Monster High "Jane Boolittle"

The poll results are in and the majority of you wanted to see a review of the fabulous new Monster High character, Jane Boolittle.  Barbie's redheaded friend Midge was a close second place in the poll, though, so I will try to review her soon.

Since I have talked about Monster High dolls so many times before, I can just get right down to business and introduce the lovely Miss Jane, who gets her second cover shot in a row!

Monster High's "Jane Boolittle."

I found Jane at Toys R Us last week during my holiday shopping blog expedition.  At that time, I partially removed her from her box so that I could take a few pictures.  She is mounted against a black and red backdrop with a jungle landscape:

Jane comes with a ton of accessories.  She has a black stand, a journal, a purse, a staff, a brush and a pet sloth:

Even before I took her out of the box, I was impressed by Jane's coloring.  I like her purple vinyl and her super-dark blue hair with neon pink streaks.  I also like the subtle blue dots that decorate her cheekbones.  As I mentioned in my previous post, these dots remind me of the Na'vi from Avatar (and I love that movie!).

The doll's face is much milder and more innocent than her fiery cartoon likeness:

She has an awesome, happy-looking pet sloth.  His names is Needles:

Sloths are named by how many claws they have on each front foot.  Needles has three claws so he is called a "three-toed" sloth.

I actually saw real (three-toed) sloths when I was in Panama last winter.  This one had a tiny baby perched on its back legs, but it's hard to see--even in my brother-in-law's amazing picture: 

Sloths spend most of their time in trees (they even give birth up in the branches!) but they are also surprisingly good swimmers.  

There's a cartoon of Needles on the back of the box, along with a full-body drawing of Jane and a copy of her bio:

Needles looks very happy and mellow.  He also looks like he's been stitched together:

Jane is the daughter of Dr. Boolittle, who I suppose is the monster equivalent of Dr. Doolittle.  I am guessing that Jane's character is inspired by a mix of Jane of the Jungle (Tarzan's girlfriend) and Dr. Doolittle.  

Since Dr. Doolittle took care of animals and could speak their languages, and Jane of the Jungle was an adventuress who lived in the jungle, it's no surprise that Jane Boolittle is an animal-lover who comes from a jungle island, enjoys wilderness adventures, and can speak to animals:

This bio mentions that Needles is a voodoo sloth.  So not a real sloth, then, but more of an animated pincushion.  This explains his name, anyway.

I don't know much about voodoo dolls except that you stick differently colored pins into them to get revenge or to make a wish come true.  With some voodoo dolls, you write your wish on a small piece of paper and pin that to the doll.   My husband brought me this voodoo doll from New Orleans:

It comes with instructions that are very generic except for the specific mention of an ex-wife:

I detect a little grudge.

Anyway, Monster High is often full of quirky little surprises, and the inclusion of a voodoo sloth character is no exception.

De-boxing Monster High dolls is typically quite easy and the boxes are simple to recycle.  Jane's package is just like other Monster High boxes, but it felt like there were a higher-than-normal number of plastic ties this time around.  Maybe it was just that the two plastic ties in Jane's head were really, really tight and I ended up accidentally cutting some of her hair trying to get them out.  That always makes me crabby.  I simply do not see the need for plastic ties in the head.      

Grumble.

Here's everything that comes in the box.  It's a big haul!

I was anxious to get a closer look at Needles.  He's made out of slightly flexible vinyl and has a molded stitching pattern all over his body.  The shape of Needles' body makes it seem like he is intended to be a cross between a pet and a backpack.  The position of his legs is perfect for reaching over Jane's shoulders and grabbing around her waist.

He has a small paint defect near his red nose:

I was surprised to see that he has a slit all of the way down his back--like one of those squeezable vinyl coin purses:

It was not immediately clear to me what this slit is for.  I assumed that it went along with the backpack shape of Needles' body and was simply for storing things.

The slit is cut into a section of vinyl that is separate from the rest of Needles' body.  The seam between the two pieces is a little sloppy and some of the glue is visible:

I love this little guy's face:

Unfortunately, I am not as fond of the stand.  This is the older, waist-gripping style of stand, not the wonderful saddle style that appeared with the 13 Wishes dolls and the Power Ghouls:

Jane's journal has a folded piece of paper sticking out of it:

The diary contains a slightly expanded bio:

A few things stand out to me here: first, Jane doesn't know her exact age.  I guess that's a hazard of living in the jungle and being raised by animals.  Also, Jane has the ability to talk to animals, and she dislikes it when monsters ask her to eavesdrop on their pets' conversations.  Oh--and she also likes biteology, which sounds like "biology."  Cool.

