Get In, Beasties, We're Buying Lipstick: The Monster High G1 "Maul Monsteristas" Five-Pack by Mattel

Let's talk about the tradition of the Monster High five-pack!

During G1, there were multiple sets containing five dolls together, and despite the dolls all being the cheaper slim-box tier, it felt like you were that kid if you managed to get a five-pack with its huge box. There were other multipacks, like the Ghoul's Night Out set containing GNO Venus, Clawdeen, and Ghoulia, none of whom were available as solo releases, with the set also including GNO Rochelle who got repacked among them. There was also the Dot Dead Gorgeous three-pack which was the only release of DDG Draculaura, Ghoulia, and Abbey. But those weren't five-packs, and the dolls weren't slim-box style. The five-packs were sold in Target stores in the USA, and started as repacks of slim-box dolls with an exclusive among them to incentivize getting the set even if you got the majority of the dolls solo. The Skull Shores five-pack delivered the full-color version of that line's Frankie, and the Dance Class set had an exclusive Gil doll who wasn't sold solo. That worked on me when I got the set on sale back in the day for $30. I didn't want nor like most of the dolls, but I got Gil! 

Then, Mattel started making the five-packs into fully-exclusive content, essentially turning them into unique doll lines within a single box! The first was the We Are Monster High/Student Disembodied Council five-pack with exclusive dolls of Scarah, Slo Mo, Cleo, and Lagoona, as well as the unceremonious debut of popular webisode background character Gilda Goldstag to doll form (it was Gilda's only edition). And second and finally, there was Maul Monsteristas, with all-new editions of Spectra, Gigi, Draculaura, Clawdeen, and Invisi Billy's--who got his second and final doll in the set. And this was a great pack of dolls (under the standard of simple budget releases).

I loved the atypical mix of characters, and each of them, even as nude bases, was interesting and doing something pretty different for their characters. None of them felt forgettable in their characters' individual runs. The ghouls had nonstandard hair colors for all of the characters, and Billy, whose palette was pretty much the same as doll 1, was still standout for being the only mainline playline doll with a mostly-translucent body--he's a much more "faded clear" edition than his first go! The Monsteristas outfits were also pretty good for what they were. So of course this set had a scarce release. It was apparently hard to find and I don't even know if it ever popped up in the US. I think it was probably so late in G1 that maybe logistics and demand fell apart in such a way that the set didn't break through and get the release scope that was planned. The five-packs didn't seem to be a strong sales model, either. I don't know their original prices, but I can understand them being a harder sell for parents, and I got Dance Class on sale in Target pretty late while We Are Monster High sat around a lot too.

While Maul Monsteristas hasn't exactly lived in my head rent-free, I've never stopped being fascinated with this five-pack and it was always something of a pipe dream for me. I thought it would be a really interesting feature here now that I had the means to get it, allowing me to talk about interesting dolls and debut some G1 characters to my reviews and my current collection!

The collection of characters I got was loose unboxed, pretty much untouched, and looked pretty good. There were two comparable listings I found of unboxed Monsteristas--one where the Clawdeen looked certifiably wonky and one where the Spectra looked like she could be wonky but might have just been photographed at a bad angle. I took my chances on the set with Spectra I couldn't verify because I wasn't willing to get a lot where I knew for sure Clawdeen looked off. Even if the Spectra in my pick was wonked, it looked like it'd be less of a problem than that poor Clawdeen.

None of these G1 characters are ones I've never owned before, and I've discussed Billy (and revisited him) and G1 Draculaura in reviews previously, but this set brings me my first G1 Spectra, Clawdeen, and Gigi inducted into my current-era collection. This is also my first Gigi period in my current collection, as I owned G3 editions of Clawdeen and Spectra before getting this set. Gigi is a G1-exclusive character and I expect her to remain so. In my teenage collection, I owned G1 Spectra through her Ghouls' Getaway edition, Gigi through a restyled Freaky Field Trip copy (wearing the clothes of her low-articulation budget release and with her hair fully in a ponytail), and G1 Clawdeen through her Haunted Getting Ghostly doll (a purchase I wouldn't repeat now; Clawdeen's had much better designs). I also owned Gigi's shadow twin through the I Love Fashion Whisp doll that released late as a G2 edition. Her fashion assortment was pretty weak, honestly. I'd revisit that Whisp, but she's completely unfairly priced on the aftermarket. I know the character was a limited exclusive previously, but it's disgusting what people are asking. 

Under the thesis that the two G1 original-content five-packs count as their own doll lines each, then Maul Monsteristas is the first G1 doll line I've fully collected.

The dolls came packed in bubble wrap with some independently printed MH stickers as a bonus. I didn't photograph the stickers.

As packaging props, the Maul Monsteristas set staged the dolls with a few cardboard fake shopping bags with no back side to enclose them. 

