Head of the School: Monster High Headless Headmistress Bloodgood by Mattel

 This is a doll I've wanted for a long time out of a love for the character and the toy gimmick. 

In the G1 fiction, Monster High is a school with grand ideals of inclusion and education, so it is fittingly run by a pretty grand woman--the school principal known as Headless Headmistress Bloodgood. You can just tell it was an offhanded writer's-room gag that everybody leaped on the second someone came up with it because that's just hilarious. 

Image of Bloodgood as seen in the webisodes.

Bloodgood is depicted very admirably in my eye as an authoritative and stern principal who is never cruel or out of line with her judgments. She knows how to keep a school in order and to arbitrate the matters she's presented with, but she's also a noble and kind person who does everything she can to support her students and protect her school. I've always respected capable and honorable authority figures like her because I liked stability and peace in my school days and always admired teachers who could attain control of a rowdy room quickly without ever being mean. G3 brings Bloodgood back, but she's a little less universally confident or righteous about all matters, and that's fair, but I'm inclined to prefer the consistency of the G1 character. I'd still welcome G3 Bloodgood getting a doll release. There are points of her design I find improvements over G1's, even if the overall impact of her styling is more modernized and doesn't carry much gravitas.

Bloodgood in the G3 cartoon.

The Headless Horseman is a literary character who may not even exist in the story he comes from. He's a rumored spirit in The Legend of Sleepy Hollow by Washington Irving, and an early American horror icon. In the story, schoolteacher Ichabod Crane hears tales of a decapitated rider who seeks his lost head, and eventually encounters the terrifying rider, who even throws an object at him he thinks is a head, driving him to flee Sleepy Hollow for good. Later, though, the scene shows a smashed pumpkin that could have been what was thrown in truth, and it's suggested that the town golden boy Brom Bones just staged a prank to scare Ichabod. The cultural consciousness embraced the reading of the Horseman as real, however, and he's remained a real monster and a common horror archetype in fiction today. The pumpkin thing from the story even got adapted in a new context to many visual depictions of the Horseman using a carved jack-o'-lantern as a surrogate head to replace the one he's lost. Tim Burton made a Gothic period slasher film loosely based on the story, Sleepy Hollow, which is campy and gory and more ridiculous than it even tries to be. If you enjoy entertainingly messy films with a few genuinely striking horror scenes, then check it out.  

The Horseman we know through Irving's foundational text is similar to the older Irish folklore of the dullahan, which is a wicked fairy spirit of a headless rider looking for souls. I think Bloodgood pays homage to the dullahan with one small detail--late in G1, the Robecca/Hexiciah Steam SDCC exclusive set revealed Bloodgood's first name, through Hexiciah, her peer, referring to her as "Nora" in his diary. "Nora" is one of the most iconically Irish female names there is, so I have to feel like it was deliberately chosen for Bloodgood to link her to that folklore.

Oh, hey! Interruption to add that I completely forgot, over the course of multiple recent posts, to put anything on this blog about the fact that I have created an Instagram page for this blog to announce, tease, and share highlights from my posts here! If you're a reader and you want a place to find out what to expect on here or find out when I've published something, check out "@teatime_tangents_and_toys" on Instagram!

Unlike other webisode-originating characters, whose toy debut was in Comic-Con limited editions, Bloodgood released at retail in a box set with her steed Nightmare, and her head was packaged separately in the box to make her gimmick clear. 

The Latin motto translates to "there is no truth in appearances" or, essentially, "don't judge a book by its cover."

Bloodgood and Freak du Chic Frankie Stein are the only two standard MH dolls who have been packaged with body parts separated. Frankie had a hand put into her magician's hat as if it was magically emerging from the hat!

Since it was very unlikely there would ever need to be a non-signature release of Bloodgood for fans to collect, releasing her only doll through retail on the mass market was the right thing to do. The other characters could get away with a convention-exclusive limited signature release because other editions could be made available to the mass market, but Bloodgood never needed more than one doll, so everyone got a chance to have her. Also, making her a playline doll allows Mattel to capitalize on the popularity of horse toys.

