It's that time of year again! Time to max out your credit card buying low quality toys and electronics at vastly inflated prices for your spoiled kids, realize that dreaming of a "White Christmas" is becoming more and more of a dream each year with the rapid onset of global warming, and try not to kill yourself over having to put up with your relatives and increasing expenses AGAIN for the third holiday month in a row!
...I'm kidding*, of course! This is the time of year to sort of "calm down", and reflect on all the things that's happened during the other 358 days of the year. It's a time to really understand your friends and family, have them come together under one roof and learn about their wants and desires and how you can help. And it's a time to feel a sense of "peace on earth, goodwill toward men", and give to those less fortunate so everyone can have a time without care or worry, perhaps one day leading to world peace and a solution to all our problems as we join as one.
*Mostly
...But, let's be honest, most of that is accomplished through the gift giving prevalent during this time of year. And what better way to count down to the main day of gift giving than by buying something that rewards you for your patience each day? An Advent Calendar!
This is only the second year I've featured one of these on this blog, as I started this tradition last year with the Mega Bloks Minions Advent Calendar. And there's no doubt that I'll be continuing this little tradition with future brick-based Advent Calendars. After all, I'm a guy who talks about building brick sets and merchandise online. It's sort of the law.
I'll be following the same format as last year. Every day, I'll open the corresponding flap, put together the little model inside, and briefly give my thoughts on each one. There's not going to be any skits or videos, just a collection of short looks at brick models, with an overall rating at the end.
Also, this is going to be the only look at Christmas-themed brick sets this year, and probably for future years. As I said in my look at the Dr Star Light & Sound Christmas Mini Blocks review, Christmas-themed brick sets are few and far between, with most of them comprised of smaller models or overly expensive blandish settings. Maybe somewhere in the future, I'll track down a bunch of models and look at them, but I already have what I want to feature this month planned out, so I'm keeping the Christmas to this calendar.
So, seeing as how I looked at a Mega Bloks Minions calendar last year, what am I going to feature this year?
A Mega Bloks Monster High calendar! Why Mega Bloks again? ...Because I'm cheap...
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Name: Monster High Advent Calendar
Distributor: Mega Bloks
Model: DPK33
Pcs: 244
Alright! This year, we get to talk about an advent calendar based on a franchise I know nothing about! AGAIN!
Ok, I know OF it. It's a worldwide craze, it's pretty hard NOT to have ever heard of it. It's a long-running franchise based on the concept of children of famous monsters attending high school. Typical high-school situations and dramas*, but since they're monsters in a world of darkness and magic, their abilities and surroundings have a huge effect on their everyday lives, intentionally or not.
*At least for shows meant for a preteen demographic. Though I do eagerly await the episode where Clawdeen Wolf gets teen pregnant and Draculaura shoots everyone at a school assembly in cold blood...
We can probably thank this series for giving us most of the "supernatural high school"* shows and franchises we have today, like Ever After High, DC Super Hero Girls, and *shudder* Equestria Girls...
*Honestly, I've never seen the appeal of ANY show centered around high school. Based on my experiences around that age and location, I'd think we'd all like to forget those painful, boring, awkward years...
Surprisingly, I haven't found that much controversy surrounding a series aimed at young girls that deals with monsters and the black arts. ...But I did find this article about how appalled people can get over a joke about werewolves shaving and plucking... Seriously, parents, if you have time to overthink a joke about grooming being a "full time job" for a werewolf, I don't think you're spending much time actually raising your kid...
Now, being a twenty-something adult male, I'm not familiar with the universe of Monster High, nor the stories told in the countless books, TV shows, webisodes, and direct-to-DVD movies, so I can't exactly make jokes about the characters or compare previous situations they've found themselves in. I do have a sister who's crazy about this franchise, but she's off wasting her time by going to college and getting an education and career, so I should probably let her be. So for this franchise, I'm basically in the dark about how anything relates to anything.
