Category: Doll Collecting

Thoroughly Modern McKeyla: Project Mc2 Dolls

16/7/2017

I tend to stumble across new dolls by accident rather than actively going looking for them. The latest to catch my eye was courtesy of @hipstapunz on Instagram (a Disney Rapunzel who’s had quite a makeover!) – McKeyla McAlister from MGA’s Project Mc2 range. Me being really quick on the uptake sometimes... (not!), it took me a while to realize that the two 'Mc's in her name were a reference to Mc2, rather than to a Scottish scientist or one named McAlister...!! I know... Oh well! Anyway, the dolls are characters from a Netflix series in which a group of girls use their science and tech skills working for a government spy organization called NOV8 (Innovate). Part of the aim of the series and doll line is to get girls more interested in S.T.E.A.M – Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, Math[s]. Articulated dolls come with an experiment/project suited to their particular character’s interests and skill set, basic ones don’t. There are five other girls in the range, but I’m sticking with McKeyla; I love her face and hair, and (mostly) her fashion choices. This McKeyla, as you can see from the photo of her in the box, comes with a lava light/lamp experiment, as well as a rucksack/backpack, comb, journal and AD.I.S.N. (Advanced Digital Intelligence Spy Notebook). As you’d expect, each girl’s box art* reflects her personality and interests, so McKeyla’s has a ‘journalling’/scrapbook theme, with mathematical diagrams, tartan/plaid (highlighting the ‘Mc’ in both her names), and owls – because her code name is ‘The Owl’. A self-professed hipster, there’s quite a lot of denim across her various dolls, and she is rather partial to hats (though the hat she came with is rather hideous in real life, and I felt compelled to give it a makeover – see my Instagram for now). McKeyla has a fondness for slogan t-shirts. Her preferred colours are blue, lilac, red, black and white. She occasionally wears a ring on her left hand – it has a stalk that slots into a hole in her fingers (ouch!) – the lava lamp one is a Scrabble square with Mc2 printed on it.

Project Mc2 McKeyla McAlister Lava Light experiment doll in box.

Project Mc2 Lava Liight articulated McKeyla McAlister doll.

Project Mc2 Lava Light McKeyla McAlister, with haircut!

Unusually for a range of fashion dolls all the dolls (even the basic ones) have inset acrylic(?) eyes; this really gives them an extra zing and ‘realness’. Refreshingly they all also look fairly ‘natural’ for fashion dolls – pretty, but understated. They also all have 3D upper lashes (as well as the usual transfer ones that make up fashion doll faces). I found her hair way too long and lank, so I gave her a trim; she actually reminds me a bit of Rachel Weiss – which is not a bad thing. Now here’s a shocker: McKeyla McAlister has feet made to suit FLAT shoes!! I don’t know if any of the other girls do (I know that Adrienne Attoms LIVES in heels), but I was delighted with McKeyla’s feet! As well as having racial and cultural diversity in their range, Project Mc2 are saying you are more than valid as a female if you are geeky, quirky, and academic (though Monster High’s Ghoulia Yelps got there first), and don’t wear high heels and half a ton of make-up (sorry, Ghoulia – you’re still fabulous, though!).

Project Mc2 McKeyla McAlister Lava Light box details and character info*.

Project Mc2 McKeyla McAlister eyes and eyelashes.

Project Mc2 McKeyla McAlister hands and feet. Top left: McKeyla's foot compared to Adrienne's foot. Top right: McKeyla's rings.

Now on to something I’m a bit obsessed with: doll bodies – I am FASCINATED by doll joints; I blame it on studying puppetry as part of my degree! The dolls that come with experiments have articulation at the shoulders, elbows, wrists, hips and knees. The basic dolls (no experiment) only have shoulder and hip articulation. Both types have head movement. Lower arms, hands, and lower legs all attach with peg joints, like Pullip dolls; this means being careful when positioning your girl (especially if you are on outdoor travels), lest you lose one of her limbs! Speaking of which, the reason Kitty – my Pullip Catwoman – only has one hand in the photo is because doll joints can be VERY delicate… A couple of complaints: for all the sense of girl-power about this range, it’s rather concerning that the body moulding shows quite prominent collarbones and a couple of ribs – not the healthiest message for the target audience. And take a look at McKeyla’s lower arms… From one side they look fairly normal (for a doll), but from the other side they look like they’ve been steam-rollered! Fun bit of MGA doll modesty - the basic McKeyla in the comparison photo came wearing a skirt, so she has painted-on white knickers.

