Thursday, 17 April 2014

She's so slow she's.....Deadfast! SDCC Exclusive Ghoulia Yelps


This is exactly going to be a review, since this doll isn't readily available anymore and is definitely a few years old, but I couldn't let her quietly join my collection without a bit of fan fare! Plus, Ghoulia hasn't had a new doll in the time I've been blogging, and since she IS my favourite character, I had to take the chance to get her in front of my camera!

As you'll know if you've ever had a look at my wishlist tab, my number one most wanted doll was the SDCC Exclusive version of Ghoulia Yelps, who comes dressed as her favourite comic character, Deadfast. In box, these dolls go for upwards of $300 dollars, usually WELL upwards of that, and that is not a price I was ever going to be comfortable paying. Especially when I know I would just take her out of the box, as cool as the box is. Recently in one of the Monster High Facebook groups I'm in, someone was selling an OOB Ghoulia. I nervously asked for a price, and while it was still more than I have ever paid for a doll, it was nowhere near what they usually go for, and I went for it. Maybe not the smartest decision I've ever made, but right now I'm pretty happy to have this awesome doll in my collection, so I'm feeling alright about it!



For more pictures, click through!





As I said, she didn't come in her box, but she did come complete with all her accessories! Also included is a red brush, and a clear stand with a red metallic base. Just. She's so great. I'm a cosplayer myself, and I love that I have a doll who is too!




One of the included accessories is this comic book that Ghoulia wrote and drew herself. I love this! The story is cute, the drawings are cute, and I love what Deadfast says about Ghoulia's brain being faster than his legs. It makes me think of Oracle, who is probably my favourite real comic book character.


And these are her other accessories! She comes with a Deadfast action figure, a convention badge, a Deadfast, mini-comic, and a pair of regular glasses.  I love these accessories so much! As a convention goer, the themed bag makes me happy, I have a lot of those from various conventions past.


Her outfit is basically a slightly adapted version of Deadfast's costume. The majority of the outfit is made of black, shimmery fabric, that feels sort of like a stretchy knit. The tunic is trimmed at the neck, wrists and hem with red pleather cut in a jagged, lightning bolt pattern. On the chest is Deadfast's logo. Underneath that she's wearing tights in the same knit.


In this close-up, you can see the texture of the fabric, as well as get a good look at her belt! It's white vinyl in the same jagged pattern as the trim on her outfit, studded with little red brains.


On her face, she's wearing large glasses or goggles, with an exaggerated shape. They come to a point over her nose which resembles a bird's beak.


Ghoulia's face is gorgeous, as always! Her eyeshadow is all grey, except for the stripe of glitter right up under her brow. She has very thin brows with a subtle shape, and it gives her face an interesting look. Her lips are a shimmery gunmetal colour, which is pretty awesome! Ghoulia does tend to go for a red lip, so I like this very different look for her.


She's also wearing tiny red brains as earrings, that match the brains on her belt.


And here's what she looks like in her normal glasses. These are not new glasses for Ghoulia. We've seen them on Dot Dead Gorgeous Ghoulia, and in red on Dawn of the Dance Ghoulia.


Her boots are really cool! They're red with white soles and stripes up the front, and four black stripes at the top. The heels have a detail that kind of looks like wings. Love!



I love the detail on her little badge!


And I love that my toy came with a toy! I have two of these now, since her Comic Book Club fashion pack came with one too, but he's facing the other way in the package, and the backing is slightly different.


Ready to meet her favourite writers and get her comics autographed!


There's always lots of shopping to do at a convention!


And this is basically what you look like at the end of a long day. Weighed down with purchases, more than a little exhausted, but totally happy!


Once I was done looking at Ghoulia alone, I just had to get her together with the Power Ghouls! If you've read the comics that come with these dolls, you know that Ghoulia is the mastermind behind getting them all together as a team. In the comics she's dressed in this outfit, so it had to happen!

