Well this one was a surprise. Yesterday Spectra just appeared in stock on Smyth's website. No fanfare, no preorder, just bam, we have her.
I was unsure whether to just order her right away or wait for other people's reviews/photos but in the end I decided to take the plunge because I was assured she'd NOT have poly hair.
I admit, i've been buying a lot of my g3 MH secondhand because they're dolls I need to "fix" thanks to poor hair choice or badly painted eyes (i'm looking at YOU MH Boys)
But Spectra looked beautiful in her promo images. My only real fear was whether her hair would be okay. Has Mattel listened and stopped resorting to poly for everything? Or was she going to be yet another nice redesign ruined by Mattel's cheapness?
only one way to find out.
Smyths offers several different shipping options but i'm stingy so I opted for the free "standard shipping" which they told me would take 2-3 days. And usually does in my experience.
I could pay a couple of quid for next day delivery but as I said, i'm stingy.
As it turned out, I didn't need to pay the extra anyway. Spectra was ordered Wednesday afternoon and appeared on my doorstep on Thursday morning.
Damn that's quick.
And unusual for Smyths. I think they've switched to a new courier. My last parcel i think was delivered via Evri/Hermes while this one was Yodel.
Spectra comes in the same standard g3 box as the other "core" dolls. I miss the old trapper keeper style boxes but this box is fine. It's just kinda standard imo and the wasted space at the sides pisses me off. There's no stand so there's literally no reason for that whole black section to exist and the plastic "monster high" logo piece just feels like a waste of plastic. Could it not be cardboard?
I do appreciate that they standardised the art style though. I don't always like Darko's art, but at least it means all the dolls have consistent looks and brand cohesion.
Judging by the back of the box, Spectra is supposed to be part of the "core refresh" line.
What's interesting is that Cleo is shown on the front of the box but isn't on the back.
Are the two characters pictured with the doll supposed to represent friendships? I've never quite worked out the logic. Abbey had no companions with her on her box, Clawdeen has Cleo and Lagoona, Frankie has Lagoona and Draculaura... so it really feels pretty random honestly.
Anyone got any insight there?
Anyway,
the back of Spectra's box has a little bio like all the others which is ultimately, more a list of the stuff she comes with than an actual bio. She's a ghost, she likes nuggets.
that's literally all we know.
Wow, amazing character building there Mattel. Truly inspiring.
Slight wonk maybe?
It's minor enough I can ignore it.
I do wonder why some of the g3 dolls have character specific little symbols in their eye shines while others just have the dots. You could argue that she has a "boo" face with the three dots but if that's it it's subtle.
Like her original dolls she has coloured sclera to emulate transparency. They're pale purple here, with pale blue irises and a soft pink and purple eyeshadow.
another curious thing is that the box this time wasn't taped shut. Usually the tabs are taped over but these ones weren't so she took seconds to unbox. It brought back memories of the old boxes which fastened in the same way without tape.
Her hair looks to be a near match blend to Howliday Clawdeen and much like Howliday Clawdeen, her box hair is pretty bad.
It fluffs up nicely if you brush it but she has a lot of loose hairs and it's very all over the place unfortunately. She needs her hair properly curled I think.
The blend is a mix of purples and blues, Howliday Clawdeen might have a touch more blue in her blend? I'm not sure. To be honest, i'm not convinced they aren't exactly the same.
Her hair feels soft and slightly greasy which suggests Saran. Which would also explain why her curls immediately drop out. Saran doesn't hold a curl that well. The good news is that it's definitely NOT poly. PHEW.
Now Mattel, can we please please pretty please have an Abbey with saran hair? Please?
Spectra's shoes are little chain sandals with a chunky ball "heels" which bring to mind her original g1 shoes.
Her outfit is a short bodysuit/playsuit with a chain belt worn over the top and a puffy sleeved, long sheer jacket.