I got my Bloodgood and Nightmare loose but complete. I don't believe Bloodgood came with a stand because she has a giant display prop in her horse.

Here they are separate.

And Bloodgood alone.

This doll might have been manufactured in two sites with very different ideas of what to do with her bangs, because I've seen photos of Bloodgood with her hair in rounded smooth bangs across her forehead, but also photos of factory Bloodgoods with their bangs curled into distinct separate ring curls across her forehead. (For an example of the latter, check out the Toy Box Philosopher review of her from the time of her release!)

However, the hair is probably the doll's biggest failing. For one, it's quite messy due to the fiber.

It would have looked better new and factory-gelled, but I don't hold with gel in my dolls, and I always strive to find a dry alternative to a given style, and with the hair arriving a bit dried already, it's not super promising. 

The biggest problem with the construction of this hairstyle is the fact that you're encouraged to play with the doll's decapitation gimmick, and handling the head a lot is going to naturally unsettle the hair fibers and puff out the bun into a nest of curls. A display doll can get away with a delicate gelled bun, but a playline doll whose head is built to be wrenched around needs hair that can withstand that kind of play.

The other issue is the look of the hair diverging so much from the art on the box and in the webisodes. There, Bloodgood's hair bun is very small and her bangs are more sculpted and puffed, and she has a small lock of hair over her left eye. Drawn/animated Bloodgood could be mistaken for having a wavy short haircut until she turns her head, and I think that makes her feel more mature and suits her really well. 

Bloodgood's doll artwork.

The doll's bun is too large as a consequence of her head being fully-rooted. If you want a small bun or an extra tight hairstyle on a doll, there can't be too much hair rooted in the center. The trick for less volume in a bun would be to root only the rows around the edge of the head, and the bald middle won't show when the hair is tied. The obvious detriment is that the hair won't work in any other style, but I don't need Bloodgood to be a hair-play doll so I can try to figure something out. 

The bun itself is just the curled ends of the hair rolled under and gelled into shape. There was a broken black plastic band in the hair, but it felt firm and nothing like a decayed elastic, so I don't know how her hair looked secured when she was new. The hair feels tacky, so it needs a wash.

I do like Bloodgood's face. 

She has heavy pink and purple makeup and dramatic single-lash wings on her upper lid as well as deep magenta lips. She feels like an adult and has a pretty face that works for an old-fashioned and composed principal. Her eyebrows are oh so subtly dark brown when they should be pure black, but it doesn't make a big difference. I've seen her face compared to Spectra Vondergeist's due to the prominent cheekbones she has, but they are different sculpts. Spectra released first in 2011, and Bloodgood's head sculpt is stamped 2012.

Bloodgood is one of the few Monster High characters with a human skintone, but it makes sense for her because a headless rider is just a weirdly undead and/or ghostly human. The doll's eye color does not match the webisodes, and I do think I'd prefer the grey color they give her there to the bright blue of the doll. The blue feels like a move to make her a little friendlier and brighter against her macabre decapitated gimmick, and I don't find it necessary. 

Bloodgood's costume is defined by her purple riding coat, and it's a pretty dramatic piece. 

The top of the coat features lapels and a ruffled white collar to age it in style, and the shoulders feature bands of magenta and tiny black bands ringing the arms for more texture. The black bands are studded metal in the cartoon, and I wish that had been more closely replicated. A simple vinyl piece that encircled both shoulders with the studded bands and connected across the back with a simple strip probably would have been able to depict that detail better. I like the gold buttons on the coat, which are dimensional. The arms have thick pink striped cuffs with white ruffles just above them.

The coat tends to photograph a little redder than it is in reality, so these pictures have been edited a bit in post to more accurately reflect the piece. I think the purple is a fair color choice to look dramatic and spooky without suggesting she's a scary or cruel principal like a black or red coat probably would...though a vibrant red version of this jacket would create a phenomenal look. As it is, the costume coloring is not as toylike as it could be, and that's why I don't love the more magenta and turquoise colors of the G3 costume.

The fabric of the coat is similar to a nice gift ribbon. It's fine, but I wish it was just a little more fluid and drape-y than it is. I also feel like a matte fabric would feel more realistic for the type of piece this is meant to be.

