Dolls Divided, 1/2: Monster High Designer Series Corazón Marikit by Mattel Creations

Time for a new short project that Monster High tossed into my lap! They've been on fire with releasing awesome new horror novelties in their G1-style dolls these days (upcoming are the half-skeletal body for Corpse Bride Emily and the removable pretty faceplate on M3GAN to expose her base head's inner robotics). This gimmick doll was not only irresistible, but provided a perfect conversation piece for another topic I was already going to bring in! This is Corazón Marikit, the second Monster High Designer Series doll. And I wasn't going in for her until I saw she split apart at the waist--the topical gimmick of this two-half post project! After this, Living Dead Dolls Viv is coming back to the blog. I want to get her again through her complete two-pack release since I ended up not satisfied having her solo and removed from context. That way, I'll be able to compare two bisected dolls!

The gimmick got me here, for sure...but even without adoring her character design, there was a lot to respect about Corazón. Any new characters and monster types in the G1 style are worth celebrating on principle, for one. She's also the first Filipina Monster High character and her look has depth to reflect her country's history, and her gimmick comes from a cool monster type: the manananggal. This is one of several Asian and Southeast Asian folklore monsters based on the theme of flying heads or half-bodies with dangling entrails, which is pretty metal for Monster High. More specifically, the manananggal is a predatory creature which sprouts wings and splits off from the lower body, guts a-dangle, to prey on victims at night. Pretty dark stuff. The doll's splitting torso function was also far from a throwaway, with Mattel's design heavily supporting the function for display to its best potential in really compelling ways. With the gimmick being so cool and the doll bringing such a clear conversation with another topic I wanted to bring (back), there was little reason not to get her, even if I wasn't sold on her look.

The Monster High Designer Series isn't exactly batting 100 on the visuals for me. The previous doll, Lenore Loomington, actually appealed to me more aesthetically, but she was underwhelming to the community at large and I didn't actually want her--not for that price. 

Promotional photo of Lenore by Mattel.

I actually really liked her big blue flowy dress and Victorian theme, but her minty and purple cool pastels felt pretty similar to dolls like Twyla and Faybelle Thorn, her face sculpt/paint wasn't quite striking me, and she didn't have a whole lot really popping her out of the crowd beyond her dress. In the polite restraint of Aretha Franklin, Lenore has great gowns. Beautiful gowns.

For a time, it was believed a "Garden Ghosts" design series was in the works, with Lenore as the first of four, but I guess it turned out that she was the singular Garden Ghost. I'd have been game to see more on that theme, but I welcome the Designer Series being looser and letting things branch out more. 

With Corazón, I wasn't crazy about the colors, and I know Monster High has their internal design rule of "vampires=pink" that evidently extends to manananggals as well, but I was feeling like another skintone or hair color would have really elevated the doll for me here.

Corazón comes in a tall window box with white newsprint-graphic bordering and a bamboo-graphic window frame with jasmine (the Philippines' national flower, locally called sampaguita) and her name printed on the window. All MH collector dolls are being released under the Skullector label now, starting with Fang Club Venus, while it used to refer to the range of licensed horror dolls.

Mattel needs to get their labeling in order. Barbie has had so many collector labels and changed to Club 59 recently? What's even the point of this branding if it's not structured?

I was really encouraged by my first look at Cora in person, because she immediately looked better to me than the promotional photos suggested she would. I think the promo shots somehow failed to capture her skintone, because it's both darker and more vibrant than I expected, which has a major positive impact toward her whole design.

The box looks like a horrendous waste of space, but Corazón's body is actually packaged split in the box and her torso is mounted to a plastic bracket that slides up and down with tabs in the back of the box. This lets her pieces visually separate and fill the vertical space while remaining packaged!

I'm not an in-box collector who needs this, but this is a fun feature to show off the doll. The purse is left floating because it wasn't rigged to the upper half of the display, but that could have been harder to arrange without the purse catching on things during the slide.

