In Space, No One Can Hear You Gag: The Monster High Skullector "Alien" Doll by Mattel Creations

This might be the hardest a doll has seized me in a little while...and I hadn't even seen the films or the full reveal when the wind was first taken out of me!

Alien is a sci-fi horror/action franchise that debuted with the titular film directed by Ridley Scott in 1979. In Alien, freighter flight of the vessel Nostromo goes awry when the working-class crew are directed by company policy to follow a foreign signal, and encounter an alien species which preys on and gestates within human bodies. The crew first discover disgusting egg forms housing arachnoid creatures dubbed "facehuggers" which latch onto a host in the manner of their nickname and implant material through the esophagus which develops and lethally emerges from the chest in larval form before growing into the adult bipedal alien. 

Fanmade model of a facehugger emerging from an ovomorph.

Model of a facehugger.

The first facehugger seen in the franchise, doing its thing. The tail strangles the victim if the facehugger is attacked.

Model of the larval chestburster emerging from a person's chest.

The adult xenomorph.

The host species informs the shape of the adult-- a Xenomorph born from a dog is quadrupedal, suggesting the species incorporates the genes of its host to fully develop. It's possible that Xenomorphs have this parasitic gestation process for the sake of genetic diversity and species fortitude. Maybe if Xenomorphs tried to implant in each other, genetic defects would arise, necessitating a foreign host.

The species is most commonly called the "Xenomorph", but this is never strictly the canon name for it, with "xenomorph" being a broad adjective for alien organisms (like "UFO" for alien flying craft) and the species itself being more officially designated by the coded indexical title "xenomorph XX21" in later material rather than a species name. The first film and its sequel are iconic for Sigourney Weaver's survivor/protagonist character Ellen Ripley, while the alien designs by artist H.R. Giger are famous for their biomechanical and deeply Freudian visual themes, as well as capturing an intelligent but beastly predatory tone to aliens that far removed the film from kitsch or camp sci-fi predecessors. The atmosphere Giger's work lent the film makes it equal parts otherworldly, captivating, awesome, tense, and sickening. The ship the aliens are found on and previously attacked is a whole other visual style, while the creatures are disgusting with their metaphorical implications of violation while also being menacing avatars of death and terrifyingly capable of camouflage among the sci-fi ship environments.

The Xenomorph is reverently described as "the perfect organism" in the first film, and it's certainly hard to combat, with corrosive acid blood that renders it extremely unsafe to wound when on a spaceship, and the alien has a skill for stealth and hunting. In the fourth film, the aliens are even smart enough to maul one of their group to escape a containment cell, using the acid blood of the murdered alien to eat an exit into the floor (a highlight contribution in an otherwise baffling movie). Despite all of this, however, the franchise repeatedly makes it clear the real problem is always the shortsighted greedy people who seek to profit off the alien species as a study or bioweapon. Usually, it's the Weyland-Yutani company, but regardless, the aliens prove to not be a toy that can be easily harnessed, and there's an admirable anticapitalist slant to the series' use of the bigger picture and condemnation of the people who seek to take advantage of the deadly creatures.

When we saw incomplete teasers of a Monster High doll of the alien, I hadn't yet seen any of the films, and yet I was still buzzing with obsession. I love an alien that feels overtly "sci-fi", and the Xenomorph design couldn't be moreso! And Monster High is no stranger to elaborate creature sculpting, but it truly seemed up to the task of capturing Giger's conceptual design from the first photos we saw of the detail, and the doll seemed to have a fun costume concept with a visor or helmet taking over for the eyeless curved shape of the alien's anatomy over a traditional doll head. I was quite annoyed with Mattel for dropping this in October after I already ordered the Us set (two Skullector drops in a month is totally unfair) and was trying to piece together more of my Halloween plans, but I knew I needed to prioritize this...honestly, even before the full reveal; there was no way they could "Skullector Venus" us and disappoint us with the full-body reveal on this one. I watched Alien in preparation and had a good scary time, and when I saw the final doll reveal, I was right. An utter can't-miss. An assertive scary monster woman and an epic detailed body sculpt? I needed her. When I watched Aliens, my decision was already made up. I was getting this doll. Or...trying?

