Cupid Asteria from Monster High

Happy Valentine's Day!  I don't usually write a special post for this particular holiday (not sure why?) but I got a comment on my Lucky Doggy review with a few suggestions for Valentine-themed dolls, and that inspired me!  Besides, I feel a lot of love and gratitude for all of you, so what better way to show it?

I did a big review of the new G3 Monster High dolls when they first came out in 2022, but haven't done a great job of keeping up with all of the subsequent releases.  However, I've enjoyed several of the G3 character interpretations enough to purchase the dolls--with vague intent to review them, but also simply to enjoy them.  My favorites so far have been Venus McFlytrap, Catty Noir, Jinafire Long, and Cupid Asteria.  Can you guess which one from that list gets her time in the spotlight today?

G3 Monster High Cupid Asteria ($24.99)

One of the reasons I like Cupid so much is that I had a great time reviewing the older version of her back in 2014:

Monster High C.A. Cupid (from 2011).

As I learned back then from my educated readers, this doll's full name is Chariclo Arganthone Cupid, which is a mouthful!  C.A. Cupid is described as being the daughter of Eros.  In Greek mythology, the daughter of Eros is actually named Hedone, which is the root of the word "hedonism."  So I can see why Mattel went with a different name.

During my 2014 review, I also looked at the Ever After High version of C.A. Cupid, who is much perkier:

Here are the two (dramatically different) versions of the same character together:

Identity crisis!

The version of Cupid in this review is called Cupid Asteria, so it seems like she's meant to be a different ghoul altogether.  However, she's still described as being the daughter of Eros, and her initials are still "C.A.," so there's some continuity.

Asteria is another name taken from mythology.  Asteria was a Titan goddess who apparently caught the eye of Zeus himself.  That seems like it should be a big deal, but Zeus was pretty free with his affections.  I prefer the mystery and drama of the C.A. Cupid name, but Asteria is pretty, too.

Cupid Asteria is part of the 2025 Scary Sweet Birthday wave.  This is a group of dolls designed around the idea of Draculaura's 1600th birthday.  This "sweet 1600" concept was first introduced in 2011, with the wave of dolls that included C.A. Cupid.  Here's Draculaura from that collection:

Draculaura from the Sweet 1600 line (2011).

She's worth like $400 now.  I think I had the Frankie from this wave at one point, but she's long gone.

Anyway, Cupid Asteria comes in a plastic package with a simple, rectangular shape:

This packaging is less elaborate than the G3 boxes from back in 2022.

In the lower left hand corner, there's the Scary Sweet Birthday designation, with cartoons of the four involved characters:

From left: Cupid, Draculaura, Cleo, and Frankie.

Dolls were released for each of these characters.  In fact, I specifically remember seeing the dolls when I was in Scotland last summer for Lena and Ian's wedding.  We went to the Smyths in Edinburgh (because of course we did) and I took pictures of everything (because of course I did).  Here's the display:

Cupid was there that day, on a high shelf, but I think it was Cleo's outfit that impressed me most in the moment.  I took a close-up shot of her:

Smyths had a great selection.  But man, I'd like to offer sympathy to my doll friends in Scotland.  £29.99 is really expensive!  That's like forty bucks or something.

Here's the promotional photo of Cleo:

The other two dolls in the lineup are Frankie:

And Draculaura:

There's a related set with Clawdeen Wolf, too:

I think they all look good.  Especially that Clawdeen set.  I love cake!  But I'm going to stop looking before I get tempted to buy it.

I was drawn to the elaborate cage skirts in this line, although I don't really understand their connection to the theme.

On the back of the package, there's a larger picture of the four ghouls, and a coffin-shaped text box:

Here's a closer look at the text:

There's a lot of glare, but it says: "Midnight, Feb. 14th at the Boo-tique Hotel.  You're invited to the skelebration of the century!  Come dressed in fangtastic fashions and boo-gie shoes!"

I love the wordplay with "boo-gie shoes."  I was really curious to know how that was translated into Spanish and French, which both appear in the coffin under the English.

The Spanish reads: "zapatos monstruosos" which translates as "monster shoes."

The French says: "chaussures les plus effravantes!" which is "the scariest shoes."

So, understandably, the play on bougie doesn't really work in other languages.

