The Attack of the 17 Inch Doll! Meet Gooliope Jellington!

You guys, I am so excited to be doing this review that I'm almost nervous! I've been putting it off a bit because I'm afraid I won't be able to do this doll justice, but...here it is!

It's no secret that Freak du Chic is the Monster High line I'm most looking forward to, but the doll within that line I was most wanting? Gooliope Jellington! I've never had a doll anywhere near 17 inches tall before, and to top it all off, she looked amazingly detailed too. I have no real interest in the other Monster High 17 inch dolls of Frankie, Clawdeen and Draculaura, but this doll right here? Oh man, is she cool.

For the last few weeks, as Gooliope started turning up in the States, I was waiting very impatiently for her to arrive in Canada. I was so impatient in fact that my husband got me a gift card for my birthday last week with the intent of spending on Gooliope, because he knew how badly I wanted her. So, when someone in the local Monster High Facebook group posted that she was at our local TRU, we literally jumped in the car and drive nearly 40 minutes to pick her up! Here in Canada she was $44.99, which...is a price I have conflicting feelings about. After playing with her, I can say that she's probably worth that much, but it's also a $15 difference from her US price. Hopefully she'll be less than that at stores other than TRU, but I'm not that optimistic about that. As a side note on prices, TRU also had Nefera and Catty from the Boo York line, and they were $34.99! That is an ASTONISHINGLY high price for those dolls, and I outright REFUSE to pay it...Unfortunately, with the way the Canadian dollar is right now, I expect a lot of the new dolls are going to be coming in with really high prices, so...waiting it out for sales is how it's going to be, I think!

Aaaaanyways, that was a rant I didn't intend on going on in this post! Let's move on to talking about the main even, shall we?

Ladies and gentleman, ghouls and mansters, I present to you...Gooliope Jellington!

What I think is super cool about Gooliope is that without another doll for scale, it's kind of impossible to tell that she's even larger than normal. Mattel did a great job of scaling her up, so her proportions match those of the normal Monster High dolls. And really, even though I'd seen a TON of photos of her online comparing her to other dolls before I bought her, when I was standing in Toys R Us with this giant box in my hands...I was a bit stunned! You'll see...

I love the details they put onto her box! This is one of those dolls that looks so good in the box, a small part of me wants to leave her there...very small...I love this little image on the back of the box, kind of a take off of the Attack of the 50 Foot Woman movie poster!

And then on one side, we can see some circus goers looking up at Gooliope! So many little details...

Like the cracks on the plastic, to make it look like she's pressing against the packaging and trying to get out. I had to free her!

And here she is! See how it's hard to tell just how massive she is without another doll for scale? I had to do some rearranging to get my backdrop to even be tall enough for her! She comes with a stand but no brush, and no other accessories than a diary. I'd loved for her to have come with a purse, or maybe a little jacket, but this are small quibbles, really!

Speaking of her diary, I like how the cover is reminiscent of a old circus poster. Very appropriate!

Inside, we learn that Gooliope is an orphan who was left at the Freak du Chic as a little "goo". I wonder who R.S. is, and if we'll ever find out? Makes me wish Freak du Chic was a movie and not just a series of webisodes!

Gooliope's head is the size of a baseball, but it is very pretty! Obviously she has a new head mold, and her face is very pretty. She has large eyes, very full lips with a slight smile, and a very cute button nose. Her hair is golden yellow and hot pink, and pulled back from her face on one side in a little curl. It's a bit rough out of the box, and has that soft, fluffy kind of look to it that Lagoona tends to have, but it's not terrible. She is going to need a visit with some boiling water though...

Her lips are a lovely deep red colour, which plays nicely off of her outfit, and is kind of unexpected with her sunset coloured eye shadow. I also love her swirly eyelashes, so cute! Her eyes are a bright, light blue, and her eye shines are a radiation symbol, which I think is hilarious, given her history.

And a quick look at the back of her hair...it's not terrible, but it isn't great. It's fixable though!

Her earrings are gold wagon wheels, and I love that they aren't meant to just look like wagon wheels, but because of her size, they are ACTUAL wagon wheels!

On her neck and shoulders, she's wearing a large piece made up of a collar with attached epaulets. The collar is embossed with the number "816", which is Gooliope's experiment number, and it also looks a lot like "BIG", so it's very Monster High punny! This is attached with rubber bands out of the box, and once the bands are removed, it doesn't stay in place all that well during posing of the doll.

