Taking A Count: The Monster High x Universal Monsters "Dracula" Doll

Yeah, she's here.

Despite loving vampires and reviewing a multitude of vampire toys here, I was never motivated to get Monster High's first licensed Dracula.

While she's admittedly pretty cool, I wasn't crazy about her gender-flip and the Bride of Frankenstein duo was by far my preference. In the narrow window of time at the start of my resumed doll hobby, during which it was still feasible to get one of those Skullector sets, I think I made the correct choice by picking the Franks. 

Now, we have another rendition of Dracula in the MH x Universal Monsters line, and she's by far the most repetitive-feeling licensed doll, being a second solo female interpretation of the same character. At least the new Monster was the first girl rendition of the licensed character. Dracula also stood out with her broader color palette compared to the others, giving her a less stylized color scheme in comparison. The Skullector doll looked like a better fit with the new dolls, color-wise. However, I adored 2026 Dracula's faceup and a cheaper solo rendition of the character satisfied my love of the Universal Monsters...and once I realized there was a chance this line would expand with future waves to cover every monster in the Universal classic collective, I knew I didn't want to miss out on the opportunity to have a full set. 

Dracula's box includes yellow and orange candle designs to be cohesive with the doll's skintone, but it's a different tone after the Mummy and Monster were black and green and white and gold in essence. Dracula is black, white, red, and her skintone. The box design depicts the iconic staircase in the grand hall of Castle Dracula in the original film. A cobweb spans the stairs in the film, and Renfield the solicitor is alarmed to see Dracula step through it without disturbing the web a bit.

The boxes look really good together.

Here are the other angles.

The copy on Dracula's box avoids all pronouns, though the usage of the word "count" still suggests the reality that this doll is gender-flipping a male character. The text didn't fully walk away from acknowledging that, despite clearly wanting to avoid it.

If this line continues and we get a second Bride of Frankenstein, the copy will easily be able to use she/her pronouns, as the Bride would be the only character retaining the gender of the source monster. What would be really funny and radical is if Mattel flipped her to be a male doll, but they wouldn't. The second Monster would be in a sapphic pairing with a second Bride...though the Bride herself could just as well be ace or straight or whatever you like, since she rejected the Monster outright in her movie.

Here's Dracula unboxed. I'm immediately impressed and endeared to her. She's nothing on the Skullector's level of ostentation, but also...I don't need her to be. She looks fangtastic. The moment I had her in-hand, I couldn't believe I nearly skipped out.

Dracula's hairstyle is the appropriate widow's peak hairline, and it's tied back to show that off, but in a different way from Skullector. Skullector Drac's hair was half-up with the front and sides tied into a top ponytail, while this Drac only has the front, like the region of signature G1 Frankie's bouffant, tied back. I think this hair tie suits Dracula really well and connotes the slicked-back hairstyle better than the back-and-sides tie did. The hair tie is theoretically unnecessary for creating the desired look, but I don't mind its presence.

It's all black saran wanting a boil wash.

What always hooked me on this doll was her faceup, and she's right in line with this series having some next-level faces...but while I was wowed by the face before, getting her in-hand stunned me with a special gimmick that elevates her face even beyond my estimation. Not only is her face wicked sharp...but her eyes glitter. It's hard to capture in the photographs, but her sparkly red irises often look illuminated.

The best illustration I could capture. You'd be mistaken for thinking they had light-piping or LEDs when they're viewed right!

At first, I was reminded of the glitter effect on the eyes of the Barbie Extra Minis a couple of years back.

Up close, they're not the same. The BEM glitter was intangible and holographic and covered the whole iris and pupil, while Drac appears to have very precise glued-on red tangible surface glitter, placed only in a band creating an inset ring in her iris that forms a glowy highlight. It's really great work. I'm normally ambivalent-to-vitriolic on the matter of glitter, but the application here on Dracula is illusionistic in a way I never thought glitter could achieve.

I'm beside myself. I was singing the praises of a good metallic lip paint with the Mummy, and now that looks like nothing next to the glitter eyes of Dracula. I hope to see this used more often, so long as it's as judiciously applied as it was here.

The rest of Dracula's face is good too. She has smoky grey eyeshadow above her eyes, with no colored eye makeup, lots of lashes, and unusual two-tone lip mapping to give her lips depth. Her fangs almost look dimensional, but they're simply painted on, just like any other MH toothy designs.

Dracula has one of the palest flesh tones in the Monster High catalogue. It's more yellow than red, but has some pinkish cast and could easily look pure white in the right dramatic lighting.

I was curious if Dracula would reuse the Skullector head, and it seems she absolutely does. The Skullector doll was a 2022 release, and the 2026 doll's head is stamped 2021.

If it ain't broke, don't fix it! The new paint is really different, anyhow. This is also kind of promising and makes me more excited for the hypothetical prospect of the Monster High x Universal Monsters collection continuing with more waves. If Skullector Drac's head mold can be reused for this new series, then redesigns of the Gill-Man and Bride of Frankenstein using their Skullector molds are absolutely on the table. The Gill-Woman head is awesome and I'd love the chance to get it for cheaper, perhaps on a design I like more than the Skullector take. I suppose this also means a Skullector edition of the Mummy could reuse the head debuted for the MH x UM doll. Only the new Frankenstein's Monster needs/needed a new head because her preceding Skullector doll was (gasp!) a man.

The Dracula head mold has the expected pointy ears. Her matched symmetrical earrings are translucent red, perhaps imitating glass or crystal, and look like dangling blood drops. The studs are Skullettes.

Dracula's costume is a simple feminization (and perhaps a slightly modern streamlining) of the classic Dracula cape, jacket, shirt, and medallion, with a pleather skirt standing in for trousers.