The coat is pretty impressive, but it has issues. I find the black velcro closure on mine to be too visible when it's closed, and I wish the fold of the coat came down a little further so you couldn't see the lower line of her shirt in the gap. That's a big tailoring flaw. The coat also has several stray threads, and the white ruffles are unfinished, so they've begun to fray with time. 

Underneath, Bloodgood has a sleeveless white collared shirt with a pink ribbon necktie. There is no sewing or other detail to suggest a button-up construction for the shirt--it's just a white tank with a shirt collar and tie. It's a simple piece but it does the job. It doesn't look good without the coat, but it was never meant to be displayed that way.

Bloodgood has simple textured black pants and tall untextured black riding boots. 

The pants are very flexible and easy to use, and are elasticated at the waist. I think this material is the same as what MH later used for the bodysuit of Gala Ghoulfriends Luna Mothews. If it's not the same, it's very similar and just as good. It's a great fabric for a bit of sparkle and texture without being the slightest hindrance to posing, and it seems to age without any issues. 

I had issues with the boots, since they weren't too easy to pull off her feet despite the large slits and flexible material. I cut the slits a little longer. 

We'll talk about her body sculpt later because I had to do something with her hair first before I took comparison pictures. 

It's pretty visually evident that Bloodgood was a webisode character adapted into a doll, because, like other webisode-first characters such as Scarah Screams, the three-eyed Create-a-Monster, or Gilda Goldstag, there's a simplicity and a lack of iconography to her look that betrays the creatives weren't thinking about making her as a doll when her look was designed. The Headless Horseman myth would be ripe for costuming symbols of swords, axes, or jack-o'-lanterns (MH as a whole is shockingly devoid of pumpkin imagery), but the Headmistress has no visual symbols in her clothing and her outfit is largely simple blocks of color--economical for a Flash-animation character model of somebody created for webisodes first, but a tad plain for a doll character. I think Bloodgood gets by on a strong visual impact and a dramatic older fashion sense that favors this simplicity, but she is less intricate. G3 Bloodgood resolves this issue. Her earrings are shaped like hatchets, a weapon often associated with the Horseman, and she features horseshoe symbols in her clothing as well. If she gets a doll, she's been set up with a character design blueprint that wouldn't feel underbaked among the toyline precedent...and the G3 dolls often have a bit more detail than the cartoon characters, anyway, so the doll might be even better. I had thought maybe G1 Bloodgood had no references to weaponry because that was too grim and Mattel doesn't give its playline dolls weapons, but maybe things have shifted a bit in G3...or maybe a G3 Bloodgood doll would axe the axes and her earrings, if she had them, wouldn't match the cartoon design. (Fingers crossed they wouldn't do that; have some nerve, Mattel.) I don't favor the even poppier, more modern look of the G3 character's fashion, but I like that she's more MH-iconographic. 

I wonder if a G3 Scarah debuting with a clean slate would have more psychic and screaming imagery. Her G1 version lacked any specific imagery for ages because she was an undefined background character first and her signature look had no iconography, and by the end of G1 (and of all of her dolls to the date of writing this post), Scarah only had one actually banshee-themed piece. Scarah debuting in a new generation where her purpose was always to be a banshee could give her a stronger visual integration with her monster type because her look would be designed for that concept from the start.

Now, Nightmare. She's a large static horse with a fiber mane and tail. Her body is dark blue, her eyes are completely red, and her mane, saddle, and bridle use purple and pink tones. Nightmare came as-packaged with the mane sewn into a plastic strip, and an elastic going around her leg.

I was able to remove this strip by pulling a bit of hair out from it at a time until enough was loose (and the thread had broken enough in the wrangling) that the whole thing could slide off. 

Nightmare looks nicely caricatured for a Monster High cartoon even if her colors look blatantly unrealistic and toylike. I do think the blue and red are strong and spooky, but the purple and pink don't mix too well. The inner sections of her forelegs have divots in them, possibly as a way to use a little less plastic material. 