The playsuit itself is made from a kind of crinkly foil material that's not overly pleasant to touch. It's stiff and crunchy. It's shiny with metallic chains criss crossing. Interestingly, it has no transparent straps like most doll clothes but the bodice holds in place fairly well thanks to the material anyway.
It's a cute little piece but I can't help but wish it was made of something less stiff. It makes it a little tricky to get on and off.
Her jacket... thing... is made from two different materials. The majority is this sheer purple material with silver chain pattern while the "body" part of it is made from a very dark purple material that has a sheen to it like satin or something. It has a black criss crossing chain pattern. Or I think it's chains, it's tiny and quite difficult to make out being black against dark purple.
The jacket has a high collar, a little velcro fastening at the front and puff sleeves that are elasticated at the wrist.
The plastic tabs that held her skirt part in place have left holes which always pisses me off.
Her earrings are a key and a lock. Spectra has often had locks as a motif and this one lock, one key thing was done a few times in g1. The earrings look nice on her, they're not too long so as to get caught in her hair but have a nice shape to them when in her ears.
She also has two other accessories. Her belt, which is made of three long chains with balls at the ends of each and a shoulder piece made from one looped bit of chain.
No, i'm not sure what to call the shoulder piece. What's interesting is that the main interesting feature of it, the crossed chains, is only visible from behind and only if you lift her hair up. So for the most part this piece isn't very obvious from the front and doesn't add a lot. But I get it as a replacement for a necklace given her high collar would make a necklace impractical.
She also has her circlet which is like most of Mattel's head pieces, a semi circle that's plastic stapled to the head and isn't long enough to actually stay on without those staples. *sigh* this is another thing that pisses me off. Would it kill them to make it a fraction longer so that it actually stayed in place without the need for plastic tags? It makes brushing the doll's hair a pain because you either have to take the thing off and accept you're never going to get it back on/sewing it in place afterwards or you have to comb around it.
it annoys me.
if you're going to make a headband or whatever, MAKE IT FIT THE FUCKING DOLL. This shouldn't be difficult. But apparently all toy companies are allergic to the bleeding obvious. *huff*
Anyway, moving on.
Spectra's body has wide hips and a cinched in waist. Her lower legs and lower arms are transparent and spraypainted white to transition into her white parts. This is how they did it with g1 Spectra too. I wonder if this doll will yellow and cloud the same way g1 Spectas did. *sigh*
that was always a bummer.
The body is the same one used for Cleo. It's nice to see them using these diverse body sculpts. I really like Cleo and Draculaura's body sculpts particularly. What can I say, I like big thighs and I cannot lie.
Her shoulders have already got some staining from her jacket so that's something to be aware of.
And her ears are slightly pointed, which seems to be a feature of a lot of the new MH dolls. I like it.
Like the other core dolls, Spectra comes with her pet ferret Rhuen. I'm very happy this critter is STILL a ferret given Mattel's obsession with morphing everyone's pets into a dog or a cat in g3.
They're transparent purple that fades out down the tail.
What's also cool is that they can stand on their own, the tail has a flat bottom which allows the whole thing to stand up. G1 Rheun was supposed to be able to stand on their tail but ultimately always fell over because they were top heavy.
I also think this version looks more like a ferret, excluding that smoke tail of course. The smoky tail is reading more "genie" than ghost but I get what they were going for there.
Meanwhile, Rhuen's original design was... strange.
G3 Rhuen looks more weasel-like to me. Slender long body, curvy shape, no random tusks....
My one does unfortunately have some major wonk, the eye decal is completely misaligned but given how small this thing is, I should imagine that's quite easy to get wrong.
Like all the wave 3 pets, the uv printing of the face is VERY pixelated and blurry anyway.
to be honest, i'm half tempted to try to scrub the whole face and hand paint it. But getting this stuff OFF is really difficult.