They consist of a "M&H" designer brand logo that just uses the school crest letters separated out, a Skullette logo, and what seems to be a XCVI parody with the Roman numerals being 13 here rather than signifying [the year 19]96. These are cute enough, but they're not realistic miniature paper shopping bags because the material is wrong, they're not complete, and the handles would be separate twisted paper pieces. Well-made paper miniatures could have been fun, or else vinyl pieces, but as it stands, these aren't actual play props. Most people seem to keep these pieces, but they're not really intended to be kept. Apologies if these are precious, but I'm not keeping them myself.

The dolls are less fancy than budget releases earlier in G1, which often had accessories and even started with doll stands! The Monsteristas have no purses or ear piercings or layering in their fashions and did not come with doll stands originally.

I've lined up these dolls by the expected G1 "billing order" in terms of G1 cast prominence. 

Draculaura

Drac's first piece here is her plastic headband, which has grip spikes inside and a black hair bow shape on the top in the middle. 

The bow has a tiny Skullette and crossbones in the middle. 

I could have done with a slightly tighter band, but I've seen much worse headbands (like Mari's, for another G1 example around this time). This mold was worn by Picture Day Draculaura much earlier, in pink.

This Drac's hair is side-parted to her right with no bangs and is primarily pale pink, with black rooted underneath in the section visible behind her from a front view. 

She's had this paler hair color in several G1 dolls, but Drac's pink is typically a darker magenta, so this is an unusual look, especially with the majority of her head in this color. The hair fiber is kanekalon, which is silky enough, but I can't boil it straight without expecting it to become too airy and staticky, and the cut of the hair is poor and very choppy. I'd love this hair in saran. Sure, kanekalon is silky, but it doesn't really behave like hair. Maybe my only good experience with the fiber was from Kiyomi Haunterly. I don't recall any frustrations with it on her.

Draculaura's faceup is pretty simple. She has berry-pink lips and turquoise eyeshadow encircling her eyes, potentially presaging the misguided attempt to make pale blue her third color in G2. 

This wasn't the only late-G1 Drac to try blue out (Boo York, Boo York Draculaura did too), but I do think this slightly more greenish, and slightly sparer application of the color is successful. G2 Drac's blue worked less often than it flopped, perhaps because it contrasted too little with the pink or didn't integrate well. 

Draculaura's G1 heart mark on her face looks so big and bold compared to G3's little black mark that resembles a mole.

The problem I didn't catch with this copy of the doll set is that all of the lip paint has problems. Each ghoul has some of her lipstick rubbed away or incomplete, and Drac is one of the worst next to Gigi. Spectra also has a spot of missing eyebrow paint. (Billy, having zero lip paint, is spared.) I'm not sure how this happened, but I'm going to need to do some hand-painted touch-ups. Thus, the title of this post.

Draculaura's dress is awesome, as it's printed with the movie poster for Vampire Heart. 

In Frights, Camera, Action!, this is shown to be the newest about-to premiere film in the Vampire Majesty series that vampire royal Elissabat, who's also Drac's childhood friend, stars in under the stage name Veronica Von Vamp. Draculaura is actually the world's only Von Vamp hater at the start of the special, seeing the Vampire Majesty series as inaccurate insulting melodrama after having lived the actual history, but when she learns Veronica is her old friend and Elissabat steps up to put things right by assuming her role as queen, Drac becomes a fan of the series. The Vampire Heart poster design was seen throughout Frights, Camera, Action! where Elissabat and her film career/royal duty plots debuted, and now it's on a dress! 

The clearest shot of the full poster I could find in the film. Robecca actually contains the title artifact of the Vampire Heart film and is more perceptive of clues toward its location, not realizing it's been within her torso.

I kind of want an Elissabat now to put in her own movie merch! "Vampire Heart" later became the title of a collector edition of Drac done up as if she were queen of the vampires rather than Elissabat, including a headpiece containing the Vampire Heart jewel itself. (But, like...why wasn't it an Elissabat doll?)

The Monsteristas dress is a one-strapped design and a simple construction.

Drac has the more gestural G1 hand sculpt that I'm always happy to see. 

It's my favorite of the "vanilla" G1 hand molds, being more interesting than flat hands with spread fingers while also being far more graceful than the weird hand sculpt with the middle and ring fingers pressed together while the rest of the digits are spread. 

Draculaura's shoes are a non-character-specific high-top boots mold in a magenta color. Not super exciting. 

This is a cute Drac with potential. I like her hair color and her dress is a great inside reference. I just wish her hair was a nicer fiber.

Clawdeen Wolf

This version of Clawdeen is fairly 1960s-mod in style with her haircut and dress taken together. The last Clawdeen who felt sixties to me was her "Sisters" release in the two-pack debuting Howleen. That edition of Clawdeen felt drawn from that era in her own way.

Take away the odd sock and she's retro. (I want signature Howleen very badly!)

What's kind of special and interesting about this Clawdeen is her slight palette experimentation, taking the typical purple, green and black of Clawdeen's G1 repertoire, but not using any gold and instead going for a flat blue as an accent color which I think is extremely successful with the 1960s mod theming here. 