The sides of the box and back are all printed with repeated copies of the same newspaper graphic which is featured in full on the back, showing an article about Corazón as a local monster sighting. Evidently, manananggals are newsworthy appearances even in monster society! This is reported in the city of Ce-boo, the monster version of Cebu City in the Philippines. This is an interesting balance--the city name has a monster pun, but the country doesn't get altered here.

The child who saw Corazón is described as an aswang, a catch-all term for dark, malicious supernatural creatures in Filipino folklore, similar to "yōkai" for Japan. Manananggals are very much aswang, given how vicious, gory, and evil they are in folklore, and it's honestly kind of surprising to see the monster adapted to spooky-glam Monster High. The illustrated characters oddly look a lot like Cleo de Nile interviewing Draculaura, but the child has horns and the interviewer has pointy ears. 

Under the articles is a signed design drawing of Corazón.

Corazón is designed by Glenda Chiu, whose name is also in the news article copy and is also described as an aswang in the MH universe. One of the monsters in the inset photo might be her self-insert OC, but neither fits the role of a designer being interviewed as described in the text. I hadn't heard Chiu's name before, but it turns out I really should have--she's responsible for the very doll that started this whole hobby! Glenda Chiu gave us Amanita Nightshade, and Amanita Nightshade gave me a doll problem! 

So Chiu and I are already on good terms.

I don't know for certain that Chiu is Filipina, but I'd count on it being the case. I'd be shocked and really disappointed if this doll wasn't designed by a Filipina artist. That could have happened in the G1 years, but hopefully not today. 

Corazón's first name is Spanish and her surname is Filipino, translating to mean "beautiful heart" when flipped into English word order. The Philippines has many Spanish cultural influences thanks to colonization by Spain. This isn't good history, but it is factual and relevant to the Philippines today.

Corazón's name doesn't have any monster or horror puns in it and could be easily used for a human character, which honestly feels more graceful and like a signal of good faith for the cultural adaptation here. In a world of Lorna McNessies and Abbey Bominables, et al., it's nice to have a cultural character with a normal plausible name because previous foreign MH characters' names could be taken as jokes, ignorant, or insensitive. At the same time, I could see it being a little strange how the Filipina ghoul is separated out with a believable name while everyone else gets a pun, like: what are we saying? Are we saying cultural characters aren't allowed to be silly? Are we saying we can't use accurate spooky words from their languages? I don't know the rationale behind the naming of this character and I am certainly not qualified to pass judgment. I think her name is lovely and just fine as it is. I have no complaint myself. I think it can make a degree of sense if we look at Cora as a new approach--foreign cast members in Monster High may be allowed to be more goofy while also having more nuanced and less separated/othered portrayals, but a cultural tribute doll set aside from the normal franchise will be more sensitive but also simultaneously more focused on the national flavor and what makes her country unique? We'll have to see what else comes forth. Lenore Loomington was not a cultural tribute doll, so the Designer Series doesn't seem anchored in any focus.

The back of the box has the tabs on the torso bracket Corazón's upper half is mounted to, poking out of slots in the cardboard. These tabs slide up.

Circular knobs on the bracket pop into the circular cutouts in the back to hold the bracket in the "up" position for display.

The box opens with a flap on top and the backdrop pulls out. 

The box window had some smeared paint that looked like it came from Cora's lips, but her faceup looks perfectly fine and not obviously wiped. 

The backdrop depicts a pretty, lush nighttime stroll in the Philippines with beautiful blue tones, and I really hope an artist made it. There can be no confidence these days that Mattel is using real art in its packaging anymore, and their support of real art and artists falling by the wayside is deeply concerning. Mattel is a toy company. Not an IP media marketer. We're not coming to you for films and T-shirts. I'm not sure what my approach to Mattel as they bend the knee and trash art is going to be, because there is still creative work worth discussing in the pipeline and Monster High itself seems okay thus far, though I'm extremely worried about G3 Frankie possibly not retaining their gender identity as the media moves forward now. If that happens, I will firmly boycott the brand. I'd know the creatives on the team wouldn't do so willingly and wouldn't blame them for it, but I just can't participate if it happens. I need to keep an eye out and see where this goes. I can switch back to a backlog focus on out-of-production Mattel dolls and keep trucking with classic LDD if there's nothing I can justify from Mattel's current output.

