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?

Spectra Vondergeist was one of two characters whose absence in Monster High G2 was especially controversial, as, alongside Ghoulia, her monster type was represented by a prominent new G2 character who was not well-liked in comparison. 

Mattel stock photo of G1 signature Spectra.

Ghoulia Yelps went out while the role of resident zombie was filled by the new antagonist Moanica D'Kay (legit a good character design) and ghost Spectra seemingly got replaced by ghost Ari, a pinker, softer, boho pop star. 

Mattel stock photo of Singing Popstar Ari Hauntington.

Mattel stock photo of basic/signature Ari.

If you're a Spectra fan, it's not hard to be insulted, nor to see her as a replacement. After all, Spectra was going to have the last name "von Hauntington" originally before going with the more authentically German "Vondergeist". Spectra started as a classic goth and she was always known for her striking face sculpt with sharp cheekbones that made her pretty gaunt. Ari was inoffensive as possible, and worse, with her colliding 1970s boho style, musical motif, and ghost theme, she was entirely unoriginal. All of her aspects were covered by Operetta (music imagery), Viperine Gorgon (boho), and Spectra (purplish ghost archetype) in G1. Pretty much nobody who knew Monster High before G2 wanted anything to do with Ari.

Looks like Spectra got the last laugh, though, because she's back in the G3 cast...and she's quite visibly absorbed Ari into her character design. While Spectra remains purple and white with dark eyes and sharp cheeks, her braided center-part wavy "headband" hairstyle and forehead chain and flowy costume are suspiciously "Ari". She's stolen the look of the ghoul who stole her place! I don't know if that's been received positively, since I'm sure many fans would prefer to pretend Ari never happened. It might be a nice form of karma for the disfavored G2 ghost in the eyes of others: take that, Ari!

I wouldn't expect any future Spectras to resemble Ari at all, though, because this Spectra has been a character design since the start of G3, which was its awkward phase where it was still stylistically softer than G1 and not as faithful to G1 details as it became later. This is a Spectra design from the days where pigtails couldn't be on G3 Drac, Toralei's doll had to have longer hair than the canon design, and the makeup was softer, so I imagine the doll design might have gotten retooled behind the scenes once G3 committed to bringing back some G1 flair, or else Spectra just ended up on the pipeline late enough to benefit from those rendering changes while retaining the signature styling she had already been established with in the show. I will not be surprised to see future Spectras going back to pin-straight hair and more goth styling. 

So clearly Spectra is not back to her G1 heights yet. She's also currently still a bit character in the G3 fiction, without the unique traits of her G1 webisode/movie (a soft-spoken gossip who spreads trouble through her blog and student newspaper) or diary (a callous ghost whose family fell from royalty) characterizations. I wasn't ever hugely into Spectra, but never had any objections to her, either. Spectra had a surprising visual range in G1 and a spectrum of hair colors, with Ghoul Spirit being purple and black, Ghoul's Night Out being magenta, Maul Monsteristas being reddish plum, Ghouls' Getaway being a fully different palette with pinkish hair and a neon yellow dress (I had and loved her as my only collected Spectra previously) and Beach Beasties having blue in her hair. 

I was curious enough about G3 Spectra to get a copy on my next Target trip. Here's her boxed photos.

Here she is unboxed.

Spectra's hair is long, wavy, and a blend of purples and blue tones that doesn't feel very dark. It's similar to the lavender and purples of older Spectras, and a little bit like Amanita's, but more periwinkle overall.

Amanita on the right.

Wavy hair is a good choice for a billowy, floaty ghost. In G1, cartoon Spectra was always depicted with floating hair, while her dolls, mostly having perfectly straight hair, looked limp in comparison. A few G1 Spectras were wavy. I think most of her dolls, with the straight hair, would have used kanekalon...which could get floaty with a boil wash or static electricity, but not by design.

