Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon S.H. Figuarts: "Sailor Venus" Figure Review

How wonderful; my second Figuarts has arrived! I got this a little while ago, but didn't find time to take a good look at it before now. Hopefully this review should be shorter than the previous, given that most of the initial details of this toy line have been gone over in the previous post.

This is the fourth release in the Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon S.H. Figuarts line, although it's only the second Figuarts that I've picked up. (I still need Mercury and Mars, but I have a feeling those will be saved for another day further down the line...) She is the Guardian of Love and Beauty, Sailor Venus! She's my personal favorite, so I'm very much looking forward to this.

I picked her up from Amazon for $41.99, and used the free shipping offer on my order. Venus was released on May 21st, and I got her literally the next day. I was very impressed. The box came in good condition, with no damage to anything. Now before, this starts sounding like an Amazon review, let's look at this awesome little figure!

Monster High: Picture Day "Frankie Stein" Doll Review

I'll begin by stating that I have loved fashion dolls since I was a girl, but that the older I got, the more interested I became in collecting rather than playing with them. Or rather, my type of "playing" involves making doll clothes, posing them for pictures, etc. We're all big kids at heart, I suppose.

But anyway, I was that kind of kid who loved both fashion dolls and Halloween. Spooky lite, basically; vampires and ghosts and Frankenstein monsters, but on the Scooby Doo level. I wish that Monster High had been around back then, because I would have gone nuts.

The Monster High franchise, for the uninitiated, is one of the latest doll franchises owned by Mattel, the makers of Barbie. The idea behind the whole shebang is that Monster High is a safe haven for the teenaged children of the monsters, ghouls, and creepy crawlies that haunt the silver screen and history books. The main characters of the franchise are the children of the classic Universal Monsters, but there are characters descended from other legendary and mythological creatures, as well. It's very comprehensive, which allows for a large cast and lots of dolls.

There is a web cartoon series and direct-to-home video movies made to support the franchise, and many of the doll lines are based off of these tie-ins. This particular doll is made as a tie in to the web cartoon episode "Franken Styled." The main characters, "the Ghoulfriends," can barely contain their excitement over Picture Day, with the exception of our plucky heroine Frankie, who just doesn't get it. One sleepover and lots of fabulously freaky fashions later, they're all decked out and ready for their close-ups! The dolls in this line are dressed up in the same outfits that the ghouls chose. (It's kind of fun to watch the cartoon and spot the various doll lines. "Hey! So the Ghoul Spirit line was based off of THIS episode!" It's the little things, I suppose.)

Thanks to that pesky budget of mine, I'm limited in the amount of toys I can have. So I've decided to pick one of each of the doll characters that I love the most. Frankie Stein is my favorite MH character, followed by Draculaura. After a lot of waiting, I finally decided to bite and just pick up a doll already. I'm still looking for a Draculaura that I like, so I decided to just grab Frankie for now. So let's take a look at her.

A few quick notes.

The next review will be posted on the 13th, and will start a trend of posting every other Friday, as long as I have things to review (or at least have something to talk about). Given the date, the subject matter will be appropriate. That's the only hint I'll give. ;)

I do have enough material already at home to provide reviews for the next few months (summer and fall), so that shouldn't be an issue. Obtaining it is another story, however. The stores in my area (Wal-Mart, Target, Justice) have an abysmal selection of toys, especially dolls and figures. Target seems to be the best, but their selection has shrunk in the past six months. I suppose I'll have to find the nearest Toys R Us and see what their selection is. Shopping at a brick and mortar is simply easier for me since I can pick things up while I'm running errands; online retailers have a better selection, but I honestly hate waiting and paying for shipping. There are trade offs for everything in life, I suppose.

In a bit of news, Mattel has announced that they are releasing a variant of one of their Ever After High dolls at the San Diego Comic Con. This is an alternate version of their character "Cerise Hood," the successor to Little Red Riding Hood (I'll explain more about Ever After High in a later post). This alternate version is entitled "Cerise Wolf," and reimagines her as the successor to the Big Bad Wolf. I have mixed feelings about this, especially given how difficult it is to obtain a SDCC released doll if one cannot make it to the convention. There are several hoops to jump through, as Tomopop explains in the news blurb that I linked. I'm grateful that it's not a new character, as seems to happen with the Monster High SDCC releases, but annoyed because Cerise is one of my favorite Ever After High characters (the other is Duchess Swan, who doesn't have a doll yet). I'd certainly like to have this variant of Cerise, and would willingly fork over whatever Mattel asked in price, but...well, odds are not in my favor. I've made my peace with the fact that I probably won't get her, and I'm actually not going to go out of my way to get my hands on her through eBay. (I...actually don't like that they seem to have lightened her skin tone. What are you doing, Mattel?)

That seems to be everything...so have a wonderful weekend! Miss Scarlett signing off.