I haven't reviewed every G3 character debut doll, but I've gotten really close. I never went in for the three werecats who play as the Hissfits. I can see myself tracking down an old signature G3 Toralei to cut her hair, though the twins loose for a deal would be trickier. They're another matter--today, we're reducing four debut dolls unchecked to just three by looking at Jinafire. It's a bit of a surprise to myself because the character never did much for me before and I wasn't sure about her G3 doll either.
Jinafire Long was previously a G1-only character who debuted in the Scaris line associated with the special she debuted in, Scaris: City of Frights. The story and doll line introduced a multicultural group of characters studying fashion design in Scaris...and by "multicultural", I mean "heavily culturalized". I've already looked at Skelita Calaveras and talked about the potential issues with the heavily-played foreign representation there, but I've landed lighter on Skelita over time. But...oh boy, was Jinafire ever "the Chinese one" in the brand. And she wasn't exactly graceful about it.
I'm sure her representation was earnest and well-meaning, and I don't think she ruffled any feathers, but this feels clumsy and a little collar-tugging today. Her name is a clunky inauthentic-sounding fusion of Chinese and English (from the Chinese root jin meaning gold and the English "fire/afire"), she's always wearing very traditionally-cut clothes, her golden skin was obviously harmless in intent but in retrospect has some optical issues given the history of racist anti-Asian caricatures depicting Asian people as yellow, and the character is defined as a fire-breathing dragon in Western mythical tradition, which contradicts the Chinese attributes of mythical dragons. The signature look for the doll being dressed in such traditional non-casual clothing elements also felt awkward. Sure, she can wear this; she has every right to. But as the introduction to the Chinese representation, it feels stilted and unlike how a real teen from China would present herself. It feels like less authenticity or care was put into this character than there was with Skelita. There was room for improvement with a reboot. Her surname "Long" is all fair, though. It means "Dragon" in Chinese. I think many non-Chinese people will already know this from the cartoon American Dragon: Jake Long, about a Chinese-American boy who transforms into a dragon to fight evil.
I never had much connection to or interest in G1 Jinafire. I never disliked her, but she wasn't my thing. Chinese historical culture/mythology hasn't been one of my personal special interests and I didn't find the G1 character very compelling in the narrative media. If I have any paltry meaningless personal connection to Jinafire, it's that my birth year was the Year of the Dragon...and I certainly appreciate Chinese dragon mythology as much as the next guy.
Because my original collection pattern was to get dolls of characters just to have them, regardless of edition, and because Jin had special sculpts, I got a token doll of her through her Ghoul's Getaway slim-box doll, which was a specialty edition with an island theme and also had atrocious glue-head. Getting that doll of her didn't exactly give me much more love for her, but if there was any G1 Jin I genuinely loved, it was Gloom and Bloom. She was gorgeous. I never got her, but should have. She felt like a fair take on modern formal Chinese attire and looked beautiful wearing it.
If I want to give G1 Jinafire another chance, I think this is the one to consider.
G3 Jinafire is technically the first G1 movie-line character to be in a standard signature form in her G3 counterpart. G1 Catty Noir debuted in a cameo in 13 Wishes, but her doll release was a standalone deluxe edition outside the 13W movie doll line. Her G3 debut is a standard signature release. C.A. Cupid debuted in a movie line in G1 and also had a standalone repackaging of the same edition, but Cupid Asteria is the new doll in a specialty line in G3, a line which directly imitates the G1 line Cupid first appeared in. G1 Jinafire is the first character to both be firmly in a movie line in G1 (the Scaris collection) and to be firmly a standard signature doll in G3.
G3 Jinafire is visibly still a fashion designer, and her appearance has changed a lot...though her palette is less changed than it appears.
I'm frankly pretty surprised that the G3 character's name didn't change. "Jinafire" remains an inauthentic-sounding name for a native Chinese citizen and it's even less accurate to her character now that her powers have become truer to mythology and she has weather power instead of flame. I suppose "Jinafire" could be a flashy pseudonym she chose for herself as a fashion designer seeking to make a splash, but I don't know. I feel like she wouldn't use a surname if that was the justification. It's weird to me that Cupid Asteria got her name changed when the change wasn't really called for, but Jinafire's name feels like it still falls short and there's a better reason for changing it.