Spectra's style is center-parted with two twists taken from the front and tied around her head in a circlet or headband. I don't know if this is very flattering to her, and whether you take it as boho or medieval, it doesn't feel at all familiar to Spectra as we once knew her. Just like G3 sig Catty, I'm thinking a lot will improve if I change the factory hairstyle, because I don't like this. I will give it one thing, though: there's no way this hairstyle would work on G1 Spectra's dour German-supermodel face. The brighter, more youthful eyes of the G3 doll sell this hair look.

Here's the hair combed out. It gets pretty big. It's better when it covers her ears, though.

I don't know yet if the waves or volume are permanent or not. It reminds me most of sig G3 Clawdeen's hair, which I didn't boil, but could also be like Creepover Twyla's stubborn mane (which I fought relentlessly; it won). This does feel like saran.

Spectra has a circlet chain decoration around her forehead, which sits under the twists. It's made to look like two strands of chain with a pendant on the lower one, and came tagged to her head but hugs her forehead fine without them. This piece is boho, but it also really makes her feel like a fairy-tale or medieval-fantasy character to me. It's very regal and dainty and old-fashioned to my eye.

Again, not at all familiar to G1 Spectra's punk-goth vibe, but I can get behind a more ancient, fantastical vibe for this new incarnation. She is supposed to be a ghost who's been dead for a while and has a distinctly European surname, so it works.

Spectra's face is noticeably wider-eyed than her G1 counterpart, but she retains Spectra's signature traits of cheekbones that could cut glass and purple sclerae that make her eyes look more translucent. G1's sclerae were more blue-toned purple and thus looked gloomier.

G1 Spectra actually had a prominent mold variant, where her Indonesian-manufactured dolls had less sharp and hollow cheeks, but G3 seems pretty sharp.

Mattel stock photo of of Indonesia-prododuced Ghoul's Night Out Spectra.

The G1 doll didn't look much at all like a teenager due to her gaunt face and narrow eyes. I think the G3 doll reads more like her age, and might look more like her G1 2D art in the boxes and webisodes, the same way G3 Twyla looks more like the G1 cartoon than the G1 dolls. 

G1 signature Spectra's 2D character portrait. You could convince me the G3 face is based on this.

(Despite the age-appropriate G3 face design, I think I'm still partial to G1.)

G3 Spectra's irises are light blue, and she has a trio of three round reflections in each eye, which appear to be forming a :O ghost face! Her eye makeup is fading pink on the upper lid, with some solid purple which also features under the eye. 

Like some G1 dolls, Spectra has a padlock and key set for earring charms. (I used a pair for my Scarily Ever After Twyla concept!) These earrings here are new sculpts, and are more ornate to suit Spectra's new aesthetic. 

Her ears are slightly elongated in a very subtle pointed effect like a few subtler G1 ear shapes. 

I don't remember Spectra having unusual ears before, and it doesn't make much sense for a ghost unless the G3 version of ghosts are another species rather than the remnants of the living.

Now, her outfit.

Around her shoulders, Spectra is wearing a silver vinyl chain harness that crosses over her back in an hourglass shape (maybe referencing the Death's-hourglass imagery G1 previously invoked in the Haunted dolls). The harness has no closures and slides over her arms with the wide loops, just like a shrug jacket.

Underneath, Spectra is wearing a flowy sheer coat that velcro-fastens in the front over the neck, with so little torso fabric it's more like a cape. The front of the coat creates a small gap above the neckline of her romper underneath. The coat fabric on her torso is opaque, patterned dark blue while the rest is translucent pale purple with a chain-style silver pattern. The cuffs of the sleeves are tight, creating a puffed effect. I don't know if the drape of the coat is quite to my satisfaction, and the velcro on the front is so small it doesn't feel that secure. I like the concept, though.

While Spectra does admittedly work well with fuchsias, I've always wanted her to lean more toward rich blues with her purple and black and white instead. Her swim doll in G1, the only one with blue in her hair, remains an object of interest to me.