I'll admit I was scared about my chances. Alien is a massive franchise with cross-genre appeal and I was not the only one completely stunned by the Skullector Xenomorph. Opinions seemed unanimous that this was a hit, and "best Skullector ever" appraisals were coming fast. An extremely impressive doll from a huge franchise garnering awe and praise abounding...I saw the signs that she'd be in very high demand and would not be a doll that could be purchased even two hours after the launch. Some Skullectors linger. Young-hee and M3GAN both hung around. Not a chance for this one. I had to worry a little about being in a launch so competitive I would be among those arbitrarily rejected from the finish line by the algorithm. That hadn't happened to me in a while (it last occurred with Jack and Sally; another huge heavy-hitter franchise, though the dolls weren't nearly as epic as this--and granted, Mattel's verification security and anti-bot measures were weaker at the time) and I worried I'd budgeted myself out of contracting myself to scalpers if the odds were against me. And that would really have to be a "right after failing the launch" kind of purchase because the inflated scalper sales felt liable to skyrocket in the hours after the frenzy. And I don't want to support that kind of scheme anyhow. I crossed my fingers that my Fang Club membership giving me two chances would help. With Morticia and Wednesday, I'd tried to enter early-access only to be blindsided by finding my membership had expired (and Mattel requires you have the membership purchased a little bit before a  launch anyhow) but I got them on public-access day. I crossed my fingers I wouldn't need two tries for the Xenomorph...and prayed I wouldn't lose both times!

I was in less-than-ideal circumstances too, because the launch was happening right as I had to start my work day and the connection there was struggling recently. I got to a stable spot in my workplace, though, and my Fang Club early access attempt was successful and I breathed the biggest sigh of relief. 

I eventually ended up running through the whole main Alien film series while I waited. I didn't realize just how much time I had to do so. Anyway, out of the Alien series, my favorite two films were the first (Alien) and most recent (Alien: Romulus). The first Alien surprised me for how tense and sickening its atmosphere was even after all of its most famous scenes and visuals had permeated the pop culture and become influential. Meanwhile, Romulus (interquel between the first two films) was the first film since Alien to give me such a strong level of investment in the characters and atmosphere, with the film having some very slick pitch-perfect horror visuals and action setpieces. I know Aliens is an untouchable classic for many, and I enjoyed it, but I think it would have been a much better film without Bill Paxton's character--or at least the performance we were given. I absolutely could not stand his obnoxious whiny caricature vibe which felt so dated to the late-eighties and nineties era, and I couldn't forgive his incessant use of the interjection "man" after every phrase. I wanted him dead far earlier in the film than we were granted. Most annoying part of the franchise, and I don't understand why people thought he was enjoyable. 

The rest of the films weren't much to me. Alien 3 is a very confusing plot direction with potentially offensive turns given how Ripley's arc is written vis-a-vis the Freudian horror of the franchise, Alien: Resurrection is disjointed and hard to invest in due to strange tonal choices and essentially being written as a parody before being played straight, and the narratively-adjacent prequel duology Prometheus and Alien: Covenant make strides with the lore that are frankly unnecessary and unsatisfying while also failing to fully hook me with their casts. I haven't watched the series Alien: Earth, the most recent work in the franchise (set before the first film), but I can give it a shot. 

The spectacular Skullector doll is not Monster High's first time with the Alien alien, technically. In the "Scream and Sugar" Amanita and Nefera set which was a G1 late release that dropped in the G2 line, both dolls had what looked like alien shakes in their goblets, containing creatures that look like unlicensed references to the xenomorph lifeforms, sans crest, and with ears and eyes to distinguish them. The mouth and head shape still look like a direct nod, though, at least to the larval chestbursters.

