Flourescent Dances, Second Chances, Part 2: Monster High Neon Frights Ghoulia Yelps by Mattel

Now comes Ghoulia, the eternal underdog! Is she better by her second doll?

 Read the first post (Neon Frights Twyla) here!

A History of Ghoulia

I never reviewed signature G3 Ghoulia Yelps, but she was the first G3 doll I got. I was initially attracted to her style and colors, but in-person I was disappointed by the shape and proportions of her face and the fit of her clothing. She was a huge departure from the vibe of G1 Ghoulia, the punk sixties ghoul with a sharp glamor face, and I wasn't satisfied.

I've never been one of the Ghoulia stans out there, and still have never owned a G1 Ghoulia doll. She was one of those characters that never had a design which fully clicked for me, though I could probably get a good restyle project with her on the blog sometime (no concrete or immediate plans right now). 
Still, I can understand why she was so popular.

Official G1 artwork of Ghoulia Yelps.

I loved her thematic roots in the defining zombie movie, George A. Romero's 1968 film Night of the Living Dead. Her name is partially derived from the fact that the undead are only ever referred to as "ghouls" in the movie, her fashion sense is decidedly retro, and her red and blue colors might even broadly reference retro movies by alluding to the bicolored lenses of classic 3D glasses! I also thought her face was very pretty, and I, as someone who grew up with glasses, appreciate that Ghoulia very consistently included her glasses in her dolls. G3 Clawdeen uses glasses but several of her dolls forgo them. Ghoulia has them on both G3 dolls so far, keeping up that consistency from G1!

Culturally, her positive reception also makes sense. Ghoulia was a geek girl in the era where geek culture was just becoming mainstream, thus landing right in the sweet spot where geeks could feel represented by Ghoulia but they also had a newfound appeal to all demographics. Ghoulia also was a very sympathetic character, being kind, super-intelligent, and (metaphorically) disabled. 

As a zombie, Ghoulia's speech came in the form of moans that served as another language in-universe and weren't intelligible to the audience, and her motion was slow by nature. The fact that the audience couldn't understand Ghoulia, and people had to be close with her to know what she said easily parallels foreign language, but its execution and the implication that a zombie was outright unable to speak another way felt like an imperfect parallel to being nonverbal. Ghoulia struggled with anti-zombie discrimination in a way that felt like a disabled person living with difficult birth conditions, and her hyperintelligent geeky side felt coded as neurodivergent, especially with her writing style in her diaries being atypically defined as eloquent while notably never using contractions. For all of this subtext to be included on one of the core characters was pretty darn huge, and even though her disability subtext suffers the problem of being coded behind a monster metaphor, you really didn't see a low-mobility, speech-impeded and possibly autistic character in the main friend group of any kid's franchise. For that character to be portrayed as an integral cast member who's beautiful, fierce, smart, kind, and beloved by her friends is really meaningful to me and I'll always respect what Ghoulia stood for even though it has its semantic issues. 

It's a little vaguer if any disability coding was intended or can be read in her boyfriend Slo Mo. He follows the same zombie limitations as Ghoulia and his writing is like hers, but that might be a point toward Mattel treating Zombie as a foreign language with no contractions, rather than that quirk being intended to characterize Ghoulia as possessing atypical expression. So it could either be read that both zombies are coded with disabled traits, or that there was less coding intended than audiences or I may have read into.

When we heard that Mattel would be including neurodivergent representation in G3, I wondered if it would go to Ghoulia, since precedent suggested that's what they had already been doing with her. But then G3 Frankie seemed like they'd had some neurodivergent coding, and then it was finally Twyla who was actually confirmed to be neurodivergent (so far), with her being explicitly autistic. G3 Ghoulia lacks the biggest traits that made G1 Ghoulia feel like a disability rep--she's now mobile at the same speed as others, and has full English fluency. It's possible Mattel decided it was offensive to associate nonverbal disability with zombies and I wouldn't blame anybody for thinking that was an issue with G1 Ghoulia, because, yeah, that's a pretty disgusting implication. However, I think the fact that she embodied her monster type as a clear joke about being the "brains" of her friend group and was never depicted as remotely intellectually disabled worked perfectly against that. There was nothing of ridicule in G1 Ghoulia's portrayal, but nobody would be wrong for getting uncomfortable with the basic concept because, at the root, it sounds horrible. Removing neurological disability coding for this monster type could be a safer choice today. Notably, this change already started in G2 with its own zombie character, Moanica D'Kay. Unlike the G1 zombies, Moanica was verbal in English (and Spanish) and had no aspects evoking mobility-based or neurodivergent disability.

