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This is Poppy Rowan. Winter Break Poppy Rowan, to be exact. I bought her nude off of eBay with the intention of customizing her to look like me. I have red hair, and I’m partial to red-headed fashion dolls because most of the fashion dolls of my childhood didn’t have red hair, so as an adult I’m trying to compensate for the lack of red-headed dolls when I was young. Since I started collecting Rainbow High dolls last month, I’ve seen doll collectors on YouTube who customized Rainbow High dolls to look like them. Since Rainbow High dolls have the vivid hair colors of the rainbow rather than natural hair colors, these doll customizers used two methods to change their dolls’ hair colors: dyeing, or re-rooting. I don’t have the experience or patience to re-root, so dyeing it is!
I chose Poppy for my mini-me because she has auburn eyebrows, freckles, and blue eyes – a perfect base for my Mini-Me.
Here she is from the back. Her hair is styled in two long sausage-curl pigtails, and, like all Rainbow High dolls, she has a lot of glue in her hair to keep the curls in place. So I rinsed her hair with hot water until the glue dissolved. You can use shampoo, but you don’t need to. Then I combed out all the tangles with a hairdresser’s fine-toothed rat-tail comb.
STEP ONE: COLOR
My goal for Poppy was to turn her bright orange tresses into a natural-looking auburn color. I watched a few videos on YouTube to learn how to color Rainbow High doll hair, and also to get an idea of which colors of dye I needed. I found a series of videos by Darling’s Dollhouse that I found extremely helpful for technique and color. Then I went to my nearest Michaels craft store to buy everything I needed. I bought Rit All-Purpose Dye in the colors Tan, to neutralize the orange, and Scarlet, to add red to Poppy’s hair. I also bought wooden dowels and a plastic organizer to use as a tub.
I filled the plastic organizer with hot tap water. I added the Tan Rit Dye to the water and swirled the dye with a wooden dowel. The Tan is light enough in color to change the bright orange hair without making it too dark. Then I swirled Poppy’s hair in the colored water for about two minutes. It didn’t look like her hair was taking any of the color, so I added more dye, a little at a time and then swirled the doll’s hair some more until her hair started taking the color. I eyeballed it, taking Poppy out of the water and putting her back in until I liked how it looked. I stopped when her hair looked like a strawberry-blonde/ light auburn. This is her hair while still wet. She looks like Lindsay Lohan.
I immediately rinsed the excess dye from Poppy’s hair with cold water and let her hair dry for a couple of hours before deciding whether to do a second dye job with the Scarlet dye. Her hair color looked a little lighter after drying so I did go ahead and color her hair with the Scarlet over the Tan. Unlike the Tan dye, the Scarlet dye took to the hair immediately so it was a very quick dip. Then I did another dip with Tan to tone down the fiery copper a little. Here is the finished result:
I thought it would be fun to give Poppy a tattoo, like me, so I used a leftover tattoo from the Monster High Create-a-Monster Design Lab.
STEP TWO: BANGS
I wanted my Rainbow High mini-me to have bangs like me, but Poppy doesn’t have bangs. YouTube to the rescue again. This tutorial by Quinsdolls was just what I needed. The one thing I did differently was, after brushing the hair down in front of her face to make the bangs and securing it with a rubber band, I took the hair from the back out from under the rubber band so there wouldn’t be a line across her hair from the rubber band after the hair was boil-permed. The one problem with Winter Break Poppy is that her hair was rooted for pigtails. It was full when parted in the center from the back of the head, but when I combed hair down in front of her face for bangs, it exposed the patchy rooting on the top of her head. I saved the hair that I cut off when I made the bangs, in case I feel ambitious later and decide to re-root the patchy spots, but for now I’ll stop here.
The finished result: kinda punky, kinda funky.
Sweater and leggings by Mags Rocking Style on Etsy. Shoes from the Rainbow High Mini Accessories Studio.
