She Used to Be a Royal Pain: Monster High G3 Signature Nefera de Nile by Mattel

This is such an unusual history for a doll character.

Nefera de Nile is mummy Cleo de Nile's older mummy sister, and heir to the de Nile family pharaoh dynasty. 

Official portrait of G1 Nefera.

In G1, Nefera was immediately established as absolutely horrible, with zero empathetic or endearing character traits. She was a brat, she was a manipulator, she was willing to sabotage her sister for any reason and even marry her off to another family to avoid a political royal union that was her own responsibility. Nefera, so named to combine "Nefertiti" with "nefarious" was basically G1's only recurring villain character, and I know how much people love gorgeous glam evil characters...and yet, Mattel did almost nothing with her in the toyline. 

Nefera started off okay with her signature release, and was the doll who debuted the "big sister" adult femme G1 body type. I personally always found her costume to look sloppy, though. The wrappings don't look chic and the golden headpiece looks like a colander rather than a graceful crown. It's too large and comes down too far on her head compared to the piece seen in 2D art of Nefera.

And you'd think she'd be a staple character, right? She's the evil older sister of a core character and appears often throughout the webisodes...

...her second G1 doll was her Boo York, Boo York edition, near the end of G1's run, and was her final release during G1 proper.

How was this only her second doll?

I'm still baffled. Nefera has such a presence in G1 for me in my memory, so it always kind of surprises me to remember how little she did in the toys. 

Boo York Nefera (and Cleo) have received entirely fair criticism for looking whitewashed, and the doll line's shimmer-skin gimmick doesn't hold as an excuse when we had Robecca and Nefera herself doing darker brown with shimmer previously. It's a shame because the Boo York de Niles are otherwise stunning (they make hair tinsel look good, though Cleo's blue hair fiber was a mess in-hand) and the skin ending up paler is a real blight on the dolls' execution. Pair that with 

• Glowsome Ghoulfish Clawdeen arbitrarily totally changing her skintone when none of the other, non-Black, Great Scarrier Reef characters' mermaid transformations got altered skintones, and 
• Freak du Chic Noir Clawdeen coming off as a bit lighter than her full-color skintone,

and it's a gross pattern of G1 colorism with a weird fantasy angle. I like the Noir design angle for a Freak du Chic offshoot and Twyla is a grail doll for me to reacquire, but I acknowledge the Noir theme objectively doesn't make sense or fit the rest of the line, and I understand why eyebrows were raised that the human-colored Black doll in the FdC collection was relegated to the stylized greyscale theme. (Black-coded Honey Swamp was in the main FdC line, but she never had a human skin color.) Regardless of intent (and I'm not assuming the worst intentions myself) there were multiple occasions of G1 dolls failing to honor their darker-toned characters' initially established skintones or skin values, or even seemingly treating their skintones as disposable. That should have been caught.

FdC Clawdeen next to a full-color Clawdeen.
(Photo credit to Flying Purple Monkfish's review of FdC Noir.)

My edit of the above photo to put both dolls in true greyscale. This proves that FdC Clawdeen isn't value-matched to Clawdeen's normal skintone and is lightened enough for there to be valid concerns.

Twyla in the FdC Noir release is also desaturated but doesn't have the same optical issue because she's not a Black character who looks suspect if she turns up paler. I hope the Reel Drama line got it right and made sure Clawdeen's grey tone wasn't paler than her full-color skintone. All of Reel Drama has variants of grey skin for its dolls, so it's equal on paper, but if Clawdeen ended up paler than her norm again, then there's still an issue.

G1 can be so exhausting sometimes.

After G1 collapsed, Nefera then got one of the few dolls that were essentially G1 refugees--dolls which released during G2 but were very obviously designed for a G1 release and snuck into G2 unaltered in full G1 style and sculpting because they were ready for production so near to the brand overhaul. Nefera's third G1 design, though released during G2, was in the Scream and Sugar two-pack with Amanita Nightshade. It was a pairing that made sense--Nefera cared for the Corpse Flower that bloomed Amanita during the de Nile family's entombment, and Nefera and Amanita are the two most certifiably unempathetic and horrible monsters who got G1 dolls. I can't imagine what a nightmare it would be to have these two at your café.