Nightmare's bridle had some weird substance caked on it, but this fortunately wiped off instantly when I took it to be cleaned.

The clasps of the removable bridle are Skullette-shaped, and I was really surprised to see that they weren't put on top of pins and holes, but that the loops are contoured to fit around the Skullettes as the pins!

Nightmare's saddle features bold Skullettes on its sides, which is appropriate given she's the mount of the school principal, and the logo is tied to the school. The Skullettes are the standard white and pink, and the eyes and nose are cut out...but the eyelashes are only molded deeper into the white and are pretty hard to see. I don't see why they weren't part of the cutouts.

The saddle comes off with a belt-like strap under Nightmare's belly.

Her mane and tail looked better after a wash and comb.

Bloodgood straddles Nightmare pretty well, though she can wobble a little forward and back. 

Later in the brand, Monster High would design another horse form as part of Avea Trotter's hybrid harpy/centaur body. 

Avea's body is smaller than Nightmare's, obviously, and her horse parts have much more articulation...chiefly because Nightmare isn't articulated at all! Read Avea's post to see how she moves! I do find Avea believable next to Nightmare, though, since she's still a teenager, and she's not super far from Nightmare's size. It's conceivable that within a few years of continued maturation, Avea's lower body could reach the size of Nightmare. 

I decided to take Bloodgood for some hair care. I like the shape of her hair when it's let down. It has an old-Hollywood quality with the curls puffed around her shoulders. 

But she's only going to have the style she was designed with. I trimmed out a lot of her central hair and retied it, using a piece of black yarn to have a quick and decay-proof tie. An elastic would require more wrangling and would decay over time. The hair still curls mostly in a ball shape, so a little trimming was all I needed for her to have a product-free smaller bun. I feel confident that nothing is going to happen to this style when I play with the doll.

I then curled her bangs as tightly as I could and left one piece loose and boiled down to be the stray lock above her eye. Here's the result. 

With the concessions that this hair fiber is predisposed to messiness and that the stray curl could not be reshaped to point to her right, I think this is an improvement and better matches the more characterful shaping of the 2D depictions of Bloodgood. 

So here's a body comparison. Bloodgood uses the G1 adult female "big-sister" body sculpt, so dubbed by fans because it debuted on Cleo de Nile's older sister Nefera. Our friend Maudie models the standard sculpt and a Twyla models the "little-sister" sculpt which (you guessed it) debuted on a younger sister--Howleen Wolf, sibling to Clawdeen.

I had forgotten how different the adult sculpt was from the median sculpt--it's definitely a bigger difference than the one between the little-sister and median sculpts. The adult body is taller and a little thicker all around, with larger breasts. The body has longer arms, making face-touching poses less viable. 

The big-sister body is a bit taller than a G1 boy (and thus, also a G3 boy, which is shorter) and about on par with a G2 boy. 

I didn't photograph it, but she's also pretty close in height to G3 Abbey. I had always thought Abbey deserved to be on the big-sister sculpt because she was so tall in the fiction, and it felt even more glaring once her Peruvian maricoxi cousin Marisol used the big-sister body to play into her Bigfoot heritage. G3 Abbey fixed that, and thus seems to propose a template for other adult or extra-tall characters in G3, with her height, if not every proportion, being a likely G3 equivalent to the big-sister frame. If G3 Bloodgood gets a doll, she might have a sculpt like Abbey's.

Bloodgood is the only big-sister doll with a ball nub for a neck peg. It's very similar to the system used for the Create-a-Monster dolls (which were only based on the median female and standard boy sculpts), though Bloodgood's nub is more spherical and a CAM nub has a slight point to the top.

Bloodgood's peg does not rotate entirely smoothly in her neck, which is something several CAM dolls also had an issue with, so my copy's head poseability does not match the highest standard of a standard doll. 

There was no G2 new sculpt equivalent to the big-sister body. The only adult female doll edition in G2 was a Nefera de Nile who was clearly a pre-designed delayed G1 doll, and thus used the G1 body. G2 Abbey was still too short.

Maudie saw the Headmistress passing by and wanted to ask something.

"Oh, Headmistress?"

