Dolls

Monster High, while an ever-growing and ever-evolving multimedia franchise, is at its core a brand that revolves around dolls. A variety of merchandise may come and go, but the dolls are the Monster High's raison d'être. For this reason, all pieces of Monster High fiction are written and released to promote the dolls. This isn't to say all dolls are promoted and available equally, or since 2012 that all fictional fashion is eventuallly produced as a doll, but in the bigger picture it's the dolls that lead the franchise.

Terminology

 * Case: Cases are the selection of items within an assortment that are madeWhen a toy company ships a new assortment to stores, not every item of that assortment is immediately available. This is because assortments are shipped in cases
 * Faceup:
 * Lineup: Monster High doll releases are divided over two periods: Spring and Fall. Spring dolls start hitting stores in October and Fall dolls start hitting stores in May.
 * Mold:
 * Price point:
 * Scalping: Scalping is the practice of buying rare and popular dolls with the specific goal of reselling them for a profit.
 * Shelfwarming: When a particular item's availability far exceeds the demand (at the time) and it stays on shelves for much longer than it should, it's a shelfwarmer. Basic Holt Hyde and the four regular Ghouls Rule dolls are examples of Monster High shelfwarmers.
 * Shortpacking:
 * Toy swapping:
 * Variant:
 * Wave:

Characteristics
The dolls of Monster High belong to one of five size classes: preadolescent (14-) female, adolescent (15-17) female, adult (18+) female, and two types of adolescent (15-17) male. The dolls of each group share roughly the same body mold, ranging from 9.5 inches for the preadolescent female body mold, to 10.5 inches for the adolescent female body mold, to 11 inches for the adult female and one adolescent male body molds, to 11.5 inches for the other adolescent male body mold. By far most female dolls utilize the adolescent mold and the male ones favor the first adolescent mold. The bodies are made from ABS plastic, while the heads are made from soft PVC plastic. Each character has a unique head mold and since Late 2012 body molds have become increasingly diversified too. The hair is made of saran or kanekalon fibers, though most of the male dolls have molded plastic hair. Female dolls generally feature eleven articulation points, lacking articulated ankles. The male dolls started out with eleven articulation points too, lacking articulated wrists, but since Late 2011 they too have articulated wrists and thus thirteen articulation points under most circumstances.


 * Exceptions to the favored molds:

The dolls and accessories are manufactured in Indonesia and China. The degree of noticeability of difference between dolls and accessories manufactured in Indonesia and dolls and accessories manufactured in China differs between releases. Also, prior to December 2011, all dolls were packaged with stands and brushes of appropriate color. Since then, stands and brushes have been absent from certain lines and packs, and those that do have them have them all in the same color, usually black or gray.

Each doll comes with a unique haircut and unique outfit, though sometimes a piece of clothing or an accessory may be reused, with small alterations, for another doll. Some dolls are only sold in multipacks or with a playset. Signature and Signature-style dolls and San Diego Comic-Con International dolls are almost always packaged with diaries, an extra that is included only with some other doll lines. A variety of other types of doll logs is included with the remaining doll lines.

The first doll of a character released in a Signature or Signature-style line has the character's pet included as figurine, provided they have one, which prior to 2012 was a given. In rare and random instances, pet figurines are included with dolls released in other lines.

History
The first Monster High dolls were released in Early July, 2010, at which time they were only available at Justice. These dolls are the first six of the Basic line, and represent all but one of the franchise's starter characters. All of them come with pet figurines and the characters' profiles printed on the back of the boxes. The Basic series would continue to be the first subline of the overarching Signature series, which is the only line that is permanently ongoing, even if its nature has drastically changed since 2010. Up to the fourth subline, Between Classes, characters primarily debuted in the Signature series, but in 2012 the line was split and continued in three different directions. The N2851 assortment number follows the original subline track and is currently at its sixth subline, but the sublines have become themed and rarely debut a character as doll anymore. These days, most characters receive their first doll in the Signature-derived setups of TV special tie-in lines, which is the second direction the Signature series has taken. And thirdly, 2012 saw the introduction of self-standing character-debut dolls that in all ways but their subline-lessness follow the original Signature formula.

A change related to the Signature split is the distribution of character doll debuts. 2010, which was only half a year for Monster High since it didn't hit stores until July, went with nine character doll debuts, but 2011 only got six of them. Four of these were Signature subline dolls, three belonging to School's Out and one to Campus Stroll. The character debut dolls of School's Out were much more sought after than the line's repeat characters, and this preference will have been corroborated by Campus Stroll. While Monster High was the launch success Mattel hoped for, in 2011 the company still had limited reason to believe the franchise also had the power to last. 2012 marked a turning point in this belief and from then on Mattel began to make a more conscious effort to expand the cast and profit from the extra enthusiasm garnered for new characters. Since 2012, character debut dolls have remained between ten and fifteen per year.

