Phew! Time to wrap up this series! While parallel to Hatter Madness, and with both to end with the same amount of main reviews, Witchy Wonders was both conceived/started later and finished earlier! Hatter Madness should be concluded by December at the latest, with the subject of the last main review on his way. It was a bit of a rush to get this conclusion out because I wanted it right after the last post, but also had to spend half the day taking down Halloween around the house and prepping a timely Dia de Muertos review at the same time. Lots going on!
Here's all of the reviews linked to recap:
- Snow White witch dolls (Bikin and Disney Store's Fairytale Designer Collection)
- Effanbee Wicked Witches of the West (followed by an interlude on related Effanbee Oz dolls)
- Bratzillaz Switch-a-Witch
- Monster High/Moonspell Magic Rae Lumina, Claire de Luna, and Willow Thorne
- Folkmanis puppets and Woof & Poof plush
- Monster High's Casta Fierce and the Scary Godmother doll by Jill Thompson Creations LLC
This series was always envisioned with a looser structure than Hatter Madness, so I won't be grading on specific criteria of what makes a witch--not particularly helpful here, anyhow, because these witches share fewer traits than the group of Hatters.
After all of my reviews here, it's hard to say if this series has produced any "favorite dolls of the year" in the way I know Hatter Madness has already done. I think Witchy Wonders definitely had some interesting dolls worth discussing, but it's harder for me to consider any of them precious. There were some fun dolls to document and discover. Honestly, the series might have peaked at the start. The Fairytale Designer Collection witch was the most rewarding to document and inspect, even though she was a pretty big quality and price letdown, while the cheap Bikin company rendition of the same character...might actually be the prize of this whole series for me. First in, and best?
This doll was humble and cheap. I had to tighten her shoulder and replace her hair after it literally melted away in a boil wash. I also found a doll stand swap and a new velcro closure and accessories beneficial...but there's such a charm to her. Her face still just makes me smile and I'm still oddly impressed by the display value she accomplishes for what she is. There's an earnestness to her that I appreciate.
It's hard to say whether my second favorite is the fugly Effanbee witch or Scary Godmother.
The fugly witch has a lot of pseudo-nostalgia for me, feeling like the Halloween that surrounded me when I was a child despite the doll never having a chance of being in my childhood home, and the real possibility that she would have repulsed me at that age. Discovering her now, I was fascinated by her use of the bizarre head sculpt and I really like the styling of her costume.
The dolls I might have the least regard for at the end of the day are the Moonspell girls. Their aesthetic of witchcraft is clearly a different mission from the aesthetic flavor that attracts me, so that's part of it. The dolls are okay, but don't connect to me as much as more freaky and fantastical or morbid character designs. Claire is my favorite (and it turns out her second doll has a different prosthetic eye design, confirming her right eye to be the false one and giving her variation in just the right way), while Rae still looks messy and Willow is solid. I'm curious to see what other characters could come out of the line, but I'm not super duper attached to the trio I got.
It was fun looking back at my childhood witches from Folkmanis and Woof & Poof (I only included new acquisitions in the cover photo, so no puppets). Those brands were very important to me, and my Woof & Poof collection isn't a closed one--nor Folkmanis. Those toys aren't being graded as seriously in contention with the primary doll series, but I liked including them.
The remaining dolls are the two pretty Effanbees, Switch-a-Witch, and Casta Fierce. Of this mid-group, I think the oldest Effanbee, with the red and green and black palette, is my favorite. She's cheap but her hair turned out surprisingly nice after combing and washing and she's so retro and charming.
I might put the Switch-a-Witches over the Li'l Innocents Effanbee and Casta. If Switch-a-Witch had sturdier doll bodies, I'd maybe bump them up higher. Before MGA crapped all over Mirror Mi and spoiled it with dreadful optics, I was excited for the 2027 return of Bratzillaz, but now I'm not even sure I can feel comfortable participating in the relaunch. I have zero faith now that the core group will be more visibly diverse than they were in 2012 or avoid any of the racist pitfalls the original brand fell into. MGA doesn't seem capable of change and I don't want to support a company continuing to fail representation like they have for decades.
Here are my favorite photos from this series.
This might have been a larger series. I gave it one interlude when tangential dolls cropped up, but I just had to go back and remove the numeral on that interlude because I ended up with no others in the series! I also considered getting Living Dead Dolls in on the fun, but considering that I've swept most of their witches already, I had fewer options. The LDD witches I haven't reviewed are the pagan-themed ones--non-Oz Walpurgis (and her Resurrection editions), Samhain, Lammas, Beltane, and Asa, plus the other two witches in the "Three Sisters" trio, Tenebre and Sospirare. The original Walpurgis came closest to fitting in somewhere, somehow, but I ultimately never moved to get her. These other LDD characters are on the table, and may or may not be reviewed in the future.
So that's Witchy Wonders! I think part of what validates my interest in witches is that they lead to unconventional and interesting toy designs in ways other toys of the genre avoid. Fantasy colors, sculpts that break from classical beauty, and overall quirky aesthetics come easy to witches when other characters can be less exciting. That maps to my reactions pretty well, as I largely credited the witches who strayed from conventional toy aesthetics and invented more than the ones who looked more typical. I'm a big fan of design that dares to be weird, so witches will always have a place in my heart.
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