Monster High was so important that a girl who had tragically lost her leg who was in my class painted her fake leg to look like copper because of Rebecca Steam, and everyone (girl) called her Steam because of the character. Literally coolest moment, its one of those memories that you never forget and you just... attach it to your brain
same like dolls didn't give me body insecurities, that was my dad always talking about how i need to be more active and exercise so i won't be so fat 🙄
Its true kids sometimes just take in whatever mediocre media its cynicaly shved in their faces, but also, sometimes do really know what they want and have good taste. Or at least a fresh perspective
as a kid, dolls never gave me negative body issues. i knew that they weren't real, and was aware that their unrealistic proportions would be very weird on an actual human body. they just didn't come across as human. dolls look cool, and so i'd obsess over their clothes/hair more.
You know, looking at him with that name, mermaid would be a good catch all descriptor but specifically I think he would be a Merrow (Irish mermaid, can be sort of horrifying in legend). Don't mind me splitting hairs with the classification of merfolk.
I feel like this is a small detail, but when i got Clawdeen as a kid, in the little diary that came with her, it said that she needed to shave frequently bc her hair grew too quickly and honestly as a child I always took comfort in that, since im a hairy girl and all haha I just thought it was cool that I could relate, and it made me feel better even if it was just for a moment.
yeah i think as a very hairy kid i would much rather have had some acknowledgment of body hair just as a concept than blatantly ignoring it. at least i would have known i wasnt the only hairy girl on earth lol
unrelated but i remember how much i loved my frankie doll's "tummy pouch." all dolls were skinny, but it felt as if only the monster highs didn't have a flat stomach, and as a chubby kid it did make me feel better about myself versus the barbies that were pretty flat. i bet if i had gotten a clawdeen at 11 it wouldve helped me too with my hair insecurities
When i was a child and played with the dolls, i literally never ever thought 'i wish i was skinny like her..' kids don't care about that stuff. They just wanna play with their dolls. Even at 10 i didnt think that.
I don't think it's the fact that kids don't think about that stuff, cause as much as we like to pretend that kids have no issue with body image, we know that's not true. I know for a fact that I had issues with body image and even though I didn't care TOO much as a 10 year old, I sure as hell cared as a 13 year old. (Although high school certainly didn't help.) That's the issue people are getting at when they complain about this kinda stuff, because although a literal child might not care about it, the minute puberty kids in, it can suddenly because a very big issue if they have a pre-existing idea of what it's acceptable to look like. Instead, I think the fact of the matter is simply that even at a young age, kids recognise stylisation. No, I wasn't skinny, but I also didn't have a head the size of a beachball. Kids, even at a young age, can tell the difference between cartoony things and realistic things. This is why I think it's more important for Barbie and more realistic dolls to have this kinda rep than the cartoony ones.
I dont know about Skelita, I remember here in Mexico she was a huge hit among a lot of my female classmates and me. It was my favorite because of the representation and of course because of the themes of day of the dead. Definetly not on the same scale as of the other dolls, maybe in a foreigner's eyes yes but mexican culture being represented in any positive light outside of Mexico for us is an absolute win.
As a Hispanic myself, me personally, (can't speak for others) I absolutely ADORED Skelita! I found it so cool to have my culture represented in a cool way!
honestly monster high sent a way better message for kids than more “tame and classic” dolls like barbie, mh had a lot more diversity and was able to have that diversity becuase the ghouls literally weren’t human, they weren’t a particular race. also mh sent the message that you don’t need to fit in, your fashion and looks are fabulous how you are. plus some of the ghouls were definitely my gay awakening as a child
For C.A Cupid’s redesign and how it conflicts with the bone elemental theory, I was personally always under the impression that her Monster High design was what she actually looks like and the Ever After High design was just a glamour she used to blend in a bit more
that honestly makes a lot of sense since no one at ever after high would be used to seeing a straight up MONSTER as a student and they are all already kind of stuck in their roles as "good guys" and "bad guys" so if she showed up in her original form then she'd have just been assumed to be a villain and likely be feared as one.
It’s so interesting to hear these parents clutch their pearls at Monster High because my own mother couldn’t have given less of a shit about little me playing with them. In fact, she thought some of the dolls were really cool. She especially liked how Skelita was molded to actually look like a skeleton. Honestly, a lot of her sentiment was probably because when she was younger, she was quite the tomboy and most toys made for girls back then were very stereotypically girly. So I think she was happy that I got the chance to enjoy something that she didn’t get to.
my mom loved all of my dolls that i had, and so did my dad. they both hung out with me and played with them with me, and they loved literally every doll i had, and they still love them
As a plus size girl, I’ve never once felt badly about my body when I played with these dolls. They all had the same body so I never thought anything of it. I freaking loved monster high so much as a kid
It's literally the society who teach plus-size-people to hate themselves, not some dolls.Also this means, that you can dress up in everything from the other dolls
i completely agree with this. monster high never made me feel bad about myself because they were so unrealistic. i think if they had introduced plus size characters it would have been a problem. i would have started thinking about it because id realize they couldnt wear any of the thinner characters clothing.
Kids literally never care about how dolls look unless their own parents are obsessed with appearances. All they see is a lovely and cool looking doll. Saying that as a woman who owned Barbies, Bratz and at least one Monster High doll growing up.
agreed. as long as i can remember i was always insecure of my body. i was OBSESSED with dolls and barbie’s and never once did i compare them to myself. i think seeing that they weren’t real and half the time couldn’t even bend their elbows i didn’t see them as real
As a fat kid I’d occasionally ponder on stuff like why their butts had a wack mold on them or why they are on their tippy toes 24/7 but never did i ever use my dolls for comparison. I just thought they were cool and i wanted to have their style of clothing.
"The dolls barely wear any clothes!" Said about the dolls that literally wear more clothing items than Barbie. The old dolls had amazing quality, though. Doll customizers love them and I wish that I was more into these dolls as a kid because I love making customs now. I got a Venus McFlytrap, though, and I love her punk vibes, I'm keeping her as is
Literally! Tbh, not sure about anyone else, but when I had Barbie dolls back when I was three, that first thing that always ended up happening was me ripping off and losing the clothes, so it was always just these nude lady dolls scattered around my room, lmao Something like Monster High would've been so much nicer since I would have actually like them and their fashion sense as opposed to barbie's dumb pink aesthetic that I hated sm. Even nowadays, when I look at og MH dolls I can't help by want to get into them.
@@Morrynlupine I was thinking the same thing. Like most dolls end up naked anyway when kids play with them. Why does their clothing matter, the unnecessarily drama I put my dolls threw (although when Monster High came I was 13 an no one played with dolls but I got a few an kept them but I don't have a lot of them anymore from moving so much. But my Littlest Pet Shops was like Desperate Housewives with all the drama I put those dolls threw.
The controversies that happened with monster high regarding their clothing and the parents response, especially the one that said that girls who dress like that want attention, really makes you realize how illy girls are talked about especially with parents teaching their kids, and how the idea that girls are allowed to look nice for themselves or that they dress because it makes them feel comfortable, expressive, confident, etc, is never seemed to be an option
right? when i was a kid that wasn't on my mind, the idea of something being "slutty" wasn't on my brain, for sure I wouldn't have been able to think "this is too much skin" or "this is too much clothes" I just look at the doll and think "she's so pretty and i love the color of her clothes!"
Mexican monster high og collector here!! Regarding the cultural appropriation matter with the designs here in Mexico isn't that much of a concern. In fact, Skelita and Isi are the most expensive and desired ghouls here in the collectors market in my experience. Me and my grandma who has been very close to the Wixarika culture (indigenous tribe that can be part of the inspiration for the elements Isi dawndancer has), loved the designs and as far as I know, most people here also love them. Specially Skelita who really started the hype, since her design is incredibly well made and iconic, and resembles very clearly a Catrina. I also wanted to talk about the skeleton boobs, which are also very culturally accurate here, ironically. Most of the time the image of a Catrina resembles an exaggerated body with a lot of curves, despite being a literal skeleton. This is a part of the Mexican culture that helps us see the death in a different light, it being a playful and carefree caricature we can make fun of in a respectful way rather than an evil spirit we have to be afraid of. I don't think the designs are offensive to my culture at all, since both characters never use their clothes as a costume or as a mockery, and in the other hand embrace deeply their roots and tradicional attire. I think it's more of a Cultural appreciation. :) Just wanted to give a little bit of my opinion as a Mexican collector myself. Great video!! 💞✨
I also think that Isi Dawndancerwasn't offensive, because the Design team were very respectful about the Culture they borrowed, they didn't make her as a Wendigo but rather a deer spirit, in my Native Friend's opinion, it's indearing and light hearted
This part, I’m also Mexican and never saw anything offensive in the doll, I think it’s just people trying to be offended, but not actual Mexicans, we loved this
My mom is so cool because, although she didn’t agree with the dolls and their “scariness”, she still got them for me. To this day, her reasoning for letting me enjoy whatever media I like is, “I can’t stop you from liking it, and as long as it’s meant for your age, it’s okay” so big shoutout to my mom for giving me this kinda freedom
As a Mexican American I LOVED that they had a Day of the Dead based doll! Had her along with the Gargoyle and steampunk dolls, and still have the Ghoulfriends Forever book series. Monster High was fur-some!
@@inuiri8365 What?! Bruh I LOVE Skelita’s design! As someone from the UK, I’ve always loved the aesthetics and meaning behind the Day of the Dead, so to see a character who represented that aspect of the culture was always so cool to me. Even to this day she remains as one of my favourite MH designs.
@@inuiri8365 I agree, I’ve only seen white people complain about her design, but me and my family and my other Latino friends absolutely adored her design and connection to culture, sure the day of the dead thing is generic but her outfit was creative and she had personality
growing up with parents that were more alternative and a heavy liking for spooky things, monster high became a huge childhood staple for me due to their lean towards alt fashion which I was already drifting towards at a young age. Having dolls that my parents actually liked because of their uniqueness and understanding of my interest in monsters at the time was a huge deal for me, I didn't even know that other parents disproved of it until I became a teenager
I totally loved them, and so did all of my friends, but I was the only one who was allowed to have them. I grew up in a fairly Christian community so my friends parents all thought they were "demonic"
sameee, my mum was so obsessed with the shoes and im pretty sure she was more into them me lol but its just something we bonded over and im so happy that she only saw them as dolls and not some "evil and demonic" thing.
i played with monster highs all my childhood. never did i look at a doll and think “i wanna be that thin”, neither have i ever heard of someone who’s body image was affected by a LITERAL DOLL.
yeah, while i think it's nice to feel represented - like have a doll look like you whether that's a skin color, body type disability, whatever- even as a kid i was able to separate it like. that's a doll, and this is me, a human person. we're not really meant to look alike
@@catgf7410 Yes! Although i do find it disappointing that they white washed clawdeen and howleen- like changing the skintone for different versions of the doll and how howleen's hair went from a curly, short, afro texture to a wavy, long, thin texture. I do think it is cool that they represented 'racism' in one of their movies- that was cool to teach kids
Same, they were MONSTERS too and it was clear they were stylized and more like caricatures of people. It never occurred to me to want to look like that
@@ginger7055 I would let clawdeens hair go if they made it clear she just changed her hair a lot as some black women like to do, but the skin tone change was inexcusable
Being a little girl in the late 2010s with an obsession with Monster High.. I vividly remember telling myself on multiple occasions that “when I am older I’m going to buy all the monster high dolls” and now.. older, there’s absolutely no dolls left I’m grieving on that lmao 💔
I'm only 7 minutes into the video and the line "girls don't like green" from Mattel higher-ups is going to be echoing around my head for a while. An absolutely bizarre piece of corporate-gothic lore has been revealed... I'm glad the actual girls they tested with dispelled that idea!
No, let me tell you WHY the honey swamp doll is actually so great!!! I’ve had that doll for years at this point, and her hair is amazing, it doesn’t tangle and mat like other dolls hair often does. The curls are extremely bouncy and not stiff, but they also managed to perfectly replicate type 4 hair which you don’t often see in dolls!!
I also have her and her curls mostly look fresh outta box!! The back of her head is a little flat bcuz of lying her down so much but they're so gorgeous and defined still
I don't have a honey swamp doll but from all the pictures I've seen her hair does seem to always look good unlike most curly doll hair that easily tangles
Honestly though. Children aren't born with the knowledge of what beauty standards are and what sexuality is. They literally don't care until someone tells them they should.
I can't understand people who blame dolls or celebrities or anything else on their own problems. I have luckily always been very confident and I have never ever been comparing myself to others. But that is not the case for most of the people, sadly. But blaming others and trying to point fingers is not gonna help. Those people need some help with the self esteem issues if it's not the parents, even a therapist would be a great option. We cannot possibly please every single person in this planet. Life is not fair and it's not anyones responsibility to make others feel good about themselves. Like if you are not happy with yourself, it's your responsibility to heal yourself. You are 100% right with your comment. 👌
Being a black girl, when I was younger, I didn’t see much representation. So, MH was honestly my favourite series/ film series/ doll line. I especially loved Clawdeen and Cleo because I felt like they were “black”. I really felt seen and I felt represented through their characters. I never really saw MH as un diverse but it’s nice to see it from someone else’s perspective.
@@obvioustroll3736 Clawdeen isn’t Latina- they don’t really have a race. Apart from Cleo who’s clearly Egyptian. I’m talking about how I viewed them when I was younger. If she was to be a race however- I would say she’s black but that’s obvs just my opinion
@@beauty-jc9xy yeah, they’re monsters but I always thought clawdeen was Latina because I grew up in a very Hispanic populated area and everyone looked and sounded very similar to her with the hair and all. Me being Latina as well, seeing her brought awe to me since you pretty much never see Hispanic dolls or characters of anything. They’re either white, and maybe a token black character and it’s like nobody else exist.
I never realized how whiny adults were growing up. My mom hated the body types, but she told me to not use my dolls as an expectation of what body type I wanted, and to just have fun. Since monster high had a lot of POC-coded characters such as Lagoona and Clawdeen, she was more than happy to give a little brown girl like me these dolls for Christmas. You can’t expect kids to instantly know self-confidence from birth, you have to teach them. Don’t be like the whiny adults in the monster high reviews.
I think I was more excited about the dolls than my Daughter was but she absolutely loved Monster High dolls. She still has a bunch of them saved. She is 16 now.