The back of the backdrop has the torso bracket, which wraps all around, and the certificate of authenticity stamped in the name of Glenda Chiu.

The stand base is packaged on the back while the unique pole is in the front. 

The base is rigid well-molded plastic and is not a novelty sculpt like several collector dolls have. The visual design is not character-specific to Corazón and looks minimally different from the standard MH G1 base, just with a simpler cobweb texture instead of funky abstract elements coming in too. However, the footprint is significantly increased to give it the stability necessary so Corazón's torso may be displayed "floating" off-center without toppling the base.

Next to a standard G1 base.

The size is still smaller than a Frightfully Tall doll stand, and the Corazón base focuses more on increasing the width than the depth. The Frightfully Tall base's proportions project further forward than to the sides when compared to the proportions of the standard bases.

Frightfully Tall stand next to standard MH.

The pole for the Corazón stand is one part, and features a fixed waist clip for the lower torso which does not adjust up and down or come off. Obviously, Cora is the only monster who's going to be using this stand, but if you change her shoes, that could mess with her height and mean she won't be positioned right for the lower waist clip.

Above this, the pole has an articulated joint that bumps into multiple secure positions side-to-side, which is smart. Corazón could weigh the arm down and lose the desired rotation if it wasn't made with set positions.

There's also a second clip for the upper torso (packaged with the stand base) which slots on and can adjust up and down the upper half of the pole, and it also has a rotation joint that is meant to bump into set positions. Here's the stand articulation in action.

To display Corazón with her halves connected, you can opt to use only the lower stand clip and keep the upper clip to the side, but with the right positioning of the upper clip, she can be clipped into both while she's in one piece. This photo is just using the lower clip:

The natural consequence of her stand design is that the pole is really tall and has to press against her hair when she's at normal assembled standing height.

If you're using both clips with Corazón assembled at standing height, her body pieces have a strong enough attachment that you cannot split her body by moving the upper stand clip away from the lower one. You have to pull the doll out, split her, and then put her back in the separate clips. But when you do...

Even as someone with zero Filipino heritage and minimal familiarity with the manananggal, I have to call this one of my favorite Monster High gimmicks ever. A splitting doll based on the monster is great, but supporting the imagery with this incredible dynamic stand display puts her way over the top and does such justice to the concept. Here, you can also see that Cora's hair is a great asset in disguising the stand arm, making her display quite mystifying and surreal! If Mattel goes in the toilet, I'll mourn the best doll engineers in the business. MGA does the clothes, but they never did mechanical design like Mattel. I made the right call on this release. I wasn't sure Corazón was a can't-miss character design, but this is absolutely a can't-miss monster feature novelty.

In practice, the upper waist clip rotation isn't quite as rigid in its set rotation points as the arm of the pole, so the upper half of Corazón can turn the clip rotation with her weight, which is a bit annoying. The upper body is also able to tip the stand if the arm is bent to the sides and her lower body is not clipped in.

Corazón's unboxing was unique. I unwrapped the torso bracket and clipped elastics and tags pinning her in. Her wings were not held down or pierced with plastic tags, thank goodness, but her head had some tight tags to cut. 

There was also a plastic torso form slid up her top.

Her lower body had a lot less to deal with.

Here she is together off the stand.

Corazón starts on top with a hair decoration of black branches and jasmine/sampaguita flowers. The flowers have a pearlescent translucent color. I'm not sure if this is meant to depict real flowers or jewelry crafted to look like them. 

Sampaguita flowers.

The hair decoration has a comb attachment, but was attached for packaging with elastics and a plastic tag.

