I will say though, I was expecting her to feel all hollow and cheap and brittle but she's not. I think they've actually coated a more robust plastic in the shine rather than molding her totally out of it, which means she actually feels well... not like she'll snap if you touch her. Some plated dolls like the older ones from the 80s and 90s really do feel super brittle.

Anyway, her shininess makes her a pain to photograph, but we'll get to that.

I DID manage to get the inner box back together but i nearly sliced my hand open doing it. Grrr grrrr. I hate hate hate plastic tabs sooo much.

Here's the backing card with everything off it. What on earth is Hexiciah planning to do with that huge cog?

Here they are deboxed!

Robecca's skin is super shiny so she reflects everything, it's a pain.

Hexicia uses Manny's body sculpt, so he's freaking massive.

It's nice to see this huge body being used again, even if it is just for a limited release.

Manny's a bit more orange than Hexiciah.

RObecca uses a slightly altered version of her usual head sculpt. It's a little odd what is different. First off, there's a very obvious seam around her hairline where there's a section that isn't chromed, presumably this was so they could root her hair in, but it is a bit odd having that really obvious change there.

Her eye cogs are painted differently too, they're a lot crisper and more cog-like actually, and they're shiny gold.
She has soft silvery eye makeup and pink underneath which isn't nearly so severe irl as it is in oversaturated photos.
Her lips are a very bright fire engine red.

Without flash her actual colours are a lot easier to see. Her skin is a sort of golden copper colour and very reflective.
the shine kinda makes her look a lot more gaunt imo than her original doll.

It's hard to see but the other change in her sculpt is that the sdcc one doesn't have the under chin seam line. Original Robecca has a seam under her chin with a line of bolts, sdcc has nothing.

She also has holes UNDER her ear rather than in her ear lobe for her earrings which is utterly bizarre. it's a square hole too, so the earrings are quite hard to get out. They look cool in, but this is just weird having them attach like this.

And here's the back of her head, which is very blank. There's a tab where the top section (non metalised plastic) slots into her metallic face. Weiiird.

I definitely prefer her dulled tone original doll.

SDCC Robecca has really soft hair styled into soft waves, but it's really really box crushed and messy as hell. I don't know what the fibre is but it's super soft and very light feeling, it actually reminds me of mohair rather than nylon or saran. It's kinda odd. Very nice to run your fingers through, but it didn't take being boxed well at all.

It brushes out quite nicely if you're gentle but being such a light fibre it's a little prone to flyaways.

She has a big tophat on a headband which is plastic tagged to her head. It IS a full headband though, unlike many more recent MH dolls who get these half bands that actually won't stay on the head without elastic bands (which defeats the point Mattel!) The hat is hollow so it's not too heavy, so it should stay out without the tabs if you remove them.
there are three gears and some... I dunno, bead things hanging from the hat. One of the gears has a clock face in it. Her earrings are simple little gears just like these.

Her dress is made from some sort of satin-like fabric. It's a bit stiff but not as scratchy and ick as I half expected it to be. It has this detailed ruffle down the front which criss-crosses over, it's built to have a sort of bustle shape and the stiffness of the fabric holds that well without anything underneath and there's also these big puffy sleeves.

Over the dress she has a really elaborate belt made of gears and cogs and straps etc.

This dress is actually her dress from Frights Camera Action:

As you can see here.

It's actually a very close rendition of this animation only outfit. Same ruffles, same sleeves, same tophat and shoes ever.
I'm glad they finally made this outfit, I always think it's a shame when they design an outfit for a special but never make a doll of it.

The back of the dress has a printed on corset lacing. I think that's a little lazy for a deluxe doll but I suppose they gotta keep their price point down. These DO only sell for like $40 at the con.

Robecca has a purple arm cuff... thing this time. It's different to her signature one. It's got filigree detailing and a steam gauge on one side.

Her shoes are a pair of blue heels with little rivets on them.

These are actually quite strange shoes.
the cuff part around the ankle IS NOT attached, it's a seperate piece and the shoes themselves are moulded in two halves that then clip together.

The shoes are rigid plastic rather than the usual squishy stuff so I assume this it to make them easier to get on and off? and that maybe doing them this way was a way to reduce friction on the shiny plating of her feet? I don't really know, i've never seen anything like this with MH shoes. It's a bit weird.

They clip together like this, so there's always a seam down the middle. They also don't really stay on her feet that well when clipped like this, they need the elastic bands to make sure they're good and secure.

Here are all her outfit pieces. I don't quite understand why her ankle cuffs are not part of the shoes, it's all very odd to me. I have to assume its something to do with her chromed plating. It's the only explanation I can come up with for why her shoes are so strangely constructed.

While we got her naked though, let's look at that body.

Robecca's body is pretty similar to her regular doll body, just shiny.

She even has the little spinning wheels in her lower leg.

And that same bizarre leg articulation only Robecca seems to have (what is up with this?)

Where things get a little different is her hands.

the detailing looks about the same, but her wrist joint is different.

There's a sort of ridge along the wrist on her sdcc doll.

It means the wrists actually slot in a bit more securely, though my girl has one loose elbow. It stays on, it's just a bit weaker than i'd like.

Lovely outfit, i'm just not sure about the doll herself. she's so offputtingly shiny to me. Some people might love that, but it's not for me. I like my steampunk all grimy and dull, not sparkly and clean.

I likes me some patina.

Hexiciah towers over his daughter, but I can't help but feel original Robecca just works that bit better with him than shiny Robecca.

Speaking of Hexiciah. He's a handsome devil he is. He has moulded hair and moustache which actually a don't mind as short styles like this, and facial hair would have been terrible with rooted fiber. He has one gear eye and one regular eye, both a sort of hazel-green colour.

He has a fabulous nose and a super square jaw and I dig it.

