Brewing Up Changes: The Monster High Create-a-Monster Witch by Mattel

My favorite monster archetype, all my life, has been witches. 

My witch collection has grown and I also don't have all of these
witches anymore (this photo was taken in 2015), but it's a good
visual for my love of them. 

I've always been drawn to cool monster ladies, and the magic, green skin, pointy hats, and wild hair always felt very aesthetically compelling to me. I never liked seeing witches as the bad guys because I thought they were so cool, and I have many witch toys in my collection. Even as I've learned more about the negative antisemitic roots of the visual witch archetype and become more cautious about the way I portray the witch, I still can't help but have an innocent and passionate admiration for her as a concept. I've always seen the best in witches.

I've been disappointed by MH's take on the witch monster. The Create-a-Monster Witch didn't seem cohesive, and Casta Fierce, the mainline witch representation, was very Halloween, but also themed on rock stars and Beyoncé in specific, which just isn't an archetype I go for in fiction and didn't give her any special appeal to me. 

Mattel stock photo of Casta Fierce. I got this doll, but 
more on principle and because she was on sale. She was
not a favorite doll of mine.

I would have preferred something a little more traditionally witchy, even if she wasn't the hokey Halloween archetype. I also thought Casta's glitter-caked body-hugging dress was the worst piece of doll clothing ever manufactured by MH. It was inflexible, fit poorly, and was unpleasant to the touch.

Since I had no desire to recover Casta for my second collection, I started reconsidering the CAM witch. Maybe, with some different pieces and customization, I could make her a satisfying MH witch doll. I started looking on eBay, and was pleased to see the offerings for her were more reasonable and complete than most CAM characters.

While the Witch was paired with a werecat girl in allusion to a witch's familiar, I didn't like the cat's design at all. A pink tabby with an unappealing whiskered face and clip-on ear barrettes wasn't impressive to me, and the purple wig didn't work any better on her than it did on the Witch. The only thing I liked about her was the seriously morbid dead bird graphic on the shirt that was matched to her.

Mattel stock photo of the Witch and Cat set.

Honestly, the only CAM two-pack where both of the dolls really appealed to me was the Mummy and Gorgon set.

As with Oozie, I'm giving the Witch a new name and revised personality to reflect my new era of collecting and my newer perspective. Previously, I had given her the name Hazel Yewtree…but I came up with a name I like more.

Alice Kazamm

Monster Parentage: I don’t know which, but she was a witch.
Killer Style: Spooky yellow-and-black like a bright midnight moon, done in delicate magical frills. And a witch always wears a buckle.
Freaky Flaw: Having magic is such a convenience that it can make me arrogant or lazy in certain situations. I need to practice doing not-fun things the mundane way more to remind myself how easy I have it.
Favorite Activity: Practicing new charms to help out my friends...or punish enemies. It always feels good to master your craft.
Biggest Pet Peeve: I can't stand "good witch"/"bad witch" stuff. I'm a person witch and I'm good or bad based on how situations influence me...just like anybody else.
Favorite School Subject: Home Ick. Anything around an oven or bubbling pot enchants me, and I make some magically good food. 
Least Favorite School Subject: English class. I struggle a lot with vocabulary and spelling.
Favorite Food: Laugh all you want, but I have to be honest-- pumpkin spice anything sends me over the Halloween moon.
Pet: Hopfrog is my dearest familiar. 
Best Friends: Heath Burns, Twyla Boogeyman

Alice arrived to me intact and clean, but nonetheless in odd condition:

Alice's skirt was really flipped up, and the head of the doll had been shoved down too far so it wasn't attached at the top of the neck, but rather, the entire neck was pushed into the head.

It almost looks like the previous handler didn't quite understand how CAM dolls worked, but I don't want to cast aspersions like that. Maybe it was an attempt to make the head more secure for shipping, or just a personal amusement to the previous owner who deliberately made her look neckless for whatever reason.

Here's Alice tidied up a bit.

Alice did not come with the hat, belt, or shoes from her CAM set. The hat was a miniature fedora-like piece that was held under her chin with what looks like a thin elastic band. I didn't find it particularly witchy, so I decided not to pursue it. I think a top hat would be a good choice for her if they wanted a magic hat that wasn't the witch shape. Maybe Freak du Chic Frankie's hat and headband would work for her. I don't think she'd need a hat at all, though.