In her hair, she's wearing a large calliope headpiece on a twisted gold headband. A calliope is an organ, and they were a common feature outside of vintage circuses, so I love that connection here! Obviously that's where Gooliope's name comes from, and I love the nod to it in her outfit. I also like how this particular calliope looks appropriately monstrous, with the keys looking like jagged teeth, and the organ pipes seeming to have moaning faces. I actually haven't gotten up the nerve to take this out of her hair yet, so I'm not sure how it'll stay without the plastic ties, but I'm hopeful!

Her outfit is a simple style, but with enough crazy patterns to make up for it. It's basically a simple skater style dress with a sweetheart neckline, belted waist and full skirt, but each piece is made of a different fabric to keep it interesting. The idea is that Gooliope's outfit is made up of scraps from around the circus, and I definitely see that! I am considering making her a red ringmaster jacket to go over the top though, I think that would really complete her look! If I do that, I'll be sure to post about it!

And now, the SHOES. Monster High shoes are always amazing, but double the size, and they can get even more amazing, something I wouldn't have thought would be possible! The shoes are deep pink with black skullettes on the front, and a vaguely art deco inspiration to the detailing. But the heels are where it's at...skeleton carousel horses!

I mean, come on! I love how they're painted to look old, like the paint is chipping off of them. So cool!

As cool as Gooliope clothing is, there is just as much to talk about with it set aside for a moment. Her body is the same general shape as a normal Monster High doll, with a few differences, apart from her size. She has molded goo dripping all over her body...

Including her cute little ears...

And her legs. What I especially like about these drips is that they aren't symmetrical or even, and you can really imagine that Gooliope is actually dripping!

But what's really cool is Gooliope's articulation! She has a lot of new stuff going on, and one of the most exciting things is this torso joint! It's actually a really solid joint, with a lot of great movement too.

It can lean side to side, front to back, and it can even twist around! It gives Gooliope so many more posing options, although if you aren't careful, it does have a tendency to tip forward, probably because Gooliope's head is so heavy.

Her other new articulation is double jointed elbows and knees! These joints are amaaaaaaazing, and she can do so much! She can touch her face without a second thought, and kneel like a champion.

See? That torso joint also makes it so she can lean even further back. Now, one thing to mention about these new knee and elbow joint is that it removes the rotation the old joints had, and also, the forearms don't come off at the elbows anymore (the hands do still come out of the wrists though!)

So, that rotation has been replaced with rotating joints in the upper arms and upper thighs! It gives you all the same posing options as before, but just MORE. This is so seriously exciting, and I had a BLAST playing with Gooliope during this review. She's so solid and heavy, and just massive! (Oh, and the upper arms come off like that, but the legs DO NOT. Don't try to take the legs off at the upper joint!)

And check this out! She can nearly get into lotus position! I've never had a doll that could sit like this before. It's not the most elegant cross-legged sitting in the world, but hey, it's pretty darn good!

I got out my new (to me, she's from Value Village!) LIV Alexis doll to do a little comparison, since she's the most articulated doll I have.

They match fairly well, though I think Gooliope wins. Her torso joint is much more elegant than Alexis' weird waist joint, and Alexis lacks rotation in her double jointed knees.

I just couldn't stop playing with her...

And she liked showing off, honestly!

Something about her is just so elegant, and I'm not sure why that is exactly...but I love her!

And now, a line up! I gathered a bit of a selection, including the tallest dolls I have, and nobody even came close! Here we have the Blob CAM, Marisol Coxi, Gooliope, Honey Lemon from the Disney Store, and a DC Direct Batgirl. I used to think Batgirl was HUGE back when I first bought her...well, I was clearly wrong!

She's as tall as most of them even kneeling! Gah, so cool...

I played around with the colour on a few photos to make them look old...it's also super fun to play with perspective with Gooliope and make her look even more huge than she already is.

I don't think we really need to be worried, but she could take out most of my apartment with one wrong step...

This is the chair from the Scaris cafe set...she can kind of sit in it?

But it's really more like a foot stool!

So what do you think of Gooliope?

I have NO idea where I'm going to put her, but I'm basically obsessed. She is just so impressive! Even if she was normal sized, I would still love her circus chic style, but the fact that she's twice the size of a normal Monster High doll? That just makes her even cooler! I love seeing her tower over the other dolls on my shelf, and I can't wait to get the rest of the Freak du Chic line to go with her! I think she's going to hold Honey's marionette strings...