Her articulation is actually really nice for a doll, but a little lacking for an action figure. She’s got a ball jointed neck, although the movement isn’t as extensive as I’d like. She can only slightly look up or down, not all the way. Her shoulders, elbows, wrists, and knees are all swivel/hinges. Her thighs are interesting. They would be a swivel/hinge, except that they aren’t held in by a joint. They’re connected into the body with a stretchy piece of fabric. They can move forward, back, and even to the side like a DC Classic’s, but they can’t swivel and they don’t want to stay in place if moved too far out. Maybe it’s a doll thing, but wouldn’t this be better with an actual joint instead of a piece of fabric? Also, she doesn’t have a waist joint or ab crunch. I realize those are action figure features, and that dolls don’t usually have torso joints of any kind, but I really feel these dolls could benefit from one. Their bodies and legs are long and stuck in a perfect posture position. This really cuts down on the kind of posing or even movements they can perform. She can’t even put her shoes on.
Since Lagoona is a doll, I should probably talk a little about her hair and clothes. Her hair comes down just below her butt, and is curly blonde with streaks of ocean blue. Because of the hoodie she wears, her hair is divided up into three main parts. On either side of her head are two large locks, while grouped coming out the back of a hole in her hoodie is the rest. Her hair is styled also. She has a swooping curl of bangs in front which has been stiffened in this shape. I’m sure it can be undone, but that would ruin the look of the character. There’re also two strands that reach from the front of her head on either side to the back, where they are intertwined into a braid. This all looks really nice, except for one thing. When in package, the back part of her hair was smashed against the cardboard. So instead of getting these flowing curly locks, I got a flattened and matted nest. Mattel really needs to figure out a way to fix this problem, especially if it’s prevalent in the other figures. They are a doll company after all, this shouldn’t really be an issue.
I was surprised to discover that Lagoona is wearing two outfits. If you take off her hoodie and short shorts you see that her halter top is actually part of a swimsuit. This was a cool little surprise. I also like the faux fish scales and thigh covering fishnets that are part of the swimsuit. I never thought about mer-folk wearing fishnets before.
Last, but not least are Lagoona’s accessories. She comes with the essential doll comb in the shape of the Monster High skull, and a doll stand. I’m a little leery on that stand. It seems like it’s made to fit around her waist, but the plastic clip feels very brittle. Also, trying to slide it over her swimsuit gave me the impression that the stand could easily snag the fabric and tear it. So, if you’re a braver soul than me and want to try using your stand, just be careful. Lagoona also comes with her diary, which you can use for online things. Then there’s her pet fish Neptuna. Neptuna can be placed in a fish bowl/purse or just carried around. All the monster girls come with pets, but I’m not sure why Lagoona got a fish. In the cartoon she always seems to have a three eyed frog around, and I’m kind of confused why they didn’t go with that for her pet.
All around, I’m pretty happy with Lagoona Blue and Monster High in general. The show is certainly entertaining, and you can tell the writers at least put some thought into it. The figures are also nice. Not quite as much articulation as I’m used to in my boy lines, but it seems there’s more than a normal girl line. So that’s a plus. The style is unique yet still cute, and the nods to the monsters that inspired them are appreciated. My biggest annoyance was the really the messed up hair. I’m sure there’s ways to fix it, but as a casual fan I’m in the dark. I would just prefer that Mattel not ruin it in the first place. You can find these dolls for about $20 at retail, which I think is a decent price. Wave 2 will be showing up later this year and includes the zombie girl, and I can tell you now that I’ll be doing her review. If you’re still not sure on these, do what I did. Watch some of the episodes.
Ha!
I just surprised my daughter with this same doll last week! She loves it, I knew she would.
The hands and forearm pop off easily, and the leg fins fall off too. This is better than breaking, but in a kids hands they can get lost way too easily in a toy box, furniture, etc.
I like the hand sculpts, and this one is made better by the webs, so that’s cool. Unfortunately, I saw a commercial on TV, as well as short animated segments in the Target aisle display, and the media produced thus far is the same cheap, humorless drivel I’ve endured throughout 9 years of watching doll based shows and movies. We’re BFF! You can do it! I made the cheerleading squad! Ugh..
These things are $16-$20 at retail, which makes Mattel’s DCUC prices seem crazy. I don’t get it.
Yeah, those smaller pieces might easily be lost by kids. I forget those things sometimes. All my little accessories go into little boxes for storage.