@@saraifuentes9821 i always considered her Indigenous Australian that loved nature and surfing (probably a stereotype now that I think about it) as a kid
@@clementeodessa Yeah it's Día de los Muertos in which culturally, the images of skeletons and skulls with paints and patterns are what represent the holiday. It's funny cuz Skelita is literally just another calaca that you've seen hundreds of time in Mexican products, like she's such an obvious fit to the Monster High universe for more culturally diverse characters, yet parents were still complaining despite her being one of the most accurate monsters in the franchise
On the bone titties thing: this actually makes sense, because you want the doll to be able to easily fit in all other Monster High clothing. If you change the form of the doll too much, especially at the main holding points, the clothing is going to wear very awkwardly (if it even stays on at all). This is also generally why you only see one body type in doll lines, as most toy companies are reluctant to invest in a new product that not only requires a deviation in production, but also cannot utilize existing assets.
Not only that, but is also culturally correct too. Here in Mexico we have Catrinas figures. They are basically High class ladies' skeletons and they have very huge attributes, but, reaaally marked attributes, they have always been like that.
I understand some points of the parents but when I was a kid I never realized their skinny proportions or sexy clothes, I just wanted to play with them. Nowadays I’m obsessed with these dolls because they’re a perfectly imperfect piece of art. I wish they’d sell more OG reproduction dolls for collectors.
Yes, as a child I just thought the proportions were a classic style for dolls in general. They never affected my perception of my own body or the body of anyone else.
Yeah I have body issues from other stuff, i never played with dolls as a kid (too “girly” for me, yeesh I was annoying) but I still knew that’s just how they looked.
Also its complicated to give dolls different body types because then you cant switch their clothes. Personally, i always liked to switch the different dolls outfits
@@peacock.spooderI think that's excusing a very wealthy company who absolutely can afford to make more clothing that is larger, but doesn't. If they made more dolls outside of barbies specific mold it only would make sense to have to make more clothes too, but they only have like at most a few but usually one. One down syndrome doll, 1 plus sized doll, they even discontinued a wheel chair barbie bc they "couldn't redesign the dream house to accommodate her". Excusing this is sorta pretending that they are telling the truth, that they actually can't make these things when they can.
@@arsenbrooks438 no no, your not getting the point. Yes they could make different sizes of clothing. Thats true. But if you were for exemple wanted to switch clothes with two dolls with different body type it wouldnt work. They arent talking about what matel is doing. They are just talking about personal preferences when it comes to dolls.
Actually, one thing about the Ever After High part of the story, it was actually originally going to be a sci-fi space themed spin-off of Monster High called Cosmic High, but due to the rising popularity of MGM's Novi Stars toy line at the time, Cosmic High ended up being canceled and replaced by Ever After High. So, if you guys are ever wondering about the post credits scene from the Monster High film Boo York! Boo York! where Astra Nova talks to Apple White and Raven Queen on her iCoffin, the scene now makes a lot of sense knowning all this.
I genuinely want to see Valentine again, with his boyfriend. When I learned Valentine was gay it showed younger me that I wasn't weird or broken for being LGBTQ+, I would have loved to see it in the show or a movie. I really want a LGBTQ+ character to be canon.
@@neb.9489 yea, a lot of my friends use it/its/itself. I'm just not gonna to fight abt the validity about them on a video that has nothing to do with it, yknow? Seems pointless
I'll always remember how every Tuesday night as a kid my mum and i would sit down with our lil collection of MH dolls, brush their hair, fix their clothes and talking excitingly about them. We would spend hours hunting them down on ebay and would count down the days together before they came, she truly loved sharing her passion of dolls with me and to this day we still talk about how cool we thought MH was. One of my favourite memories with her.
When I was a kid I took this camera that my parents had for trips and I'd make 'stop motions' of my MH dolls. I didn't know how to do anything other than taking pictures tho so whenever I showed my mom I'd just bring her the camera and flip as fast through the gallery as I could.
13:24 Whoa Whoaaaaa -Mexican here! Heres my opinion on Skelita. I got Skelitas a soon as i saw her , i was in high school . She is still very popular here in mexico cause shes perfect. I wouldnt use the word appropiation if the doll perfectly represents Dia de Los Muertos. We (i say we cause ive seen other fellow mexican from fan groups agree) are very happy she came out , and i havent seen any mexican actually upset with her , in fact its mostly USA citizens that are upset ??? in fact its a pity she ran out of stock here so fast. I havent been able to get the other versions of her . The necklace is made of cempasúchil a traditinal flower here, the skirt is papel picado / paper , the makeup as a sugar skull candy , its all incredibly well represented. And i can asure you mexican fans are delighted that our holiday is so well represented here. It feels like it was made with respect and good intentions. I wish people would stop with the " this cultural appropiation! ban this ! spread the word this is terrible! " each time mexico is well represented .. I cant speak for the other countries , but i can say this : Mexico fans are super happy with her ! / Debieron darnos una con el sombrero de la Catrina
In that section out of the 4 dolls pictured I’ve never heard anyone say culture appropriation, I cannot speak for the others but I know Isis dawn dancer in beloved by me and fellow Native Americans, although we wished they would’ve chose one tribe to focus on instead of a conglomeration of different Native American cultures. Happy to see that our cultures are represented and found nothing appropriative about it
I think it’s really cool how they made her out of bones! They were obviously put in a hard place with making sure she was shaped in a way that the clothes fit her, and they could’ve EASILY only gone halfway, but they didn’t :)
Ever After High was so good, they had genuinely so sad that the books & shows stopped. They had actually great plot, Madeline Hatters story line was just starting to take off & then it just stopped. I’m so sad… Could you do a break down on that???
oh hey Izzy! you mentioned how Ever After High was basically a carbon copy of monster high's concept, but there were actual lore reason for that. EAH and Monster High were sister series which were intended to crossover, meaning EAH was more of an extension of monster high than a copy. EAH just got canceled and MH got rebooted before they got to that point, and it's the reason why most EAH fans were originally MH fans Cupid transferring was basically to confirm that the two series were connected, and she went to ever after because they needed a character for the valentines special. they actually tease the crossover at the end of Boo york, but because both stories were scrapped, it never went anywhere. EAH was the next page in MH's story, but fans have sadly been left to speculate all the actual lore. I also want to mention that while Ever After and Descendants were similar in concept, concept is where the similarities end. The story elements were completely different, and most people who've seen both series agree that Ever After was a lot better, and had a lot more effort put into the story and design. Which is why EAH and MH fans hate Disney with a passion, cause it effectively killed both series
they were originally supposed to have an official crossover movie before both got canceled i remember my 12-year-old self was so upset when i found that out lol
13:30 I love your content but as a mexican I can say that Skellita was the best representation of our culture that has ever been createt. Even the smallest details are so tought through and beautiful. I love her and I honestly belive that in this case the term "cultural appropiation" was just thrown at it by people who don't understand it. Edit: wrong time stamp 2.edit: it was the right one 💀
Yeah, I think she was the coolest one I saw in the video. I was never really into Monster High when I was young, so I might start collecting. It sucks that they got discontinued because I totally would have been into them if I had been older when they were popular.
Yeah, I'm Brazilian which is very different than Mexican, but I remember when I was little I was obsessed with skellita and Abby's cousin whom I forgot the name, cuz they always felt closer to home
I wish they weren’t off the shelves. They were SO well designed in the day, all the accessories had so much attention to detail and the characters really made my childhood 🥺
I didn’t know if you were aware, but the reproduction dolls are in select Walmarts right now (at least in the US), as well as Walmart and Mattel’s websites! Plus they’re planning on rebooting the dolls later this year I believe.
I'll never forget the Halloween I dressed up at Lagoona Blue, I was freezing beyond belief but I was so so so happy about wearing that costume. Makes me appreciate my mom more for letting me explore that unlike some of the parents mentioned in the video. I wasn't a HUGE Monster High fan but I adored Lagoona a lot, and have some dolls of her to this day. Actually looking back on it more I wouldn't be surprised if this was the gateway into the alternative way I dress now. Lastly, going back to Lagoona I still get the hydration station commercial song stuck in my head on really random occasions. Also, my mother named one of our cats Twyla. Overall as someone who doesn't consider themselves a super fan or a huge fan in general, the lie has permeated my life in the best way possible.
Pretty sure the controversial monster high part about them looking “UGLY” “too skinny” and “mean and wrongly clothed” is quite selfish, when i played with these dolls, i never once thought about their body types like weight and booby sizes. I liked them due to their uniqueness, which means that the person who was complaining was only thinking about what they saw and not what their child thought
I absolutely agree! I was around 8-10 I believe when I had these dolls. I never once looked at their bodies and thought I wanted to be that skinny, nor did I ever think they were ugly. I always loved them because of how different they are! They were and are still are seen as beautiful to me, and if anything, they boosted my creativity! I feel that parents were reading way too into it. I could understand their concerns about body image, but when you're that young- the only time you worry about body image is when it is implanted by your parents. I believe that way, at least...
Nobody ever talks about this, but I love that when there's a 3D monster high movie and new characters are introduced in the movie, they actually appear in the webisodes that came out after the movie! If MH was like every other franchise, new characters would be forgotten and never even spoken about anymore after the movies. But MH is different. Introducing a new character in a movie-the character goes to the school in the webisodes. Also, about Cupid's transfer to EAH: This was supposed to be some kind of hint that the Monster High and Ever After High universes are somehow connected and there was supposed to be a crossover with EAH movie, but it never happened. At least we got the book tho...
This might have 100% been a weird fever dream but I swear I remember watching some sort of crossover between mh and eah. I don’t remember much of the actual details but there was a group of characters walking in some underground sewer type thing? And I’m pretty sure one dudes name was Norman and he kept being made fun of for the name. At the end of the tunnel I remember there being some sort of party and possibly a rivalry between the two schools? Now that I actually typed it out I’m pretty sure I’m confusing this with something else but whatever if you know what I’m thinking of please lmk
@@presley_presley Have you read the crossover book tho? Maybe you just visualized what happened in the book and thought it was a movie or something. I might be completely wrong, so if anyone knows anything about something similar, please respond! I'm so curious!
@@presley_presley I did find a character called Norman collossal hes the son of the collosal man from the movie of the same name but idk if thats the same norman you are fererring to..
monster high released in that age where we were getting too old to openly play with our dolls (but still happily did) but definitely still too young to truly appreciate the fashion of the dolls and i think thats what captivated us so much
There is a massive problem with the body image issue. I remember as a kid having transformers and I hated myself because I couldn’t morph into a corvette.
As a former little girl who loved how they look I can assure you that none of us were thinking any weird "imma be sensual and attractive blabla" as the story of the world goes little girls will ALWAYS look up to alternative fashion. Cuz it's cool and different. Now, why are these adults looking at a literal doll in a sexual way? Lots of projection around here.
Yep they did the same thing to us when I was younger with Bratz. Mind you we only ever saw Bratz as fashion play dolls but then you had those weird adults. Who mind you were never the target demographic. Look at a doll in a weird way. Also if you notice, any dolls that have any sort of ethic background or look to them get sexualized. Because when when a Caucasian little girl does it, it is cute. A little girl that is POC does it, it is sexual. And that's just weird 😒
I was obsessed with Venus McFlytrap but my parents never got me her. So, as an Adult to heal my inner child I bought myself one. Probably one of my favorite things I own now.
47:39 SO HERE'S THE THING in the post-credit scene of Boo York, Boo York, Astranova is actually seen talking to Apple White and Raven Queen talking about Monster High, so the transferring of Cupid might actually be an marketing tactic or just a nod to exchange students
My mother (who is a pastor, and in most cases, was very anti-bratz and "sexy" dolls) fell in love with monster high when I did because of the emphasis on being unique and yourself! I wonder why she's surprised I got into alt fashion... yeah, i don't know either mom
Honestly, Valentine’s story is pretty realistic and wouldn’t be in a “negative light.” Closeted LGBT+ people tend to be very angry and hold a lot of animosity because of their internalized hatred. Having this redemption whilst coming out would have also sent a message to any angered closeted child that they don’t need to be hateful and it’s okay for them to be who they are. It would have been so touching
I know. I'm going through this exact problem as a creator. I'm working on a webseries for someone else, and I wanted to make a character NB, but they told me that I couldn't do that because basically, if anything bad happened to them, or if they did anything bad, it would be "putting the community in a bad light" and "offending people", which just left me gobsmacked. Like... so you're telling me LGBTQ+ people only want flawless Mary Sues? 'Cause idk about that one chief, I feel like a character with no flaws is even more insulting. Enbies aren't so stupid that they would think one NB character doing something wrong means we think ALLLLL NB people do the exact same wrong thing! Btw, the character is a happy-go-lucky student whose story arc involves them slowly maturing over time. That's it. That's what's horribly offensive, apparently. Oh, and another excuse I got was that we "didn't know enough about Enbies to represent them" even though my only sibing and a good friend of mine are both NB. Goes without saying my NB relations thought the character was fine. If anything, they wanted MORE flaws to make them a bit more interesting. Just... Ugh. It's cowardly how much these people preach about uniqueness and celebrating differences but you know what? It's hard to be unique, it's hard to be different. You have to make a stand and risk failure when you do that. And if you think producing an LGBTQ+ cast is hard *imagine what it's like actually being alone and LGBTQ+!!* It could really connect with people and make a difference to have inclusive casts like that but nope. Too busy virtue signaling whilst shooting down actual attempts by the people working for them to practice what they preach. Cowards. Whoa, sorry for the rant, just... It hit a nerve when they told me such weaksauce excuses and it hurt again when I saw it here. X'D
The wave 2 core line was honestly my favourite - Frankie and Clawdeen's ponytails, Draculaura's lolita dress and Cleo's design in that line, perfection.
Hot take- even though the accents in the web series were pretty bad, I kind of appreciate that they at least tried to give the main characters different accents when in most American media, most everyone sounds either British or American unless they're comic relief or a villain.
I agree bro, like their supposed to be characters from different cultures and not everyone can afford voice actors from literally ALL OVER THE WORLD!! What are the voice actors supposed to do? Not try their best and just make them all sound American? Smh
Also, some people theorize that Ghoulia Yelps is autistic. So hats off to Monster High for NOT portraying a (possible) autistic as a comic relief or an idiot.
It never fails to weird me out when adults think things like fantasy creatures = evil. This line is different and allows for so much creativity among children who play with the dolls. There’s nothing wrong with veterinarian Barbie, but how much MORE fun is it to play with a 6 armed spider girl who could be best friends with a unicorn and a vampire? I just don’t understand how that could be viewed as a bad thing. and their clothing is fun and fantastical and over the top, perfect for inspiring children who may be interested in fashion, design, or even visual arts. Grown adults feeling threatened by dolls are the real cringe here
Long time ago in the middle ages the church prohibited any fantasy, visual art or imitation. And that continued for a long time and stuck to people to this day.
