The finale of my Freak du Chic reviews (for now...): Frankie Stein

Well, here we are, the final Freak du Chic review! (For now, anyways...I may have something up my sleeve for a little bit later!)

I saved Frankie for last not for any particular reason, but originally I had thought that if I was going to skip any doll in this line...Well, sorry Frankie, but it'd be you. Turns out she has a lot more going on that I'd anticipated, and I definitely think she's a great addition to the line, and even a stand out in some ways!

There's not much else I can say at this point that I haven't already said in my other Freak du Chic reviews, so let's just get right to it!

Hey, look, it's a box! I'm just going to blow right on past this, because I think we've looked at the boxes enough.

And this is Frankie! She's the magician at our circus, and a lot of the details of her outfit kind of make her a bit of a centrepiece to the line.

Firstly, her major accessory is her top hat. It has molded stitches along the sides, and underneath, there are three holes. The one in the centre is meant to hold her hand, like you can see in the photo above, while the two on the side allow the hat to be attached to her headband so she can wear it.

Speaking of the headband, it's white plastic, and has two large bolts sticking off of it slightly off-centre.

Push the hat down onto the bolts, and voila! It works best if you remove the headband first, and push the bolts in one at a time. Otherwise, I find it pretty tricky to get the had to sit snugly and it kind of wobbles around. The hat is a bit soft, and obviously so is Frankie's head, so those things combined just make it hard to get enough pressure to pop the bolts firmly into the hat. If the headband is off though. there's no issue, and the headband stays on her head perfectly well once you remove the factory attachments. It's actually a pretty good system! She can wear it or she can hold it, and nothing is permanent!

She also comes with these three blue skullettes, two of which are solid, and one with a clasp. They can be attached together like linking rings, so Frankie can show off her magic skills!

Her final accessory is this little magic wand, which has a loop on it so she can hold it on her own. However, I'm choosing to leave the rubber band attached to it for now since I don't necessarily trust the little loop to keep the wand positioned in her hand as nicely as it is now.

Also, something that's kind of a small thing, but just something I noticed, is that this Frankie has a different hand mold than usual. Now, I definitely don't have all the Frankie dolls, but the ones I do have all have the standard wide open hand mold, with all the fingers splayed out. This Frankie has the softer hand mold with the fingers gently curled in, which makes it much easier for her to hold the wand. It's a little change, but for this doll it really makes sense, and I'm glad Monster High has the variety of hand molds they do in order to do stuff like this!

I really love this bright blue on Frankie. Blue has always been part of Frankie's palette, but this really saturated royal blue is so good with her white hair, plus, it's just generally such an eye-catching colour.

Frankie's makeup this time around is very subtle. Her eyes are done in natural (for her) shades, and the focus is on her long lashes accented by dots, and her deep red shimmery lips. This is a really lovely look on Frankie, and goes nicely with the general sweetness of her face.

Onto her outfit, which I find kind of interesting. It bucks the trend of the other dolls in this line, and it isn't an a-line dress! Also, the main part of the dress doesn't have the same kind of pattern as the other three girls' dresses. Frankie's dress is figure hugging and pretty short, somewhere between a mini and a pencil skirt. The pattern on the skirt is kind of hypnotic, black and white lightning bolts swirling into a vortex. The middle section of the dress is black with bright blue stitches running vertically. It gives the look of an underbust corset, but the dress is all one piece. Tying it in to the rest of the line, Franie's outfit is accented by the same striped tulle, only in blue. Frankie's is worn as a high collar around the back of her neck, and around her waist as kind of an over-skirt. I really like the overall look of this outfit, and I love how it makes her standout from the rest of the Freak du Chic dolls, both in colour and style. Stay tuned till the end of the review for pictures of the whole group together!

Frankie's hair is mostly white, with a few black streaks through the top. It's kind of softly and formlessly wavy with no real style to it, but I do like how full and fluffy it is, especially around her face. I also like the middle part, which is something we don't see all the often. I think it gives her a retro vibe which really works for both Frankie, AND this line in general.

Now, her shoes. These are pretty kick-butt boots! Knee-high, black, lightning bolt laces all the way up...

And top hat heels, with bunnies coming out of them! I mean. Come. On. If I had better painting skills, I might paint the little bunnies white and try to add some details to them...but even all in black, these boots are really kind of amazing!

And so is Frankie! At first glance, she wasn't as exciting to me, but I think that's more my fault than it is Frankie's. I have so many Frankie dolls that it was easier to get excited about my second Honey! Now that I have Frankie open, I really love her, and I think she's a great addition to the line!

She might even kind of be the star of the line! At the very least, she makes a great centrepiece to it, and if it weren't for Gooliope. Frankie would be an amazing ringleader!

Oooh, I think Frankie is getting ready for her act!

Abra.....

Cadabra! Impressive, right? Frankie's such a good magician that Dustin wasn't worried at all about being a part of her act!

I guess you could say...This Frankie put a spell on me! :P Did she put a spell on you?

What about the rest of the Freak du Chic girls? Having them all together, I'm really struck but how colourful and impressive this line is! Yes, the outfits are simple in style, but very flashy in colour and pattern and I think it all comes together into something really special. I always love the lines where Mattel has a clear vision, and I think this is an example of that, for sure. The vintage circus vibe is clear in each of the dolls, and even though I love having the whole group of them together, I think they stand alone really well too. Even without having all of them, the inspiration is clear, and I think that's a real testament to the design of them. I wish this had been a movie, honestly, instead of just a few webisodes, that's how much I love the whole thing!

And that's curtains for my Freak du Chic reviews! (Or is it...dun dun dunnnnnn...)