Revenge of the Yass Gremlins, Part 1: L.O.L. On Film

Okay, I wasn't done with L.O.L..

...or was it not done with me?

Two in a Million: Monster High Peri and Pearl Serpentine by Mattel

 Monster High has pushed the envelope for a while with several dolls that go further-out than the rest to really try something unusual and unprecedented within the doll space. 

G3 Rescue: Deuce Gorgon

I have some issues with a few G3 dolls that have visually disappointed me, so I figured it might be worth playing around with them and trying to give them a fresh start. G3 isn't over so these really can't be considered RESTYLE ICONS (I know there's every possibility a future release of a character I'm not vibing with may end up nailing it for me), but there are still dolls I want to work with to try to figure out something. The first G3 doll I was actually hooked by was, surprisingly, Deuce. He was also the first to disappoint me in-person.

Left Out Dolls 3-D: The Revenge

 Go here to see the post where the Left Out Dolls came from, and here to see the preceding post to this one.

Left Out Dolls: The Return!

My relationship with Shadow High has shifted a bit since I made it my governing obsession with the Shadow High Deep Dive series of posts (part 1, part 2, part 3, and epilogue). 

A Grow-Up Glow-Up: Monster High Treesa Thornwillow by Mattel

While I accurately stated that Gooliope Jellington was the only character unique to the 17-inch "Frightfully Tall" Monster High doll size, Gooliope was not actually the only giant character depicted by a giant doll. This is the other one-- Treesa Thornwillow, the growing dryad with a torso-extension mechanism that allowed her to rise to 14.5 inches while unfurling branchy thorn wings. 

There's the Wolf: Monster High G3 Clawd Wolf by Mattel

I'm a little unconfident about the long-term for G3 Monster High, which is a shame because it's just now getting really strong.

RESTYLE ICONS: The Beautiful Grotesque!

This was something of a personal challenge to myself, because of all the Monster High characters whose executions didn't connect with me, Rochelle Goyle may be the concept with the most appeal to me that missed the hardest.

Just a Few More Laps in Shadow High (Epilogue)

Please read part 1, part 2, and part 3 of my Shadow High deep-dive for the full journey I went on, which provides a healthy overview and quality-control study of this brand. This post is here to squash my issues with the dolls of part 2 and investigate some things I was really compelled by, but which didn't need to be featured for my overview opinion.

RESTYLE ICONS: The Shrieking Sixties!

Let's hear it for the only ghoul who broke the SDCC/ILF curse!

RESTYLE ICONS: Music to My Eyes!

 

Here's my follow-up on Operetta.

DIFFUSION (Finale): Bark with Bite!

Here's the Clawvenus project!

DIFFUSION: Smiling Like Clockwork!

Time for the Dracubecca portion of this project!

Intro to DIFFUSION: A Monster High Design Exercise With a Monster High Design Exercise!

One of the more interesting Monster High movies was Freaky Fusion, a story that introduced a (pretty implausibly small) minority of hybrid monster students, and fused eight of its main characters into four bodies. These Freaky Fusion Freaky Fusions dolls were Lagoonafire, the fusion of Lagoona Blue and Jinafire Long...

Mattel stock photo of Lagoonafire.

...Cleolei, the fusion of Cleo de Nile and Toralei Stripe...

Mattel stock photo of Cleolei.

...Dracubecca, the fusion of Draculaura and Robecca Steam...

Mattel stock photo of Dracubecca.

...and Clawvenus, the fusion of Clawdeen Wolf and Venus McFlytrap:

Mattel stock photo of Clawvenus.

These fusion dolls blended body details, fashion senses, color palettes, skintones or finishes, and facial features of the component characters to fun effect, and it must have been a fun character design challenge for the team. I always wondered, however, what could be done to take their designs at a surface level and turn them into cohesive standalone monsters, so I decided to get the three I saw potential in and look them over before transforming them into unified original characters.

Just to note, there's going to be some atypical syntax when referring to the fusions in overview pre-makeover, since each doll represents two simultaneously-conscious people who share a face in a single humanoid body. I refer to the fusion entities in the plural since, as portrayed in the film, both ghouls' consciousnesses are active within each fusion's body and both can "take the wheel" and speak in her own voice, so each body with a portmanteau name is two people at once.

I always enjoyed how the fusions had some logic to them-- they weren't completely random character combos. Lagoonafire combined due to fish and dragons having fins and scales, plus the two characters had opposing elemental affinities. Cats were sacred to ancient Egyptians and were often mummified by them, making the personal bitter rivals of Cleolei into a monstrously harmonious pair. Dracubecca are both long-lived characters with a Victorian fashion influence, and both had elements of gender-blurring in their fashion as well. And Clawvenus were both toothy monsters with edgy fashion senses, with what I'm sure were some unspoken puns about "bark" and maybe even "wolfsbane" in there as well.

The three fusions I thought had potential as interesting standalone characters were Dracubecca, Cleolei, and Clawvenus. Lagoonafire were the only doll I saw in person at Walmart, and I nearly bought them, but now, they just feel like a scaly blue monster to me. If I was inspired enough to make a water dragon doll, they wouldn't be my ideal base for it. Not with mostly-yellow hair.

I ordered bases of each fusion I wanted, with the intention to repaint a little and redress, so getting complete dolls wasn't necessary so long as they had key pieces I wanted. My posts will be more about the transformation than the origin point.

No work in this post, because I think each of the dolls deserves their own, but stay tuned for the rest of DIFFUSION!

[..which you can find here!]

* DIFFUSION part 1: Smiling like Clockwork! (Dracubecca)]

* DIFFUSION part 2: Basking in Ra's Sunlight (Cleolei)

* DIFFUSION part 3 (finale): Bark with Bite! (Clawvenus)