Monster High: A new generation

By Cole Knox

If you were born in the 2000s, there’s a likely chance that you know what “Monster High” is. For those who don’t know, “Monster High” is a doll line made by Mattel from 2010-2015 which also consists of a web series and 16 movies. In 2016, the series underwent a disastrous reboot where it made an attempt to appeal to younger children. Fortunately, it was canceled in 2018 due to its lack of success. Although that was hardly the end for “Monster High,” two years later, in August/September of 2020, it made a comeback releasing collectable dolls, known as Skullectors, which were based off of classic horror movies such as It, The Shining, Beetlejuice, The Gremlins, Dracula, and most recently, The Bride of Frankenstein releasing on October 14, 2022. In early 2022, Mattel announced a new line in the style of the first generation known as Haunt Couture. This line also served as a gradient to the third generation of “Monster High,” which officially released on October 1 alongside a live action movie and an animated TV show. I was fortunate enough to get my hands on four of the new dolls from generation three, and one of the generation one dolls from the Haunt Couture line. So I'm here to review “Monster High” Generation 3 and compare it to Generation 1.

Draculaura:

Draculaura was the first doll I obtained. She came with a bottle of sunscreen, a pretzel, glasses, a drink, a backpack, a cape, and her very own pet, Count Fabulous. She wears a pink headband with a sheer dress with shorts underneath paired with knee high socks and high heels. Her hair type is seran, and if you didn’t know, there are three main types of doll hair: nylon which is regarded as the best hair, seran which is decent but it’s not the most heat resistant, and also poly, which is typically the worst type of hair because a lot of the time it puffs up and expands. The way she was portrayed in media changed drastically. In the first generation she was portrayed as a sweet and caring vampire who felt a strong sense of connection with other monsters and loved being around people, but in this revival, all of that was thrown out the window. Now she’s portrayed as catty and mean despite having a soft spot for her friends. Overall, I liked how she’s portrayed in this new era, and her doll was of high quality. I'd give her a 8.5/10.

Frankie Stein:

The second doll I got was Frankie Stein, and I’m happy to say they were of very high quality. They came with a varsity jacket, a polaroid camera with two photos, a pair of sunglasses, their bag, a piece of lightning bolt shaped pizza, and their pet, Watzie. As for clothing, they have a full head of seran hair and they have a four-piece outfit, consisting of their jacket, a sweater vest, a puffy sleeved dress shirt and a plaid skirt and for shoes, they wear pink hightops. In this iteration of “Monster High,” there are a few key differences compared to her original form in Generation 1. The first is they changed their main color from green to blue, which is likely because of copyright issues with Universal given that the first generation Frankie was based off of Frankenstein. The second main thing I noticed was that they were given a prosthetic leg, which is significant because in the original “Monster High,” there were only two or three characters with this kind of representation despite the fact that the series as a whole was supposed to be built on representation and being oneself. Frankie was one of my favorites so far. I enjoyed their style in clothing and I enjoy the new representation they brought to the main cast; as a whole I rate her a 10/10.

Clawdeen Wolf:

Clawdeen is my least favorite of the dolls I have currently. She came with her pet cat, Crescent, a fur jacket, a comb, a moon shaped cookie, a bag of chips, and a pair of glasses. Clawdeen used polyprophelline hair, so when I tried to brush it out so I could style it, it buffed out, and when I boil-washed it, it was absolutely fried. Her outfit was a zebra print shirt with purple overalls and a pair of sneakers. Some of my qualms with her aside from her hair type was the overuse of the crescent moon motif. If I look at Draculaura, her main motif was hearts, but they were not overused. With Clawdeen however, she has moons on everything from her clothing to her accessories and even in the playset based around her. Another thing is that her character went from the sassy best friend to the main character, and they made her naive and innocent, almost similar to how Frankie was in the original as she was the main character. Overall, I wasn't very satisfied with her quality or her portrayal, and I give her a 5/10.

Lagoona Blue:

In my opinion, Lagoona was the top tier out of the four, and she also went through the most changes. She comes with sunglasses, a bag of chips, a water bottle, her pet piranha named Neptuna, and a swimsuit. This version of Lagoona shares very few similarities to her original counterpart. Instead of her light blue skin tone which she originally had, she’s now coral pink. She also wears rainbow shorts and a pink sweatshirt as opposed to the dark colors of her original clothing. She has seran hair except with blue and pink streaks in it in contrast to her original hair color. Along with her visual changes, she was changed drastically story wise. Now, instead of Australian, she’s Honduran. It’s also worth noting that now she’s typically portrayed as a mean girl and the sidekick of a different character, Cleo de Nile, which was a job typically given to Ghoulia Yelps in the original “Monster High.” Lagoona is my absolute favorite so far, and I adore what they did. I even prefer her over the original, so she gets a 10/10.

Compared to generation 1:

Looking back at the first version of “Monster High,” the representation wasn’t that great and I hope this era of it can fix that. In the first generation, we only got a few disabled and ethnically diverse characters and when we did, they weren’t done very well. Based on what we’ve seen so far of this new generation, I believe it could be even more inclusive and it could do it in a positive way, focusing on heritage, identity, disabilities, and other things in a positive way.