Girl’s favorite Monster High® school ghouls make their Apptivity™ debut with an exciting mystery-quest challenge offering a new glimpse into their freaky fabulous world. Monster High® figures include popular personalities, Frankie, Lagoona, Draculaura, and Clawdeen who are ready to take girls on a [...]]]> Monster High is the latest brand to join Mattel’s other Apptivity Products!

Girl’s favorite Monster High® school ghouls make their Apptivity™ debut with an exciting mystery-quest challenge offering a new glimpse into their freaky fabulous world.  Monster High® figures include popular personalities, Frankie, Lagoona, Draculaura, and Clawdeen who are ready to take girls on a journey of discovery.  With the Finders Creepers app, girls can lead their Monster High® character through a mystery quest, looking for secrets and hidden clues to complete monster missions. Once the free app is downloaded and the Monster High® character is placed on the iPad screen a special viewer window appears under the figure. Through the now open window girls can see and seek special secrets and hidden messages to help complete their monster missions. In this spooky app quest each character has their own game with unique encounters and tests of skill.  Collect all four characters to open up a group mystery mission.

Each figure is sold separately.  Each package includes 1 Apptivity™ Monster High® figure and a downloadable app.

ARP: $9.99

Ages 6+

Available Fall 2012

This is a pretty interesting expansion of the brand.  I’m not sure how good the game will be, but the figures are interesting.  I’d love to get action figures of the MH characters, and these little figurines could go a long way in helping customize some (depending on how tall they are).

For some reason Draculaura has two different color decos.  I’m not sure if this is due to early production shots or if she’ll actually be available in two different versions.

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Robecca is [...]]]> This week’s review of Robecca Steam is also a crossover with ItsAllTrue.net’s Reviewapalooza II, a weeklong event where Noisy and I double up on reviews.  So if you have a little time to kill, and want to check out some great figures, head on over to IAT and check out all the fun!

Robecca is one of the more interesting characters to be introduced into the Monster High roster.  She’s a female robot who was constructed over a century ago by a mad scientist that she considers as her father.  She had met both of Frankie’s parents, Draculaura, and Dracula.  While her father was away on an expedition exploring catacombs, Robecca was severely damaged in a Roller Maze game which resulted in her being destroyed.  Since her father’s group never returned from the catacombs, Robecca remained this way until the present.

A couple of interesting bits from the diary, the first of which is that the Roller Maze games have apparently been going on for quite a while (at least over one hundred years).

Something else intriguing is that Frankie’s dad tells Robecca that he’s sorry he couldn’t reassemble her after the accident, but her diary never actually says who did put her back together.

Also, her “father” is still missing but there’s proof that his expedition could still be alive.  I’m curious to see how they’ll address that in future episodes/diaries.

As for the figure itself, Robecca is one of my favorite dolls in this line.  I was really surprised to discover that she’s an entirely new sculpt.  Her body has the same proportions as the other teen girls, but it’s been redesigned to look like it’s made out of copper plates which have been riveted together.  I know that the steampunk style was a heavy influence on the figure’s design, especially her clothing and accessories, but I also wonder if the robot from Fritz Lang’s Metropolis may have also been an inspiration.

With an entirely new body, Robecca has more out of the ordinary characteristics than the average figure.  The center panel of her chest is in a heart shape, which is a fun bit of eye candy.  Her arms also have some extra sculpting beyond the riveted panels.  There are some large circles shaped like screw heads, and a few spots where the sections look more like musculature.  Her toes aren’t as distinct as the rest of the girls’, and instead they look more like a piece of metal that was hammered into the general shape of five toes.  I also thought it was a bit funny that they sculpted her body with the trademark bumpy underwear.  If there was one figure that didn’t really need it, I’d say it was Robecca.

The last bit of new sculpting is my favorite though.  On the back of both her thighs are two small gears that stick out.  These gears are articulated and do spin, but they don’t really perform a mechanical function.  They just look cool, and I think they’re a great touch to the character.

Robecca’s entire body is molded in one color of dark copper plastic.  I think the color fits her character well, but I’m kind of curious to know how she’d look in other dark metallics or even some rusty highlights.  I may have to buy another figure to customize.

Like most of the figures, the paint apps are all on her face.  Right away I loved that her irises were made of gears.  I don’t know how much sense it makes mechanically, but I really like how it looks.  I also think the darker lips look good on her.  I’m not so sold on the pink eye makeup though.  It’s kind of an odd choice that doesn’t seem to match anything else on her character.

