Thursday, November 7, 2013

Monster High Power Ghouls "Cat Tastrophe"--A Guest Review!

Today I am so pleased to be able to present a wonderful guest review!  The author is known around here as Toy Town, and she has generously offered to share beautiful pictures and first-hand opinions of a doll that I have been unable to get my hands on--the elusive Cat Tastrophe!  I was super-excited to get these photographs in my inbox, and I hope you will enjoy them as much as I do.  Over to you, Toy Town!

Hey everyone, Toy Town here. Today, I will be doing a guest review on Monster High Power Ghouls: Cat Tastrophe. I saw this doll at Target for $21.99 and I literally jumped up and down.  I really did not care about the people staring at me,  I mean, who wouldn't jump up and down, we have been waiting for a new Toralei doll for like millions of years...or, maybe a year or two. There were three of them and the other two had really wonky eyes, and one of them is a little bit cross-eyed. Thank goodness I was able to find one with nice features. 

Just a little heads up, if you guys still don't have a Toralei doll, DO NOT lose hope because there's going to be more Toralei dolls in the future. There's going to be a "Coffin Bean: Toralei" doll probably early next year and rumor has it that there's going to be a "Ghouls Alive: Toralei" doll. 

Now, it's time for the review...

Monster High Power Ghouls, "Cat Tastrophe."
The front of the box is a window box, revealing Cat Tastrophe and her comic book.


The back of the box shows a newspaper article style description about Cat Tastrophe (feel free to read the article). There's also an illustration of Toralei on the left side and she looks fierce. There's also a picture of Frankie Stein as Voltageous. (She really is Voltageous.) 





Here's Cat Tastrophe without the window box. 


The back of the box has a small amount of strings and plastics that hold the doll together. Removing the doll from the box is not that hard, unlike some other dolls. 


One thing I noticed about this doll is that her tail is not attached to her back:


The background of the box illustrates an abandoned building. There's also a 3D effect of shattered windows/glass which is really awesome. There's also a description of Cat Tastrophe on the right side that says "Crafty Kitty of Chaos!"  


The doll comes with a comic book, a brush, and doll stand:


One thing I noticed about the doll stand is that it's the same as the Haunt the Casbah and Catty Noir doll stand. I really love this kind of Monster High doll stand because it gives the dolls the chance to do awesome poses and it holds them perfectly without ruining their outfit. They should make more stands like this...right, Mattel?

A stand with superpowers?
Here's Cat Tastrophe out of the box:


Cat Tastrophe wears a black cat-like mask that is tied with a transparent elastic on both sides of her head. 



Cat Tastrophe has black earrings. The ear on the left has only one spiked earring. The other side has one spiked earring and a round earring. I noticed that there's a little bald spot behind her ears, but it's not a big deal. 



Cat Tastrophe has long red-orange hair. It's actually a combination of red-orange and orange. The middle part of the hair is orange with black stripes and it's pretty stiff probably because of the hairspray. I want to wash it but I'm scared that the black stripes might wash off, like what happened to my Werecat Twins' hair. Cat Tastrophe's hair is styled in a high ponytail. Cat Tastrophe's long hair gives her a whole new look. 



One thing that I noticed as I was brushing her hair is that some strands are stuck between her neck:


Cat Tastrophe's face looks fierce! Cat Tastrophe's face is two-toned. The left side is kind of pale orange and the other half is orange. She has two light brown stripes painted on both sides of her cheeks. She also has maroon eyebrows. 



Cat Tastrophe's eyes are green with a little bit of lime green. Her eyes also have white details. Her eye makeup has three colors: hot pink, black, and lavender. The lavender part of her makeup goes through her eyes. 


Cat Tastrophe has black painted fingerless gloves: the left side has spikes, the other one does not. Cat Tastrophe also has two bracelets: the left side of her bracelet is really cool. It's a silver spiked bracelet with a rat on top: 


You say it's a rat, I say it's lunch.

The other side is silver with spikes:


Cat Tastrophe also has a hot pink spiked collar with a Monster High Skullette. 


Cat Tastrophe is wearing black overall tights with white polka dots and cat scratch-like prints. There's also a cat-like Skullette printed in the upper part of her outfit. So cute! 



Cat Tastrophe has a pair of red boots with black heels. There are also cat scratch patterns in her boots. The boots are simple, but it's not a bad thing because it balances the style of the whole outfit. 


Ka-pow!
Cat Tastrophe also has a waist belt with studs and a little pouch with a feather attached at the bottom. Beside the pouch you can see Hello Kitty. Just kidding, it's just a random cat.


Here's Cat Tastrophe with the Werecat Twins. They looks so perfect all together. 


You can notice that my Werecats' hair stripes are kinda faded. *sigh*


Cat Tastrophe has the same articulation as the other dolls. Her outfit doesn't affect her articulation. 