Scream and Sugar Amanita and Nefera, otherwise known as the two-pack of the narcissists.

Scream and Sugar was my only Nefera doll previously because I got the pack for Amanita. Amanita ended up the only G2 release with the standard "vanilla" G1 teen body sculpt, if you don't count her gloved arms. The other G2 dolls to be G1-styled are:

• Nefera, aforementioned, on the G1 big-sister sculpt
• I Love Fashion Whisp, on her twin Gigi's G1 body, though from my experience, it was an oddly cheap-feeling matte finish. Whisp's original body in the SDCC set was not the same as Gigi's and was a novelty build with a torso joint and two swapping lower body designs to swap from smoky tail to humanoid legs
• Shriekwrecked Gooliope, on her G1 sculpt. Nothing about Goo's rendering feels altered for G2 unlike the rest of Shriekwrecked, which I'm fairly confident was fully being designed for G1 before having to adjust for G2's aesthetic. I think most of Shriekwrecked got some design tweaks and new face paint designs and G2 bodies to push the concept into G2 once the brand got suddenly overhauled, but Gooliope's face paint has no hallmarks of G2 alteration.

G2 dolls with visibly G2-ified face designs who still used G1 bodies were collector Skelita and Shriekwrecked Gil, both using G1 bodies, like Gooliope, likely because it wasn't worth the money recreating their complex sculpt alteration on new G2 bodies. Almost all G2 returning characters except Draculaura reused their G1 head sculpts. If there was any G2 doll with a G2 body but a G1 face design, it was probably Clawd Wolf's G2 edition, whose face paint isn't glaringly altered from G1 like the other two boy dolls, Deuce's and Gil's, were.

I never liked the visual design of Scream and Sugar Nefera, and it also doesn't help that she has the same iffy skintone as Boo York. (The two dolls being the same color does allow one to swap their forearms if you want BY Nefera with bare arms or Scream and Sugar with gloves.) Fashion-wise, while I know the mummies are sisters, the fashion look for Scream and Sugar Nefera is altogether too "Cleo" for me and I wasn't sold on the purple, which doesn't read very Egyptian and never did the most for Cleo, either. I also don't like Nef's costume. It was interesting to see that her hairline was still rooted as a widow's peak under the bangs, though. G3 Draculauras do something similar when they have bangs, I think Nefera generally shines when she has swept-back hair with a widow's peak to contrast Cleo's typical use of bangs, though I think Nef could shine with bangs if she had a fully-braided bob silhouette like an ancient Egyptian wig.

G1 Nefera got a new G1 alumni doll alongside Cleo in the "Mummy Majesties" two-pack which is...there, I guess. This Nefera seems more faithful to her signature skintone, fortunately.

Nothing compelling me here. Nefera might work without the crown and collar, though. 

It was rumored that Nefera was getting a Creeproduction rerelease, too, but I'm not sure about that now. We've had the wave of the four solo originals except Ghoulia; the wave with Cleo/Deuce's two-pack, Ghoulia, Spectra, and Abbey; Toralei, the cat twins, and Operetta; and next is slated to be Venus, Rochelle and Robecca (it could be fun, or also could be pointless, comparing my original signature Robecca to Creepro, since she's the only G1 original signature I own who ended up in the Creepro line). Unless Nefera is coming soon too, it almost feels like she got lost in the fray and missed her window. I

I'm not sure where the Creepro line ends--is it just the last of the signature dolls released in the original packaging style? That leaves only Jackson and Holt and Nefera, right, and Mattel hates boy dolls right now, so I have little faith in Jackson and Holt despite wanting both Creepro'd. Would they rerelease the Wolf sisters pack to give us the first and best Howleen if it means another edition of Clawdeen gets Creepro'd? They didn't release the Forbitten Love two-pack that debuted Clawd and would give us that Forbitten Love Drac as a second Creepro edition, so I wouldn't expect the sisters set. Maybe Jane would edge into qualification for Creeproduction too, but she wasn't a big seller and has some pretty glaring conceptual issues that would make me hesitate to rerelease her. Cupid qualifying for Creeproduction would be amazing, and, with apologies to my own beloved copy, I'd get a Creepro copy instantly because I want a G1 Cupid with hair I didn't cut too short. 