Hoo yeah, that reminds that my very-religious-at-the-time mom wouldn't let me buy ANY of the monster high dolls because she saw them as ""demonic"" (I still snuck in episodes of the series tho, lol)
In other words, it will be like what Digimon is to Tamagotchi: A “boys’” version of a stereotypically feminine toy (remember the commercials for Tamagotchi and Digimon? The former tend to feature girls, the latter tend to feature boys (even though there are boys who like Tamagotchi and girls who like Digimon)).
Yeah I never felt like I needed to look like a doll, and even thought dolls looked really off compared to people, but my mom did waaaaay worse than a doll could ever dream to
Potentially unpopular opinion: Ever After High was a much better version of Descendants. They did the archetype much better than Disney, and their story was better. Their plots were more interesting, more accepting (discussing anxiety, trauma, gaslighting and lgbtq representation), and better written. Their production was also better. When Descendants came out, I was in a fractured fairytale book phase and thought that Ever After definitely did it better Also you asked about why Cupid transferred, I'm sorry I don't know about that specifically. But I can tell you that just before the Monster High redesign (and simplification you mentioned) the Monster High canon and the Ever After High canon were gearing up for a crossover movie. There's easter eggs in the mermaid feature movie in Monster High, and allusions were made in the Dragon Games movie and other references by Wonderland characters in preparation for a hopeful crossover. Around Dragon Game's release however it was clear that Mattel decided to wind down Ever After High, and when Monster High went through it's sanitized redesign most of the Ever After High community came to the consensus that Mattel had decided to redirect their efforts to making Monster High work. Mattel denies this and refuses to close the door on Ever After High, but they haven't had additions to their property for some time
Totally not an unpopular opinion bc I ain't gaf about Descendants when it first came out lmaoo. Like it was cool and I liked the movies or what not. But EAH literally was my show fr, I loved it just as much as MH and it had the potential to be really popular. Growing up I met so many people who liked the show so it sucks that Disney was playing the lawsuit game and they had to cancel it. EAH executed it better and all the people saying it was a weird copy cat of descendants is lying idc idc 😭
ORORORORO!!! I spend half of my day sleeping! ORORORO!!! Then I sometimes get up and tell you that I am a famous content creatorORORORORO!!! Please don't sleep while driving, dear che
I remember seeing a tiktok of a kid calling Monster High dolls “vintage” and it shook me to my core. I can never recover from this. Also, I honestly loved MH and EAH, growing up with these dolls meant so much to me! My favorite MH character was always Catrine, but Draculara is so perfect as well! I loved Catrines doll, Elissabat’s as well, I also thought Honey was so unique! Rochelle was my favorite doll I had, though! Such a unique design, tbh! I’m actually glad that EAH exists, it’s such an iconic like of dolls, especially with the nice LGBT representation in the movies. Ever After High will always live on in my heart, it’s just such a cute series that I actually like *more* than Monster High. Even if it came after MH, it’s still such a creative series I can’t get enough of it.
As someone who was already an adult when Monster High started, hearing about anyone calling it “vintage” made me crumble into dust and blow away in the wind.
49:41 Cupid transferring to Ever After High was initially a segway into the crossover between the two series. We were SO INSANELY CLOSE to a movie, since there was a script concept art etc. and then of course the falling out between disney and mattel. There is a book though, I haven't gotten to reading it yet but I have high hopes for it since Shannon Hale did an amazing job on the previous Ever After High books. Amazing video as always Izzy :)
I don't know, the whole "dolls are giving girls body issues!" crisis feels like another version of "pokemon teaches kids to abuse animals!" It's very disconnected from the way children actually think. It also feels weirdly targeted because nobody ever says anything about He-Man, G.I Joe or Monster High's skinny male characters.
I mean there was a literal study done on the doll thing though, and it DID find that skinny dolls sometimes generated negative self image where a full figured doll found positive self image. "Dolls cause body issues" is an oversimplification and dismisses that it is a small bit of evidence of a MUCH larger problem societally. Dolls dont CAUSE the issues, but they reinforce and ideology that already exists and is pushed onto young girls in everything they watch. Body diversity in dolls is something we should push for (especially better body diversity than Barbies frankly pathetic attempt. Shes just short and a little wide, thats not plus size) but i do agree that blaming dolls for how they bring out a symptom of a larger societal issue is narrow minded. :)
Also there may be less emphasis on the male dolls because body standards for men work VERY differently. Male bodies dont get policed with as much ferocity as female ones. I cant tell you how many times ive seen, say a plus size man on tiktok making a joke or whatever and no comments mention his body at all vs how almost EVERY plus size woman gets body hate for literally minding her business. Male body standards revolve around strength and aren't super heavily enforced, but womens revolve around sex appeal (if fatphobia was about worry for fat womens "health" then why do men call female bodybuilders unattractive? /srs) and thinness and numbers and calories. Its not really a fair argument. Little boys know he man is fictional and wont be pressured to start weightlifting, but i and countless others had the "Come to Weight Watchers with Mommy" talk. This is NOT to say men cant struggle, but just that its MORE prevalent with women (almost twice the amount of women with EDs vs men, it is a societal thing).
49:44 Cupid's character design was very pink and easily fit the "girly" spinoff Mattel wanted. Alongside that, her being the "daughter of cupid" fit more into Ever After High's mythological and fairy tale aesthetic. I also believe her design changed because she had a new mission. At Monster High she didn't need to hide her true self as Monster High was very accepting BUT at Ever After High, just in the first episode, you can see the prejudice every character has to people outside the status quo. Also Cupid originally could've set up "The Lost Movie" which is the abandoned Monster High/Ever After High crossover movie set to release right before the Monster High brand reboot. Also something else, in the crossover book, released after the MH reboot, Raven Queen and Apple White reveal that monsters are just stories in their world and vis versa with Monster High. That must mean that the stories fuel both their worlds and so long as the worlds remained stories to each other everything would be fine.
I remember in the crossover book The Legend of Shadow High, [SPOILERS ALERT] I did mention of greek columns (Olympus High?) and one for sci-fi stuff. Bro there are so much possibilities.
Monster High and Ever After High were set to have a crossover movie, in fact you can find some storyboard segments of it here on UA-cam! I haven’t watched Boo York in a while, but if I remember correctly the ending of the movie had Astronova talking to Raven and Apple on her iCoffin. Sadly due to the whole Disney debacle the crossover was cancelled :( As for the whole thing with Cupid, my theory is that she was transferred over to EAH to create a solid link between the worlds of the doll lines. Obviously they’re sister brands, but with Cupid transferring it confirms that they’re both from the same universe right off the bat.
@@jessargo Yeah, I'm not a fan of the new design for MH either. At least when I'm reading it I can imagine it's the OG designs. (Also Apple White's face looks a little weird to me on the cover.) I really like how Shannon and Dean write the characters though (I read her EAH books a couple of years ago because I'm a sucker for tropes that EAH/MH give me, and hexellent play on words :U )
26:07 Sobbing rn bc for the longest time I had forgotten about this ver of Clawdeen and seeing it brought back the memories of when 9yr old me was so obsessed with her that I straight got my hair done in the same colours as the doll’s hair 😂😅😭
Both of my parents were/are goths who were heavily involved with the subculture back in it's heyday of the late 80s-90s, so they had the exact opposite reaction to Monster High that most parents did. They were thrilled to get me cool alt fashion monster dolls- unfortunately for them I ended up heavily preferring the cute pastel story-book vibes of Ever After High 😂
When our child was 3 years old, we got her a Monster High doll. Specifically, she chose Draculaura. I was blown away with the sheer quality of this doll and how incredibly DETAILED it was. The clothes are SO well made, and the doll itself looks like it cost WAY more than the 15.00 my hubby paid for it at our local Walmart. Because of this, I started collecting Monster High dolls. Unfortunately, I was WAY late to the game by a few years. (I only decided to start collecting them myself after seeing how destructive my child was with her doll and how worn it had become). Unfortunately, by this time, the REBOOTED dolls were the ones being sold. I was SO dismayed and confused. What happened to those beautiful, _expensive_ looking dolls?? I had to go hunting from store to store in an attempt to find a store which still sold collections from the ORIGINAL line...which turned out to ONLY be close-out stores (Big Lots, Ollie's, Fred's, etc) because places like Walmart and Target were ONLY selling from the "new" rebooted line by this time. ☹️
I LOVED monster high as a kid and still do. So (as a black girl who grew up in a almost entirely white community) Honey swamp was always my favorite character seeing a doll who looked like me and had curly hair actually helped me embrace my hair more and fell like I wasn’t weird. Her and Clawdeen gave me confidence to be me.
i actually rememebr my mom bringing home honey swamp as a gift for me and she got it strictly because of her hair and said she looked just like me! made me so happy lol
I'm not black but Honey and Clawdeen were always some of my favs. I loved Honey's fluffy afro so much. Its such a beautiful hairstyle and definitely needs more representation. Clawdeen was just awesome in general. I always loved her strange fashion combos
On that information about Clawdeen thing with shaving does it also say: Favorite Activity: shopping and flirting with my boys! ...what,,, i dont remember seeing Clawdeen with boys, if anything the opposite-
I’ve literally had an eating disorder and never once thought that barbies, bratz, or monster high dolls contributed to that in any way. I just loved dressing them up and making little fashion shows. Them all having the same body types meant that clothing was easily swapped
Because taking Disney for granted in any shape or form is astronomically dumb, ESPECIALLY for a CEO who should KNOW how HUMUNGUS Disney is. Like, Who TF was the head of Mattel at the time??? He just seems to make bad decision on top of bad decision on top of bad decision. And not only with the Disney thing. seriously.
my favorite part about monster high when i was little WAS the diversity. ranging from scottish, to egyptian, to mexican, etc. it gave me more knowledge as to that everyone is different and can still look cool no matter where they’re from. not only that but in the big 6, they included a ghoul with a disability. our lover, ghoulia. with the whole group of girls accepting her and loving her it allowed me as a little girl to be accepting to children with special needs at my elementary school. as a white woman, i have no right to say if there’s too little or just enough inclusion of poc dolls but there were enough for me to accept everyone at a young age while surrounded by racist peers and family. monster high would not have made me the accepting and welcoming person i am today.
I was under the impression that Clawdeen Wolf wasn't the only POC character, I thought Cleo de Nile was also POC (She is from Cairo, Egypt) - she did not strike me as a white character.
I always saw Cleo as black but light-skinned since mummification is an ancient Egyptian practice and ancient Egyptians were black (before Arabs, Greeks, etc. came over and mixed).
@@katie2275 but she still wasn’t even the only black character, honestly a lot of characters seemed black to me growing up even with the blue or green skin tones
@@nevoodles8210 For sure 🤞🏾characters like Toralei along with her goons, Bonita, and of course Honey Swamp (inarguably) def struck me as black characters
I'm 18 rn and monster high has such a special place in my heart. Not only was it the first doll franchise that I encountered that has multiple black dolls, but they promoted individuality and embracing all the weird shit about you and as a baby goth that was mildly shunned thanks to many people assuming I was practicing witchcraft, which only motivated me, this series did do much for me and brought me so much joy.
Do you know the name of the doll line which included a dark-skinned doll with curly brown hair and turquoise clothes? The doll line included three more dolls. One was blonde wearing purple clothes, the other one had black hair and red clothes and I don't remember what the fourth one looked like.
same!! i was obsessed with clawdeen wolf and looking back on it, it was probably because she looked the most like me out of any dolls id ever seen before
While I absolutely dread to be the "um actually" person, I hate seeing ever after high be misconstrued- the series was actually a book series first! The designs were on the covers and they came out in 2013-2014, so while Raven Queen and Mal do look simmilar it most likely was the fact they both had raven themes.
Ever After High was not a book series first, actually the first book, the Storybook of Legends was launched months after the website and dolls launch, which was late 2013 while the website was around May 2013. But Ever After High, and what this video gets wrong and a lot of people, was on production at least one year and a half or more before their launch. It was not a copy of Descendants but more likely the other way around. Ever After High was not done in a few weeks obviously, animation and doll design takes a lot of time and to think otherwise can be saddening for people like me who are professionals in that area. The brand has a lot of love and care put into it, it had dolls that were more detailed in launch than what Monster High was offering at the time (like 13 Wishes) and way more care put into the storytelling as the Mattel team had learned with Monster High's confusing canon between webisodes, doll diaries and books in the early releases. The animation while done with rigs on ToonBoom Harmony was way better than Monster High's flash animation because Mattel knew what Monster High fans wanted to be better about Monster High and applied that to Ever After High while having a brand that would sell to the kids who were not into monsters and more edgy stuff. Both brands are amazing and it is really hard to say which one is the better one for me at least.
As a child I know I never once had odd thoughts like that. Literally just loved when dolls had unique clothes. I feel a lot of the issues lie with parents viewing things as overly sexual thus telling children “no this doll is too sexual” adults are who makes kids realize something is anything other then a toy. As a adult toy collector almost everytime I’m at a store I always hear a mom tell a little girl “no all these dolls are too skimpy pick one that’s got full clothing”
My mom wouldn’t let me play with Bratz dolls but she openly supported Monster High and poured a lot of her single mother money into buying the dolls for me during holidays. I think she liked the MH message more and understood what the dolls were really about.
