Out of the Wild: Jane Boolittle

I feel like me being surprised by dolls is kind of a trend lately...but here we go again! We first saw Jane Boolittle turn up inside the display case at San Diego Comic Con. At the time, people were pretty confused, since she didn't tie into any of the lines we knew about, and because it wasn't immediately clear what kind of monster she was supposed to be. Well, it's still not really clear what kind of monster she is, exactly, but at least we know where she fit into the Monster High universe! Though she is a standalone doll, Jane is being promoted alongside the new "Secret Creepers" line.

None of these were really my concerns when I saw Jane. No, I wasn't sure about her face mold, or her outfit which looked...pretty random and kind of crazy, and I was comfortable crossing her off my mental list of dolls I NEEDED to have. Well, I'm eating my words now!

Want to see what made me change my mind about Jane? Click through to read more!

Here she is in her box! Her background is kind of a dark and mysterious forest, which is perfect! But what we really need to talk about...

Is her art. I mean, come on! This girl is FIERCE! The doll doesn't really share this ferocity, which does make sense, since we learn in her diary and her webisode introduction that she's very shy, and nervous around other monsters. I love this art though, and I have her box set aside while I try to figure out something to do with it. Suggestions? I usually ditch boxes immediately!

And Jane and all her stuff! In addition to the standard stuff, she comes with her pet voodoo sloth Needles (who may be the cutest MH pet EVER!), a walking stick that doubles as a marker (more on that later), and a deep blue and red purse. 

She has a lot going on! Her outfit is made up of a lot of pieces and a lot of colours, and I still don't really feel like it all works together, but I think that's kind of the point. Jane spent her earliest years alone in the jungle, being raised by animals, until Dr. Boolittle and Dr. Moreau found her and adopted her (yes, Jane also kind of has two dads!). So maybe, they didn't really have a lot of clothes kicking around for a young girl, and she's cobbled together her personal style from that. She likes to call her style "jungle chic" and, sure. Why not!

Her skin is a lovely purple colour, much darker than Operetta's. It's kind of soft and greyed out, and definitely unique even in the Monster High rainbow of skin colours. Her face is really interesting to me. There's something about the actually mold as well as the paint job that is different but also enticing, from the smooth, sloping eyebrows to the slightly wider nose. I also really like the shape of her mouth, with the smooth upper lip and pouty, bowed bottom lip.

As for her makeup, it's very subtle, with just a light pink eyeshadow on the lid, surrounded by a deeper purple in the crease. Underneath her eyes, she has a series of light blue dots that follow the curve of her cheekbones. Her lips are painted a lovely deep berry colour that is very shiny!

She has the same slightly pointed ears as Draculaura. Here you can also see her two different earrings, molded in the same light blue as the dots on her cheekbones. One is a simple tooth or claw, and the other is a feather topped with a small bone.

I want to talk about her hair as well, but I could not for the life of me get any pictures to capture the real colour of it, no matter what background I used! It looks black in all my photos, but it's not. In real life, it's a lovely deep blue that leans towards purple, with bright reddish-pink streaks through the front. It might be a mix of blue and black, but it's hard to tell, no matter how hard I look. It's kind of an odd texture, at least in the pony tail part. It's very soft and fluffy, and feels almost more cotton-y or something...fluffy really is the best descriptor for it, but even that's not quite right! It's kind of a mess right out of the box honestly, and any kind of finger combing or brushing just made it bigger and puffier. I'm considering washing it or maybe even boiling it, but I don't know if I want her with straight hair or not, and I'm rubbish at perming. We'll see!

Way down below, she's wearing two different shoes. When we first saw Jane, a lot of people saw these shoes and her walking stick and thought that maybe she had a disability. While that isn't the case, I can definitely see how the shoe on her right foot resembles a brace, and I think it's really cool that a doll like this exists, because a little girl who maybe DOES wear a brace or use some kind of assistive device could definitely see herself in Jane. That's definitely in the spirit of Monster High, and I love it!

Anyways, back to the shoes! The bases of them are the same, wedge heels with a leaf pattern, and a simple strap over the toe decorated with a red skullette. The left shoe is pretty simple, with just a snake coiling up her lower leg. Her right shoe is more elaborate, featuring a series of straps running up nearly to her knee. There's also a feather dangling off the top.