Clawdeen's G1 dolls are defined by experimental hairstyles with lots of different cuts and dyes, though, disappointingly, a lack of natural Black curls for the foremost Black character in the G1 roster. Maul Monsteristas Clawdeen's hairstyle is one of her more striking ones, depicting a swooped-out curved-in bob with straight bangs and a split dye between lime green and chalky purple.

Clawdeen's had a lime green bob in her Dawn of the Dance edition (I've always admired this one!):

Amazing. 

I don't think Dawn of the Dance can be appreciated enough as a doll line. I think it produced multiple grail dolls all on its own, though its early release certainly helped in making it valuable. (I would love Ghoulia; her 1960s dance formal look is great!)

The Monsteristas hair is even more similar to New Scaremester Clawdeen, who had a green/purple split-dye bob with a different purple (Clawdeen's more standard purple-hair tone) and a different hair shape. There was some brown mixed in on this one, too.

The Monsteristas hair fully covers Clawdeen's eyebrows and is gelled to hell and is completely stiff. I can't wait to wash it out. 

Clawdeen's face isn't the disaster that I saw in the Monsteristas set I passed on, but it still looks a tad wonky. It's not as much of a problem. 

While Clawdeen is typically one of the fiercest faces in G1, I think there's a lightness to this faceup that also suits the aesthetic, perhaps helped by her brows being out of view. She has lime green lipstick and blue and lavender eyeshadow, demonstrating all of her fashion colors within the makeup. Clawdeen's lip rub is the second least bad, but will definitely need a touch-up. 

Clawdeen's dress is very simple, but the mod aesthetic demands it and thus it's a really canny fashion choice for a budget doll. The dress is skinny with a boxy neckline and no sleeves or special tailoring, and is flat black with a satiny ribbon strip down the middle printed with an abstract blotchy pattern of purple, lime, and blue. It's extremely on-target for the fashion aesthetic.

Over her waist, she has a blue belt with two strands and two clasps. 

It's a little rougher and edgier, but Clawdeen's bringing enough modern to the look for it to pass. I'm not sure where this belt comes from, but I'm pretty confident it's a recast from some previous G1 release because it's not specific enough to be a mold made just for this doll. It does seem that this is the first Clawdeen to wear this belt mold, though. Maybe it's a re-mold of the Coffin Bean Clawdeen belt with fewer gaps this time, because it's mostly identical to that sculpt.

Clawdeen has thigh-high boots with lots of Skullette buckle straps, and they're molded in a dark solid purple. They don't seem to be a character-specific sculpt and honestly remind me of Headmistress Bloodgood and the riding tack on Nightmare, though they obviously have nothing to do with her. 

The Ghoulia doll from the motor-scooter set wore this sculpt before, but I don't know if she was the first.  

As to the color of the boots for this Clawdeen, I think she could have gone lighter, or maybe had blue or lime boots for a more mod style, but there's nothing wrong with these as they are and I don't have a better alternative. Scarah's white boots would be theoretically fine, but I don't think I want to bring white into this design. 

Spectra Vondergeist

Spectra is relatively vanilla for the character, but she's got a fun hair color that really makes her stand out. I appreciated how many variations of hair G1 Spectra went through, with medium blue-purple and lavender being her "base" hair blend, but other editions having other colors. Ghoul Spirit was purple with thin black streaks blended in, Make a Splash had her only use of blue, Ghoul's Night Out used magenta, and Ghouls' Getaway was all warm light purple. Here, Spectra's hair coloring is a plummy tone with muted magenta and purple mixed together and it's honestly stunning. It pushes the character further into red than any other edition, and I might want to try pursuing that to make this Spectra's red moment!

The hair is saran and center-parted with no bangs, and is a multitonal blend of at least three colors--purple, reddish plum, and a third darker tone. I was right in guessing that the dark half of G3 Garden Mysteries Draculaura's hair was similar!

Spectra was known to have two subtly different face molds a a result of a difference in manufacturing facilities. Her Chinese face mold had more pronounced sharp cheekbones which increased her gaunt and severe look, while her Indonesian mold was a little softer. This is an Indonesian Spectra, but you can't deny the gravity of her face nonetheless. She's utterly arresting. 

There's such a loss with the G3 character. They kept her severe cheeks, but they totally missed the gravity of G1's eyes.

I've since realized my copy is wonky despite my best efforts to select a good face, but even a properly-screened one would be far too wide-eyed.

G1 Spectra's eyes are fairly narrow and the purple sclerae deaden them to a translucent, gloomy, dreary tone that's wonderful for a glamor ghost, and there's just such a strong character to G1 Spectra that the G3 doll we have (so far) has faintly destroyed. If we ever get a second edition of G3 Spectra, I'd love some paint tweaks to make her face read a little more G1, if at all possible.

Monsteristas Spectra has a berry lip similar to Drac's which goes extremely well with her hair, and her lip rub is the least offensive and noticeable of the four ghouls'. Her lips are slightly lopsided in shape, but it's not too bad.