@@cameronmcewen9666 ?? are you talking about the second wave? thought u meant the third wave was going against the message, which was released after the video was published. what r u being rude for
47:50 So Cupid went to both monster high and ever after high. She help people fall in love in both places. To show the fans that the worlds where connected and to get ready for the crossover movie that never came out.
exactly!!! i don't agree with the creators opinions on cupid not looking like herself like of course a bone monster would look out of place in ever after high it's a different universe completely so they had to change her aesthetic
I'm a boy, and I started collecting these in secret, but as I got to know the characters, I felt comfortable with myself so I collected loud and proud. These dolls where so bold and had a very positive message. But of course it was too intense for some mom's *ahem Karens*
i got into monster high a few weeks ago, my first movie was "why do ghouls fall inlove" and i started becoming interested with Valentine. and oh damn, i hated him so much until his diary, which i read from a wiki (like i wish i had his doll but ehfud) turns out hes the most monster i could relate to , to think that monster high is just some edgy fashion doll line, i didnt expect that there would be a character that i could see myself into and hes gay which made me feel so happy, like i know its not explicitly stated but ive been here on this planet for a long time and one does not simply "space out" over the same gender
Hey, im a boy too and i want to start collecting too (not just specifically monster high), but i can't even think about trying to do it while my parents are... My parents So, as a guy who kind of did what i want to do, is there some kind of advice you could give to me? Like, some way for me to do it? Im young, (12y) and my life is mostly controlled by my parents, so its pretty difficult for me to get, but anything you say could help me or at least will make me more confortable, so pls say anything you have in your head about this subject lol
I am a 24 year old woman. I love monsters. I barely started watching monster high and I absolutely love Frankie Stein because I recently had a thyroidectomy living me a scar like Frankie on my neck! Everyone tells me to cover it up and use products but I actually love this spooky ass scar! I feel fangtastic ☺️
I don’t understand who would’ve thought monster high was racist, they were by far the most inclusive line of dolls of their time, like I understand “stereotypes” but come on their frickin monsters based on local folklore, I’m Mexican and here in Mexico people lose their mind over her, she was flying off the shelves and on the secondary market is very hard to get her, you have to fight for her, all of MH fans wanted her
My partner just walked in on me watching this and interjected with “did you know their bodies are totally impossible for a human shape to be” and I had this sudden feeling like since he heard one person say that that it became the typical response to say. It almost feels like a monkey see monkey do moment which makes me wonder if people weren’t influenced by others so easily what would their natural reaction be?
I remember my aunt making a similar comment towards a Winx doll I had, like mocking the waist saying "poor girl" and me just staring at her thinking "yeah... they're trying to be accurate to the art style of the series...its a good thing actually... Im aware real people have full torsos not in a strange crushed s shape aunt... the doll is like that so that with the clothes over she has the same silhouette as the series..." Fun fact she consistently body shames all the girls in our family under the guise of joking. The irony of it all.
People don't realise that things are stylized for a _reason._ Everything would look boring and uncanny as hell if we tried to be super anatomically correct! Kids aren't stupid, they just like the cute/pretty cartoon characters.
It's a shame parents didn't see the beauty in these dolls. These dolls were created to show love and acceptance to all, and to accept your flaws and embrace them. And me being a plus sized girl, I never personally felt that these dolls made me self conscious or anything
@@googleoogle Hey, sorry for not replying for so long. Unfortunately, this was before I realized I could pay other people to draw my OCs, since I am not a good artist and am more of a writer. And by the time I realized what a "commission" was, I was already passed my MH phase. However, I do recall a lot of details that she would've had if she were to be drawn.
10:20 ‘i want to teach them to use their intuition and common sense’ you’re literally teaching them what’s right and wrong without letting them use their intuition and common sense lol (i do understand where this parent is coming from, i just think the wording is funny)
This franchise is one I feel like I was truly robbed off. I had super strict/“religious” mom/stepdad combo and they were 100% one of the “these are the devils dolls.” My bio-dad got me a few Bratz dolls and they were some of my favorites because of the odd proportions & fashion, I would have loved to gotten into this brand but now I feel like I’m too out of the loop 😂 signed another hidden goth child 😂😂
One thing I will say about Clawdine “hair controversy” - as a young teen who grew leg hair quicker then most of my friends (& a little sister who went through the same battle) I would have actually found the whole “shaving” thing helpful to push the “I want to have control over this part of my body.” And although I do get the “skinny problem” I never saw it that way, if anything the Barbie dolls that were coming out at the same time made me feel worse, they had fleshed out abs & hip dips, something much more “realistic”
Ok but the Beetlejuice duo was a cool design! I definitely agree it was a “money spin off” but a solid design. The gremlin also wasn’t horrible, and I like how big the ears were.
Dude same! Back in middle school I was so lucky that one of my friends loved Monster High and was allowed to have merch so she let me read one of her books, and a classmate of mine had some books that she didn't want anymore so she gave me them, one of them being the first monster high book.
@@mcrowcreations it would be fine if she shaved some parts of her body and not others, OR if different werewolf girls did different things (including some not shaving at all). But otherwise it reinforces a gender role.
@@asmrtpop2676 and I do definitely see that side. But that’s why I mentioned my particular side as another way to view it, it took my bio-dad telling my mom “she is uncomfortable and you won’t do anything to fix it because you want to believe she’s still a child.”
I have (and still mostly have) a massive fear of seeming “cringe” and this channel has helped me get over that by covering a lot of “cringe” topics with a genuine earnestness and enthusiasm that makes me feel a bit more comfortable being me. So, thank you for that
I remember loving Monster High because it felt like a cooler, more mature version of barbie and bratz. A lot of little girls went through a phase of rejecting anything that felt too stereotypically feminine. When I was younger I hated anything marketed as 'pink and girly', but still secretly wanted to play with dolls, and I think Monster high filled that niche
That was basically exactly the reason most of my dolls as a kid were monster high. (I also really liked the cool styles, but I probably wouldn't have felt comfortable playing with them still if I'd felt they were "too girly")
When monster high came out my sister mom and I were obsessed 😭😭 unfortunately the apartment we lived in had beg bugs and they got literally everywhere so we either got rid of them or my mom sold them cause we didn’t play with them anymore, I’m so happy they released the creeproduction line 😭😭
Monster High was so important that a girl who had tragically lost her leg who was in my class painted her fake leg to look like copper because of Rebecca Steam, and everyone (girl) called her Steam because of the character. Literally coolest moment, its one of those memories that you never forget and you just... attach it to your brain
Aww that’s so wholesome!
Cool
I love this, just wanted to say her name is Robecca Steam :) like a steam robot
Wow that’s so freaking cool
That is beautiful
I’ve literally never wanted my body to look like a dolls, what made me insecure was my parents.
Fr mine always seem to make SOME kind a of comment of my body
same like dolls didn't give me body insecurities, that was my dad always talking about how i need to be more active and exercise so i won't be so fat 🙄
i just wanted my fashion to be like theirs
Truth lmao.
FORKRKEERE
FOR REALLL
Telling me I can’t wear this cause I’m black isn’t really something a doll could do for me
obsessed with the girls in testing who said frankie stein had to be green. these queens did so much for us
The secret heroes of Monster High, the Queens from Testing. Hope they are thriving now
Its true kids sometimes just take in whatever mediocre media its cynicaly shved in their faces, but also, sometimes do really know what they want and have good taste. Or at least a fresh perspective
Fr!! Who the hell thinks girls don’t like green?? I absolutely love green which was one of the reasons Frankie was my fav!! 😂😂
Honestly
To be fair in Mary Shelley's book it's described as "yellow".
as a kid, dolls never gave me negative body issues. i knew that they weren't real, and was aware that their unrealistic proportions would be very weird on an actual human body. they just didn't come across as human. dolls look cool, and so i'd obsess over their clothes/hair more.
Me, a 30 year old man with no interest in dolls: HOW DARE THEY CHANGE HER DESIGN, SHE WAS AN ICON
i love this comment 🤣
This made me snort, thank you random 30 year old man 😭😭😭
Respect 😂👏
go off king
Honestly me too
Me too
Slay king
Is it me or the idea of a buff mermaid guy on a wheelchair is like the coolest thing i ever seen Mattel do
For real I was impressed by that, I would’ve never thought of it
Also calling him Finnegan Wake lol
Frrr but honestly, I really don’t like the face model with the hair. I think it looks cool, but he also kind of just looks bald 😭
You know, looking at him with that name, mermaid would be a good catch all descriptor but specifically I think he would be a Merrow (Irish mermaid, can be sort of horrifying in legend).
Don't mind me splitting hairs with the classification of merfolk.
@@snuffy5321and that literary allusion name... How many kids would get it?
I feel like this is a small detail, but when i got Clawdeen as a kid, in the little diary that came with her, it said that she needed to shave frequently bc her hair grew too quickly and honestly as a child I always took comfort in that, since im a hairy girl and all haha I just thought it was cool that I could relate, and it made me feel better even if it was just for a moment.
The journal entry never said her body hair was bad which I like, just that shaving made her feel fabulous
yeah i think as a very hairy kid i would much rather have had some acknowledgment of body hair just as a concept than blatantly ignoring it. at least i would have known i wasnt the only hairy girl on earth lol
unrelated but i remember how much i loved my frankie doll's "tummy pouch." all dolls were skinny, but it felt as if only the monster highs didn't have a flat stomach, and as a chubby kid it did make me feel better about myself versus the barbies that were pretty flat. i bet if i had gotten a clawdeen at 11 it wouldve helped me too with my hair insecurities
It did the same for me. Speaking of I just bought a creeproduction clawdeen and I’m so excited to get her in the mail.
that’s beyond sweet actually i’m gonna sob
When i was a child and played with the dolls, i literally never ever thought 'i wish i was skinny like her..' kids don't care about that stuff. They just wanna play with their dolls. Even at 10 i didnt think that.
I agree when I was younger I never compared myself to dolls
literally all I wanted was their luscious hair 😂
the only thing i wanted from them was their outfits and I STILL DO
@@eerinahisakawa3416your milo icon is simply the truth
I don't think it's the fact that kids don't think about that stuff, cause as much as we like to pretend that kids have no issue with body image, we know that's not true. I know for a fact that I had issues with body image and even though I didn't care TOO much as a 10 year old, I sure as hell cared as a 13 year old. (Although high school certainly didn't help.)
That's the issue people are getting at when they complain about this kinda stuff, because although a literal child might not care about it, the minute puberty kids in, it can suddenly because a very big issue if they have a pre-existing idea of what it's acceptable to look like.
Instead, I think the fact of the matter is simply that even at a young age, kids recognise stylisation.
No, I wasn't skinny, but I also didn't have a head the size of a beachball. Kids, even at a young age, can tell the difference between cartoony things and realistic things.
This is why I think it's more important for Barbie and more realistic dolls to have this kinda rep than the cartoony ones.
I dont know about Skelita, I remember here in Mexico she was a huge hit among a lot of my female classmates and me. It was my favorite because of the representation and of course because of the themes of day of the dead. Definetly not on the same scale as of the other dolls, maybe in a foreigner's eyes yes but mexican culture being represented in any positive light outside of Mexico for us is an absolute win.
De echo si mi madre me la compro porque penso que era una catrina
yes !! including jinafire
Ah yes!!! Same here I was so happy when they released an animated short of her💕
As a Hispanic myself, me personally, (can't speak for others) I absolutely ADORED Skelita! I found it so cool to have my culture represented in a cool way!
@@yungzyzzle i ADORED jinafire, I would beg my mom to get me one for my birthday but she was never in stock where I lived lol
honestly monster high sent a way better message for kids than more “tame and classic” dolls like barbie, mh had a lot more diversity and was able to have that diversity becuase the ghouls literally weren’t human, they weren’t a particular race. also mh sent the message that you don’t need to fit in, your fashion and looks are fabulous how you are. plus some of the ghouls were definitely my gay awakening as a child
another thing is that the ghouls never needed a man to help them, there weren’t really ever fights over boys, just friendship tussles.
@@eevaanh8386 💯
💯💯💯💯💯💯💯💯💯💯💯💯💯💯💯💯💯💯💯💯💯💯💯💯💯💯💯💯💯💯💯💯💯💯💯💯💯💯💯💯💯💯💯💯💯💯💯💯💯💯💯💯💯💯💯💯💯💯💯💯💯💯💯💯💯💯💯💯💯💯💯💯💯💯💯💯💯💯💯💯💯💯💯💯💯💯💯💯💯💯💯💯💯💯💯💯💯💯💯💯💯💯💯💯💯💯💯💯💯💯💯💯💯💯💯💯💯💯
Honestly I couldn't agree more (Frankie was my gay awakening and oh boy. I have so many Frankie dolls lol)
Right!!
For C.A Cupid’s redesign and how it conflicts with the bone elemental theory, I was personally always under the impression that her Monster High design was what she actually looks like and the Ever After High design was just a glamour she used to blend in a bit more
I always assumed that too
I wanted to share this because I remembered a crossover being mentioned in 2019 or somewhere around that time;
ua-cam.com/video/_3z1r1IUnNE/v-deo.html
That's so sad though, she moves to a school where she feels like she has to "soften" herself to fit in
that honestly makes a lot of sense since no one at ever after high would be used to seeing a straight up MONSTER as a student and they are all already kind of stuck in their roles as "good guys" and "bad guys" so if she showed up in her original form then she'd have just been assumed to be a villain and likely be feared as one.
Agreed
It’s so interesting to hear these parents clutch their pearls at Monster High because my own mother couldn’t have given less of a shit about little me playing with them. In fact, she thought some of the dolls were really cool. She especially liked how Skelita was molded to actually look like a skeleton. Honestly, a lot of her sentiment was probably because when she was younger, she was quite the tomboy and most toys made for girls back then were very stereotypically girly. So I think she was happy that I got the chance to enjoy something that she didn’t get to.
I am super thankful that my mom liked monster high and let me play with them. She LOVED Skelita and I am so sad she never bought one!
my mom loved all of my dolls that i had, and so did my dad. they both hung out with me and played with them with me, and they loved literally every doll i had, and they still love them
same my mum loved getting me and my sister monster high dolls 🥺
I mom also loved the dolls-
But she was also emo in highschool along with brutalizing all her barbies sooo
As a plus size girl, I’ve never once felt badly about my body when I played with these dolls. They all had the same body so I never thought anything of it. I freaking loved monster high so much as a kid
It's literally the society who teach plus-size-people to hate themselves, not some dolls.Also this means, that you can dress up in everything from the other dolls
Exactly! Same here. They're literally supposed to be just monsters. How stupid do parents think their kids are?
i completely agree with this. monster high never made me feel bad about myself because they were so unrealistic. i think if they had introduced plus size characters it would have been a problem. i would have started thinking about it because id realize they couldnt wear any of the thinner characters clothing.
same i didnt care about the dolls body they was so pretty like how they look i just wanted to play with them i never thought that way
Kids literally never care about how dolls look unless their own parents are obsessed with appearances. All they see is a lovely and cool looking doll. Saying that as a woman who owned Barbies, Bratz and at least one Monster High doll growing up.
