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…
would have been awesome if she would have come with the mechanic owl from Clash Of the Titans (the 80ies movie of course). I’ll pick her up when she hits shelves here – though Jackson Jeckill comes first! that’s the third review i’ve been looking forward this week – what a great week! Thanks, Vault & Noisy!
You’re welcome. Thanks for stopping by to check things out!
The mechanical owl would have been a great pet. But I bet they didn’t want two owl pets since Ghoulia already has one.
oh-ha, missed that the owl is Ghoulia’s pet – since i just got like two pets with my whole MH bunch (12) i got no clue what the originals came with. can’t wait for the first custom painted Rebeccas showing up on the net.
I’ve seen her alot here and always debated getting her for a cuz but spotted cupid and snagged her instead. Still may get Robecca though or hint to somebody to get her. I dig the penguin though.
I don’t think you’ll be disappointed if you decide to pick her up. She’s definitely one of the more detailed figures they’ve made so far.
I’ve had Robecca for a few weeks now and I’m always amazed by her when I look at her. This line has always impressed me with its attention to detail, and Robecca pretty much sets an entirely new standard for that. It sort of makes me feel bad for her casemate, Venus, because despite the fact that Venus is a great doll, she’s just very bland in comparison.
Apparently, I’ve got variant of Captain Penny. Mine has the jetpack that’s molded in the same copper color that he’s molded in. I saw your pics of him and thought you’d just painted his jetpack to help it stand out a bit more. I didn’t realize it was supposed to be molded in black. I guess this is one of those little variants that popup in this line.
That’s really interesting. I had no idea there was a version of Penny with a copper jet pack. I wonder how prevalent that is. I got mine from Walmart when she first started hitting shelves. Where and when did you get yours?
Thanks for letting me know about this Mac. It’ll be an interesting note to add to the checklist.
Also, anyone else have a Penny with the copper jet pack? Where and when did you buy it?
I find myself wondering how prevalent that is as well. I got mine at Meijer here in Louisville, KY within the first week or so that people were reporting sightings.
Another great review, Vault! Do my eyes trick me or does that look like a removable oil can in her purse?
The nude shots, while needed to show off the sculpt and artic, are very creepy and show me why I dislike the whole ‘Bratz’ style fashion doll body type. *brrrr*.
It seems to me that simply doing some washes with black paint over the body and the boots would really make things pop.
Wouldn’t it be nice if we could get just 10% of this sculpting and accessories budget into the DC and MOTUC lines?
It is one of those old timey oil cans, but it’s molded as part of her purse and can’t be removed.
I am really tempted to get another one for customizing. I’d love to add color to all those sculpted details so they stand out.
It’d be amazing if DC and MOTU had this kind of budget. I don’t have the review up yet, but the School playset is a great piece of engineering and design. I’d love to see a Castle Grayskull done in a similar way. It’s really too bad the money just isn’t there for either line.
I’m looking at that body more (and yes, I’m sorry, ALL the pics are just disturbing. I’m not a prude but man.
) and my mind boggles at the cost for a seemingly one-time tooling use. Then I look closer and just become lost in wonder at the sculpting job. The ‘skin’ plates don’t conform to normal anatomy. They don’t follow muscle lines or bone placement or anything. It’s all very patchwork, which is visually interesting.
The molded on panties seem to look somewhat chainmail-ish. I might suggest dry brushing silver over it.
Those goggles seriously need some paint. Pity they didn’t mold them in a clear plastic.
I’m glad for the success of Monster High and it does seem that at least Mattel is putting the profits somewhat back into the line (given what we have been told, this gal just could not exist if the line wasn’t making decent sales). But it still becomes a self fulfilling prophesy, doesn’t it? More money means more sales, low sales means cutbacks which results in less sales which means cutbacks….
The nekkid pic creeps me out.
Really? Which one?