Part of the reason I want Creepro Jackson and Holt so badly is that Holt would finally get a doll with both wrist joints and his back tattoo--Holt's second doll had the updated male body design with wrist articulation, but that doll also removed his and Jackson's shared tattoo for some reason. I also think Jackson has potential with some more light-touch canon-compliant restyling (as opposed to my reinvention) and would like him cheaper and more readily available to try that.

I was receptive to the reveal of G3 Nefera in the toyline...though she's got her own characterization.

In G3, Nefera has been reimagined. While still Cleo's adult sister, she's...not a villain. She's not even a jerk. She's a generous, kind older sister who Cleo sometimes resents because everybody loves Nefera and she's heir to the throne, but she's a totally different person from G1. 

I'm not surprised by this when I think about it more. Mattel has stopped being so willing to depict negative emotions or villain characters in their toylines, with G2 going as far as removing dislikes from the character profiles. I'd believe they still don't want to focus on antagonists as merchandise, though G3 Toralei is a grey area as she starts out pretty awful in G3, and is worse than G1 in some regards. It's also possible Nefera's personality change and her previous issue with skin lightening are each different responses to a concern about depicting a brown woman as irredeemably atrocious. G1 Nefera was a bit darker than G1 Cleo, which could create a certain connotation. Lightening her skintone in later G1 dolls was the wrong approach for sure, but since Boo York Cleo got the same treatment, I'm fairly convinced they botched the skintones in manufacturing moreso than making a choice as a statement--still a definite issue. If further darkening her G3 skintone and making her nice was a response to optical concerns from G1, it's...fine, I guess. I'm not personally averse to nasty personalities in media, and I'm intelligent enough to know that G1 Nefera being a total pill doesn't signify any correlation between darker skin and evil, but there's certainly no potential for that connotation the way G3 has done it, and I can understand how merchandising and yassifying thoroughly nasty characters at all can feel off-mission for a doll brand built on positivity and acceptance and personal growth. Stories need villains, and we love an evil diva, but those can be kept out of the doll line, much as I'd enjoy them. G1 Nefera gets to do her thing unaltered as a legacy "alumna" character now merchandised for adult collectors, but I can understand her reworking for the G3 playline.

I wasn't super sold on the promise of her doll, though, thanks to her bright, cartoony design in the animated show.

But color me surprised, because her doll was shown and you could have fooled me into thinking this was still G1 evil Nefera with that face!

Her outfit looked quite a bit more cohesive and refined than either G3 cartoon or G1 signature to me, and while I was hung up on the purple, I was outvoted:

I am a professional.

I've also come around to the opinion that even if the purple was unnecessary or ill-chosen, it's actually executed well here--better than Nefera's ever done it before.

Here's her box. Mattel celebrates its 80th anniversary these year, and boxes just now are being marked with it. We've heard they're releasing a Frankie Stein in a take on the original Barbie swim costume, and we've now seen artwork of the design, but no stock photos yet. I'll probably want Barbie Frankie if she's less than $65, but we know that's a stupid hope with Mattel.

Nefera's box.

Nefera is pictured alongside refresh Clawdeen and Draculaura, who are pretty darn old releases by now. They came out two winters ago!

Here's the back of the box and her full portrait. Her pet beetle has been renamed from Azura to Lavish, and I don't mind the new name at all.

Here's everything unboxed.

Nefera's first piece is her golden ponytail wrap, which is much better than the colander, and much more in-spirit with the head ornament in non-doll depictions of the G1 signature design. This is a band with an opening and it just clips around the hair tie and has a scorpion sculpted on. Nefera is commandeering scorpion imagery in G3 after it had been the genie twins' symbol in G1. Since the Grants are fairly unlikely to return, the scorpions belong to Nefera now! It helps diversify her imagery a bit, since G1 Nef was all in on serpents instead.