The first doll from a non-Signature assortment to be released in the franchise was the San Diego Comic-Con exclusive doll of 2010: a greyscale version of Basic Frankie Stein. Given the franchise wasn't even three months old at the time of San Diego Comic-Con International 2010, and the convention's general lower attention to female presence, it was a rather bold move that Mattel not only put up a stand, but also produced an exclusive doll for the convention. Nonetheless, Monster High became an even bigger hit than Mattel was aiming for, and more SDCCI exclusives have been following yearly since. As of 2013, Monster High is also present at New York Comic Con and the SDCCI exclusive is usually available there too, although this is not a guarantee. At both conventions the bulk of doll releases between July and February are revealed, while at American International Toy Fair the lineup for February-July is revealed.

In Late August of 2010, the first themed dolls appeared, belonging to the Dawn of the Dance assortment. And during December of 2010, the first fashion packs—Scream Uniform—and the first playsets—the Jewelry Box Coffin and the Mirror Bed—were released. Fashion packs would be released at an increasing pace until the end of 2012, at which point no more followed. Fiction at the time, such as Venus's flashion mob outfit in "Scaris: City of Frights" suggests that more fashion packs were planned before the decision came to produce no more of them. It is currently unknown if any more Monster High fashion packs will ever be released. Notably, with I Heart Fashion 2012 started a trend that can be described a fusing doll and fashion pack releases into one item, and this trend became more pronounced in 2013.

Compared to fashion packs, playsets have fared better, doubling in numbers for two years to settle on a rhythm of around ten releases each year. Prior to 2012, playsets were character-bound, but the releases of the Coffin Bean and the High School moreso changed that. As well, 2012 saw the start of store-exclusive alternative versions of playsets that include a doll or an extra doll, depending on if the regularly available playset contains a doll or not.

2011 is the year that holds the introduction of store-exclusive dolls. Three stores received exclusives in 2011—Walmart, Toys"R"Us, and Target—and have been getting more at an increasing frequency since. 2012 brought in four more stores to receive exclusive dolls: Costco, JCPenney, Kmart, and Kohl's, with 2013 adding Justice. These latter five receive about one exclusive item per year. Exclusives can be pretty much anything, from special versions of playsets, to character debut dolls, to entire lines, to multipacks. In case of multipacks, those are what started the store-exclusive doll system. Originall, store-exclusive multipacks principally were filled with dolls released previously as singlepacks and one doll that could only be obtained by buying the multipack. The fandom did not respond well to that, and gradually Mattel has improved the ratio of repeat dolls and unique dolls in multipacks to make their purchase more worthwhile, to the point that by 2014 multipacks were released that were nothing but unique dolls.

By the end of 2011, Mattel took some cost-cutting measures to compensate for increased production expenses. Whereas before all dolls came with doll stands in their specific signature color, Skull Shores and Sweet 1600 were the first to package the dolls of one line with a stand in a shared color. Early 2012 even saw the introducation of dolls without stand at all, such as was the case with the Campus Stroll 2-packs. The doll brushes shared the same fate. Equally so, over the course of 2012 came a decrease in doll logs. For instance, prior to 2011 fashion packs came with a card or backstory, which were scrapped in 2012. The first set of Maul Session still had a short story printed on the back of the boxes, but the second set's doll logs were limited to a quote. Later fashion packs lacked doll logs altogether.

Assortments
An assortment, line, or series is a collection of dolls, fashion packs, playsets, or a combination of dolls and playsets. An assortment can be defined in three ways. The first is by means of an assortment number. All of the Monster High items made by Mattel itself, meaning Monster High products that aren't licensed to other companies, have one or two numbers on the back of the packaging, usually in the lower right corner. In case of two numbers, the first is the assortment number. All items that have the same assortment number are part of the same assortment, although assortments are shipped to stores in a series of cases and cases don't always contain all the dolls of one assortment or contain them in equal numbers.

The second way an assortment can be defined is by contextual relevance, which is relevant when there's only one number on the back of the box. This number, the second one if there's two numbers, is the model number. If there's only one number, it means that the item is shipped only in cases consisting only of that item, which is often true for playsets and store-exclusive dolls and always true for multipacks. The lack of an assortment number can be taken to mean these items are not part of the assortment, but this often makes no sense contextually. For instance, it would mean that School's Out Clawd and Draculaura aren't actually School's Out dolls.

The third method of defining an assortment is through the name printed on the box. Expensive and elaborate lines have a name that is trademarked, whereas the bulk of other lines have an unprotected name. A handful of other lines, however, are thoroughly nameless. The most significant of these are the early Signature sublines, not to mention Signature itself. The fandom tends to create a name themselves for use of reference in those situations and the uses these names too in to organize the information. This is the main problem with using assortment names to define assortments: not all assortments have names.