It's no surprise that it stays in far less securely once it's removed. This was replaced constantly during photos of the doll because it always fell out. I wish the base piece was designed to attach in a really secure way rather than being barely useful without factory packaging.

Cora's hair is black with Clawdeen's typical purple rooted on top, with the purple crossing the parting line of her hair. Her hair is parted to her right and is tied off in two spots--the parting over her forehead is tied down to the side, and the section on the other side of the parting is tied off out of her face.

The hair is saran that's long and soft and fluffy, though at the expense of looking very silky and tidy at the ends. It combs well and its length is very good at disguising the tricky doll stand, but it loves to get tangled in her wings and was also tricky to arrange for photos.

Corazón adheres to Monster High tradition by being a vampire-sphere species with pink skin, and I was not enthusiastic about this from promo photos, but I really like it in person. It's very saturated and vibrant, and it's the darkest tone of the vampiric net of monsters in the brand thus far. 

It's also literally fluorescent!

Too bad the body doesn't react the same way.

Here's a non-comprehensive lineup of G1 pinks-- Draculaura, Kala, and Gooliope next to Corazón.

Kala and Corazón are both uses of pink to reflect darker skintones, but Kala's color is more muted and purple next to Cora. Cora and Gooliope are closest, but Corazón has a more fluorescent reddish quality than Goo's bubble-gum pink.

Corazón's face is more distinctive and appealing than I found in the promo photos as well. The head is newly sculpted for her and she's sculpted and painted to depict Filipina features, with upturned eyes, a broad nose, full lips, and a beauty mark at the corner of her left eye.

She also has strong cheekbones and a slight cleft chin that define her face, and her expression feels very focused and confident. Cora's face is all red, pink, and purple with its paint, having purple eyebrows with soft hair definition like some G3 dolls and pink and soft purple eyeshadow with pink irises. Her eyes have two reflections and lines on the irises, but nothing very monstery about them. Red, pink, and purple eyes mark the vampire family tree of species in Monster High, but as a manananggal, Cora has a unique fang pattern, with two tiny fangs on each side of her lower lip. No other toothy MH doll has teeth this way. The fangs aren't fully even and maybe the edges of her lips look a little fuzzy, but the faceup overall looks good. Her cheeks are also blushed in a way that gives more dimension and vibrancy to her face.

While this was visibly a new face sculpt anyway, the ears really show it, being very large flat pointed monster ears. I always love how Monster High can do a particular ear shape, like pointed or fish-fin, in seemingly endless unique ways. This is a different shape from Kjersti Trollssøn, Batsy Claro, or G3 Draculaura.

Corazón's earrings are the first use of the contentious neon yellow on the doll, but I think, with her skintone in person, the color works perfectly. The earrings are symmetrical and depict constructs of woven palm.

The camera despises neon yellow sculpted detail!

Around her neck, Cora is wearing a pearlescent jeweled necklace that balances the sampaguita hairpiece. This spins around her neck really easily after undoing the elastics strapping it in place. This was third of the top three photo-arranging nuisances after the jasmine headpiece and the hair.

I honestly wonder if there should have been some kind of system for doll necklaces where they'd clip on, but one end would also have a tiny pin to push into the back of the neck just to hold it in place?

Corazón's wings are a major feature, and they feel unusually substantial for Monster High, whose wings are either solid plastic but tiny, or big but full of artsy cutouts that render the wings nonsensical because that saves plastic. To date, the only Monster High doll with both large and solid plastic wings is Raven Rhapsody in the Off-White series, but people are paying big for her regardless due to her collection's prices, so there wasn't much need to save on material. Cora's wings have a broad span and feel sized well (especially considering they're only there to fly half a humanoid body), and they're bat-shaped and filled with an embroidered fabric membrane!

The bones of the wings are a tan color that fits the natural tones of the doll's accessories and accents, and while no two browns on her exactly match, it all works out. The fabric membrane is precisely sandwiched between halves of the bones that are pressed together. The embroidery has a spiderweb effect on the wings at large in a dull pink, while a lighter pink adds floral swirls in as well.