Still, I believe that a brick set(or really any kind of toy) should be good DESPITE not knowing much about the franchise it's based on! It should entice people to buy and learn more about the series it's based on, employing accuracy and gimmicks to make it more interesting and fun for both fans and the uninitiated. Marketing to an established fanbase is no excuse for laziness...
So with all that, let's finally talk about the Advent Calendar itself. ...And can you believe the box art based on monster teenagers celebrating Christmas is actually LESS creative than the Minions calendar?!
Last year, I admitted that, despite my dislike of the Minions, the box art was probably the most creative part of the entire calendar. Everything was set up to look all "Christmasy", with bright colors, the models positioned in humorous ways you could very easily misinterpret, and they even bothered to redraw the Minion figures in the middle to give them a bit more life and flexibility as they decorated the tree!
Here, you have the actual figures standing around, holding stuff. ...Just as stiff and lifeless as the dolls they're based off of...
Alright, I'm being unfair. While it's not AS good as the Minions art, it's still a nice, "Christmasy" layout that gives you an idea of what to expect in the box.
The color scheme is the typical black and dark-purple gothy coloring used for the franchise, which actually contrasts nicely with the whiteness of the freshly fallen snow that surrounds our characters. And since these are monsters, I can believe that they'd want to go skiing in the middle of the night.
And even though I liked the redrawn Minions for their box, using the actual figures for this box art shows off just how flexible and detailed each one is. I do actually believe that you can pose this werewolf in this way if you have the figure. ...But would you want to, or would you want to ACTUALLY pose her suplexing a T-Rex while shooting machine guns at invading aliens?! ...Sorry, my testosterone levels are trying to save me from reviewing a female-demographic set again...
They did set their table on fire, though. That's enough to satisfy my want for wanton destruction.
I can even make much more sense out of what the calendar will contain! Last time, I couldn't tell what half the stuff was, or what they were going for with their designs. Here, it's boxes! ...Ok, admittedly not as imaginative as whatever they threw at us last time, but I can at least tell that they're boxes! Finely wrapped with symbols of death on them, but they put a pink ribbon on a skull, so that automatically makes it cute. ...Plus, who wouldn't want their presents delivered by sexy Santa Vampira?
Especially when they're placed under a tree adorned with gold and purple painted human skulls. ...Which they have an abundance of... ...I think I just found what they do to the janitors that forget to bleach the toilets...
However, all the creativity is relegated to the front image. On the bottom left-hand corner, we get stock art of our three female monsters all looking over their shoulders and smiling, like they're simultaneously laughing at and judging me for being cheap and buying the first brick advent calendar I found on eBay without a single thought as to its theme...
Which they repeat on the side of the box...
And remember those shots of the Minions running amuck on the sides of the box, getting into comedic situations and just doing stuff for the sake of injecting some life and excitement into the artwork?
Well, here's this box's interpretation. ...Solid black... ...Though I guess you could have some fun deciphering what's in my room from the reflection!
The top-right corner on the front tells us that they're giving us "24 Days to Build and Collect!" ...After that, no building or collecting can take place, as we've used our budget until next year. ...Also that the characters included in this set are "Draculara™", "Clawdeen Wolf™", and "Frankie Stein™". ...I think their parents might have had a bit of an ego trip when naming them...
The back just has a straightforward diagram of everything you'll find in the calendar. Skis, trees, presents, etc.
Including a shot of the figures in their normal clothes instead of winter wear. ...And for some reason, Draculaura wears boots that reach nearly up to her waist. ...I'd imagine that that would make walking almost impossible. ...But I'll give her a pass. When you're a few centuries old, yet eternally 17, fashion statements can start to run together...
And all these items appear to be coming out of this massive image of the box, which seriously takes up nearly a quarter of the space on the back!
I love this, as they seem to indicate that it's possible we wouldn't know that all this stuff on the back of the box would actually come from THIS box we're holding in our hands...
