Quite a Pack: A G3 Clawdeen Roundup

This project was supposed to be finished so much earlier!!!

Werewolves have never been the most captivating monsters to me design-wise, and Clawdeen Wolf has always represented a huge gap in my Monster High collection roster. I did get two dolls of her (G1 Haunted and G2 Winning Werewolves), but didn't come out loving either. Let's work on these blocks and make a change right here.

There's a lot to appreciate about G1 Clawdeen, but she wasn't without critique.

Mattel stock photo of Boo-riginal Creeproduction Clawdeen, the best representation
of the G1 sig doll's production appearance.

On the positive side, Clawdeen was wonderfully fierce, edgy, and experimental in her fashion, representing daring cutting-edge fashion design. As a werewolf, she was written to have hair that grew so fast she could cut it and change her style with high frequency, leading to her having dolls with huge and exciting hair variance, in many colors and cuts. While her signature dolls in G1 and G2 are mostly pink and purple, her other dolls often embody the classic spooky color pair of purple and lime green (her Dawn of the Dance doll was phenomenal) and her jewelry had a brilliant subtle touch--Clawdeen always conspicuously wears gold...because no way would a werewolf touch silver! None of her dolls have ever worn it.

Clawdeen was also strong, firm, and confident as a character and always seemed like a stand-up friend who could get you on your feet and push you past your problems into being a better person. Clawdeen is also hugely nostalgic as a time capsule of late-2000s, early-2010s fashion. She feels like an embodiment of the America's Next Top Model fashion zeitgeist during the era in a way I have to love. 

Clawdeen had some aspects worth questioning--aspects I bring up with no intention nor position to deliver verdicts on because I cannot speak to them myself. But the basic concerns that floated and which I saw are related to her portrayal as the foremost Black character in the brand. Her personality could be accused of falling into clichés or stereotypes of being a "sassy" Black female sideckick character...and she was voiced by a White actress in G1 and G2. (None of the Wolfs were portrayed by Black people.) Clawdeen wasn't performed with AAVE or a full blaccent, but she did have a Jersey accent that could be taken as trying to approach that tone a little. In a vacuum, her personality would have no concerns, but media is not in a vacuum. Concerns that Clawdeen fell into stereotype, valid or not, certainly couldn't be assuaged by her portrayer because a Black actress was not performing her voice and visibly co-signing her portrayal. I'm not sure if any Black creative voices were overseeing Clawdeen's portrayal--but I can't say either way because I'm only not sure. There very well may have been. 

Another thing that strikes me--of the Wolf family, Clawdeen had the most dolls due to being a core character, but it might be odd (and if not weird, certainly artistically disappointing) that she also noticeably lacked any dolls with a uniquely Black curly hair texture whereas her younger sister (once) and brother (multiple times but the same execution each time) did represent Black curls. While you could rationalize it as G1 Clawdeen just not falling into that hair type range genetically, that idea is countered by the one example I could find of G1 Clawdeen depicted with a distinctly Black curl--she wore a round loose afro in artwork for her Scream Uniform fashion pack, but there was never a physical doll produced with that hairstyle. Mattel demonstrated they could execute Black hair types on MH dolls as soon as Clawd and Howleen, suggested that Clawdeen had that hair type and could wear her hair more natural in artwork, and gave all three of Honey Swamp's dolls voluminous springy afro hair, so why never dip into that pool for Clawdeen? Even if there's no hair-type bias behind that, it just feels like a missed opportunity for her expression and design variety. She's the ghoul with constantly-changing hair and yet she's not exploring a huge chunk of hairstyles that are evidently in her list of options! 

I won't ask why Mattel never gave Clawdeen a protective hairstyle, though, since that seems to be purely technical-- microbraids only started becoming a reliable presence in the doll industry after the time of G1 and G2 MH, suggesting manufacturing advancements making them more viable contributed to their rise. If Mattel decide G3 Clawdeen falls into that hair texture range, it'd be nice to see on one of her dolls going forward. Venus already did it beautifully.

G1 Clawdeen was fabulous and the pinnacle of her fashion zeitgeist, but maybe fell short. I'm fond of the best parts of what she represented but I can't discredit or argue against her major G3 changes because I can understand how they may be responses to criticisms that have weight.

In G2, Clawdeen managed to translate most of her fashion sense, but her eyes were widened to the point of seriously cutting her personality out. Clawdeen was probably the most altered and harmed by the G2 face style--at least, under the context of the dolls trying to translate the original G1 dolls, which they clearly are. The G2 Clawdeen faces just aren't Clawdeen.

Mattel stock photo of G2 signature Clawdeen.

