100th Post! And a mild divergence back into Monster High.

Hello all, and I hope you have had a good month since I last posted. :) Truth be told, not a lot has been going on, doll- or craft- wise, but things are starting to pick up.

Of course, this just happened to coincide with me getting laid off from my job. Not to worry - I was immediately offered a backup position with one of our affiliates - but this past week has been the most awkward week of my life. I'm training for my new job at the offices of my old job, so while I'm in the same building and around the same people, I'm in a new department, at a new desk, using a new computer, and soon I move to my new building halfway across the city. :(

I have been a Bad Jen and indulging in some retail therapy (so close to Christmas, bad me), so I'm here to talk about my newest doll addition!

Today we stopped by Target, and we wouldn't be us if we didn't take a gander around the toy aisles (have I mentioned how much I love being married to someone who still loves toys too?), and I got a pleasant surprise: the new Monster High line - Frights, Camera, Action! - and in particular, Miss Honey Swamp.

I've had Honey on my wish list pictures of her at SDCC hit the internet. I've been kinda "meh" on Monster High lately - a lot of their recent offerings have either been pretty-but-bland (I've been eyeing Twyla since the 13 Wishes line hit, but can't bring myself to actually buy her) or interesting-but-not-aesthetically-appealing (Skelita Calaveras is a cool doll, but I'm not into sugar skull art). Honey Swamp hits the sweet spot of interesting AND pretty.

Honey's box has an illustration of her in the bottom left corner...

...and the same illustration and some character facts on the back.

The doll herself looks a lot nicer than the illustration. Her face is more open and pleasant.

In the cardboard insert...

And free of her packaging:

I continue to be impressed at the amount of creativity and detail that goes into these dolls. Like Robecca Steam, Honey has a uniquely molded body:

This twirling vine pattern shows up intermittently around her body. It's instantly noticeable on her right leg.

Her shoes. It took me a moment to figure out what her shoes were meant to portray - alligators!

Her faceup. They seem to be keeping with an alligator theme here - her eyes are distinctly gator-ish. I'm not too fond of her bright purple eyebrows, but the tiny teeth painted on her lips are amazing.

She wears a headband with a tiny attached hat:

Her clothes:

 Her dress has a light purple bodice with black details and printed white "buttons", and a plasticky skirt with a printed vine pattern and a strange feathery underskirt layer. She wears a pink plastic belt. I love the bodice of her dress - the lace collar and buttons add a touch of charm.

Without clothes, you can see just how detailed Mattel made her body mold. This is one of the things l love about MH - the vine pattern on her torso would never be seen when she's clothed. They could have easily skipped it and saved some cash. But there it is.

She also has two rows of spines going down her back - I imagine this is another shout-out to the alligator motif.

Her fingers are pointed, and slightly webbed.

I set out to examine her hair and hat more closely. Let's be real - 90% of what drew me to Honey in the first place is her glorious, glorious hair.

The headband/hat is held on by clear rubber bands:

Her hairstyle is made by two long strands of hair, pulled back to the crown of her head and rubber-banded together in a half-ponytail. The fibers are remarkably similar to those in the Disney Store Mother Gothel Classic doll - tight springy curls.

Of course, I can't see a doll hairstyle without wanting to poke at it, so I brought out my seam ripper and carefully removed the bands holding her hairband and ponytail.

The resulting free hair is everything I was hoping for - but with these two awkward tendrils.

I didn't want to cut them off - luckily, they tucked down around the bottom of her head, and easily lost themselves in the mass of curls. The back of her hair was mashed down from packaging, but sprung into a livelier shape with a bit of finger-fluffing.

In short, Honey Swamp is a great addition to the Monster High lineup, and is a good showcase of the reasons why MH has been stomping all over their competition: creative doll design, well-articulated and posable bodies, and massive attention to detail. I especially like how willing Mattel has been to expand their mold options - most fashion dolls consist of one single mold, with variations in hair, eyes, and skin tone to bring variety to the line. Casting new molds is expensive, especially new molds that are specific to one doll (the retirement of American Girl's MyAG #4, a not-terribly-popular doll with a unique mold, springs to mind). Mattel is taking some risks here, and I love it. I've just now noticed that all my MH dolls have different molds - Lagoona and her fin ears, Robecca and her rivets, and now Honey and her vines.

(Going on a slight tangent, I think this is why I've been less than impressed with Ever After High - they tend to look like the same doll with different hair and eyes. Even their expressions are static from one doll to the next.)

So, if you've been like me and not really feeling the Monster High love lately, I can recommend Honey Swamp as a breath of fresh air. There are three other new dolls in the line - Elissabat, Viperine Gorgon, and Clawdia Wolf - but Honey stands head-and-shoulders-and-hair above the others.

And so this has been my 100th post. This would be a great milestone, but I started this blog almost 4 years ago! Averaging 25 posts a year isn't exactly the best blogging strategy, lol!