I didn't have the energy to set up my photo box, but I wanted to open her despite my exhaustion so i'm afraid you just have to deal with lesser photos. Ho hum.
I don't have much preamble here, I wanted her, I bought her. That's about all there is to it. lol.
Amazon is the only place i've seen this set so far but there's no mention of it being an exclusive so it's probably just a case of them getting them earlier than anyone else.
Now I will say that clothing mix and match sets like this, they are my JAM. I've never been much into hair play or gimmicks, but mix and match closets? FUCK YEAH. I can happily sit for hours redressing dolls, that's how I played with dolls as a kid too.
Though I will say that i'm getting real tired of Mattel and these blind boxes. There's no surprises so why the fuck are they packaged like this!?
The back of the box literally details the contents ffs.
though curiously doesn't actually show one of her outfits. The outfit from the front of the box (the pink and black with the knee high pink boots) is missing. Which is strange given it's 1: not the outfit she's packaged wearing and 2: isn't the outfit she's wearing NEXT to the contents list.
What's that about?
Anyway,
Drac here retails for around £50 here in the UK and comes with 3 full (including shoes and accessories) outfits. Now, the regular "skulltimate secret" dolls who usually come with two outfits retail at £36, so is the extra outfit worth another £15? I suppose we'll find out.
The array of outfit pieces looks promising at least. We have a dress, some hot pants and a tube top, a bolero and lace skirt, a pair of stockings, a mesh top and a whole bunch of bits of jewellery. She even comes with a little harness with wings.
The large coffin shaped closet comes inside a plastic fronted box (again, raising the question of WHY THE FUCK THE DOLL IS HIDDEN) which was actually a pain in the arse to open. I'm not sure if it's because i'm still suffering from exhaustion so was a bit brain fogged trying to open it, or it really is just stupidly designed because I assumed I could pry it open somewhere but instead had to resort to tearing it like a blister pack. So... maybe it's just more of a blister than it is a box?
And the bottom had two rolls of card that were there solely to hold the coffin up so it was all visible in the box. Could they not have just made the box slightly shorter? I mean the coffin was half covered up with the graphics on the box anyway, why was it super important to show the bottom few cm of the coffin when most of the right and left sides were hidden anyway?
Mattel packaging makes less and less sense seriously.
Anyway here's out big plastic bullshit.
At least this one is actually sold AS a closet and is large enough to be used as one. The other coffins from the skulltimate secret line usually piss me off because they can't easily be used for anything else due to their design. The original ones which had a hinged door like this worked as a small doll closet but then they moved to those "slide" ones which are useless for storage and annoying for putting dolls in as their hair gets caught and mussed up by the sliding mechanism.
Anyway, this coffin is about 1/3 to 1/2 bigger than the regular skulltimate secret coffins and a lot of that extra space is made up by this black border piece. In order to actually open anything the first step is to push the pink coffin backwards so the black border slides upwards.
I don't know what the purpose of this is other than it prevents you from opening the main compartment when the border is flush.
The first key is tucked inside the black border and fell down when it was extended.
And it's taken until literally just NOW for me to realise that this must be what this little compartment on the top of the coffin is for! It must be where the key was actually stored. Whether it's supposed to fall out the bottom of not i'm not sure, but either way, this is how they got the key in there. Feels like a rather pointless extra bit of engineering that serves no further purpose but Mattel keep doing weird shit so....
Anyway, key #1 "opens" these three compartments down the side. I say "opens" in inverted commas because like the other skulltimate sets, there's no mechanism on these little doors so the key doesn't do jack shit beyond provide a handle to pull them open.
You don't need the key, you can just open them with your fingers.
Inside we have the typical paper bags of bullshittery.
Why are we still doing this? There's NO SURPRISE to hide, the things are already "hidden" inside closed compartments. Though I suppose ramming them into little paper baggies is better than having them on plastic trays. But I still find the waste frustrating.
Anyway, I will at least give them kudos for ramming a LOT of stuff into bag 1. We have a pair of earrings, a bracelet, a necklace, two headbands and key #2.