The wig that came with this set was not particularly attractive to me for any CAM character, but it's nice enough as it is. It's a short straight bob with bangs across the forehead, in medium purple with streaks of blue. It's got a decent shape to it and arrived in nice condition.

It just doesn't go with any character I can think of.

Maybe this wig could work with the Sea Monster CAM to give her a beachy casual vibe. That could be fun. 

Alice's head looks similar to Casta's, but I don't know if it's actually the same sculpt. 

Both witches have stern expressions, green skin, pointed chins, and beauty marks as a glam take on a witch wart, and neither of them have huge pointy noses. That feature is the most overt element that witches derive from antisemitic caricature, and an exaggerated hooked nose is probably the most harmful element of the caricature since it's based directly on real Jewish and Arab genetic phenotypes, though perhaps if the witch is fully innocent in portrayal intent, it might not be harmful. I can't say. Alice's lips look pinched and unhappy to me since both top and bottom are bowed, and her top lip bow isn't fully filled by her lip paint. Her makeup is pretty neutral, with smoky eyeshadow with a bit of yellow and darker green lips than her face. Alice's eyes are yellow and olive, while Casta's blended purple and orange. I think I might prefer Alice with a more open expression, so I'll think about maybe repainting her eyebrows less downturned. I also think her lips might have to be black and maybe adjusted in shape so they'll look better against her outfit and hair.

While Alice's nose isn't stereotypically hooked, it does have a unique shape, with a fairly defined bridge that has a super-subtle bump in it. It looks more characteristic and specific than a lot of tiny cartooned fashion-doll noses, and I think this is a graceful visual compromise to make it feel classically witchy without pushing over the top or invoking the harmful baggage the witch nose can carry. Alice has pointy ears of the shape several G1 MH characters exhibited.

Now, I doubt this sculpt was designed with deliberate caution about offensive witch imagery. G1 MH showed enough blind spots regarding...let's say...graceful cultural representation, that this topic probably wasn't on the team's radar. I don't even think it's realistic to expect it to be on anyone's radar today, since the harmful roots of the witch icon have been all but forgotten and 99 percent of people using witches do so innocently to use them as fantasy characters. It's a weird case of an archaic hate symbol that has pretty much entirely ceased to be viewed that way, and thus has lost that negative weight, and quite possibly its harm, in culture at large. If people socially critique witches today, you're more likely to hear discussion of misogyny or maybe ageism. So I don't think witches are antisemitic on purpose anymore, but it can still be good to be cautious of accidentally invoking the same traits as a hateful caricature. And even if it wouldn't fall under hate ideology, using any kind of unconventional physical appearance to characterize villains is a character design trope that plays into harmful beauty biases. So, even assuming reasonably that Alice's look was only designed as "a witch face, skewed heavily toward fashion doll", it still comes across as a tactful execution to me by not being exaggerated in any kind of demeaning or suspect manner.

It's also just neat that her bumpy nose is being represented in a brand of fashion dolls. That's a territory where you'd expect all noses to be tiny or smooth. MH does have its share of unusual noses that are never framed as unappealing, and sometimes they're unconventional but realistic human shapes that are included due to the monster type. I like that.

Alice's dress came without her belt, which I've ordered and will discuss later. 

The dress itself is a simple black sleeveless piece with a neck ruffle and hem ruffle, and the ruffles are decorated with jagged stripes. The neck ruffle is sewn down on the front, and both ruffles have a scalloped edge. It feels like an invocation of a Halloween witch's stripy socks, but the more erratic lines might be designed to coordinate with the Cat doll as well to look like scratch marks.

This is one of those G1 pieces that feels Slightly Alarmingly Short, particularly since the piece likes to ride up the hips, and the hem ruffle liked to stick up before I poured boiling water down it to tame it down. 

Still, it's one of my favorite CAM clothing pieces since I think it suits the character well while also feeling a little inventive. The black and yellow and stripy pattern all feel witchy to me, and remind me of a yellow moon in the Halloween sky, but they're not as on-the-nose as orange and black or orange and purple would be with direct stripe patterns...and I appreciate that. For all that Casta nailed the Halloween vibe, I'm inclined to prefer the less glaring Halloweenism of Alice's costume.

One detail I adore about Alice is that her right hand is a unique sculpt, posed like she's snapping her fingers to cast a spell!

If they ever make a Skullector Wednesday Addams
doll, she NEEDS this finger-snap hand mold.