The rest of the journal gives a bit of background on Jane's upbringing and describes how she came (reluctantly) to Monster High.  Here's the first page:

Jane is actually an orphan and Dr. Boolittle (a monster scientist stationed in the jungle) adopted her and raised her with the help of his colleague, Dr. Moreau.  The inclusion of a character named Dr. Moreau is a little odd in this scenario.  The original Dr. Moreau is the fictional antagonist in H. G. Wells' book, The Island of Dr. Moreau.  This Moreau performed cruel experiments on animals, dissecting them while they were still alive to try and give them human qualities.  This is totally creepy and not at all in keeping with Dr. Doolittle's animal-loving persona.  I hope Dr. Moreau isn't the reason why Needles has stitches all over his body.  *shudder*

Also (and this is picky), if Dr. Boolittle is patterned after Dr. Doolittle (who can talk to animals) and Jane is adopted (therefore not genetically related to Dr. Boolittle), then why does Jane also talk to animals?  Or does Dr. Boolittle not talk to animals?  It's just a little bit disjointed and I detect some struggling on Mattel's part to come up with a cohesive new monster character.

The piece of paper that was folded up inside of the journal has a few simple instructions on it:

The first thing I noticed was that Jane's staff is a pen!  It says, "recap marker after use" in the middle of the instruction sheet.  

Let's take a look at the staff:

The staff/marker comes with a protective plastic covering on the lower half.  Sure enough, with the plastic removed, the bottom of the staff can be removed to reveal a purple felt tip marker.  

The top of the staff has a molded skull design with a red plastic bow and a blue feather scarf:

This section of the paper instructions was confusing to me at first glance:

But Jane's purse actually holds the final clue to help explain these instructions.  Let me show you:

The purse has a doctor's bag style with a molded quilting pattern and a red bamboo handle.  The purse opens up to reveal three long rectangular pieces of paper:

The hinges on this purse do not seem very sturdy. They are simply pieces of bent plastic:

I assume that the paper is meant to be used with the marker.

It's decorated with purple tree designs:

So, now when I look at this drawing, everything comes together.  I can see that it's showing how to write notes on the paper and then slide them into the back of the voodoo sloth.  Perhaps this is a way of making a wish or casting a curse without using pins?*

*Update: Nina figured out that Needles must be one of the new Secret Critter pets that are in the works for Monster High.  These pets have different ways of keeping secrets.  That means Jane is a Secret Creeper--the owner of one of these special secret-keeping pets.  This is great information!  Thank you so much, Nina!

"Snow day" is my wish, but maybe I need to try this again with a secret??

It's really fun to get all of these accessories.  They add a lot of dimension to Jane's character, giving her a mysterious witch doctor vibe.

I feel like there has been a trend towards simpler dolls lately.  This is great for getting some less expensive options on the shelves, but if the dolls are going to cost $20-$25, they should be coming with a stand, a pet and a few other tempting extras.  Jane really delivers with her usable, creative accompaniments.

Now, here's Jane herself:

She has a nice face that's very similar to Clawdeen's face, with wide-set eyes and slightly parted lips:

She has baby blue eyes that match the decorative dots along her cheeks.  Her eyeshadow has three layers--pink, bright purple and plum:

My doll has a small paint defect in one of her purple eyebrows, but it's very hard to see.  Actually, there were about five Jane dolls at my store last week, and all of them looked good.  I didn't see any wonky eyes or smudges faces.

Jane's lips are painted a rich dark red color.  I like the shape of her lips, but I think its strange that the paint doesn't follow the contours of the mold with these dolls.  Jane's molded mouth turns down at the edges while the painted lips curve up, and her dark lip paint makes this more obvious than usual:

Jane is wearing a lot of jewelry.  She has mismatched turquoise earrings with a dangling bone and feather design on one side:

And a simpler tooth design on the other side:

Jane's red headband has a winged skull pattern.  

The head piece has a clear rubber band attached in the back that keeps it securely in place but makes it easy to remove and put back on.