I always wanted more adult dolls for mh, more teachers and parents and such. I thought it'd be really cool to have the teachers come with like, classroom bits so you could set up actual classes and have them taught, the play potential there appealed to me. But maybe kids don't wanna play with teacher dolls, I dunno.
Still it's nice to see another grown up in the franchise.

Hexiciah wears a white shirt with a purple cravat. 

Over this he wears a blue striped waistcoat in satin-like fabric. The he has a pair of red drill short puffy pants (they're bloomers or something I think, they have elasticated cuffs) and a pair of spats or.. gaiters? I dunno...  with shoes.

There was concern when pictures first surfaced of this set that Hexiciah would have moulded lower legs and unremovable shoes. Kinda like that awful latest Charming doll they did for EAH, with the moulded pants and shoes of crappiness.

Thankfully they DID NOT do this. Hexiciah's shoes/gaiters are removable. Phew.

He comes with a little tool belt which holds three tools. The hammer he was holding, a socket wrench thing and a screwdriver. Each is removable, and I like that they all fit in the belt.

His shirt has a little g string to keep it in place, lol.

The cravat is actually sewn to the shirt, so it doesn't come off and I couldn't work out how to get the shirt off over Hexiciah's robotic arm, so I gave up. While the hands pop off pretty easy, I didn't want to force the elbows because I wasn't sure they were actually supposed to come apart.
But it's impossible to get the shirt OFF without removing the whole robotic arm so I have to assume it must come off.. right? The cuff is too narrow to fit over the bulk of that limb and they must have gotten it on somehow.

That arm though.. it's freaking awesome.

look at all that detail!

The hand piece comes off not at the wrist but a little way down the hand, but this is so it can conncet to the wrist joint, which is a large bolt and cog.

I love this hand! It has an aged patina and it's so detailed, you just see more and more stuff the longer you look at it. It's freaking awesome. All the joints have been disguised as robotic joints with cogs and gears and bolts and stuff. It's really clever.

Adults!

Seriously Hexiciah is huge, he dwarfs Headmistress Bloodgood.

But I rather like how well they match one another in terms of the style and fabrics of their outfits. They both have this similar old fashioned style, the same sort of white shirt with no real detailing down the front and so on. I dig it, they make a cute pair. Ahem.

Robecca's so pleased to have her daddy back.

I think i'd prefer SDCC Robecca did she have the sort of aged patina of Hexiciah's arm, and I get they wanted her to look "brand new" and all, but bleh.. it's a pain to photograph and she's just too much for me.

Overall? I'm glad I got the set. I love Hexiciah, he's a great doll and Robecca's whole outfit is really nice as well. It comes with stands but no brush, which is about standard for SDCC and the diaries are always a fun read. I love the diaries, I miss the diaries man.

I'm not as sold on this set as I was on previous year's 2 packs mostly because I don't really NEED another Robecca doll, not even a massively shiny one. I tend only to bother with the sdcc dolls because they're new characters we don't necessarily get a proper release of and I like having them in their signature outfits. I'd have loved a proper FCA Robecca, and I think this is a very very close rendition of that outfit, just the shine puts me off hugely and that's a personal preference thing.

I love Hexiciah's arm though, and his big ol' mustache lol. He'd a handsome devil, but I always had a bit of a thing for mad scientist/inventors hah.

I wonder if we'll see any other parents get dolls. I'd love to see Sparky and the Steins, or Dracula, or some more of the teaching staff. I would have so much fun with teachers! the diorama potential man!

I mean, what's the point of a high school setting without staff?

But, is this 2 pack worth getting? Well, I definintely think Hexiciah is worth getting. Robecca I can take or leave but i'm sure some people will love love love her. She's very "bling" and certainly stands out.

Quality wise she's quite nice. Her outfit is well made, her hair is lovely and soft and her facepaint is bright and crisp. She has cool accessories (I love that belt omg) and my only gripe is that her one arm is a bit weak and the plating i'm not sure will survive the test of time that well. Also she has a few teeny scratches on her face from the production process, little imperfections in the plating is common in this sort of thing.
I like her eyes, they're really cool with the gold colour and how precisely painted the cog wheels are (her other dolls the cogs are a bit more subtle) and she's slowly growing on me. I think I need to sell her fast, before I get attached hahaha.

Hexiciah could have a slightly more detailed shirt and i'd have liked his gaiters to be fabric or something but I can understand why they aren't. His outfit is well made and goes together well. I wish he could look down as well, but this was a limitation of the body sculpt I noticed with Manny as well. He can't really look DOWN at Iris and it's a bit annoying, it's all because of the way the head is fixed to that thick neck. More head motion would have been nice for photos.

I give this set a solid 7 randomly stuck on gears out of 10.

I don't like the whole having to tear the back off the box to open it thing, i'm still not 100% on the shininess and I'm just not so excited about deluxe versions of characters we already have a load of dolls of. I know I whine about SDCC debuting new characters and how unfair it is, and I still stand by that, but at least those sets felt worth the high price because they were the only way to get that character for at least a year or two and the only hope you ever had of getting a signature version of that character. I've always preferred the sdcc versions to their later released I heart fashions. Whisp has a cool tail, Iris has bangs that suit her giant face better, Scarah has a cute hairstyle too and a really cohesive but simple outfit, Wydowna has infinitely better rooted hair and we've never seen a single one of the boys released as SDCC exclusives, I doubt we ever will. So this is very likely the only release Hexiciah will ever get, which in itself makes the set worth getting. But it's unlikely to be the last time we see Robecca, and she already has a whole load of super pretty dolls with similar steampunky outfits so...yeah.. take from that what you will.

I'm glad I ordered the set though. I knew I couldn't NOT get Hexiciah and he's already settling into the collection well.