I think the optics were probably worse with Slo Mo, though, since his 2D depictions pushed the zombie look into goofier territory with unfocused eyes and a slack jaw that do not work at all kindly with an uncertain frame possibly linking him to disability. I'd be quite curious to see what a G3 Slo Mo would look like. You never know how the G3 reimaginings will go, so it's always intriguing.

Also, it's not explicitly confirmed that G3 Ghoulia is neurotypical; it's just not clear that she isn't. So far, she does not explicitly portray a real neurodivergent experience. Her "brain freeze" problem where certain situations get her mentally stuck groaning "BRAAAIINS!" feels a little too goofy to be intended as a depiction of something real, and G3 demonstrably hasn't played coy with disability rep, so I don't know if that counts...at least with its current level of plot exploration.

Ghoulia got quite a rough treatment over the course of the franchise. While she was very popular with fans and one of the most sought-after dolls in any edition, Mattel didn't give her much favor. She was exclusive to the "Original Favorites" five-pack set rather than getting a solo release like the others. Maybe Mattel was trying to bank on her popularity to sell the five, but it felt wrong for her not to get a solo release. Ghoulia was also infamously excised from G2 altogether, no longer being in the fiction or toyline, to mass displeasure. It's possible it was deemed she sold poorly with kids, and maybe there's a nasty undercurrent to that having something to do with her disability coding, but she was just gone. Her only appearance during G2 was a collector doll with Cleo in the G1 style. Ghoulia was also glaringly absent in 2022 celebrations of G1--she was not in the first wave of the Haunt Couture collector dolls, nor in the Reel Drama collection, or the first wave of Boo-riginal Creeproductions. She's the only one of the core six G1 characters to be absent from all three. Fortunately, she's in the second wave of upcoming Creepro dolls, and she was the character depicted by the first Fang Club membership-exclusive collector doll release, so Mattel hasn't totally abandoned her. I'd also bet on her being in the third Haunt Couture series.

And Ghoulia's back in G3! But again, not quite. While she was released as a signature doll in the first assortment, she's a Target exclusive, and the only other exclusive in the group, Toralei, is not a main character so that says a lot about Ghoulia's new place. This proves true for the fiction as well, where Ghoulia is not part of the core Original Ghouls lineup anymore, and is much changed. She speaks English perfectly, she's green, and she's a modern street-skater with a heavier gaming theme, not a retro punk. Like Frankie, there's basically no aesthetic connection with the old monster movies anymore, but Ghoulia's character is just so different as well.

Trying with G3 Signature

Still, I was interested in her signature doll and I got a little bit of fun out of it.

You can tell this was a while ago--this is before I switched desks in my room!

The look was approaching something with the flowy baggy coat (the brain pattern even has some G shapes in it!) and center-parted hair and glasses in a fun modern-glam way, but I simply could not see Ghoulia in this doll's facial portrait. Her coat also felt like it swallowed her too much, and her skirt rode up so often that it was difficult to make her look really nice in her stock.

It's also quite different from the cartoon. There, her coat is grey and black, her lips are darker, and her hairstyle has two loose locks in front with short pigtails in the back.

I thought it would be worthwhile to try to see if I could get another sig copy and fix it up more faithfully to the cartoon and see if that made her feel more proper. I was caught so tightly in the tension of G3 Ghoulia as a remake and G3 Ghoulia as her own character, and maybe shoving her more into her own person per the cartoon design would resolve the dilemma.

Here's the second sig version I got (not all parts pictured.)

Her hair is all dark blue, which was an accent color on G1 Ghoulia and only a few of her dolls used the darker shade as the base. In the cartoon, her hair is a blend of dark and lighter blue, more like the G1 version.

Her face felt quite alien to my understanding of Ghoulia. The eyes are so wide, and the face felt so round. Ghoulia was always defined by her fierce glare and quirked brows, and her face was pointier.

