Customer Reviews

Monster High Ghoulia Yelps Doll with Pet Owl Sir Hoots A Lot

5 star:		(25)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Brand: Mattel
Type: Monster High Doll
Model: Ghoulia Yelps

Doll:
Durability: Ghoulia, while a little on the thin side (but hey, she's a zombie... I don't expect her to be anything but!) is actually a fairly sturdy doll. She has delicate arms and fingers, but they aren't prone to breaking, rather the plastic bends, and then springs back into shape.
The hands and arms can be removed, which, while making the doll easier to dress, could be a dangerous choking hazard to small children. The glasses also detach, and she has a small necklace, small skull pendant on her shirt, headband and earrings that could come off easily as well.

Posability: These dolls are fairly poseable... but I wish their heads had a bit more range. Their arms/hands and legs pose excellently... but while their neck has a lovely huge ball joint, the range of motion is actually rather limited. They also have an unjointed torso, making for limited posing when it comes to bending and flexing their midsection.

Clothes: Well made and amusingly stylish, I love everything about them from fabric choice to color. Her red clothing looks stunning with her blue hair and skin.
She has a simple green headband that works perfectly with her hairstyle.
A piano key belt that is just adorable.
A Red/White/Black striped long sleeve shirt covered with a cherry tanktop with a small Monster High skull attached to it.
Her pants are red with black embellishments and small black spots and made of a corduroy style material. They go just below her knees and are more like capris than actual pants, but that's not obvious because of her very awesome, calf-high, high-heeled converse sneakers.... I wish I had a pair!
Her earrings are pink zipper pulls and sit well on her ears.
Her necklace is small, grey and pink.
She also wears black fishnet arm warmers.

Makeup: The doll I got, which was the only one available in the store, had perfect makeup! I love her glimmery red lipstick, arched eyebrows and eye makeup. The only thing I'm not thrilled about is the white glitter eyeshadow, which doesn't cover the whole area, and is applied in strange little eyebrow shaped archs above the eyes.

Hair: Her two-toned blue hair is lovely, and falls straight, not messed up at all from being in the box. The style is adorable! It's soft, and after having shoved her rather haphazardly in my bag, it sprang right back to her straight stylish do with just a few brush throughs with my fingers.

Accessories: Her cassette tape bag is cute, but doesn't open. Her glasses, while cute, are... for me, just a tad bit too thick for her face. Had the frames been just slightly thinner you would have a better view of her eyes.
Her stand is adorable, red and covered with the Monster High emblem.
Her pet owl is cute, and it clutches her wrist and sits there... however the paint job on mine was a bit shoddy, and he has a large paint crack through his eye.
Her brush is red, and in the style of all the other Monster High brushes, which is to say a little skull with a bow on it. Very cute.

Packaging:
Style: BEAUTIFUL packaging. Everything from the black gloss on black ink to the beautiful illustrations of the dolls on the back. This is REALLY well designed.

Ease of Opening: One of the easiest packages I've ever opened. The doll was held down primarily with rubber bands, not those annoying twist ties and plastic tags. It was really easy to get her out, and she didn't get ruined in the process. My only complaint are the plastic tags they put in the back of their heads... the ones that are actually INSIDE the doll's head. I hate those... and I hate trying to get rid of them.

Price:
I paid about $16 after tax for mine at Target... but I have seen them ranging from $16-$40. You can find them at Toys R' Us for $19.99, or on Amazon for the higher prices, usually staring around $32.
I find the $16 price range affordable, but I'm not sure I'd pay much more than that for them. They are not so amazing as to warrant prices any higher than a Moxie Girl or Barbie.

Overall:
I would highly recommend Ghoulia Yelps to both adults and children (old enough not to be threatened by choking hazard pieces) who find this doll interesting. She's a beautiful doll, and truly unique, and I hope more people buy them and encourage Mattel to go a little more crazy every once in a while.
I believe she will easily withstand the rigors of play. I do have to say though, she's the prettiest zombie I've ever seen. It would be amusing to see a version of her a bit more... zombified.
I understand why they didn't do that though, the point is not to terrify children, lol!