Still, I like Rhuen's new look for the most part. I think it's one of the few cases where we've actually got an improvement over g1. G1 Rhuen was a goofy weird looking critter that in no way read "ferret" (perhaps Sid from Ice Age though) while this version looks far closer to the intended animal.
Have I mentioned how bloody awkward it is to spell Rhuen?
Spectra also comes with the typical nonsense all the signature dolls get. A bag, in this case shaped like a cartoon ghost with "boo" on the front, a drink, some food, a phone and a tablet computer.
The drink is a transparent jar style and fairly basic with just a skullette on the front.
Husband thought the ghosts were cookies which to be fair, would have made sense but no, they're nuggets. The back of the box confirms this by calling them "ghost nuggets". The ghost pepper hot sauce also makes more sense in the context of these being nugs.
But who the heck just carries hot sauce and chicken nuggies around? Did she store these in her bag? Are they cold?
I mean, the little tray they come in has a waffle cone texture and an icy sort of jagged motif around the top so... frozen nuggets? What the hell?
But whatever, she has nuggets. And they really do look like nuggets with the texture they sculpted on them.
I still can't photograph the screens of the phones etc, that pixelated uv print just hates cameras.
Her phone is a pale sort of teal green while her tablet is purple and coffin shaped.
If their phones are "icoffins" then what's the tablet version? An Icasket?
Her apps include one with a chain motif, a ghost (is that snapchat?), a music app and a few other random ones.
Her phone case is another cartoon ghost and it's hilariously cute.
I half want to paint the little bow pink and fill the eyes and mouth in black.
I do kinda dig how simple this case is, it's very effective while being very very adorable.
She also came with a pair of sunglasses but they don't look like they fit very well. They sit a little too low on her face imo. It looks awkward.
the sculpt of them is very very familiar though. They look like the ones that came with her g1 Swimclass doll and two of her fashion packs.
I definitely think she looks better without them.
And I have to admit, i kinda LIKE how her phone is a complementary colour and not also purple like everything else. It helps it stand out a bit. It also brings out the blue in her eyes.
Her bag is a bit of a pain because it's very stiff to open and I like to store the food accessories in the bags so they don't get lost. But getting them IN there was really difficult and now I don't think I can get them back out.
Oh well.
Like on the one hand, I do appreciate that the bags open, but on the other, I wish they were more functional because that slit in the top and the firm plastic isn't very user friendly.
I also still love that they can HOLD their accessories. Those little thumb rings were a great idea.
She definitely needs some hair care though. It looks constantly messy and it bothers me.
So i'll have a go at washing it and trying to get it to fall into neater curls or waves.
That said, I like her significantly more than I ever liked g1's first Spectra. I always felt like her outfit was a little random and not my taste and she always looked quite harsh. My display g1 Spectra is Ghoul's Night out (with her spectacular bright hair and very dark lips) who I need to dig out because she's somewhere on the shelf but I couldn't see her when I was looking earlier.
too many dolls. Far... far too many dolls lol.
But I continue to be quite happy with g3. I like the character they're getting into these sculpts, they feel more cartoony and expressive which I actually really enjoy.
And I always thought Spectra was prettiest in darker tones so these deep purples are nice.
But for comparison's sake, here's my original g1 signature Spectra in her first fashion pack (note the sunglasses. Yeah the g3 ones look to be a revised version of these. The lens shape is slightly different without the rim so I don't think it's a 1-1 reuse)
I feel like she definitely still LOOKS like Spectra. Younger yes, a bit softer for sure, but still undoubtedly Spectra.
I'm very pleased with her.
Of course she needs some hair care and there's little bits and bobs that Mattel did that annoy me but on the whole, she's a nice doll and i'm happy I took the plunge.
I'm surprised by how much I like G3 Spectra! An improvement in every way imo
ReplyDeleteI always posed G1 Spectra holding Rhuen. His paws were placed in such a way that she could wrap her arms around him and hold him close. Maybe that's why he looks like he's dangling.
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