As a fat girl, I can say that skinny dolls never bothered me as a kid. They just didn’t really register as human to me honestly.
as i kid the only memory i have of their bodies is being like 7 and thinking the curve of their backs was really weird and funny looking lol
agreed. as long as i can remember i was always insecure of my body. i was OBSESSED with dolls and barbie’s and never once did i compare them to myself. i think seeing that they weren’t real and half the time couldn’t even bend their elbows i didn’t see them as real
same. I knew that they were not supposed to be realistic since they're dolls lol
Same, like I understood they were stylized and monsters. Like they look like a cotton ball on a stick, I didn't think I should look like that
As a fat kid I’d occasionally ponder on stuff like why their butts had a wack mold on them or why they are on their tippy toes 24/7 but never did i ever use my dolls for comparison. I just thought they were cool and i wanted to have their style of clothing.
"The dolls barely wear any clothes!"
Said about the dolls that literally wear more clothing items than Barbie.
The old dolls had amazing quality, though. Doll customizers love them and I wish that I was more into these dolls as a kid because I love making customs now. I got a Venus McFlytrap, though, and I love her punk vibes, I'm keeping her as is
Literally! Tbh, not sure about anyone else, but when I had Barbie dolls back when I was three, that first thing that always ended up happening was me ripping off and losing the clothes, so it was always just these nude lady dolls scattered around my room, lmao
Something like Monster High would've been so much nicer since I would have actually like them and their fashion sense as opposed to barbie's dumb pink aesthetic that I hated sm. Even nowadays, when I look at og MH dolls I can't help by want to get into them.
@@Morrynlupine I was thinking the same thing. Like most dolls end up naked anyway when kids play with them. Why does their clothing matter, the unnecessarily drama I put my dolls threw (although when Monster High came I was 13 an no one played with dolls but I got a few an kept them but I don't have a lot of them anymore from moving so much. But my Littlest Pet Shops was like Desperate Housewives with all the drama I put those dolls threw.
@@Morrynlupine having naked barbie dolls scattered everywhere is part of millennial and gen z childhood at this point lmao
The controversies that happened with monster high regarding their clothing and the parents response, especially the one that said that girls who dress like that want attention, really makes you realize how illy girls are talked about especially with parents teaching their kids, and how the idea that girls are allowed to look nice for themselves or that they dress because it makes them feel comfortable, expressive, confident, etc, is never seemed to be an option
right? when i was a kid that wasn't on my mind, the idea of something being "slutty" wasn't on my brain, for sure I wouldn't have been able to think "this is too much skin" or "this is too much clothes"
I just look at the doll and think "she's so pretty and i love the color of her clothes!"
Mexican monster high og collector here!! Regarding the cultural appropriation matter with the designs here in Mexico isn't that much of a concern. In fact, Skelita and Isi are the most expensive and desired ghouls here in the collectors market in my experience. Me and my grandma who has been very close to the Wixarika culture (indigenous tribe that can be part of the inspiration for the elements Isi dawndancer has), loved the designs and as far as I know, most people here also love them. Specially Skelita who really started the hype, since her design is incredibly well made and iconic, and resembles very clearly a Catrina. I also wanted to talk about the skeleton boobs, which are also very culturally accurate here, ironically. Most of the time the image of a Catrina resembles an exaggerated body with a lot of curves, despite being a literal skeleton. This is a part of the Mexican culture that helps us see the death in a different light, it being a playful and carefree caricature we can make fun of in a respectful way rather than an evil spirit we have to be afraid of. I don't think the designs are offensive to my culture at all, since both characters never use their clothes as a costume or as a mockery, and in the other hand embrace deeply their roots and tradicional attire. I think it's more of a Cultural appreciation. :) Just wanted to give a little bit of my opinion as a Mexican collector myself. Great video!! 💞✨
Thanks for teaching me something new 🙂
.
I also think that Isi Dawndancerwasn't offensive, because the Design team were very respectful about the Culture they borrowed, they didn't make her as a Wendigo but rather a deer spirit, in my Native Friend's opinion, it's indearing and light hearted
This part, I’m also Mexican and never saw anything offensive in the doll, I think it’s just people trying to be offended, but not actual Mexicans, we loved this
YES MORE MEXICANS THAT LOVE SKELITA I ADORED HER AS A CHILD AND STILL DO HER DESIGN IS RLLY COOL‼️
My mom is so cool because, although she didn’t agree with the dolls and their “scariness”, she still got them for me. To this day, her reasoning for letting me enjoy whatever media I like is, “I can’t stop you from liking it, and as long as it’s meant for your age, it’s okay” so big shoutout to my mom for giving me this kinda freedom
Your mom is dope
You're mom's a real mvp
really appreciate your mom putting her biases to the side to let you try something of your own volition. Sounds like it paid off in the end
@@gothboithick Like for example, she doesn’t like them
based also i love ur name
As a Mexican American I LOVED that they had a Day of the Dead based doll! Had her along with the Gargoyle and steampunk dolls, and still have the Ghoulfriends Forever book series. Monster High was fur-some!
Thank you. So many white people see Skelita and immediately say she's offensive without even listening to the Mexican community. It's so gross
@@inuiri8365 What?! Bruh I LOVE Skelita’s design! As someone from the UK, I’ve always loved the aesthetics and meaning behind the Day of the Dead, so to see a character who represented that aspect of the culture was always so cool to me. Even to this day she remains as one of my favourite MH designs.
One time I went as Skelita for Halloween, it was so awesome tbh :D
@@inuiri8365 I agree, I’ve only seen white people complain about her design, but me and my family and my other Latino friends absolutely adored her design and connection to culture, sure the day of the dead thing is generic but her outfit was creative and she had personality
I wasn’t a big monster high fan when I was little but I loved seeing a Mexican doll like me, I think I dressed up as her for Halloween one year
growing up with parents that were more alternative and a heavy liking for spooky things, monster high became a huge childhood staple for me due to their lean towards alt fashion which I was already drifting towards at a young age. Having dolls that my parents actually liked because of their uniqueness and understanding of my interest in monsters at the time was a huge deal for me, I didn't even know that other parents disproved of it until I became a teenager
Plot twist!
I love my mother- she saw these and instead of being upset, was like “I thought you’d like this doll, I got you one” and now I still love them :)
My mom thought they were cool so she bought them for me as presents for holidays and birthdays. I was obsessed for a while.
I totally loved them, and so did all of my friends, but I was the only one who was allowed to have them. I grew up in a fairly Christian community so my friends parents all thought they were "demonic"
My mom did the same
my mom did this with anime from a public library and it was AMAZING
sameee, my mum was so obsessed with the shoes and im pretty sure she was more into them me lol but its just something we bonded over and im so happy that she only saw them as dolls and not some "evil and demonic" thing.
the grip monster high had on me when i was younger is insane. i’m so glad they released new dolls and are having a comeback
One time this guy told me he shoves his monster high dolls up his 🕳
it was one of my gay awakenings
@@Maukiki when i found out clawdeen was a lesbian it brought me back back to my childhood when i use to make my clawdeen and draculaura dolls kiss
Sadly the same cannot be said about ever after high (╯︵╰,)
@@fayetopias Damn id throw them aganist the wall even tho i loved them LMAO
i played with monster highs all my childhood. never did i look at a doll and think “i wanna be that thin”, neither have i ever heard of someone who’s body image was affected by a LITERAL DOLL.
Same! Like ffs i was 9 years old why would I care about their bodies- I just loved the clothing and the excitement of opening up a new doll
yeah, while i think it's nice to feel represented - like have a doll look like you whether that's a skin color, body type disability, whatever- even as a kid i was able to separate it like. that's a doll, and this is me, a human person. we're not really meant to look alike
@@catgf7410 Yes! Although i do find it disappointing that they white washed clawdeen and howleen- like changing the skintone for different versions of the doll and how howleen's hair went from a curly, short, afro texture to a wavy, long, thin texture. I do think it is cool that they represented 'racism' in one of their movies- that was cool to teach kids
Same, they were MONSTERS too and it was clear they were stylized and more like caricatures of people. It never occurred to me to want to look like that
@@ginger7055 I would let clawdeens hair go if they made it clear she just changed her hair a lot as some black women like to do, but the skin tone change was inexcusable
Being a little girl in the late 2010s with an obsession with Monster High.. I vividly remember telling myself on multiple occasions that “when I am older I’m going to buy all the monster high dolls” and now.. older, there’s absolutely no dolls left I’m grieving on that lmao 💔
I’m hoping monster high isn’t a flop in 2022. Plus I hope they touch on important topics and don’t just shy over them.
The important issues like how did Frankenstein's monster even reproduce
@@Windwalker88 Those are the important questions. You read my mind
@@Windwalker88 In one of the movies, Frankie tells the teacher she was made by her father the same way Frankenstein made him
@@Windwalker88 she was built by using deceased human/monster parts then brought to life by her father!
monster high has been dead for a long time now.
I'm only 7 minutes into the video and the line "girls don't like green" from Mattel higher-ups is going to be echoing around my head for a while. An absolutely bizarre piece of corporate-gothic lore has been revealed... I'm glad the actual girls they tested with dispelled that idea!
When I heard that I immediately thought "What the fuck does that even mean‽" because it's such a strange thing to say.
I am girl adjacent and my favorite color is green what the hell?
Corporate people always have the strangest ideas about their target demographics.
Majority of higher ups in these companies are older men (mattels male ceo is 40-ish iirc?). They don't know shit about teenage girls lmao
@@smirnoffice8859 but... girls can't like any color other than pinks and purples and pastels!!!!!!!! /s
No, let me tell you WHY the honey swamp doll is actually so great!!! I’ve had that doll for years at this point, and her hair is amazing, it doesn’t tangle and mat like other dolls hair often does. The curls are extremely bouncy and not stiff, but they also managed to perfectly replicate type 4 hair which you don’t often see in dolls!!
Her swirls and spikes on her body are also reallyyy cool!
I also have her and her curls mostly look fresh outta box!! The back of her head is a little flat bcuz of lying her down so much but they're so gorgeous and defined still
honey swamp's hair is so perfect omg, mine is still perfect even being out of the box ahhh
I don't have a honey swamp doll but from all the pictures I've seen her hair does seem to always look good unlike most curly doll hair that easily tangles
I actually got a reboot Draculaura as a kid and I legitimately thought up until last year that it was bought as a bootleg at dollar tree
Those parents that complained about the dolls are 100% those who actually gave self-esteem issues to their own daughters.
Honestly though. Children aren't born with the knowledge of what beauty standards are and what sexuality is. They literally don't care until someone tells them they should.
I can't understand people who blame dolls or celebrities or anything else on their own problems. I have luckily always been very confident and I have never ever been comparing myself to others. But that is not the case for most of the people, sadly. But blaming others and trying to point fingers is not gonna help. Those people need some help with the self esteem issues if it's not the parents, even a therapist would be a great option. We cannot possibly please every single person in this planet. Life is not fair and it's not anyones responsibility to make others feel good about themselves. Like if you are not happy with yourself, it's your responsibility to heal yourself. You are 100% right with your comment. 👌
@@_ivanche This!
I thought the exact same thing
*laughs in I've dealt with this bullshit my whole life and thats why I wasn't allowed to have Bratz dolls*
Being a black girl, when I was younger, I didn’t see much representation. So, MH was honestly my favourite series/ film series/ doll line. I especially loved Clawdeen and Cleo because I felt like they were “black”. I really felt seen and I felt represented through their characters. I never really saw MH as un diverse but it’s nice to see it from someone else’s perspective.
Clawdeen and Cleo aren’t black.
Clawdeen is clearly Latina, and Cleo is Egyptian/middle eastern.
@@obvioustroll3736 Clawdeen isn’t Latina- they don’t really have a race. Apart from Cleo who’s clearly Egyptian. I’m talking about how I viewed them when I was younger. If she was to be a race however- I would say she’s black but that’s obvs just my opinion
@@beauty-jc9xy yeah, they’re monsters but I always thought clawdeen was Latina because I grew up in a very Hispanic populated area and everyone looked and sounded very similar to her with the hair and all. Me being Latina as well, seeing her brought awe to me since you pretty much never see Hispanic dolls or characters of anything. They’re either white, and maybe a token black character and it’s like nobody else exist.
@@obvioustroll3736 I agree and I think that’s y I also resonated with clawdeen- she was the only character that looked like me
@@obvioustroll3736 Clawdeen is confirmed to be Black. Cleo is Arab.
I never realized how whiny adults were growing up. My mom hated the body types, but she told me to not use my dolls as an expectation of what body type I wanted, and to just have fun. Since monster high had a lot of POC-coded characters such as Lagoona and Clawdeen, she was more than happy to give a little brown girl like me these dolls for Christmas. You can’t expect kids to instantly know self-confidence from birth, you have to teach them. Don’t be like the whiny adults in the monster high reviews.
I think I was more excited about the dolls than my Daughter was but she absolutely loved Monster High dolls. She still has a bunch of them saved. She is 16 now.
@@samsalamander8147 That's so sweet! It's nice to hear parents supporting their kids.
Lagoona is poc coded?
@@saraifuentes9821 In a sense, yes. She dealt with racism from both Gil, and the freshwater people.
@@saraifuentes9821 i always considered her Indigenous Australian that loved nature and surfing (probably a stereotype now that I think about it) as a kid
Okay, but this jacket is genuinely the coolest merch I have ever seen
Fr I want it
Parents: “skelita is a girl who starved herself to death! Bravo Mattel!”
All of Mexico: “fuck my culture right?”
I think Skelita represents the Day of the Dead? Idk.. I watched the DOTD episode of Luna the Moon on PBS Kids like 2 years ago.
@@clementeodessa Coco?
@@clementeodessa Yeah it's Día de los Muertos in which culturally, the images of skeletons and skulls with paints and patterns are what represent the holiday. It's funny cuz Skelita is literally just another calaca that you've seen hundreds of time in Mexican products, like she's such an obvious fit to the Monster High universe for more culturally diverse characters, yet parents were still complaining despite her being one of the most accurate monsters in the franchise
@@MiguelGonzalez-du8deI bet you they 'celebrate' the holiday too or at least consider the decor fun and bright/happy, but it's a problem on a doll?
@@MiguelGonzalez-du8deAgreed! It’s so stupid how they think that she’s culturally appropriated 🤦
On the bone titties thing: this actually makes sense, because you want the doll to be able to easily fit in all other Monster High clothing. If you change the form of the doll too much, especially at the main holding points, the clothing is going to wear very awkwardly (if it even stays on at all). This is also generally why you only see one body type in doll lines, as most toy companies are reluctant to invest in a new product that not only requires a deviation in production, but also cannot utilize existing assets.