Here's Spectra's costume without the coat. She's wearing a sleeveless satiny romper and a vinyl silver belt with three ball-and-chain tails. 

The belt has two pin strap closures on the back for some reason, and they cross over each other vertically the way they were molded. 

The prisoner-style ball and chain is a familiar ghost motif for Spectra, and while chains were used for every ghost in the brand, I think Spectra laid claim to the ball. It worked with her mysterious G1 diary characterization discussing her dark family history.

Here's just the romper. I embrace G3 doing more pant cuts for the ghouls wholeheartedly...I just don't think this is quite it here.

The romper feels like no Spectra aesthetic. Not her G1 punk, not her possible Ari-absorption G3 boho, or her G3 ancient European tones. The romper cut counteracts the floaty flow of her hair, jacket, and belt. This is a doll who could use a skirt or dress. 

Spectra's shoes are silver sandal heels with chain balls at the back. This is her only specific design echo to the G1 sig, which had boots with chain-ball heels in a similar way.

My Spectra's lower legs are not molded correctly, as her left leg is indisputably shorter than her right. 

I was wondering why she wouldn't stand straight until I discovered this. I never understand how this can even happen production-wise, and it's a big issue. I guess it's good that, as a floaty ghost, Spectra doesn't have to walk...

Spectra's limbs fade from white to translucent clear in the same way as in G1, using a spray gradient of white paint to block out the upper part of the translucent-cast pieces. 

As before, this white paint is subject to flaws and abrasion-based paint loss that can harm the effect. I wish there was something better for it. A larger proportion of Spectra's lower legs are translucent than on her G1 dolls. Spectra Vondergeist dolls have the worst prospects for yellowing, as both her white and clear parts were subject to discoloration in G1. I hope that's not true for G3, but I know it probably is.

Ari did not have this fade-to-clear limb effect, and no G2 dolls had fragile limb paint like this, which was kind of nice even if it reduced the visual repertoire. Instead of translucent fades, Ari's skin was all subtly-translucent iridescent white, with some similarity to the body coloring of the G1 Haunted ghost dolls and G1 Haunted Spectra, whose body was all solid shimmery translucent in a similar way.

G3 Spectra's body type is the median-torso curvy-hip shape also used by G3 Cleo. 

Spectra's first accessory is a pair of translucent black shades first featured in her G1 Maul Session fashion pack. Back then, they had silver on the chain accent across the top.

I have no interest in putting these on her. They don't go with her at all, and didn't in G1 either. The shaping and chain accent combined feel like they're going for a caricatured hip-hop aesthetic, which has never been Spectra's tone.

Spectra's phone has an adorable ghost-shaped case.

When trying to take a low-light photo to capture the molded  back, it took on a greenish hue that made me suspect it was a glow piece!

It's even the same color as Neon Frights Twyla's glow elements (which did not include her eyes!!!) and sure enough, the phone glows in the dark!

Maybe my favorite G3 phone piece.

In addition to a phone, though, Spectra also has a tablet, suggesting she may retain part of her reporter/blogger/social media snoop persona. (Probably not the blogger bit. I'm a young adult dinosaur. Nobody blogs anymore, but it suits my approach.)

The message text is illegible, but maybe the first bold word on the second message header is "Lagoona"? 

The tablet is not a personalized sculpt, suggesting this might later be used in playsets or other doll releases (if it hasn't been already).

Spectra's drink cup is fairly generic. It's a mason-jar mug with a Skullette symbol and a handle, and the lid/straw piece can separate. 

Spectra's snack is a coffin basket of ghost nuggets (presumably chicken) which are a separate piece. It reminds me of G3 sig Draculaura's pretzel and wrapper pieces. Like those, the container has a handle for the doll.

As a condiment for her nuggets, Spectra has a bottle of ghost pepper sauce!

Guess caution doesn't matter if you're dead!

It's a very cute joke. The ghost peppers remind me of the design of one of the emotion charms for the Feisty/Love Inner Monster. The bottle is printed and grainy up close but nicely legible from a distance. I like this more than it being stickered with a decal.

