Reading about these dolls and their quirky stories has been quite an education! Each doll is the daughter of some sort of monster and each doll has their own bio, complete with their fashion style, favourite food, favourite subject in school, and such!
I normally am not terribly happy when the Christmas decorations go into stores in September but since that means my local BJ's Wholesale has an entire aisle of TOYS, I will let it slide! I wasn't 2 feet down the aisle when I spotted the Monster High dolls! They were only $15.99! I picked out my two favourites of the bunch that was offered, figuring by the end of shopping I would decide which I preferred. Needless to say, I walked out of the store with two dolls......
The first review will be Lagoona Blue! This particular Lagoona is from the Dot Dead Gorgeous line of dolls. The outfits are based on a webisode more commonly known as Night of a Thousand Dots.
I was so excited to open my very first Monster High doll! She was just beautifully displayed in the box!
The back has some great graphics and Lagoona's schedule for the day of the party!
It was frighteningly easy to open the flaps on the outer box and take out the cardboard insert holding the doll and her party accessories. No tape, no fuss....
I knew I would pay the price with all the elastics to snip and ties to unravel....
But, honestly, it could have been much, much worse! Tinker Belle, in my last review, was more complicated! Before I knew it, I had all the pieces out of the box and ready to play!
She was just beautiful!!! I have heard mixed reviews about the doll stands that come with Monster High dolls. I have heard that they muss up the clothes and break easily. But I still am happy that it is one of the accessories. I like stands for my dolls. It makes display easier, for me at least! I have a 140 pound Saint Bernard that is as clumsy as she is huge! She is always bumping into tables and things, knocking over dolls all along the way! These probably won't "stand" up to her bonking around but they are definitely better than nothing! The dolls are actually pretty solid and stable. Just added "insurance", I guess!
Plus, with a stand you can do this:
Lagoona's outfit is very pretty. A strapless bodice with a multi-layered, asymmetrical skirt and a belt with a starfish on it. Since Lagoona is the daughter of the Sea Monster, everything has an oceanic feel to it. Her shoes are shells with a pearl on the strap. She has a netting sleeve for one arm and "bubbly" jewelry.
If she had one fin at the waist instead of removable ones on her legs, she'd be a perfect mermaid!
I love the "wave" that her bangs are in, even though they are very, very crunchy with product! Her eyes are gorgeous and the sprinkling of freckles is just too cute!!! She has rosy lips an just a touch of iridescence on her upper eye shadow.
Her ears are fins! The details on this doll are terrific!
Her hair is super soft and styled in a side-ponytail, with a matching shell and pearl holder. Her skin tone is a lovely, watery blue and even her hands are webbed, with fins on her arms!!!
When I took off her ponytail holder, it resembles a little ring. I think it may be split like that so it can go back on easier, but it is a good enough size that I can see a little girl happily wearing it!
I wanted to see her hair down, it is so silky and long! But it was a scary mess!
My days working at American Girl served me well because a little spritz and a wire brush did the trick!
I took a look at her scalp and her hair was rather sparsely rooted and thicker on one side. I don't know if this was just my doll but her hair seemed to be more thickly rooted right where the ponytail originally was.
But Lagoona is a very peaceful looking doll. She really has a very distinct personality!
The straps on her little dress are a little tough to get over her webbed hands but the dress is well made for such a small piece of clothing! Also, her hands are removable, which you have to do to get her bracelets off anyway! I was very nervous about this! I felt like I was going to break her! But I was happily surprised when her hands came off easily and snapped right back on!
To get her tight little dress on her, you have to remove her leg fins. I think this is a nice feature of these dolls. There may come a time when I want her to wear a pair of pants and the fins may get in the way! The notches on each leg are different so you can never put the fins on wrong!
She comes with some other accessories too. A phone, with a slide-out keyboard (wow!), a purse that doesn't open (huh?), a compact that snaps closed (but I can't see it lasting very long, the plastic joint was already wearing thin and white after a few snaps), and a Monster High skull brush. The brush really doesn't work well. It's cute but a wire brush is much better on the saran wig hairs.
These dolls are beautifully articulated with 9 joints. Lagoona can touch her hair and face!
The body is very solid and sturdy. The legs and arms are long and slim, making her easy to pose. I don't know how they do it (maybe the bigger head size?) but she can easily stand on her own!
With heels like that though, I know she is as happy as I am that she came with a stand!
All in all, I know that my Monster High obsession is going to be long and involved! These dolls are just amazing! They pose in such expressive ways that they convey all sorts of emotion very easily! I can see why my step-daughter enjoyed them! They are definitely NOT your average fashion doll!!! A very playable doll for an excellent price!
No comments:
Post a Comment