Project Mc2 McKeyla McAlister articulated and basic versions - front view.

Project Mc2 McKeyla McAlister articulated and basic dolls - back view. Basic was wearing a skirt, hence the painted-on underwear!

Project Mc2 McKeyla McAlister doll joints**.

If you’re feeling like a spot of doll body-swapping or clothes-sharing, Project Mc2 girls have very similar proportions to Disney Descendants girls. And, though I make doll clothes myself – coming to my Etsy – I’m happy to give you a hot tip that Kosucas (also on Etsy, and on Instagram) makes gorgeous Disney Descendants clothes that you may end up lusting after for your science girls…

Ever After High Cerise Hood, and Project Mc2 McKeyla McAlister dolls**.

Pullip Catwoman ('Kitty'), and Project Mc2 McKeyla McAlister dolls**.

Disney Descendants Mal, and Project Mc2 Mckeyla McAlister dolls**.

Well, that’s all for now. But expect more posts on the fashion adventures of McKeyla McAlister – both her official garments, and the ones I make for her. And I’ll post the Decopatch makeover of her black plastic hat soon (it’s on my Instagram, but here there will be more pictures and they’ll be bigger and all in one post)!

Links to my Etsy and Instagram are via the sidebar on this page.

P.S. I haven’t seen any episodes of Project Mc2, so thank you to Wikipedia for filling me in on codenames etc.

*Apologies – some of it got torn prior to me photographing it.
**Please excuse the way some of these photos ended up being cropped a bit weirdly – it’s me forgetting to leave enough of a border for the proportions needed for this blog format (lesson learned!).

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The Undead Charm of Ghoulia Yelps: How Monster High turned me into a doll collector.

25/3/2016

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Ghoulia Yelps - 'Scaris, City of Frights' version. Zombie geek-chic at it's finest!

Ghoulia's 'Scaris' hoodie dress, with ribcage and brains details - side view, so you can see more of the hood

I discovered Monster High accidentally. About this time four years ago I was in Boots (the chemist, which was a fairly odd place to come across a fashion doll), with a friend who was looking for something, when I saw a doll with blue hair; my first thought was that she reminded me of Karou from ‘Daughter of Smoke and Bone’ by Laini Taylor, and I thought about customizing her. Then I realised that she had grey skin (so, not Karou–suitable), and a rather lovely outfit, including fabulous glasses, and was called Ghoulia Yelps, from a range I’d never heard of before, Monster High, by Mattel. I didn’t buy her then, but I kept thinking about her. For years – on and off – I’d thought about making doll clothes (for as long as I can remember I’ve loved period costume, and miniature things), but had never come across any dolls that were interesting enough to make them for – now I had, and I wanted to see what other characters Monster High had to tantalise me. So I did some research(!), found myself becoming increasingly enchanted with Ghoulia, and ended up ordering her (the ‘Scaris, City of Frights’ version that I’d seen in the shop), and later Skelita Calaveras (I’ve got a bit of a thing for the Dia de los Muertos, and that and Skelita need at least one post devoted to each of them). I especially love the de-oxygenated colour of her lips! Her eyeshadow was a little too light for me, so I made it more smoky.

So, the premise of Monster High is that they are the children of famous monsters; Ghoulia is the daughter of ‘The Zombies’. Most dolls come with their own diary (in their ‘own’ handwriting), so their personalities are rounded-out, and you get to find out how they interact with other students; the diaries are interlinked, so you get glimpses of events from different viewpoints. There’s a lot of punning and wordplay involved with character names, and school subjects (Biology is ‘Biteology’, Physical Education is ‘Phys. Dead’). The dolls are MUCH better jointed than the Barbies and Sindies of my childhood, with movement of the wrists, as well as hands and lower arms that detach to make changing outfits easier, and have a lot more individuality and expression.