It was easy to separate the plastic from the cardboard backdrop, and I was able to inspect Cupid's display without any glare:

She comes with several accessories, all of which are lined up in a row on the right side of the backdrop:

The gift box with a question mark on it makes me think that there's a mystery birthday present inside the pink bag.  That would be amazing!  It will also make me want to buy all of the dolls in the series, just to see what their mystery gifts are.

At the bottom, there's a coffin-shaped invitation to Draculaura's Sweet 1600 birthday:

It says "come dressed to the 13s" which I suppose is like "dressed to the nines?"

Cupid herself is like an explosion of color in the middle of the backdrop:

Explosion in a candy store, more like.

She was pretty easy to remove from the box, but of course there were several plastic ties in her head.

Here's the backdrop own its own, so that you can see the design:

The black and pink theme suits Draculaura, and the balloon arch with all of those presents is very festive.

Here's everything that was in the box:

As you can see, I decided to test out a white backdrop for this review, since pink is a color that doesn't always look great against grey.  I had an interesting experience with this new set-up, but I won't say much until I hear your thoughts.  Don't hold back!

By the way, I liked your suggestion of trying a lighter grey, but unfortunately my standard background is the lightest grey available--at least in the format I'm set up to use.  But white tends to look light grey in many of the photos, as you'll see, so that might be interesting.

Cupid's cotton candy hair looks excellent against the white background, but her pale face can get a little lost in some situations:

Here are all of the accessories, with the exception of the cardboard coffin invitation that I showed you earlier.  I had a hard time getting that out of the packaging.

There's a heart-shaped birthday card:

This opens up to reveal a pink interior with the words, "Best witches to you on your Birthday! XOXO Cupid."  Not sure why "birthday" is capitalized, but "best witches" is cute:

The writing on the card looks out of focus, but that's the way it was printed.

Cupid also has a red plastic balloon with a fancy black and white design on one side:

And she has a small case with three heart-shaped makeup things.  Maybe they're eyeshadow?

I don't know if this is supposed to be part of Draculaura's birthday gift?  Otherwise, I'm not sure why Cupid is bringing it to the party.

Cupid's purse is in the shape of an arrow quiver:

The purse opens, which is great, but the arrows are only decorative, sticking out at one end of the purse:

The last accessory is the mystery gift!  What could it be??  It comes in a pink vinyl bag with metallic gold decorations:

The back side of the bag has the same molded decorations but no paint:

And inside the bag...

There's something small and pink wrapped in a plastic bag:

It's a perfume bottle!

That's a good gift from Cupid.  And I love surprises!

I had to go online and track down what all of the other surprise gifts are, to satisfy my curiosity and also to prevent me from purchasing more dolls.  I won't ruin those surprises here, but simply say that it's all little stuff like jewelry, and I think Draculaura's gift is the best--if only because of the cute box it comes in.

Cupid stands on her own, which is something I always appreciate.  But wow.  This girl has a lot going on!  

She looks like a clown.

With all of that curly pink hair, a huge headband and earrings, fancy wings, and an over-the-top outfit, it's hard to know where to start.  

Look at all of the different elements in her dress:

Here she is from the back:

Her wings are ornate and lovely--nothing like the  gruesome ribcage wings of C.A. Cupid:

Here she is from the side, where you can see how much (lopsided) volume there is in her hair:

And not only are the headband and earrings huge, but the headband is held in place with plastic ties and a clear rubber band.  It's a mess:

I don't think Cupid looks bad right out of the box, necessarily...

But she doesn't look much like her promotional photos:

I think the headband makes more sense when the curls are piled up on top of the head like that.

But Cupid's face is compelling, with bold, crisp colors and lots of fun details:

I wanted to strip away some of the accessories so that I could focus better on that face.

First, I cut the headband away from the head.  It's made out of solid red plastic, and has a large heart on top, with two painted green hearts on either side:

The back side of all three hearts has a molded spiderweb pattern:

I also removed the earrings:

These have large heart shapes with what looks like a molded ribcage design on the front?  There are also big molded bows at the top of each earring, which I think is excessive.

After only removing those two elements, I think Cupid looks much better:

She looks slightly washed out against the light background, and her hair is still lopsided, but without all of the red in her headband and earrings, the more subtle red in her makeup is allowed to shine.