Stock photo of the Ghoulia scooter playset, which shows her face uncovered.

Sig's face feels very sweet and devoid of attitude. This brings deja-vu for the horror we all felt looking at what they did to G2 Clawdeen!

However, I hadn't appreciated from the first copy that this doll is still able to "give Ghoulia" if you give her back her glasses and look at her head tilted downward. It's just like G3 Heath Burns where the head sculpt suddenly gains congruity with the old version when its angle changes. 

Who'd have thought? The energy I'd wanted was there all along!

I really dislike the illogical brown color of her eyebrows, though, which makes them too conspicuous and highlights how thick and un-Ghoulia they look. This is accurate to G1 Ghoulia, but her brows were pencil-thin and the color choice was nowhere near as obtrusive.

While the glasses have real lenses, the plastic is cloudy and it results in the frames only being painted on the tops and sides in a way that looks really fake. The style is a fair modernization, though, and I can appreciate the way G3 has evolved the more directly vintage looks of characters into a newer style...even though I hope that's not the only thing they do because authentic vintage is a legit way to express yourself!

I still found the clothing awkward to use on this new Ghoulia, so my conclusion is unchanged-- my favorite thing about her is the way her owl Sir Hoots-a-Lot clips onto her arm. He's still my favorite G3 pet because that play feature actually overcomes the cynical cutesiness of the pets' design.

I tried to restyle this Ghoulia to be more cartoon-accurate. I first dyed the old copy of her coat with some acrylic paint to match the cartoon. I had tried and failed to selectively dye the coat fabric, but some of the dye got into the ribbon accents on her arms and dulled their color. Oh, well. 

I then cut her hair into the front locks and pigtails. I'm overall not impressed with the outcome.

The coat looks good, but the beanie doesn't actually fit on her with her hair styled this way, likely explaining why the doll doesn't have that look, and the face sculpt is too different from the cartoon to make this a true improvement in resemblance. I honestly think I went the wrong direction here--despite me initially finding her too distant, this doll is actually better inclined to lean toward the G1 character than toward the G3 cartoon model. 

Since my hopes for a G3-accurate doll I liked were now shot, I needed to cross my fingers extra hard that I could use the Neon Frights doll as a restyle candidate to bring in the right G1 energy!

I also thought I'd strip the sig doll down to remake as a G3 body-model doll because Ghoulia has the most "neutral" sculpts of the G3 cast...but trying to pull her head off ended up destroying her neck peg. It's the second time I've failed to remove a G3 head without damage, so the anchors might be larger in the G3 dolls. Anyway, I guess I just have a model body and not a body model. No character to turn it into, but the body will be nice to have on hand. Oh, well.

Alright. No pressure, Neon Frights.

Neon Frights Ghoulia

Neon Frights' Ghoulia's box brought out a couple of thoughts I hadn't had with Twyla.

Notice a couple of the lock hubs are turned here, too.

For one, I realized how much prettier the overlay art of the doll door is, with the color being translucent green in this artwork. When you take off the plastic sleeve, the door underneath is black and feels a lot duller. Wouldn't it have added a little bit of wow for the door on the sleeve to be black and translucent bright green underneath?

Furthermore, the pairing of graphics feels extremely misleading, if not outright manipulative, because its design seems likely to make the viewer think more elements of this doll's ensemble will glow than they actually do. The graphic of the costume pieces is implicitly paired with the text bubble saying "19+ surprises!", but its proximity to the bigger "GLOWS IN THE DARK!" text, plus the way the pieces are illustrated as solid green on black, suggests falsely that the illustrated costume pieces will glow--and none of these are the actual glowing parts of the doll. I had the slight impression of this issue on Twyla's box, but Ghoulia's, with the green color, makes the impression more difficult to ignore.

Here's the box without the sleeve. Two doors were already open, but they closed and clicked shut unlike the top door of Twyla's box.

Ghoulia's door insert is green with a brain pattern.

Here's the doll door open. 

Ghoulia's locker door has similarly complex artwork.

Up top, she has her Nintendo Switch-esque console sitting it its dock and some other electronics, including what looks like a Sir Hoots-a-Lot power bank!

