Dia De Los Muertos Monster High Skelita Mega Bloks Minifig

Just in time for this year's Dia de Muertos (or Dia de los Muertos depending on how white you are) celebration, I found the Mega Bloks version of Monster High's Skelita Calaveras at Toys R Us.

I'm a far bigger fan of the Mega Bloks buildable minifig Monster High toys than I am the dolls. Of course the dolls are dolls, so there's that, but I did buy quite a few for my oldest daughter back when they were first released. Beyond the difference in dollies and minifigs, I think the minifig aesthetic works better for these ladies. Their heads aren't as proportionally huge and their limbs aren't as proportionally stick-thin in minifig form. To me the minifigs look a lot better.

Regardless of my complaints about the physical design of the Monster High dolls, I've always loved the character designs themselves. Once the line got past your standard werewolves and vampires, they really started to branch out and bring some clever and unique concepts to form. Skelita is one of the best, with her skeleton/sugar skull design and Mexican heritage making her a real stand-out character concept.

As with all the Monster High Mega Bloks minifigs, Skelita comes with that silly coffin shaped cell phone or Die-Pad or whatever the heck it is, a bracelet, a necklace, and is made out of interchangeable parts so you can mix and match your Monster High minifigs to your Dr. Frankenstein heart's content.


I've previously posted about the Monster High Mega Bloks Spectra Vondergeist and Venus McFlytrap from Series 1. I didn't pick up any from Series 2, although I was pretty tempted by a couple of them. Now that I have Skelita and another I picked up from Series 3 (to be blogged at a later date) I may have to just admit I collect little dollies and get a bunch more. Here's hoping the line continues and has a long and fruitful run! Viva la dollies!

Monster High Spectra Vondergeist Minifigure by Mega Bloks

In addition to the Monster High Venus McFlytrap Mega Bloks minifigure, I also picked up the Mega Bloks Spectra Vondergeist minifigure!

What can I say, I am a fan of pale women of Germanic descent.

I like ghosts, so Spectra was a must-have. And she's not just pale, Spectra has the added cool factor of arms that fade to clear. Spooky!

As far as buildable minfigures go, these Monster High Skullection Series 1 girls are pretty great. Spectra breaks down to a hairpiece, head, torso, necklace, skirt and legs/hips. She also came with a tomb shaped cell phone, a bracelet and a base. I have no complaints about the two I have so far, and they only tempt me to buy more.

Except, you know, then I'd have an actual Monster High collection and I'm not so sure I'm ready for that level of girly commitment.

It Came from The Dolly Aisle! Monster High Venus Mcflytrap by Mega Bloks

This blog is being overrun by dollies! Be afraid, be very afraid!

Actually this Venus Mcflytrap (Hello, Mcflytrap? Hello!) came from the Mega Blok aisle, not the dolly aisle, but that doesn't sound nearly as scary.

I wonder if she has a brother named Marty?

And she's not a dolly, she's a buildable minifigure! She's a Monster High buildable minifigure yes, but a buildable minifigure nonetheless. So I get a free pass here, ok?

Also, she's a pretty good stand-in for Poison Ivy. If only her hair were red and not pink. Oh well, perhaps Poison Ivy went through a punk phase in High School.

These Monster High minifigures are pretty cool. The parts interchangeability really enhances the monster theme. Collect them all and make your own wacky creation!

Venus Mcflytrap breaks down to a hairpiece, head, torso, vest, skirt and legs/hips (the legs seem like they'd pop on and off the ball joint pretty easily too, but that's not an advertised feature.) She also came with a tomb shaped cell phone or journal or whatever, a bracelet and a base piece to stand on. Quite a nice dolly minifigure for your dollar, since at the same price as LEGO minifigures you're getting quite a bit more bang for your buck here.

If you like Monster High dollies, you pretty much have to get some of these. If you like buildable minifigures, you'll have to decide if you're man enough to admit you need some of these.

I am.

Monster High Ghouls Skullection Series 1 Minifigures

I recently heard about these Monster High Ghouls Skullection minifigures from Mega Bloks, but only just found them at retail today. My older daughter went through a Monster High phase and I always liked the concept, even if the dolls could benefit from a couple sandwiches.

I found a whole fresh box at Toys R Us and picked up Spectra Vondergeist and Venus McFlytrap. The former because if I had to pick a favorite 'monster' it would definitely be ghosts, poltergeists and general spooky apparitions - no movies ever scare me more than ghost movies - and the latter because she might as well be a teenaged Poison Ivy.

The figures translate well into this pseudo-LEGO-Friends aesthetic. And even though they are only inches high, their limbs are about the same thickness as their larger dolly counterparts. Just kidding. A little.

Spectra is especially awesome because her arms 'fade' to clear plastic at her wrists down to her hands. She was also only packed two to the box, so she may be short packed but I don't know how shipments across the nation are panning out. I didn't count how many of any other figures there were, the only reason I did so with Spectra was because the first one I grabbed had some scraped paint so I wanted to find a better specimen.

