Monster High Monster Exchange Lagoona Blue Doll (and Marisol Coxi!)

Welcome to the Hobby Haven, everyone! I hope your week went well. And it's almost the weekend! So let's celebrate with another review. Some of you might remember that I was gifted with not one, but two Monster High dolls this Christmas. And I haven't gotten around to reviewing them yet. So today's the day! It's two for one (sort of) at the Hobby Haven, after the jump.

These were a present from my doll-collecting friend, who I have finally decided to definitively refer to as Miss Momo. (Why? My handle was picked from the board game Clue--another story entirely--so I'll refer to everyone with pseudonyms either picked from that game or inspired by it. "Momo-iro" is the Japanese word for pink; "momo" is the word for the peach fruit, and "momo-iro" literally means "peach-colored," or pink! Given how much she loves Japan and Japanese culture, I figured it would be fitting, plus it words into the color name scheme! Anyway, carrying on.)

Momo found an amazing buy one, get one free sale, remembered how much I'd gushed about the Monster Exchange line, and snagged me two for Christmas! (Now I've got to up the ante for next year...)

So here are the dolls she bought me: Monster Exchange Lagoona Blue, and a brand-new character, Marisol Coxi. The idea behind this line is that Lagoona and Draculaura are spending a semester abroad as exchange students, in "Madread," Spain and "Shibooya" Japan, respectively. I really want to pick up Draculaura, too, and she's on my wishlist. Two foreign exchange students will be taking their place at Monster High: Marisol (pictured above) and Lorna McNessie, the Scottish daughter of the Loch Ness Monster (not pictured above).

The boxes are so bright and colorful, and feature the girls' character art prominently, on the front side of the box and on the back. The product window is in the shape of a coffin (par the course) and you can see school classrooms behind them.

I'll be keeping Marisol in the box, at least for now. I think that I might be doing this for all new characters' signature dolls. So I'm just going to have to do this review as best as I can for an in-the-box product. I'm sure you understand. To start, Marisol is a maricoxi, translated by Mattel as a "South American Bigfoot." Marisol is apparently Abbey Bominable's cousin, which kind of makes sense, since Abbey is a yeti; they are both Bigfoot-type monsters. (But I wonder why they haven't had a Sasquatch monster yet?) She's from "Monster Picchu," Peru. She is very tall, using the larger size mold. Mattel's made a bunch of shorter "little sister" characters (Howleen, Twyla, and Lorna, for starters), but not as many of the taller "big sister" characters.

Marisol's personal style is described on the back of the box as "big and loud," which comes across here as screaming neon everything. Her long hair is bright, bright pink, like Catty Noir's. Her skin is a very blue-tinged shade of dark purple, but she wears very bright makeup: hot pink lipstick and neon pink and green eyeshadow. I kind of feel like her eyes are slightly too big for her face, and would work better if they were a bit smaller. Her facial structure is very square, with a strong chin, like Abbey. She's wearing a lime green headband with a wee little hat on it, and long tassels hanging down.

Her clothes are modeled after traditional Peruvian women's clothing, just updated for a modern era. From the pictures that I've seen, traditional Peruvian clothes are very brightly colored and patterned, which you can see in Marisol's outfit. She's wearing a patterned orange short-sleeved jacket, bright pink top, and a ruffled, two-layered skirt. I like the contrast between the flower-patterned upper layer and the solid lime green bottom layer.

Marisol further accessorizes with high-heeled pink sandals (with more tassels) and a lime-green coffin-shaped travel case. Now, this is the point where I want to jump in and say something. I am not crazy about Marisol's style; I personally dislike the loud, eye-gouging colors. But. Take a close look at her wrists, ankles, and feet. Marisol has molded body hair. She's hairy! And her feet live up to her "Bigfoot" species; they are much larger than the other dolls'. And you know what? She rocks it. 

She claims that her feet are "too gore-geous to be measured." They aren't something for her to moan about; they are unique and awesome and she celebrates them. It is so wonderful and refreshing to find a female character with body characteristics that society views as "ugly" or "unfeminine" who wholeheartedly embraces them. Big feet? They're not "too big," they're too awesome. Body hair? Just another way to accessorize. As much as I love Clawdeen, her emphasis on "Oh gosh you guys I have so much body hair and I constantly have to shave and pluck and wax to look pretty but it's all worth it to look good" gets grating and obnoxious. It's nice to have a character who loves her body.