In a single word, G1 Clawdeen was fierce. You can't take that facial attitude away and leave the rest!

G3 Clawdeen doesn't restore the fierceness, but her style does shift accordingly. In G3, Clawdeen is an Afro-Latina half-werewolf with a human dad. Her mom and brother Clawd have been separated from her and her dad all her life through supernatural dimensional-imprisonment means, and G3 Howleen exists, but is not related to the family in G3. (Why?)

G3 Clawdeen as seen in the cartoon.

The arc of Season 1 of the cartoon sees Clawdeen reuniting with her brother and learning what happened to him and their mom, and then striving to rescue Mrs. Wolf against the efforts of Toralei's mom trying to keep her trapped. (Ms. Stripe is the ruler of all werebeast monsters and has taken Mrs. Wolf out of the picture to retain her title.) G3 Clawdeen is the protagonist of her generation of the franchise, navigating half-human monster identity, learning about the monster world, and trying to find her family. Clawdeen's human/monster identity story kind of co-opts Jackson Jekyll's narrative gimmick in G1, so, in addition to Heath seeming to take design cues from Holt Hyde and the first G3 movie featuring a Jekyll/Hyde antagonist, I think Jackson is likely firmly out of the canon because G3 has left pretty much no room for him or Holt.

G3 Clawdeen is still a bit of an experimental fashionista, but she's not as fierce, and she's more of an awkward and nerdy personality with freckles, overalls, a half-bun, and big eyeglasses in her signature look. These huge changes in role and portrayal all remove her from potential concerns about Black female characters being stereotyped as sassy sidekicks or being portrayed as overly adult, though it does leave her feeling very much like a different person and kind of slides her into a separate cliché, that of the "awkward adorkable girl" archetype that's become so overplayed and derided in modern Disney animation. Her G3 portrayal may not age entirely well for more innocent reasons--simply because she echoes a characterization trend that's rapidly losing favor. She definitely has her charms as herself, though. Different isn't bad. 

Here's sig Clawdeen's box.

And here's everything unboxed.

While G1 Clawdeen's basic hair color was a rich mix of brown tones, fitting a naturalistic animal tone and the common brown coloring of werewolf monsters, G3 Clawdeen's hair is primarily a pale lilac color with streaks of magenta and a brown undertone. 

The colors are far less punchy than older Clawdeen's dark brown, or her dolls with vivid lime, blue/teal, and saturated purple. This feels like Clawdeen "girlified" to be more approachable and traditionally marketable now that she's in the protagonist seat. G3 generally displays a really concerning pandering to feminine colors and softer tones that display a lack of faith toward designs that very clearly were successful before during G1. This might have changed with Venus, though upcoming refresh Frankie blindsided news-watchers with a final look that turned out to add lots of pink that wasn't at all in the prototype image, so who knows. (That did damage my view of them significantly because I got my hopes up on the preliminary version I preferred. I'm still wondering if a clothes swap with their also-upcoming Welcome Committee doll could give me the prototype version's look.) I do think this new palette makes sense given Clawdeen's reinterpretation as a character, though. 

The hair is pulled up in front in a mini bun (I don't know why, but I have an irrational bias against this hairstyle) and the rest is very long. Excessively long. "Holy crap, this is not on-model" long. 

It's another issue with the G3 dolls--there seems to be some sort of hair-play mandate now imposed on the dolls, so even characters with canonically short hair are given princess-length manes in the toyline, to the detriment of their design accuracy, and reinforcing a standard for long hair that reduces the fashion diversity of the toys. Ghoulia and Toralei have signature doll hairstyles that simply do not depict their cartoon equivalents because of this. 

Clawdeen seems to have the same voluminous wavy fiber found on Creepover Twyla, so it's not likely to tame super easily, or for super long. The hair is glossy and soft, though, and not nearly as much of a snarled nightmare as Twy's was. One lock of hair has been pulled forward through the section tied up in a bun, which isn't in the cartoon design. It reminds me of Karla Choupette. The cartoon hair is also pretty frizzy in texture, with very tight curls that look fun and would be great to see on the doll, but this hair is just wavy. I think it would be fine if G3 Clawdeen doesn't ever have uniquely Black-textured hair since this incarnation's hair type might just be this way, but this texture doesn't match well to the more curled look in the cartoon.

I decided to take the hair for a cut to make its volume and silhouette, if not its texture, more on-model to the cartoon. I don't think I have the know-how, patience or dexterity to get her hair frizzier.