‘Rainbow Vision is entering its exciting conclusion as the finals are getting underway. The finalists include Neon Shadow from Shadow High, Rainbow High’s own Rainbow Divas, and Royal Three from Seoul Select. Royal Three are arguably the underdogs of the Rainbow Vision song contest. Since Shadow High campaigned for Rainbow Vision to be open to all schools, in an effort to end Rainbow High’s dominance in the competition, new schools have auditioned for Rainbow Vision. Royal Three have come all the way from Korea to try out for Rainbow Vision, and now they’re in the finals!
Royal Three are Tiara Song, Tessa Park, and Minnie Choi.
From semi-finalists to finalists.
Minnie Choi.
Tiara Song.
Tessa Park.
Each member of Royal Three comes dressed in her main outfit. They also come with an additional outfit, a headset, a concert program, and a logo t-shirt. The outfits are very detailed, and although they look great, it proved to be time-consuming to change their clothes. I would imagine that children who play with these dolls might become frustrated with changing their clothes. And some of the faux pearls and beads had already fallen off the outfits before I even took the dolls out of the boxes (see below).
Tiara’s, um, tiara is based on the tiara on the cover of Blackpink’s first album.
The Royal Three dolls have holes for earrings but don’t come with earrings. However, Tiara’s headset fits into her earring holes. The headsets of Minnie and Tessa sit on top of their heads.
I like Tessa’s outfit the best. The attention to detail is amazing, from the elaborate embroidery on her jacket to the hangul characters on her belt and choker. I love how she wears pants and activewear as opposed to skirts like her band mates. She’s like the Sporty Spice of K-Pop.
Each doll comes with a concert program that features the lyrics to “Spotlight,” their Rainbow Vision song. I thought all three dolls came with the exact same program, so I was pleasantly surprised to see that each doll had her own program. While the programs are mostly identical, the centerfold of each program pertained to the doll it came with.
The second outfits that came with the dolls are the girls’ stage clothes.
The Royal Three girls have long fingernails and molded rings, like Demi Batista.
Minnie’s nails are pink and have pearls to match her dress.
Tiara’s nails also match her top.
Tessa’s nails are shorter, in keeping with her sportier lifestyle.
Ainsley and Lila are ready for the Rainbow Vision finals.They even got to meet their favorite act.
The Royal Three dolls were highly anticipated when Royal Three debuted at Rainbow Vision. I think it’s fun that the Rainbow High line includes K-Pop dolls. From their highly detailed fashions and accessories to the quality of their articulation, the Royal Three dolls are everything that Lulu Pop Daisy dolls are not.
Who do you think will win Rainbow Vision? I hope it’s the Royal Three.
After reviewing Lila Yamamoto, my first Rainbow High doll, I bought more of them. A lot more. I picked up a few more at Target, and I’ve got a few packages coming from Amazon (please don’t judge me!). When I went back to Target to pick out my second Rainbow High doll, I saw the Ainsley Slater Trunk Show. I loved her goth vibe, and the fact that she came with not one but three extra outfits! She was also on sale for $44.99 down from $49.99. So I bought it. I didn’t notice until I got her home that her box says Shadow High. Wait, what?
Why does Ainsley’s box say Shadow High when her stand and all of her accessories have Rainbow High on them? I thought she was a Rainbow High doll because her skin tone is a natural one, not the grey, pure white, or pure black skin tones of Shadow High dolls. Since I’m new to the Rainbow High universe, I’m still getting acquainted with the characters and their backstories. So I started watching the Rainbow High webisodes on YouTube. That’s where I discovered that, in Season 3 episode 6, during the intense competition of the Rainbow Vision song contest, Ainsley drops the bombshell that she’s transferring schools. It’s like the Ainsley doll was too far into the production stages to change the accessories by the time this episode aired but MGA was able to change the box before the doll was released.
Image courtesy of MGA Entertainment Image courtesy of MGA Entertainment
The Ainsley Slater Trunk Show special edition doll comes with three tops, two skirts, one dress, two jackets, one belt, one pair of pants, four pairs of shoes, one purse, two bracelets, four hangers, one comb, and one doll stand. Despite the name of this edition, however, it does not come with a trunk. It also doesn’t come with earrings, even though Ainsley’s ears have holes for them.
