Mattel's Monster High

[Harbingerboy]

Found the updated Mystixx Vampires website. All the characters have their own bios.

http://mystixx.com/index.html

Looks like they fired the ten-year-old and hired a fourteen-year-old.

In all fairness, Playhut appears to be a company that only produces licensed brand play tents, outside of a few small stunt action cycle & truck toys. Mystixx seems to be their first real attempt at their own big brand. Having only seen a couple pics of the product from eBay, I can say the duality concept sounds fun and interesting, but the design and execution looks like a fail so far. The packaging looks like a Bratz knockoff, the dolls look like MH knockoffs, the fashions look as boring, the characters sound completely unoriginal...at least MGA's Bratzillaz came for the market trend with a real effort in design, character development, thoughtful accessories (Cafe Zap aside), etc., though the end results are still arguable. I'm sure Playhut doesn't have MGA bucks (they sure aren't follwing MGA's marketing push), but if the product speaks for itself then this just looks like a half@ssed money grab. And that new website, which misspells the brand in the browser as "Mystix Home" - there isn't even any copyright info or company links on the home page.

I wonder what the Mystixx SRP is? I also have to wonder how much they paid their web site designer.


Btw, my favorite Monster High bootleg/knockoff (not that I'm calling any of the above competitors outright knockoffs), is by far...Miao Miao Devil Girl!! If you haven't witnessed the awesomeness of Miao Miao Devil Girl yet, feast your eyes (apologies in advance for the pic heaviness, but it must be seen to be believed)...



Gotta love that satanic goat pet! I don't know where these are generally sold (all images from Google Images), but they've apparently softened the crazy-eyes stare with later releases and are mimicking Monster High's packaging much more closely now, including skullettes, character portraits (Frankie, Ghoulia, etc.) and assortment names (Dead Tired, etc.). One even mimics SDCC black & white Frankie's box.



I don't know what's more amazing, the skanky cheerleader (?) ensembles or the drum set? The girls of Monster High never got a drum set. Ah well...I do kind of feel for the little girl who grows up with Devil Girl.

[Werewolf]

Found the updated Mystixx Vampires website. All the characters have their own bios.

http://mystixx.com/index.html

[Werewolf]

That website is atrocious! The copy, the legibility...I can't even form an opinion on the product (which I didn't see any pics of), it's like a ten year old created it.

Yeah, the site is pretty bad. Hopefully it's just very early and not finished yet. I loled at the identical cut paste bios all the characters have. I've seen the dolls on ebay but not in person yet. They actually looked fairly nice. I'm gonna get at least one of them to check out when/if I find them locally. I'm gonna check TRU this weekend.

[Harbingerboy]

Step aside Bratzillaz there's a new MH knockoff haunting the toy isles.

Mystixx Vampires.

http://www.playhut.com/mystixx/index.html

The dolls come with two outfits and two wigs. The gimmick is the dolls heads have two faces and rotating the heads and switching the outfits and wigs changes the dolls from human to Vampires.

That website is atrocious! The copy, the legibility...I can't even form an opinion on the product (which I didn't see any pics of), it's like a ten year old created it.

[Werewolf]

Step aside Bratzillaz there's a new MH knockoff haunting the toy isles.

Mystixx Vampires.

http://www.playhut.com/mystixx/index.html

The dolls come with two outfits and two wigs. The gimmick is the dolls heads have two faces and rotating the heads and switching the outfits and wigs changes the dolls from human to Vampires.

[Harbingerboy]

Probably not rares, but just picked up 6 of the MH girls for my daughter at Krogers clearanced out at 3 bux each. Seemed like an awesome deal to me. Target also had some outfits for 2.50.

That's an awesome deal, congrats!

Is it me or is the hair color different?

It's probably the lighting/quality of the pic, but the hair color is the same for each. Cleo on top does have teal streaks also, though its hard to tell from that pic. The placement and amount of color varies a lot from doll to doll, however. The two Draculauras' bangs/fringe in that pic is a perfect example.

[jimsmegos]

Probably not rares, but just picked up 6 of the MH girls for my daughter at Krogers clearanced out at 3 bux each. Seemed like an awesome deal to me. Target also had some outfits for 2.50.

Wowza! which line was that cheap?

[ScottA]

Can anyone tell the difference?...

Is it me or is the hair color different?

[Megotu]

Probably not rares, but just picked up 6 of the MH girls for my daughter at Krogers clearanced out at 3 bux each. Seemed like an awesome deal to me. Target also had some outfits for 2.50.

[Harbingerboy]

Weird...new boxes they move the Ghouls Rule logo!

Yeah the new Ghouls Rule boxes (on top in above pic, Frankie on right in below pic) look much better IMO and are similar to Wal-Mart's Abbey (who I didn't even notice was in a newly modified box). When I first picked up a set of Ghouls Rule (my first set is on the bottom in the above pic) I was puzzled by the giant sticker slapped onto the front bottom corner, seemingly an afterthought. They made the boxes look weird to me. The rest of the design was nice, but I thought the upper left corner was also...missing something...and that sticker was such an eyesore. With the dolls shipping now Mattel has remedied the design issues, getting rid of the huge ugly sticker on the bottom front and placing the Ghouls Rule logo appropriately in the top left corner! Other modifications include the addition of a pop-out blurb stating "Check out the scary cool costume I wear in the movie" and the addition of "Daughter of Frankenstein/etc." under each doll's name, which was oddly absent on the prior releases.



Anyway, I guess I'll return my first releases now.

[turnbolt]

Weird...new boxes they move the Ghouls Rule logo!

[Harbingerboy]

Can anyone tell the difference?...

[BlackKnight]

MH shelves around here typically look like they were hit by a bomb with only a few 1600 figures hanging around to clean up.

Here too. lol.
.... With all Movie Related Toys looking like they just put them out, Except for that Light layer of Dust collecting on them.

[rche]

none of 'em are evenly distributed around here. MH shelves around here typically look like they were hit by a bomb with only a few 1600 figures hanging around to clean up. The kids and I hit about 4 stores over the weekend hoping to find something and came back bupkis.

[Harbingerboy]

Fun bit of variant news...Robecca is showing up with a variation in Captain Penny's backpack - some are painted black and some are copper (unpainted), same as body color. I hadn't noticed until others started pointing it out online. After checking, my MIB Robecca has a Captain Penny with a black backpack, but my loose Robecca's Captain Penny has a copper/unpainted backpack. Not significant to me, but kinda interesting to note. No idea which is more prevalent, but from reports they seem pretty evenly distributed thus far.