Clawdeen was the first G1 character with a head sculpt featuring animal ears on top of the head, though this wasn't always intended, since prototype photos showed that her ears would have been on a headband, perhaps suggesting a "transformation" mechanic where you could take off her wolf ears (and maybe she would have had human ears under her hair). I can see why they decided not to do this. The headband effect would be distractingly unconvincing for portraying her as a wolf, and if she would have had human ears on her head, having to design her always with hair to hide them for "wolf mode" would limit her visual potential and run counter to the idea of a bold, experimental fashionista who could wear any look. A headband could also get lost, depriving Clawdeen of the potential to look more wolfy if it was, and for a brand of dolls sold as monsters, you don't want a character who could lose their monster look. However, even if it was impractical and looked bad, that idea might have made more conceptual sense for G3 Clawdeen, who can transform into a human form as a half-human!

The G3 ears on every character have been made more caricatured, and that results in the werebeasts having larger ears up top. Clawdeen is wearing two black earrings--a studded ring similar to some G1 molds, and a charm with three lunar phases. 

G3 Clawdeen features a heavy symbol motif of lunar-cycle iconography, something more prominent on her G3 dolls. Rarely did older Clawdeen iconography reflect a spectrum of lunar phases--we usually just saw a crescent. This might also be a timely thing--it seems like lunar-phase imagery has become fairly popular in decor design and trending spiritual aesthetics. 

G3 Clawdeen's face is less fierce than G1, for sure, but has more character than G2. 

Her mouth is now sculpted in a smile and she has additional paint depicting freckles and a canine nose, both features new to G3. I like that the freckle pattern is asymmetrical, though I don't know if it makes so much sense for them to be visible in her furry wolf form. Clawdeen's brother Clawd also got the canine nose added. The werewolves are late to the party on this--in G2, werecat Toralei got a painted animal nose as a new detail which she kept into G3 (she was actually the only werecat without nose paint in G1), but the wolves stayed without it. Her painted fangs are the same as ever, but her lip color here is pretty neutral. 

I appreciate that the makeup feels less absent than other G3 sigs, with a sharp band of aqua against saturated purple. Quite bizarrely, Clawdeen has been given more detailed animalistic eyes with pointed pupils--a feline feature! The eyes look cool, but that just doesn't make sense. Clawd has the same eye design as in G1--humanoid eyes in yellow. That's more appropriate. Both Clawdeen and Clawd have the same eye reflection design, which resembles two moons.

There had been some outrage over accusations and perceptions that the G3 Clawdeen dolls had lighter skin than the G1/G2 dolls, but this has been fact-checked and it's verified that her skintone is unchanged. Her live-action actress is lighter-skinned than the dolls, but the dolls are the same color as G1, which is the right move. It wouldn't have been implausible for G3 Clawdeen to be lighter, but such a change would be seen as very colorist and hurtful to fans of the original Clawdeen. I remember G1 Clawdeen got a bit of criticism for potential skintone bias--her Great Scarrier Reef doll was odd for being the only mer-transformation core character in that line to have a different skintone from normal, and her almost-greyscale Freak du Chic doll might have read a little paler than her ordinary color. 

Clawdeen in G3 wears glasses some of the time, and her style is big dorky frames, not glamorous specs. I wish she had prettier glasses! Sig's are golden and squared with no lenses, making her eyes easy to see. 

The arms of the glasses have lunar phases on them.

I took this photo out of order, but Clawdeen has small tufts of fur on each side of her jawline that add canine texture, but also provide a prop for the arms of her glasses since her ears are up top. Clawd also has these. 

Around her neck, Clawdeen has two necklaces--a choker and a chain. This directly imitates the setup of the G1 sig doll. 

The G1 necklaces were more edgy, with the choker being styled as a dog collar. G3 Clawdeen's jewelry looks more luxury or even antique, and her necklaces have night-sky imagery.

This is another softening move, but might also tie into the increased mysticism of werebeasts in G3, where they're depicted with an ancient organized culture and a ruling tradition.

Clawdeen's outfit is a pair of short overalls over a long-sleeved shirt. 

Clawdeen has always worn animal print despite being an animal without patterned fur. Here, she has a leopard pattern on the overalls and a tiger pattern with moon designs on her shirt. G1 Clawdeen's signature top was also tiger-patterned, though it was sleeveless, salmon pink, and had a ruffled neckline.

I appreciate the graphic on the front of the overalls, depicting a werewolf howling in a crescent moon and surrounded by a ring of all of the lunar phases. 

Clawdeen's belt also has a moon motif, and has dangling chains that aren't in the cartoon design.

Here's how long Clawdeen's shirt is under the overalls.

The overall legs are short and don't seem divided very far.

Clawdeen has purple sneakers with claw-like golden soles and what looks like black socks.

