On Catty Noir (I'll try to keep it brief this time)

<giggles drunkenly>  I love you, and do you know why?  Because you're sooooo THICK!!!  LOL, the last time I did a Monster High post it went ridiculously long in its time slot, so I'll just offer a quick look this time, plus some of my usual rambling.  That said, I didn't think the current Monster High dolls could get curvier than Abbey Bominable is, but...well, then I met Catty Noir.  Catty isn't as tall as G3 Abbey, but she's a lot curvier.  I also threw in G1 Abbey for reference.

Catty's dark coloring and subtle makeup make her a difficult subject to photograph.  She's a very pretty doll, but my phone's camera doesn't catch it.

I'm pleased as punch that this character is back, first and foremost.  Black cats are near and dear to my family's hearts, and the doll's coloring reminds me of those Chalkboard Ghoul minis that I liked so much.  Dang, I wish those Chalkboard Ghouls had been full-size dolls!  Anyway, I do have a G1 Catty traipsing around in my collection somewhere, but where exactly I don't know.  She last popped onto the blog in June of 2018, shortly after Monster High had gotten the axe, but she's not gone for good.  She is a far cry from my new Catty Noir, though...as are most of the G3 dolls.  I loved and still love the G1 dolls, but let's face facts:  they're uber-skinny and because of that they're a bit on the fragile side.  By contrast, G3 Catty feels very substantial in my hands.  It was hard for me to get her knees to bend...

...but she can do it, and she didn't feel too fragile when I did get her knees to bend.  Sometimes when I grapple with a doll's joints, I can feel the connection points bending instead of the joint itself, but Catty's knees don't do that.  Nor is she loose all over, like my G1 Venus McFlytrap proved to be (she too is in the world of missing persons at the moment).  Overall Catty isn't a half-bad doll.  She's even got microbraids and wispy bits around her hairline, just like G3 Venus does.

Venus's and Catty's respective Wiki pages say nothing about these two being particularly close, but I can always make up my own storylines.  I do anyway, LOL.

Sigh...I like the body diversity in these dolls and I don't.  I like how none of 'em are alike, just like my three best friends and I weren't alike in high school.  All four of us were different sizes, and the same is true for Drac, for Lagoona, for Abbey and Venus, and for Catty.

These dolls all pose like their G1 sisters, with not a smidge of personality lost.

But I wish Mattel would...LOL, it's Moon's famous complaint.  I wish Mattel would make extra outfits for these dolls.  HauntCoutureAtelier makes nice things for the new Monster High bodies, but those dresses are expensive.  Draculaura's extra outfit came from MagzRockingStyle, and they've started making clothes in Catty's size so if I want some new stuff from her I'll go that route.  But in the very beginning Mattel made outfit sets that were tailored to a single character, and I wish they'd do that again.  Robecca Steam's set was my favorite, by the way.  I have those outfits...guess where.  Somewhere.  I solemnly swear that when I dig out my doll room at Casa del Luna, I'm putting my Monster High and Ever After High stuff in the same friggin' box like I did with my Bratz.

Also, with a secondary character like Catty Noir making an appearance I'm starting to wonder...will Skelita Calaveras get a revival?  Will Jinafire Long?  Operetta?  Catrine DeMew?  Maybe so, maybe not, but one can hope, right?  I personally think that Skelita deserves a rehash; her G1 body was very fragile.  My two remain in good health, but playing with them never was much fun because their bones were bendy, as were the connection points in her joints.  Ewwww...osteogenesis imperfecta gives me the creeps.  But yeah, I'd love to see a G3 Skelita Calaveras.  Time will tell!

Freaky love,
RagingMoon1987

The end?

Well, I can't say as this is a great surprise, but I'm still saddened to see this line go.  According to a link shared by my buddy Alyssia, the one who painted my lovely custom Ever After High doll, the Monster High line has been axed...or at the very least put on hiatus.  Here's the link to this unfortunate news.

Of course this is all strictly conjecture as I've heard nothing official, but the fact that there were no Monster High dolls at the Toy Fair speaks volumes.  Also telling was the declining quality of the dolls (which I griped about in the past), the ill-advised and unwanted reboot, and the complete absence of any new MH dolls on store shelves.  What saddens me is that there are still young fans of this line; just today I spoke to an eight-year-old in a tank top emblazoned with Frankie Stein, Draculaura, and Lagoona Blue, and when I asked "Do you like Monster High dolls?" she responded with an enthusiastic "YES!!!"  Of course it wasn't just the dolls that she liked, but it was an ice-breaker.

Earlier this year I had seen some awesome stock photos of ballerinas and hoodie-themed ghouls, but right now it looks like my hopes of catching one or the other in stores will come to naught since the local stores are not getting a restock.  Not that I need any more Monster High dolls, since I've got so many already, but dang, those hoodies were cute!!!  I guess I'll just have to settle for nude dolls on eBay (which are nice anyway), and with the clothes that Etsy supplies.  I do hope that the apparent demise of this line won't mean that my favorite Etsy shops will close, because I still have those poor eBay dolls to clothe!  Check this!