In the middle, the shelf is dominated by a picture of performer Skelly Vonderbone, a guest-star character portrayed by Trixie Mattel.

It's not textually explicit that Skelly is a drag queen like her portrayer is, but having seen a clip of her, she's totally a drag queen, like, come on. Ghoulia idolizes Skelly, and Skelly helps Ghoulia overcome her "brain freeze" in the context of singing onstage in the cartoon, thus explaining why Ghoulia is the one with the picture.

The shelf also features several collectibles of Dead Fast, Ghoulia's favorite comic-book superhero since G1, as well as an image of Ghoulia in Dead Fast cosplay, which was a San Diego Comic-Con exclusive G1 doll release! 

SDCC Dead Fast Ghoulia (image from Coleka).

The image is cleverly ambiguous in skintone so it can depict G3 Ghoulia while still directly reproducing the G1 look it's based upon. We can also see Ghoulia's gaming headset included with this doll's pieces, as well as a video game controller on a stack of game boxes clearly copying the red spines of Nintendo Switch games. Ghoulia has good taste!

There's also a poster of some kind of "available" "complete collection!" featuring an image of Hoots appearing to imitate the look of Monokuma from the Danganronpa game series.

There's also a sticky note reminding Ghoulia about a weekly appointment with a Dr. B. Holden. I'm not sure what this signifies. Does she have a therapist, or is she visiting somebody for a physical condition she has or something else mental or neurological not covered by everyday therapy? Is it about her "brain freeze"? Maybe the cartoon will reveal who this practicioner is and what they help with, but this small detail appears to be the most concrete indication so far that G3 Ghoulia is deliberately trying to represent a disorder or disability.

On the bottom shelf, Hoots is nestled in, and Ghoulia's snack cabinet is stocked with "Cup Brains", referencing the famous Cup Noodles ramen brand, as well as a bag of Brain Puffs which were included in her first doll with an orange bag design.

Overall, Ghoulia's locker is a little tidier and sparer than Twyla's. 

Ghoulia's backdrop came out with a few tears. Her color-reveal keys are evidently all coated in a lime-green paint.

Her backdrop is much like Twyla's, with Ghoulia colors and symbols. I don't recall Ghoulia having as much tombstone imagery back in G1...maybe because retro cherries were such a big part of her repertoire alongside the already-stacked iconography of brains and worms and body parts?

The first thing Neon Frights has more in common with G1 Ghoulia is her hair blend. Neon Frights has a mix of dark and lighter blue that's closer in balance to the standard mix of the G1 character, and it also seems more reflective of the cartoon design. Here, her hair is again center-parted, and tied in two low ponytails at the back, possibly as a gesture toward the pigtail style in the cartoon?

The hair is not precisely cut, leaving a few longer locks. I'm guessing this is also polypropylene, and the texture feels coarser, like Fearidescent Frankie's. Twyla's hair felt glossier and silkier to me. I'm immediately not crazy about this style choice and I fully intend to let her hair down later, but while we're going through the doll's default release, she'll keep the look.

The other big things that make Ghoulia feel more G1 are her glasses and lips.

The white color of the glasses calls back to G1 signature Ghoulia's frames, and even though they're not rounded cat-eye horn rims, the narrowness of the frames and the sharper point to them feels more retro and sassy than the wider lenses of the signature doll.

The glasses have no lenses, making her eyes easier to see. I had to bend in the arms a bit to make them sit securely enough, since they're very light springy plastic. The frames have a slight pixel design.

The other thing is her lips! They're red! G1 Ghoulia, just like Operetta, is often associated with a retro red lip color, and it's great to see it on the Neon Frights doll. I found her G3 signature doll lip color to look chalky and dead in a way that lowered the punch the rest of her design was going for. 

Underneath, Ghoulia's eyes are wide and sparkling, and her eyeshadow features a two-toned checkerboard design in green. It feels like an invocation of really old green computer graphics and pixel grids.

Green was always a minor color in G1 Ghoulia's ensembles, which favored red and black with blue hair, and even in G3, where red is swapped for pink, that holds true. This Neon Frights doll is probably the most green-heavy Ghoulia has ever gotten, and we'll see more later.