Not much to add, but I wanted to third the disturbing pictures comments. I know some dolls need their new generation bodies shown, but this one veered a little too closely to a Playboy spread.
Sorry to hear that, Logan. I was going for more of an interesting picture rather than Playboy shot.
I just want to say the nude pics don’t bother me. No, I’m not a perver–well, maybe.
Point being, they aren’t explicit or pornographic. She’s a synthetic (too much Mass Effect, this one), so you can attribute the nude pics to her construction process. The one of her sitting on the table really sells it–can you imagine if they made her heart-plate removable to show her inner workings? No way in hell it would happen (because it would encourage girls to undress their dolls? I don’t know), but it would be FRIKKIN’ COOL.
But yeah. A silver-bodied repaint? I’d be all over that.
I have to chime in. Of course the pics are beautifully done. This wasn’t just plop the doll in front of a scrim and shoot pictures, there was clearly thought and construction going on, and I really enjoy that! It might have been nice to have had a ‘standard’ MH doll next to her to compare and contrast.
No, my problem is the very strange proportions of the doll style. It’s an uncomfortable mix of adult and prepubescent. A melding, a seeking Twiggy via heroin chic vibe. And I’m amused by the head/body proportions as being a fan of Gerry Anderson’s Thunderbirds, the ‘big head on smaller body’ that was so mocked is now fashionable.
Of course we have the Japanese to thank for aspects of this ‘Bratz’ style as American designers understanding only the form, not the context, have rushed to adopt aspects of the ‘super deformed’ or ‘chibi’ stylization.
Blahblahblah.
Thanks for the compliments, Steve!
Thanks, Catman!
Sweet!
I hadn’t even seen her yet. Honestly I avoid the Monster High Section if there is little children in it sooo I have to avoid it a lot ha ha. Great stuff Vault
Thanks, Doc! That aisle can definitely be a challenge sometimes.
Nah, no prob here. I just say aloud, “okay who would she want to have” while looking thru them. Its picking clothes that makes me nervous.
It’s interesting to me that some of you find the nude pics disturbing. When thinking about how to do this review, I was a bit stuck on how to show her new body. I felt it was a bit odd to just show a naked doll, but the more doll review sites I looked at the more I realized that it’s incredibly common to show off the body design and even compare it with clothes-less dolls from other lines.
I decided to go ahead with the pictures since it’s seems to be a common practice with doll sites. But it also made me wonder if action figure collectors feel odd about the whole process because our toys are never naked. If we constantly had the option to strip our Batman figures down and change his outfits would we feel different about the whole process? Do Hot Toys collectors feel more at ease with the process?
Like Steve said in response to my post, it could be that the body looks very “young.” I’d bet money no one would have an issue if you’d posted nude pics of Hot Toys’ Black Widow, you know?
I’m cool with naked toys, but that’s probably because my old roommate collected Queen’s Blade Revoltech figures. (I eventually gave in and bought Menace, too.)
Thanks, Catman.
I broke down and picked up a couple of Queen’s Blade figures myself. It’s so rare to get a dark elf figure, I couldn’t help but buy that P2 Echidna.
I think I may have to pick up a third. That Dig Dug girl is too awesome.
Dig Dug? Which girl is that?
Maron Makaron. She’s a character in the Queen’s Gate Spiral Chaos game. She was an exclusive that came with the game.
She’s pretty cute, and not too expensive. I just haven’t gotten around to picking her up yet.
Oh, okay. Forgot about her.
I’ve pre-ordered Branwen for later this year, but I really hope they get around to making Vante sooner or later. She’s a robot elf maid with rocket punches. There’s no part of that I don’t like!
On the nude doll pics. Growing up I had a cuz who had a ton of Barbies and you could never figure out who had what outfit cause she stripped her dolls nekkid. So the site is normal with me. Now the fact she had a naked Micheal Jackson doll creeped me out.