Not only that, but is also culturally correct too. Here in Mexico we have Catrinas figures. They are basically High class ladies' skeletons and they have very huge attributes, but, reaaally marked attributes, they have always been like that.
and makes sense why the physical changes they DO make (like abi’s bigger hands) don’t mess w the clothes
My thoughts exactly. Her feet are arched so she can share shoes,duh. This YT'ber must not collect dolls. Seemed more like a bash of MH.
My thoughts exactly. Her feet are arched so she can share shoes,duh. This YT'ber must not collect dolls. Seemed more like a bash of MH.
@@xdani_thethinkingneko Girl she just didn't know. It's not that serious.
I understand some points of the parents but when I was a kid I never realized their skinny proportions or sexy clothes, I just wanted to play with them. Nowadays I’m obsessed with these dolls because they’re a perfectly imperfect piece of art. I wish they’d sell more OG reproduction dolls for collectors.
Yes, as a child I just thought the proportions were a classic style for dolls in general. They never affected my perception of my own body or the body of anyone else.
Yeah I have body issues from other stuff, i never played with dolls as a kid (too “girly” for me, yeesh I was annoying) but I still knew that’s just how they looked.
Also its complicated to give dolls different body types because then you cant switch their clothes. Personally, i always liked to switch the different dolls outfits
@@peacock.spooderI think that's excusing a very wealthy company who absolutely can afford to make more clothing that is larger, but doesn't. If they made more dolls outside of barbies specific mold it only would make sense to have to make more clothes too, but they only have like at most a few but usually one. One down syndrome doll, 1 plus sized doll, they even discontinued a wheel chair barbie bc they "couldn't redesign the dream house to accommodate her". Excusing this is sorta pretending that they are telling the truth, that they actually can't make these things when they can.
@@arsenbrooks438 no no, your not getting the point.
Yes they could make different sizes of clothing. Thats true. But if you were for exemple wanted to switch clothes with two dolls with different body type it wouldnt work.
They arent talking about what matel is doing. They are just talking about personal preferences when it comes to dolls.
Actually, one thing about the Ever After High part of the story, it was actually originally going to be a sci-fi space themed spin-off of Monster High called Cosmic High, but due to the rising popularity of MGM's Novi Stars toy line at the time, Cosmic High ended up being canceled and replaced by Ever After High. So, if you guys are ever wondering about the post credits scene from the Monster High film Boo York! Boo York! where Astra Nova talks to Apple White and Raven Queen on her iCoffin, the scene now makes a lot of sense knowning all this.
there was also going to be a crossover, it was featured in one of the eah books too
@@soliarsystem Yeah, I saw, and I also saw that a kitsune character was going to make her debut in that cross-over movie too.
I genuinely want to see Valentine again, with his boyfriend.
When I learned Valentine was gay it showed younger me that I wasn't weird or broken for being LGBTQ+, I would have loved to see it in the show or a movie. I really want a LGBTQ+ character to be canon.
Same!!!
I love Valentine so much as a character so I strongly second this
@@fur8104 lol, it was referring to monster high. But either way I won't debate pronouns with someone I don't know
@@PatientStriderArt The funny thing is that “it” is actually a pronoun 😂
@@neb.9489 yea, a lot of my friends use it/its/itself. I'm just not gonna to fight abt the validity about them on a video that has nothing to do with it, yknow? Seems pointless
I'll always remember how every Tuesday night as a kid my mum and i would sit down with our lil collection of MH dolls, brush their hair, fix their clothes and talking excitingly about them. We would spend hours hunting them down on ebay and would count down the days together before they came, she truly loved sharing her passion of dolls with me and to this day we still talk about how cool we thought MH was. One of my favourite memories with her.
This is soooo cute 🥹🥹🥹
You have an amazing mom
When I was a kid I took this camera that my parents had for trips and I'd make 'stop motions' of my MH dolls. I didn't know how to do anything other than taking pictures tho so whenever I showed my mom I'd just bring her the camera and flip as fast through the gallery as I could.
Always love your mom
this is so beautiful, thank you for sharing
13:24 Whoa Whoaaaaa -Mexican here! Heres my opinion on Skelita.
I got Skelitas a soon as i saw her , i was in high school . She is still very popular here in mexico cause shes perfect. I wouldnt use the word appropiation if the doll perfectly represents Dia de Los Muertos. We (i say we cause ive seen other fellow mexican from fan groups agree) are very happy she came out , and i havent seen any mexican actually upset with her , in fact its mostly USA citizens that are upset ??? in fact its a pity she ran out of stock here so fast. I havent been able to get the other versions of her .
The necklace is made of cempasúchil a traditinal flower here, the skirt is papel picado / paper , the makeup as a sugar skull candy , its all incredibly well represented. And i can asure you mexican fans are delighted that our holiday is so well represented here. It feels like it was made with respect and good intentions. I wish people would stop with the " this cultural appropiation! ban this ! spread the word this is terrible! " each time mexico is well represented .. I cant speak for the other countries , but i can say this : Mexico fans are super happy with her ! / Debieron darnos una con el sombrero de la Catrina
Skelita was designed by a Mexican American woman so I don't think it really falls under "appropriation".
Fellow Mexican here!! Completely agree with this!!
In that section out of the 4 dolls pictured I’ve never heard anyone say culture appropriation, I cannot speak for the others but I know Isis dawn dancer in beloved by me and fellow Native Americans, although we wished they would’ve chose one tribe to focus on instead of a conglomeration of different Native American cultures. Happy to see that our cultures are represented and found nothing appropriative about it
I think it’s really cool how they made her out of bones! They were obviously put in a hard place with making sure she was shaped in a way that the clothes fit her, and they could’ve EASILY only gone halfway, but they didn’t :)
i honestly wish white people would stop getting triggered on behalf of POC.
It's the Speedy Gonzales discourse all over again,
Ever After High was so good, they had genuinely so sad that the books & shows stopped. They had actually great plot, Madeline Hatters story line was just starting to take off & then it just stopped. I’m so sad… Could you do a break down on that???
oh hey Izzy! you mentioned how Ever After High was basically a carbon copy of monster high's concept, but there were actual lore reason for that. EAH and Monster High were sister series which were intended to crossover, meaning EAH was more of an extension of monster high than a copy. EAH just got canceled and MH got rebooted before they got to that point, and it's the reason why most EAH fans were originally MH fans
Cupid transferring was basically to confirm that the two series were connected, and she went to ever after because they needed a character for the valentines special. they actually tease the crossover at the end of Boo york, but because both stories were scrapped, it never went anywhere. EAH was the next page in MH's story, but fans have sadly been left to speculate all the actual lore.
I also want to mention that while Ever After and Descendants were similar in concept, concept is where the similarities end. The story elements were completely different, and most people who've seen both series agree that Ever After was a lot better, and had a lot more effort put into the story and design. Which is why EAH and MH fans hate Disney with a passion, cause it effectively killed both series
I would mention in 13 wishes Giles Grimm to help Gigi to create wisp
@@Ki_or_Kai oh that's right, i completely forgot about that! Thanks for reminding me
they were originally supposed to have an official crossover movie before both got canceled
i remember my 12-year-old self was so upset when i found that out lol
13:30 I love your content but as a mexican I can say that Skellita was the best representation of our culture that has ever been createt. Even the smallest details are so tought through and beautiful. I love her and I honestly belive that in this case the term "cultural appropiation" was just thrown at it by people who don't understand it.
Edit: wrong time stamp 2.edit: it was the right one 💀
Yeah, I think she was the coolest one I saw in the video. I was never really into Monster High when I was young, so I might start collecting. It sucks that they got discontinued because I totally would have been into them if I had been older when they were popular.
“Cultural appropriation!” they cry, then wonder where all the diverse content has gone.
She was actually designed by Natalie Villegas, who is Mexican-american ans put a lot of herself into skelita
Yeah, I'm Brazilian which is very different than Mexican, but I remember when I was little I was obsessed with skellita and Abby's cousin whom I forgot the name, cuz they always felt closer to home
@@sischaotica well g3 is coming out and getting them second hand is pretty easy as long as you're careful about how much you should spend
I wish they weren’t off the shelves. They were SO well designed in the day, all the accessories had so much attention to detail and the characters really made my childhood 🥺
I didn’t know if you were aware, but the reproduction dolls are in select Walmarts right now (at least in the US), as well as Walmart and Mattel’s websites! Plus they’re planning on rebooting the dolls later this year I believe.
Me too! I miss them and honestly wish they make a comeback!
I'll never forget the Halloween I dressed up at Lagoona Blue, I was freezing beyond belief but I was so so so happy about wearing that costume. Makes me appreciate my mom more for letting me explore that unlike some of the parents mentioned in the video. I wasn't a HUGE Monster High fan but I adored Lagoona a lot, and have some dolls of her to this day. Actually looking back on it more I wouldn't be surprised if this was the gateway into the alternative way I dress now. Lastly, going back to Lagoona I still get the hydration station commercial song stuck in my head on really random occasions. Also, my mother named one of our cats Twyla. Overall as someone who doesn't consider themselves a super fan or a huge fan in general, the lie has permeated my life in the best way possible.
Pretty sure the controversial monster high part about them looking “UGLY” “too skinny” and “mean and wrongly clothed” is quite selfish, when i played with these dolls, i never once thought about their body types like weight and booby sizes. I liked them due to their uniqueness, which means that the person who was complaining was only thinking about what they saw and not what their child thought
I completely agree with you besides the fact I was 5-7 when I played with them I never even cares about that I just thought they were pretty
I absolutely agree! I was around 8-10 I believe when I had these dolls. I never once looked at their bodies and thought I wanted to be that skinny, nor did I ever think they were ugly. I always loved them because of how different they are! They were and are still are seen as beautiful to me, and if anything, they boosted my creativity! I feel that parents were reading way too into it. I could understand their concerns about body image, but when you're that young- the only time you worry about body image is when it is implanted by your parents. I believe that way, at least...
Nobody ever talks about this, but I love that when there's a 3D monster high movie and new characters are introduced in the movie, they actually appear in the webisodes that came out after the movie! If MH was like every other franchise, new characters would be forgotten and never even spoken about anymore after the movies. But MH is different. Introducing a new character in a movie-the character goes to the school in the webisodes.
Also, about Cupid's transfer to EAH: This was supposed to be some kind of hint that the Monster High and Ever After High universes are somehow connected and there was supposed to be a crossover with EAH movie, but it never happened. At least we got the book tho...
Wait what about that last scene from the movie boo york boo york ? they see astranova talking from the mh to her friends that are from eah
@@otc16 That was also a hint foreshadowing the crossover movie
This might have 100% been a weird fever dream but I swear I remember watching some sort of crossover between mh and eah. I don’t remember much of the actual details but there was a group of characters walking in some underground sewer type thing? And I’m pretty sure one dudes name was Norman and he kept being made fun of for the name. At the end of the tunnel I remember there being some sort of party and possibly a rivalry between the two schools? Now that I actually typed it out I’m pretty sure I’m confusing this with something else but whatever if you know what I’m thinking of please lmk
@@presley_presley Have you read the crossover book tho? Maybe you just visualized what happened in the book and thought it was a movie or something.
I might be completely wrong, so if anyone knows anything about something similar, please respond! I'm so curious!
@@presley_presley I did find a character called Norman collossal hes the son of the collosal man from the movie of the same name but idk if thats the same norman you are fererring to..
Spectra Vondergeist's transparent limbs always fascinated me as a kid, making her become my favorite doll (or should I say GRAVEorite)
That was good. You really KILLED it lol
@@pastelrave7432im in stitches laughing at your comment😭😉
You can see your way out.
you shouldnt
monster high released in that age where we were getting too old to openly play with our dolls (but still happily did) but definitely still too young to truly appreciate the fashion of the dolls and i think thats what captivated us so much
There is a massive problem with the body image issue. I remember as a kid having transformers and I hated myself because I couldn’t morph into a corvette.
Same but I still identify that way, my pronouns are bio/nicle
@@TheLyingFigure Same i also identify like that, my pronouns are trans/former
im also trans because of it
You know, my family gives me body image issues all the time. So it’s not the doll’s fault. It’s the parents!
LMAO
Trans rights
As a former little girl who loved how they look I can assure you that none of us were thinking any weird "imma be sensual and attractive blabla" as the story of the world goes little girls will ALWAYS look up to alternative fashion. Cuz it's cool and different.
Now, why are these adults looking at a literal doll in a sexual way? Lots of projection around here.
Yep they did the same thing to us when I was younger with Bratz. Mind you we only ever saw Bratz as fashion play dolls but then you had those weird adults. Who mind you were never the target demographic. Look at a doll in a weird way. Also if you notice, any dolls that have any sort of ethic background or look to them get sexualized. Because when when a Caucasian little girl does it, it is cute. A little girl that is POC does it, it is sexual. And that's just weird 😒
I was obsessed with Venus McFlytrap but my parents never got me her. So, as an Adult to heal my inner child I bought myself one. Probably one of my favorite things I own now.
I shaved half my head remembering her, she was a punk idol and literally a vegan queen. Venus is gorgeous
I just got myself a Frankie Stein doll! It's good to treat your inner child sometimes. It helps them heal.
I got myself a basic Clawdeen doll for the same reason.
She was my first MH doll
@@sarah5080 I think imma get myself a Clawdeen- I never got her and she was literally my fav character
47:39 SO HERE'S THE THING in the post-credit scene of Boo York, Boo York, Astranova is actually seen talking to Apple White and Raven Queen talking about Monster High, so the transferring of Cupid might actually be an marketing tactic or just a nod to exchange students
My mother (who is a pastor, and in most cases, was very anti-bratz and "sexy" dolls) fell in love with monster high when I did because of the emphasis on being unique and yourself! I wonder why she's surprised I got into alt fashion... yeah, i don't know either mom
That’s really cool! I’m glad monster high’s very pastel and gothic fashion is reaching even the most un-intended audiences 😄
Your mother is pretty based
Honestly, Valentine’s story is pretty realistic and wouldn’t be in a “negative light.” Closeted LGBT+ people tend to be very angry and hold a lot of animosity because of their internalized hatred. Having this redemption whilst coming out would have also sent a message to any angered closeted child that they don’t need to be hateful and it’s okay for them to be who they are. It would have been so touching
I do wish there were more closeted gay rep in media so people feel they aren't alone
i was like this until i realised. i wish they went through with that story
@@piss7610 exactly, it would have connected with so many kids
Yeah that was totally an excuse, a shame really
I know. I'm going through this exact problem as a creator. I'm working on a webseries for someone else, and I wanted to make a character NB, but they told me that I couldn't do that because basically, if anything bad happened to them, or if they did anything bad, it would be "putting the community in a bad light" and "offending people", which just left me gobsmacked. Like... so you're telling me LGBTQ+ people only want flawless Mary Sues?
