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!

 

Introduction - Monster High New Scaremester Catrine De Mew Review

Hello! This is my new here blog about my toy addiction. *cough* Here you'll find lots of Monster High, a fair bit of Nintendo geekery and opinions on all sorts of plasticky articulated bits and pieces I come across - starting with Catrine DeMew from the New Scaremester line. Enjoy! :-)

About six weeks ago now, I caved and ordered New Scaremester Jinafire and Catrine from Amazon. I was apprehensive about these dolls - they took over a month to arrive from a massive post bungle and I was pretty fed up by the whole thing by the time I actually managed to get Catrine in hand. It didn't really seem like it was worth all of the hassle - but hey, she arrived, may as well take a look.

Here was my first view. I like the new packaging for this line - it's cute. I don't like Catrine's pic - she looks kind of demented and the pencil between her teeth reminds me of a rat somehow - I've never met a kitty who enjoyed the taste of pencils!

But wow. What a perfect face-up! It was about this time that I did get a little excited.

Here's the back of her box:

For some reason mine came half open?

I like the art touches here. Seems MH is known for messy lockers - and check out Catrine's shoes!

 

Even the bells are monsterish:

 

After having a good long squeal over the packaging - here's Catrine out of the box! Isn't she gorgeous?

I went straight for her accessories. My favourite touch on this doll is a clip-on bow on her tail. It's black and stays on securely, with a tiny kitty skullette in the centre that would not show up in pics. Oh, and you can slide it anywhere on the tail and it stays on securely. Brilliant.

Her bag is great, and exactly the sort of thing that you see in real life, except not usually in such a fabulous colour (shame!). The painting on the bag isn't perfect, but it's not bad enough to detract from the bag itself.

Faux-zip at the back! Most IRL bags have these discreet zips (my bag has one of these - it's my candy pouch) so I'm glad it shows up here. Makes it seem a little more 'real'. Heck, I'd carry this bag!

 

I saw this thing in the box and thought - ooh, another compact! We've had those before (Dot Dead Gorgeous line, lookin' at you) and they're always cute.

Then I flipped it over and realised that maybe there was something cooler in there after all:

It's an itty set of pastels! The part showing through the back of the casing are tiny loops that actually fit on Catrine's fingers, so she can actually hold them. Adorable. But - no sketchpad, Mattel? That's practically begging for bathroom graffiti.

 

She also comes with a little book full of little scribbles:

And some trash-talk about American cheese:

I'm no American myself, and cheese isn't orange here, so I didn't actually figure out what she meant until I typed that out just now. Whoops.

 

Anyway, I popped her in her stand for a clearer look:

Still gorgeous.

Here's a close-up. Her eyeshadow is a bright lilac with a thin magenta inner line. It's almost invisible on the lower lashes, avoiding that masky look some face-ups give. Her nose and lips are pretty much the same colour as the basic release, a dusky mauve - but those eyes are something new, and they work brilliantly against her bright blue irises. Her hair is bright lilac, with a streak each of violet and magenta in front. There are more magenta streaks in the back of her hair, which you can see a hint of below:

There are some odd snarls in the hair itself and slight gaps in the hairline rooting - and the hair looks like a haystack from behind. It feels nice and soft if a little coarse at the ends.

Awkward.

Catrine is wearing a one-piece dress of rugged periwinkle, baby pink and metallic blue stripes. It's edged with pink ribbon and metallic blue trim in a gorgeous Scarisian web pattern. The bolero over the top is a separate item - it's knitted and Velcros in back:

And, in true Scarisian style, a scarf of blue net:

Here's what's under the bolero - simple blue spaghetti straps.

 

Her jewellery is simple - two chunky bangles, one lilac and one black. I wasn't a fan of these in the Bratz days and I'm not a fan now, honestly. They feel uninspired, compared to what MH usually comes out with.

 

It was here I noticed green stains on both arms like this - and a yellowing hand:

 

There's nothing green or yellow on Catrine at all. The bolero is true black. What the?

Her shoes are beautiful though: lilac filigree heels. Although I feel like in warm grey or pink they'd be just as good on Rochelle - perhaps they'll be a reissue in future!

I had to pull out my signature Catrine to compare with the new release. Mine has had her hair washed and not re-curled - the original's hair is hard as a rock and far more curly. Otherwise she's as she came.

I much prefer NS Catrine's eyeshadow. The pink on Scaris is a bit - raccoony. And kind of garish against the white skin and all that lavender. There's definitely worse though. Their lips are pretty much the same colour, as are their eyes. Even their shoes are similar!

Scaris Catrine will always win in the handbag stakes though. Look at this thing.

And a shot of just Scaris Catrine, because she's still gorgeous.

 

Scaris Catrine's outfit definitely wins, though. That artist belt is genius.

 

I wish NS Catrine came with these glove hands though:

Overall, I think this new Catrine is a beautiful take on the character. I love the continuation of the Scarisian themes in this doll - away from the theme line they seem far less gimmicky. There are a few issues with the doll though; weird hair snarls, and odd discolourations on the white body. My Catrine has a yellowed hand and green spots on her arms. Her hair looks very messy and coarse, especially from behind, and there are strange rooting gaps in the hairline. But overall, they haven't really detracted from my enjoyment of her at all. Her hair and makeup colours are beautiful and work well together, and there are some really cute touches here - the pastels and the tail bow alone are new, interesting ideas for the dolls. If this is the standard Catrine sets, I look forward to seeing more of her!