On a similar note regarding references in toys, I previously failed to recognize that LEGO Minifigures Series 26's Alien Beetlezoid, in addition to being an obvious internal throwback to LEGO's Galaxy Squad theme, is a partial reference to the Xenomorph icon. It's insectoid and dark and has an elongated skull behind the face.

It's obvious.

I've briefly added that acknowledgment to my review.

So, about early November, I was already getting antsy about the doll. I'd seen plenty of other people receiving their orders of the Xeno and I hadn't yet. I'm very used to not being the first to any new doll release, much as I'd love the thrill of breaking information (doing it well is my consolation for not doing it first). But this seemed a little too long, and continued to be even longer of a wait with nary an update on my package since the order was confirmed. The same fate befell my Us dolls too, and I contacted customer service after I received two more recent Mattel Creations orders that I purchased after the October drops (the newer purchases were the Grady sisters and Lenore Loomington; Lenore review will come the next time the garden is nice!) 

Then, I got an email notification containing the single word I last wanted to see: Refund. Even worse, it was the Xenomorph. The Mattel rep explained that the package was considered lost and couldn't be replaced. Addy and Red were all good to be reordered because they hadn't been sold out, and thank goodness for that, but my ears started to go out and play static silence as I faced the problem of failing to get the Xenomorph doll after I'd crossed the finish line. Or, at least, I'd been trained to expect the purchase was the point where you stopped worrying about it. 

The resellers ate another few meals on account of this disaster; I was only glad the doll was recent enough for aftermarket to fall within my threshold. 

Would the mature thing to do be to cut my losses and write this one off? Sure. But dang it, I liked the doll and had already formed such a commitment to it. It was also a doll that deeply affected my "must document" instinct. I want to share a cool novelty! For buying the doll inflated secondhand, I'm the problem, yes. But it happened definitively after the manufacturer sale, and I have her now. Reseller prices should not be considered the "availability guarantee tax"; they're too steep for that kind of sugarcoating. But it felt like a better guarantee than Mattel could provide.

I don't like to be suspicious, and especially not conspiratorial, but for a doll like this, it was particularly hard to believe my package being lost and never delivered to post was an innocent mishap with no intentional perpetrator. This doll was buzzy from the moment she was teased, and everybody wanted her and praised her. It's not hard to believe a copy or two was intercepted from the outstanding orders that were logged by some unscrupulous employee, and I ended up the victim of that. 

I got the replacement Xeno on the same day Mattel got me my reordered Adelaide and Red. And then, later that week, the last last thing I expected happened: both of my October Mattel orders actually arrived after being deemed lost. They simply were just that late; unacceptably so, perhaps, but they were on their way the whole time. That takes a lot of wind out of my bitter sails. No theft actually happened. Maybe the post was fully to blame, not Mattel. Lord knows, anything running smoothly in 2025 America is the exception, not the rule.

The Us duo were fully a free copy since they were reordered at no charge after the originals seemed missing, and the Xenomorph was a ticket back to the money I overspent on her replacement. Aftermaket Xeno was firmly my copy already by the time my original order arrived, so the original let me make back the loss and the Us set resale helped too. Us hasn't sold yet as of publication, but it's up.

As seen above, The box rightly foregrounds the iconic Xenomorph head silhouette which this doll achieves with a combination of her visor and hair styled in the shape underneath it. 

The side of the box has the portrait of the doll just being so awesome (as if she could be anything else).

The back of the box is just the very famous movie poster for Alien, including its absolutely iconic tagline. 

The Facehugger eggs/ovomorphs in the films proper are nothing like this, as seen above, with no hard shell and no green glow. They look like a mix of flesh and glass and open at the top like disgusting flowers. 

