I put a spell on you: Monster High's Casta Fierce!

It might be a little bit early to say Happy Halloween, but in my world, it's never too early for Halloween and it looks like Monster High agrees! In the past, they've done special releases for Friday the 13th like Catty Noir, which is awesome, and this year for the first time, they've put out a special doll just for Halloween, and it's about time, don't you think?

This special doll is Casta Fierce, another pop star in the MH universe, and let me tell you, she definitely lives up to her name! I found her at Target this week, pretty quickly after she started hitting shelves in Canada and I just had to have her. Halloween is my favourite holiday, and Casta has two of my favourite colours (orange and purple) all over her look, so she was a definite must have! Casta is the daughter of Circe, a Greek goddess of magic, and I really like this backstory. It's definitely more creative than her just being a witch, and I love how they brought some of the mythology into Casta's story. Circe was known for turning her enemies into animals, and in the Monster High webisode about Casta, we see that Casta has mostly stopped performing, because of her tendency to accidentally turn her audience into animals! 

Enough talking, right? Let's look at this gorgeous doll!

Normally I kind of blow past the box in these reviews, but check out this one! If I was the type of person who ever kept dolls in their boxes, Casta would definitely be one of those dolls! I love everything about the design of this package, from the gorgeous artwork of Casta herself, to the cool background inside the box, featuring her backing band, The Spells. I love the swirling orange, green and purple around the sides, like magic, and her sparkly autograph on the front of the box. Very cool, and I think I'm going to cut out the artwork and save that, at least.

As always, if you'd like to see Casta in motion and see my immediate first impressions, check out my unboxing video!

And here she is! She is so gorgeous you guys. In my opinion, she is one of the most facially beautiful Monster High dolls ever. Her features are strong, and she just commands so much attention standing there, don't you think? She comes with a few accessories, and some of them are really cool! She also of course, comes with the standard brush and stand.

Her biggest accessory is obviously her mic stand. It's made to look like a broom, with the handle being silver, and the bristles being a gorgeous metallic purple. Wrapped around the stand are black and orange dangling ribbons that are very reminiscent of Stevie Nicks or Steven Tyler. I'm inclined to go more with Stevie Nicks, because she has a reputation for being a bit "witchy", so that certainly fits the theme!

Of course, where there's a mic stand, there must be a microphone. Like Catty's mic, it has a little handle on it that slides between two of Casta's fingers so she can hold it. It's the same metallic purple as the bottom of the broom, and the top looks like a ball held in a clawed hand. It reminds me of a scepter or something, and it's super cool.

Instead of a diary or a journal, Casta comes with a book full of cool art like this. It reminds me of a program that you'd buy at a concert! My favourite page is the Warhol-inspired one, but they're all pretty neat.

Back to Casta! I mean, isn't she great? She's so glamorous and over-the-top with all that glitter, but even with all of that, I still think that her face is the most striking thing about her.

Just look at her! I love her thick, bold brows; they really give her a lot of personality I think. Some might think she looks a bit mean, but I think she just looks like she has attitude, and I like it. Her eyes are purple with a jagged gold pattern in the iris. Her eye shadow is purple and shimmery gold, and underneath her right eye there is a small, gold mark. It's definitely supposed to be there, but I'm not positive what it's meant to represent. Her lips are a gorgeous shimmery right purple, and she has a beauty mark just above her lips on the left side. I like how this is kind of a reference to the traditional Halloween witch and her warts, but in a much more glamorous kind of way.

Casta is wearing a LOT of accessories! On her right arm, she has a fishnet sleeve and a purple studded bracelet. On her left arm, she has the same studded bracelet, as well as a simple silver bangle.

She's also wearing these awesome shoulder cages that remind be so much of something Adam Lambert wore on American Idol.

Right? She's totally been shopping in his closet! Anyways, we'll take a closer look at Casta's shoulder cages in a bit. Underneath the cages she's wearing a little shrug-type thing make of black pleather, with large orange tulle puffy sleeves. We'll look at that a bit closer too!

Her dress itself is pretty awesome, except for one thing I'll show you in a moment. It's strapless, and fades from orange at the top to solid purple glitter. It has a mermaid-style fit, hugging the curves of Casta's body until just above her knees, where is explodes out into a poof of black, sparkly tulle. I love the belt that ties the two sections together, because with that big buckle, it really reminds me of the traditional Halloween witch with the buckles on her hat and shoes. Also, I should mention at this point, if you didn't already know, Casta is on the "big sister" body, shared with Nefera, Clawdia and Headmistress Bloodgood. This means that she definitely has more curves to hug...

And bigger feet to wear shoes on! Monster High shoes are always impressive, but even more so when they're as big as they need to be to fit the bigger feet! I love these purple metallic booties covered in studs and buckles, and check out those heels!

Casta's hair is really pretty great. It's simple, but it feels soft and smooth, and it lays nicely. I'd rather have simple hairstyles and high quality hair than a more complicated style full of gel that can't easily be brushed! Casta's hair is long, nearly knee-length, and it's incredibly enjoyable to brush it out and play with it.

It's all black except for two thick streaks of purple and orange in the front. I like how graphic these streaks are, they're really striking.

Her earrings are spiked silver balls, and remind me of a flail.

Off of her body, Casta's shoulder cages are still really impressive. They close in the back with two peg closures, as well as one closure that goes around each upper arm. They're black with silver studs, and other molded details.

Once you get that off, we can get a better look at the little shrug/bolero that Casta is wearing underneath.

It's mostly pleather, with huge orange tulle sleeves.

And with that off, here's what the dress looks like all on its own. It's still a lot of look with all the glitter, but it's definitely simpler and a little more elegant. I prefer her with all her stuff going on though!

Now, remember that issue I mentioned that I had with my Casta? Well...here it is.

Her dress doesn't close! This is as close together as I could yank it...she's just a little too bootylicious for it. I've seen a few other people that have had this issue as well, so I'm not sure what's going on...I also tried the dress on a normal sized MH doll, and it's too big on them, so it wasn't sewn the complete wrong size. I contacted Mattel, and they're sending me a voucher since they don't have replacement dolls, but also I just want them to be aware of the issue, especially since it's not just a one time thing. It's not a huge problem for me though since I don't plan on redressing her, and one I have her in her stand, it's not really noticeable. I might put a stitch in the top though, just to help it stay up.

It's been a long time since I reviewed a "big sister" doll, and I don't think I did a real comparison. so I grabbed Cupid (because her backstory involves Greek mythology too, of course!) and got them down to their birthday suits. As you can see, Casta is considerably taller, and definitely curvier. Despite how unrealistic the Monster High bodies are, I think that the difference between the regular body, the big sister body, and the littler sister body actually shows kind of a logical progression of development. Casta definitely looks more grown up.

Especially in this shot! You can see that she's a little thicker everywhere, and even her head and feet are a bit bigger. Even though the three body types can't really share clothes, I love that Monster High has these options. I think the big sister body is my favourite of the three, but it's just nice to have this kind of variety within a fashion doll line!

Back in all of her fabulous garb, Casta is ready to hit the stage!

Fierce is the perfect name for her, don't you think?

Careful, she'll put a spell on you!

I know she's definitely put a spell on me! I was always going to add her to my collection, but once I had her in my hands I was a bit stunned by how seriously gorgeous she is, even in spite of her wardrobe malfunction. I'm really impressed with Casta's design from top to bottom, and I love that Mattel did a special doll to coincide with Halloween. I'm super glad I added her to my collection!

What do you think of Casta? Are you under her spell?