Scarily Ever After
Little Dead Riding Wolf (Clawdeen) Review

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…