The core refresh dolls are shown alongside Jinafire on the front and back. Jin's artwork looks good, and her dog has reason to be flying, unlike wingless refresh Frankie's Watzie, because he has cloud attributes and is known for hovering.
The profile confused me with how Jinafire's pet was named. Turns out, Cloudy is his government name and Yun Yun is the nickname he's actually called by.
Here's the doll unboxed.
The balance of the G3 doll's design is better to me because the overall look of her costuming is clearly of today, but it's then covered in traditional motifs in a way where her design shows history but also depicts her as a current-day kid rather than someone from a World's Fair exhibit. G1 Jin tried to modernize very traditional cuts of clothing, which was a fair effort, but she could come across as unrealistic for a Chinese teen of the current era. G3 Jin looks very modern and very cool.
Of the G3 dolls with significant color changes, Jin goes for an interesting approach where she basically shuffles the G1 colors around moreso than changing them. Green, purple, gold, red, and black were all part of G1, but they've been reallocated here...though admittedly, the green has shifted significantly from a grassy tone to a mint shade.
Jinafire's hair is primarily plum purple with lavender and mint streaks, with mint coming from the sides and the back, under the purple. It's center-parted halfway down the head, then rooted flowing with no part, and the front sections of her hair have been pulled out, twisted along the sides of the head, and then tied back behind the head.
The fiber is saran but needs some washing and combing to feel nice. The parted sections on the front aren't totally even, but they swoop out and shape the hair better than I expected them to.
We've seen mint and purple pairings from Mattel...like, a lot, but it's to Jinafire's credit that it feels original and interesting here. I think her use of red and gold provides some vital pop and punch that keeps the mint and purple from feeling soft and pastel like so many uses of the combo. Heck, Jin's hair colors here aren't far from a G1 Twyla hair rooting, but the reverse balance and the context of her other colors makes them vastly different.
Jinafire's skintone has notably changed here, going from all golden to pale mint green with just a few golden accents. The green has a slight shimmer on the head and pearly glow on the body.
While the gold coloring was striking before, it was wise to change it to step away from the optical problems it had--it's a bit surprising that Mattel even made a legacy G1 Jinafire with the original colors if they may have changed G3's for the reason of avoiding stereotype. Maybe the change wasn't motivated by that at all, then? Or else G1 Jinafire gets to stay on account of having been that way already and the issue being unintentional and not obvious enough that the doll can't work as she was--it just isn't something to repeat on a new version.
I think the hair/skintone combo works well on G3 because the dark purple and pale green is nonhuman and monstery, but also reflects the look of a real light-skinned dark-haired Chinese person in a way that lets her represent Chinese kids in the audience a bit better. G1 Jinafire's rich gold skin and bright green hair was purely supernatural and less relatable on a human level. G3 Jin is both clearly a stylized dragon monster and clearly a recognizable depiction of Chinese phenotypes.
G3 Jinafire's skin hue is almost certainly meant to connote Chinese jade, but it feels a little played out with G1 Frankie, Scarah, and G3 Ghoulia being so similar...turns out, though, that G3 Jinafire is a little bluer and more saturated than the other three.
Jin's face feels pretty different from G1, but not in a bad way.
Her expression is less harsh, and she has two upward-pointing fangs now, unlike G1 Jinafire who had no visible teeth. Her eyebrows are more human and dark green and don't have second points, and her pupils are round, though the light reflections still evoke the pointed reptilian outline the G1 pupils had. I wasn't sure if the two white strokes of her eye reflections were Chinese writing or not, but I couldn't find any evidence that they were.
Her eye makeup is bands of purple, red, and gold, and her eyes are more brown with a hint of gold, rather than green like G1. The overlapping concentric-semicircle scale pattern under her eyes appears throughout her doll as a Chinese art motif, but I'm not sure if the ones on her face are makeup or actual scales, like G3 Lagoona's on her forehead. A second doll will tell. Jinafire's lips are red and full.
Jin's ears here are the first feature where her skin unambiguously transitions into golden scales. They're cast in a separate plastic and inserted in so the colors are cleanly separated.
