Monster High: Venus McFlytrap (2024)
February 16, 2024.
Monster High (G1) was an extremely popular fashion doll line that first debuted at stores in 2010, and can be credited for revitalizing the fashion doll landscape for a little while. The brand focused on teenaged monster characters in various themed outfits and scenarios. An online webseries and cartoon show helped build up the demand for the characters and proved to be a smart marketing tactic. The line was a little more dark and alternative than most doll brands at the time, and other companies caught wind of the line's popularity and began developing competitors. Toy aisles saw a rise in fantasy concept dolls for some time-- including lines like Novi Stars and Bratzillas by MGA, Hasbro's MLP spinoff, Equestria Girls, and even a similar storybook-inspired line by Mattel, Ever After High. Though Monster High G1 ushered in a sort of miniature doll renaissance, a declawed soft reboot (G2) came around by 2016. The popularity and novelty of the series waned, until it entirely disappeared in 2018. In 2020, the series returned with another reboot-- with entirely new doll molds, reimagined characters, and an accompanying cartoon and webseries.
Generation 3 proved to be another hit for Mattel. They began releasing dolls at a breakneck pace, slowly reintroducing old/new characters. I've been following G3's releases since the beginning, as Monster High G1 was always an interest of mine as a kid. I've built up a pretty sizeable collection of G3 dolls, which I really enjoy. Some of the best features are the varied body types, cute characters, and improved durability of the dolls when compared to the fragile G1 dolls. Sometimes the quality of the dolls can be a little lacking-- some use low quality polypropelene hair that doesn't last through the years, some fashions are a little more on the "budget" side-- I'm hoping that the quality of the dolls will increase over time. It would be nice to see consistently hemmed clothing items or more painted details on shoes and accessories. Even still, what we are seeing now is really fun.
Venus McFlytrap is a newly introduced G3 character, but does have a G1 counterpart with a different design. She released in early 2024, after being leaked and speculated about for some time. It was a bit of an endeavor to find her, and I was checking store shelves for weeks. When I did finally find her, the dolls in the store had completely crooked faces or paint smears over their eyes (but still flew off the shelves by the next day), so I opted to wait for a better one, which took a couple more weeks. It was certainly worth the wait.
This doll is awesome! She's really beautiful, her bright pink accent makeup looks cool against her green skin. She has a cute vine hairclip dangling among the wavy twists in her soft yarn hair. The side of her head is tightly braided, harkening to the undercut design that G1 Venus had. Her hairstyle reveals a unique ear that has some spiny plant detailing. She wears a printed black crop top with a multicolored mesh shirt underneath. A silver chain belt hangs over denim cutoff shorts. She has mismatched socks tucked into tremendous chunky boots with little flytrap teeth at the toe.
Venus' pet, Chewlian, is also included with her. He is some kind of cat/plant monster creature. Chewlian in G1 was simply a venus flytrap plant in a pot with a big tooth grin and beady bug eyes. Very cute. This catlike Chewlian is not my favorite. A little less interesting than a normal plant monster to me, but he's not too bad.
Venus also carries a blue bag that can be loaded up with her little accessories.
This doll is awesome. You might notice that her face is a little "wonky," one eye is placed out of line with the other. This is unfortunately very common with Monster High dolls, and has been since G1. It's easy enough to hide with posing, but some G3 dolls come in a blind box, and taking one out to see their eye is placed completely wrong on the head is a bit of a bummer. Hopefully production issues like that can be worked out in the future. Aside from that though, this doll is fabulous. Really pretty. Venus has a unique body mold, which I'm looking forward to seeing more of later down the line. G3 has been really awesome so far! Looking forward to writing about some future releases, or maybe posting some updates about my collection at some point. Thanks for reading as always.