In addition to the earrings we already looked at, Jane is wearing a lot of other accessories. On her head, she's wearing a headband made of feathers. Out of the box it's perched on her head in kind of an odd way and attached around the back with a clear elastic. With a little shifting, I put it to the position it is on her box art, and it looks a lot better. This photo is kind of mid move actually. I currently have the side pieces even more parallel to the floor with the feather part a bit further down on her face and I love how it looks! Definitely brings in more of the fierceness from the box art.

She has a large red necklace/collar, plastic shoulder situations, a chunky belt, and bracelets on both wrists. More is more with Jane!

The collar is red, with a few light blue painted details. It's pretty substantial! The neck piece resembles the coils worn by women such as the Kayan Lahwi of Burma.

Over she shoulder, she wears this molded piece that resembles feathers. It's really flexible, and I had a heck of a time getting it to stay in place when I posed her after I removed the elastic bands.

Her belt is the same dark blue as her shoulder piece, and is made of three skullettes in the front, with teeth or claws circling the rest of it. There are feathers dangling from the skullette in the front.

On her left wrist, she wears simple bangles in red and aqua over a fishnet arm warmer, and on her right, she wears a more substantial dark blue cuff. You can also see here that she has slightly clawed fingers!

Her outfit has a lot of pieces too! She wears an over shirt with an asymmetrical hem and an all-over abstract leaf pattern in shades of blue and purple. On the shoulders, it's trimmed in the same faux fur used in Honey Swamp's underskirt.When Jane wears this and the plastic shoulder piece, the feathers frame the fur really nicely and it looks very cool!

Underneath that, she's wearing a tunic top. The bodice is a pink striped pattern, and there's a light blue tulle ruffle at the bottom. She's also wearing a pair of black leggings with jagged hems. Maybe she's been off running through the jungle and snagged her leggings? All in all, none of the pieces really make any sense together, but somehow they do work for Jane's style! I think the tunic would look great on Lagoona though, definitely her colours!

Now that we've got Jane back in all her clothes, let's have a look at some of the goodies she comes with! She comes with quite a few, and they're different from usual.

First up, we have her freaking adorable pet, Needles the voodoo sloth. This picture is so bad and I apologize! Not working with the best set up here...

Anyway, Needles is flexible vinyl, and Jane can wear him like a backpack! His sweet little face looks pretty cute peeking out from over his shoulder.

She has to turn her head to wear him like this though, or he gets hidden by her hair. Maybe he's shy like Jane though, and he likes to hide in her hair.

She can also wear him around her leg like this, which allows her to look in any direction she wants and to use her stand.

She also comes with a purse, which is rather large. It has a red bamboo-esque handles and clasp with a feather detail, while the body is a dark blue with a quilted pattern. It resembles an old-fashioned doctor bag to me.

And it opens to reveal three small strips of paper with vine details on the edges.

Remember how I mentioned that Jane's staff was also a marker? Here's where that comes in! The end of the staff comes off like a cap, revealing a purple marker. You can write notes on the little strips of paper and...

Hide them in the little slit in Needles' back! Because he's flexible, the slit opens a little when you squeeze him, so you can get the strips in and out fairly easily.

As for the staff itself, I basically love it! I wish it was a teensy bit taller so she could hold it easier like this and actually use it as a walking stick. In this picture, it's balancing pretty precariously!

The staff does have a handle on the back of it however, and it stays in her hand pretty well like this. Try as I might, I could NOT get her to replicate the pose on the box though. Her arm and wrist joints just aren't stiff enough. You can see her elbow buckling in the photo on the right. It still looks pretty cool though, and I bet if I employed some elastic bands, I could probably make it happen.

Even if she can't hold it exactly like her art, it still looks pretty awesome! And I'm still so glad Mattel is making these accessories that they CAN actually hold, even if it's not in exactly the way they're pictured. That means less useless pieces of plastic that I'll just toss in a bag and store away, and more cool accessories in my dolls' hands on my shelves!

And that's the story of how I was won over by a shy girl with a cute sloth for a pet! What do you think of Monster High's newest student?

Also, if anyone feels like weighing in on who I should review next, I think that could be fun! I have Legacy Day Raven Queen, Black Carpet Cleo and the new Frights, Camera, Action Walmart exclusive Operetta that I just picked up today! Comment with your choice!