I love how Ainsley is posed in her box as if to say “Here I am!”
All of Ainsley’s accessories say Rainbow High.
The Ainsley Slater Trunk Show doll debuted at the Rainbow High x Shadow High Pop-up Shop in L.A. in late May and officially launched in retail stores on June 1st. It retailed for $60 when it first debuted. I’m glad I didn’t pay that much for her, because if I did I would be even more p.o.’d about all of the black marks on my doll. Marks that won’t come off, I should add. The first one is on her face. There are also a few stray bits of glitter on the right side of her nose that was used on the pearlescent finish on her face. It makes her look like she has blackheads (she is a teenager, after all). There is also some mottling of the pearlescent finish above her left eyebrow. I’m not usually the type of doll collector that compares faces before buying a doll, but I guess I have to check for marks on Rainbow High dolls. Apparently a lot of Rainbow High collectors have this problem with their dolls.
However, marks on the face were not the only problems I had with this doll. There were black marks all over her body, caused by the unlined black outfit she came in. And now I’m nervous because the Shadow High Storm Twins will be arriving from Amazon any day now.
Another issue I had with Ainsley that is common with Rainbow High dolls is that her hair had so much styling gel in it that it was super-crunchy. I’ve never washed and styled a doll’s hair before, but I decided to try it with Ansley. I took all the ties out and washed her hair with warm water and a little shampoo, and let it air-dry.
After her hair dried I restyled her high ponytail and wrapped two sections of hair around it, securing them underneath the ponytail with another rubber band. I left a long tendril one either side of her face. Now her ponytail looks like Ainsley’s hair in the webisodes (and the artwork on the box), where her ponytail is secured by a section of her hair. I still haven’t figured out a solution to that pesky flyaway doll-hair problem, though. And dang, that black mark next to her eyebrow is still bothering me!
In the webisodes, Ainsley’s hair is mostly purple. The Ainsley doll has black hair with indigo strands that are more visible in the right lighting.
Ainsley wears bright makeup colors to brighten up her black wardrobe. She has rainbow-colored eyeshadow and rose-pink lipstick. But in true goth/emo form, she wears black nail polish.
I love the artwork on the back of the box that illustrates the four outfits Ainsley comes with. They look kind of retro and remind me of those big-eyed-kids paintings by Margaret Keane. The outfit she comes in is called “Better with Boots.” It’s her signature outfit that she wears most of the time in the webisodes.
“Better with Boots” features a black cropped jacket with one sleeve paired with a black corset-laced miniskirt accentuated with a removable belt with letters that spell out the word “RAINBOW.” Her black combat boots have clear spikes on them. Ainsley seems kind of goth for a Rainbow High student. No wonder she’s transferring to Shadow High.
Ansley’s second outfit is called “Jewelry Completes the Look.”
The outfit consists of a fitted cropped pleather mock turtleneck top and a matte black skirt with white trim and a silver fastener.
The pleather motorcycle bustier is a separate piece.
She wears black plastic knee boots with a “silver” harness with alternating upside-down and right-side up letters “R” all over it and a printed zipper down the inside.
The soles of the boots have the colors of the rainbow on them. I think Ainsley must have an ironic sense of humor, because the only pop of color in her mostly-black wardrobe is on the bottom of her shoes, where it remains largely unseen.
This is the outfit Ainsley wore when she stunned the audience at Rainbow Vision with her announcement that she’s changing schools.
“I’m leaving Rainbow High for Shadow High and we’re gonna win Rainbow Vision.”
Ainsley’s third outfit is called “The Bag for Any Occasion.”
“The Bag for Any Occasion” consists of a black tube top with buckled shoulder straps, and long black pleather pants.
The black pleather low-rise pants have corseted gussets on the side. They remind me of Jim Morrison from The Doors. Is Ainsley the Lizard Queen?
The outfit comes with a black quilted cross-body bag, hence the name of the ensemble.
The bag has a real zipper that opens and closes. It has a clasp that also opens and closes. The word “Rainbow” is embroidered in gold tinsel.