Once upon a time they'd have put all these in separate baggies or some shit. So progress I guess?
The earrings look to be a black bow with a little braided piece dangling down? I don't know. They're cute and versatile though.
Headband 1 is a black bow while headband 2 is a pair of bat ears (they might just be wings, it's hard to make them out) and a ... rose? in pink.
The necklace is a choker that looks like it's dripping. I think it's supposed to look like blood or something.
I didn't look that close at the bracelet. Sorry.
Bag 2 is a lot more stingy.
we got a pair of shoes and a mesh top.
The shoes have little fangs on the toes and bat wings on the buckle. They definitely need some paint detail though. They look quite plain without.
Bag 3 is even more pointless. 4 coat hangers and a pair of earrings, all of which could have easily fitted into bag 2.
The earrings are dark pink little arrows with heart shaped arrowheads and bat wings.
I will give them this, despite being POINTLESS, at least the keys are all different in shape. Some of the previous Skulltimate Secret releases haven't even bothered to do that.
Key #2 "opens" (again, these don't have a latch at all) these 4 little cubbies and as expected, they all contain a paper bag.
Bag one contains a load of random crap. We have a portrait of Count Fabulous and what might be a portrait but might also be a mirror showing Drac's invisible face. Both have a peg on the back.
Then we have another bracelet and a pair of gloves that look like recoloured versions of her Skulltimate Secrets dance ones. I think I prefer them in black.
There's a er.... vase? Potion bottle? Of flowers that is oozing white glue. It isn't supposed to be oozing white goo i'm sure, but something clearly went a bit wrong in the factory and the glue holding the two pieces together oozed up and dried into this disgusting looking white smeary shit. It actually looks worse irl than photos. At least Mattel's QC only hit this rather uninteresting accessory, I count myself lucky. It has a peg on the back.
The final piece is a recolour of the skullette skull that Fearbook Draculaura came with. This time it's transparent pink plastic. Like that skull, the doll can't really hold it properly unless you put her hand completely flat and sort of balance it. It's a little too heavy and bulky. It's cool looking, but it's not really a display on the doll sort of accessory.
Why did we get a skull and some other random shit in a closet set? I suppose Mattel had to bump that piece count up somehow and couldn't be arsed giving us an extra piece of clothing or a belt or something, so we get random plastic crap.
Bag 2 contains some MORE plastic crap.
and a necklace and pair of earrings
and key #3
We have a set of fanged lips and a cute chibi bat in purple both of which have pegs on the back and remind me of Croc charms.
The instruction leaflet, which I found after deboxing everything else, actually states these are supposed to go on the doors of the closet as decoration.
Yeah... uh... but why?
The earrings are cute little ball shaped bats, they're adorable but the pale pink I think is a bit too close to Drac's own skin tone. I'd have preferred these in black with their little eyes painted. I might have to do that myself.
The necklace is made of transparent black which makes it kinda... grey. I can't quite make out what it's supposed to be beyond it looking kinda amuletty.
And there's a potion bottle that's probably supposed to be perfume or something. Or nightcap whiskey... <_<
it has a little loop so the doll can hold it, making it the only bit of extra plastic bullshit the doll can actually interact with properly.
Bag 3 we finally get more clothing! At last! There's been a lot of plastic shit for a supposed "closet" set thus far.
we have her bolero, dress and pink skirt.
The bolero is made from a fairly stiff material with two ribbons to tie it at the front, it has puffed shoulders and slightly flared sleeves. it's very very cute.
The dress is completely sleeveless and halter necked in a cute pattern that makes me think of the wallpaper from the Haunted Mansion at Disney lol.
The skirt is made from a dark pink (fushia?) shiny polyester with a patterned ruffle and lace decoration at the front.
The final bag gives us the last few outfit pieces.