Cupid has blue eyes that are a mix of three different shades.  She has three reflection marks in each eye: two hearts and a tiny little arrow.

Cupid's lips are pastel pink, with a bright red heart painted in the middle.  The heart makes perfect sense for this character, but it's also the feature that makes me think about clowns.

Her eyeshadow has multiple layers, with bright red closest to her eyes and then bands of black, purple, and silver.  And there are little red hearts decorating the edges of her eyes:

I like how Cupid's eyebrows are pink, to match her hair.  Also, her entire face has an opalescent sheen to it which is very pretty and ethereal.

Cupid has a great face.  I think it offers a nice balance between the severe features on the older Monster High Cupid and the sweet face of the Ever After High Cupid.

Now it's time to dissect all of the different elements of the crazy outfit!  One of my favorite parts of the outfit is the little wrist bow on Cupid's left hand:

The older C.A. Cupid had a similar bow, but I believe it was worn like a ring:

The new Cupid's bow stays on her hand more securely.  In fact, the bow can't be removed unless the whole hand is removed.

On her opposite wrist, Cupid has a conventional bracelet in the shape of a bent arrow:

Here are the two bracelets on their own:

The outfit looks a bit less cluttered now, but there's still a lot going on!

Here it is from the back:

I wanted to remove the overskirt first, but the ribbon in front was tied in a knot:

I used some tweezers to get the knot untied, and was finally able to remove the cage skirt and the overskirt:

The vinyl cage skirt is warped, but I love how it looks.

The overskirt is made out of delicate clear tulle with a gold metallic print.  And there's a pink tulle ruffle all along the bottom edge:

Underneath the two skirts, Cupid is wearing a cute little jumpsuit!

The jumpsuit has adorable gathered legs and tulle dropped sleeves.  It's hard to see the detail in the top part, though, because there's a choker necklace and a gold vinyl heart decoration there:

I like how Cupid can move and pose with her cumbersome skirts removed!

I removed the choker necklace next.  It's very small and is in the shape of a twisted arrow:

I also removed the gold heart decoration, which slides on over Cupid's arms like a reverse backpack:

This is a strange item.  I wonder if it's meant to look like a harness for her wings?  Or maybe an armor-like chest plate?

I removed the wings next.  They have two protrusions that slot into Cupid's back:

Here are the matching holes in Cupid's back:

This method of attachment is very similar to what we saw on the Winx dolls.  And the wings stay in place nicely.

Now we can clearly see all of the details in that jumpsuit:

It has the bubble shorts at the bottom, and then a heart-shaped cutout top with black ribbon straps and off-the-shoulder sleeves made out of pink tulle:

The jumpsuit is made out of a shiny red fabric with a multicolored heart print.  Many of the hearts look like conventional Sweethearts candy, but one of them is a heart-shaped Skullette, and others have little bat wings.  It's a delightful little piece of clothing.

On her feet, Cupid is wearing high-heeled golden sandals with bows and arrows for heels, and heart-shaped decorations around the edges:

On the front of each shoe, there's a pair of red painted hearts with "XO" written on them:

The platform base of each shoe has a classic column shape, which is a nice nod to Greek mythology.

You might have noticed in the first shoe picture that Cupid's legs are translucent.  Her pearly pink skin fades into a charcoal grey towards the toes, and the plastic gets increasingly translucent as the color changes.  There are also printed white decorations down the front of her lower legs:

Here's Cupid's entire body:

It has the same shape and level of articulation as the Clawdeen I reviewed in 2022.  And those funny seams on the backs of the thighs still bother me:

When I got Cupid dressed again, I added in the pieces bit by bit, assessing each thing to see if it was necessary.

The shoes, jumpsuit, and wings all feel like necessities to me, so I put all of those things on and then added the cage skirt:

Incidentally, my Cupid has a warped little finger on her left hand.  I could probably fix it with some hot water if I wanted to:

The cage skirt and wings don't work very well together.  The curls on the bottoms of the wings get caught up in the hoops of the skirt:

Also, the skirt is warped and looks a little messy.  So, even though I love how this kind of skirt is a unifying theme for the whole group of Scary Sweet Birthday dolls, I'm going to leave it off.

Uncaged, Cupid leapt up and began to flutter around the studio!

I feel so free!

I guess she didn't like that skirt much, either.