Nefera's hair is in a high ponytail with a single braid mixed in, just like G1 sig, and is mostly teal and black with gold tinsel, with reddish "Clawdeen purple" streaks featuring, including as the color used for the braid.

I'm not sure if the teal hair is as saturated or dark as G1 Neferas' hair, or if the G3 character's darker skin makes it look lighter in comparison. I think I'd probably prefer a richer emerald tone to play off her skin a little better, and I think we were promised that in the stock photos, but this shade is more accurate to the cartoon and it's still pretty. I like the green hair of Nefera despite it not making much sense. The blue hair of G3 Cleo fits her better as Nefera's sister, though, since G1 Cleo's baseline colors were brown and black natural tones. G3 Cleo having baseline blue hair corresponds better with Nefera having baseline green. The fiber is saran, but the tinsel is a nuisance.

Nefera's hairline is rooted in a widow's peak, as ever, though it's no longer intended as a sinister visual.

Nefera's face has clear lineage to G1, with her sharp eyes and the angular glabella sculpt. Her eyes are also pretty much unchanged, being pale purple with gold flecks, and not having deadened mummy pupils like G3 Cleo's dolls...and I kind of wish they did for consistency's sake and that spooky factor.

Nefera's lips are teal like her original signature doll, and her eye makeup features bands of purple, teal, and gold, with gold under the eye and some Eye of Horus branches under her right eye, mirroring G3 Cleo's similar makeup under her right.

I think Nef's Eye of Horus would look better in black lines. 

Nefera also has a little four-pointed star sparkle mark under her left eye. G1 Nefera had a jewel painted in the same spot, and G1 Cleo had a jewel under the opposite eye, but G3 Cleo dolls don't, so, like the pupils, it's a touch that makes G3 Nefera more like the G1 character than G3 Cleo is to her G1 counterpart. 

From the photos in isolation, I genuinely couldn't pick out differences between G3 Nefera's face paint style and G1's, but it seemed that the production copies of Nefera are a bit different from the stock photos and look more distinctly "G3". I think that's misrepresentation on the part of the stock photos, and it's hard for me not to prefer the stock photos, personally. The real doll looks to have more smile to her lip shape and her eyes, while definitely Nef's, are less sharp and harsh than the stock photos. This is giving me the same kind of aesthetic dysmorphic issue as I have with G3 Ghoulia or Spectra, where I just keep seeing where I want the face to be and end up unhappy with the face design that is.

In isolation, not knowing what G1 looked like and with the stock photos not promising something sharper, I'd probably love G3 Nefera's face. But comparison is poisonous, and seeing the Nefera that was promised really hurts the one that was produced.

I know Nefera's no longer a mean horrible character, but there's still something off here. The stock photos indicated she was going to serve as close to G1 as any G3 face has, but the produced doll just feels a little bit strange. Too cartoonish, perhaps? There's something not clicking about this faceup and sculpt together. She works best at a three-quarter turn from slightly below, and that's not good enough.

This is great, but head-on, I don't like her as much.

So many G3 faces have hit it out of the park, but I think Nefera's just one of those that made it into the "never feels quite right" camp. All of them have the same exact problem, too--the eyes are too wide when that's opposite to the appeal of the G1 counterparts.

I wanted to see if maybe there was manufacturing variation going on. I know signature G3 Drac had two pretty different face variants. G1 Spectra even had two separate face molds depending on where she was made! Were there G3 Neferas that actually matched the stock photo better? If there were, that would solve everything for me. Well...maybe. I found another unboxed copy online that looked much more like what I expected from the doll. She had more of the Nefera eye going on and she seemed to have the gorgeous facial click I was missing from the copy I had. It was a very frivolous purchase to make, but I had loose plans this month and I got that other copy because I really want my Nefera's face to feel right to me. My first Nefera is pretty on her own, but looking back to that other copy convinced me I would always feel like this one was off. Nefera 2 will be popping in after the first look-over to compare in-hand and see if there really is a difference or if I'm just losing it.