The only previous Monster High doll with separately-molded ears affixed into the head was Treesa Thornwillow, to weaker effect-the ears were one piece connected by a braided bar across the back of the head, and the vinyl was translucent next to the head.
Treesa's ears would have been made that way because molding them as part of the head would be too fragile/logistically impossible, but G3 Jin's ears are done for stylistic effect and a clean look. I like them.
Jinafire is wearing asymmetrical earrings. On her left, she has a red Chinese tassel knot.
On her right, she has the first of her jade-themed jewelry pieces with two matching earrings shaped as chunky flat rings. The color is darker and more pearly than her skin, but still on a jade theme.
 |
| One of them removed. |
The multiple piercings on the right also give G3 Jin part of her welcome modern edge.
Around her neck, Jinafire has a simple beaded choker in the same pearly jade color. It's not the same mold as the choker that came with G3 sig Lagoona. Lagoona's had smaller beads between each large bead.
Jinafire's jacket is her optional clothing piece. It's cropped on the torso with full-length sleeves and is all red and gold. The jacket is sewn open and has no closure or simulated buttons, and features lapels as well as a cut which flares over and encloses the arms in the style of a vest or separate layer, but the jacket is all one assembly.
The jacket has gold cuffs and stitching, and a large golden plastic dragon brooch is sewn to the right lapel.
I like the jacket a lot, and the red inherent to this doll's palette means it works great...but I can't deny I like her a lot when she's mostly green, purple, and gold, too.
Jin's second doll is set to be in an "oasis vacation" Skulltimate Secrets collection which blessedly ditches the terrible toaster boxes and useless "mystery lens" gimmick of series 4, 5, and 6. Jin's design there looks to have almost no red, or at least can be set up without much red, judging by the art on the outside, and she looks really stunning.
Under the jacket, G3 Jinafire has a top, belt, and skirt.
The top is cut with a high point in the middle and two red ribbon straps that meet the center at an angle. The straps don't cross in back, but they are two separate straps which go over the shoulders--they don't meet behind the neck as a tie or a loop. The top is black with swirly clouds, rendered as in old Chinese art, decorating the piece in metallic purple.
The top and skirt are separate pieces.
The belt is red vinyl with gold paint on the front, and closes in back with a pin and hole. The factory placed it under her tail rather than above it.
The skirt is styled as patterned Chinese silk brocade and features cloud, scale, and dragon motifs. The cut is short and pleated, well above the knee, making it feel modern.
 |
| Really impressive effect with the material and pattern. |
The skirt closes in two places, above and below the tail, with the cut having a circular hole left between velcro strips. The skirt is pretty high-waisted so there's no gap between the top and skirt when the outfit is assembled.
The boots are pretty elaborate. They're thigh-high black pieces with red tassels at the top and two cutouts in the front. The platforms and heels are golden while the toes are pointed. The outer sides of the boots have fancy ombre dragons. The material is flexible vinyl that's easy to pull off and put on.
The soles have more scale designs.
Possibly because her jacket sleeves are so long, Jinafire's bracelet pieces are packaged separately. They're the same jade color as her earrings and necklace and come in a thin beaded piece and a thick rounded bangle. The thick bangle has a different-sized opening on either side, meaning it only fits on her wrist one way and won't slide down far enough if turned the other way. The bracelet pieces can't both be worn on one arm.
The pieces do help make Jinafire's hand color feel less abrupt when the jacket is off.
Jinafire's hands and legs are golden pieces with draconic texture, like her ears. The hands are fierce claws with round artistic scale patterns, fine realistic scales, and very long pokey nails. These hands are more elaborate and characterful than the G1 Jin hand sculpt. These feel more dangerous and draconic.
The cartoon model for G3 Jin is fairly different, including different hair coloring and styling, a duller skirt, and her hands being less golden.
The single color of doll Jinafire's claws and the lack of color transition to her arms is a bit cheap, but I like the doll's detail more than the cartoon version.
Jin's legs do have a token effort at design transition, with a few scales painted on the front of the upper leg before the fully-textured lower leg comes in. The G3 scales are large and stylized with the same concentric semicircle overlap as the artistic pattern all over costume. The G1 scales were smaller and more realistically reptilian. I like the G3 approach.