The socks are functionally just ankle-warmers, though, as they don't cover the feet. Disappointing. I don't think full socks would have been disadvantageous in any way.

Clawdeen has the fur texture that was added to the character's wrists and ankles in G2. This was a meaningful addition for a character previously written as having a strenuous shaving regimen--from G2 onward, Clawdeen owns that part of herself rather than getting rid of it. Her hand sculpt seems to be about the same as G1's, and seems to be serving the same characters it did before--plus Venus now.

Clawdeen's other costume piece is her sleeveless fur coat. Dramatic fur has always been a staple in Clawdeen's clothes, and she's even worn a few vests like this, too. 

I appreciate the lining on the inside.

Here it is on. 

I think this piece helps to give Clawdeen more of the drama and attitude she's known for, and it raises her spooky profile too. 

Clawdeen's bag is in line with the style of G1 sig's boots and purse, but is larger and feels a little more like something an older woman might use. It has a dangling charm, a painted moon and claw marks, and has a flexible opening at the top. 

Clawdeen's phone is magenta with a little werewolf peeking over the top.

Her snacks are two. She has a bag of "Howl Puffs"...

...and an ice-cream cookie sandwich that looks like a cratered moon. The bite taken out turns it into a waxing or waning moon!

Clawdeen also comes with a moon comb, which is great. I like that her hair is still such a big part of her character.

Clawdeen's pet Crescent has undergone a species swap from cat to wolf, which makes some sense and loses some sense. Wolves aren't pets, and while the G1 cat/dog opposite theme could be seen as an unlikely companionship, G3 Crescent could have just been an ordinary puppy. The name is also given a more direct explanation with a crescent eye mark. I'm actually surprised Crescent has a scar, though. That seems antithetical to the whole nauseatingly-cute thesis the new pets all follow. 

I took this Clawdeen out for some portraits. I thought, if I could rig my desk lamp to have the arm covered up, it'd make a great moon in a dark backdrop! It was very tricky to work the lighting (a candle was brought in to front-light Clawdeen), but I think I got some great pictures. 

And then I put together a vintage horror-movie poster. I'm very happy with this.

Next, I wanted to look at Monster Ball Clawdeen...who was admittedly mostly a parts acquisition. I needed her suit for Chattie. 

Monster Ball is very much G3's answer to the first G1 party line, Sweet 1600, but this wasn't obvious when talking about Monster Ball Lagoona, since she was a character who wasn't in Sweet 1600. Sweet 1600 and Monster Ball dolls both have tinsel hair on all of the ghouls (though for Monster Ball Cleo, it's just like any other day), and Monster Ball Draculaura and Clawdeen both have similarities to their Sweet 1600 counterparts--Clawdeen is the most obvious, as both dolls wear formal suits and pants with athletic stripes. The two also have their middle front hair tied up in similar ways.

Mattel stock photo of G1 Sweet 1600 Clawdeen. The dress is her present for the honoree, Draculaura.

Monster Ball Clawdeen's hair has much more brown this time, with more subtly-blended pink streaks matching with the more blended hair of Lagoona. Her tinsel color is gold, of course. G3 Clawdeen's brown hair is not as rich and saturated as G1/G2's, which is disappointing. 

Up top, Clawdeen has a twisted bun tied in the middle, and that's encircled by a studded band. Her earrings are a crescent moon and a piece depicting two purple donuts.

Monster Ball Clawdeen's eye makeup is virtually identical to sig's, but her lips are a two-color paint job of purple with magenta in the middle to create an ombre illusion, matching Lagoona's similar effect. Monster Ball Cleo and Draculaura do not have lips in this style. 

Clawdeen has a black clip-on choker representing a black bow tie around her neck.

Clawdeen's outfit is a satiny purple suit with very puffed shoulders and simulated crescent-moon jacket buttons done in a print, as well as pocket flaps to suggest pockets that aren't there. The pants have purple leopard-patterned black trim at the waist and up the sides of the legs in athletic stripes.

Under the jacket, Clawdeen has a cropped gold top with metallic darker gold leopard print. It has clear elastic straps.

I wanted the suit for parts most, but the top is also a valuable get, since it's G3 Clawdeen's best option for something in line with her G1 sig top. Gold and leopard and strapless is far from salmon and tiger and ruffle-neckline, but cropped, sleeveless, and animal print are the keywords! We're doing a nostalgic "Old-Skull" restyle! Just not on this base.

Monster Ball Clawdeen's shoes are spiky strapped heels.

Her first party accessory is this bunch of balloons, including a Skullette. The balloons are well-sculpted to look like foil, but the handle doesn't fix the fact that they're too heavy for a doll to reasonably hold. 

