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!