Spectra Vondergeist

" I come from royalty of course, my father was next in line for the throne of a large and powerful kingdom but my jealous uncle plotted against him and we had to go into exile."

-Spectra, in her diary.

Spectra Vondergeist, momentarily known as Spectra Von Hauntington, is the daughter of the Ghosts. She is from the 19th century and can float through the walls and possesses an “uncanny” ability to overhear school gossip. She is voiced by Erin Fitzgerald.

Personality
Spectra has a very forceful personality; she often makes snap judgments and leap to conclusions without supporting evidence, and when she's confronted with the facts she tends to dig in her heels. This makes for an excellent gossip columnist, but not a friend you would want to share secrets with. In her diary it's hinted that she's constructed a mysterious, fanciful history for herself, and even began to believe it herself, but that the truth about her family is actually quite tragic (though it's never revealed). This may be why she's still a ghost; she hasn't "moved on" from whatever happened to them in life. But despite all this, she is seen as a kind monster and helps those in need of her, she also is known to easily get the truth out of other monsters which also gives her a detective/reporter complex.

Portrayals
Her voice in the webisodes is provided by Erin Fitzgerald.

In the music video for the Monster High Fright Song, there are several different character analogues who received creative interpretation by the video crew. The "Ghost Girl" is portrayed by Catina Duscio.

Classic Monster
Spectra is the daughter of "the Ghosts", and her chain accessories suggest she may be related to Jacob Marley's ghost from A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens.

Jacob Marley was a business partner of Ebeneezer Scrooge, and together they delighted in cruelty, stinginess and greed. Marley died and Scrooge continued the business, but was too stingy to pay someone to paint out Marley's name on the sign outside of the office.

Eventually, Marley's ghost appears to Scrooge to warn him about his own fate in the afterlife: he is covered in chains "long, and wound about him like a tail; it was made... of cash-boxes, keys, padlocks, ledgers, deeds, and heavy purses wrought in steel."

While Jacob Marley is the most prominent fictional ghost where the chains are a distinct motif, chains have often been associated with ghosts in legends even before Dickens.

Family
Spectra writes in her diary that her long-lost love haunts "the family's ancestral castle" but it's strongly implied that all of this was something she'd made up.

Her parents are ghosts, but nothing else is known about them. In her diary it's hinted that the truth about her family is actually quite tragic, though it's never revealed -- the story Spectra writes about (castles, a midnight journey across borders) is something she made up, and even began to believe until Ghoulia reminded her about the truth.

Pet
Spectra's pet is a purple ghost ferret is named Rhuen. Rhuen's friends are Sir Hoots A Lot (Ghoulia Yelps's owl) and Shiver (Abbey Bominable's pet wooly mammoth).

Spectra In The Monster High Books
Spectra first appears in Where There's a Wolf, There's a Way at Clawdeen's Sassy Sixteen, flirting with Billy Phaidin. In this version, she is invisble and can only be seen by a special scented spray she carries with her.

Spectra's Official Facebook Description
Seen Spectra floating through any walls lately? Keep your eye on this ghoul because she’s always appearing out of thin air! Spectra is the wicked cool 16-year-old daughter of The Ghosts who always has her see-through finger on the pulse of Monster High. She’ll deny it, but she’s been known to fill in the gaps of missing information with her own ghostly imaginings! Some student bodies even think she’s the ghoul behind the anonymous MH advice column “Oh My Oracle,” but that rumor is still unconfirmed. If you run across a sneaky little ghost ferret, don’t fret! It’s just Rhuen, Spectra’s scary-cute mischievous pet.

Meta Timeline

 * November 2, 2010: Mattel requested a trademark for the name "Spectra Vondergeist".
 * November 17, 2010: An Amazon listing appears for a Spectra von Hauntington plush doll.
 * March 8, 2011: A picture of a prototype Spectra doll (named on the box as "Spectra von Hauntington") leaked onto Flickr
 * April 13, 2011: The box of a leaked Clawd and Draculaura 2-pack showed small pics of Spectra Vondergeist and Abbey Bominable.
 * May 13, 2011: Mattel released offcial pictures of both Spectra and Abbey with their pets on Facebook.
 * May 17, 2011: A Spectra doll had been bought at a Toyworld store in Australia.
 * June 8, 2011: Spectra's plush was found at a Wal-Mart.
 * June 9, 2011: Spectra's and Abbey's bio were added to monsterhigh.com.
 * June 16 2011: Spectra was found hiding in a sculpture in the webisode "Miss Infearmation".
 * June 17, 2011: Spectra was found in Toys"R"Us stores accross the United States.
 * June 23, 2011: Spectra is first heard speaking in the webisode Hyde and Shriek
 * September 22, 2011: Spectra first appears in person in the webisode Ghostly Gossip

School's Out

 * Line: School's Out
 * Release: July 2011
 * Spectra wears a black and purple goth dress with three chains hanging from one side of her torso to the other, imitating a bodice-style look. She also sports a chain belt and a double chain for necklace. Her shoes are translucent purple and have chains wrapped around them, ending in metal balls which serves as the heels. She also has chains with black metal balls for earrings and part of a Victorian shackle for a bracelet.
 * The doll comes with a purple bag with chain for purse, a Rhuen figurine, a real-life sized purple brush, a purple doll stand and a diary.
 * There are two versions of School's Out Spectra released. The original release has Spectra wearing earrings with black chains. Later versions sport earrings with silver chains.

Maul Fashion

 * Line: Maul Fashion
 * Release: November 2011
 * Spectra wears a purple, black and pink dress covered in a chain pattern and with sleeves reaching to her elbows. She wears a sparkly silver scarf over her head and sports chain-rimmed sunglasses. Her shoes are translucent white and covered in four windings of chains.
 * The outfit comes with a ball and chain-style purse with pink ball, a Monster Beat magazine and a grey iPad-like device in the shape a tombstone.