Next is the moon-decorated donuts. Both the donut rack and the donut on the plate are single static pieces. 

Clawdeen's makeup accessory is a Skullette compact with gold glitter infused. The mold is the same as Fearidescent Draculaura's. The gold color inside doesn't match what she has on. 

Clawdeen's purse is a cute modern piece with a round body. The piece slides over her fingers but cannot fit around her wrist. The compact easily fits inside.

This doll needed pieces from the next one to be restyled into something complete after her suit was taken away, so onto that doll! 

The main reason I wanted refresh Clawdeen was because of the promise of her side-parted hair which had more brown in it. That rooting would make her ideal for imitating G1 sig Clawdeen. 

Refresh Clawdeen's hair is the same low-contrast brown as Monster Ball's, with lilac and magenta streaks. Two twists are pulled away from her hair, which is parted like G1 sig's, and tied behind her head.

Refresh Clawdeen's earrings are a wolf howling in a crescent moon, matching the graphic on her sig overalls, and the sig spiked ring, now cast in gold.

Photo taken out of order.

These might be my favorite set of her earrings yet.

My Clawdeen's face and head are overall fairly wonky--even the mold of the head is askew, like it went wrong in the placement or extraction.

This might be why her head doesn't have perfect range of motion...but I do see a lot of personality in her face, and I can read some of the original Clawdeen in it! 

Dark lips seem to be a pattern for the refresh line, and Clawdeen's are a dark purple. Her eye makeup is different, using purple and gold tones. 

Refresh Clawdeen's glasses are slightly rounder and tip downward a bit from the bridge on either side. They're just as dorky in style as the original pair, and don't work great with Clawdeen's facial wonk.

I hate Clawdeen's horrible hideous jacket. What is this???

The jacket is varsity-styled with printed graphics, but the arms are huge tubes of purple fur which look completely out of place and terribly unfashionable. Accents like these will always be ridiculous, but the rest of her isn't on that level to make them work as such. This outfit isn't camp or fun enough for those sleeves. Clawdeen is a fashionista, but these jacket sleeves and those glasses have no glam whatsoever. This is an insult to Clawdeen.

I cut the fuzzy arms off as close as I could, but I don't plan to use the jacket sleeveless right now, either. 

Under the jacket, Clawdeen has a crop top in black with a claw mark pattern and a gold necklace with moon charms. Her belt is shaped like a typical belt for trousers, just in gold with an extra-long spare tail hanging out, and her pants are lavender with leopard print.

Her shoes are dark purple with turquoise heels. 

Like with refresh Draculaura, refresh Clawdeen's backpack is more traditionally backpack-shaped, and is a translucent purple color with a turquoise dangle charm. The bag has spike and chain and moon accents to fit her fashion sense. 

Clawdeen's first snack is a Howl bar.

Her other food item is a toasted sandwich in a clear bag. This is one solid piece, and the effect is impressive.

Clawdeen's water bottle has a removable cap, and is translucent pink with the moon-phases pattern on the side.

While sig had a moon comb, refresh Clawdeen has a pawprint brush!

Refresh Clawdeen also comes with a planner. 

Last is refresh Crescent. This edition is paler/more blue and is sculpted doing a happy closed-eyes howl.

Refresh on the right.

Overall, I'm ambivalent about the extras on this doll. I might prefer original G3 sig's to refresh's in this case, while I liked refresh Drac's extra pieces more than her sig's.

Now, to investigate her hair. I wanted it taken down to fall in the same shape as G1 sig's. 

I was disappointed to see how prominent the pink and lilac were right at the front part across her forehead, since those were the colors I was excited this doll was downplaying. I thought it could still work with the right fashion restyle. 

Then I trimmed the hair into the right shape.

The restyle is nowhere near done, and required a few diversions, so jumping aside for a moment--from this point, I was able to complete a restyle of the Monster Ball doll. I cut her hair very short because I wanted to see G3 Clawdeen in a bob, and I gave her most of the refresh outfit, with Neon Frights Ghoulia's hoodie to bring in the classic Clawdeen green in a different shade. She also got the Monster Ball purse and signature comb. I think this really suits her and makes good of a doll I otherwise wouldn't have reason to keep around.

During the photoshoot with signature Clawdeen, I then took a photo of the three wolves together because I realized I could re-create the graphic from the "Three Wolf Moon" T-shirt which became an internet phenomenon through the writing of sarcastic Amazon reviews about it.

Then I had to composite it onto a photo of a shirt to complete the idea. This is not a real shirt, nor do I have any setup or plans to make it so. Just a stupid indulgence in an outdated joke and iconic image!

