I'm going to start out by admitting that Monster High is my favorite playline doll and is the original playline doll that got me into playline dolls. I'm a bit biased towards G1s, though I don't think it's that much of a bias. There are some dolls I liked better as G2s and some dolls I liked better as G1s. Will I like some dolls better as G3s? Probably! But overall, I probably will never stop praising G1 because it was so innovative. Articulation, individual head sculpts and later on individual body sculpts for each doll? Clothing quality? SHOES?! The original monsters set a really high bar!
This time around, the third generation of Monster High dolls has innovated in adding different body types. This is kind of a pain for playline dolls: it's hard enough to build *a* wardrobe for a doll when all the clothes in the line fit. This is why even though Barbie came out with 3 new body types, they were all close enough to the existing body that most clothes could be swapped between the dolls.
BUT! If there is any doll series that this wouldn't be a big deal for, it's Monster High dolls. Draculauras might share clothes with other Draculauras, but it was rare that she'd share clothes with Clawdeen. The girls just had such unique thematic color palettes and fashion preferences that even if you could, you didn't swap around much in between dolls. So making bodies different enough that they can't swap with each other? I think the pros (unique body shapes) outweigh the cons (less cross compatibility)
Draculaura is on the short/curvy body. At the time of release, she is the only doll to have this body type. A new bust joint has been added to the torso, this was previously seen in a G1 collector draculaura (the pink one in the coffin case that was a little taller). It's a good addition, bust joints don't add much range of motion but they add a lot of expressiveness.
The new Draculaura has the same length torso and arms, a shorter neck, and legs, and girthier measurements from the neck to the toes. Part of this is aesthetic, but it also makes it easier to make the limbs sturdier when the plastic is thicker. G1 dolls had a tendency to have arms/legs snap.
A better comparison to previous Monster High lines is to the current Rainbow High Line for Draculaura:
Draculaura is a much closer match in body shape to Rainbow High! In measurements, she's even closer than she looks in the picture. Her body sculpt is a little deeper (bigger measurement front to back) while Rainbow High is a little wider (bigger measurement side to side) but the overall measurements match up really well. Really, really well. Kind of suspiciously well.
The thing that makes me the least happy about new G3 bodies is that my massive collection of Monster High shoes cannot be worn by the new girls. Because those things were works of art. Most collectors would admit to buying dolls just because of the amazing shoes that were almost never reused. Assuming a large amount of people getting dolls now won't have an existing shoe collection, it still makes sense to use the old foot mold because the old shoes are just *so amazing*. New G3 shoes are fine. You know. Serviceable. Nothing anyone is going to buy a doll they don't even want to get their hands on those amazing shoes.
BTW, if the person or persons who designed the original MH shoes ever reads this, you are amazingly talented and I hope I come across whatever you're designing now/in the future.
Look, I said I was biased towards G1, didn't I?
As a doll collector/doll clothes designer, there are a couple of things that annoy me about the G3 Draculaura body: high cut molded on panties (boo). I never like these. If there must be panties, make them low cut so you don't have to worry about them peeking over skirts/pants/whatever. G2 Draculaura is wearing fabric panties and they easily cover her molded on panties.
The other thing that bothers me is the calves. This is a weirder one. When trying clothes on Draculaura, I like her fine in pants, but there's something about the shape of her calves that doesn't work with skirts that are cut around the knee which is pretty much all she wears. I compared her to other dolls and I think it's because when they made her calves shorter they took a bit off the top instead of modifying the overall shape and lowering the wide point of the calf.
Apart from those minor and admittedly nitpicky things, the new body shape is nicely cohesive, it doesn't look like they cut her in half and slapped a skinny upper on a curvy lower which was kind of an issue with the Curvy Barbie.
So what CAN she wear? Since she fits Rainbow High clothes so well, I popped on some clothes from the Rainbow High sized patterns (Petite Curvy). They all fit great. REALLY great! I haven't finished analyzing all of the new MH bodies yet, but if you want to kit out your G3 Draculaura, you can either steal stuff from your Rainbow High girls, Sew Petite Curvy patterns, or both!
