Dolly Review: Headless Headmistress Bloodgood

The Headless Headmistress is in the building!  My Toys R Us exclusive Bloodgood arrived last week.  Of the three dolls hinted at during SDCC 2010, I was most excited about this doll.  How could you not love a doll that is meant to be headless?   Plus, she’s one of the few adult characters created for the Monster High line.  I’m a huge fan of the traditional gang, but I do enjoy when we get a new ‘first edition’ doll.  It’s refreshing!

Introducing The Headless Headmistress

Bloodgood, as a doll, is neat and screen accurate.  She is packaged as a two set, alongside her trusty stallion Nightmare.  They’re sold exclusively through Toys R Us and are priced around $40.00.  $40 is a lot to ask for a playline doll set, even one with two pieces.  Is it worth it?  For the most part, yes, but it really depends on how badly you want this doll in your collection!

Nightmare

Let’s start by talking about Nightmare.  Nightmare isn’t anything special.  Barbie has had horses before and Nightmare is pretty similar to those that have been released.  Ironically, while the dolls are heavily jointed, Nightmare isn’t.

Nightmare

Nightmare has no joints whatsoever.  He (or she?) stands relatively well, but has less weight to him (or her) than I would have liked.  In the end, Nightmare is just an overpriced prop for Bloodgood.

She ain’t called the Headless Headmistress for nothing!

Now on to the good stuff– Headless Headmistress Bloodgood. I love idea that this doll is designed to go headless.  It’s probably the most macabre thing we’ve seen in the Monster High line to date.  In terms of her body. It’s constructed the same as traditional Monster High dolls.  The joints are no different than what we are used to.  Bloodgood is taller than your traditional Monster High doll, however.

The Duo

Bloodgood, like the rest of the line, looks nearly identical to her cartoon counterpart.  Her head is easy to pull off and push back into place.  You’ll notice when she’s headless, you’ll still see the neck knob on her body, but I don’t think Mattel could have realistically done anything to cover that up.

Hair

Bloodgood’s hair is rooted and styled well.  I was a little worried, to be honest, because having pre-ordered this doll, I didn’t have the ability to select the ‘best’ doll on the shelf.  Hair is a huge thing for me and my Monster High purchases.  I’ve passed on many a Monster High dolls because the hair was unevenly cut or the highlights were terribly uneven.  Thankfully, this Bloodgood came styled well out of the box!

Riding ‘Boots’

Headless Headmistress’ snazzy top

Fashion isn’t lost on Bloodgood. She’s decked out in a very chic horseback  riding style outfit.  I don’t love the fabric that Mattel used for the purple duster.  It’s a little stiff.  However, the stiffness works in a way to create the affect that Bloodgood, when riding Nightmare, is moving fast.

There are many things I like about Bloodgood. Mainly, what I like is that her doll does a good job of embodying the character that we’ve seen numerous times in TV specials and online in webisodes.

There is one slightly important issue that Mattel forgot when putting Bloodgood together, though.  And it’s kind of a big one.  Bloodgood’s character is seen many times holding her head in her arms.  This was, of course, the first thing I tried to do with my Bloodgood when I deboxed her.

Figuring Mattel had realized this, I thought they would have made allowances for the extra weight Bloodgood may hold in her hands, but apparently not.  While Bloodgood’s joints aren’t loosy goosy like the original releases, they don’t exactly love holding her head.  With a bit of guess and check, eventually you can get her to hold it so it looks okay, but it would have been great if Mattel had thought about adding a bit of support to the arm joints.

Bloodgood and Nightmare

The weak posing ability while headless aside, I am glad I added Bloodgood to my collection!  She’s pretty cool. Do I wish she’d been released without her steed and offered for a better price?  Oh, yeah.  But, overall, I’m happy Mattel decided to go forward with releasing Monster High’s Headless Headmistress!