Some of the ghoulishly-gorgeous prints on Ghoulia's outfits: brains; blood-spatter; gravestones; ribcage-hearts; Periodic Table

Basic/Original Ghoulia's diary - front cover

Basic/Original Ghoulia's diary - 'About Me' page

'Fashion Pack', 'Scaris' and 'Scooter Set' bags, with suitable gory themes, including the MH 'Skullette' with G's glasses!

'Dead Tired' slippers, 'Scooter' boots, and 'Dot Dead Gorgeous' shoes

Every character’s clothes and accessories reflect their monster heritage and their interests. The details are brilliant, and I love the shoes! As a zombie, Ms Yelps’s wardrobe features quite a lot of blood drips, bones and brains, with occasional eyeballs, sometimes as prints, sometimes as textures on bags and shoes; she even has a dress and rucksack with a gravestone theme. It’s a mixture of deliciously dark and very funny – sometimes the designs are so pretty that at first you don’t realise what they are – a tiny pattern on her pyjamas that could be flowers, but is blood spatter, and the lovely, squiggly brains pattern on her fabulous ‘Scaris’ hoodie dress. Ghoulia is a sweet, shy, but hip super-nerd with a passion for graphic novels (especially ones featuring her zombie superhero ‘DeadFast’), so a key part of her style is her collection of glasses, which, as she writes in her diary, ‘go with everything’ – the glasses motif even follows through to her ‘Dead Tired’ slippers, and on the Monster High ‘Skullette’ on her bags. Such is her status as nerd-in-chief that she even has a dress with the Periodic Table printed on it! And when it comes to those little extras that help to define someone, the icing on the cake is her carton of ‘Brain Puffs’ (perfect for sleepovers) and her DeadFast comic book and action figure.

'Phys. Dead' goggles; green 'Comic Book Club' glasses; black 'Freaky Fusion-inspired' glasses

'DeadFast' zombie superhero action figure and graphic novel from the 'Comic Book Club' fashion pack, and Brainpuffs from the 'Dead Tired' doll

So Ghoulia was the tip of the iceberg. Then ‘Scaris’ Skelita then ‘Picture Day’ Spectra Vondergeist (see what they did there??) for variety of themes and colours in potential dressmaking. Then it just sort of snowballed. I read somewhere that you start off saying that you’re only going to get one or two or three MH dolls at most, but you always end up getting more: undeniably true in my case. And that’s not even counting the second hand ones from eBay that I bought because I liked the outfit and it was cheaper than buying a new doll… I started reading doll blogs. And learning about re-roots and face-ups. Then customizing ‘CAMs’ (MH ‘Create a Monster’). Then I made a couple of tentative excursions into ‘Ever After High’ territory, and not long after first spotting Ms Yelps I’d become a little bit fixated on the cuteness of Mini Lalaoopsies (again – that’s a topic for other posts). Through reading various doll blogs I became aware of other dolls – as you do – particularly Blythe and Pullip, and decided they were ideal candidates for custom doll clothes too. Up until this point I’d been keeping my interest fairly quiet, and I was possibly slightly in denial about the extent of it, but when it gets to a certain point of accumulating dolls – especially the more niche kinds -you just have to face up to it and admit: ‘I am a doll collector’!

Useful links:
For MH diaries: http://monsterhigh.wikia.com/wiki/Doll_diaries

For posts about all sorts of different dolls and aspects of doll collecting - Confessions of a Doll Collector’s Daughter: https://dollyconfessions.wordpress.com

It's fun to mix-and-match! 'Freaky Fusion-inspired glasses, & 'Love's Not Dead' earrings on 'Scaris' doll

Two VERY different dolls: Monster High Ghoulia Yelps with Mini Lalaloopsy April Sunsplash! If you search for mini Lalaloopsy customs online, you'll see several that are based on MH - this is obviously NOT one of them!

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Thoroughly Modern McKeyla: Project Mc2 Dolls

The Undead Charm of Ghoulia Yelps: How Monster High turned me into a doll collector.

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