Clawdeen Wolf

Every once in a while, a company will get smart. Look at the DC Superhero Girls line, where Mattel realized that girls were already buying action figures, so maybe a line catered to them would do well (spoiler: it did). A similar brainstorm happened in 2010, when Mattel realized that maybe it wasn't just boys who were into monsters, and maybe not every girl wanted a Barbie Dream House. Clawdeen is from a huge family! She has so many siblings, she's lost count - no joke! She'll be the first to tell you, when a ghoul grows up just one in a pack, a ghoul's gotta learn how to stand out! Clawdeen is bold, confident and clawesomely talented. Ever since Clawdeen was a pup, she screamed of being a famous fashion designer and stylist, and she is well on her way! At only 15 (in canine years), she's already opened her own salon - The Fierce Salon serves monsters and humans equally. Don't let her sassy persona fool you, Clawdeen believes in Peace, Love and Style! The Monster High line started as fashion dolls (because when all you have is a hammer, every problem looks like a nail), but has since branched out to other kinds of toys, including building block sets - sets which were nominated for a ToY Award because of their bold color choices, which cover a lot of ground Lego typically doesn't. While Clawdeen Wolf was initially only available in the "Fear Squad" set (you know, because she's a "fearleader" - as you can probably tell, the whole line is big on awful Cryptkeeper-style puns), Mattel eventually decided to release single-carded versions of the minifigures as well. While the Monster High blocks are compatible with Lego, the figures definitely aren't - heck, Clawdeen is a teenager (15 in wolf years, which... means she was born a little over two years ago? Is that how that works?), but she's even taller than Minimates, which already tower over Lego Minifigs - the standard figure is 2¾" tall, meaning the scale of anything you might build around it will have to be about twice as big as it would be for Legos. The larger size does mean better movement, however - Clawdeen has a balljointed head, swivel shoulders, swivel waist, balljointed hips and swivel/hinge knees. It's weird that the figures don't get any wrists, since that really limits the ways they can interact with the sets and accessories, but the arms are so skinny there really wouldn't be any way to to do it logically. Maybe you could use the arm itself as a peg that fit inside the bulk of the hand, but even that would only work if there were fists instead of Lego-compatible C-shapes. The Monster High dolls all feature unique faces, but the Mega Bloks figures just have one shared head mold. The hair is a separate piece that fits on top, just like Lego Minifigs, but here there's not only a hole on top of the head, but also a horizontal notch in the back. Clawdeen's hair falls over one eye, and is molded with her pierced wolf ears. Counter-dump Clawdeen is not dressed in a cheerleader outfit like her counterpart, instead wearing an outfit that more closely resembles the type of fashion she wears on a regular basis - a purple skirt, big yellow belt, a sleeveless purple top with some sort of... honeycomb pattern(?) on it, and a black vest. The skirt and vest are separate PVC pieces fit over the standard body, which is molded with a pair of giant platform wedge shoes - partially because that's the style of the property, and partially because that gives them enough room to fit the studs on top of the blocks. The figure comes with a flat panel you can stand her on for display, but her accessories include a chunky yellow bracelet and a purple data pad - an "iCoffin," apparently - with the Monster High logo on the screen. A lump on one side allows it to fit in the figure's hand securely. It probably shouldn't come as too much of a surprise that a generation raised on Tim Burton and Lady Gaga would be more interested in scary and cool than pretty and vapid, but Monster High was still an unexpected success. It's got spin-offs and knock-offs, but the closest thing it has to action figures are the Mega Bloks figs. -- 10/04/17

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