This movie poster has been basically ruined for me with this absurd parody version, though:

The shells of the box slide open as usual. The back copy of the box is framed as a conversation between Ripley and MU/TH/UR, or "Mother", the ship AI aboard the Nostromo who the commander(s) of the ship frequently consult. It's indicated that "Mother" AI programs are fairly standard-issue for Weyland-Yutani vessels.

The text is basically a distillation of descriptors from the alien in the film, with zero fashion lingo or Monster High-ified language. I respect Skullector treating its source material more seriously, but I would not complain if this doll's text said she slayed with her costume as much as her claws and acid because come on.

Here's the front of the inner box with the window removed. The Alien is kind of hard to make out, but that's intentional. Much of the horror of these creatures is how seamlessly they camouflage into an industrial spaceship environment.

For the posing of this doll and her long hair/visor combo, the box is deeper than most Skullector packages.

The backdrop depicts the halls of a vessel, probably the Nostromo, with damage from greenish Xenomorph acid. This would be more accurate in yellow, but I assume the art is leaning to the green of the inaccurate movie poster icon.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't believe there's a single solitary Skullette anywhere to be found in this product. Not in the art, not on the doll. Honestly? Good. I've come to appreciate the MH branding being less prominent in the licensed dolls.

Certificate:

The Xenomorph's stand is a saddle with a clip-on thigh grip. 

This doll is basically every scenario a saddle stand would be called for--she has a tail, her outfit has lower drape you want to show off, her torso is covered in a thin-cutout bodysuit you probably don't want to put a clip around. I just with Mattel made any of their saddle stands adjustable with telescoping poles, because the Xeno's shoes are so tall the cradle doesn't actually hold the doll without a little leg posing to lower her a little. 

Here she is unboxed.

You can hear me screaming.

This doll is incredible. She's basically all black (and very, very dark grey) with some metallic bluish foil accents. She's very imposing and sinister and fully leans into the dark deathly sleek sci-fi design of the source material. She looks like some kind of space priestess or goddess for the Xenomorph species, but also reasonably plays the actual monster. In fact, though this is a humanized glamorized doll interpretation of the alien, given what we see in the franchise itself, I think this Skullector design is actually 100% biologically plausible within the universe of Alien itself. This human-alien hybrid style could very easily exist given what we know about how Xenomorph XX21 and humans can genetically interact.

The design of the Alien aliens, as mentioned, is sexual in theme, with the aliens capturing a fear of violation and impregnation. This subtext is not solely used against female characters, and the first occurrence we see is a male host. I respect that, but the series does delve into traumatic alien pregnancies with women too, so I don't know what the autonomy politics end up being and whether there are lines crossed into exploitation. The original artwork of Giger's that inspired the adult xenomorph design was even more direct in its imagery with an undeniably phallic head shape, but the final film design is still quite clear about its symbolism, and Alien: Romulus might be the most overt film in regard to exploiting Freudian impregnation and birthing imagery. We get to see a very yonic wall cocoon for a Xenomorph, witness the oral extraction of a facehugger's ovipositor, and a big segment of the film involves a natural human pregnancy getting mutated. I didn't expect the Monster High design to adhere all that closely to this Freudian trauma aspect, given that Skullector reins in the maturity of their licensed adaptations. 

The doll starts with the iconic Xeno head silhouette, here created by a clever combination of a plastic visor slotted over a backward-projecting hairstyle. The visor sits around the hair at the end and wraps around with some prongs that turn the hair into part of the head texture of the film alien.

The black thread hanging down is what was used to tie the visor on. It was loose when I unboxed the doll, but I took my experience with Symphanee Midnight as a hint that it's not meant to be a permanent measure and cut the threads all off. The visor works perfectly securely without the thread.

The visor is faintly translucent black and covers the doll's face from the nose up. 

This design echoes how some depictions of the Xenomorph have translucent crania showing an eyeless humanoid skull underneath. I vastly prefer the opaque-headed fully-eyeless look for the alien, but for a gijinka fashion doll, this approach makes perfect sense and fits some versions of the creature.