Nefera's skintone is darker than her sister's, and the darkest of the de Niles across all three generations. Consider the issue fully squashed, I guess! I think it looks really pretty. Cleo in G3 wavers from doll to doll between a redder or yellower shade of her own lighter brown color, but either is quite different from G3 Nefera.

A tanner and redder G3 Cleo next to Nefera (the restyled Cleo on the right got dye stains in her face somehow on the side turned away from camera, so I'd need a new copy of Skulltimate Secrets Series 1 Cleo and a second lip repaint to fix her.)

Nefera has the same skin effects as G3 Cleo, with her face being shimmery and her body being very pearly and glowy. It's gorgeous, and also kind of funny. Who'd have thought the most moisturized-looking characters in G3 would be mummies?

Nefera looks a tad darker and redder than G1 Robecca (it's so exciting that I finally have to specify G1 now that G3 is bringing her back; fingers crossed she's great). 

Nefera's earrings are dangling golden scorpions. In the show, these were jewelry cuffs wrapped around the bottom edge of her ear, but these are more conventional on the doll (and less cool). I also don't like how much they bend away from her ears. It looks unnatural, like the scorpions were sculpted to be cuffs wrapping around the ears at first, and then they threw in earring pegs on dangles. Having them curve inward toward her face would at least be better, but flipping the earrings to the opposite ears doesn't change the direction of the scorpions. 

Nefera's neck has a bright violet snake choker wrapped around, which I really like. It's a full coil, not a clip-on piece. This is derived from her G1 sig costume, where the piece was gold. While that would be more grounded, the coloring here helps the effort of selling purple on Nefera, and because this is her first doll to do it right in my book, I have to credit the necklace.

Nefera's costume is pretty involved, and it's an improvement over the G1 and G3 cartoon outfits. 

On her right arm, she has a detached net sleeve and a coiled gold snake jewelry piece wrapped around it. Both arms have golden wrist bangles of the same shape, but with different imagery sculpted on. Her left wrist has a scarab bangle and the right has pyramids.

The costume is two pieces with a waist gap, but both halves are closely matched. The top has an attached black net sleeve on the right overlaid with dangling ribbon "bandage" fringe, and both pieces feature printed fabric with yellow and black bandages, with the skirt's pattern changing from the bandages into Egyptian art motifs, as well as ombre blue and purple sheer wraps overlaid in opposite directions for a bandage theme. 

The skirt has two panels, with the patterned panel being a flap over plain black.

Around her waist, Nefera has a belt with chains draped over her right hip and bright purple rhombus jewels.

Nefera's shoes are tall strappy sandals with truly metallic gold platforms. The straps look like bandages while the platforms feature snake heels and water plant sculpting.

These shoes don't let Nefera free-stand stably.

Nefera's body type introduces a new build for G3.

She's taller than a standard doll, but quite isn't as tall as Abbey, who seemed like she'd be the height standard for older or taller femmes returning from G1. Nope. Abbey remains the tallest G3 femme body for now, but only by a very small margin.

Left to right--"Vanilla" G3 body type (Ghoulia's), Cleo's body type with wider hips, Nefera's body type, Abbey's body type.

Nefera is just a hair taller than the Frankie/Venus height, though, putting her between Frankie/Venus and Abbey by a smidge in either direction.

Nefera's lower torso seems to be the same as the standard G3 baseline, but her upper torso has larger breasts.

Her legs might be unique pieces at this time, but her thighs have wider curvature similar to Cleo's.

Nefera has sculpted-on bandages with mirrored placement to G3 Cleo. Because all of Nefera's prior dolls were G1-style, this is the broader character's first doll with sculpted-on bandages. Cleo's technically been wearing them since she was a part of Cleolei, but only started wearing molded bandages fully as herself with her G2 incarnation. G2 Cleo was the most bandaged sculpt out of Cleo's three incarnations and Cleolei, and only the Create-a-Monster Mummy sculpt has more bandage coverage in the brand.