It’s hard to know what things are cost in the toy world. It seems that fabric is becoming cheaper to produce than plastic, which may be a reason why we are seeing more detailed dolls and less detailed figures for the same prices. Also, they wants our moneys. 😛
I suspect my daughter (who’s 5) would probably like the Monster High stuff. She was all about Skelanimals, so it seems like a similar theme.
Of course, I don’t know how much of that is “natural” and how much is my programming. After all, some of her favorite shows are Real Ghostbusters and Filmation MOTU. Monsters are just par for the course.
That’s kind of what I was thinking. It’s becoming more common for the adults who grew up loving monsters and superheros to impress that upon their kids, even the girls. When I go to conventions, there’s a lot more young girls there than I ever expect there to be.
yer a strange man vault. i’m trying to be all “third millenium” and all that, but this is a girl’s line. i don’t see where in this aesthetic it’s supposed to intrigue guys.
You know, it’s hard to place. I don’t really care about the fashion or the hair styles all that much. Although, I do appreciate the allusions they make to the classic monsters they’re derived from. Like I said in the review, the dolls themselves are actually cute. So they have that going for them. But I think it’s the idea of girl monster toys in general. I like that idea very much. Couple that with the cartoon, which I do find entertaining. There’s enough going for this line that I can support it. Although, that doesn’t mean I’ll be buying them all.
I don’t think it’s supposed to intrigue boys, but adult collectors are different aren’t they? I’ve bought a lot of strange toys in my time. A couple of girls toys here and there isn’t really any different par for the course.
I was just like you, thought the line was interesting, then watched the online shorts and fell in love with the line. Really looking forward to Ghoulia later this year, she looked awesome at SDCC.
I love Ghoulia, she’s great.
When I started reading the bios on these that’s what sold me on the line… I did pick up the first four but after reading all the reviews about the limbs falling off so easily I returned them hoping that will get fixed and I can re-buy them later. As an aside, was wandering through the toy department one night with a co-worker and he asked if there were any new toys that were interesting just as we were passing the Monster High stuff. I turned and handed him Lagoona Blue, he looked at her for a minute and said “is it wrong that I think she’s hot?…”. Told him to flip the box and read the bio which he did for all four (he couldn’t read them fast enough). I think that the combination of the look and the humor is really going to push these things over-the-top this Christmas.
Yeah, I’m hoping so. I’d like to see where this line can go on the future with a few more waves under its belt. Hopefully the loose joint problem is fixed by the next wave.
I kind of ragged on this line earlier, particularly because of the easily detached hands and forearms. Being a single dad who obsessed and panicked over his own toys’ accessories, the amount of tiny junk shoved into girl’s toys is maddening!! Keeping track of and searching for hands, a vital part of a functional toy should never be necessary. My daughter is old enough not to lose everything immediately, but once the hand just fell off somewhere.
I forgot to mention that I was impressed by the little diary included with the doll. It was several pages long and pretty cute, with Lagoona mentioning her sea monster dad, and the hip teen language isn’t quite as bad as the intolerably vapid and snobby dialogue that the Bratz often used. It’s a nice little touch that makes me wish minicomics still came with action figures.
Ah, the good ol’ days of mini comics.
The diary is way more detailed than I though it would be. I’m actually surprised they put so much time into them.
I too have been strangely won over by this line, and I never cared about Barbies before (being, you know, a guy). I’m thinking of getting Frankie and Ghoulia and then being ashamed I did so.
Don’t be ashamed, be a proud owner of a unique monster product 😀
And again, Ghoulia is awesome!
Hah, if I were ever to be given the keys to a website for a few days, be sure it would be redecorated with redheads and shiny purple things.
I wouldn’t have though to doll-reviews!
That fishy in the bowl is kyuuuu~te! ^___^
LOL, If I did that Noisy wouldn’t even come back. He’d leave me stuck with the whole thing. 😛
My daughter loved Bratz so these were an obvious thing for me to pick up. I was happy pick up some Monster type toys for her until they basically fell apart and pieces were quickly lost. Mattel needs to work on some QC. When they copy Bratz they should copy Bratz QC too.
Yeah, that seems to be the biggest problem with them. Hmmm, I wonder if we could get a hold of the brand manager?
Hi everyone! This is Draculaura! Have fun at Monster High and meet my friends Clawdeen, Frankie, Lagoona, Cleo, and Deuce