The jacket is black satin, and not of the highest quality. The cape isn't large or draped enough to pose in swishy manners, and can't hook up to Dracula's wrists. It's more of a modern short cape in function than an opera cloak. The cape is sewn to the jacket.

The biggest problem I have with the cape is that the doll stand wasn't considered for it. As such, it has to awkwardly bunch up to slide over the stand pole. A saddle stand would be wiser for this doll. Nothing as fancy as the Corpse Bride/Xenomorph/River Styxx design, but something like Young-hee's would be just fine.

The jacket lapels and collar are a scalloped bat-wing shape, and look better to me popped up.

I wish the edges of the cape and collar/lapels were finished and guaranteed protection from fraying.

The jacket and skirt use red stitching for contrast. The bottom of the jacket is held closed with a tiny plastic staple, which must be cut or pulled out to open and remove the jacket.

The jacket is cropped, though not much more than certain tuxedo fronts, and the skirt waist is high thanks to the faux-cummerbund.

Around her neck, Dracula has the classic vampire medallion. This doesn't clip as far behind her neck as I expected, but it fits perfectly.

This is a new mold. The Skullector doll's medallion was attached to a real ribbon.

Without the jacket, her shirt and skirt are better seen. They're all one piece.

The shirt is sleeveless and has a stand-up tight ruffle collar trimmed with a ribbon bow tie on the front. The skirt has a separately-shaped cummerbund-shaped band around the waist, but it's all part of the one-piece dress. I think the pleather looks fine. I resent its use because it will likely decay badly. At least the fabric the pleather coating is laid over is also black.

On her legs, Drac has fishnet tights, and slightly open-toed heels. The shoes are black with sculpted bows on ankle straps, simulated cobweb stitching, and red Skullette buckles, while the heels match the crystal look of the earrings and depict realistic red bats in flight.

Neither the Mummy nor Dracula have stiletto heels, so maybe Mattel is testing object wedges instead of object heels. I'm soon going to be reviewing an actual Great new implementation of the latter, though. Maybe only because the object heels are actually an accessory the doll can hold separately!

Dracula's purse might actually be the least of her trio, but that's not to say it's bad. We've just seen coffin purses before. Hers is vertical (which I really wish the Mummy's was) and is two actual pieces with a real hinge. The lid is red with a spiderweb and Skullette design on the front. The body of the coffin is not textured outside.

Opening the purse reveals a plush interior on the lid and a mass of rats inside the body.

That's a little more Nosferatu, but not foreign to Dracula. An armadillo would have been a great touch, referencing the fact that the film features some in the castle for some unfathomable reason.

I don't mind the doll at all without the jacket. She still looks complete that way, and perhaps like she could have been the G1 vampire core student instead of Draculaura. Unlike with the Mummy, I wouldn't have minded this in Draculaura's place. I feel like this would be Draculaura if she had Cleo's haughty rich-girl personality.

Compared to a G1 Draculaura, the Dracula face is way sharper and looks older, though I don't feel a need for this doll to have been given the big-sister sculpt in the way I feel the Monster should have had.

Compared to a Grady sister, Dracula might be just a tiny bit paler or less pink. She might be the certifiably whitest of the flesh-toned dolls in the brand.

Dracula and the Us dolls, Adelaide and Red, appear to be the furthest extremes of the human skintones in the Monster High brand thus far.

Dracula next to Red--the palest and deepest human colors in my Monster High collection.

To photograph Dracula, I first set her up in an LDD coffin in my fireplace arch for some crypt photos.

Here are some photos of her lying in the coffin. The final one in this group captured the illusionistic luminous effect of her glittering eyes just right to serve as the cover photo. That had to be featured in the image since it's so essential to the doll. 

Here are some moody closeups which serve as decent homage to the famous shot of Lugosi with his eyes highlighted by light.

And a couple other shots in this scenery.

Then I set up the famous scene where Dracula creeps up on Lucy Weston (Westenra in the original book) in her bed. The gentler Grady sister played the victim.

Last, I pulled out my trusty Gothic mirror.

I went from feeling like we absolutely didn't need this Dracula doll to feeling like maybe the Skullector edition was the superfluous one, and that the new Dracula may be the best in her trio. 

Mummy's hair let loose, hair accessory relocated to her sock bandage.

Of the three (hopefully so far!), only Dracula in the group actually strikes me as a perfect design which is fully tuned into the essence of appeal held by the original movie character. I  found the Mummy's hairstyle to be badly out-of-tone, and she doesn't have any iconography specifically reflective of Universal's Imhotep, while the Monster is too small and her hairstyle actively hides some of her gruesome details and might not be the perfect choice even though I don't dislike it. Dracula, however, feels like Dracula in a way her gender-flip doesn't hinder in the slightest, and I might prefer her face, hair, and costume overall to the Skullector edition. Skullector Dracula might actually do too much for her to really feel in-tone. The big cape is good, but the spiderweb pattern and the tiara are overdone embellishments. I think the 2026 doll has a strong presence without feeling improperly ornate for the Lugosi character, while I vastly prefer her face and hair tying and am amazed by how effective her eye glitter turned out to be. This doll line's faces are all incredible, but the faux luminescence and dimension of Drac's eye glitter puts her over the top, and her purse holds strong even as the other two bags impressed me more.

All the same, having all three together does increase the appeal of all of them. The boxes being so nicely designed for group display makes it an enticing and rewarding prospect to collect all three...and maybe all eight if we also get the Wolf Man, Phantom, Invisible Man, Bride, and Gill-Man under this collection.

Dracula isn't the most deluxe doll. Her cape isn't very dramatic, nor does her stand work well with it, and the pleather skirt is disappointing. I still love the doll for what she is. On my end, I think the better MH Universal Dracula is actually the "redundant cheap downgrade". Well done, designers.