Completing my Childhood: Kinder Surprise Monster Hotel

Before Hotel Transylvania, there was Monster Hotel. This might be one of the simultaneously most niche and personal toy memories I discuss here. 

Living Dead Dolls Roundup 6

For a moment, due to the gritty, ugly first doll in this group, I was considering throwing together a dedicated "scary roundup" for a theme, but I found the concept a little too nebulous and my collecting budget for the month was pushed heavily toward building my Halloween pool of LDD posts in October (where I made great progress!) so I decided to just go for another assorted pool. I did, however, end up with two significant wishlist dolls!

Al is In Wonderland: Ever After High Alistair Wonderland by Mattel

Lewis Carroll's Alice is an icon, and her having a son in the Ever After High-verse was intriguing. But while there were things I liked...I just didn't see much of the famous character translated over. Still, I like boy dolls and I was motivated to make a masc-Alice restyle of my own. I thought I could do better service to the origin character with the right pieces. 

"DIRECTOR'S CUT" COMPILATION RE-EDIT: Living Dead Dolls Series 5 Assembled

While all of the reviews of these dolls came from separate roundups rather than a broad-scope concept with standalone posts like with Series 23, I thought these could be cut together into a marathon feature with some edits in just the same way to make the reviews all self-contained. Consider this your one-stop shop for my Series 5 thoughts.

Warnings for gory imagery and discussions of true-crime misogynist brutality and suicide, as well as graphic suicide imagery on one of the dolls.

Death In the City of Devils--My Living Dead Dolls Series 5 Collection Overview

This will not be the most proper "completed series" LDD overview because I did not complete this series in the most standard way. I got both editions of one doll, and I got all five characters, but my complete set as I like it consists of three mains and two variants, so it's not a fully representative set of Series 5 either way. As such, I can't be as objective about the ranking because I did select dolls to serve my appeal.

An Uncomfortable Living Dead Dolls Discussion, Part 1

This blog project is going to be tricky. I will attempt to navigate the social issues as best I can. 

Content warning for scary horror imagery, and discussions and imagery relating to fatphobia, suicide, and true-crime misogynist brutality.

Not everything decays equally well.

Embalmed for the Gods: Monster High G3 Refresh Cleo de Nile by Mattel

There were things I liked about signature G3 Cleo, but if you asked me which of the now-two basic dolls of hers feels like Monster High, there's just no contest. 

Back from the Spirit Realm: Monster High G3 Signature Spectra Vondergeist by Mattel

Let's talk about Spectra! Is she a triumph-haunt return or does she deserve to be boooooed?

Living Dead Dolls Roundup 5

LDD Roundup 3 was unthemed but had the commonality factor of all of its dolls being boys. Here, LDD Roundup 5 has the commonality factor of everybody being a fair-haired scare! All three of these dolls have a blonde or light hair color!

Consider this my July LDD roundup, since this was mostly done and all purchased during July. August should have its own dedicated roundup as well.

Rattle Me Bones: Living Dead Dolls Exclusive Captain Bonney by Mezco Toyz

Summertime is pirate season on the blog, evidently! Last year, I reviewed and made over Monster High pirate character Dayna Treasura Jones, and this year, I've been increasingly captivated by Living Dead Dolls' pirate. All this despite pirate stories being of minimal special appeal to me. Go figure.

The Living Dead Doll in question was a Hot Topic exclusive from outside the numbered series: Captain Bonney. Based upon the real historical pirate Anne Bonny, LDD Bonney (different spelling) stands out to me for two reasons--for one, she has a unique divergent sculpt to her name that no other doll featured, and secondly, she's set apart by being old LDD's attempt at a high-end doll!

BONUS PHOTOSHOOT: Living Dead Dolls Faith

This one hadn't quite gotten her due in the photo department. But how could she have, in March where I live?