Most of Robecca’s articulation is the same as we’re used to.  Her head is ball jointed.  Shoulders, elbows, wrists and hips are all swivel/hinges.  But her knees are where it changes a bit.  The joints themselves are the standard swivel/hinge, but the little bit of extra plastic that stops them from moving the wrong direction has been removed.  This means she can bend her legs both backward and forward.  I don’t know if this is how she controls her rocket boots or if it’s just an example that she’s not got the same limitations that muscle and skin provide.  I am pretty positive that the designers did this on purpose though.  Continue to page 2…

Having the werewolf [...]]]> It’s been a quiet week here at the MHFB.  The Freaky Fab 13 unfortunately had nothing to do with the toy line, and I was a bit busy at IAT getting our Wonder Fest coverage ready.  But the week isn’t over yet, so here’s my review of the Scary Tales Clawdeen figure.

Having the werewolf of the group portray Little Red Riding Hood is a pretty basic concept.  But even though it’s an old idea, it still works well within the Monster High line and with her character.  One thing I did find interesting was how they renamed her.  Unlike Frankie, Draculaura, and Ghoulia, Clawdeen isn’t undead.  My guess is that the designers wanted the name to be more unique, and just adding the word “Wolf” in wasn’t enough to individualize it from the original.

I didn’t talk about this in Snow Bite’s review, but look of the box for these figures have an interesting twist.  All three girls come in the basic large wedge-shaped package, but the box itself is designed to appear like a book.  The thicker side panel on the left is treated like the spine, with the words “Scarily Ever After.  A Monster High Story” printed like the title.  The top, bottom, and right side panels were given lines that run consistently from one to the other, giving it the look of pages.

I like Clawdeen’s character on the show, but I’m not a big fan of most of her figures.  Even in a line with such extreme fashions, her clothes are just too loud and purple for my tastes.  Also, unlike the other girls, the designs of her outfits don’t seem to be inspired by the monster she was based on.  Instead, the influence seems to come from animals like dogs and cats.

This is why I really like this Clawdeen figure.  Her outfit design is derived from the basic Red Riding Hood look, even more so than either Frankie’s or Draculaura’s.  Her simple red dress has a few design flares, like the little gold crossbones or purple dog leash looking straps that run down the front and back, but none of these distract from the Red Riding Hood theme.

I’m also really happy that the color purple was used sparingly.  Like a lot of her outfits, they could have easily made it the primary color.  But instead they chose to use it accent the overall design of the outfit.  I also think she looks really good in red and I definitely wouldn’t mind seeing her in more outfits of this color.

While I’m on the subject of purple, I guess I should talk about her shoes.  They look like boots with the tops folded down to make large cuffs.  I want to say they’re inspired by something, but I can’t seem to place it.  They have an interesting quilted pattern sculpt with more leashes and buckles strapped all around.  One little detail that I really enjoy is the paw print designs that are sculpted on the bottom.Continue to page 2…

There’s not a lot to this set. This review is just a quick rundown and [...]]]> I was surprised to come home today and find a package from Mattel on my doorstep.  I ordered these torsos last Thursday, expecting them to take over a week to get here.  If only Matty’s other store were so punctual…

There’s not a lot to this set.  This review is just a quick rundown and glance at what the figures look like with their proper bodies.  I’ll have a more in depth look at the CAM sets themselves when I get to their reviews.

The five bodies come packaged in a simple clear plastic bag.  It’s not much to look at, so you Mint In Box collectors don’t have much to look at unless you really like reading the legal bits.

As a quick aside, for those of you who are too young to remember, this is how mail-away toy exclusives used to arrive.  Fancy packaging and card backs weren’t usually wasted on toys that didn’t got to stores.  So even though I order a lot of my toys through the mail, this set’s simple packaging hit me with a bit of unexpected nostalgia.

There are five bodies in the package, each meant for a specific CAM set that never got its own torso.  The purple and pink torsos go with the Sea Monster and Dragon from the first two CAM starter sets.  The other three, which come with biceps and thighs, are meant for the Three Eyed girl, Bee girl, and Skeleton girl add-on packs.

Aside from the colors, all five bodies are the same basic CAM torso and have the ports to support tails and wings.  The limbs can also be detached and replaced in various combinations and are compatible with the multiple other Create-A-Monster figures.

Although I am all for easily customizable toys, these bodies relieve two big issues with the CAM line.  First, you finally have enough bodies for the first wave of figures.  Second, if you’re not big on mixing and matching, you can build the characters as they’re meant to be without having to substitute some odd colored body parts.

For those of you who are wondering.  The pink and white bodies don’t quite match the colors of the pink cat and white ghost from wave two of the CAM figures.

Personally, I think this set was an excellent decision on Mattel’s part.  They listened to what fans and parents wanted, and made it an easily accessible and affordable product to obtain.  Five torsos for $7.99 is very reasonable, especially considering how much it costs to buy another CAM starter set.  They’re only available on the Mattel Shop website.  I’m not sure how long they’ll be up, but it’s always best to order sooner rather than later.  Hopefully we’ll see another set of these for the second wave of CAM figures.

-Vault