Monster High 10th anniversary.

[Werewolf]

It's MH 10th anniversary this year and so far not much has come of it. There was the announcement back at Toy Fair of two $70 Skullector dolls which the first is now rumored to be Pennywise from It. Not Draculaura or Frankie? Nope an R rated demonic entity that preys upon children. Umm...okay...yeah, I'll be passing on that. Hopefully there will be a mass market line too with the original MH characters. Bring back Ghoulia dammit!

[ToyTalk]

I feel so out of touch because I have only a vague clue of what Monster High is

[Werewolf]

Monster High was about the daughters and sons of classic movie monsters (Dracula, Mummy, Frankenstein, etc.) going to a secret school for Monsters. At its peak it was outselling Barbie. There were dolls and animated series.

[ToyTalk]

That would be why I remember a little bit about it. Thanks for helping kick-start my memory.

[Falstaff13]

I know they revamped it at one point, with a slightly restyled approach. There's one cartoon (Cyrano deGhoulia) that I have seen on YouTube, and I was going to get it on DVD, and that was when I realized they'd rebooted or restarted the episode numbers or something. At a pop culture conference a couple of years back I saw a presentation on viewing the show through the lens of its female protagonists.

[Werewolf]

They did reboot it at the end. Made it more cutesy and less scary. Blander and also more budgety. The over all quality and articulation went down. My favorite character, Ghoulia, didn't make it to the reboot. Was considered too scary or something. The reboot did not go over well. Before the reboot the line had been mismanaged for several years, in my opinion. I'd speculate maybe even a bit of self sabotage. As some factions in Mattel reportedly didn't like MH selling better than and taking sales from the flagship Barbie brand.

[PNGwynne]

The later waves before the reboot were strained IMO, too "busy."

At one point, I considered collecting just the male dolls, but it seemed too expensive. Exclusive characters like the minotaur were exhorbitant.

[Werewolf]

Releasing the nautical themed Shriekwrecked so soon after the very similar and poorly selling aquatic themed Scarrier Reef was NOT a good idea.

[Nostalgiabuff]

my little girl absolutely loved the MH series. we (I) bought her tons of them. then she outgrew toys, before the reboot, and lost interest in them. she at one point asked about giving them to a friends daughter and I was like, are you out of your mind, do you know how much money I spent on those? I have them all packed in storage tubs. maybe someday she will decide to collect again, or give them to her own children.

more likely at some point I will just sell them on ebay

[Werewolf]

I have them all packed in storage tubs. maybe someday she will decide to collect again, or give them to her own children.

I'd save them for her. If she is anything like us her she will eventually want her favorite childhood toys back. Plus the first several MH series were of phenomenal quality and detail. They just do not put in that kind of money and effort into mass market main line dolls anymore.

[Earth 2 Chris]

Cindy and I were just talking about this today. Cindy was big into it, and had the entire line up to a point, but then they released a new character as an SDCC exclusive, and it really rankled her feathers. She sold off most of her collection at its height of popularity, which was a good thing, because I don't think it's retained much of its monetary value, not that we really care about those things much. She liked Ghoulia best too, and still has the con-exclusive Super Hero version and another, standard release version as well.

Chris

[monitor_ep]

St on point I had a hole display of them, I loved the idea of them. Then I moved and they have stayed packed away.

That reboot was awful, they took there uniqueness away and went more Barbie style. Once they did that it was over, the true collectors bailed on them. Then there was the DC Super Hero Girls dolls that came out and that hurt the budget of collectors.

[RonnyG]

I'm extremely late to the party, but I just got into Monster High! I was always aware of them because their merchandise was everywhere at one time, but I never watched their movies or followed them. Then, a few weeks ago, I was at the thrift store, and I saw a few of the dolls still in good condition, and they were only $3 bucks each, so I bought them. I thought they looked oddly pretty and unique (sort of Monster meets Barbie), and I like the articulation and outfits.
Now I've been playing catch up. I've watched the first four movies on Tubi, and I now know all the character names, and back stories! LOL
I've figured out that Mattel would release a new line of Monster High dolls to coincide with the premiere of a new movie. A new character doll would be introduced from the movie, and the original doll lineup would be reissued wearing new outfits and hairstyles that they wore in the movie.
I'm surprised there is not more talk of them here considering how popular monsters are, but maybe they're too close to fashion dolls than action figures.

[Nostalgiabuff]

there was a lot more talk about the line back when it was still around. Mattel started following the Barbie formula with the movies introducing a new line. seems to me, the market got flooded with product and people lost interest. my daughter absolutely loved and collected the line but she outgrew it

[Werewolf]

I collected them heavily and posted about them quite a bit over the years.