Monster High New Scaremester Jinafire Long Review

In that Amazon snafu I mentioned in my last post, there was another casualty: Jinafire. Watching your package get lost in a mail centre for over three weeks sucks. Especially when you're antsy as hell like me. But still, she got here! Check her out:

 

I like the way she looks in box - lots of red. It looks fantastic with the golden skin and green hair. Her art is pretty - I like the sculpture too. Wish that was in the set. Jina pictured with a statue, Catrine with her pastels... perhaps these two intend on crashing Art Class?

I wish I had a tail to carry stuff with. And that dragon.

Once again, the back of the box has a cute page out of Jina's schedule:

Here she is still tied down. Her tail is actually attached to her body here - pretty cool that it can sit totally flat. I also really like the bag and the red thing - is it a book?

 

Nope. Another folder. We have enough of these, Mattel. Stop it.

While we're on accessories, I completely forgot to snap a pic of her book. Sorry! But here's her bag - it's a fan-shaped satchel embossed with clouds and with gold highlights. It's harder to see the moulded details in person:

It opens:



But the strap is warped so in order for Jina to use it, she has to pose pretty awkwardly. I'll try hot water on it soon and see if that helps - this does not look comfy in the slightest.

Iron Woman?

Speaking of Jina, here's her face up close. Where Scaris Jinafire had red eyeshadow, this one is green. It follows the same basic shape as the original, but in shades of jade up to the eyebrow, giving it more of a 'masky' look. It's heavy-duty stuff. Her lips are a brighter red than her Scaris counterpart, but not by a whole lot.

Jinafire's eyeshadow style looks lovely in profile - and so do her earrings! They're Chinese lanterns with tassels and a ribbed look to them.

Her skin is shimmery. You can sort of see it in this pic.

From behind, you can see that Jinafire's ponytail is pretty badly done: loose around the front (how does that happen?) and awkward from behind. But it shows off the colour mix well - her hair is a medium green with lime highlights and black lowlights. I like the effect. The streaks look very natural and not chunky in the slightest.

Shoutout to Jina's tail, isn't it great? I think Mattel did a great job here - it looks exactly like the kind of swishy dramatic tail a dragon should have. Bravo.

Jinafire's outfit is relatively simple but well-executed. She wears a simple, high-necked halter in an acid-green/magenta smoke pattern, with a gold-embossed black waistband and neckline. It's very carefully tucked into her red jeans. (I peeked.)

I gave up and took that bad ponytail out. You can see that the front portion of her hair is swept to the side and banded here, so I left that in - I like the way it looks, and that kind of part pretty much just means it'll flop in her face if I try and remove it I think. Let's not bother.

I really like the way her hair out frames her face.. and those fantastic earrings:

Back to clothes. Jina's pants are red shimmery jeans with distressed patches and black-and-gold patterned cuffs. The seam at mid-shin is a little bulky, but otherwise I like them. They're casual, but interesting.

Stovepipe jeans!

And the red and gold look utterly fantastic with her shoes - green iridescent wedges, held up by a qilin, the Chinese mythical creature that is.. awfully hard to describe, actually. There's a wonderful gold shimmer to these shoes - I originally felt that being a solid colour ruined the detailing, but they glow in the light and painting that over would've been a crime. Although I really wouldn't complain if her shoes stayed on - turns out there's a really good reason they rubber-banded them onto her feet.

I love the use of strong, bold colour in Jina's outfit. I'm not a general fan of pants on dolls, but these are great pants. She's striking and well-executed - I can even forgive the zillionth re-use of that folder! When pulled out of the pony-tail, her hair is beautifully casual and a great foil for the bright outfit. Of the NS line, she's my favourite purely because she really shows a different side to Jinafire, and that diversity is awesome to see.

Can't finish a second-release doll review without a comparison to the original though!

You can really see here how these dolls have completely different vibes. Basic Jina is dressy and traditional. New Scaremester Jina is laid-back and casual - just like the high-schooler she's supposed to be. I can't imagine anyone wearing a headdress in the halls without running into stuff. Maybe I was just really uncoordinated in high school?

Their faceups are about as different as could be - NS Jina's green eyeshadow is huge and very mask-like, but fits in with her hair and almost feels like an extension of it. Scaris Jina's red and gold makes her eyes really pop but is more subtle. Both great looks. Scaris's updo is ve

Seeing these two dolls side-by-side actually makes me appreciate them both more. They really do feel like two different total looks: day versus night, even. Even their shoes are like that: casual looking wedges versus fancy red-and-gold heels. From top to toe they're utter opposites. Ten points, Mattel. This may be one of my top dolls for this year!

No real need for a spiel here, honestly. If you liked Scaris Jinafire, you'll love this doll. She's one of the most eye-catching dolls MH has put out this year - simple but refined, and no major flaws that I can see. If you can only get one of the New Scaremester line -  make it Jina!