A pair of stockings that have a sort of spiderweb mesh look to them (these have open toes. They aren't completely footless as they appeal to fit over the doll's foot, but they haven't got a full toe so her tootsies stick out the ends. I initially thought the seam had popped but nope, they just didn't quite finish them. This works fine because all her shoes are closed toe and the fact they go down over the foot means that you never see any gap like you do in the style that are more leggings/footless and I suppose the lack of a toe means they're less likely to tear, as the toe was ALWAYS the failure spot on MH stockings, they have really pointy toes)
a long skirt with a lace trim which is SINFULLY transparent and clearly not designed to be worn as a piece on its own
and a little tank top that matches the skirt from the previous bag.
So far we have
7 items of clothing
2 headbands
3 necklaces
3 pairs of earrings
2 bracelets
1 pair of gloves
1 pair of shoes
4 coat hangers
3 keys
aaaand
a bunch of croc charms <_<
Now it's time to open the ONLY actually locked door. Key #3 opens the main compartment which DOES have a latch. It's not a very good latch, but it at least actually makes the key have a purpose.
Draculaura is tied down to a cardboard backing card and has two more paper bags in front of her.
one big bag, one small bag.
Big bag contains a fair but of stuff. The keyring for the keys, another necklace, another headband and a set of wings that come with a separately packaged harness piece.
also two hanger rails for the closet.
The only thing in the other bag are this pair of truely incredible boots. They're embedded with red glitter and slightly transparent, they're really difficult to photograph as a result but they're so sparkly and neat.
Keys fitted to the keyring, you know, in case I need to pretend to lock more shit.
There's also some stickers hidden at the back of the case to "decorate" with but I didn't want to.
The backing card Drac is on slides very easily out of the compartment which I was grateful for. It makes her a lot easier to debox. She still had a load of plastic staples in her head despite them not needing to keep her in a specific pose because, i remind you, you can't SEE her in the box in the first place.
She comes wearing her hot pant outfit and pink boots (the boots that aren't pictured on the back of the box. Weird huh? ) and a belt corset thing made of plastic.
She has an incredible faceup.
Her lips have a glitter layer but it's not as crusty as old glitter was. The EU rules on glitter changed how toy companies did glitter and I really do prefer this new method because you get sparkle without it looking like the poor doll has horribly chapped lips.
She has another layer of glitter in her eyeshadow along with a pearly layer just above the eye.
and this ornate eyeliner calls back to her g1 Ghouls Rule doll
I used to do my eyeshadow in this over-complicated manner when I was young, ahhh good times.
Her hair is saran (Thank goodness, it bloody better be at this price point) and very long. It falls in waves to just below her knees.
She has a pink streak and a dark fuchsia pink that forms the entire under layer of her hair.
Her hotpants outfit is made from a very stiff shimmery purple woven material. The corset belt is extremely detailed in how it's sculpted but like a lot of her stuff, i think it'd benefit from a little touch of paint to bring out the belt section and buckle.
The boots are very detailed but again, it's lost due to the lack of painted detail. There are sculpted ribbons down each side and the whole boot has these vine and spiderweb patterns, there's a lace trim at the top of the boot and jewels around the heart cabochons at the top.
I don't recognise any of these shoe sculpts so I can't say if they're all new or reused sculpts.
Without the belt/corset piece the hotpants outfit is cute but it's a bit too pale I think for this Drac and her very dark makeup.
I also was taken by how, being as simple as this is and also how purple, how much it would have suited Clawdeen. Forgetting for a moment that g3 Drac has a completely different body type and thus the ghouls can't actually share clothing.
A pity. I mean I LOVE Drac's body shape, but I also love mixing clothing pieces so i'm torn.
The top can kinda almost fit Clawdeen at least.
The cubbies on this side have images on them which gives them a little more interest than the rather plain ones on the other side (that you're supposed to put the bulky croc charms on)
the top two are cute and work well i think. We have a portrait of Count Fab again, and a silly slogan.
the other pictures in the background don't quite seem to fit though. They're a bit too realistic, the art style is completely different and I find it jarring.
This cubby image I found the most incongruous. So much so I had to get my 14 year old to come and convince me it wasn't AI.
He stared at it for a while and said he thought it probably wasn't, but agreed it looked off. I asked him because he's really good at detecting AI.
and even if this weird fanged plant isn't AI, the art style is so completely different to the other artwork that it looks massively out of place. They've done fanged plants before but they've been done in the same style as their other illustrations so have felt in keeping. This oil painting semi realistic situation is just jarring to me.