So, to restyle this doll and make it complete, I needed shoes and a wig change at the very least. And what CAM set had a wig that ever so perfectly matched the Witch's dress?

Mattel stock photo of the CAM Insect.

Yep. The Insect! I am not the first person to have this idea, and other owners have put their Witch in this yellow-and-black wig too, but hey. It's a good idea.

My CAM Insect set came mostly complete, but I had expected it to be fully complete. The first issue was that one of the hands was actually from a Catty Noir doll, rendering it incompatible with the other parts, and both the real hand and the Catty hand were left hands, making them even less compatible.

CAM Insect hand on the left, Catty Noir mainline hand on
the right.

I'd thought I could use the black hands to swap in for gloves for Alice when I wanted, but nope. She's keeping her own. I don't know how a Catty hand got in the wrong place, but I'm inclined to believe it was an honest mistake after parts got mixed into each other, not a deception. 

The other issue, which I noticed later, was the broken knee peg on one of the legs, which I had failed to notice. This, paired with the hand, is now making me feel like the user was less than scrupulous, but I had a responsibility to examine the listing too, and again, I can't assume the worst. Oh, well. 

I'm not here to review the Insect pack, and can't with this pack anyway, but I was surprised by how much I liked the head and faceup of the doll. I might have to do something with it and make it into a full character that isn't bee-themed. It feels very sixties-camp to me.

Despite the faults with the item, I do appreciate that the seller threw in a few little bonus goodies as a thanks for buying. I didn't have use for some of them, but these fan-art Clawdeen stickers will definitely have to go somewhere nice. I've put them on my two small storage outfit bins-- the larger one for the fabric clothes and shoes bin, and the smaller one on the accessories bin.

Yeah, don't worry- I'm annoyed with myself for not orienting the stickers the same direction!

The first piece of the Insect pack that I put on Alice was the black shoes.

These are pretty much as basic as MH heels get, but they're classic and neutral and flatter a witch pretty well.

The Insect wig is a long straight piece with curled bangs in a fifties or sixties style. It looked great on the Insect head and I wish I had a photo of it before treatment to show you. 

On Alice, it looked decent, but not fabulous yet.

The colors match perfectly, and this hairstyle and that face definitely create a cohesive character--I know who this ghoul is by looking at her...I just don't know if I like her. The wig was also horrendously messy, so it was going to have to get treated. The wig straightened out beautifully and the bangs really relaxed and lengthened, and did something of a magic trick by becoming much more yellow than they looked before boiling! The hair also revealed it was cut in layers, but it doesn't look too distracting.

While the hair was drying, I made other modifications. I repainted her lips black and made them fill the sculpt better so she looked less stern and with it I eliminated the disparate darker green tone. 

Another decision I made about Alice was that she needed to look more prim and gothic, so I decided to paint her hands and forearms mostly black to give her simulated elbow-length gloves. I thought they'd suit her well. The wrist pegs won't hold paint because friction rubs it off, but it's not too distracting in my eyes. I also made sure the "gloves" stopped before the elbow joint so that wouldn't break the visual.

Here's the result of all that work:

I think this is a different person from the last photo I showed. And I like her a lot more! This Alice is quieter, more mysterious, and more delicate. She's an arcane Victorian goth witch. Her bangs being just a bit too long suit that beautifully and really bring out the yellow in her eyes, as well as hiding her harsh eyebrows so her face softens the way I wanted it to. Her black lips and gloves also goth her up in just the right way.

For beefing up Alice's doll stock, I had ideas.

First, I thought of the generic cauldron mugs that have been in playsets. Useful for anyone, but ideal for a witch! I bought a pack of two, with the green-drink one being the mug she'll use.

When it came to purses, I pretty quickly thought of the apple-shaped beaded bag that was included with signature Apple White from Ever After High. Witches love enchanted apples, right?

So I got it.

The apple bag is made to look like it's made of beads on the body and the strap, with a leaf and stem accent on the top. The strap hinges back and forth.

The top of the apple also pops off to reveal a hollow interior for storage. The lid doesn't align any particular way, but as long as the lid is twisted so the beads line up on top and bottom, it looks good. The handle prongs inside get a little in the way, and I don't know how practical of a design it is to have a purse with a separate lid, but it's nice.

Alice doesn't look horrible with the purse as it is, but I wanted it painted to match her and be spooky.