Spectra's dress is a black piece with a flared hem and two straps with a sweetheart bustline. 

The print is black with purple lines of chain and Skullettes, and it's pretty simple. The dress straps are a silver stamped material that creates a chain effect without being made of stiff plastic or actual chain. I think it works well. 

The shoes are a strapless heel shape and are textured like they're covered in chain links. The sculpt first appeared on Ghoul Spirit Spectra, but I like the casting here in translucent black rather than solid red. 

Spectra's limb fade paint isn't nicked or damaged, but her clear plastic parts have yellowed with time as expected.

I think this doll is really unexpectedly beautiful. I love that hair and face combo.

Gigi Grant

I really liked this character during G1, and that superseded any criticism of genies not really fitting the Monster High concept...but I've taken some steps back since then and I now understand that her genie archetype has at least a few flavors of Orientalism in its generic "Arabian Nights" fantasy theme, and the archetype of a monster who starts out in servitude is a little harder to navigate. 

Gigi's first design from 13 Wishes. I always forget she had a pet!

It's hard to say if there's any intentional phentoypic coding in her design, but she doesn't read all that non-White to me, creating a bit of a weird Barbara Eden-as-Jeannie effect. I know I Dream of Jeannie was made in the sixties, but it's still jaw-dropping that that character was played by and looked like the blondest whitest woman they could find. It's possibly intentional, or at least the MH team had seen Jeannie--Gigi's been shown doing Jeannie's signature "arm-fold-and-blink" magic wish-granting gesture in the animation. 

At a glance, Gigi has blue eyes and freckles, this particular edition evokes a redhead, and she has a relatively light pink skintone and her surname is "Grant", an actual Anglo surname punning on granting wishes...and all of that jars with her fashion theming which is clearly rooted in Middle Eastern/North African/South Asian motifs--you know, the blend of cultures associated with genie stories. Not that I'm saying her mixing signifiers is inherently wrong since her folklore has many roots, but on the whole, it's not too optically good to be noncommittal about foreign characters because not deciding where someone is from and mixing signifiers just misrepresents everybody brought into the picture. Jane Boolittle was from some non-White nowhere and I think only a concrete sense of place would have combated her ignorant colonialist narrative origins, and Isi Dawndancer was criticized for mixing signifiers from different Native American nations who shared her folklore because it left Isi as a character with no cultural specificity and created implications that Native cultures are interchangeable or indistinct. 

Would making Gigi look more specific, and more visually like...wherever she's from cause more issues with the concept? I'd be a little nervous to have a brown character introduced as a suffering magically-bound servant for the bulk of her movie, and to have the villain be her identical twin sister. Just not sure Gigi being unfocused and unidentifiable was the right go either. I don't blame Mattel if they're done with the genies and don't want them to come back. Gigi had a good run in G1, but might not be worth trying to revive. For what they were in the realm of fantasy spooky dolls, they were fun and pretty had some really clever touches, but I can't argue with any notions that they're ignorant or indelicate uses of cultural signifiers.  

Despite the potential issues with using the genie archetype, and other big issues with 13 Wishes' writing, I really liked the dramatic angle Gigi was caught in. While she only wants to be a benevolent genie for her Finders, the dynamic is saddled with her malicious twin sister and literal shadow Whisp as a package deal, with Whisp getting into the Finders' heads and asking them to make bad wishes that empower her, with Gigi forced to comply by the magical contract. It's a legitimately eerie and sad situation for Gigi, with her attempts to do good undermined by her formerly kind sister upheaving the genie operation and leaving her powerless. 

Whisp's 13 Wishes doll, exclusive to a limited SDCC two-pack with Kieran Valentine. She had two lower bodies--legs and smoky tail, and her waist split to let the lower bodies switch out.

Gigi's Monsteristas hair coloring here is atypical. She usually has magenta hair with orange-gold streaks that approached a caramel color, but here, her hair is more definitively orange than gold, the orange tone is the dominant one, and the hair has light blue streaks in the under-layer of her hair, as well as pink, but it seems a bit more vivid than her common dominant pink in other dolls. 

Gigi's dolls all have some kind of hair tie and several with a ponytail style per the famous look associated with genie characters, but this doll's hair was meant to have front locks tied back behind her head and flow loose otherwise. 

As I got it, it's entirely loose. Either way, it's a pretty mature-looking style to me, and paired with the length of her dress, gives me some mom vibes that don't feel quite right for a teenager. I always prefer Gigi in a high ponytail, and I have no intention of recreating the factory hair tie with my Gigi. The hair is saran.

Gigi is one of the G1 characters with the gentle "worried" brow style, and generally looks meeker, but she managed to be the only such character I actively liked in my original collection.

Shyer types don't typically grab me in fiction, but Gigi surmounted the hurdle for me then. Today, I appreciate her and Rochelle's faces much more. Gigi has massive blue eyes and she has light brown freckles. Blue eyes and freckles perhaps aren't the first signifiers I would give someone from the genie fantasy sphere, but what do I know? Gigi's lips are full and painted in a color that nearly passes for nude with her skintone, but she has the worst lip rub of the set. 

