User:Valkyrie24

About me
Born at the turn of the century on 11th February, I'm a twelve-year-old girl who also happens to be a doll collector and enthusiast, history nerd, a Victorian and steampunk geek. I used to collect Barbies and Disney Store dolls. As an avid gamer, internet surfer, and blog and Wikipedia reader, I spend hours, usually on weekends, staring at my laptop screen. I’ve known about Monster High dolls ever since 2011, but I have yet to buy one. I spend much of my time reading and watching Monster High doll reviews, trying to figure out which Monster High character I like best...

Personal Information (that you probably wouldn't want to know)
Here are the basics:

Birthday: 11 February

Age: 12

Killer Style: I really don't bother about my appearance and I'm a comfort dresser. My prefered outfit: A simple T-shirt with a hoodie or jacket on top, jeans or Bermuda shorts, socks, a pair of sneakers, and a satchel or rucksack. Some things that I would never wear: Pink, dresses, skirts, fancy hair accessories, make-up, high-heels, and handbags.

Freaky Flaw: I am quite temperamental at times and can get worked up easily, but I try not to post nasty comments online unless the person really deserves it. I have a dual personality and can also be cool and composed when everyone else around me is feeling tense. I harbour grudges, I'm not a very forgiving person, and would always seek revenge on those who have angered or annoyed me greatly.

Pet: I’ve never had a real pet, though the closest thing I got to a pet were four stock farm shrimps in an Evivo ecosystem sphere that I bought from a Science fair at school. I forgot to open the sphere for a minute every month for oxygen to dissolve into the water and all four shrimps died within a year. I don't like animals in general, neither do I hate any animals in particular. I scoff at vegans and vegetarians, but I wouldn't want any animal species to go extinct (with the exception of human bot flies. I can live without their eerie larvae wriggling in my skull). Note: Do not search that on Google! You definitely wouldn't want to know that.

Favourite Activities: I like reading books (The Wondla series by Tony DiTerlizzi, Diary of a Wimpy Kid series by Jeff Kinney, The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate by Jacqueline Kelly) and online blogs (Reel Girl, Gagging on Sexism, Toy Box Philosopher), watching animated movies (Brave, Alice in Wonderland 2010) and TV shows (The Ellen DeGeneres Show, Just for Laughs), drawing, oil painting, sketching, playing computer games (Minecraft), surfing the internet.

Biggest Pet Peeves: Or more accurate, people that I loathe: sexists, male chauvinists, misogynists, masculinists, anti-feminists, conservatives, pro-lifers, racists; and things that I abhor: sexism, gender stereotyping, and racism. I also detest intuitive thinkers with an overinclusive thinking style, who make wrong assumptions based on their emotions and intuition when there is a lack of evidence.

Fav School Subjects: I like Mathematics, because all the numbers, sums, and solutions come easily to me. I love all forms Visual Art (e.g. digital art, ceramics, still life, oil painting, or simple ink drawings), because I find Art very enjoyable, and I am a naturally creative and artistic person. I am also part of my schools Elite Visual Art (EVA) school team.

Least Fav Subject: I dislike my Mother Tongue, Chinese, because I find Chinese quite difficult to master. Some Chinese characters are hard to memorize, recognise, and write compared to English letters. When speaking Chinese, people sound high-pitched, and I find that very distasteful. Not only that, Chinese dialects are even more high-pitched, ear-piercing and unpleasant.

Favourite Colours: Turquoise, teal, purple, gold, black, and brown.

Least Favourite Colours: Pink, orange, yellow, and all neon colours.

Favourite Foods: I have a preference for ice cream (Ben &amp;Jerry's Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough, cookies and cream, classic vanilla), Hawaiian pizza, Italian spaghetti, and occasionally, fast food.

BFFs: None. I'm an anti-social introvert and loner, who would rather stay at home and do all my favourite activities than go shopping with my extrovert, bubbly, annoying classmates.

Why I Like Monster High/Favorite Character
...And I think I've found her: Robecca Steam! I absolutely love her! She's the best, coolest, most awesome, most gorgeous, and most detailed doll ever! I just love her gorgeous wavy black hair with blue streaks, her Victorian-styled, copper lace-up rocket boots, her vintage flight goggles with an antenna, her bronze-coloured body with rivets and bolts all over it, her gas tank/alarm clock/handbag, her armband with multiple watches on it, and her gear-shaped, liquid copper irises. I guess it's the steampunk aspect of her that attracted me, I mean; I'm a total steampunk geek! It's a shame that she isn't a main character in the Monster High franchise. I'll probably be getting a Robecca Steam doll sometime this or next year.

Reasons for liking Monster High:

-You can get special features (e.g. tattoos, piercings, scars, wide range of hairstyles and colours, skin colours, different head and body molds) just for the price of a playline doll.

-There are combs, doll stands, diaries, and pets included with the basic dolls.

-The accessories and clothes are much more detailed than Barbie accessories.

-The dolls occasionally come with cute and tiny miniature accessories (e.g. rings that can actually be removed, skullette buttons that really work), unlike Barbies, where rings are just pieces of plastic inserted into a hole in the hand, and buttons are also pieces of plastic attached to the clothing or painted on.

-Each characters has their own unique fashion style, personalities, and hobbies, unlike Barbies, where everyone just likes pink, purple, and shopping.

-No MH doll is exactly the same. All of them have different skin tones, hairstyles and colours, eye colours, head and body moulds.

-There is not much reusing of old ideas. Accessory molds are rarely reused, unlike Barbies, where the same shoes, jewellery, handbags, and clothes are only different in colour.