It's a little weak. Actually-molded scales on the upper knee with gold paint would be much better. But G3 is just allergic to thorough body detail sculpting in a way that will always disappoint me. It's such a downgrade from G1's fully reptilian body sculpt. G1 Jinafire's body was also subtly weightier and beefier than G1's normal shape--she wasn't depicting a curvy girl with more body fat, but she felt a bit thicker and tougher in a way that might have been unintentional but suited a dragon well. G3 Jinafire uses the standard median body proportions.
I believe G3 Jinafire's tail is exactly identical to G1's.
It's the same coloring and looks to be the same sculpt. It's a cost-effective move, to be sure--G1 Jinafire came back for the second Fang Vote exclusive doll (and first Fang Vote doll to have design elements chosen by voters), so they needed to bring back the original tail design anyway. Why not use the remade G1 tail for the G3 doll releasing later, too?
 |
| Fang Vote Jinafire, using the same tail design in her reintroduction of the G1 doll parts. Her legs are in nets--that's not a different sculpt with bigger scales than G1. |
The G3 tail pops out of the back, though I almost thought it wasn't supposed to. It went back in easily with no issue, though. This is the peg on the end.
G3 Jinafire's gold body parts are pearly gold, but have less of the shiny metallic effect of her G1 dolls, which felt a bit more antique and rich to me. It's not bad on its own, but I think having a G1 Jin next to G3 would make the gold color of G3 look cheap.
Jinafire's neck articulation is inadequate like other recent G3 dolls'. The anchor peg doesn't let it tip forward hardly at all.
Jinafire's first accessory is her requisite shades. They're more opaque than usual, which I like, though her hairstyle and big long ears make it difficult to hook the shades on. They have a flaming shape with some drips on the bottom while the arms are basic and thin.
Jinafire's fashion design interest is kept alive with her accessories, including a sketchbook and pen. The sketchbook is lavender and depicts Jinafire's plans for the outfit she's wearing and the pen is jade green with a fantastical lion-dog head as an ornament on the top--a recognizable icon of Chinese statuary.
As you can see, both pieces have finger loops. The back of the sketchbook has a molded spiderweb and MH crest.
Jinafire comes with a black Skullette clothes hanger for her jacket. It's a fun character-specific accessory for her as a fashionista and designer. This is just a reuse of the G3 clothes hanger mold we've seen before, but that's better than a new sculpt we didn't need.
 |
| Previous G3 hangers (from Skulltimate Secrets Series 4 Abbey). |
The next accessory is my favorite--a tabletop miniature dressmaking mannequin for Jinafire to practice ideas on! The mannequin is cast in gold and features an implied adjustable telescoping rod, a Skullette base, and a dragon tail just like her own--actually a vital feature if she's practicing costume designs for herself, because she needs to remember to tailor for her tail!
I'm not sure this is meant to be a handheld accessory, but it happens that Jin's fingers can slide between the tail and body to let her hold it very easily.
I love it. With some imagination, you could also portray this piece as a trophy Jinafire won from a fashion design contest.
Jinafire has no cosmetics accessories, possibly to emphasize couture as her specialty.
Jinafire is unusual among G3 dolls because she doesn't have a separate snack and drink--she's kind of doing both in one with a yogurt cup with a straw.
Jin's phone is a blue color otherwise not on the doll, and has a dragon feature that blocks like a fifth of the front of her screen. I can't begin to imagine being comfortable with this phone case being so intrusive.
Jinafire's personal Skullette is featured in the yellow app on the top right, and a drawing app appears on the bottom, suggesting she uses digital art for design planning as well. The dragon and clouds continue on the back of the case, and more scale pattern is on the back too.