Also, hooray, her eyebrows are blue.

Here's the two faces together. I was surprised by the contrast.

For one, I'm seeing the opposite of what happened with the two Twylas' skintones. While Neon Frights was visibly darker in her case, here, the Neon Frights edition is paler than her signature!

The difference in eyes is also prominent. Neon Frights' eyes are not only significantly larger, but the way they're painted is different, with a side glance and higher contrast to create more prominent iris sparkles. [Personally, I think they should have deadened Ghoulia's eyes like they did for G3 Cleo's dolls, but whatever.] The eye makeup also increases the size of Ghoulia's eyes. However, this is done very cleverly to work with the glasses, since the shape actually shrinks her eyes when they're on her face because they only enclose the eye itself and not the makeup, and the frames cut off some of the eye and make them look smaller. You don't even notice Neon Frights has bigger eyes when the white glasses are on, but you do when she's wearing the pink sig glasses--we'll see that later on during dress-up play.

Like Twyla, the makeup is more dramatic (now I want to see Frankie, because their makeup being heavier could be really fun!), but I'm also seeing a slight meaningful difference where the Neon Frights lip paint looks fuller. I found the sig doll's lips to look a little pinched and they didn't flatter the face. 

Overall, the color choices of the signature doll's faceup are really unappealing to me, and the Neon Frights doll's makeup, paler skin, and eyeglasses all bring in a closer affinity to G1 Ghoulia in a way I really value. 

The default outfit of the Neon Frights doll shows immediately how uniform the costumes in this line are. 

 

Each doll in this line features a precisely analogous assortment of: 

* A patterned crop top

* A vinyl suspenders piece
* Vinyl bottom piece 1

* Thigh-high glow boots

* A hoodie jacket with mesh sleeves, a vinyl collar trim, and ear-like translucent vinyl accents for everyone without ears on top

* A graphic-tee crop top

* Vinyl bottom piece 2

* Earrings

* Glow choker

* Short shoes

* Glow purse

* Variable accessories (non-formulaic)

Ghoulia's default outfit here is similar in my regard to Twyla's--the top is fantastic; the rest can go.

The wide-necked cut of the top and the dark brain pattern feel very classic-Ghoulia to me, and I think I can build a good outfit around it. While it has pink splashes with some of its pixel-heart designs, it also, vitally, includes red. Red deserves to be a big part of her palette!

Seeing the pinkification of Ghoulia and Twyla in G3, I'm kind of terrified that a G3 Operetta would be made entirely pink or lavender and I don't know if I can handle them doing that to my ghoul. RED IS AN AWESOME COLOR! DO NOT COW TO GIRLY-GIRL PRESSURE, MATTEL! 

Ghoulia's suspender belt is just as weird and unflattering here as it was on Twyla. Honestly, I think the only person who pulls off the idea is Frankie.

Mattel stock photo of Neon Frights Frankie in suspenders.

 Suspenders make total sense for them given their preppy-punk style, their visual association with Frankenstein lab restraints, and their cheerfully awkward character. On a subjective vibes level, maybe they're also otherwise sleek and stylish enough, or there's enough visual pop or queer energy in their look here to make them work, too. The whole doll is bold, so suspenders work. On the other characters, suspenders make no style sense. On Frankie, it feels like they're daring and subversive, or make sense because they make no sense. Frankie feels like they're making a statement out of the suspenders and they're so cool you would never tell them not to. I don't think nerdy characters like Twyla and Ghoulia can sell them, and even Toralei and Draculaura don't click with the idea. 

And it is this specific Frankie that makes it work. I don't think their sig styling is confrontational enough to sell suspenders of any kind.

While the right to rock suspenders belongs to Mx. Frankie and Frankie alone, I do like that the back of Ghoulia's suspenders features owl wings.

But if you can't pull them off, please just pull them off!

Ghoulia's pink vinyl shorts are subtly two-toned and feature a dripping edge. Drips are often associated with Ghoulia, but are far from character-exclusive as a design motif in the brand. Still, it's good to see even a slight allusion to ooze and gore because the brand's spooky audacity was one of its former hallmarks. 

Ghoulia's boots were really hard to photograph due to their color, but they're chunky and cover all of the leg they fit over. The laces at the front remind me a lot of signature G1 Ghoulia's boots.