Alright. To properly execute an "Old-Skull" restyle of Clawdeen, there was one crucial piece she needed above the rest--a fur-collared jacket. There's only one G3 Clawdeen with such a piece--Skulltimate Secrets Series 1.

There were no offerings for the jacket alone at the time, so I decided to get the whole doll. I was curious about her hair, which is the most divergent and experimental of the G3 Clawdeens so far, and I thought more is more and her other pieces might come in handy. 

Here's the box unsheathed. I like the color palette due to its classical spooky tones. The key hub on the purple door is notably mismatched from the door itself, being more indigo.

I elected to totally skip over the unboxing process this time, so here's everything unboxed in one go.

I didn't get Fearidescent Clawdeen, so this was my first time seeing her designated symbol on the surprise packets.

The crescent moon looks like an initial C! Have MH been playing on that the whole time and I'm only realizing now???

Skulltimate Series 1 Clawdeen's hair is lilac with magenta streaks at the front, and is center-parted and entirely crimped. 

The first (and only previous) time Monster High did crimped hair with G2 Electrified, reviews weren't great about its execution, though I never owned one of those dolls to weigh in myself. I think Clawdeen's came out pretty well. There was no product in it and it combed pretty easily.

I almost want the colors to be higher-contrast and punchier, but this hair is still really cool and bodes well for the potential Clawdeen could fulfill in G3. This also feels like this could be a representation of more natural Black hair, though it may just be deliberate crimping in-universe.

Skulltimate Clawdeen's face has lime green eye makeup over bands of nothing, and magenta underneath. I'm glad to see the lime! Her lips are a pale purple tone and again, more punch might have helped--or green lips!

The first top she's wearing has a mesh neck and is lime with three renditions of Clawdeen's personal Skullette as graphics. I always love the rare occasions where the character-specific Skullettes make it into a doll design. It doesn't happen that often, and it's wonderful to see them in G3.

Clawdeen's shorts have a neon-themed purple, turquoise, and green gradient pattern of leopard print and moons. All of the Skulltimate Series 1 dolls have a directly-matching top and bottom piece which aren't placed together on the default outfit, so the top matching these was in one of the surprise packets.

Clawdeen's boots are very loosely like her G1 sigs, but they're like much gappier sandals and have a lime/purple gradient. I love the clawed toe design, but not the rest.

Clawdeen's earrings are symmetrical pairs of mirrored crescent moons, which I don't love, and her necklace has two chains and moon charms on the upper chain. 

Clawdeen's headwear is a bucket hat in pink with leopard print, and has earholes for her use. It's a little unfashionable in my mind, but she makes it work pretty well, so what do I know?

The hat has one really great practical function--it sorts her hair out during redressing so when you turn and flip the doll, her hair isn't falling out of line in front of or behind her ears! It's a frustration with MH dolls that have top-of-head details because the hair can get displaced around those features pretty easily. 

Here's Clawdeen in the matching pieces.

Clawdeen's short shoes have text on the sides which reads sideways going up-- "MOON" and "WOLF". The rendering can make the "MOON" look like "ZOOE" from the wrong angle.

This Clawdeen doesn't have glasses, and I didn't feel like going over her accessories. 

The jacket is the main thing. Clawdeen has worn multiple fur-collared jackets like this, and of course has no monopoly over the style, so many dolls have had similar pieces. This rendition is shades of lavender, with the body being vinyl fabric. There is no trim on the bottom or cuffs, and the fur comes down far over the opening. 

Jumping aside again! Since the Old-Skull restyle was the last thing I got done, I'll show what I did with Skulltimate first. I constructed a look to bring out the green/purple contrast and drama of her hair. 

I used the Skulltimate lime top and one of the earrings. Her furry vest and other earring are from G1 Clawvenus. The Monster Ball hair circlet was reused as a dog collar. 

The sleeves come from a G3 Abbey top, cut shorter to look shoulderless, and the shorts are from Neon Frights Twyla. The green mesh tights harken to Dawn of the Dance Clawdeen, who had something just like them, and come from Shadow High Harley. The leg warmers are the stupid refresh jacket sleeves, which make much more sense this way, and the shoes are Monster Ball's. To give her a glamorous pair of glasses, she has G3 sig Ghoulia's. The bone arms and pink color work perfectly for her! I see the leg warmers and glasses as the optional pieces of this look. 

I think this is the fun and punch Clawdeen deserves, and it's amazing how much difference a more glamorous pair of glasses makes! If she's going to be the same fashionista, her frames should suit her clothes. 