The backpack is a pretty reasonable functional shape. It's jade green with a dragon head and fire shaping and a tassel on the front, and the straps are gold scales.
 |
| I guess there needed to be some reason to justify the name of the character. |
The bag fully opens on a downward hinge, and the pegs for the straps are overly long and stick into the bag a lot, like with G3 sig Catty's piece.
 |
| Why are you doing this, Mattel? |
Like Catty and Cupid, Jinafire gets a pet in G3 after not having one in G1. Here, she has Cloudy, better known as Yun Yun, who is an actual living fantasy lion-dog, rather than a statue! Yun Yun blends a Pekingese dog with lion traits...supposedly. I just see dog, though. The statues were never meant to be dogs originally, just guardian lions, but they got saddled with the term "lion-dog" over time as other cultures interacted with them. Yun Yun is pretty cutesy like all G3 pets, but I appreciate the sculpting and golden coloring. His fur is so long his paws are just embossed on his underside!
Yun Yun is able to float like a cloud, which his swirling fur nicely implies. The red headdress element is a separate plastic part, but is not designed to come off.
When trying to comb Jinafire's hair, I was surprised and disappointed to see some fried ends that caught the comb. I had to trim a little off the end of her hair. I shouldn't be seeing that on a new recent boxed G3 doll.
As I was waiting for Jinafire's hair to dry after its wash. I looked at her, not particularly posed or ready to be photographed, and still wanted to take a picture anyway because she struck me in that moment. She's really a very pretty doll and her colors are fantastic. This was the moment where I fully embraced the doll. I wasn't a big Jinafire fan before and G3 gave me pause, but I was realizing I really like her design.
I got even better results with her hair dried and combed and portraits staged. I always loved using MH tails as hangers for bags, so I put the clothes hanger on the tail here!
I found some fun dragon energy with her claws out and her hair flowing. I really like the second shot.
And here she is in the clouds with Yun Yun.
For a doll I wasn't sure about...there's just no fault I can find. She's beautiful.
I think G3 Jinafire is a smart reinvention of the character that does just as much (if not more) tribute to traditional Chinese art, but pivots the look and tone of the character to feel more realistic and respectful to the modern Chinese population. Jinafire's costume cut marks her as a ghoul of the present, and she looks fierce, fashionable, and trendy. She doesn't read as an outdated cultural portrait anymore. Her coloring also tidily sidesteps issues with the gold tone and makes her more reflective of the basic phenotype associated with human Chinese people in a way that she is more reflective of potential Chinese and Chinese-American audiences. Kids like dolls who look like them, and Jinafire is now easier to recognize as the demographic she portrays. Even without thinking about the optics of the doll, which are important...she's just really pretty and fun. Her color palette is fairly complex and unintuitive, but it reads beautifully as a sophisticated, rich design. This doll feels less toylike, less Barbiefied than G3 may have led people to expect. Her accessories are nice, with the mannequin being fantastic, and the skirt is one of the best pieces from G3's clothing. In most regards, my reaction to Jinafire's G3 sig doll is much like my most-praised G3 doll prior--signature Venus McFlytrap. Both dolls have a heartening tough teen-ness about their designs. Both dolls have an admirable amount of body detail for G3 standards. Both dolls are highly photogenic and appealing designs, and both are graceful depictions of non-White characters through a monster lens.
Is that to say Jinafire is a G3 high favorite in the same way Venus was? I can't really say that. I'm still more partial to Venus on a basic level. I have more affection for her concept and character design. But that is in no way any fault of Jinafire's. She's a really good doll and if you love the character or her theme on a basic level, then she'll be that crowning G3 doll for you. I'm really happy with signature Jinafire from G3. Her changes make perfect sense and all look good. This is a take on the character I think I can really get behind, unlike the G1 version which just has too many hangups in execution. While Jinafire's second doll looks very promising, the signature design was not one of those that left me feeling like the best was not achieved.
The doll isn't perfect, of course. I wish the gold parts felt more like G1's effect. I would have easily welcomed more body texture and a better transition effect into the gold parts. Her G1 name also still feels unsuited and I think it would have earned a change. But those are nitpicks. This Jinafire is a surprising success and a pretty deft turnaround for a character on the brink of being unworkable for a revival. It honestly makes me think Isi Dawndancer might have prospects of an actually decent revival in the hands of G3--but I wouldn't blame Mattel for just not touching that one.
G3's signature dolls are in a pretty good place as long as sophisticated edgy looks like this are still in the running. Jinafire is a hit.
No comments:
Post a Comment