C.A. Cupid and Skelita Calaveras revisited

Last December I reviewed C.A. Cupid, a Monster High doll.  In the time since that post C.A. Cupid was retired from the Monster High line and used as the crossover character for Ever After High, a spin-off of the Monster High series.  Now, I love the concept of Ever After High.  Basically you take the progeny of a bunch of fairy tale characters (Snow White, Cinderella, Little Red Riding Hood, etc), put them in school together, divide them up into two different..."teams," and follow their lives.  That's Ever After High in a nutshell.  It's a great idea...but I'm not in love with the dolls.  So far all of the girl characters have had the same face mold and thus look very, VERY similar to one another.  Here's what the first four characters look like.

Yeah that picture's huge, but I believe you get the point.  Don't get me wrong, these dolls are wonderfully planned out.  They've got oodles of little character-related details and from what I've read online, they're well-made.  But their faces are all the same!!!  It should also be worth noting that none of these characters are Cupid.  Cupid is the link between Monster High and Ever After High, and she doesn't even make it to the first wave lineup.

Fast-forward a few months.  C.A. Cupid is apparently in the prototype stage, because promo pics have been released.  Here's what she looks like.

That's a pretty far cry from Monster High's interpretation of the doll.

In spite of the fact that Ever After High's Cupid doll has the exact same head as ALL THE OTHER CHARACTERS, I'm probably going to seek her out.  It will be interesting to see how two versions of the same character compare, especially since Mattel made both of these.

More recently I reviewed Skelita Calaveras and in my opinion, Mattel knocked that one out of the park.  Oh sure, I had some criticisms, but she's still a great doll.  One of the things that I did take issue with my Skelita is the lack of marigolds; given Skelita's Day of the Dead theme and the importance of marigolds to Day of the Dead, I thought she'd have at least one conspicuous marigold.  I should've been more patient.  Look at this:

This is Art Class Skelita, and she's got plenty of...well, maybe they're not marigolds, but they certainly LOOK like them!  She's got those flowers on her skirt and in her hair, and I can't tell from either picture but there may be some on her shoes as well.  Nice!  I've never purchased more than one of the same character in the Monster High line, but I might this time.  From what I can see here, this new Skelita is fantastic!  I can't wait to see if those really are marigolds.  I'm also interested in finding out if Mattel made any changes to the body; another issue I had with first-wave Skelita was the body, and how bendy it was in places.  This could be an opportunity for Mattel to rectify that.  If they don't, that's okay...but I hope they do because the bendy body felt just a hair flimsy.

As a final little tangent, I want to announce to my rather small audience...THAT MY SISTER IS ENGAGED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  She has only been with her boyfriend (now fiancé) since early spring, but he's a fine young man and treats her like a queen.  I'd prefer that she marry him than marry the old boyfriend!  I'm very thankful that my sister has him in her life (and vice versa), and I pray that it will be a long, happy marriage.  

Very truly yours,

RagingMoon1987