In the meantime, I got a copy of L.O.L. O.M.G. Fierce Lady Diva to create Trudy Jetfuse, and Lady Diva's clothing overall seemed very attuned to G3 Clawdeen. The one piece with no silver which was screaming to be worn by her was her half-shirt with leopard print, and that piece fit her pretty well besides, so I decided to re-restyle Monster Ball. Cutting the sleeve down a little to the size of Clawdeen's arm made Diva's shirt a perfect top for her. I paired it with Fearidescent Cleo's yellow shorts, the refresh necklace and belt, the Skulltimate short boots, and Lady Diva's arm net around her ankle.

Isn't that top so great for her?? The boots are definitely the weak link, but they're the only option that suits her even remotely, and the other Clawdeens keep their shoes.

I think sig's fur coat is great with this to really complete it.

Here I am, having never cared much about Clawdeen before, but I'm completely clicking in with her fashion sense and loving it! I guess I had been critical that Clawdeen struck me as more "fabulous" than "werewolf"...but am I really going to be dumb enough to dismiss something on the basis of being too fabulous???

Yeah, I'm on board with Clawdeen now. I get her...or rather, I probably always got her but never let her grab me. 

I do plan to do a G1 original-character makeover akin to Gilliana, though, exploring a more classical rugged werewolf archetype. But I know I don't need that to put my doubts about Clawdeen to rest. It's settled. She's great!

So, back to refresh and her restyle goal. I allocated the Skulltimate jacket to the refresh doll, and ordered a second copy of Creepover Twyla's skirt since it matched the G1 tutu silhouette, and tried the Skulltimate long boots with some Rainbow High socks and the G3 sig necklaces and purse to match the blueprint of the sig outfit as close as possible. I also added Rainbow High Junior High Violet's scrunchies as wrist cuffs. I was sure more work needed to be done, but I wanted to try piecing it together just to see where things were going. 

While I certainly don't regret getting the Skulltimate doll after her own restyle turned out so well, I realized this jacket was a false lead. The colors are simply too pale to work with her already-rosy hair, and I don't think this could be reliably altered in color. I also just wasn't fond of the material choice and how it worked on her body. I decided to look for other options--thank goodness several dolls have had pieces like this! I also knew Twyla's skirt needed to be dyed black and that Clawdeen would need different boots and probably socks.

When looking for other fur-collared jackets, I came across one I wouldn't have thought of--L.O.L. O.M.G. 24K DJ's. Her jacket is a bit puffy and it's metallic gold with a white collar. While that's not a color match to G1 sig's, either, the colors seemed much more amenable to her palette, MGA's clothing craftsmanship caliber would naturally flatter the doll, and the fancy gold would work great alongside my restyle of G3 Clawd, also dressed by O.M.G.. Clawd's now emphasizing shiny gold, so Clawdeen doing the same would unify the siblings in a fun way.

Here's the jacket. The fur collar is white, which is the only thing not typical for Clawdeen. I think it works perfectly fine, though.

I also ordered the purple tall boots from G3 Clawdeen's fashion-studio playset. I thought these would be darker purple, so I might try to dye them as such to make sure they match her makeup and create a stronger purple/yellow contrast, as well as offering a closer impact to her signature boots. 

I also got her some yellow Sunny Madison socks. They didn't look very long, but they stretch enough to come to knee height, and do come taller than the boots, which was important.

I also weighed the question of her hair and if it was too light. With the dyes I had coming in, I felt like I might be able to mix a darker brown to give her hair color more weight, and I might even be able to dye the front streak a dark purple to match her lipstick. If I was doing the boots that color, might as well darken that rosy forelock, too. That'd give her colors a lot more visual punch and edge to make her feel more dramatic and goth and carry the spirit of the older Clawdeen forward in a new way. 

The big concern, though, was how to avoid dyeing her werebeast ears. While doll hair reportedly dyes very quickly, doll head vinyl can take on color pretty fast, too. I eventually decided to try making "casts" by wrapping small pieces of masking tape around her ears in layers so they'd be isolated and hopefully waterproofed enough for the dye to not get into the ears. Here's her forelock, which I want to make dark purple, separated so I don't have to comb it out and isolate it later, and her ears wrapped up. 

My plan was all laid out, but my frustration mounted as I hit another stumbling block and had to extend the wait time even further on this project by ordering even more pieces. I had begun to suspect that Rit's black dye simply wasn't effective for plastics after failing to dye a pair of soft vinyl shoes for Chattie, and the Twyla skirt didn't dye either. The Rit brand has dye variants formulated specifically for synthetics, but I've never seen a black dye from them labeled in that category and naïvely assumed that meant their black was uniquely good for everything. Nope. I ordered an synthetic-purpose black powder dye from the same brand Gilliana got successfully dyed with, so I could try again to dye the Twyla skirt in that and see if that'll work. I also got Chattie's shoes done. I also ordered Fearidescent Clawdeen's jewelry, since she has a choker that evokes a dog collar.