'Cause idk about that one chief, I feel like a character with no flaws is even more insulting. Enbies aren't so stupid that they would think one NB character doing something wrong means we think ALLLLL NB people do the exact same wrong thing! Btw, the character is a happy-go-lucky student whose story arc involves them slowly maturing over time. That's it. That's what's horribly offensive, apparently. Oh, and another excuse I got was that we "didn't know enough about Enbies to represent them" even though my only sibing and a good friend of mine are both NB. Goes without saying my NB relations thought the character was fine. If anything, they wanted MORE flaws to make them a bit more interesting.
Just... Ugh. It's cowardly how much these people preach about uniqueness and celebrating differences but you know what? It's hard to be unique, it's hard to be different. You have to make a stand and risk failure when you do that. And if you think producing an LGBTQ+ cast is hard *imagine what it's like actually being alone and LGBTQ+!!* It could really connect with people and make a difference to have inclusive casts like that but nope. Too busy virtue signaling whilst shooting down actual attempts by the people working for them to practice what they preach.
Cowards.
Whoa, sorry for the rant, just... It hit a nerve when they told me such weaksauce excuses and it hurt again when I saw it here. X'D
Monster high literally built my childhood
I feel old now..in a good way.
did not expect to see you here, but same for me
same
Bro me to sooooooo old😂😂😂😂
Lol I feel even older. I was already in Late middle school/ Highschool by the time they came out
Same but didn’t expect to see you here
The wave 2 core line was honestly my favourite - Frankie and Clawdeen's ponytails, Draculaura's lolita dress and Cleo's design in that line, perfection.
Hot take- even though the accents in the web series were pretty bad, I kind of appreciate that they at least tried to give the main characters different accents when in most American media, most everyone sounds either British or American unless they're comic relief or a villain.
I appreciate this opinion. I would also go as far to say that the accents never really bothered me growing up lol
I agree bro, like their supposed to be characters from different cultures and not everyone can afford voice actors from literally ALL OVER THE WORLD!! What are the voice actors supposed to do? Not try their best and just make them all sound American? Smh
And most of the time, even the British accent isn’t well done ‘cRumPeTs aNd tEA’
Also, some people theorize that Ghoulia Yelps is autistic. So hats off to Monster High for NOT portraying a (possible) autistic as a comic relief or an idiot.
Wow shocker it’s almost like American media is predominantly for Americans….
It never fails to weird me out when adults think things like fantasy creatures = evil. This line is different and allows for so much creativity among children who play with the dolls. There’s nothing wrong with veterinarian Barbie, but how much MORE fun is it to play with a 6 armed spider girl who could be best friends with a unicorn and a vampire? I just don’t understand how that could be viewed as a bad thing. and their clothing is fun and fantastical and over the top, perfect for inspiring children who may be interested in fashion, design, or even visual arts. Grown adults feeling threatened by dolls are the real cringe here
Long time ago in the middle ages the church prohibited any fantasy, visual art or imitation. And that continued for a long time and stuck to people to this day.
Hoo yeah, that reminds that my very-religious-at-the-time mom wouldn't let me buy ANY of the monster high dolls because she saw them as ""demonic"" (I still snuck in episodes of the series tho, lol)
(It’s the Christianity)
I remmebered people talking about dnd... And fantasy video games.. Even if youre fighting literal demons in there
Only Christians think that way normal adults mainly complain about the clothes and how “skimpy” it looks
If monster high was a masculine toy targeted to young boys I promise you the parents would care less about the “sinister” monster themes
In other words, it will be like what Digimon is to Tamagotchi: A “boys’” version of a stereotypically feminine toy (remember the commercials for Tamagotchi and Digimon? The former tend to feature girls, the latter tend to feature boys (even though there are boys who like Tamagotchi and girls who like Digimon)).
This is… so true
There already boys in the franchise, but they don’t act as the protagonists.
That is a very good point
Watching this again in the future knowing mattel embraced lgbt+ charectors and has so much more representation in g3 is such a nice feeling
"the dolls set unrealistic standards and will give our kids body image issues" no mom thats your doing 😭
Yeah I never felt like I needed to look like a doll, and even thought dolls looked really off compared to people, but my mom did waaaaay worse than a doll could ever dream to
they really said that then said “yeah!…. go play with a barbie!”
Bro I wasn't thinking about that as a child I just played with them and was like yahh cool dolls
ong
😂😂😂😭😭😭
Potentially unpopular opinion: Ever After High was a much better version of Descendants. They did the archetype much better than Disney, and their story was better. Their plots were more interesting, more accepting (discussing anxiety, trauma, gaslighting and lgbtq representation), and better written. Their production was also better. When Descendants came out, I was in a fractured fairytale book phase and thought that Ever After definitely did it better
Also you asked about why Cupid transferred, I'm sorry I don't know about that specifically. But I can tell you that just before the Monster High redesign (and simplification you mentioned) the Monster High canon and the Ever After High canon were gearing up for a crossover movie. There's easter eggs in the mermaid feature movie in Monster High, and allusions were made in the Dragon Games movie and other references by Wonderland characters in preparation for a hopeful crossover. Around Dragon Game's release however it was clear that Mattel decided to wind down Ever After High, and when Monster High went through it's sanitized redesign most of the Ever After High community came to the consensus that Mattel had decided to redirect their efforts to making Monster High work. Mattel denies this and refuses to close the door on Ever After High, but they haven't had additions to their property for some time
Definitely not an unpopular opinion.
Totally not an unpopular opinion bc I ain't gaf about Descendants when it first came out lmaoo. Like it was cool and I liked the movies or what not. But EAH literally was my show fr, I loved it just as much as MH and it had the potential to be really popular. Growing up I met so many people who liked the show so it sucks that Disney was playing the lawsuit game and they had to cancel it. EAH executed it better and all the people saying it was a weird copy cat of descendants is lying idc idc 😭
I agree!! EAH is wayyyy better than Descendants
EAH did so many things better than descendants did
YES YES YES YES YES YES
EHA IS GREAT!!!!
The doll industry is so competitive! Thanks for the video. I learned a lot :)
ORORORORO!!! I spend half of my day sleeping! ORORORO!!! Then I sometimes get up and tell you that I am a famous content creatorORORORORO!!! Please don't sleep while driving, dear che
Agreed.
Omg I love your videos!
@@AxxLAfriku r u drunk
@@AxxLAfriku the fuck
The Cringe Jacket is so amazing, like it is the clothing variant of 2006-2012
I remember seeing a tiktok of a kid calling Monster High dolls “vintage” and it shook me to my core. I can never recover from this. Also, I honestly loved MH and EAH, growing up with these dolls meant so much to me! My favorite MH character was always Catrine, but Draculara is so perfect as well! I loved Catrines doll, Elissabat’s as well, I also thought Honey was so unique! Rochelle was my favorite doll I had, though! Such a unique design, tbh!
I’m actually glad that EAH exists, it’s such an iconic like of dolls, especially with the nice LGBT representation in the movies. Ever After High will always live on in my heart, it’s just such a cute series that I actually like *more* than Monster High. Even if it came after MH, it’s still such a creative series I can’t get enough of it.
As someone who was already an adult when Monster High started, hearing about anyone calling it “vintage” made me crumble into dust and blow away in the wind.
I saw Monster High stuff in an ANTIQUE store a while ago, made me feel so old especially since I'd only just turned 18
HELP VINTAGE
my fave was catrine too!
VINTAGE?! They know it’s only 12 years old right😭
49:41 Cupid transferring to Ever After High was initially a segway into the crossover between the two series. We were SO INSANELY CLOSE to a movie, since there was a script concept art etc. and then of course the falling out between disney and mattel. There is a book though, I haven't gotten to reading it yet but I have high hopes for it since Shannon Hale did an amazing job on the previous Ever After High books.
Amazing video as always Izzy :)
omg there's a book?! what is it called?
a WHAT
@@xestephanyx Apparently, Monster High/Ever After High: The Legend of Shadow High
I’ve read the book and it features the reboot monster high characters, it wasn’t my favorite but it wasn’t too bad!
@@xestephanyx ua-cam.com/video/nrOqwmA9gDI/v-deo.html
Izzy I can't say enough how much I appreciate that you're openly destigmatizing cringe, embracing it as the harmless self-exploration that it is.
NOT ME WATCHING THIS A DAY AFTER MATPAT MADE A VIDEO SAYING HES WUITTING UA-cam AND YOU DROP THE GAME THEORY LINE. BRB CRYING
I don't know, the whole "dolls are giving girls body issues!" crisis feels like another version of "pokemon teaches kids to abuse animals!" It's very disconnected from the way children actually think. It also feels weirdly targeted because nobody ever says anything about He-Man, G.I Joe or Monster High's skinny male characters.
I mean there was a literal study done on the doll thing though, and it DID find that skinny dolls sometimes generated negative self image where a full figured doll found positive self image. "Dolls cause body issues" is an oversimplification and dismisses that it is a small bit of evidence of a MUCH larger problem societally. Dolls dont CAUSE the issues, but they reinforce and ideology that already exists and is pushed onto young girls in everything they watch.
Body diversity in dolls is something we should push for (especially better body diversity than Barbies frankly pathetic attempt. Shes just short and a little wide, thats not plus size) but i do agree that blaming dolls for how they bring out a symptom of a larger societal issue is narrow minded. :)
Also there may be less emphasis on the male dolls because body standards for men work VERY differently. Male bodies dont get policed with as much ferocity as female ones. I cant tell you how many times ive seen, say a plus size man on tiktok making a joke or whatever and no comments mention his body at all vs how almost EVERY plus size woman gets body hate for literally minding her business.
Male body standards revolve around strength and aren't super heavily enforced, but womens revolve around sex appeal (if fatphobia was about worry for fat womens "health" then why do men call female bodybuilders unattractive? /srs) and thinness and numbers and calories. Its not really a fair argument. Little boys know he man is fictional and wont be pressured to start weightlifting, but i and countless others had the "Come to Weight Watchers with Mommy" talk. This is NOT to say men cant struggle, but just that its MORE prevalent with women (almost twice the amount of women with EDs vs men, it is a societal thing).
Unfortunatly it is not dead. it just moved to twitter and found more or less "new" targets (videogames, anime, manga...)
I never look at a doll and felt insecure as a kid 😭
I mean as a kid I was taught that Barbies were fat and played with monster high dolls instead
49:44 Cupid's character design was very pink and easily fit the "girly" spinoff Mattel wanted. Alongside that, her being the "daughter of cupid" fit more into Ever After High's mythological and fairy tale aesthetic. I also believe her design changed because she had a new mission. At Monster High she didn't need to hide her true self as Monster High was very accepting BUT at Ever After High, just in the first episode, you can see the prejudice every character has to people outside the status quo. Also Cupid originally could've set up "The Lost Movie" which is the abandoned Monster High/Ever After High crossover movie set to release right before the Monster High brand reboot. Also something else, in the crossover book, released after the MH reboot, Raven Queen and Apple White reveal that monsters are just stories in their world and vis versa with Monster High. That must mean that the stories fuel both their worlds and so long as the worlds remained stories to each other everything would be fine.
I remember in the crossover book The Legend of Shadow High, [SPOILERS ALERT]
I did mention of greek columns (Olympus High?) and one for sci-fi stuff. Bro there are so much possibilities.
Monster High and Ever After High were set to have a crossover movie, in fact you can find some storyboard segments of it here on UA-cam! I haven’t watched Boo York in a while, but if I remember correctly the ending of the movie had Astronova talking to Raven and Apple on her iCoffin. Sadly due to the whole Disney debacle the crossover was cancelled :(
As for the whole thing with Cupid, my theory is that she was transferred over to EAH to create a solid link between the worlds of the doll lines. Obviously they’re sister brands, but with Cupid transferring it confirms that they’re both from the same universe right off the bat.
There is a crossover book at least between EAH and MH! "The Legend of Shadow High" by Shannon Hale & Dean Hale
@@phbtonyou Yesss I remember reading it a while back. It always bothered me that the cover had the MH reboot designs lol
@@jessargo Yeah, I'm not a fan of the new design for MH either. At least when I'm reading it I can imagine it's the OG designs. (Also Apple White's face looks a little weird to me on the cover.) I really like how Shannon and Dean write the characters though (I read her EAH books a couple of years ago because I'm a sucker for tropes that EAH/MH give me, and hexellent play on words :U )
I am still so disappointed that the crossover movie didn’t happen
26:07
Sobbing rn bc for the longest time I had forgotten about this ver of Clawdeen and seeing it brought back the memories of when 9yr old me was so obsessed with her that I straight got my hair done in the same colours as the doll’s hair 😂😅😭
Both of my parents were/are goths who were heavily involved with the subculture back in it's heyday of the late 80s-90s, so they had the exact opposite reaction to Monster High that most parents did. They were thrilled to get me cool alt fashion monster dolls- unfortunately for them I ended up heavily preferring the cute pastel story-book vibes of Ever After High 😂
Man u had goth parents? So cool🥲
Ever After High has a great aesthetic too! I remember being obsessed with it and wanting a doll really bad
YESSS LITERALLY MY DAD, i mentioned this in a comment i made but when i requested my dad to buy one of the dolls, he didnt even think twice 😭
I wish I had known about both as a child because I would have killed to get those dolls!! EAH and MH alike!
Same my mom was obsessed with Frankie Stein lol
When our child was 3 years old, we got her a Monster High doll. Specifically, she chose Draculaura. I was blown away with the sheer quality of this doll and how incredibly DETAILED it was. The clothes are SO well made, and the doll itself looks like it cost WAY more than the 15.00 my hubby paid for it at our local Walmart. Because of this, I started collecting Monster High dolls. Unfortunately, I was WAY late to the game by a few years. (I only decided to start collecting them myself after seeing how destructive my child was with her doll and how worn it had become).
Unfortunately, by this time, the REBOOTED dolls were the ones being sold. I was SO dismayed and confused. What happened to those beautiful, _expensive_ looking dolls?? I had to go hunting from store to store in an attempt to find a store which still sold collections from the ORIGINAL line...which turned out to ONLY be close-out stores (Big Lots, Ollie's, Fred's, etc) because places like Walmart and Target were ONLY selling from the "new" rebooted line by this time. ☹️
unfortunately mh was starting to run out of money :/
That sucks, im sorry. Id love to see those old beautiful dolls make a comeback someday :3
Thanks for the store recs
I LOVED monster high as a kid and still do. So (as a black girl who grew up in a almost entirely white community) Honey swamp was always my favorite character seeing a doll who looked like me and had curly hair actually helped me embrace my hair more and fell like I wasn’t weird. Her and Clawdeen gave me confidence to be me.