Okay, I admit that I just shared that picture because I didn't want this post to be all words.  All of my girls have shoes that match their ensembles now, so I'll need to update this picture.  Anyway, Cleo, Catty, and Catrine are all clad in dresses from a shop that I've spoken of in the past, HauntCoutureAtelier.  I can't crow enough about the proprietor's customer service, or the quality of her items.  I just hope that she'll stick around after Monster High's demise, so that those of us with dolls can clothe them in her colorful threads.

If I hear anything official I'll pass it along.

Much love,
RaginMoon1987

Third blind bag post

This should be my final blind bag posts for awhile, for reasons that I'll soon make clear.  Today was another rough day; after a lot of bullying Second Uncle and I finally convinced Grandma to go to "that damn hospital," as she put it.  She's stable now, but she's in bad enough shape that the hospital admitted her as a patient.  I had hoped that Grandma wouldn't go the way Grandpa did (he slowly withered away and worried us half to death), but unfortunately that appears to be the case.  So I bought more blind bags.

I got another box of My Mini MixieQ's, a new box from the Animal Jam line, and three Monster High Minis.  I'm still hoping to get a chalkboard Mini, thus why I got three.  In an unusual twist, I'm going to go from right to left and start with the MixieQ's.  I'm also not going to bother showing the box, as y'all have seen that already.  Here are my two new MixieQ's.

This time my MixieQ's look enough alike that they could be siblings.  The one on the left is Surf's Up, an everyday figure from the Adventurous category, and the one on the right is Purple Stars 2, a special figure from the Wild category.  I love Purple's exuberant smile, by the way.  Like Golden Girl and Strawberry, these two can swap clothes and wigs with the greatest of ease.  Once again, the paint job is spot on.  Perhaps I'm a bit biased, but I think Mattel may have a real hit with these goofy little figurines, because as tiny as they are they can still be played with.  I definitely will be getting more of these in the future, at least enough to fill the smallest display case.  There's a case that comes with one figure and holds eight more, so that may be the direction that I go in with these MixieQ's. 

The next blind bag (box?) is a new one, one called Animal Jam.  To give y'all an idea of how little attention I pay to some things, I had no idea that these toys were tied into an online gaming site.  Animal Jam has apparently been around since 2010 and is in close affiliation with National Geographic, but that's all I know.  My box is from Series 2...

...and the box is shaped like an igloo, per the label's description.

Somehow I have a sneaking suspicion that the critter inside is not going to be an Arctic dweller.  And...

...yikes, it's a spider!  I've never been a huge spider fan to begin with, and having found another brown recluse in my bathtub (the third in a month), my patience with spiders is currently at an all-time low.  This little guy is cute, though; he's blue and lavender with big black eyes, and he looks a lot like a jumping spider, a kind of spider that I do like.  Scientists think that jumping spiders possess something that not many creatures that size do:  a rudimentary ability to reason.  But I digress.  According to the checklist my spider's name is Pointyfrost 2-30, and he's a common figure.  That strange name makes me wonder if this little guy is based on a real player's avatar!  How cool would that be?

As promised, Pointyfrost came with two small accessories.  He came with this teensy pink rocket that fits into a hole on his back...

...and...I originally thought this was a water dish, but now I'm wondering if it's not a reference to in-game currency.  It's hollow like a water dish, so that's what I'm going with for now.

There's also a little code that can be used online, which I assume would mean that it's for the game.  I haven't tried that yet, but I may pretty soon.  I'm way beyond the target age for the game, but Pointyfrost's simple design and quirky accessories have certainly piqued my curiosity.  Pointyfrost himself is nothing special, but he'd be a good little trinket for a young fan of the game.

Now for the Monster High Minis.  As I said above, I got three this time.  The odds are increasing that I'll end up with a duplicate figure, but these are pretty cute so I can't say that I'll cry too much over duplicate figures.  I do hope that one of these three is a chalkboard figure.  And...

SHA-ZOWIE!!!  I got one!  I didn't get any duplicates either so that's two good things.  The first little figure, the one on the right, is Catrine de Mew, a "Fangtastic Find" from the Sporty Monsters set.  In the center is Catty Noir, a "Frightfully Uncommon" Teddy Bear Ghoul.  And lastly, my much-desired Chalkboard Ghoul.  She's Clawdeen Wolf again, and she's common.  I absolutely love these; they're just so original, just like the dolls themselves used to be!  I'm not sure if I want to get any more of these, though; I could try for a Skelita Calaveras figure, but finding her may be tricky given the fact that there's only one Skelita figure and she's not a common one.  So I may just call it quits with these Monster High Minis for now and wait for Series Three to come out.

Of the blind bags that I've ripped open over the past week, Monster High Minis and My Mini MixieQ's tie for my favorite, with Kitty in My Pocket getting honorable mention because...well, because CATS, that's why!  Monster High Minis are original and creative, while MixieQ's are both collectible and play-able.  The Hatchimal is the loser of the bunch; my little squirrel is cute, but he's not very original.  Most of the fun with those comes from hatching the egg that the figure comes in.  I'd stay away from those unless you or someone you know is a die-hard fan of the larger Hatchimals.  I'd only recommend Animal Jam figures to those who actually play the game...and given the popularity of the game, that would apply to a lot of kids out there!

I'll keep y'all posted on anything that may go down with Grandma.  Please pray, light candles, send good vibes, whatever you do when someone needs a little luck.

Always yours,
RagingMoon1987