Detail of a Hot Toys collector figure of the Xenomorph from the first film.

The cranium is really where the insect element of the Xenomorph is most prominent.

This species can't be safely dissected for analysis, but a complete anatomical study of the life-forms would be fascinating even to scientists who didn't want these things as weapons.

Unfortunately, the visor is pretty easily vulnerable to scratches and abrasions. I wish it or the gloss were harder somehow, because even a fingernail can scratch the finish. Be careful with this doll.

Sliding off the visor reveals one of the coolest head sculpts, if not the coolest (and definitely the weirdest) in the brand.

First, the hair. It's black and tied and gelled solid in a backward-projecting beehive. Woe to collectors who don't keep up this hairstyle. The gel ought to be secure enough, but I had to commit a sin. I want to take no chances with this doll and I ended up locking her hair further in place with glossy fabric glue brushed over the top. There's not a chance of me wanting to display her any other way, and I simply can't have faith in doll hair gel and tying to hold up forever. 

The head mold is so freaky! Her forehead looks square with pinched-in temples and a defined brow ridge, while her cheeks are hollow with Xenomorph texturing. Her nose also looks either slightly feline or just shriveled. Xenomorphs famously have smaller mouths at the ends of muscles inside their external mouths, and while that couldn't be replicated here, the face definitely carries the alien menace. Throughout this doll, per Giger, you'll be seeing details that blur the line between the sinew of a rotted corpse and the cables of an industrial machine, and the Xenomorph is leaning into genuinely emaciated imagery to suit the way the aliens resemble avatars of death. The skin color is a dark shimmery greyish black.

I'd love to have MH's original alien character Astranova to compare. Astranova also has big starry eyes and no ears, but I've always been mixed at best on Astranova's characrer design, and the affixed magnet helmet for her playset gimmick doesn't help.

The Xenomorph's eyes have grey sclerae and black irises to make the eyes look closer to dark hollows, and the irises look like the starry cosmos to bring in the outer-space setting. The makeup is all black and grey and looks perfect. She has no eyebrow paint, which is the right choice.

The first costume piece (is it costuming or anatomical?) is a harness which doubles as a depiction of the Xenomorph "ribcage" as well as the "tubes" on the back of the alien. The way the rib forms curve in the shape of breasts reminds me of Skelita's dolls. G3 Skelita is just around the corner for US release, and while I've tried to not be too spoiled on her new body design, I did catch that she still has bone breasts.

The harness piece interacts with a crest element that's part of the actual doll body, with the doll's molded crest coming between the tubes of the harness. The harness goes on in a really clever way, too, with holes in the harness slotting onto bumps molded into the alien back texture that serve as pegs to keep the harness on.

The bumps on the shoulder blades pop into the harness like so.

The harness is firm vinyl, but not too hard to get on or off. The trickier part in putting it back on is getting the sleeves through the armholes and keeping them through. The piece is sized to fit the Xenomorph with clothing, and is loose on her if you try to put it over her bare torso.

Here's the doll without the harness. She doesn't need it to look awesome.

The next layer of the costume is two pieces--a crop top and a skirt made of the same sheer black fabrics. The crop top has a high neck and sleeves that drape over the front of the arms but not the back, while the skirt is just a ring with three long draping panels on the front and sides.

The top's patterning is more abstract, but the sleeves seem to depict ovomorphs opening and releasing facehuggers. The skirt panels have identifiable motifs of biomech imagery and chestbursters, with some suggestions of drool or acid produced by the alien with some stringy and puddled designs. As sleek and sci-fi as the adult Xenos look, this is a gross biological movie series too.

When the panels align, you can see the arc-shaped spaceship design used by the ancient intelligent Engineer species. One of their derelict ships is the site where the ovomorphs are discovered in the first film.

An Engineer ship in flight.

The crop top velcros in two places--above and below the cutout for the crest on the doll's back.

