In a Garden of Unearthly Delight: Monster High Designer Series Lenore Loomington by Mattel Creations

Two springs ago, the Monster High Designer Series was announced, with the exciting concept of debuting brand-new G1-style monster characters reflecting the signature of one designer on the MH team--naturally, senior designer Rebecca Shipman, responsible for some of my favorites, was the first to make a doll for the line: Lenore Loomington, the Gothic garden ghost. And she was revealed to the sound of thunderous...crickets. 

Just What I Wanted: LEGO Minifigures Series 29

It's time for another review of a new Minifigures series...though I'm frankly surprised to be able to say so.

Witchy Wonders 1, or "Cinema's First Iconic Witch": The "Snow White" Hag in the Doll World!

While I may be out there calling myself the Walt Disney Corporation's #1 cynical hater most of the time, and am roundly determined to never even approach "Disney adult" status, I still enjoy the artistic product often, especially from prior decades and the Disney history--you know, when artist effort seemed more prominent and strong. And when I made the extremely dangerous search of "vintage plastic witch doll", one particular Disney villain popped up and I was sold. 

Introduction to Witchy Wonders!

Yeah, I'm running another series parallel to Hatter Madness! 

Hatter Madness 2, or "Nearly Truly Tenniel": The Barbie Silver Label Alice Collection!

This doll was the reason I committed to a whole project of Alice Hatter dolls. One of the forthcoming dolls was likely going to be reviewed this year regardless, but when I discovered this particular doll existed last December, I needed him absolutely. I could have gotten him immediately, but instead I realized I found a niche series topic I could chain with other doll Hatters, both on my radar and newly discovered. Barbie making a Mad Hatter is not super unusual...but this art style, with proportions inspired by the illustrations? That instantly made him a must-have.

Picking Bones, Part 4: Did River Reap the Rewards?

Well, isn't this a poetic moment.

Seeing If She's All She's Cracked Up to Be: The Jakks Pacific 14-Inch "Oz: The Great and Powerful" China Girl Doll

This is probably my second-most overdue review, as this is the other doll I kept from my original teen-years doll collection, and I've cited her in multiple reviews prior. Last year, I finally covered my precious Feisty/Love Inner Monster, who also survived my teen-collection cull, but she needed replacement parts to be presentable. This doll, however, has been patiently waiting and had been reviewable the whole time I've owned her.

Venus McFlytrap Just Won't Quit: G1 Boo-riginal Creeproduction and G3 Self-Scare Secrets!

When given the opportunity to get Creeproduction Venus, I said yes. She has enough bright spots to be worth reviewing. I also took this as my opportunity to catch up on the G3 character, who has given me no reason to pass on her yet. 

BONUS PHOTOSHOOT: Skullector Scarah Screams

This is a fairly quick return to an older doll subject, and won't be a long post, but I'd promised it in the review itself. 

Sadie's Deathday Party (LDD Roundup #15)

 It's April 26, and you know what that means: it's Sadie's deathday!

Warning for very irreverent use of grim imagery.

An Outfit That'll Pop Your Party Balloons: Monster High G3 "Scary Sweet Birthday" Frankie Stein by Mattel

This was a long time coming. And there's absolutely no excuse.

Eggy's Easter Hunt

Easter is pretty darn low on my list of holidays personally. I don't love the pastel aesthetics and cutesy animals, but it can still be fun to get festive. I'd been thinking of using Living Dead Dolls' character Eggzorcist, the Easter bunny girl, as a holiday feature since her Return doll was revealed...but she shipped in autumn so that plan was a bust. I thought of doing something the next spring, but sacrificed the idea to keep my schedule lighter, along with discarding the "Sadie's deathday party" idea for the same reason. Now, though? Now, I could. (And I plan to do the Sadie project too!)

Hatter Madness 1, or "A Cozy Crumpet": Madame Alexander's Storyland Collection!

Hatter Madness is ready to begin! So who's first to tea? Well, what about a little Madame Alexander doll?

Introduction to Hatter Madness!

I was wondering what to do this year that would be especially tea-themed. I like upholding my brand, but series of tea dolls aren't the easiest to construct now that I've done the two directly tea-themed doll lines I'm interested in (LDD Series 23 and Monster High G3 Garden Mysteries). Then, I was struck by the fact that there were, in fact, multiple disparate dolls based on the Wonderland Hatter that were interesting to me, so why not make a loose series of that? 

Mechanical Marvels, Part 3: Robecca Returns!

I hadn't expected my first post in this series to get a sequel, let alone a third installment! Here, we're bringing back attention to Robecca Steam, because after years of inactivity in the brand (she was last seen in 2016), Robecca's finally come back both ways--with a Creeproduction of her signature G1 doll and with her signature G3 debut! Both of these dolls have felt fairly overdue--it's been a couple years of asking "when's Robecca coming back?"