But if you are interested in getting some Monster High building sets that AREN'T included in this box, they also print a link to monsterhigh.megabloks.com to see what else they offer.
An address that no longer works...
However, at the new domain of the Monster High section of Mega CONSTRUX(which they renamed the more Lego-like building sets to this year to differentiate them from the larger preschool-level blocks), they DO show off their Monster High figures and a few of the sets they currently sell.
Which are demonstrated in a series of stop motion videos I can only dream of ever matching in terms of quality...
Quality that I wish they had on the web page, since their section on "Game" leads nowhere...
And finally, we have the customary "0-3" symbol
But are told we need to be 6 or older to actually play with it.
Anyone between those ages gets a visit from Draculaura's father. ...And he's not as friendly in a Santa costume as she is...
Alright, let's stop stalling and start this countdown! I'll take Door #1, Monty!
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Day 1: Draculaura Figure
Well, it figures that, with the amount of jokes I've already thrown her way, the calendar would start with a Draculaura figure. And even though I know nothing about Monster High, I can tell why she's one of the major selling points, as she is quite cute.
There's just something about her pink blouse, ponytails with pink highlights, and small David Bowie-esque mark over her eye that just makes her absolutely adorable! ...I don't care if she'll drain me like a can of red cream soda. I'd date her*.
*And to all the people now going "She's a high-schooler, you perverted creep", she's like 500 years old! She passed the age of consent before the Industrial Age!
The detail on the face is absolutely masterful, with individual eyelashes, tiny fangs on barely-there lips, and even gleams in her eyes! I mentioned in my Nuketown review that Mega Bloks are masters at giving their figures little details, and it's especially true here!
The hair is a rubber piece which attaches to the head with a peg. ...It's almost uncomfortable how rubbery it is, since I can practically mold it between my fingers! ...I guess I'm just so used to the solid plastic Lego uses for their minifigures, finding rubber hairpieces, like with the KAZI Spider-Man figures, just throws me off. ...I just want to kill a few hours squishing her hair between my fingers now...*
*I'm totally using that as a pick-up line!
Unfortunately, there are a few quality defects with the figure. ...Again, usually common with Mega Bloks... The head fits overly loosely on the peg, making for a particularly wobbly and easy-to-detach noggin.
And while the right arm fits just fine, trying to move the left arm results in it popping off... ...I think they got her special abilities mixed up with the Frankenstein figure... Either that, or this is where they packaged the figures that weren't good enough for the real sets...
The way they molded the hands is weird, to say the least. They're in the standard claw-shape, which is fine, but then they still molded it to look like she has fingers!
It looks like she's purposely bending her fingers into a claw shape! ...And, as anyone who's tried to hold this shape will know, it's pretty difficult to keep it this way for any length of time. ...Plus, you can't exactly get much done with a hand the shape of a clothespin...
Now that I've gotten a closer look at her boots, I can see that they're actually knee-high, which makes walking around in them much easier than I thought. ...Still, her knees are apparently two-thirds of the way up her legs, so how she can normally walk to begin with is still up for debate...
Also, the way this is molded, there's a noticeable seam between her boot and the heels. It almost looks like I can take it apart, but it won't detach. ...These builds always drive me crazy...
To maximize her leg movement, her skirt is made of the same rubber as her hairpiece, so it'll stretch as her legs stretch.
It also means she can do her Marilyn Monroe impression at will. ...But hopefully not at someone named Will...
Overall, I'm highly impressed with the design and attention to detail of this figure. The quality's not fantastic, but I'm willing to let them off if this is the only example. I care about this franchise about as much as the Minions, but the figures here are of much less annoying characters, so I'm already liking this calendar more than last year's. Let see if they can keep it up!
Oh, and before we go, I just thought it was worth pointing out that Draculaura came out of a coffin-shaped door, and there's another door for Day 9, and I'm willing to bet the last figure is on Day 24. ...It's almost like they don't believe in subtlety or something...
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