Gigi's skin is a pink tone that's more saturated and a bit more salmon than Draculaura's and does perhaps affect a "tanned" feeling in comparison, if not clearly coming across as a fantasy depiction of a non-White character. I think making the color far less similar to human skin, like violet or turquoise or gold, could have helped protect her from perceptions of being a White girl in dress she has no business in. If we're not making her from a specific culture, we could at least make her look more like a magical spirit removed from human categorization. Gigi's designs work aesthetically, and I'm not saying it's impossible for a person from the broad regions of the world Gigi draws from to be pale with freckles and blue eyes, but there's potential for reading this as a character out of place within her fashions. Whisp dodges some of this with her purple skin, red eyes, and blue hair making her look lesss comparable to human traits associated with Whiteness.

Gigi's dress is a maxi-length cut that fully hits the floor. It's a body-hugging strapless piece with a rounded bustline with a rubber grip strip sewn inside to hold it up better, and is covered in...cultural? patterning which features scorpions and Gigi's personal Skullette symbol with colors of vivid violet, blue, orange, and gold over black. 

I've heard it unofficially described as inspired by North African artwork and patterning, and North African interaction with Islam and Islamic artwork wouldn't be inappropriate for somebody from the Arabian Nights genre of folklore. Gigi may or may not be North African, but her story sphere allows her to step into some of its aesthetics. 

I know Gigi's maxi dress had appeal to some collectors just for...appearing as a dress cut in a franchise where everything generally sits above the knee, but it's not personally my favorite Gigi outfit, and I like her pieces with split vertical color-blocking of pink and blue, like in her signature outfit, New Scaremester, and her budget doll's dress which I got for my Freaky Field Trip restyle. I do love that Gigi's personal Skullette is in this dress, though. The personal Skullettes are always a treat to see in the costume designs, and I wouldn't have expected Gigi's to ever appear in her clothes given that the side characters' personal Skullettes were hardly ever used.

The shoes here are a blue recast of the New Scaremester Gigi shoes, which are very scorpionid in shaping.

While I can see myself recreating my hybrid Gigi restyle from my old collection with the FFT base and the budget costume, I've become increasingly fascinated with New Scaremester's look and that edition could become my basic Gigi this time around. I also think looking into the Geek Shriek doll could be fun because she's another very different base doll with her bangs and her pale gold lip paint totally changing her face.

New Scaremester. I...think I'm obsessed? I'm a sucker for a blue lip, I've realized. It's always an interesting choice, no matter the shade or value.

Geek Shriek. I mildly despise the caricatured "nerd chic" theme of this budget line, but I like that Gigi likes drawing and this base is so different for her!

Now, the main reason I was obsessed with Gigi and Whisp during G1 was their body detail. Their shared design has all-over unique pieces with the brilliant twist of depicting genies with arachnid biology, having scorpion-plated carapaces/exoskeletons! This specific sculpt was used for all Gigis and Whisp's second doll (which didn't need the specialty molds that gave her SDCC doll a torso joint and two lower bodies). Whisp's playline doll seemed cheaply made, with a matte finish that felt wrong.

As a painted element, on her collar across her dolls, Gigi has a darker pink design of a scorpion mimicking a henna tattoo. 

This is one of the touches that seems to pull from India while other signifiers on the doll's designs come from elsewhere. 

Whisp had more henna tattoos than Gigi, rendered in dark red on her-- a collar tattoo, and tattoos on her right hand and down her left arm and hand. Abbey Bominable in G3, who is definitely South Asian, has a blue take on a henna tattoo on her Fearbook doll. 

Gigi and Whisp have a unique exoskeletal scorpion plating design and all of their sculpts are unique to the two. This is not like the reptilian sculpts of Jinafire, Viperine, or the CAM Gorgon (all distinct themselves) or the insect sculpts of Bonita or Luna. The genies' body design is all their own, and it looks great with its ridges and the visible shell lines around the joints, including around the unarticulated ankles.

I personally think these plated sculpts would have been a sharper choice for the Skullector Creature from the Black Lagoon's body sculpt, but she uses G1 Jinafire molds with tiny scales and plating only on the front of the torso. The film Gill-man looks like this, though!

The Gigi molds would be a fair approximation from the G1 library. I ought to have thought of it when making my custom doll Gilliana. Maybe I can still repaint a Gigi body and swap her onto it. I could try a whole undertaking to remake the doll, actually, like finding a head that would dye better and hold its color, using a Gigi body, and doing a better repaint. There are some year-1 TT&T customs I could do better with my developed knowledge and skill.

The Grants' hands have very long creepy pointy fingers with sharp claws, and these sculpts are also unique to them. They're a bit similar to G1 Jinafire's hands, but they include the same joint shell sculpting as the rest of the genies' body design.

My Gigi had a flaw that was oddly and unfortunately common during late G1--one of her shoulder joints was molded too large so it wouldn't fold all the way flat into the socket.