Cleo's arm bandages were only on her hand and forearm, while Nefera's crawl up to her shoulder, featuring on all three pieces of the arm they're on.

The sisters have the same amount of leg bandaging.

Nefera's first accessory is her requisite G3 sunglasses. These are purple translucent shades with scorpion motifs, and hardly fit her face at all.

The tip of Nefera's nose is significantly lower than her ears, and the arms of the glasses aren't tight on the head at all, so nothing holds them up higher to keep them above her whole eyes. These aren't even a recast G1 sculpt, though. There should be no excuse for these not working well on this head! 

Next is Nefera's snacks. She has the classic G3 chip bag printed for scarab puffs...

...and a little container of "Mummly" (?) pita chips, and possibly hummus as well.

I couldn't take the lid off. I'm not sure if these are referencing a specific brand and its packaging, but I like seeing the G3 de Niles enjoying food from the wider global region they hail from. 

Nefera also has a Stanley-style cup with "Horus" Egyptian-themed branding.

The lid is removable, and the molded straw goes through the other side, though it reaches only about halfway into the vessel.

Nefera's phone is a riveted copper design that makes no sense for Nefera and probably should have been saved for G3 Robecca next year. Nefera is texting her sister on the screen.

"See you tonight", a crystal ball, sparkles, and moon ("tonight will be magical?", then a Skullette and a mummified heart (I love you?)

The phone has a few bandages on it and the back has a scorpion. 

Nefera has another instance of the G3 laptop, with hers being in gold.

On the screen, she's browsing a gallery of fashion shots of herself (and maybe Cleo too?) in different costumes that haven't been featured on any dolls yet. I wonder if these are only concept designs for Nefera's G3 debut development, or if any of these are slated for future Cleo and Nefera dolls. The recently-leaked second refresh Cleo isn't one of these images, at least, so we don't have any proof yet that these fashions are in the pipeline.

Top middle definitely looks like Cleo with the hair color and lip stripe.

I'd hardly find it practical to fully draw portraits of fashion designs that were never going to be used for anything but a blurred computer screen, right? You never know, though. Maybe this really is where these looks end. Skulltimate Secrets Nefera, though? Could be great...

Nefera's pet beetle Lavish (formerly Azura in G1) is probably the least bad of G3 so far. The design is cuter with the eyes, but the proportions aren't awfully infantilized, and it has good sculpt detail in addition to not replacing the creepy bug-pet concept! Mattel tried to ditch Cleo's snake until they changed course. Nefera never had to suffer that.

Lavish is bluer than the G1 pet, like G3 Hissette, but I love the dedication to detailed arthropod legs and the bandages on its elytra, making the bug look mummified like an honored Egyptian pet would have been!

I don't have doll-scale G1 Azura, but I do have the Secret Creepers rendition to compare designs.

While I do prefer the flatter Egyptian-style eyes of Azura, Lavish feels more detailed and creepy to me in certain ways. With the right eyes...

Nefera's purse is a big turquoise handbag with a golden snake handle, purple jewels, and a winged scarab crest.

The bag opens on a folded plastic hinge and is spacious enough to hold her snack pack and close (at the expense of anything else). She can also put her phone in there by itself, but the pita cup won't fit in at all. 

It's a little hard to open the bag because there's nothing sculpted giving leverage to pull apart the halves.

Frustrated by Nefera's lack of forward neck tilt, and wondering (before I saw the other doll copy I bought) if fixing the head articulation would improve her face for me, I popped her head off. There, I saw the internals of the neck now had a flush protrusion preventing the neck anchor from tipping forward at all.

Older G3 necks don't have this obstruction at all.

So right when Mattel fixed a design flaw in the elbows of their modern G1 doll bodies, they introduced one to the necks of G3 that actively reduces articulation. How can this change be justified? It flatly just makes the dolls worse. I filed another customer service complaint with Mattel to reiterate that they need to get their doll necks in order. I never heard back when I tried complaining about it through M3GAN the first time, so I soapboxed off of her a second time with a more detailed appeal. Haven't heard back from that, either. 