"Now SERVING" or "Dolls Divided 3/2": The Monster High Skullector "Beetlejuice" Waiting Room Two-Pack, and a Zombini/Viv Revisit!

...so Mattel made a fool out of me. Remember how last year, I did a two-half project about two-half gimmick horror dolls which split apart at the waist, comparing the body designs of brand-new Monster High manananggal Corazón Marikit and classic Living Dead Dolls' unfortunate magician's assistant Viv? Yeah, well, turns out I should have waited a year, I guess, because it turned out Mattel was adapting the bisecting concept to the exact same murdered magician's assistant concept as Viv. It's a real Doofenshmirtz's Nickels situation here. There aren't many dolls in this type, but weird that it happened twice. Poor Viv never got her timing right--first an incomplete solo review in 2024, then a review of her full two-pack set ahead of her ideal MH counterpart! And now I don't know what this post is. I can't very well add a third half to the two I wrote. It's unmathematical. Is this a third in a series or a separate review that happens to be a follow-up to a duology? Yes. 

Warnings for very bloody imagery as pertains to the LDD half of this discussion, and discussion related to, and imagery alluding to, suicide as pertains to Miss Argentina.

Death Drops on the Runway: Living Dead Dolls Fashion Victims Wave 2 Complete

I never thought I would have this group. How did it all turn out?

Absolutely Losing My Mind: Living Dead Dolls Fashion Victims SYBIL!!!

Oh, what a journey to reach this review. 

Did I Get Burned?: Living Dead Dolls Fashion Victims Inferno

Time for the third doll in my Fashion Victims Wave 2 series! On the one hand, this might have been a doll I could pass on altogether. On the other, she might be one of the best designs in the small FV line!

Hot Mess On Wheels: Living Dead Dolls Fashion Victims Lulu

Time for the next Fashion Victim in Wave 2...and I didn't have the highest of hopes for her. She had the most prominent content repellents in her design and I never quite got the character, anyhow.

The Living Dead Dolls Fashion Victims, Part 2: Why In Damnation Did Mezco Stop Here?

LDD doing fashion dolls ought to have been the apotheosis of my doll hobby. I started my hobby with spooky fashion dolls and then became obsessed with the storytelling of LDD's more classic-style dolls, finding some of my greatest creative joy with LDD subjects. But when they finally tried a fashion-doll spinoff, LDD boinked their opportunity in every sense of the word with Wave 1's ineptly sexual doll design that was hard to glamorize or accept. Read that review here. Fortunately, they had one more chance to impress me, and the very next year, in 2004, Wave 2 of the line presented a total overhaul that seemed to be basically what I wanted. Was it?

An Unforeseen Surprise: Monster High Skullector Scarah Screams by Mattel

So Mattel's next in-house Skullector release is a forgotten character, done basically as close to perfect as possible? How'd that happen?

The Living Dead Dolls Fashion Victims, Part 1: What in Damnation Was Mezco Doing?

This deep dive has been waiting for a while. I've name-dropped the Fashion Victims many times in prior LDD reviews, and couldn't get through three dolls in my second uncomfortable-LDD review without mentioning them in each doll's section. Well, now it's time. This is not quite an uncomfortable discussion, though it will, in part, be a companion to my uncomfortable-LDD series since it's not quite a comfortable discussion, either. This first part will be a close companion piece to that series, though I expect to drop that distinction after part 1. This doll line from LDD is a question of redesigns, gender/sexual/body politics, possible petty beef, and tonal concerns. These dolls are fascinating on multiple levels, arguably for more wrong reasons than right! This is not my typical subject matter, but the mature topics are absolutely unavoidable with these Living Dead Dolls items that got my attention and I think the subject is worthwhile. If any young readers somehow stumble onto this blog and see this post...I mean, you and I both know I can't stop you from reading. But this is more adult subject matter.

Warning for mature discussions, exaggerated unsexy sexual imagery and sexual jokes in poor taste, and big rubbery doll breasts with nipples.

Chillingly Cute: Living Dead Dolls Resurrection XII Frozen Charlotte by Mezco Toyz

At the start of this year, I reviewed Living Dead Dolls' Series 12 Frozen Charlotte, a Christmas gift to self last year, and one of the most treasured grail dolls in the LDD collector community. She's still one of my absolute favorite LDD designs, as well. But this wasn't her final design. She got a Resurrection doll (and variant), and that Resurrection was very compelling to me. Would she be as precious as the original?

Living Dead Dolls Chloe, Re-Necrotized

Why am I making this post?

Well, you can probably infer there are two distinct reasons from that cover photo. First off--of all the LDD acquisitions I consider to be collective fandom grail dolls, Chloe from Series 12 has had a pretty unfair hand dealt to her.