Out of the box, the furthest each shoulder joint will fold in close to the torso.

I encountered this on my Freak du Chic Toralei and the Honey from the same line during my old collection. Like as then, the problem was solved with a little bit of plastic trimming in the armpit to make the ball of the joint smaller and allow it to fold all the way in. I don't know why this happened at all. 

There's a lot speaking against Gigi conceptually regarding her cultural elements, design, and implementation, and I won't discredit it. I still think that her visual design is pretty and her body sculpt is brilliant inasmuch as squeezing a genie into this monster brand. This outfit needs something for me to like it, though. 

Invisi Billy

I love that there's a boy in this maul-shopping pack. It's not clear if he came with the ghouls or if they met up with him at some point, but it's nice to see him treated as part of the friend group. I own a copy of Billy's right forearm and hand as a part I got to swap into my signature restyled Billy, but this is my first time with the whole Monsteristas doll. This Billy edition alone has had listings for about as much as the Monsteristas set all together, so it was a much better choice to get all of them rather than pursue the doll by his lonesome.

Billy's hair here is rooted without a parting and is a long boy's style slicked back solid with gel.

The hair doesn't promise to look as good washed out, but I was curious to see how it would fall. I think a short-haired center-part rooting for him would have been great for imitating the fake hair poking out of the Invisible Man's bandages, but my attempt to reshape New Scaremester's hair that way is very messy and I know that hairstyle hadn't come back into fashion when this doll was made. The colors and fiber of his hair haven't changed (feeling it dry later confirmed it's a bit fluffy and erratic), making him the only Maul Monsterista without an experimental hair coloring. Had Billy's repertoire of dolls grown, maybe his hair coloring would try more things, but the rooted-hair playline boys were few (Jackson, Clawd, and Billy) and only Clawd really changed the hair up much by switching between curls and straight hair and trying out teal streaks.

I came to the conclusion that my first Billy's face was poorly printed with overly high eye placement not aligned to the sculpt, and that made him hard to display. I resolved that and increased his tribute to the movie monster by throwing sunglasses on him, but a nicely-screened face would have been good. The second face doesn't look much different, though and I don't believe the face paint is meaningfully changed at all.

Maybe the eye placement is off, or maybe the brow sculpting is clashing with the paint. The brows are pretty jutted-out, creating this line of shadow above his nose and eyes that the paint doesn't seem matched to. It might just be an odd face sculpt painted wrong for the inherent shape. Like before, Billy's lips are fully unpainted rather than painted in a nude color. 

None of the Monsteristas have earrings, but Billy really feels like he's missing them since his earlobes are sculpted with a stretch for his signature (simulated) ear gauges. I can easily transfer them over by piercing them myself, though. 

Billy's outfit starts with a tank top. The collar section is black netting that feels a little ratty and messy in its shaping, while the rest is a blue printed section with clashing colliding high-contrast patterns that make it hard to parse. Waves turn into chevrons and checker grids lay on top of houndstooth while the pattern falls apart at the edges.

I like the element of optical art and visual confusion in Billy's fashion sense, and, as I've said before, it's a fun derivation, perhaps, of the checked nightgown worn by his cinematic inspiration. 

Billy's lower body is fully covered, with long pants and thigh-high boots. 

The pants are dark grey and an odd fabric choice, feeling like cheap gift ribbon or perhaps a raincoat that wouldn't be waterproof? I can get behind Billy being a bit of a pretentious fashion disaster, though, making bad choices on the pretext of looking cool or cutting-edge. The boots go on and off with no struggle and I'm pretty sure they're the only new mold in the set, being pointy and fully studded stompers that look very chic and honestly more fashion-forward than anything the other mansters tend to wear outside of specialty dolls.

I think I understand why Billy is in this set of Maul Monsteristas--because, if his dolls had continued, he might have emerged as the only G1 manster who dresses like a fashionista! 

This Billy has the great novelty of a fully translucent body with his opaque head fading into it through paint on the neck. 

Billy's first doll was mostly opaque with a translucent fade effect like Spectra's on his leg, but I didn't find the translucent color to match his palette at all, or to suit the invisibility concept.  Here, the more full-body translucency is a lot of fun. The dark blue color, while still not super invisible, is somehow much better than the minty color. I'd have welcomed clear plastic like Spectra's, and the stock photo for the Monsteristas suggested that was the plan at one point...then again, clear plastic per Spectra will yellow, while this color looks fine to this day. In full lighting, it looks darker than his skintone, but backlighting makes it a perfect shade for his body color fading. 

Like the two other fully-translucent dolls at the time, the Blob and Ice Create-a-Monsters, the lower legs are milkier and more opaque than the rest of the body for some reason. 

The Blob's body translucency.

Symphanee Midnight averted this with fully consistent translucency. The unpainted part of her lower legs was as clear as Spectra's. I wonder why Billy and the CAM legs had less clear casting for the lower leg parts.