All these just make MH even more special than other doll lines. As much as I love MH, I am also disappointed in Mattel. Mattel, why didn't you think of this earlier? Why haven't you done the same with Barbie before? Why only now? Were you trying to cut costs? It seems that Mattel is trying to short-change us by making the dolls anorexic, much more skinnier than Barbie. Come on Mattel, Barbie is already bad enough, why make MH dolls skinnier? Are you trying to save plastic? This doesn't really affect the value of the basic dolls as they come with additional items: pets, doll stands, combs, diaries, but it does affect other dolls that do not come with any additional items or features. Also, all the female dolls are shorter and skinnier that the male dolls. The dolls are just homogenous in height and body type. Why aren't there any muscular/ fat girls and skinny/fat boys? This is gender stereotyping, telling young girls that no matter how athletic you are, you just won't ever be taller or stronger than boys. And almost all of the girls are wearing miniskirts shorter than half of the length of their thighs. Some dolls can't even sit properly without their butts showing very prominently. It appears that most of the girls are exhibitionists. This is the 21st Century, and girls don’t have to be limited to skirts. It’s also impractical for Robecca to wear a pencil skirt while doing stunts with her rocket boots. Sigh. These problems aren't going to be solved anytime sooner, so I may just have to live with it.

Additional Story (that is a tad bit irrelevant to Monster High)
I once was a Barbie enthusiast who bought many play line Barbies. I never really liked Barbie's mostly pink and exhibitionist wardrobe, but I still bought them as I loved miniatures. In addition, Barbie is available at many toy stores, and it was convenient to buy them, unlike other doll lines like My Scene and Bratz, where I have to order online or buy from overseas.

But in 2010, when I was at a toy shop named Action Toyz, I saw a Hello Kitty Pink Label Barbie and found out about collector Barbies. I went to the collector Barbies website, looked at every single collector doll, and read every single description. It dawned on me that collector dolls have special features such as: tattoos, piercings, wider range of skin, hair, and eye colours, greater diversity of races from around the world, more face and body molds, etc., that play line Barbies do not have. I really wanted some of those dolls, but I only have one Pink Label Barbie in my possession: Festivals of the World Chinese New Year Ox Barbie Doll. On my 11th birthday in 2011, there was an offer at Isetan departmental store: buy any Barbie product and you only have to pay S$10 for the Chinese New Year doll, which was originally S$50. So that’s how I got her. I haven’t gotten any other collector doll since, as my parents do not allow me to order dolls online and the dolls were quite expensive. That was when I permanently gave up on collecting collector Barbies.

After watching the Disney Pixar movie “Brave” when it was released in Singapore on 8 August 2012, I was instantly obsessed with Disney Store’s Brave dolls. My aunt helped me to order the Classic Merida, Classic Elinor, Formal Merida and Angus, and the Limited Edition Merida dolls. When I heard that the Limited Edition Formal Merida and Queen Elinor 2-pack was open for pre-order, I also wanted to get them, put my parents disallowed me as I’ve already bought the Limited Edition Merida doll. I decided to give up collecting Brave dolls, only until I get the Mini Dolls Set at the end of this year.

And now, about Monster High. Somewhere in 2011, I was playing lame Barbie games on barbie.com, and I saw a picture of the Monster High logo and clicked on it, bringing me to monsterhigh.com. I read all of the student profiles, played a few games, and got bored. None of the characters interested me, and even if I wanted to buy the dolls, I did not know where to purchase them. During August 2012, when I was still obsessed with Brave, I came across Emily’s blog about “Dolls and doll-related toys”: Toy Box Philosopher. I read all of her toy reviews, including the ones on Monster High dolls. Emily’s doll reviews were so and detailed that they made me interested in Monster High again. I went to Monster High Wikia, made an account here, and watched all of the webisodes on monsterhigh.com. I was extremely delighted when I found out about Robecca Steam! She fitted my current steampunk phase, and she was the most detailed doll ever!

My Favourite Dolls/Characters
Here is a list of my favourite MH characters and dolls that I want to get:

 1. Robecca Steam: 

-Basic Robecca Steam Doll

-Dance Class Robecca Steam Doll✓

-Robecca Steam Deluxe Fashion Pack

 2. Spectra Vondergeist: 

-School's Out Spectra Vondergeist doll✓

-Maul Session Spectra Vondergeist fashion pack

-Dot Dead Gorgeous Spectra Vondergeist doll

-Picture Day Spectra Vondergeist doll

-Spectra Vondergeist New Fashion Pack

-Haunt the Casbah Spectra Vondergeist playset

-Ghoul's Night Out Spectra Vondergeist doll

3. Operetta:

-Campus Stroll Operetta doll✓

-Maul Session Operetta fashion pack✓

-Dot Dead Gorgeous Operetta doll

-Skultimate Roller Maze Operetta doll

-Dance Class Operetta doll

-Operetta Deluxe fashion pack

-Picture Day Operetta doll

If I Was a Monster Movie Character, I Would Be...
An automaton built with 19th century technology, using gears, pulleys, motors (basically clockwork), steam, and definitely no electricity. I would be something like the automaton in the movie "Hugo Cabret", able to create magnificent works of art with my mechanical hand.

My favorite pages
Characters
 * Robecca Steam
 * Operetta
 * Spectra Vondergeist
 * Catrine DeMew
 * Skelita Calaveras
 * Jinafire Long
 * Headless Headmistress Bloodgood

Doll lines
 * Main
 * School's Out
 * Campus Stroll
 * Maul Session
 * Dot Dead Gorgeous
 * Skultimate Roller Maze
 * Dance Class
 * Power Ghouls
 * Ghoul's Alive!
 * Picture Day
 * Scaris: City of Frights

Others
 * Monster High
 * Characters
 * Scaris: City of Frights