This has been recognized as a tribute to the Philippine craft of calado, a distinctive intricate hand embroidery form that is losing practitioners. It's a very pretty effect, and honestly does a better job selling Corazón for her price point than Lenore's dress did for hers. I'm not sure if the edges of the wings will fray, but there is a line of embroidery right above that would theoretically check such distress if it occurred.

The blouse is elegantly cut with the rear neckline falling below the wings rather than the outfit having an illogical hole in the back that these plug in through. The wings pop into the back as one piece on a tab that fits into a slot. 

This is likely for convenience in arranging her hair and undressing, but the wings being optional could be a canon feature of this character, since the wings are held to be a transformation of the manananggal that only emerge at night when she splits, with the monsters walking among humans during the day.

The closest doll wings I have to Cora's are Resurrection Lilith's (though any Living Dead Doll with this wing style would be equally similar).

Corazón's wings are more elaborate, with more plastic forming the boned structure and a fancier membrane, but the LDD wings can fold down.

Corazón costume is cited on the box as a take on the traditional terno dress distinct to Filipina women. Because Cora splits in two, it's a split costume, but designed to lay like a one-piece when she's assembled. 

The upper half is a blouse in a shiny satin with a light tan color, overlaid with a drippy red foil grid with squared heart shapes in each box. The sleeves of the blouse are puffed high above the shoulder and are trimmed with a lace-like accent in a woven natural-fiber beige look.

Around the waist, there's red fringe disguising the separation in costume pieces. 

The skirt is the same material as the blouse, and also ends in red fringe that composes much of the skirt's length.

Around her wrists, Cora has matching neon green cuff bracelets which have a slight woven scored texture.

Corazón's shoes are tan platform sandals in a color that nearly matches her wings, with neon green accents. The sculpts features braided cord, straw-like ankle cuffs, and wooden platforms, and the heels have been identified as traditional kubo huts under palm trees. This doll's details reportedly check out as familiar and accurate to viewers from the Philippines, so I appreciate the effort.

Cora has a hand fan to carry, and it's painted with a pearly silk look and embroidery patterns that pair with her wings. It's the same on both sides.

For painted plastic, the canopy does a remarkable job at looking like silk...but this fan is really not that functional as a handheld accessory. The hole isn't tight around her thumbs and trying to wedge the handle between thumb and finger doesn't work because the fan is top-heavy and falls backward and won't stay in the doll's hands. I don't know what tricks they pulled to photograph her holding it for promo shots, but this fan is way too fiddly to actually use for photos or display. This was the best I could manage.

I'm not bothering with this piece, though.

Her purse is made in a semicircle shape with fine weaving texture and fringe on the bottom which might be made of palm or another material. The Skullette symbol appears on this doll through the shape of the bag handles. The purse is open on top but not really made to hold anything because the fan is molded open and is wider than the bag.

Now, let's get back to that body gimmick!

Here's the legs half of the split. The waist seam has a lip that fits inside the torso, and a white socket inside.

The real kick comes with the torso half. Underneath all that red fringe on the costume, the pin that plugs into the legs and that white socket is Corazón's spine!

!!!

The torso properly clicks together with the spine in the matching white socket.

The waist split is unusually visceral for Monster High, though still done with some restraint and implication. MH's furthest extreme still lands on "creepy anatomical" instead of "gore and brutality". Previous Monster High dolls with visible internals were River Styxx, the Inner Monsters, and Symphanee Midnight, but through translucent outer body parts. I still feel like Cora here is significantly rawer, seeing bone in the severed torso half. It feels like it's not supposed to be seen, in the way a gory injury feels, not like something matter-of-fact like translucent parts over internals. The costume design also alludes to the gory factor of the manananggal, as the fringe on the waist not only blends the two-part outfit together, but also invokes the imagery of the manananggal's dangling entrails! Monster High designers, I see you. I see the twisted passion you so want to produce. I see the horror fun you want to embrace. I see the G1-style boldness you're not permitted in G3! (Don't tell me Cora wouldn't have been possible, in cheaper form, as a bolder playline G1 doll from Monster Exchange.) I'm glad collector dolls are an avenue you can express the creepy stuff through, MH team. I just wish they were more accessible!

