Buried Secrets waves 3 and 4

When Mattel started packaging budget Monster High dolls in blind boxes I made it my mission to collect one from each wave.  Just one, to avoid duplicates.  So far there have been five waves, and I've got...two dolls.  Draculaura is from Wave 1/Cozy Creepover, and Frankie Stein is from Wave 2/Scare-master Style.

I'm fallin' down on the job, y'all!!!  But there's no need to fear, because I've got Waves 3 and 4 now!  Wave 5 will be released sometime this year and it's apparently gonna have a music theme.  Wave 3 is entitled Haunted Dance and has a masquerade theme.  Cleo de Nile, Twyla Boogeyman, Clawdeen Wolf, and Lagoona Blue are the characters available.

I own a G3 Lagoona Blue already, but she's the only character I do have in this lineup.  Cleo de Nile is my favorite with her bright blue hair, but as the book says, you get what you get and you don't throw a fit.  Opening the box...

...I got Cleo de Nile!  I've never gotten my favorite before!

I know I've griped quite a bit about the changes that Mattel made when Seguin from G1 to G3, but with Cleo I have no complaints.  She's got a beautiful face...

...and her hair is every bit as blue as I could've hoped for.  The fibers feel like polypropylene, but Cleo wears her hair up so it's all good.

Since the dance in question is a masquerade, all the characters have masks.  Cleo's is a jackal.  Twyla's is really cute, by the way; it's her dust bunny.

This is a solid attempt by Mattel, especially for a budget doll, but then again I've been wanting a G3 Cleo de Nile for quite some time, so her presence may be clouding my judgment a bit.

Now...put the mummy girl down, Moon.  One other box.  Wave 4 is called Courtside Fang-out and has a tennis theme.  Not as exciting to me as a masked dance, but I won't gripe too much.  There's nothing wrong with tennis.

Frankie Stein, Clawdeen Wolf, Ghoulia Yelps, and Toralei Stripe are my options this time.

Ghoulia Yelps is my favorite this time, and Frankie Stein is the duplicate character.  If the wiki is to be believed then this is only Ghoulia's third appearance in the G3 era.

It's Toralei.  Not my favorite doll of the four, but still satisfying.  I've never owned a Toralei before, not even during the G1 days.

Hold on, here's a better picture of her face.  She's got glorious eyes.

Y'know, I can see echoes of the Wild Hearts Crew in Toralei.  She looks a little like Jacy Masters in the face, particularly in the mouth.  I love Toralei's hat, by the way. 

I don't know about y'all, but I thought the Wild Hearts Crew was pretty kick-a$$.  Mine are, of course, out of reach at Casa Del Luna, but I'll retrieve them.  I'd managed to complete the set before they were discontinued.  Anyway, aside from theming Toralei is pretty much the same as my other Buried Secrets girls.  Same stiff body with uneven shoulders, though Toralei doesn't look as uncomfortable as Frankie Stein.

Poor Frankie looks like they've got some kind of spinal condition, and the fit of their sleeves don't help much.  On the other hand, Toralei has soft, smooth hair in lovely colors.  Her wiki says it's polypropylene, but it doesn't feel like it.

I wish Mattel would quit their love affair with polypropylene.  Frankie and Draculaura have it, and it looks alright but feels nasty and styles worse.

They're still cute, though.  Plus, I've opened four of these packages and haven't gotten a repeat character yet...hold up, yeah I have, but my two Draculaura dolls are pretty different.  These Buried Secrets dolls are a lovely way to get a Monster High fix for cheap, though.  I hope maybe Venus McFlytrap will make an appearance in a future wave.

Let's just face it, Venus is just awesome.  I'm still waiting for Skelita Calaveras, but Venus is the gem of my G3 collection so far.  Cleo isn't far behind. 

Now that that's all outta the way, what else but a weather report?  I read yesterday morning that temperatures were supposed to bottom out Sunday night and be ridiculously cold for the next couple'a days.  I'd assumed that would come eventually, since the ants aren't out yet.  Fast-forward to 4:30 or so yesterday, and I get this lovely headline.  There's a chance of VERY severe weather on Monday!

What in flaming purple hell???  The app is AccuWeather, so I popped over to Weather Underground for a second opinion.  They say the severe weather threat is Sunday night, and THEN the cold moves in.

Still not convinced, I consulted NOAA and they're calling for a lot of rain and maybe some thunder.  The SPC outlook suggests that Sunday night has the healthiest chance for bad weather in the Bootheel, but even they don't sound sure!  I can't wait to hear what Ryan Hall says about all this, LOL.

Love and monsters,

RagingMoon1987