(This picture is also the first time I've used the new rig I made to pose dolls without a stand, and that's how Spectra, Webarella and Frankie are flying/climbing the wall! I'm pretty excited about it!)


Using Webarella's box as a backdrop. They've got a city to save!


Ready to save the world!


Everybody get in close for the picture!


And of course, I had to throw in a picture of my Ghoulia shelf, with a special appearance by Slo Mo! This is every Ghoulia doll released to date, though some of them are in fashion packs. In the front row, we have Gloom Beach, Fearleading (with Mo), and Dead Tired, and in the back, we have Basic, Skull Shores, Dot Dead Gorgeous, SDCC, Dawn of the Dance, Scooter, Roller Maze, Scaris, Mad Science, Physical Deaducation, and Ghoul's Night Out. Can you tell I really love Ghoulia? :P


So there she is, my holy grail doll! She's everything I hoped she would be and more, and it feels great to finish off that section of my collection, for now. Sometimes, you want something so badly but once you get it, it's not as good as you imagined, and I'm very pleased that wasn't the case with SDCC Ghoulia!

Have you ever had a holy grail doll? Tell me about your favourite scores in the comments!

13 comments:

  1. Every Ghoulia doll is the best Ghoulia doll!

    Congragulations on finally scoring on your dream doll! :D I think she would have been worth the price to complete not only your Power Ghoul collection, but your Ghoulia collection as well!

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    1. She was totally worth it for both of those reasons, as soon as I started buying the Power Ghouls and saw that she was the Nick Fury of the group, gathering them together, my need for her went up even more!

      And I agree about Ghoulia, obviously! I love all of her dolls so much, there's always a little detail that makes her really special, imo.

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    2. Will you be getting FF Ghoulia when she comes out? I know quite a few people on tumblr aren't so keen on the dress, but I actually think she looks pretty cute in Draculaura's style. Plus having dark lipstick is always a good thing, imo.

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    3. I will be getting her! I think she's cute, and since it's a budget line, not a lot of $$. Worst case scenario, I can redress her if I don't like the outfit.

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    4. That is true. I've been eyeing the Ghoulia deluxe fashion pack for a while now. The only problem is the only Ghoulia I own currently is Scaris and I CANNOT take that hood off. Either that, or I am too wimpy to do it properly. :p

      Also, I look forward to all your reviews of the upcoming ghouls~ Do you know which dolls you'll be planning on getting from the FF line?

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    5. The Ghoulia deluxe pack is great! I love the blood drip pants and the earthworm earrings, they're awesome! And yeah, the hood is tricky to get off, you have to kind of work it down over her shoulders, but it's awkward.

      I'm not sure yet, I'm going to wait to see them in person I think...I definitely want Avea Trotter and Sirena Von Boo of the new characters, but I'm unsure about the actual fused ghouls. They haven't grabbed me as NEEDS yet, but that usually changes once I've got them in my hands! Lagoonafire has potential to be cool, but I'm almost definitely passing on Cleolei...Which are you looking forward to?

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    6. Well all of the new ghouls, definetly. Avea and Sirena are just too cool, and I love Neighthan's face sculpt, if not his questionable taste in clothes. Even Bonita is interesting, despite her overused colour palette, because of those HUGE wings, long hair and moth antennae. Sometimes I think people pay more attention to the pinkness rather than the amazing design of those wings.

      For the Fusioned Ghouls Lagoonafire has completely stolen my heart. At first those eyes bugged me out quite a bit...but their hypnotic gaze must have worked, because now I can't wait to get my hands on her. That lime green hair curl just sealed the deal. I'm also thinking of Dracubecca, one because the face sculpt is actually quite cute, and thier two hair colours blend togther nicely. Secondly, I just really love that all her copper coloured accessories; from that cute but really holey umbrella to those tiny little wings!

