Monster High is back in stores Friday the 13th.

[Werewolf]

This Friday the 13th Monster High is finally back to retail. The first 4 dolls available are the "Boo-riginal Creeproduction" reissues of the first Draculaura, Frankie, Lagoona and Clawdeen. The street date is officially Friday the 13th but they have already been showing up at some Walmarts across the US. The price is $24.99. Which is not bad. I was expecting much higher.

Monster High was a great line. Lasting from 2010 to 2017. Really premium quality dolls at first and it was an absolutely huge success the first several years. Unfortunately, the line eventually started to falter from poor management and an unsuccessful watered-down budgety reboot finally killed it.

[Earth 2 Chris]

^That's cool to hear. But man, they don't wait for actual nostalgia to kick in anymore, do they?

My wife Cindy was really into those for a while until the exclusives killed her interest in it. When they did unique characters as unobtainable exclusives, she just sold off everything she had minus a few key pieces. She got out just in time as far selling and making a bit of a profit went.

[Werewolf]

^That's cool to hear. But man, they don't wait for actual nostalgia to kick in anymore, do they?

The line turns 12 this year so it kinda makes sense. I was actually a bit surprised they didn't do something like this for the 10th anniversary. The demand is certainly there for reissues of the original six dolls. I'm also happy that Mattel has been supporting more in house IPs other than Barbie and Hot Wheels.

I will be posting the usual comparison pics when I get mine.

[RonnyG]

I hope they do a creeproduction of Ghoulia Yelps. She seems to be the rarest one to find out in the wild. I also want Clawd Wolf. I'm debating about ordering them through Walmart's website, or driving to the store. Picking them out in the store would be ideal, but I don't want to have to drive all over town looking for them either if they're not in stock.

[Werewolf]

I hope they do a creeproduction of Ghoulia Yelps.

Nothing confirmed but supposedly the are listings on Target's computer for Ghoulia and Cleo. I was plenty annoyed that Ghoulia was removed from the reboot.

[RonnyG]

Well, I lucked out and found them at the first Walmart I went to (even though their website said, "not available at this store"). They had about 10 of each character, so I could pick out the nicest ones I could find. I'm surprised they weren't sold out like the He-Man figures were. Something tells me that there will be enough to go around for everyone who wants one. But beware: I did find one Clawdeen without her fangs painted on! I also went down their clearance aisle, and they had a lot of LOL dolls on clearance. They also had a few He-Man Revelation stuff, too! Makes me wonder if some of the MH dolls will end up there in a few months???
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[Werewolf]

Well, I lucked out and found them at the first Walmart I went to (even though their website said, "not available at this store"). They had about 10 of each character, so I could pick out the nicest ones I could find.

Congrats! I ordered mine from Walmart.com. They are supposedly coming by the end of the week. None of the stores near me were listed as having them as well.

[RonnyG]

Congrats! I ordered mine from Walmart.com. They are supposedly coming by the end of the week. None of the stores near me were listed as having them as well.

Thanks! Looking forward to your review and comparison pics! I think I'll leave mine in the box for now to see how things go. I already have a bunch of MH dolls in various conditions that I got at the thrift shop so I already know what it's like to hold and pose them. If they do eventually go on clearance, then I'll buy a second set to open.

[monitor_ep]

Hey do look like the original boxes so that's good.

[rche]

back in the day, those retailed for 19.99, right? So, +5 for 12 years later and some nostalgia. Not that bad, and they had some fun goods and accessories, so hopefully all that is included still as well. How are they differentiating these from the OG? (original ghouls)

[Werewolf]

Not that bad, and they had some fun goods and accessories, so hopefully all that is included still as well. How are they differentiating these from the OG? (original ghouls)

Everything the original dolls came with are included. Pet, comb, stand and diary. The boxes are pretty nice homages, but they are noticeably different and the text is in multiple languages now.

[RonnyG]

It also says, Boo-riginal Creeproduction inside the box, so there's no mistaking these from the originals.
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[Werewolf]

The biggest improvement I'm looking forward to is Mattel no longer uses glue to root the hair. Original MH dolls are very prone to glue seepage from the heads gummying up their hair. Some of them are a real mess. Just nasty. They also don't use the original first run bodies. Those were very delicate and the limbs were kind of loose for posing and came off easily. The legs of the early run dolls were also strung with elastic.

[rche]

The biggest improvement I'm looking forward to is Mattel no longer uses glue to root the hair. Original MH dolls are very prone to glue seepage from the heads gummying up their hair. Some of them are a real mess. Just nasty. They also don't use the original first run bodies. Those were very delicate and the limbs were kind of loose for posing and came off easily. The legs of the early run dolls were also strung with elastic.

I recall the elastic strung legs now that you mention it. The first Frankie and Draculaura my kiddo had were like that and I remember thinking about MEGO similarities at the time.
So - there will be construction clues that will let folks know these are not original and I am supposing a copyright on the head and body somewhere as well. I noted that the boxes were marked as reissue, just was wondering about how difficult it would be to tell a loose figure. I am guessing at 5' distance you would not know the difference.

[Werewolf]

Just got mine today. Some quick observations:

The clothes are excellent. I am amazed at how very close they are to the originals. Nothing like the cheapened clothes of the Original Ghouls Collection reissues from 2015. The bodies look the same as the 2010 dolls but aren't the same. The legs are not strung and the pins that hold the lower arms on are much larger. This is only noticeable when you pull them out. The original bodies are marked 2008 and the new ones are marked 2021. The stands are marked differently. Mattel inc 2008 on the originals and just Mattel 2008 on the new ones. The colors are different. For example, the original Frankie stand is light grey and the new one is silvery and Lagoona's went from pearlized white to just white.

The dolls paint masks are different. It's very subtle. The eyes are closer together (I think the widely spaced eyes was an error on the original dolls) and Lagoona's eyes are slightly smaller. I've seen some reviews that mentioned the new Draculaura's skin is a brighter pink. I'm not sure of that. Looks about the same to me. Maybe their original dolls faded a touch? The original Frankie's hair had a very slight tinge of yellow to the silver. The new one is just silver. The new Lagoona has more blue in her hair. The new Clawdeen has the later clawed werewolf hands. The original one had the regular human hands. Which, again, I think was an error. The hands are also very soft and rubbery on the new dolls opposed to the hard plastic of the originals.

Lastly, no glue in the hair! Huzzah!

Overall, I think these are so close the originals you would be hard pressed to spot the differences unless you were really examining them closely.

Edit: I forgot to mention, they changed the dates on the diaries and they no longer contain the web codes on the first page. Because, you know, the website is long gone.