The sides have brain and tombstone buckles on the straps, and the platforms are high-heeled and have a brain texture.

Ghoulia's first key was glittery black, just like Twyla's. Hmm. 

Ghoulia's surprise packets are olive with lime green decorations and are printed correctly so the question marks aren't reversed.

The contents of the first unlocked door were just the same as Twyla's array--the second outfit pieces with the hoodie, but not the shoes. Here they are on Ghoulia.

It was difficult getting both of her ponytails through the slit in the back of the hood. Not the ideal hairdo for this outfit. Like the other characters, Ghoulia's hoodie matches the doll's glow color without glowing. Her "ear" accents are blue owl wings and her hoodie's collar trim is a black drippy shape. 

Unlike with Twyla, the hoodie isn't inspiring me much at all on Ghoulia. 

Ghoulia's crop top is white with a drippy lower edge and features a brain graphic. Her vinyl skirt has a pink, blue, and green splatter design evoking zombie gore and street graffiti. Like Twyla's, the skirt opens all the way down the back.

The other three dolls in this line don't seem to have textured hems to their graphic tops, but I know Frankie is the third character to have shorts as one of their bottoms. Draculaura and Toralei have two skirts each. 

Ghoulia's Neon Frights doll could be considered the the closest in style to its character's signature G3 look, since her signature outfit already featured a graphic crop top and a vinyl skirt! This ain't new territory for her!

The second key is blue, which looks an awful lot like we're repeating the same linear sequence I had with Twyla...

This door contained Ghoulia's gaming headset, choker, purse, and earrings.

Twyla had no equivalent to the headset, so her equivalent bag had fewer pieces, with just the choker and earrings and purse. I'd have welcomed each Neon Frights character having a hat or headband.

Ghoulia's headset is modeled after the archetypal female livestream gamer, with owl "horn" tuft accents cleverly standing in for stereotypical cutesy cat ears. Fittingly, all of Ghoulia's owl accents are colored to match Sir Hoots-a-Lot. I feel like G1 Ghoulia would be wearing these with deliberate irony, subverting the silly anime-catgirl image with a symbol of wisdom as a private joke to herself that maybe nobody else would find as amusing as she does. The headphones feature owl wings, and the microphone is shaped like a coffin. The piece fits pretty well over her ears, though her glasses can get squished and misaligned.

Ghoulia's choker has a brain texture and a pendant that seems to have a "G" engraving. 

Her earrings are neon pink and green game controllers dangling from worms. Here's the accessories on.

The choker sits better on Ghoulia than Twyla's did on her, but it's still so easy to lose the piece in the rest of the outfit. It doesn't add a lot with so much else going on.

Ghoulia's purse is tombstone-shaped. The front has a pixel heart, and the back has a graffiti-esque design. 

Like Twyla's, this piece is small enough to not be useful as a bag, and its strap look is best put over the doll's wrist after the hand has been popped out.

Here's all the glowing pieces in action, with the choker caught better on this doll.

Wouldn't it be hilarious if I had discovered here that Ghoulia's eyes glowed somehow?

Ghoulia's next key is pink, which means there are no surprises with this doll's sequence and her unlocking sequence is exactly the same as Twyla's- directly linear down the locker.

I wonder now if I was wrong about each Skulltimate Secrets edition having a fixed unlocked sequence. I had assumed things couldn't be randomized because Mattel had to ensure none of the color-coded keys got locked behind their own doors, but I don't think multiple characters in one series would be designated the same unlocking sequence if these were done fully character-specific, either. It just wouldn't be practical to have multiple logical unlocking sequences for different copies of the same doll, but I don't know. Have other owners encountered the same pattern for multiple different dolls in Series 1 or 2, or multiple sequences for one doll in any of the series?

The next door contained the keyring and the second shoes. Ghoulia's are designed to look like brain-platformed Crocs with the holes not being visible because they're all plugged with totally-not-Jibit charms. I'm impressed that each one is unique and the printing looks good.

The shoes do a really good job of hiding that Ghoulia's feet are sculpted in a high-heeled shape. I also didn't photograph it, but the soles have text saying "BRAAAAINS!"