Corazón is not the first Monster High doll to separate at the waist, but she is the first to have the mechanic as a canonical feature of the character. Corazón's waist splitting is a play feature as a monster gimmick, like Headmistress Bloodgood's head coming off or G1 Frankie's hand being pulled off and placed in her Freak du Chic magic hat. Previously, the SDCC-exclusive 13 Wishes doll of Djinni "Whisp" Grant had a splitting waist to allow you to switch out two lower bodies for the character--the smoky shadow tail she starts out with, and the humanoid legs she develops as she grows more powerful. This was purely functional for Whisp, and it was a modularity not seen since. Whisp's waist mechanism was very similar to Cora's, but it was obvious they had separate molds from the get-go just because Whisp has scorpion plating for body texture.

I borrow a photo from Flying Purple Monkfish's old review to illustrate Whisp's mechanism. Her lower bodies plugged upward into her torso rather than the torso plugging downward into the lower halves, and the seam had a different shape from Corazón's.

Whisp also had a torso joint as a deluxe touch--playline-released Gigi, her identical twin, didn't get that.

SDCC Whisp was at one point a grail doll for me in my original MH era, but I haven't been obsessed with her since. Still a very pretty, cool doll design, and much prettier than her playline release. 

When undressing Corazón, I discovered she had a separate bralette layer under her blouse. I had spotted the elastic straps for this, but then forgot about them, and I hadn't noticed the piece showing in the neckline of the blouse because it blends in so well and has such minimal visual presence!

It almost doesn't show at all!

Here's Cora's body undressed without the wings. It's all in the form of the standard "vanilla" Monster High G1 mid-teen sculpt, including the hands...

...except, of course, you know.

The upper torso isn't super secure in the upper clip without the clothing. I almost wonder if the torso stand connection should have been a peg and hole instead of a clip around the torso, but what we have works perfectly well.

Now. Back in September last year, I reviewed Wednesday Addams by way of the Netflix show/Monster High collaboration and I reached a breaking point on the G1-bodied collector dolls by Mattel because my Wednesday had arm molding problems and had the sticky, unremovable elbow pegs that have plagued most G1-style dolls since the original Creeproductions. These dolls had elbow pins that would not rotate in smooth effortless circles and would not pull out of the arm sockets, instead stressing the plastic of the pins when you tried. 

I couldn't fathom this because the first Creepro dolls had thicker elbow pins that rotated smoothly and pulled out easily, very much like sturdier pins from the actual G1 dolls in the later days, so why on Earth did Mattel go back to a thinner pin that also didn't work? This marred or just irritated my experiences with the Bride of Frankenstein, Sally, Valentine Draculaura, Creeproduction Ghoulia, Creeproduction Abbey, non-Netflix Morticia and Wednesday, and finally, Netflix Wednesday until I felt like enough was enough and I was paying for failure by participating in these G1-style dolls. I sent a customer service complaint to Mattel re: my Wednesday doll, pointing out the arm was molded poorly but leveraging that one-off issue to stand on a soapbox about how Mattel was failing their G1 dolls with a poorly-manufactured joint pin. I spoke like a collector and a fan and made myself as clear as possible...but had to reiterate my concerns with a second email after I suspected the first response I got was AI-written and not hearing my point:

Email 1 from me

My Wednesday doll arrived with molding errors in the left arm which left the arm molded in a bent-outward shape and made the elbow hinge loose. This is a disappointing accident, but I am really leaving this message to emphasize a much bigger and extremely consistent design issue I've encountered with almost every recent Monster High collector doll released on the G1 body style.