"I was wondering...could we trade?"

Bloodgood is always happy to support the curiosity of her students, so she agreed.

"Whoa, it's tall up here!"

"How is it with you?"
"I'm reminded of my younger days..."

Bloodgood's joints are no stronger than any other MH doll's, and that's her true biggest problem. I found it very difficult to pose her holding her head in any way because her elbows would turn or her wrists would bend under the weight. Due to a combination of the hand and head sculpts, the head's center of gravity, and the weakness of the arms, it was outright impossible to pose her holding her head aloft by one hand (the one pose she really ought to be able to achieve!), and even getting her head in her arm like this was very delicate and not that stable. Exhale on this, and her head tumbles down. 

There's a lot of potential lost here. I imagine a G3 Bloodgood doll might fare better at carrying her head because those dolls are a bit more robust. Honestly, even though I love G1 Bloodgood exactly as she is, considering the character purely as a toy...it might have been wiser to make Bloodgood the Headless Headmaster because a male G1 doll's arm joints would likely be better suited to the task of carrying a separated head. Of course, she was always conceived to be a woman and wasn't meant to be a toy first, but the G1 female bodies aren't up to displaying well with this headless gimmick.

I have another Headless Horseman toy--the Mego action figure.

I've fallen in and out of love with several Mego figures and loaned their wardrobes to MH boys' style rotations, but the Horseman remains a favorite. He's got such a great presence. 

The flap inside his collar actually covers the figure's neck peg, and it can be tucked inside the coat so the pumpkin can attach.

I love the neon glow in the carved face.

This guy can't hold his "head" from the bottom one-handed either, but he does have a stem that goes into his hand! 

I think Bloodgood looks good with the sword and jack-o'-lantern, even though the pumpkin is too drab for her, and too small to be a surrogate head.

Then, Maudie ran into Bloodgood again while she was tending to Nightmare...

"!!! Oooo !!!"
"Oh, brother."
"I would LOVE to ride your horse! May I?"
"Certainly."

"She's so nice..."
"Typical."

"Come join me!"
"Wait, what--would that even work???"
"Why don't you try?"

"Okay, whoa...I'm kind of nervous."
"Don't worry, I've got you."

It was Avea's first time riding a horse.

"Oof. That's a new one for me."
"I'm so glad I could be there and share that with you!"

"I think I can see why you were so excited about me!"
"Oh my gosh, no, do not excuse me for that. I was so out of line!"

"Hey, dots...it's lunchtime. You coming?"
"Oh, YAAAAY! YES!!!"

"Thank you, Ms. Bloodgood!"
"Yeah, thank you!"
"You're welcome, ghouls. See you around."

Well, whaddaya know. Ever since I put together an uncomfortable imaginative story with Maudie and Avea in my review of her, I'd wanted to find a good way to imagine them coming closer. Nightmare was the perfect way to do it!

So, at the end of it all, Headless Headmistress Nora Bloodgood is a pretty flawed doll but a character and concept I still cherish. Her coat is one of the more ambitious G1 pieces, and it strikes a wonderful profile...

...but its construction feels undeniably Mattel-cheap, the fold doesn't come low enough on her torso, and the coat hasn't aged the best. Her hair is messy and unsustainably styled (especially so given her play gimmick), so I had to make significant tweaks for myself. Her character design also doesn't feel as lavish as the standard MH fare as a consequence of her design coming direct from a cartoon-first character. Her coat's physical size and detail help to make her feel more worth it, but its deficits act right against that and kind of cancel things out. Her headless gimmick is also charming and spooky, but it's not worth a whole lot when there are very few viable ways to pose her headless. This doll deserved an extra-sturdy arm joint system to let her gimmick flourish the way it should. Nightmare is a dramatic display prop and she looks great with Bloodgood, but the horse is completely static, and there's not a whole lot of fun in a headless rider who can't really ride that well posed headless. 

Oh, if only she could lift her head up!

I'd absolutely rather have Bloodgood than not. The character is near and dear to my heart and the doll translates her pretty well (or at least, can be made more on-model). She just feels like she's trying to look way more deluxe than she truly is.