The last key is translucent green and opened the bottom door, which contained her laptop and webcam and a brain cup.

The lid of the laptop has a molded Skullette logo and several printed stickers.

The webcam is soft plastic and clips onto the top of the screen. Inside, the screen shows a game and streaming setup with an active audience chat and a camera view of Ghoulia streaming...with a different hairstyle and parting than the doll! Ghoulia's character profile in the game is represented by a silhouette of her and Hoots' G1 artwork.

I do like that the webcam-footage window matches the shape of the computer, though!

This does not appear to be the music game hosted by Skelly Vonderbone which Ghoulia plays in the cartoon. There's nothing really indicative of what genre or content this game would entail. I would have appreciated more specificity and authenticity on that. 

Ghoulia's brain cup is decorated with a decal wrapped around the side, which is peeling. That's disappointing.

Now, to play around with her looks. 

I puled out her hair ties and boiled her hair down, which was an instant improvement. Then I put together some options.

I pulled in G1 Ghoulia shades which I frosted and used for my Scarah and some Rainbow/Shadow High pieces to put together something heavily neon-green, which I think gives her a bit of a cartoon-hacker or anime-villain look!

I then put together more Neon Frights stock to take neon portraits.

I tried and failed to dress Neon Frights in the signature stock and make her look good. Something about the construction of those outfit pieces together just didn't allow for any visual grace or flow, regardless of the things Neon Frights improves as a base doll. 

However, by mixing in some Neon Frights pieces, I was able to create a brighter, more candy-colored look that leaned into the palette of the coat and fit a modernist graffiti theme well, and even suited the huge-eye look she gets in the pink glasses.

And I tried for ages to put something together that felt truer to G1 Ghoulia's red-and-black punk look. I knew she needed the dark crop top, but finding bottoms for her was a struggle, until I landed on a pair of G2 Gil shorts I had. Sure, the fish bones and stars aren't quite Ghoulia's norm, but the colors were perfect and the ghoul needed pants! Putting that with Invisi Billy's white belt, the white glasses, and the tombstone earrings, plus a pair of Shadow High Scarlet Rose boots below created a basic look that channeled Ghoulia really well!

Suddenly, I felt like I was seeing the old character I knew and loved. And then I put the dyed-darker copy of the coat on her and the magic was complete and I fell absolutely in love with the doll. 

Incredible.

Full stop, this is what I wish G3 sig Ghoulia had been. The colors, hair, and glasses are thoroughly Ghoulia, while her face sculpt and overall style are still new. She carries forth the energy we all love about the character but she's updated for today's fashion. I think this is viable, but focus groups of children probably don't. It's okay. We tend to get better taste as we age!

The streaming headset also looks great on this look.

I've never felt like I owned a Ghoulia doll before, even though I've literally purchased two copies of the signature G3 version. But this? This is Ghoulia to me, even though she's so different from G1. My second G3 sig copy sadly proved entirely nonviable as a doll after breaking, but Neon Frights came through and fulfilled my dreams with flying colors. A little restyling and dyeing was all it took to give me the beloved zombie I never had. I will probably pursue working with a G1 incarnation someday, but now, I'm absolutely satisfied because at long last, I feel like Ghoulia has joined my collection.

Fundamentally, G3's takes on Ghoulia are disappointing. They've shied away from her defining color palette and softened her face, but Neon Frights quite clearly serves to throw some bones to the fans by correcting her hair and lip colors and giving her more classic glasses and a classic-feeling patterned top.

Neon Frights as a series can be hit-or-miss due to how uniform the doll designs are, and some aspects of the formula work better for some characters than others. I found Twyla best when leaning into the theme, and Ghoulia best significantly restyled. The glowing gimmick is cute, if underused in some aspects, but the doors are not secure enough not come unlocked under the sleeve during shipping.

But my goal with both of these Skulltimate Secrets dolls was to make peace with their characters' G3 depictions, and that absolutely happened, though in different ways. Neon Frights Twyla made me re-examine and appreciate good things her dolls were doing which I hadn't seen or expected. Ghoulia gave me an avenue to successfully push the character where I wanted her to be after I reaffirmed her signature doll couldn't go there. 

I'm definitely at a better place with these two now.