One thing I noticed while examining Jane's headband is that her head does not have the hardness and inflexibility associated with tons of glue on the inside.  The head is easily squishable.  This is great news after my icky experience with Picture Day Cleo DeNile.

I'm crushing your head!

Jane is wearing two vinyl neck ornaments, both of which come tied down with a clear rubber band:

She has a red choker necklace and a blue ornament that loops over her shoulders:

The blue shoulder piece has a feather pattern and adds to the detail of her furry cap sleeves:

Without the rubber band, the blue piece falls off very easily.  

The red necklace has a broad plate that hangs over Jane's chest and a ringed section that loops very tightly around her neck:

There are some simple oval decorations on the front, three of which are painted turquoise:

Little animal teeth decorate the edges of the necklace:

Jane also has a fairly detailed vinyl belt that hangs low around her waist:

The belt has three skulls, the largest of which is decorated with some red paint:

The tooth theme continues along the sides of the belt:

Underneath all of the jewelry, Jane's outfit is fairly complex.  It consists of three pieces; a dress, a cropped shirt and a pair of leggings.

Her arms are asymmetrically adorned with a thick blue bracelet on one side and a netted glove with bangles on the other side:

Her hands have to be removed to get the bracelets on and off.

The cropped shirt is made out of a shiny stretch knit.  The fabric has an abstract tree print that coordinates with the three sheets of paper that were in Jane's purse.  The shirt has a diagonal hem and fake fur sleeves:

Underneath the shirt, Jane is wearing a strapless pink dress with a turquoise tulle skirt:

Jane is wearing knee-high mismatched blue sandal-boots:

One boot has a coiled snake design on the top:

And the other has a more elaborate strap pattern with feathers, skulls and rivets:

Both boots have the same design at the bottom, including a fancy wedge heel and a painted red skull:

Unfortunately, the boots have very narrow soles and the seam on the bottom sticks out a little, making it extremely difficult to get Jane to stand on her own in these shoes:

Jane is also wearing black stretch leggings with zig-zag hems that make them look tattered:

She didn't get any new clothes when she was adopted?

Jane's body is all purple, with the same mechanics as other Monster High bodies:

I tried to pose Jane with her walking stick, but although it has a handle, it's pretty heavy and difficult for her to hold.

It's much easier to pose Jane with Needles the sloth--especially because he grabs onto her back so nicely!

Needles gets a little lost in Jane's big hair, but you can see him peeking out here:

If Needles was a little more flexible, cuddling poses like this would look more natural...

...but his sturdy limbs make it possible for him to grab onto a lot of different things!

At this point, I wanted to get a closer look at Jane's midnight blue hair.  Rather than being silky-smooth and shiny, it is soft, puffy and thick.  It feels a bit like mohair.  The hair is arranged into a high ponytail with an extra section of hair tied off at the top to make a little bouffant:

I tried to remove the black rubber bands without cutting them, and this created a tangled mess:

This girl has a lot of crazy, wild hair!

The rooting is good and the scalp is painted black to hide the purple vinyl:

The hair is very dramatic and I love the colors, but I can see the texture being prone to tangles and knots, especially if the hair is down and the doll is being played with frequently. 

The hair is much easier to control when it's back in a simple ponytail:

Bottom line?  This doll avoids many of the flaws that have been creeping into the Monster High line lately.  Her head is soft and pliable, suggesting that she might not have a skull filled with oozing glue.  Also, none of the Jane dolls on the shelves at my store had any serious visible defects.  Far from basic, this doll comes with lots of fun accessories and a complex, multi-piece outfit.  She has a wonderfully unique sloth pet that doubles as a voodoo wish doll.  She has an intriguing backstory and an appealing personality.  

I have only a few minor criticisms: I wish that Jane had come with a saddle stand, and I think Needles the sloth would be more versatile if he was made out of slightly softer vinyl.  I also worry about how tangled Jane's hair might become over time.  Another nagging concern is that I detect the beginnings of some desperation on Mattel's part to come up with unique, cohesive new monster characters.  Jane's story is fun, but it's a little cobbled together and some elements don't quite fit.  

Overall, though, I am very impressed with this doll and thrilled to see improvement in Mattel's quality control and attention to detail.  On sale right now for $22 at Toys R Us, Jane Boolittle is a great deal.  I hope she is easy to find for anyone who has her on their wish list this year.