This Billy is the only MH boy sculpt of any generation to be cast in such translucent plastic (Porter from Haunted is milky plastic but not see-through), and this offers a unique, if not elegant, view of the way his torso pieces are assembled. Flying Purple Monkfish made the observation that it looks like he has six nipples, which has slightly ruined it for me because that's too accurate. The translucent ghouls have the same problem, I suppose, but it feels more distracting with Billy's mold.

I remember the Monsteristas Billy forearm I ordered before having an unreasonably stiff elbow joint that made the arm want to pop out instead of bending, so I was wary of that possibility here. It's a little finicky here too, where bending and turning the joints wants to pop the arm out of the socket. There are other small joint flaws in this set, which seems to be the usual, like one hip that made a click when I swung it forward, the aforementioned Gigi shoulder, and other pegs that want to pop out before the joints bend. This isn't the set to collect for good manufacturing.

Restyles

I wanted to see how to build out or modify these dolls' ensembles. If we say the factory designs are the monsters entering the maul, then I get to decide what they found there! 

Three of the ghouls got their lips retouched. Spectra's were good enough to leave alone, and I didn't have the right paints to color-match her. I think her lip color is exactly correct, so I wasn't willing to change it by going over the lips with a new color. Billy's neck fade got blurred out a little bit with a swab of acetone so it's not such a stark line of white. I also boiled the saran ghouls' hair and trimmed Clawdeen's haircut for the right look with the hair de-gelled.

For Gigi, the hair had to go up. It's not rooted or cut for a ponytail, but I found a high side pony to work well enough for what she was given, and that suits her better in my eyes. My excess G3 Nefera stock came in perfectly to give Gigi some scorpion jewelry to dress her hair tie and give her earrings! I can also show her pointy ear sculpt which I neglected to show before. They're easy to see now that her hair is up--you'll see her ears in the following pictures.

I also added G3 Clawdeen's star choker on Gigi's neck. I've internalized this idea that Gigi loves astronomy ever since that was the one-off theme of her Freaky Field Trip doll, so I thought a star suited her. (Scorpio is a constellation that resonates with her theme, which is reflected by the FFT dress, and I think it's sweet that the stars captivate Gigi because they reflect the extreme of the outside world that life in her lantern had deprived her.) I also added a gold belt on her waist. It was Holly O'Hair's signature belt in Ever After High, but I wiped as much of the black wash out as I could to de-antique it and match the rest of her gold pieces better. I thought Scary Sweet Birthday Cupid's gift bag was a good enough prop for a shopping bag Gigi got at the maul. 

My last idea was to add some more drapery to Gigi since genies are often associated with scarves and sashes, so I cut the ombre wraps from my two spare G3 Nefera skirts and fashioned them into a drape connected around Gigi's wrists for dramatic arm swishing. I think this was the right idea! Here's the look!

You can see her ears here.

I think the cut of the dress is still pretty mature, but this works well for a fancy formal look for her, as if to wear to a gala event. Thank goodness for all that extra Nefera stock! Desert ghouls gotta help each other out!

For Clawdeen, I basically had no notes. I just added the moddest bag I could, from Monster Ball G3 Clawdeen. I could repaint the moon blue to match this design better, but I'm fine leaving it as it is. Her hair split is less stark and graphic when combed and washed, but that's okay by me.

Draculaura was the only lip repaint I couldn't color-match with what I had, so I chased my own whims and repainted her lips black. I've always loved the black lip on the Draculocker edition and I thought it would look good on Monsteristas. This required repainting the fangs too and took forever to get right.  

For the costume, I added on L.O.L. O.M.G. Pink Chick's jacket. It's not a perfect fit on Drac and wants to fall backward off her shoulders, but it looks fine when adjusted. I also put a G3 Nefera sleeve on her leg as a sock. For a bag, I added the Fearidescent G3 purse. 

It's nice to have an everyday look for G1 Drac now. Here she is with my restyled Howliday Love Clawd (I had given him a major hair overhaul and swap onto a G2 body) now re-restyled into everyday clothes. I think the tough-girl look of this costume assembly suits her as Clawd's ghoulfriend and removes the weird "little girl and towering beast" imagery their pairing can give off. (Of course, it's uncomfortable the other way too--Drac is vastly older than Clawd and treats him like a puppy sometimes and he acts like an actual dog and it is not cute it is not funny it is the creepiest shit and I hate it entirely)

For me to get on board with this romance, Drac needs to look less like a little girl, and Clawd needs to keep his dignity as a young man rather than being infantilized into a dog for laughs.

Spectra could have gotten the purple coat from Ghouls' Night Out which I had, and I did give her the pillbox hat, but to follow her red tones further, I gave her a spare copy of Avea's jacket. I put Haunted Twyla's chains on her waist to dress her a bit, and added loads of bracelets on one arm to bring in more of a goth edge to the doll. I think this works really well. I don't have any bags or purses that suit her, so she gets a drink cup instead. She went to the boo'd court.

I recreated the Pepper's Ghost setup I did for G3 Spectra, just with colors and paper suiting this design.