The skirt was very hesitant to dye even with the synthetics dye, but I eventually got it "good enough" and used paint on the embroidered edges and glued sequins on it to mimic the G1 skirt studs. The Fearidescent dog-collar necklace also came in.

The hair dyed fine, but the ears got very dyed despite the casts, and some of her face got dye too. I was so worried, but I tried what was recommended for situations like this and soaked her in bleach for a very long time, and that cleaned her up like 98 percent. That's fine by me. I think the bleach did undo some of the hair dye so there's more pink than I wanted to see, and her purple streak dried pretty pale. 

With trepidation, I decided to enter the circus again and try another round of dye. This time, I mummified Clawdeen in plastic wrap and duct tape. 

The body of the re-dyed hair looked super dark when wet, but that was less of a concern to me than the presence of pink, and I hoped it'd read brown when dried. I re-dyed the front streak in purple to intensify that color, and also dunked the back of her head in to turn all the remaining visible pink roots purple. When dry, the hair is visibly brown, and the purple streak is still pale at the root. That's acceptable.

The doll did still take some dye into the head, but this tape did a better job. I re-soaked her face in bleach to get rid of that. I ordered a product known to doll people called Remove-Zit, which is a topical application that can be used for localized dye stains to take care of her ears...but the ears cleared up without even being immersed when I did the face soak. Okay. I'll take it. The Remove-Zit will still be useful, I'm sure. 

...would you believe I had to order another sig pendant necklace? I was so annoyed when I realized I'd completely lost the piece I'd set aside for her, so there we go, good for you Clawdeen, you're very good at wasting time, thanks a lot.

With the second round of dye done, I re-curled her hair to give it some wave on the sides, and the replacement necklace arrived the same day. I painted the circle black and painted the moon on the sig purse the new darker purple theme color. 

It was finished.

This occasion should call for a voila!, but what I really feel like saying here is

FINALLY. 

And isn't she great?

I really love this new yellow/indigo/gold/black color palette for her. It's classically spooky but bright and fun, and I think this could have been a great way to more directly translate the G1 character into G3.

Here's the necklaces.

The choker says "HOWL".

And the skirt. 

And the purse. 

And the legs. 

Clawdeen's very lucky this was all worth it, because this project was like pulling teeth and if it flopped, we'd have to have words. It just felt like setback after setback, but the ideas were good and they all got executed to great effect.

Here's Clawdeen and Clawd together now. I like how their colors align while Clawdeen's indigo keeps her separate.

Old-Skull Clawdeen stands out the most among the pack now due to her darker aesthetic, but I do like all four. Skulltimate let me explore her wacky side, Monster Ball gave me an alternate basic to really channel her fashion vibe, and sig is cute and has good energy. 

Once again, I'm biased toward the Old-Skull restyle because the original Clawdeen is iconic and I love the weight of the visual design I created, but I found a lot more of Clawdeen in the G3 dolls than I overall expected to. She's capable of pulling off more attitude and fun. I hope her design range continues to expand and get more interesting. 

Of the four dolls as sold, it's ironically the signature doll, which changes so much of Clawdeen, that I liked the most. I think G3 sig Clawdeen is really cohesive and fun even though she's so very different from what we were used to. I had a good time with her, and while I intended to keep her the same anyway, she didn't have that much that struck me as needing edits. Just her hair length.

And here's the original squad of six core characters re-created on their G3 counterparts. Old-Skull might not be over, but this mini-project of restyling all of this set of monsters is! They all look so cool, and there's just something so satisfying about having these all done. 

Tut vanished somehow. Not that I'm heartbroken.

I never made it explicit writing about these, but I'd set myself a personal parameter to re-create the G1 sig looks without sourcing any of the G1 sig pieces, and I'm proud of myself for achieving that. It made me get more creative and make some choices about where to break and where to stay true, and since many G1 pieces won't fit the G3 dolls, I'm sure it prevented a few false leads. Ghoulia's the doll who diverges the most from her G1 sig look, mostly because her character has few G3 pieces currently and I found something I loved without having to order anything for her from other sources which might offer more accurate options.

I think this little collection might have earned itself a stable spot on the shelf because I'm so attached to them all. 

Well. I'm so relieved this project is finished at last...and that it finished well. Clawdeen certainly gave me a lot to work with, and helped me to appreciate how great she is and was. I can definitely see myself going back and getting some G1 editions of her--just for her.