The skirt has just one piece of velcro on the back of the band, with the skirt sitting above the tail.

The Xenomorph's last costume layer is a pleather bodysuit with a cutout skeletal theme that continues from the harness that sits above it. I'm not wild about the elastic shoulder straps, which I expect to fall apart in time. Pleather also makes me nervous about longevity, as ever. Especially thin cutout pleather.

The Xenomorph's shoes have no object heels and are heel-less platforms predominantly shaped like facehuggers wrapped around the foot and leg. The sandal style shows off her frighteningly sharp toes. The toes make the shoes hard to slide back onto her feet, and you'll probably need to use a small tool to pry the facehugger-leg straps up so her toes don't get stuck between them when putting the shoes on.

As is readily apparent, the Xenomorph is fully unique in sculpt (my very favorite kind of MH doll!) and is modeled around the G1 big-sister adult body type. 

The stature and maturity of the sculpt are both major assets to the doll, seeing as Xenomorphs are big and also so Freudian that the mid-teen sculpt would feel quite improper. This doll is actually a milestone, as the Xenomorph is the first big-sister doll with all-over monster detail!

It's hard to articulate the visuals here, so take a look at some pictures.

The back crest is a separate part plugged in.

Her hands are huge and clawed, and symmetrical within themselves, with thumbs on both sides and a splayed gap between the digits where the hands become mirrored. She has only one hand mold as such, not two! How many fashion dolls can say that?

The flares on the doll's elbows are very soft non-fragile plastic, but the shape of them still makes it basically necessary to take the forearms out of the doll for removing and replacing all of the pieces that her arms go through. Fortunately, her forearm pegs work perfectly. With last year's problem elbows, this doll would have been a disaster. Actually, her head has better articulation than most current Monster High dolls, too. I'm very glad for that.

The barbed tail is also plugged into the torso, and is bendy with wire inside. These kinds of bendy toys never offer quite the precision in posing that you'd want, but I do appreciate it. I wonder if the bendy werecat tails that have been made for the brand offer more posing control.

The tail is not actually affixed and pops out like other Monster High tails, using two pegs-one to secure it, the other to keep it aligned.

I heard the knees bend forward a little like G1 Robecca's, and this is true. It makes more sense for her than Robecca, but I still don't understand it. Robecca's knees bend a good deal further forward than the Xeno's.

The knees of this doll were a little frustrating to me, because they don't lack friction and aren't floppy, but aren't very strong either, and the doll wants to bend on them when any weight pulls on her. They also rotate a bit more easily than they probably should for the doll to pose standing well. The arms also don't come parallel to her collarbone when the hinges are bent as far as they go, while a typical G1 big-sister doll's arms will. 

I've heard Elle Eedee's body sculpt compared to Giger with its heavy mechanical detail and slight anatomical motifs, so I wanted to compare her with the actual Giger doll.

They do create a fun black-and-white contrast, and Elle's got thorough detail and some spooky aspects like her jawline plating and her mechanical spine.

The Alien doll captures Giger's more eerie uncertain blend of biology and mechanics, however, where it's hard to tell where the two start and end. 

(It's about time for me to replace my gala Elle doll. The earrings stained her ears somehow, and then I think her dress stained her cheek in storage. I'll try to wash the dress out, but I might need a new copy of the doll because this one isn't fixable.)

For my first produced photos of the Xenomorph, I kept her in her full kit as I played around in the basement, using pipes and grates as my only stand-ins for the sci-fi industrial sets the Xenomorphs relate to in the films. While the doll box leans into black and green, the Xenos are often shot in warm golden light in the sequel films, so I stuck with that.

We see the aliens in blue lighting often enough for me to explore that, too.

Here's some with the doll from under a grate, loosely recalling a scene in Aliens where the monsters are above a ceiling of a sealed room.

Next, I took some stark contrast portraits of the alien to highlight the detail and artistic inheritance from H.R. Giger.

