Dolls

Among all the content that makes up the Monster High brand, one could easily forget what Monster High revolves around: the dolls.

Doll characteristics
The dolls of Monster High belong to one of four size classes: preadolescent female, adolescent female, adult female, and adolescent 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 adolescent male body molds. The bodies are made from ABS plastic, while the heads are made from soft PVC. Unlike with most of the bodies, each character has a unique head mold. The hair is made of saran or kanekalon fibers, though most of the male dolls have molded plastic hair. The dolls generally feature 11 articulation points. The female molds lack articulated ankles, while the boys rarely have articulated wrists.

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 grey.

Each doll comes with a unique haircut and unique outfit, though sometimes a piece of clothing or accesssory may be reused with small alterations for another doll. Some dolls are only sold in multipacks or with a playset. Main line dolls are 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 the main line has the character's pet included as figurine, provided they have one. In rare and random instances, pet figurines are included with dolls released in other lines.

Assortment definitions
Dolls are released as part of assortments and, in the case of main line dolls, sub-assortments. About 80% of the dolls and accessory sets are undeniably part of an assortment—a named assortment—and make searching for and talking about those dolls a piece of cake. Then there's the remaining 20%, divisible in items that belong to a nameless line and items that seemingly don't belong to any line at all.

When Mattel releases an assortment, usually the items of that assortment have the name printed on the package. Expensive and elaborate lines have a name that is trademarked, whereas most other lines have an unprotected name. A handful of other lines, however, are thoroughly nameless. The most significant of these are the main line and its various sublines. In most cases, fans create a name themselves for use of reference. The Monster High wiki uses these names too if no official name is available.

Since 2011, a number of items have been released that aren't (distinguishable) as part of any line.

Similar products
There are two product lines that are complementary to the Monster High dolls. These are the Create-a-Monster packs and the plushie line.

Create-a-Monster is a series of doll parts, clothes, and accessories that was launched by the end of 2011. The line is divided in starter packs, add-on packs, and lab packs, each of which carries at least part of all materials needed to put together a certain type of monster. 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 July 2010 the first dolls were released, so too were the first plushies released. The plushies essentially are the dolls aimed at a younger audience and each item contains a plushie of both a student and their pet. Like the main line 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 plushie line ended in June 2011.