Next, I added on the golden chest plate:

And I added the necklace back, too:

I like the necklace.  The chest plate is fine, but it obscures the front of the jumpsuit, which is my favorite piece of clothing in this ensemble.

I put the overskirt back on without the cage skirt:

I like how this looks.  The skirt doesn't poof out as much, and Cupid can move around more easily.

I added the headband, which stays in place on its own pretty well, but I feel like it's completely unnecessary:

I'm also not crazy about the earrings, especially because they bump up against the wings when Cupid moves her head:

I think both bracelets are nice additions, especially the bow and arrow:

So, I would edit this outfit to omit the headband, earrings, cage skirt (reluctantly), and maybe that chest plate.  Sometimes less is more.

In her edited outfit, Cupid tested out some of her accessories.  The balloon is my favorite:

It can be held in either of Cupid's hands, and is a fun thing to play with:

The purse is less useful, mostly because Cupid's wrist collapsed every time I tried to get her to hold it!  I was finally able to get this one quick shot:

I think I've said this before, but I somehow manage to forget how straight-up fun Monster High dolls are!  They look nice in their boxes, but it's only after I get them out and start to play that I remember why I love them so much.

I had a great time with Cupid, and she can even balance on her own in a nice assortment of poses:

Dolls with wings are always extra fun, too.

After I'd played with Cupid for a while, I decided to take her ponytail down.  Poytails are often hiding bald patches of scalp that can make hair play less fun.

To my great surprise, not only is Cupid's ponytail not hiding a bald patch, but she has a rooted part at the top of her head!  Color me shocked:

The hair itself is unruly, though.  I struggled to make it look tidy:

Still, it looks better when it's down than I imagined it would:

Also, the headband is a bit more useful when the hair is down like this:

It's easy to put the hair back into its original style, too, which is nice:

I just couldn't stop taking pictures of this ghoul!

I even tried the cage skirt again without the wings.  It's easier to manage this way, but it still rides up and spins around Cupid's waist, which is problematic:

Also, leaving the wings off is unrealistic.  Who would Cupid be without her wings?

My last experiment with this doll was to boil wash her hair.  I was curious to see if I would be able to relax the curls, and if so, how would she look?

This process took quite a long time.  It was difficult to comb out all of the little tangles in the hair, and the ends felt frizzy and dry.  I probably dipped the hair five or six times overall, combing and conditioning between each dip.

And the result is pretty good!

I kept some curl at the ends of her hair because I thought it looked pretty.  If I'd kept on dunking, I think I'd have been able to get it poker straight.

The hair isn't silky-smooth or anything, but it feels soft and handled the boil wash well.

The straightened hair gets in the way of the wings more than the curly hair did, but I don't mind.

I like having hair that I can brush, and I like the added drama:

Bottom line?  Since I've already reviewed the G3 Monster High dolls in depth, this summary will be easy.  I think Cupid is a great doll, but her outfit and accessories could have used some editing.  

Her outfit is complex to the point of feeling chaotic.  I think a few omissions, like the headband, earrings, and chest plate, calm things down considerably.  I also think that the cage skirt causes more trouble than it's worth.  It gets caught on the wings, has a warped shape, and tends to ride up.  I really love the idea of the cage skirt, though, so it'd be a shame to leave it off.

The thing is, I like most of Cupid's outfit and accessories, even if the whole ensemble feels over-the-top.  Her wings are beautiful and stay on well, her jumpsuit is cute and well-made, her shoes are detailed and dramatic, and her bow and arrow bracelet is really fun to play with.  The overskirt is not my favorite piece, but I like how it can transform the jumpsuit into something more formal.

Cupid's hair gave me some mild frustration throughout the review.  It doesn't look anything like the promotional photos, and the tight, uneven clumps of curl were not especially attractive or easy to manage.  But the hair is rooted really well, and it boils out beautifully.  Based on the way it looks and behaves right now, I have nothing whatsoever to complain about.

Thank you so much to whomever suggested that I review Cupid!  It was an excellent idea.  I had a wonderful time with this doll.  She brought back fond memories of my Cupid review from 2014.  It was a bit like seeing an old friend again after twelve years!  Her colorful, chaotic, candy-like presence made my Valentine's Day extra special.  I hope she does the same for all of you!