G3 Spectra's setup.

Here's some direct pictures of the doll on the wallpaper pattern.

For all I liked this restyle, I was realizing it had far less impact than the doll straight out of the box.

I realized the doll's maroon hair and lips were so striking because she was otherwise lacking in any red tones, and the pop against the purple was its strength. I also felt the haircut looked more fashion and modelesque and stunning with the head unadorned. As such, I tried a second restyle where I did use the Ghouls' Night Out coat and left the hat off, but kept the bracelets and belt to have a more built-out doll without sacrificing the head silhouette and color design of the factory look.

Yep. That's it. That's my goth supermodel. The coat adds a tougher powerful element to the look and the hair truly shines this way. Like this, she's an incredible Spectra.

For Billy, I tried the signature doll's shorts and shoes which show off his body coloring better than the total lower leg coverage. I also added in the signature jewelry and the checked shades I gave him from Barbie Extra Minis and, in a reverse of my signature restyle, swapped in an opaque hand on Monsteristas, this time, on his right. Using the bracelet to hide the color transition works well and I like the idea of two parts of Billy being visible rather than just one. 

Okay, here's the actual photo.

Honestly, though, I think Billy kind of got it right by himself, and the original Monsteristas stock plus the signature jewelry and left hand is enough to look good. 

Of course, Billy also nicely wears the RESTYLE ICONS costume I designed for him before, with tweaks. He keeps the Mego Invisible Man robe and the checked shades I picked for him, but I swapped in the Monsteristas pants and boots and cinched the robe with his signature belt. The look suits this doll base even better with the robe top showing off the color fade on the torso. This is going to be my shelf display for him, and I think I can finally say Billy has been perfected with this ensemble of doll and parts and costume.

Here are some pictures exploring the translucency and light as Billy marvels at his powers.

And an edit of the last one to remove the distracting internals of the torso.  

Free the nipple...but maybe not six of them.

Here's some portraits with his fashions, including a couple with the signature beanie thrown in.

And some portraits with his ghoulfriend Scarah. Both have been through it--Scarah with her cloudy dry hair and total right eye repaint, and Billy with iterative restyles, but finally there's pictures of both looking good!

For the cover of the review, I didn't want to show the design changes I made to the dolls, so I had to photograph them leg-down. That worked well with my purposes, as putting the dolls on the wood floor also let me imply they were walking through the maul. It was a nightmare arranging and free-standing them (especially Gigi) and then holding Spectra to float her in the air while lighting and snapping the shot. The cardboard bags are clearly three-walled but I let it pass. The colors are edited for the final shot to suit the look.

Here's all of the dolls how I like them as Maul Monsteristas designs, though Billy is hopping back into his Invisible Man jacket and shades after this.

Of the dolls as designed, Clawdeen was the best and called for the least editorial touches. She's basically a perfect 1960s mod look that tries a new color for Clawdeen and succeeds with the blue, and her hair is a great style concept. Billy was also close to perfect, though is more simple and less compelling to me than Clawdeen in factory state. 

Gigi was the doll I wanted to change the most, since I didn't connect with her factory hairstyle or the mature feeling of her long dress. Adding jewelry and the wrist sashes and changing her hairstyle helped to make her feel less like a mom and more like a fancy version of the Gigi vibes I know. Drac might be the doll I connect the least with, though there's nothing wrong with her. I think a different hair fiber would have had a real impact on my enthusiasm for her.

Spectra was stunningly pretty from the start, and with my second restyle playing to her true strengths, she's such an arresting doll and could be the only G1 Spectra I'll ever need. I love her. She's the real surprise for me. I thought maybe the highlight would be Billy (not to say he isn't) or perhaps me getting a Gigi again, but while I'm now happy with all of the dolls, it's Spectra who really wowed me. Clawdeen's not far behind her. I like her Monsteristas design a lot. It's really fun and so specific and done well, and is a great Clawdeen look to meet the G1 character with in my current collection.

The dolls aren't very well made. Late G1 had its QC issues and this set did too. Haircuts aren't great, joints aren't great, and while I can't claim the lip paint issue happened prior to these dolls being unboxed the first time, I still got them today in a rougher state because of the lip rub on all four dolls with painted lips. These are interesting doll bases and fun designs, but not the best handling experience.

It's horrific that this whole set concept is basically unrelatable today. Even in 2015/16, malls were in a bad way, but mall culture has basically been obliterated by now, with physical retail dying (unjustifiably, I think) and malls no longer being hangout spots for young people. This set didn't get its fair shot, either, being screwed over for distribution somehow and becoming an elusive item. There's something melancholy about the Maul Monsteristas as a result. It's a late engagement with a dying cultural phenomenon that itself was part of a brand that was facing upheaval and disorder. That hadn't kept this five-pack on my mind before, but it might now. I think the other takeaway, though? We got a collection of five interesting budget dolls who did exciting things with their designs and threw together an unexpected mix of characters in doing so. This was just a fun, compelling collection, and I'm glad to have explored it.