She came from the swamp: Monster High Honey Swamp

I'm just going to dive right into the world of doll blogging with the brand new Monster High doll, Honey Swamp, the daughter of the Swamp Monster. She's one of four new characters being introduced as part of the Frights, Camera, Action! line, and here in Canada, we were lucky enough to see her, Clawdia Wolf and Elissabat turn up on our shelves just this week. Here's a preview of her glorious hair, and head on past the jump for more detail!

First, let's have a look at her box. The first thing to note is that it's a new, inbetween size for Monster High; smaller than the previous basic or deluxe dolls, and larger than the budget dolls. I like it! I've always thought the boxes were very large for what they contain, so I'm happy to have less waste.

Isn't she something?

At the bottom, we have Honey's box art, presumably pulled right from the upcoming film of the same name. She looks a bit different, but just as gorgeous! 

And on the back, we have a brief synopsis of what the movie is about, and a nice full body shot of Honey. Now, let's get her out of that box!

Here she is, in all her glory! In my years of collecting Monster High dolls, I can honestly say very few of them have struck me so much right out of the box. Honey is truly something new and exciting, from her wild and curly hair, to the intricate vines swirling around her body, right down to the beautifully molded shoes. She also comes with an adorable video camera and clapboard, both of which have handles on the back so she can hold them. She has a diary and a brush like all basic Monster High dolls, though I can't think of anything worse than brushing out this dolls' hair!

Her face is really stunning, and it mostly comes down to her eyes. They're a beautiful shade of bright green, with lizard-like slit pupils. Her brows are light purple, which is a bit odd, but looks quite striking against her pale aqua skin. Her mouth is full and painted a shimmering light pinky lilac, and she has quite a few fangs painted on as well!

Her outfit is adorable and very interesting! It's a short-sleeved dress, with the top being a pale purple, with a black button placket in the front, and a black lacy collar. The skirt is really interesting! It features kind of an abstract floral print, but some of the flowers have little monster faces with angry eyes and toothy grins on them! The skirt is nearly the same shade as her skin, with pink, purple and black accents, and a jagged hem. Underneath, there's some attached fur trim, almost like a fur petticoat or slip. I've definitely never seen anything like it on a doll before, and it's very cool! I will say that the fur gets EVERYWHERE, and I was picking it off of everything while taking photos for this review. She is also wearing a cute pink floral belt, which has roses and what looks like dripping seaweed. Very neat!

Her shoes are all kinds of amazing, which is nothing new for Monster High! Light pink, with molded teeth and all kinds of other details. I took some more detailed photos of these off of Honey, so we'll get back to that!

Her jewellery is very simple, just a pearl bracelet and matching pearl earrings.

And perched atop her glorious mane of aqua and teal corkscrew curls, she's wearing a cute pink hat attached to a black, textured headband. I didn't go digging too deeply into her hair to see all the details of this piece because her hair is kind of a masterpiece, and I didn't want to mess it up! When I first saw images of this doll from Comic Con, I was sure this hair would be a disaster out of the box, but Mattel has proven me wrong! The back is a little flat from being against the box, sure, but it fluffs right back up and generally is incredible. Not the most versatile doll hair I've ever seen, but when it looks like THIS, who cares about versatility?

Next, I had to see what they'd done with Honey's body mold. Her arms and legs have vines molded into them, so I could only assume there was more going on, and there definitely was! I love how much detail Mattel put into this body, when most of that detail is going to be hidden by clothing.

The same vines swirl up and down both sides of her body, following her curves right up her neck. They're really very attractive, and add a lot of interest. I think they really invoke the image of trailing vines in a swamp, dragging over the water.

Her back is neat as well, with these small molded spikes on either side of her spine. They make me think of the spines on an alligators' back, which I'm guessing is what they were going for!

While I had Honey's clothes off, I took some detailed pictures of her shoes, and let me tell you, they are AWESOME.

They have ALLIGATOR FACES molded into them! Come on! I do wish that some of the details had been painted instead of just molded, but I can't be mad at alligator shoes.

So, there's Honey Swamp! I think she's pretty fantastic, and a great start to a new year of Monster High! Can't wait to see where we go from here, and hope to have a few of you along for the ride to share my love of Monster High, and other dolls!

(My goal for my next review is to figure out how to get pictures to enlarge when you click on them. I'm still learning!)