Her shoes are stiletto slides with the letters “R” and “H” for heels. Ainsley is going to have to buy a new purse and shoes when she gets to Shadow High.
The fourth and last outfit is called “Leather for Any Weather.”
It has a black minidress with a clear plastic double-buckled halter, and purple lace at the hem.
The dark purple boots feature a harness-and-medallion design.
The best part of “Leather for Any Weather” has to be the graffiti motorcycle jacket.
It has real but non-functional zippers. The buckled belt might fasten but it’s so tiny that I left it open.
So out of the four outfits Ainsley comes with, and the 400 fashion combinations that MGA advertised on the box (and no, I didn’t try them all), my favorite look on Ainsley is a combination of the top from Jewelry Completes the Look and the pants from The Bag for Any Occasion. They’re made from the same material, and they look so cool together. Ainsley is giving me Emma Peel vibes. The shoes I paired with this outfit, however, are not from Ainsley’s Trunk Show. They’re the Rainbow Sparkle Ankle Boots from the Rainbow High Mini Accessories Studio. They’re very Stephen Sprouse.
The jacket from Leather for Any Weather goes well with the boots. Ainsley looks like she belongs in Greenwich Village circa 1985.
Ainsley is only my second Rainbow High doll, and I’ve noticed some of the same issues that plague other Rainbow High collectors. I was disappointed by the quality issues of the black marks on the dolls, but I won’t let it dampen my enthusiasm for Rainbow High dolls just yet. Ainsley is very pretty but her original hairstyle was a little awkward. The excessive amount of hair gel could have been an issue but it was easy to fix and I love how her hair looks now. I’m still enjoying the quality of articulation of the dolls and their highly detailed clothes and accessories. The fashions Ainsley came with are fierce. They’re all black and goth. I had so much fun mixing and matching them.
Will Rainbow High win Rainbow Vision for the eighth year in a row, or will Shadow High win? Personally, I have a theory. Have you noticed during Season 3 that every time we see Seoul Select’s contestants, the Royal Three, up on stage to perform, the story cuts away to other characters? We haven’t yet heard their song. I think we’ll hear it in the final because – dare I say it – I think Seoul Select will win. My theory is that both Rainbow High and Shadow High will both be disqualified due to cheating from the two sets of twins everybody loves to hate: the Devious Twins from Rainbow High, and the Storm Twins from Shadow High. Crazy, I know! I look forward to more episodes to see who will win Rainbow Vision.
As if I haven’t already spent enough money on Rainbow High dolls since becoming a convert about a month ago, MGA Entertainment has introduced something else to separate me from my money. The Rainbow High Mini Accessories Studio surprise boxes have arrived at my local Target and Walmart stores. The Mini Accessories Studio is a collection of fashion-doll shoes and purses. There are twenty-seven different pairs of shoes or handbags, many of them styled for specific Rainbow High characters. The color of the box matches the color of the shoes or purse. However, that doesn’t mean you’ll know which item you’ll get. There are between one to four different purses or shoes for each box color, but you won’t know which one you’ll get until you open it. The concept is identical to MGA’s LOL Surprise dolls, which is the same concept behind the Japanese “blind boxes” that have been popular with adult designer-toy collectors for many years.
There are two versions of the Mini Studio Accessories cases of shoes and purses, Case A and Case B. Apparently only Case B has all twenty-seven different options in it. You can identify Case B as having the black Shadow High boxes. When I went to Walmart to look for the Mini Accessories Studio boxes, I was greeted with a fresh Case B of shoes. Yay! I took out my iPhone and checked the Instagram account of babydolldolls. She made a guide, with graphics, of the Mini Accessories Studio cases indicating the location in the case of each style of shoe or purse. This was invaluable, and it allowed me to locate the shoes I wanted. And she as spot on, with one exception (but more on that later). I bought eight boxes of shoes. The boxes are styled to look like trunks, as in fashion trunk-shows. I didn’t notice until I got home that the boxes I bought at Walmart are the international versions. It features three languages on the box: English, French, and German.