I had to deconstruct the purse for best repaint results. I cut down the handle prongs inside the bag so the handle could pull out of the body, and I pried the apple stem piece off the top so that could be painted separately and cleanly. I painted the apple black with gloss, the stem yellow matte, and the handle silver (which is my choice for Alice's accent color). The inner rim of the bag had to remain unpainted and messy so the lid would fit on and come off without added friction. 

Blackapple, Blackapple, a purse beyond compare...
Blackapple, Blackapple, a curse for one who's fair!

The purse looks a little messier than it did before, but it's not bad.

I stashed a couple of other pieces for her inside the bag. What's it hiding?

Two things!

First up is this frog. I knew I wanted a frog pet for her, and I had a good instinct that a Playmobil frog I knew I had would be a good way to achieve that. I could get some detail on it, but it wasn't too large for the plausible scale of a frog, and could ride in her bag.

The Playmobil frog.

I gave the frog yellow eyes, some tiny eye makeup, nostrils, and yellow and black spots on the back.

Hopfrog is a good pet!

And after giving Alice an enchanted apple purse, I thought she deserved an enchanted apple apple as well.

If Twyla's gonna be my kindred spirit for the love of tea, then Alice is 
gonna be my fellow apple-lover!

The apple was another part in my Playmobil bin. All I did to it was add the evil face with yellow paint--the rest of the paint had already been there.

I'm impressed the EAH purse fits both of these fairly chunky pieces!

I also found a Playmobil cauldron I can use with Alice unaltered. Maybe it's a basket or alternate purse, or a genuine cooking piece. Either way, Alice has display options!

Next, Alice's belt arrived. It's a long thin black vinyl piece with a Skullette buckle detail painted green.

It's just a normal Skullette, but the green makes it look like an
apple to me!

The belt is far too long and thus it sags around the bottom of her skirt. I don't like that. The piece highlights just how short her dress is, and it looks sloppy.

I decided to truncate her belt dramatically so it would cinch her waist in a more classic witchy manner. I trimmed off the tail and bored a new hole into the belt on the new end. I had painted the buckle yellow, but then switched to silver because the color needed to be somewhere to balance Alice's purse strap.

The piece is very tricky to fasten and very tight, but I think it's worth it.

Then I decided to swap out the shoes Alice is wearing with the strapped pair I got for my The Scream custom doll, Shrika Redfjord.

The strapped heels.

Shrika now wearing the unstrapped heels.

Shrika wears the Insect heels just as, if not more, glamorously as she wore the strapped heels, and the strapped heels work better for Alice because they mirror the belt and have buckles on the sides--perfect for a witch, and another place to include silver accents!

The heels with painted buckles on Alice.

There was one last thing I was waiting for: a second Witch dress. It was coming with a complete Insect doll body I ordered to make the head I liked not so lonely, and I thought I could take the dress and maybe cut the top section off and slide the second skirt up under the first dress so it would get another ruffle and gain a bit of length. That way, she'd feel a bit more frilly and less precariously clothed. 

Here's the full-bodied second Insect doll with the second Witch dress. This combination of
items indicates the doll was sourced from the deluxe CAM mega-pack, which included both, but not the Insect dress.

The second Insect head is a bit wonky and looks less open-eyed and friendly to me, so I'm going to use the first head with this body. The second head will be repainted for someone else.

My favored Insect head on the left, second one on the
right.

I cut off the second skirt and pulled it up Alice's legs...

It works perfectly on its own, so I won't
be physically attaching it to the first
dress.

And here's the final outfit! 

I might have been a little less hasty, since it strikes me that the second ruffle is flatter than the first one-- as such, it might have worked better to cut the flouncier first dress up and use the second, flatter one on top, but it's not really an issue at all, and the second skirt is an improvement. It works better with her belt to make her look a bit more formal and serious, and her hemline is no longer so treacherous.

So, now let's look at the dramatic before and after!

If MH doesn't give you a monster execution you love...make it!

I'm very pleased with what I achieved with this doll. I gave her a new visual identity and personality building on the strengths of the base doll, while realizing the witch concept in a classical and compelling way that doesn't feel hokey or stereotypical. 

I didn't know who Alice was the way Mattel released her. But now I do. She's a mysterious, dangerous, but kind and friendly old-fashioned edgy goth witch girl with a skill for enchanted food! 

This is a witch with appeal to me, and it wasn't too hard to achieve with my familiarity with MH pieces and some other toys I had at home. I'm so glad I decided to re-examine the Monster High witches, because I just knew there was a way to make one dear to me.

Ribbit.