To top it off, names and assortment numbers don't always align. For instance, Dead Tired consists of two assortment numbers: V7972 and X4514. V7972 is the assortment number of the 2011 dolls, which are slightly more luxurious than the post-2011 dolls, which are the ones that have X4514 as assortment number. TV special tie-in lines also tend to fit multiple assortment numbers under one name, though sometimes they utilize a subname to distinguish between assortment numbers, like how there are a 13 Wishes line and a 13 Wishes - Haunt the Casbah line. But in this situation, the context might not be aligned. For instance, 13 Wishes Spectra contextually fits 13 Wishes - Haunt the Casbah but only features the name 13 Wishes on the box. And the Clawdeen doll that comes with the Room to Howl playset contextually matches Dead Tired, but is itself peculiarly nameless.

As a result of all this, the has to make choices in how to approach the Monster High dolls, fashion packs, and playsets, and these choices may not match the choices other fandom-run websites make. This does not make either party correct or wrong, especially since in most cases the choices made will be tied to what website setup works best given the available system and the programming skill of the maintainers. There's also the aspect of estimating what the franchise's future will bring; what works now might not work in another year and assortment definitions are also made with a website's setup in another year in mind.

The identifies assortments by name first, then by assortment number, and then by context. This means that all items sold under the same name, and if applicable the same subname, share a page, even if they have different assortment numbers and context. Everything that does no explciitly share the name is excluded. If there is no name present, the assortment numbers are the deciding factor. Nameless lines with different assortment numbers are never put together, with the exception of Classroom as it is only semi-nameless. If nameless though, items without assortment number may be incorporated if they contextually fit, which is most often the case for Signature multipacks.

Special measures are taken to cover the San Diego Comic-Con International dolls, the self-standing Signature dolls, and the playsets. In case of the first two series, the dolls are all explicitly stand-alone releases, but they have a systematic connection. Because of this, they are treated as one line each and collected on one page each for ease of organization, but named so as to make it clear they collectively don't have a context. In case of the playsets, some of them are released as part of a doll line, proven by presence of a shared name, others make a playset-only line together, proven by presence of a shared name and/or assortment number, and the rest is completely lineless. While the playsets connected to a doll line are covered on the doll line's page, all playsets together are given their own page too, which compensates for the impossibility of most to be covered on a character's merchandise page - since many aren't character-related - and equally relieves some characters' merchandise pages from having to detail playsets too.

Fashion packs

 * Scream Uniform (Sport, 2010)
 * Day at the Maul (Recreation, 2011)
 * School Clubs (Recreation, School, 2011)
 * Maul Session (Recreation, 2012)
 * To Howl For (Fashion, 2012)
 * My Wardrobe and I (Fashion, 2012)

Similar products
There are three product lines that are complementary to the Monster High dolls. These are the Create-A-Monster and Inner Monster series and the Friends plushie line.

Create-A-Monster and Inner Monster are series of doll parts, clothes, and accessories that were respectively launched in 2011 and 2014. The lines are divided in starter packs, add-on packs, and playset packs, each of which carries unique, if sometimes incomplete, materials to put together a custom doll. The dolls created such are design-wise the same as the regular dolls and thus can be used for the same kind of play.

When in Early July, 2010 the first dolls were released, so too were the first plushies released. The plushies, appropriately named Friends, essentially are dolls aimed at a younger audience and each item contains a plushie of both a student and their pet. Like the Signature dolls have profiles for the characters printed on the back of the box, so have the plushies profiles for the pets printed on the back of the box. The Friends line ended in June 2011.

are designed to be compatible with Monster High dolls, but not 100%. Compared to (adolescent female) Monster High dolls, (average female) Ever After High dolls are a little broader and a little more curvy in the torso area. The legs are longer, but the torso shorter. The upper limbs are also a little thicker and the heads much bigger and full, but the lower limbs, hands, and feet are identical.

Accessories are almost guaranteed to be interchangeable. Clothes, on the other hand, are only in most of the cases interchangeable. Some Monster High clothes are too tight for Ever After High dolls, and while all Ever After High clothes fit Monster High dolls, sometimes the fit is a little too loose to look good.

While Monster High body molds are designed to suit stages of age, with the body molds representing younger characters being less curvy and having smaller feet and the body molds representing older characters being broader and having larger feet, Ever After High body molds are designed to suit body diversity at a constant age range. Therefore, while a small female body mold of Ever After High is about the same height as a preadolescent female body mold of Monster High, the Ever After High body mold is much broader and has larger feet.