A box of shoes I bought earlier at Target is the U.S. version and only has the English language on the box.
Here are the box tops side-by-side.
The international boxes also have a brochure taped to the bottom with product information in multiple languages. The letters “CE” indicate that this product complies with the European Union Toy Safety Directive of 2009. Neat!
One side of the box indicates that these surprise boxes are Series 1, which suggests that there will be a Series 2.
The other side lets you know some of the contents of the box.
The certificate of authenticity, the receipt, and the receipt envelope are taped inside the lid of the box in a small plastic bag.
The Certificate of G.L.A.M. (or Certificat de G.L.A.M.) indicates that these shoes are from the Fall 2022 collection. Does this mean there will be a spring collection? I’d better start saving my money now!
I love how detailed the receipt is. I tried scanning the QR code to see if it would bring up a website. It does. Just click on the photo below to see the larger image, and scan the QR code. It takes you to the official Rainbow High website.
“Your receipt, Madame. Thank you for shopping with us.”
Inside the “trunk” is a drawer-like box that contains a shoebox.
The side of the box shows which shoes are inside.
The shoebox holds two surprises – well, three if you count the shoes. The first surprise is that the shoes are wrapped in tissue paper, like real shoes in a shoebox when you first buy them. The paper is sealed with a sticker that emulates a wax seal. The paper also matches the color of the box. The designs printed on the colored paper is different for each colored box.
The second surprise is a dust bag to store the shoes in.
Each box of shoes and purses comes with a collector’s guide. One side features the shoes, with the purses on the reverse. I’ll just show the shoes in this review and save the purse collectors’ guide for a separate review.
The first pair of shoes I got were Poppy Rowan’s thigh-high boots. One down, seven to go.
1. Poppy Rowan – Monarch butterfly boots.
2. Sunny Madison – kawaii graffiti boots. They’re like Doc Martens.
These shoes were the one exception to babydolldolls finder’s guide to the shoes. I intended to get Sunny Madison’s pastel platform sneakers and took the yellow box that was on the top row, in the center front, as per the finder’s guide. When I opened the box at home, however, I discovered that I got the kawaii graffiti boots. But I’m not mad. These boots are cooler than I thought they were. The illustration in the collector’s guide doesn’t have the graffiti on it and shows plain white boots. I actually like these more than the pastel rainbow sneakers. A happy accident! In my rush to get the boxes I wanted while I was in Walmart, I didn’t see babydolldolls’s comment on her post that explained that, while the four cases she bought all had the pastel platform sneakers in the same spot, others had the same issue I had. But her guide was super helpful. Thank you babydolldolls.
5. Jade Hunter – buckled combat boots. They’re loosely based on the Versace Medusa harness boots. I love how MGAEntertainment looks to designer fashion houses for inspiration.
8. Rainbow High – rainbow-sparkle slouchy knee boots.
I have bought an awful lot of tiny doll shoes and purses in the past couple of weeks, and I’m probably not done yet! At ten dollars each, I could have bought myself a purse or a couple of pairs of shoes with the money I’ve spent. The ten-dollar price point for the Mini Accessories Studio items is a bone of contention for some collectors. For little more than twice the price, collectors can buy a Rainbow High doll, including the shoes. While ten dollars may seem a bit steep for a pair of doll shoes, I’m not mad at it. MGA could have put the mini accessories in carded plastic bags and just hung them on a peg at Target or Walmart. Instead, they come in an aesthetically pleasing presentation box, wrapped in tissue, and placed in a mini shoe box, accompanied by a real cloth drawstring dust bag. As they say, presentation is everything. I had a lot of fun opening each box. It feels like I’m buying designer shoes in an exclusive boutique, just like Lila below.
Have you bought any of the Mini Accessories Studio shoes or purses? What do you think of them? Let us know in the comments.
We first met Skelita Calaveras in the 2012 Monster High animated movie Scaris, City of Frights. She was an international intern from Hexico, studying with the Scarisian fashion designer Moanatella Ghostier. It was in Scaris that Skelita met Madame Ghostier’s other international interns Clawdeen Wolf and Jinafire Long. After Scaris, Skelita and Jinafire transferred to Monster High.