Nefera's hands are easier to pop in and out, which is nice, but her torso joint feels a little looser than it should be.

Whatever. I proceeded with neck surgery and hair tidying, and with that, Nefera is pretty...she's just not the stock photo doll or the second copy I found.

Then Nefera 2 arrived. The order was actually more than I needed as she was a complete stock of Nefera and accessories, plus the complete outfit stock of a third Nefera minus doll, pet, and accessories. I knew I was right to get the lot, though. The doll's face has that subtle something special that sells her. Frankly, and do forgive the pejorative language, I wanted Nefera to have a bitchier face. This one does. 

I didn't need three times the outfit stock, but getting another set of the costume was also definitely helpful because I had a Gigi coming in who could steal the scorpion jewelry--review soon! And who knows? If I do somehow get ILF Whisp for an acceptable deal, then maybe the third copies will come in handy too.

Because I did neck surgery on my first copy already, I just swapped heads. Pulling the first head off broke the pin, so I needed to replace that, but the neck itself didn't need further repair. I cleaned Nef 2's hair and popped her on, and finally got the energy I was seeking.

Permitting this neck articulation officially still would be nice, Mattel.

Here's the two next to each other--Nef 1 with her hair down. Tell me I'm not making things up--there is something flatter and friendlier about the first face, right?

Maybe I spent the money for nothing, but I feel a difference and I found a connection with this new doll head that I was lacking before. I'm getting "Nefera" from the second head in the way I want. And from there, I can say she's gore-geous!

Here's Nefera with Cleo's most recent core doll.

Core v2 Cleo would be a 10/10 if not for her overly thick and widely-fanned bangs that look so bad when washed from gel. Had those been rooted sleeker, she'd be 100% perfect. 

The G3 Cleo who is visually 100% for me, Fearidescent, pairs well with this Nefera on the hair color thing, with Fearidescent Cleo having paler hair that aligns with G3 Nef's weaker teal.

Fearidescent Cleo is a bit ritzier than Nefera, so perhaps core v3 Cleo will pair best with this Nefera doll. 

I set up Nefera against the Playmobil treasure chest carry case I once photographed Cleo with to recreate the best Egyptian tomb atmosphere I could, and put her in front of a mirror with some of Cleo's makeup things to stage a cover shot. 

And another shot with the colored lighting from the last one.

Here's a few more pictures against this background, including one with her sister.

That's a copy of G1 Gloom Beach Cleo's fan I ended up with.

Here's a couple of other portraits. The last one is just to capture her skin glow in sunlight.

Because I found myself so confounded by Nefera's face screening, this is a doll I'd advise selecting specific copies with, because clearly some or many of these copies don't come out quite carrying the sharp haughty energy set by G1 Nef and the G3 stock photos. I personally wanted that more fierce and unapproachable tone from Nefera, so it was worth it to me to find a doll copy which gave that, but if you want that energy, be very discerning and know the face of the copy you're buying because otherwise I think the copies can come across as botched. I'm glad to know it's not an unsalvageable situation like poor Ghoulia, whose sculpt doesn't seem to offer her a hope of giving G1, but be very picky with Nefera if you want her to look like the glamorous rotten diva she did in G1.

I'm also not impressed with Mattel's manufacturing right now. Restricting the range of neck articulation on the dolls is flatly unjustifiable, and I'm concerned about the hair quality from their recent playline output. Nefera's torso joint also felt looser than it should. 

Otherwise, I'm pleased with the doll's design execution. Her outfit is more graceful than G1's equivalent and I think the purple is an impressive integration given how poorly-suited I've always found it for the de Niles. This design really makes it work. I could go for darker teal hair and a black Eye of Horus makeup design, but Nefera's look is cohesive and glamorous and her G3 skintone is beautiful. If you find the right copy of the doll, she's proof that you don't have to stay evil to serve up total wickedness.