ESPECIALLY when the image directly below it is supposed to be a PHOTOGRAPH of the main crew (Interesting that g3 Drac appears in photos but not in mirrors still. Of course, her appearance in photos was inconsistent in g1 too. But I actually asked my photography obsessed youngest about this and he informs me that there IS one type of camera that doesn't use silver in the developing of images. But it's rare and old and weird. We then had a long discussion about whether the silver in digital technology would have an impact on a vampire appearing or not lol)
This Drac stole one of the headbands.
I'm still not sure about the pale pink of this piece. It needs some paint.
I tried really hard to get the long skirt to work but it just looked wrong any way other than over the top of the hot pants. It doesn't work over this skirt because of the ruffle and it's far too transparent to wear with just the stockings.
As it ended up, this look was the one I felt looked the most cohesive with the doll's makeup and hair colours.
The bolero jacket absolutely makes any outfit you match it with. It's a fantastic piece.
But while I was playing around with other pieces trying to find a way to make the long skirt work, I stumbled upon this top from one of the earlier Skulltimate Secret Draculauras. The lace is identical, but sadly the colour of the two is just a little bit off. Which was disappointing because they would have been perfect together and I was all ready to praise Mattel for creating a set that had mix and match possibilities outside of its own box. *sigh*
the top is a lot warmer, almost reddish pink while the skirt is a cooler more blue toned pinky purple.
Damnit Mattel! *shakes fist*
I also remembered she'd come with these sunglasses which... it think might have been in the bag with the boots but I don't remember because I instantly forgot they existed until this point.
They're very oversized and I think look quite silly on this Draculaura.
I really liked the halter dress but without a jacket of some sort it just looked incomplete. I need like.. a dozen of those boleros.
but I also felt like the pale colours would work well for Fearbook Drac who's whole colour palette is much lighter.
I think it's quite cute.
But there's just something special about this gothic beauty.
The back of the closet has many... many.. oh so damn many portraits of Draculaura. Looks like she collects them.
Which I suppose when you have no reflection, does make some sense. In g1 she painted a lot of abstract self portraits.
but that does raise the question. Are these supposed to be photographs or paintings?
The middle image is very different to the rest, presumably it wasn't drawn by the guy who did the others.
Given I never much liked the art style of the g3 artist (Is his name Darko? Something like that) i'm not sure how I feel about a whole damn wall of art I find kinda ugly but ho hum. At least it's the back of the closet so I don't have to look at it.
It is kinda cute that it looks like they're all her other Skulltimate Secret dolls. But damn it shows how many dolls she has huh?
Those horrible "probably not AI" screaming roses make a reappearance too. Bletch.
So was she actually worth the hefty price tag?
I don't know honestly. But I am very very happy with her.
YES she comes with some random crap I see no real purpose for. But she also comes with 3... okay 2 and a half... full outfits. I can't consider that skirt a full skirt on its own because it's too transparent to wear on its own.
same with the mesh top which really needs to be worn with something else from the set.
The glittery boots are incredible. Her face is incredible. Her hair is so so soft and I really like the darker pink they used for it. The bolero piece is amazing and I want a whole closet of just them.
Now all that said, I do think they could have done away with the croc charm locker decoration nonsense and just painted a little detail onto her damn shoes instead. Yeah I can do it myself, but it's annoying to have to finish shit because Mattel was too cheap to do it themselves. I'm not talking full detail, i'm talking "paint the buckle" or "paint the little fangs white".
I do think the coffin closet is quite a usable
le thing in itself though. I've already transferred all my extra Draculaura clothes into it. The little cubbys are good for accessories and shoes and the main closet would be great to hold clothes if 1: I had more hangers and 2: it came with skirt hangers.
thus far Rainbow High is the ONLY brand I know of that's ever bothered to produce doll scale skirt hangers.
And I realised, when I got to the end here, that I never took a photo of the whole closet itself.
so here are some quick shots.
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