What a great line of dolls. Even if you have never heard of the Monster High webisodes, if you are interested in doll collecting you will love the detail in these dolls. However, you may want to check out MonsterHigh.com at any rate– the webisodes have some scary good humor (yes, that was a pun!) and you’ll fall in love with the funny cast of characters. The line of Mattel dolls follows closely to the theme of the Monster High series. Bright, bold, and fierce detail are what you will find.
These Mattel Monster High dolls have a high degree of accuracy and attention to detail, not to mention aesthetic execution. This exceeds all three of my standards I typically use for reviewing dolls! I really believe these dolls are some of the highest grade dolls on the market today.
Hair, face, & makeup:
The Abbey Bominable doll represents one of my favorite characters from the Monster High series. Since she represents the daughter of a Yeti (or Abominable Snow Monster) , she comes fashioned in an array of icy detail. Let’s start with her skin color. The doll body and face are flecked with a slightly textured glitter. Overall, it is a very subtle shimmering effect, nothing ostentatious. The designers knew not to overdo the icy glitter effect. Good choice. Her skin color is of course the icy powder blue of an Arctic day. Very much like the design of the series character herself.
Abbey’s doll hair is a beautiful waterfall of colors. Like a cascading aurora borealis (is that overkill on the metaphors?). Well, I think you see what I mean. This doll has some gorgeous hair (I am jealous!). The hair flows back from her forehead, straight down into what could only be described as a cascade of hair. I believe Monster High dolls use that wonderful saran hair (think “Katsilk”). It feels soft and smooth, and has a little weight to it. It does not have that dry texture from which other doll brands suffer. Super-manageable, and from what I hear from other doll collectors, very stylable. Abbey’s hair has four colors, a base of white surrounding light blue, purple, and pink which can only be seen from the front. The designers went the extra mile and threaded a sort of tinsel throughout her long hair. These extra details really give an icy touch to this abominable lady.
All Monster High dolls have a very iconic face. They have determined, fierce, or bold expressions, depending upon how you define the look. A detailed, mature face is always appreciated in the world of doll designing. There also seem to be some subtle differences in the Monster High doll faces. I compared Abbey’s face to a Cleo de Nile doll, and I noticed that Abbey has broader features. Specifically across her nose and cheeks. Abbey’s chin and lips jut out further than other doll faces too. This makes sense if your parents happen to be yetis! (I would also think she’d naturally be taller and maybe even broader, considering her parentage. In this case, some online research has discovered that this doll is slightly taller than other Monster High doll molds.) An additional monster feature unique to Abbey are the two teeth, or tusks, that extend up from between her lips.
Now onto her eyes and makeup. Abbey has almond-shaped eyes, about average size when compared to Cleo’s thin Egyptian style or Jinafire’s wide-eyed fiery expression. Abbey’s eyes are clearly painted (possibly decaled) with a pink iris and finely distinguished eyelashes. Her eyeshadow is a mauve-pink, slightly off color from the pink of her irises. The eyebrows are thin and slightly curved. No mistakes in any of the make up and it is precisely applied. Her lips are the most bold feature of her face, standing out in a bright reddish pink. The best part would have to be the tusks extruding from between her lips. All details are fitting and accurate to the Monster High character art.
Accessories:
This Abbey doll has exquisite taste in jewelry, all ice-themed of course. All three pieces are translucent and match the colors of her dress and hair. Her left earring is a nicely detailed purple snowflake, and the right earring looks like a blue spike of ice or crystal.
Her choker necklace matches the color and crystal theme of the blue spike earring. There is one large crystal planted at the center of the necklace. These pieces of jewelry were not a random afterthought, but rather specially designed for the look of Abbey in the Monster High series.
Abbey also has a purse attached to the cord laced around her dress. The purse is not removable without disrupting and cutting the cord, but why remove it when it belongs with the outfit anyway. The purse is worn in the webisodes and official Monster High artwork, so I was glad to see it as an additional doll accessory. It is a simple-looking piece, grey in color, square in shape. Not much detail overall, except that it has a white key looped onto a removable hook. Such a small detail to add and put production time and money into–this is why I appreciate this doll series so much. You’ll notice that the affiliated Ever After High dolls (also under Mattel) have attention to small detail too, such as accessories.
As a last accessory, this Abbey doll comes with her pet wooly mammoth, Shiver. Nicely colored and detailed, she is a cute companion piece to the character’s doll.
Clothes:
Look at all that faux fur! Nothing says “cold” like furry arctic fashion. Abbey’s outfit is trimmed in white “fur” from head to toe. The accuracy and detail of her outfit are commendable as well. She has five points of fur: the head band wrap around her hair, the fur trim neckline stretching across from shoulder to shoulder, the two arm warmers, and the two leg warmers. Ironically, I doubt Abbey really needs to stay warm since she thrives in freezing climates. So I gather these are more of a fashion expression she chooses to wear to represent her homeland. The boots are hard to see, but they are also white and just about fully covered by the leg warmers.
Her fractal dress is well-tailored to the doll’s body size and structure. The colors look like they came right out of the 80s (and that’s not a bad thing at all). The fractal pattern surrounds the body of the dress, except for the fur trim around the neck and shoulders, the trim at the hips, and also the two strips of white stretchy material on either side of her torso. As icing on the cake, a cord has been threaded criss-crossing across the dress, ending in a bow on her left side with two long tassels. It’s amazing how much detail the designers packed into this one outfit.
Additional Details:
A further point to mention would be the attention to detail of the “monster hands”. Abbey has claw-shaped hands, as also seen in other less human Monster High dolls. It’s nice to see differentiation among the dolls. The designers did not have to add that extra feature, but I’m glad they did in the end.
The points of articulation in these Monster High dolls are higher than some other doll lines: the neck, both wrists, shoulders, elbows, hips, and knees. The unique feature about the knees is that not only can they swing front to back, but the can swivel side-to-side. The posing can become quite fun. One drawback to the points of articulation is that the joints are hit or miss on how loose they swing. I have a good variety of Monster High dolls, and I would say about one third of the dolls have at least one loose joint or more. This does not bode well for doll posing. Also, in all of the Monster High dolls, I would like to see a higher degree of articulation in the neck. The heads can swivel side to side just fine, but when it comes to moving the head back or forth (to look up or down), they are very stiff with little range.
Dolls On A Whim 