I’m not an action figure collector. I’ve been collecting dolls for going on twenty years. I even reviewed them for several years for a now defunct site. To be sure my old fuddy-duddiness wasn’t showing through, I e-mailed your link around to some fellow doll collectors and they had similar reactions.
An undressed doll occasionally does have to be shown, but I wouldn’t call it ‘incredibly common’. As my friend said, if you’re finding undressed dolls commonly at the review sites you frequent, you might need to use different review sites!
The undressed doll in it of itself wouldn’t have given any of us doll collectors pause. It was how you elected to showcase it. Steve Harrison, I think it was, pointed it out when he talked about your composition. Normally, the areas would be shown in close-up, like you did in your second pic. Your pics using the prop table give the photo a more ‘realistic’ feel, but it’s ironically the photo of the doll looking over her shoulder and using the angle and frame of the pics to hide the ‘nudity’ that inadvertantly makes the image that much more sexualized, and then the images surrounding it as well.
The old rule was to show an undressed doll clinically, using vanilla posing and specific area close-ups. You’ve got a decent eye for composition, you just need to turn that off when it comes to the undressed images.
Thanks for the reply, Logan. The whole doll review thing is still new to me. I don’t actually frequent any site specifically, but I did try to seek out other MH reviews to see if and how they handled it. Most of them did as you said, showing them in a clinical view. I guess I felt it was a bit odd though, seeing this naked doll standing in an empty photo, sometimes with other naked dolls.
Although they’re necessary, I’m not a big fan of figures just standing around in a picture. It’s one of the reasons I try to have various scenes in my reviews. I would have really preferred to use Frankie’s lab table bed for those shots, but unfortunately I don’t have it. So I ended up using the one that came with DST’s Frankenstein.
I can definitely see the sexy aspect you’re talking about in the first pic, but that was unintended. At the time I was just trying to take a good looking picture that showed off her sculpted plates and screw like pieces in her arm. I just turned her head to the side to keep her hair out of the way.
Ultimately, when it comes to pictures in any of my reviews, I try to go for what looks good while displaying certain aspects of the figure. Hopefully that won’t get me into too much trouble on this site.
Also, you got me all curious. What website did you used to review for?
Fantastic! I have to agree she is one of the more impressive dolls out detail wise. It will be interesting to see how they decide to re-release her later on. As someone said up a bit that a repaint of her in silver would look awesome. I will have to check my Penny later and see what color his jet pack is.
I think your photos looked fine and had a nice artistic presentation to them. I also collect Pullips (Japanese fashion dolls, much larger heads and movable eye mechanics) and that seems to be on par with the doll out-of-stock-clothes pictures.
Great job, I look forward to more MH reviews!
I don’t mean to beat a dead horse (which would maybe be undead horse in MH?
) but if Vault is to be faulted for taking interesting pics (and yes, a couple of them ARE a little flirty if not sexy), I won’t be the one calling for the torches and pointy Frankenstein rakes. Boring pictures are boring.
And I’ve long desired to have a GI Joe (1/6 scale) site that documented the various changes and evolutions of the body, but as I’ve fallen way behind my collecting and I’ve never gotten some of the more horrid iterations (such as Super Joe, the whole Sigma Six debacle or the recent cheap-out Joes with clothesless sculpted bodies) it’s just one of those things I ‘shoulda’ done. See, that would require lots of pics of nude Joes to show off the differences.
And I think someone did that already,a site like that, at least up to the American issue of the ‘improved Action Man’ body in ‘new Adventure Team’ releases circa the late ’90s.
(and see, I’m insane. I’d love for Hasbro to take some of the recent Takara ‘Henshin Cyborg’ reissue/revival parts, put them on a Joe body and create a new Mike Power, Atomic Man. It would be awesome. NEVER happen. Maybe the Club will get the same idea.)
No, again, the creep-out factor for me is the very shape of the MH buck body. It’s just disturbing to me in a way that, say, Barbie isn’t. It’s the proportions. They’re alien, just wrong. Were you to put a ‘normal’ head on that body it still wouldn’t look right.