Whatever has changed regarding the manufacturing of the pins used in the dolls' elbow hinge/rotation pin pieces has had a very detrimental effect where the pins do not rotate smoothly within the elbow socket of the upper arm. I try to turn the forearm on any of these newer G1 bodies, and the pin itself begins to flex and twist back on its own until I turn harder, the pin hits a bump, and turns past the point it stuck on. You cannot turn the forearms properly in a full smooth circle, which makes posing difficult, and older dolls with the same body style, which were sold for much cheaper, easily outperform. I also noticed the elbow pins do not pop out of the socket as removable parts on these newer G1-style dolls, and either this is a design change that must be communicated to avoid damage (collectors might be expecting the forearms to pop out based on older dolls allowing this--if the new ones do not, this should be clear)...or the elbow pins *are* meant to pop out like the hands do and the same manufacturing change that makes the rotation sticky has also prevented the forearms from popping out.

This issue is something I have come to expect every time I buy a new Monster High release in the G1 style, and I'm tired of fooling myself. The Skullector Bride of Frankenstein had the sticky elbows. So did Sally, Howliday Love Draculaura, Creeproduction Ghoulia and Abbey, the Wednesday and Morticia set, and now this Wednesday. I am not asking for a new Wednesday doll, or for anything. I don't need a replacement copy. My doll's arm molding is a quality slip and bad luck. I can deal with that. Her elbow rotation is not a slip or bad luck, though, and I can't accept that. Mattel makes the best articulated doll bodies in the industry. I don't want to feel like they suddenly do not.

This is simply my frustrated plea for somebody somewhere in design or manufacturing to take notice of and address a persistent flaw clearly resulting from a manufacturing change that has had consistently negative effects on the products. We should not be expected to pay any longer for dolls that are inherently flawed and more likely than not to perform poorly.

Real attention to this design/manufacturing concern would be far more valuable to me than anything else. That's all I ask.

Email 2 from me, screaming to be heard

[responding to a query for pictures of my doll's molding flaws] The first image shows Wednesday without the jacket. Both shoulder hinges are lowered to her side as low as they will go, and the left arm can be seen badly bent outward by the molding flaw, not approaching the pose of the right arm which works correctly. The second photo shows the gappy elbow hinge.

Please also take note of my earlier concern about the persistent design flaws in the elbow pins on the G1-style doll bodies made today, as well. This was a flaw this Wednesday doll exhibited, but she is far from the first release to have it and the issue's presence was not remotely surprising. For the modern G1 bodies' elbows to consistently struggle to rotate smoothly or not be removable (if they are intended to be) is unacceptable and this flaw should not be something buyers expect to encounter. I do expect to encounter it because this is so consistent, and it must be an inherent flaw in manufacturing the elbow pins. I have gotten weary of meeting this problem again and again and am losing interest in any future collector releases with the G1 body style if this issue is to continue unaddressed. This elbow pin flaw is a bigger issue that should be corrected because the G1 female doll bodies being produced today are consistently subpar.

Thank you.

This second email seemed to break through, and got a very encouraging, human-sounding, attentive-sounding response signed by a Mattel representative.

Mattel response

Thank you for providing us with the photos and sharing your detailed feedback regarding your recent Wednesday doll purchase and the concerns you’ve encountered with the G1-style Monster High collector dolls. I am truly sorry to hear about the specific molding error with your doll’s left arm and the persistent issues you’ve experienced with the elbow hinges. Your dedication to collecting and your passion for the quality of these dolls is clear, and I understand how disappointing it must be to repeatedly face these challenges.

Your message highlights not just an isolated incident, but an ongoing pattern with the elbow hinge design and manufacturing that has affected multiple dolls in your collection. We take your feedback very seriously, and I want to assure you that it will be shared directly with our design and manufacturing teams for review. Our goal is always to deliver the highest quality products, and it’s clear from your experience that we have fallen short of that standard.