And some better-lit white portraits of the full assembly.

Here's some pieces against a starry backdrop.

Then, I recreated the movie poster.

That's not just a leg edited in, either--I shot the whole subject practically, using a papier-mache Easter egg with a hole cut in, the doll contorted inside, and a light with her. This is the practical photo the final piece is built around:

After that prop work, though, it still ended up looking like a composite edit!

Is this the best Skullector of all time? 

I think we might need to seriously consider if this is the best Monster High doll of all time.

In many ways, she's the quintessence of the brand, despite not being original IP. She's all the drama, edge, glamor, and lavish monster detail people attribute to be the best qualities of Monster High. She's elegant, mature, and unapologetically, thoroughly weird. No other doll brand could put out this item. This is Monster High through and through. So design-wise, she's at the peak.

It's also fascinating thinking of how easily this doll couldn't have worked. Because in theory, this Xenomorph is designed in basically the same way as the  Skullector Creature from the Black Lagoon...but that doll wishes.

What makes the Xeno work when the Gill-ghoul didn't? Both have more heavily sculpted monster heads than is the norm for the brand, both wear bodysuits and skirts and headpieces to recreate their creature origin, and both have similar cutout torso dressing elements. Yet the Gill-ghoul feels distant from her source--like a Masters of the Universe character rather than a Universal Monster--while the Xeno feels potentially canon-compliant to her franchise! I guess part of it is the aesthetics of the sources. H.R. Giger's art and creature design is well suited to the idea of dark disturbing beauty, while the Gill-man was not a very beautiful monster. The green colors of the Gill-ghoul also make her feel less serious, despite their basic accuracy. I guess it also helps that the Xenomorph commits to the original silhouette of the monster by using the hair and headpiece elements for design adherence rather than them being a clear design departure. It also helps that Mattel pulled out all the stops for the Xenomorph to have a fully bespoke body. The Gill-ghoul faking body detail with bracers and boots over Jinafire's reused and fairly inaccurate sculpts wasn't a satisfying move.

However, design and physical quality are two matters, and the Xenomorph doll stumbles on the latter. Not to the point of collapsing or faltering all that strongly, but enough to cause concerns. In terms of longevity, I worry for her a little. Her visor isn't scratch-resistant, her pleather cutout bodysuit could potentially be a recipe for decay, and her gelled hairstyle might pose a threat to display should one's doll lose the structure of their hairstyle. I'm not purist enough to allow that hairstyle failure to happen myself, but more collectors will be. I'm also a bit disappointed her two points of knee articulation were overly fluid and couldn't support her weight, and her tail isn't quite as easy to use for display ideas as one would expect for a bendy wire toy. I don't have major complaints about the neck articulation this time, at least. Her saddle stand also feels poorly planned, not cradling the doll's undercarriage when her legs are straightened. The doll needed a saddle, but Mattel so rarely makes them work all that well. This doll just feels more collector-tier in look and artistic quality than it does in production style, which isn't all that much more than playline in truth. She has her bright points in terms of user experience. The functionality of her visor (inasmuch as her hair is locked in shape) and her harness are both wonderful pieces of design, and the removable tail is also appreciated.

If you're careful with this doll and keep her well, she's an absolute stunner with one of the coolest Monster High designs of all time, doing real justice to both the fashion-doll aesthetic and H.R. Giger's original artwork and the films he contributed the aesthetic to. She's fabulously detailed and looks imposing and sci-fi and chic and deadly in all the best ways. This is an artistic triumph for the brand, and she has set a very high bar for any future Skullector dolls to surpass (Edward, our first successor seen so far, definitely hasn't surpassed it). I've also had worse doll experiences from Mattel. It just helps to remember the Xenomorph is still a Mattel product at the end of the day. A perfect organism, but not a perfect doll. She's still awesome, and probably Mattel's best showing this year. She's a high point of my collecting year as well.