I absolutely adored her hair, to me it stood out cause it was a genuine representation of black hair texture for once!!!
i actually rememebr my mom bringing home honey swamp as a gift for me and she got it strictly because of her hair and said she looked just like me! made me so happy lol
I'm not black but Honey and Clawdeen were always some of my favs. I loved Honey's fluffy afro so much. Its such a beautiful hairstyle and definitely needs more representation. Clawdeen was just awesome in general. I always loved her strange fashion combos
The hair blew me away! I have never seen coiled doll hair before, and I’m in love!
On that information about Clawdeen thing with shaving does it also say: Favorite Activity: shopping and flirting with my boys!
...what,,, i dont remember seeing Clawdeen with boys, if anything the opposite-
I’ve literally had an eating disorder and never once thought that barbies, bratz, or monster high dolls contributed to that in any way. I just loved dressing them up and making little fashion shows. Them all having the same body types meant that clothing was easily swapped
I don't know why but "we took Disney for granted" is the funniest phrase to ever come out of the brainhole of a company CEO
"We took Disney for granted" should be the motto for every Disney remake
Because taking Disney for granted in any shape or form is astronomically dumb, ESPECIALLY for a CEO who should KNOW how HUMUNGUS Disney is. Like, Who TF was the head of Mattel at the time??? He just seems to make bad decision on top of bad decision on top of bad decision. And not only with the Disney thing. seriously.
Frrr
my favorite part about monster high when i was little WAS the diversity. ranging from scottish, to egyptian, to mexican, etc. it gave me more knowledge as to that everyone is different and can still look cool no matter where they’re from. not only that but in the big 6, they included a ghoul with a disability. our lover, ghoulia. with the whole group of girls accepting her and loving her it allowed me as a little girl to be accepting to children with special needs at my elementary school. as a white woman, i have no right to say if there’s too little or just enough inclusion of poc dolls but there were enough for me to accept everyone at a young age while surrounded by racist peers and family. monster high would not have made me the accepting and welcoming person i am today.
46:22 Someone done left their baby as an offering to Eros 😭
I was under the impression that Clawdeen Wolf wasn't the only POC character, I thought Cleo de Nile was also POC (She is from Cairo, Egypt) - she did not strike me as a white character.
They said only *black* character
I always saw Cleo as black but light-skinned since mummification is an ancient Egyptian practice and ancient Egyptians were black (before Arabs, Greeks, etc. came over and mixed).
@@katie2275 but she still wasn’t even the only black character, honestly a lot of characters seemed black to me growing up even with the blue or green skin tones
@@nevoodles8210 For sure 🤞🏾characters like Toralei along with her goons, Bonita, and of course Honey Swamp (inarguably) def struck me as black characters
@@nanodere nefera is lightskin black
I'm 18 rn and monster high has such a special place in my heart. Not only was it the first doll franchise that I encountered that has multiple black dolls, but they promoted individuality and embracing all the weird shit about you and as a baby goth that was mildly shunned thanks to many people assuming I was practicing witchcraft, which only motivated me, this series did do much for me and brought me so much joy.
Do you know the name of the doll line which included a dark-skinned doll with curly brown hair and turquoise clothes? The doll line included three more dolls. One was blonde wearing purple clothes, the other one had black hair and red clothes and I don't remember what the fourth one looked like.
@@kyrak.4143 Are you talking about Bratz or is this something different?
@@kyrak.4143 Honey swamp?
@@kyrak.4143 or clawdia?
same!! i was obsessed with clawdeen wolf and looking back on it, it was probably because she looked the most like me out of any dolls id ever seen before
While I absolutely dread to be the "um actually" person, I hate seeing ever after high be misconstrued- the series was actually a book series first! The designs were on the covers and they came out in 2013-2014, so while Raven Queen and Mal do look simmilar it most likely was the fact they both had raven themes.
Ever After High was not a book series first, actually the first book, the Storybook of Legends was launched months after the website and dolls launch, which was late 2013 while the website was around May 2013. But Ever After High, and what this video gets wrong and a lot of people, was on production at least one year and a half or more before their launch. It was not a copy of Descendants but more likely the other way around. Ever After High was not done in a few weeks obviously, animation and doll design takes a lot of time and to think otherwise can be saddening for people like me who are professionals in that area. The brand has a lot of love and care put into it, it had dolls that were more detailed in launch than what Monster High was offering at the time (like 13 Wishes) and way more care put into the storytelling as the Mattel team had learned with Monster High's confusing canon between webisodes, doll diaries and books in the early releases. The animation while done with rigs on ToonBoom Harmony was way better than Monster High's flash animation because Mattel knew what Monster High fans wanted to be better about Monster High and applied that to Ever After High while having a brand that would sell to the kids who were not into monsters and more edgy stuff. Both brands are amazing and it is really hard to say which one is the better one for me at least.
I have one of the books!! :D
The eah books are honestly pretty good. They give a bit more context to the world that isn’t touched on in the show.
Thanks for kindly adding more info!
@@-Vanova- the author, shannon hale, is phenomenal!
I was a HUGE Monster High fan. They will always have space in my heart ❤️
As a child I know I never once had odd thoughts like that. Literally just loved when dolls had unique clothes. I feel a lot of the issues lie with parents viewing things as overly sexual thus telling children “no this doll is too sexual” adults are who makes kids realize something is anything other then a toy. As a adult toy collector almost everytime I’m at a store I always hear a mom tell a little girl “no all these dolls are too skimpy pick one that’s got full clothing”
Also feel as if its a way to not buy a toy, like yeah we can get u a toy BUT no this that or the other
My mom wouldn’t let me play with Bratz dolls but she openly supported Monster High and poured a lot of her single mother money into buying the dolls for me during holidays. I think she liked the MH message more and understood what the dolls were really about.
So sad that the rebooted series is butchering those messages.
@@cameronmcewen9666 how's it butchering the message?
@@eaovark5353 I’d tell you to watch to find out for yourself, but then your eyes would bleed.
@@cameronmcewen9666 ?? are you talking about the second wave? thought u meant the third wave was going against the message, which was released after the video was published. what r u being rude for
@@eaovark5353 The third wave IS against the message.
47:50
So Cupid went to both monster high and ever after high.
She help people fall in love in both places.
To show the fans that the worlds where connected and to get ready for the crossover movie that never came out.
exactly!!! i don't agree with the creators opinions on cupid not looking like herself like of course a bone monster would look out of place in ever after high it's a different universe completely so they had to change her aesthetic
i was so upset it never came out
@@iraxs5195 but hey at least theres a rough storyboard out there
@@slay_png I think there was a book as well if I recall correctly
@@pinkpeppers5580 rlly??? i gotta read that haha
24:59 as someone once said “he looks like someone’s first mlp oc”
I'm a boy, and I started collecting these in secret, but as I got to know the characters, I felt comfortable with myself so I collected loud and proud. These dolls where so bold and had a very positive message. But of course it was too intense for some mom's *ahem Karens*
bro back in elementary school and we used to have those scholastic book fairs, mind you not there are boys who bought Monster High stuff.
My brother liked monster high a lot too!! It’s just an awesome franchise
Good for you man! Idk why some older people care so much what adults spend their own money on. Especially if its a completely harmless hobby.
i got into monster high a few weeks ago, my first movie was "why do ghouls fall inlove" and i started becoming interested with Valentine.
and oh damn, i hated him so much until his diary, which i read from a wiki (like i wish i had his doll but ehfud)
turns out hes the most monster i could relate to , to think that monster high is just some edgy fashion doll line, i didnt expect that there would be a character that i could see myself into
and hes gay which made me feel so happy, like i know its not explicitly stated but ive been here on this planet for a long time and one does not simply "space out" over the same gender
Hey, im a boy too and i want to start collecting too (not just specifically monster high), but i can't even think about trying to do it while my parents are... My parents
So, as a guy who kind of did what i want to do, is there some kind of advice you could give to me?
Like, some way for me to do it? Im young, (12y) and my life is mostly controlled by my parents, so its pretty difficult for me to get, but anything you say could help me or at least will make me more confortable, so pls say anything you have in your head about this subject lol
As an Appalachian, I welcome the existence of a doll based on the Mothman.
please tell your history teachers that a non appalachian-based american said to you "it's called apple-lake-can"
Can we donate the Bonita Femur and Luna Mothews dolls to the Mothman Museum?
I am a 24 year old woman.
I love monsters. I barely started watching monster high and I absolutely love Frankie Stein because I recently had a thyroidectomy living me a scar like Frankie on my neck!
Everyone tells me to cover it up and use products but I actually love this spooky ass scar! I feel fangtastic ☺️
exactly!! people will say all they want but all that matters is how you feel about it:)
honestly go off queen, i love it when people are confident with their imperfections
Hell yes!! And also, "fangtastic" I love this ❤️🧛♀️
I might be facing a thyroidectomy, I'm glad for this comment
You could probably do a super realistic Frankie cosplay with it!
I don’t understand who would’ve thought monster high was racist, they were by far the most inclusive line of dolls of their time, like I understand “stereotypes” but come on their frickin monsters based on local folklore, I’m Mexican and here in Mexico people lose their mind over her, she was flying off the shelves and on the secondary market is very hard to get her, you have to fight for her, all of MH fans wanted her
My partner just walked in on me watching this and interjected with “did you know their bodies are totally impossible for a human shape to be” and I had this sudden feeling like since he heard one person say that that it became the typical response to say. It almost feels like a monkey see monkey do moment which makes me wonder if people weren’t influenced by others so easily what would their natural reaction be?
I honestly dislike that sort of.. Talking(?) Like no shit i cant inflate my head to be like that.. Its not pictures.. Its drawing and dolls
@@yuki97kira same. It felt weird… I wouldn’t want to limit kids to literally anatomical correct dolls, I feel like that might be even stranger! 😂
I remember my aunt making a similar comment towards a Winx doll I had, like mocking the waist saying "poor girl" and me just staring at her thinking "yeah... they're trying to be accurate to the art style of the series...its a good thing actually... Im aware real people have full torsos not in a strange crushed s shape aunt... the doll is like that so that with the clothes over she has the same silhouette as the series..."
Fun fact she consistently body shames all the girls in our family under the guise of joking. The irony of it all.
It’s like “we’ll duh, they’re not human”
People don't realise that things are stylized for a _reason._ Everything would look boring and uncanny as hell if we tried to be super anatomically correct! Kids aren't stupid, they just like the cute/pretty cartoon characters.
It's a shame parents didn't see the beauty in these dolls. These dolls were created to show love and acceptance to all, and to accept your flaws and embrace them. And me being a plus sized girl, I never personally felt that these dolls made me self conscious or anything
OMG! I had a Monster High OC named Heidi B. Hind, daughter of the HideBehind. She was basically the embodiment of my severe social anxiety.
thats adorable plss link art if you still have any i would die to see her
Cool!!
that’s amazing
ngl i had no idea that was a real legend just always thought it came from gravity falls 😭
@@googleoogle Hey, sorry for not replying for so long.
Unfortunately, this was before I realized I could pay other people to draw my OCs, since I am not a good artist and am more of a writer. And by the time I realized what a "commission" was, I was already passed my MH phase.
However, I do recall a lot of details that she would've had if she were to be drawn.
10:20 ‘i want to teach them to use their intuition and common sense’ you’re literally teaching them what’s right and wrong without letting them use their intuition and common sense lol
(i do understand where this parent is coming from, i just think the wording is funny)
This franchise is one I feel like I was truly robbed off. I had super strict/“religious” mom/stepdad combo and they were 100% one of the “these are the devils dolls.” My bio-dad got me a few Bratz dolls and they were some of my favorites because of the odd proportions & fashion, I would have loved to gotten into this brand but now I feel like I’m too out of the loop 😂 signed another hidden goth child 😂😂
One thing I will say about Clawdine “hair controversy” - as a young teen who grew leg hair quicker then most of my friends (& a little sister who went through the same battle) I would have actually found the whole “shaving” thing helpful to push the “I want to have control over this part of my body.” And although I do get the “skinny problem” I never saw it that way, if anything the Barbie dolls that were coming out at the same time made me feel worse, they had fleshed out abs & hip dips, something much more “realistic”
Ok but the Beetlejuice duo was a cool design! I definitely agree it was a “money spin off” but a solid design. The gremlin also wasn’t horrible, and I like how big the ears were.
Dude same! Back in middle school I was so lucky that one of my friends loved Monster High and was allowed to have merch so she let me read one of her books, and a classmate of mine had some books that she didn't want anymore so she gave me them, one of them being the first monster high book.
@@mcrowcreations it would be fine if she shaved some parts of her body and not others, OR if different werewolf girls did different things (including some not shaving at all). But otherwise it reinforces a gender role.
@@asmrtpop2676 and I do definitely see that side. But that’s why I mentioned my particular side as another way to view it, it took my bio-dad telling my mom “she is uncomfortable and you won’t do anything to fix it because you want to believe she’s still a child.”
I have (and still mostly have) a massive fear of seeming “cringe” and this channel has helped me get over that by covering a lot of “cringe” topics with a genuine earnestness and enthusiasm that makes me feel a bit more comfortable being me.
So, thank you for that
cringe culture iz DED!!!!!!!!!!!
@@stormofdogz 'iz ded' cringe
cringe culture IZ REVEVED
@@ussinussinongawd516 NUUUUUU X-X
Gotta be the most wholesome thread here
I remember loving Monster High because it felt like a cooler, more mature version of barbie and bratz. A lot of little girls went through a phase of rejecting anything that felt too stereotypically feminine. When I was younger I hated anything marketed as 'pink and girly', but still secretly wanted to play with dolls, and I think Monster high filled that niche
That was basically exactly the reason most of my dolls as a kid were monster high. (I also really liked the cool styles, but I probably wouldn't have felt comfortable playing with them still if I'd felt they were "too girly")
When monster high came out my sister mom and I were obsessed 😭😭 unfortunately the apartment we lived in had beg bugs and they got literally everywhere so we either got rid of them or my mom sold them cause we didn’t play with them anymore, I’m so happy they released the creeproduction line 😭😭