Spectra's backpack is also a cute ghost silhouette, in translucent purple. The plastic is pretty rigid, so it's not easy to squeeze open the slit in the top to put things in.

Spectra retains her G1 pet ferret Rhuen, who hasn't been overly chibified...probably because she still needed to look like a ferret! I don't know where her name comes from. It's apparently just a spelling pronounced the same as "ruin"...but...why? 

Like the G1 pet, Rhuen is translucent pure fading to clear and can stand on her tail to look like she's floating. This Rhuen is more swirly and wispy of tail, and doesn't have an attitude. Her proportions might be more ferret-like than the G1!

I took Spectra for a non-boiling hair unstyle and comb. I wanted to see her with loose hair parted over her face. Without boiling down the twist waves or volume, she's a little too "Cher" for my concept of Spectra, but I like the circlet being covered by the front of her hair!

 I was delighted to see that her hair boiled out perfectly straight and smooth. This immediately made her more familiar to me. I didn't have any purple or black clothing that suited her in the way of adding a skirt to change her costume silhouette, but Rainbow High Junior High Violet's fabric backpack suited her well and was very good at holding her items. Here's a picture of her restyled. I much prefer this.

It's less boho and more fantasy than before, and that suits her. Lean into the ancient European lineage more than a modern hippie look, because that makes more sense for her. Or just go back to punk goth like before because this design came from an earlier phase of G3. Either works.

I did try the shades, but it's still a no.

Now for art photos.

Her hands were fun to play with for the translucent effect. Spectra wouldn't be very good at peek-a-boo because of it!

And I got myself a pane of glass via a store-bought picture frame with which to do more easy Pepper's Ghost photography. This offers a bigger "frame" for photographs than the irregularly-shaped glass artist palette with a hole I tried using for Living Dead Dolls Revenant.

I was still ultimately stymied by the very fiddly setup of the Pepper's Ghost illusion. Angling the glass so the reflected figure lined up properly in the scene, while figuring out where the backdrop went and how to take a picture when my hands were needed for the light source and the glass...it prevented some ideas. 

Here's a photo of the setup and effect in action. All you need is something lit up to reflect on glass you can still see through to what's behind it, and you have a ghost put into the scene. Black won't reflect into the scene, so the subject is best put on a black background so they're the only thing that gets reflected in.

Where the lighting is focused, the reflection can look almost opaque! Here, the legs look like they're solid.

I tried to do a setup with a haunted house decoration, but the framing was very awkward the way it was able to work.

I did get a setup where Spectra (standing) reflected downward onto this purple backdrop, which was where the cover photo came from. Here are some other shots.

And I got a picture of reflected Spectra fanging out with Catty.

I'm glad I got the Pepper effect right, because attempts to use photos of Spectra and digitally put her into scenes at transparency didn't feel quite right. This is the only digital piece I did, putting Spectra like she's phasing through a wall.

It's still a little off, but it works.

I don't know if the G3 doll has moved the needle for me regarding Spectra.

I think I still feel the same way about the character--I like and respect her execution, but don't know if I'll have any reason to go wild for her dolls. I think the G3 character promises to have a better run after this signature design now that Monster High is back to feeling a bit more mature and the G1 Spectra aesthetic will be more viable. I think (hope) the sig doll is a case of being obligated to adapt an established design that Mattel might not have given the character if she was designed new at this point in G3. Because I don't like the twist hairstyle or the boho look. I can accept it under the concept of medieval fashion accents, but not hippie. Even if Spectra has taken revenge on Ari Hauntington and stolen her look, I think Ari can keep it. It doesn't work on Spectra. However, my hair boil did improve her significantly and brought back some recognition in the doll. She simply looks more like Spectra with straight hair. 

I'll keep an eye out to see what her second doll looks like, and if it's good, I'll look into getting it. 

Now, if only there were any more G3 boy dolls in the pipeline...