It's a Monster Exchange

Since getting a bit into collecting Monster High dolls recently, I had been going back and looking at all the MH releases over the past year and saw a line called Monster Exchange. There were some nice dolls in this  line but the one that caught my eye was the Draculaura. If you've been following my MH purchases, you'll know that my favourites are Ghoulia Yelps and Operetta. I don't often collect the other dolls unless there is something special/striking about them enough for me to buy and I don't collect as many dolls of the other ghouls as I do of my favourites.

On the weekend, hubby suggested we visit one of the big shopping centres for a spot of lunch (in our case Sushi train!). As I was there already, I dragged him into Target and Big W to check if the MH dolls had been restocked (I hadn't been there for about two weeks). There didn't seem an awful lot at Big W until I started pushing the dolls at the front aside and found two right at the back hidden away.

Of course I was excited as I had been searching for this particular doll for a while and had actually given up hope of finding her.

Her box art is quite pretty. I love the images of her on both front and back. It says that she is spending some time away from Monster High in the city of Shibooya. It's obvious where the influence for her styling is coming from.

She comes with a little book that is her diary of her time in Shibooya. Inside the cover is this photo of her which looks like her passport.

Freed from her box. I am really liking the backdrops these dolls come with. I've been using them for backgrounds.

I'll start with her outfit. She has a kimono style shirt that comes with a simple pink belt around the waist with a skirt that has pictures of cobwebs on it. The belt has round patterns on it.

A closer look at the extra accessories she comes with. She comes with a functional handbag. It actually opens and closes. I have her passport stored in there right now. Her passport which you can in the picture below the handbag is just a simple piece of cardboard that is printed on one side and black on the other.

I haven't taken out her hair to wash the styling gunk out of it yet but I plan to. Her fringe is as hard as cardboard because of the amount they put on that part of her hair. Here you can see a close up of that lovely face screening. It's my favourite for Draculaura. Even more so than my Haunted version of her. She has sharp pink eyebrows, hot pink eyeshadow and really lovely pink lips. Her fangs are not as noticeable in this version. They are there but have been painted to blend in a little with her lipstick. Even her heart is more pixel/squared shape. Her eyes are such a nice gradient shade of pink with subtle touches of purple.

Her head piece is made up of two parts. The pink bow holding the "bun" in place and behind that is an extra piece that clips on and looks like sleeping bats. I find that pretty cool and a bit unusual.

Her shoes are pretty trendy. The black part is a bow similar to her head piece and the tiny details on the pink part are cobwebs. On the back of the heels is again the same bow pattern. 

And of course, as mentioned earlier, the little book she comes with that details her stay in Shibooya.

She does come with a simple black stand and hair brush. 

I'm really happy I managed to find this doll. She's one of the more popular ones which means they usually get stocked and sell out quickly unless you happen to turn up on stock day. I think I was lucky because there wasn't a sale on these dolls and they are priced $10 more than the regular dolls ($30AUD) which could explain why there were still two left.

I also managed to pick up another MH vinyl doll (Skelita) I had been wanting and a Mega Bloks Frankie to add to my Mega Blok sets.

I'm just missing Twyla, Frankie and Rochelle from the Vinyl Dolls line. I like the vinyl doll version of Skelita but I am not sure on her MH doll version. The jury is still out on that one. I'd probably have to look at one in person. Although my MH shelf in the display cabinet is filling up fast. However, hubby is up-cycling an old TV frame (you know like the ones they had back in the 70s) for me. He is adding a backing that can be latched and a glass front to it so I can display my dolls in his words, "Like they are on TV." It's going to be painted although I have to sand it back first before that can happen. I'm actually quite excited about it. I'm thinking I am probably going to put the MH dolls in there once it's finished. But first I need to figure out flooring, walls, props etc.

And in a change of pace, my next post will be on Azones and Pullip and Blythe clothing.