Since Cat Tastrophe's stand can make her do jump shots, I tried to compare her pose with her picture from the cover of the comic book. Cat Tastrophe's pose in the comic book looks more intense than the real one. 


Maybe if I paddle my arms really fast I can fly?
Here are some more pictures of Cat Tastrophe:

Don't tell, but I've always wanted to be a ballet dancer!
Whoa!  This is harder than it looks...
Ack, I'm falling!  Magic stand powers...activate!
Bam!  Nailed it.
Whew!  I didn't know I had that in me.
And I look fan-tastrophic, too.
Mrow.
In conclusion...
Pros: This doll is absolutely amazing and the outfit is well thought and well designed. 
Cons: The doll is super hard to find, giving the scalpers a chance to take advantage of people's cash.


19 comments:

  1. Excellent review and photos more than great, although I prefer the first doll Toralei

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    1. Thank you so much! :D I also like the first Toralei doll, but she's now very hard to find, actually I can't find her at all. This one, however, looks different with the long hair, but she still looks fierce and I love it. :)

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    2. actually the first Toralei's tail falls off ALL THE TIME, I still love her though

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  2. A life-long comic-book nerd, I love, love, love this series of dolls. It seems like there will be only the five released (with Dead Fast Ghoulia as an honorary sixth member), but each is a winner. And the little comics included are short but so beautifully illustrated. I hope they use the same artists for the MH graphic novel they're working on.
    Man, I'm jealous of your doll's face. She has such a strong demarcation of facial coloring. I have two Toraleis (Signature and my own Cat Tastrophe) and their big spots are just a scarcely-noticeable shade darker than the rest of their faces. Yours also has an arched eyebrow while the rest of her screening is even, which is perfect and reflects Toralei's "bad kitty" persona.
    I'm glad that Mattel has gotten the message that fans would like to see more dolls for this character. Her Coffin Bean doll looks deceptively sweet!

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    1. Also, as a small notable: Cat Tastrophe seems prone to a few quirks. For instance, mine has silver paint to emphasize her boot zippers and collar skullette, and I've seen a couple of dolls missing the black hair stripes entirely.

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    2. I'm also a huge fan of comic books! I just adore the super villains in comic books, it's not because they destroy the world, but I love their outfits. I agree, some Toralei dolls are pretty messy. I'm so jealous of you too! You have the signature Toralei! That's like really awesome! :D I really can't wait to see the Coffin Bean one because her look is close to the original one. :)

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  3. I want this doll SO badly! Thanks for the review, Toy Town!

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    1. You're welcome AJ. I'm sure you'll find her eventually, especially they revealed the Ghouls Alive Toralei and Coffin Bean Toralei dolls. They'll be out by next year for sure. :D

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  4. This doll only reinforces my positive opinion of Toralei. Although it seems like Monster High makes a lot of cat dolls. I'm going to get worried about their creativity if they make another cat character, since we've got Toralei, Catrine DeMew, and the Twins. Anyways, great review.

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    1. I agree, there's too much cats at Monster High. XD Let's not forget Catty Noir. ;) Thank you so much. :D

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  5. She is soooo damnn cool hehe ^^ I wanna all the Power Ghouls line, its very nice =) I have Clawdeen/Wonder Wolf and love her ^^

    Great review, nice pics !

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    1. Thanks Helen. :) I love Power Ghouls Clawdeen, she's creepy cool! :D

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  6. I was searching info about the doll Lottie (I have bought it some days ago and I am waiting for her) and then i found your blog. I collect dolls also. I follow you right now. I like very much your blog. I am also a blogger, from Spain, if you want you can see my posts (they are in spanish...but there are lots of dolls photos, you can see info about Spanish dolls and conventions and all kind of Fashion Dolls i collect or like, wish you like it, you are welcome: http://missgarabatosdolls.blogspot.com )

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  7. Whenever I pass Monster Highs, I always keep my eyes peeled for this doll, and I've NEVER seen her. I'm really looking forward to the 2014 version of this character. I was able to see an advance picture of the 2014 Toralei on a forum and she looks like she's going to be awesome. I wonder why they don't paint the nose on Toralei, but they paint the noses on all the other werekitties? It looks better with the nose unpainted.

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  8. Cool variant of Toralei--she very much reminds me of Catwoman from the old Adam West Batman TV series (which, considering that Mattel currently has a license to make characters from that show, probably isn't a coincidence). As a cat lover, Monster High could never have too many werekitties in my eyes, but, at the same time, it would be nice to see more variety, considering that there are so many monsters to draw from in popular culture and mythology. I think the only Power Ghouls I've seen in the stores around here in Clawdeen.

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  9. She's wonderful , I love her long hair! I wonder if I'll ever be able to find her in Italy (I only found a spectra-Polthergoul and months after her release in the USA)... This MH series was just perfect, great choices picking the right characters, cool outfits, fab packaging...

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  10. i found some at target before but there were like 3 and it was near christmas so their all gone.

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