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    7. Yeah, Neighthan is SUCH a cool idea, but...I'm not sure about his clothes just yet and it's so hard to find clothes for the boys. He'll definitely be an in-person decision, see what I think when I have him in-hand. Same with Bonita. I agree about her wings being pretty incredible, and those antenna are neat. But the pinkness can sometimes be overwhelming, and I LIKE pink!

      Dracubecca IS really cute. They did a great job with blending those two characters I think, and the copper goes well with the shimmery pink skin. I think I'll have to decide on all of those when I see them in person, because my opinion keeps changing even as I'm typing right now haha...

      Weirdly, the doll I think I'm most excited about right now is Ghoul Sports Spectra! There's something about the lime green accents, and her cute little tennis outfit, I just am dying for her!

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    8. Funnily enough, I don't really enjoy pink all that much haha. But my MH collection is so colourful and bright, I think I can live with another splash of pink here and there.

      The only one I am really not sure of is Clawvenus. I like the idea of an over-the-top design, but her eyes were so blank in contrast to the explosion of colour around her. Cleolei I will not get because I need to save money for the rest of the line, and I love my Catastrophe to bits and really don't need another Toralei atm.

      eeeeee that doll is perfection! I already have three Spectras but she is so so gorgeous I needed her yesterday. And don't get me started on the Zombie Shake line...

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  2. Congrats! It was a slim chance to find a SDCC exclusive for a reasonable price, but you made it! My holy grail was far from exciting - it's Dead Tired Cleo, aka the only Cleo without a fringe (I can't be bothered to pay a doll's worth of money to buy only hair for reroot). I didn't care about any accessories but the doll itself, but I got everything except the box, shoes, mask and a sleeve (it was played with), all for under 20$ when all the others were 30$-90$. I stayed up until about 4 a.m. to guard the ebay auction, then I had a friend haul it with other stuff from America to Europe. Another doll I like very much is basic Ghoulia with the outfit, but I don't think that is ever going to happen. I snoozed her while she was still in our stores and then the prices got ridiculous and they'll only get higher. Actually, all my dolls are holy grail dolls because I'm in Europe where dolls are both expensive and hard to find. To get GNO Rochelle I had her delivered from amazon.fr to a friend during the exact time window we were travelling in his city to pick it up. My j-doll was brought by another friend who was in the USA for a month. I can count about three dolls that DON'T have a story like this attached.
    Whoa, I got carried away. Congrats again, it was a great find!

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    1. Hopefully they'll re-release basic Ghoulia someday, since they have re-released Frankie, Lala and Clawdeen! Basic Ghoulia was the first doll I ever went looking for, because I got into MH even before she was released, but I didn't know that there was going to be a wave 1 and a wave 2 of those dolls. I saw her somewhere, like on the back of the other boxes or maybe I Googled...and I decided I NEEDED her and stalked the toy aisle until she appeared.

      I'm lucky that I've been able to find almost every doll I've wanted for a reasonable price, and in fact, Ghoulia here is the first single doll I've ever paid more than $35US for, including buying basic Jackson and DOTD Ghoulia secondhand, but NIB. I have been very lucky in my searching, and now I'm kind of done with this kind of looking, and only looking for dolls as they're released.

      Sometimes the process you go through to get a doll really makes the doll even that much more special, it's fun when they have a story! I'm glad you were able to get your hands on your big time wants!

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    2. Oh, I so hope they'll re-release Ghoulia! I liked basic Frankie's outfit (not a big fan of the green doll), but for 30 euro? I got Catty instead. Another Ghoulia I forgot about is the lab set with Cleo, and I like that Cleo too. This set costs 90$ here, I think. Sometimes I have this crazy fantasy of going to US to shop for a few months, but I'd have a hard time at the customs explaining the jumbo suitcase packed with dolls :)

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    3. I live fairly close to the US, and whenever I go over I definitely bring home some dolls! The prices are just insanely cheap over there, it's crazy.

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