The Skelita Calaveras Collector Doll was released in 2016 as an Amazon exclusive. It was Amazon’s second exclusive Monster High doll after the 2015 Draculaura Collector Doll, and retailed for $29.99. The Skelita Collector Doll was Mattel’s fifth and final Skelita doll. Although I purchased this doll from Amazon in 2016, it has been sitting in my home with several other unopened boxes of dolls that I’ve purchased over the years. Monster High’s recent comeback earlier this month has made me nostalgic for the G1 Monster High dolls. Since today is Dia de Los Muertos, it’s the perfect time to reacquaint myself with an old friend.
November 1st is Dia de losMuertos, or Day of the Dead. It’s a Mexican celebration that honors loved ones that have passed away. Traditions include calaveras – decorative skulls made from sugar or clay (now we know where Skelita gets her name from). Home altars, called ofrendas, are filled with the favorite foods and beverages of the departed. Cempazuchitl, or marigolds, are used to decorate the ofrendas because their fragrance is said to attract the souls to the altars. The living also bring gifts to the graves of their loved ones. The Skelita collector doll comes with a diary, just like many of the G1 Monster High dolls. In it, Skelita describes how she celebrates Dia de losMuertos. It also explains that she was not a once-living human but was born a skeleton in the undead world. Um, okay.
The artwork on the box is charming and colorful. Cempazuchitl feature prominently on the front and back.
In addition to her diary, Skelita comes with a stand like all of the G1 Monster High dolls apart from the budget dolls. She did not, however, come with a hairbrush.
Skelita‘s stand is more ornate than the usual Monster High doll stands. It features the Monster High skullettes embedded in roses and marigolds, and a motif that resembles the type of fountains that might be found in a town square. The spine of the stand is literally a spine – it has vertebrae (see the space below the first two rosette skullettes in the photo below).
Because of the ornate design of the spine of the stand, the waist clip isn’t adjustable. It locks into a niche on the spine that was designed to accommodate it.
Here’s Skelita out of the box. She’s so sweet.
Skelita wears a headdress of yellow cempazuchitl with pink skullettes in cempazuchitl. Matching ponytail-holders keep her long pigtails in place. Her hair is black with streaks of teal. Her face is decorated with a delicate floral pattern with pale grey ombre shading from her forehead to her cheeks.
Her dress is black, a traditional Western color of mourning, but the colorful flowers and lace that adorn it underscore the fact that Dia de Los Muertos is a celebration rather than a somber occasion.
G1 Monster High dolls were known for their fabulous shoes, and the Skelita collector doll does not disappoint. Her hot pink platform sandals wrap around her ankles with braided roping and are decorated with yellow heart-and-skullette medallions.
Skelita’s body is made to look like an actual skeleton. It’s a credit to the Monster High designers and sculptors that they were able to make an articulated doll whose body is sculpted like it’s made up of bones. They successfully took the Skelita doll from conception to reality.
My only issue with this doll is that her left leg is shorter than her right leg and thus the doll is unable to stand up on its own. You can see that the left hip is higher than the right one, which makes her legs uneven.
Despite this flaw, I do really like Skelita. It was fun opening her box, after having unboxed some of the G3 Monster High dolls, because it reminded me of the thrill of opening G1 dolls, with their stands and diaries. And again, Skelita is really sweet.
The Skelita collector doll was rather basic compared to the Draculaura collector doll in terms of her clothing and packaging, but her price reflected this as it cost twenty dollars less than Draculaura. The Skelita collector doll, while beautiful, wasn’t much different from the playline Monster High dolls sold at Toys R Us, Target, and Walmart. But I’m happy to have her. I haven’t had this much fun with Skelita since I reviewed Art Class Skelita in 2014. Sadly, I don’t think we’ll be seeing Skelita return in the Monster High reboot because I imagine it would be difficult if not impossible to recreate her skeleton body in the heftier G3 bodies. But prove me wrong, Mattel. Prove me wrong!
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