Other figures in Series 1 are: Frankie Stein, Ghoulia Yelps, Lagoona Blue, Clawdeen Wolf, and the twins Meowlody and Purrsephone. And in addition to the single packed minifigures, there are larger buildable playsets too!

The best part? These aren't blind-bagged/boxed! You can see who you are getting right there through the clear plastic bubble. What a concept!

Monster High Dollies

I've been wanting to further explore the Monster High phenom on my blog for a while now. But I've avoided it mainly because I have a manly anti-dolly image to preserve.

But a lot of my readers love Monster High dollies (both male and female readers - shocking I know!) so I suppose I owe it to them to report what I see.

And once again, with Christmas upon us (and with Monster High on my daughter's wish list) I'm back in the strange and foreign dolly aisles looking at what they have to offer.

Now that Monster High has gone through all the basic monster themes (vampire, werewolf, Frankenstein's monster, zombie etc) it's interesting to see what they come up with to keep the line fresh (outside of re-releasing the same old characters in new sub-sets ala roller derby, sleep-over and prom.)

I found one today that is pretty neat and unique and takes the line in a direction I didn't anticipate but makes perfect sense. But before we get to her, let's run down the dollies my daughter already has in her collection...

It all started with Lagoona Blue:

Lagoona is obviously based on the Creature from the Black Lagoon, a personal monster favorite.

Next my daughter wanted Clawdeen Wolf. Werewolves are also very cool, so this one is tops!

I later got Operetta for my daughter's birthday, but we opened her up and she was broken (you can tell it's Mattel,) so we had to return her, and could only find Nefera De Nile...

Fortunately I was able to soon find another Operetta. Based on the Phantom of the Opera, Operetta is one of my own favorites, as her rockabilly styling is quite keen, Deady-O!

A couple months ago we found Rochelle Goyle. Based on a gargoyle (naturally) Rochelle is a unique concept and proves that the creativity of the Monster High line is far from dead.

Which brings us to my daughter's newest Monster High dolly, to be presented to her on Christmas:

Skelita Calaveras. Skelita is very unique and surprised me when I saw her on the shelves. Probably the skinniest fashion doll ever (she's an actual skeleton!) Skelita is based on the sugar skull designs of El Dia De Los Muertos. How cool is that?!?! And while many figures are released as individuals first and later as part of a sub-line, Skelita appears to be new to the Scaris: City of Frights sub-set (along with a Chinese Dragon based Jinafire Long.)

Monster High dollies have been surprisingly well received, it can be hard to find new releases on shelves as they are snapped up by collectors and speculators alike. And really, who can find fault with such a sure-fire formula: Monster based teen fashion dolls.

In the future, I hope to get my daughter a couple more of the cooler new releases I've seen around recently, like Robecca Steam...

 ...and Venus McFlytrap (who makes a great Poison Ivy stand-in!)

I guess it's a good thing I have daughters. I wouldn't want anyone thinking I am buying these for myself!

New Monster High Classmates coming soon

My daughter is a huge fan of Monster High dollies.

Chances are, so are you.

Don't try to deny it!

Anyways, here are a couple upcoming releases and SDCC sneak peeks that look like fun for boys and girls of all ages:

Toralei the Werecat.

Abbey Bominable, the Yeti.

Spectra Vondergeist, the ghost.

I think Abbey and Spectra may be hitting stores now. Not sure about Toralei's status. 


There were also a few prototype dolls shown at SDCC 2011. Not sure if these are upcoming or set for release or if the line will be failed by Mattel fail before they get here, but here's a glimpse...EDIT: Thanks to Rouise for letting me know there was a vote at SDCC and online for the next Monster High doll to be released in 2012, and Scarah Screams won! I'm sure the others will make their way to shelves sometime later.

Scarah Screams, daughter of the Banshee. This one is a must have for me. There, I said it!

Daughter of Arachne. Cool.

Headless Headmistress BloodGood. Wednesday Addams' headless doll trend finally takes off!

I'm sure my daughter will want Toralei but I think Scarah Screams is the coolest of the bunch!

Under the Sea

Do not adjust your set. You are indeed seeing an honest to goodness dolly here on Toyriffic. Not a Mego dolly or a GI Dolly for boys; an honest to goodness Monster High dolly for girls!

And NO, this is not my dolly! It belongs to my daughter. Really. According to my daughter she had been searching for Lagoona Blue for a long time. We spotted this 'daughter of the sea monster' this past weekend at Toys R Us, so I bought it for her 3rd grade graduation present. She then spent the evening on MonsterHigh.com, watching cartoons and discovering that there are actually Monster High novels, which she now wants to read! Now that she has Lagoona Blue she is looking forward to adding Clawdeen Wolf to her collection next.

Toyriffic totally supports monster themed dollies.