I apologize for stirring up trouble.
Yes. Yes, you are.
(I don’t have to be as nice here, right? I mean, it’s not my site…)
And which part or in what way am I insane on these issues? Given you’re a hard core RAH fan of course and your major experience is in 3 3/4 inch Joes and not the proper, true 11 3/4 inch Joe with LifeLike hair and beard and Kung-Fu grip?
Sigma Six, NOBODY was happy. Size was goofy, sculpt wasn’t what it could have been, accessories were groovie and overall better for 12 inch Joes but overall, blah.
And large Joes with molded on clothing? Abominations. Just horrid. Defeats what a GI Joe IS, ya know?
sigma six remains, to this day, the only toy line i’ve ever bought into that my wife actually got excited about and helped me hunt for pieces. i still have a pretty solid collection of them, and my boys and i both love them. it’s the only incarnation of joe i invested in more than 4 figures of.so i wouldn’t say “nobody” was happy…
and for the record, i’m a world class pervert… like arrestibly perverted, and i thought the photos were a little much. i understand that obviously in a doll line, you can undress them, that’s part of the play pattern… but she doesn’t have to look like a georgia cheerleader in the middle of stripping for her coach. vanilla poses at OK, “weekend at sandusky’s” photos are creepy. this wasn’t quite WaS, but it was close… just my 2 cents.
Sigma Six was an OK line for actually playing, and I dig that, but in the hard core Joe community (and you know fans, we fans, we always find ways to pee in the cornflakes
) had many bad reactions. Main was, naturally, the scale. Echos of Super Joe resonate. Many didn’t like the sculpts, the odd angular shapes like bad ’90s video game animation, the whole ‘anime’ look (which was NOT anime whatsoever in the toys), the fact that the toys looked not much at all like the concurrent cartoon and the universal complaint-WHERE WAS SCARLETT?!?!
OTOH I knew PLENTY of fans who were buying the figures just for the weapons boxes. The ‘Adventure Team’ sets were highly coveted for the crates and accessories.
The problem seemed to be some crossed wires between the cartoon developers and Hasbro, as the cartoon was CLEARLY and very much meant to be a sequel to the ’80s RAH cartoon with lots of cool vehicles, while the toys tried to distance themselves from ANY connection with previous Joe incarnations.
(also, note how MUCH of that cartoon ended up as key parts of the live Joe movie. Hasbro really really wanted the rebranding of GI Joe into Sigma Six to take place because they fear that ‘Real American Hero’ carries too much baggage for international sales.)
And the scale was a problem. Joes need vehicles. All that came out for the line was a pair of motorcycles that I’m pretty sure were repurposed Action Man items.
Note that I’m completely ignoring the 2 inch tall PVC statue inaction figure toy line.
In our little Usenet group the general tenor was Hasbro would have done much better had they made the Sigma Six line in 3 3/4 scale but at that time Hasbro was being bonehead stupid and wanting to ‘break away’ from what has worked in the past. Someone had heard that ‘anime style’ and McFarlane scale’ were the HOT HOT HOT ways to sell action figures.
I regret not picking up a couple of the figures when Kay Bee had them on redtag. Yes, for the crates and accessories.
Going from the replies you’ve gotten at the .org and looking at the four Robecca’s my Walmart currently has in-stock I would venture that the copper version was either part of the first run with a running change fixing it to the “correct” black or it’s a one-off mistake.
(Great photos, as always, BTW… You know, I think the “panties” on this particular doll might be a bit of what’s making things a bit “uncomfortable” for people… Why would a robot need pantied unless there was actually something under there, right?…)
Hey, Jim! Nice seeing you around here. I’m thinking it’s probably an unintentional variant, but I’ll probably note it in the checklist.
I definitely agree with you about the molded panties. I guess they were trying to stay consistent, but it’s really an odd design choice for a robot…