I appreciate your patience and your willingness to provide such specific insights into the performance of the newer G1 bodies compared to earlier releases. Your observations about the sticky rotation and non-removable elbow pins are invaluable, and we will make sure this feedback is communicated to those who can address these concerns. We understand the importance of articulation and smooth posture, and we are committed to investigating this further.

While I know this does not immediately resolve the issues you’ve encountered, please know that your voice is heard, and your feedback is essential in helping us improve. We value your support of Monster High, and we are grateful for collectors like you who hold us accountable to the standards we strive to meet.

Thank you again for bringing this to our attention. If you have any further details or feedback you’d like to share, please don’t hesitate to reach out.

I was pacified by the contents of the message, even potentially encouraged...but I'm a cynic about corporations and I was not sure if anything would actually change. 

Corazón Marikit is my first G1-style collector doll since Wednesday was that proverbial straw for me. It's been a while. Had something changed?

Well...I tested her elbows. And they rotated absolutely smoothly. And... they popped out, with thick pins in the system the Creepro dolls had!

Hallelujah.

I honestly never thought I'd see the day again. 

Gosh, 2023 feels like an age and a half ago. My old review surface!

I'm not claiming credit for Mattel addressing this problem, but what I know is I sent a very clear message about it, it looked like I was actually heard with my actual concerns repeated back to me and acknowledged, and afterward, Mattel reverted to a better design system for the dolls and owners. Speak up to BS. It'll get you somewhere.

This might be the biggest win of the doll for me personally--seeing that Mattel fixed the elbows.

Corazón's head articulation doesn't seem to tip down very far, so she mostly looks forward or up, but this could be the head sculpt and where the neck hole is placed moreso than a problem with the neck peg being tight. I found on a Slo Mo (whose restyle project is currently in limbo) that his head sculpt has the neck hole angled so he's looking upward when the neck hole is parallel to the shoulders, meaning when the neck hole is tilted in "down" position, his face isn't angled down.

With Cora, that doesn't quite seem to be the case, but it's not a big enough frustration that I want to pop her head off and do neck surgery.

I had the novel experience of taking only half of the doll down to do a hair wash! Bye, legs!

For photos, I started with taking her outside to find some plants that would flatter her. As green and bloom is only just starting to return, this isn't the ideal time, but I got some pictures.

I then tried some portraits inside. With the fan, I tried again using her other hand to brace it and got some good results.

I then set up a small scene where Corazón is flying out the window at night, leaving her legs sat at the table. My desk lamp played the moon again. The last take is framed like a bizarre antique photo.

And here's an edit of her soaring though the night sky like a cryptid photo.

While to say that the monster element of Corazón is underplayed would be categorically false, her design overall strikes me as an earnest effort to pay tribute to the Philippines moreso than for the whole design to serve her monster type. I think because she's likely to be a one-off, this is a fair and sweet approach, and I recognize this doll will mean a lot more to people tied to the culture. I'm not sure how this would feel for me if she were intended to be a regular cast member, because G1 had its foreign cast very heavily identified by their foreign-ness and traits that felt more about depicting the country than the specific character, but I'm in no position to fault cultural education even if it's clumsy, and Corazón seems to be coming entirely from a good place. I think she's beautiful and she feels specific and rooted in her region, while also happening to provide an awesome new monster type and doll gimmick to the brand. I think solo collector releases this way with a bit more class are a fair way to design dolls as cultural spotlights. As regular cast members in the playline, I'd err on the character as an individual being the more important focus.

Corazón is a fiddly doll. Her hairpiece is best left tied and tagged in by the factory if you want to have ease of use, her hair gets tangled in her wings, and her necklace spins like a helicopter if you unband it. Her stand is a brilliant idea that often works well, but the torso clip isn't quite tight enough in its swivel socket to keep Cora from tilting it with her upper body weight. Her fan is also barely any good for display, not working easily with her hands at all. However, when you find the right display for her, this is a very compelling unusual doll who is just as marikit as her name.