So, yeah. Marisol? Rock on, sister.

Next up is my lovely lady Lagoona. She's heading to the "scarily landlocked" Madread, Spain for a semester, which is why she's rocking a Spanish-inspired outfit here. She is the cutest, no questions asked.

The back of the box doesn't have her bio (since she's an existing character), but instead a little blurb about her going abroad.

She has a very heart-shapedface, with a wide forehead, and her cheeks are dusted with lots of freckles. Lagoona's makeup is fairly simple here. Her eyebrow pencil and eyeshadow are the same shade of teal as some of her hair streaks, and she's rocking a bold, hot pink shade of lipstick. It doesn't do a whole lot to make her olive-green eyes pop, but it coordinates with her outfit. I think we all know that the makeup is playing second fiddle to her hair.

Her hair was smooshed from laying flat against the box for so long, but it wasn't anything that a quick brushing couldn't fix. Her hair has absolutely no product in it, and feels soft and fluffy. I had fun arranging her curls to maximum volume and seeing how big I could make her hair. Lagoona's hair is naturally blond, and the exact shade varies from doll to doll. Here, it's a bright and buttery yellow, not as golden as the box art depicts. Swimming in chlorinated pools has left her with blue streaks in her hair, which are colored here as a rich aqua. (I want to point out that swimming in chlorinated pools usually lightens one's hair, and that blondes sometimes find that it will tinge it green, not blue. I can only assume that monster hair works differently.) The streaks are positioned  lower on her head, resulting in layered color.

The outfit that she's wearing is flamenco-inspired. It's simple, cute, and iconic. The dress itself is a white strapless one-piece number with asymmetric ruffles, and a wee little bolero jacket. And every single piece is polka-dotted. If you want to remove the jacket, you will have to take off her hands and arm fins, just a heads up.

Lagoona comes with several adorable little accessories that continue the dual Spanish flamenco/maritime themes. Starting with her hair (because of course), Lagoona's rocking dual hair decs. The first is a type of decorative Spanish hair comb called a peineta, which is worn during flamenco performances. Lagoona's peineta looks like it's made out of green coral, or maybe pearls. (Hint: tuck it in close to her head, under the tied ponytail part. That will keep it from falling out.) She's also got a black rose tucked above her ear (cute, but also looks kind of weird...are we supposed to think of it as a hairpin or as an actual rose?). Her jewelry is minimal, just some pale pink octopus earrings.

Her purse continues the theme; it's huge, more like a luggage bag, and is shaped like an enormous pink clamshell. It also has an octopus on the front, tying it visually to the earrings. The bag actually opens, although the hinge is very weak and feels like it will break at any moment. The plastic feels thin and cheap. Daring collectors could keep her accessories in there, since it's very big, but I think I'll keep mine closed.

Lagoona's shoes are simply to die for. She's wearing smoky gray high-heeled Mary Jane pumps that look like they're made of bubbles, and of course have a pink rose adorning the straps. I had a lot of trouble with her leg fins falling off, so I'm keeping those rubber-banded on. The heels are almost nonexistent, and Lagoona can't stand on her own as a result.

She comes with a stand and hairbrush, plus a tiny little doll-sized cardboard "passport" and a bunch larger sized one that works as a diary. I glanced over it, and it's primarily her pining over her boyfriend and friends. You'll see them soon enough, Lagoona, don't mope. What really puzzles me is that Lagoona is supposed to be an Australian exchange student studying at Monster High (at least according to the webisodes). Then why is she listed as a United States (sigh, sorry, "Boonighted States of Scaremerica") citizen? And why is an exchange student being exchanged again? The mind, it boggles.

But regardless of Mattel's little flub-up, this is a wonderfully creative doll line! There are supposed to be more coming later, with brand new international dolls. It will be exciting to see these in person!

Miss Scarlett suggests: These are a clever and unique new entry into the Monster High line, and collectors should search these out!