[...]

I purchased my daughter Clawdeen in the Monster High series because I thought the Ghoulia Yelps they had on the shelf was broken. After seeing the same doll at another store I realized that it was not. The lower half of the right arm on both dolls was floating loose in the base of the box. The Clawdeen doll does not have loose joints, so I think this must be because Ghoulia is a zombie character. Overall, these dolls are very high play quality. Good idea for the girl who is too goth for Barbie or Disney.

Edited to add - I have since been told that some of the dolls have overly loose joints and it is not limited to Ghoulia. So I stand by saying check the box, but maybe a good shake of the box before opening to make sure the limbs don't slide out is the right advice!

Second Edit - I purchased Draculara and within a few days one of her arms was sliding out while the other stayed tight. I used hot glue to put it back in place so a good tug will remove it if we want - it seems to be a problem with the first wave of dolls since our second series doll has never had this problem. Mattel was very responsive when I called them, btw.

I think Ghoulia is my favorite. She's the smart nerd of the group in my opinion. I also love her long blue hair, glasses and the amazing detail of her eyes. I'm an adult collector so I can't really comment on some of the things that parents look for, but I can tell you that I've had no issues with these dolls falling apart, and I've used them for animation purposes. So they can be useful/educational if you have a child interested in animation and wanting them for that purpose. Their numerous joint articulations make this an ideal toy/doll for animation. I don't take them out of the box unless I have a duplicate. They look gorgeous in their little diorama boxes. Probably this is not a toy for children who are rough with their toys. This is not Barbie. Barbie was designed and developed to take a beating. These dolls are not. If Ghoulia is one of your favorites be sure to check out her Dawn of the Dance outfit, her new Gloom Beach outfit, Fearleading, and finally her Classroom (comes with a locker). Oh happy days. Highly recommended.

This is my 3rd Monster High doll and this is my favorite one so far! Ghoulia has a retro look to her clothing, gray skin and straight hair with light and medium blue streaks. The hair is easy to brush, soft and good quality. Her outfit is a cool mishmash of cherries, stripes, fishnet Madonna-style gloves, cat-eye 50's eyeglasses, red pants and Converse boots. She has a purse shaped like a cassette tape, a piano-key belt and a green headband. She also comes with a pet owl and a diary. Her style has an 80's and 90's feel. Her outfit sort of reminds me of stuff I wore as a teen with the stripes, fishnet, lace-up boots etc.

I think Monster High dolls are here to stay. The product line seems to be growing. For those who don't know, the Monster High characters are all the teenage children of various horror movie monsters. Since I am a big horror movie fan I love the fact that these dolls have a certain camp and humor which fans of old horror classics will appreciate. The dolls are not made to be dark or `evil' but instead are meant to be colorful and funny. Ghoulia is certainly a colorful character and the doll has every detail that you see in the cartoon.

After seeing the Monster High cartoons, Ghoulia has become my favorite character. She's a shy zombie girl and she only speaks in uuuuhh...Zombie...a language of moans and groans. Her friends also speak Zombie so they understand her. She is also the smartest student at Monster High and she tends to be the quiet one who ends up saving the day in many cases. Although Ghoulia can't speak English she is obviously a very articulate zombie and the diary that comes with the doll reflects this. I think this adds a lot to the "educational" aspect of the toy. The underlying message is a positive one: Being smart is cool!

The doll is a great representation of Ghoulia's character. She takes nerdy-chic to a whole new level. She looks studious and brainy but at the same time she has a very edgy, original style. When you remove her glasses you will see...the Ghoulia doll has a gorgeous face! She has high cheekbones, pretty makeup and big, expressive blue eyes. When you see the doll in person, it is easy to see why Ghoulia became an instant hit with Monster High fans. Her character is well written and the doll is awesome!

For whatever reason, the joints of this doll seem to be tighter than the others. With some effort I was able to make the doll stand up without the use of a doll stand. I am not sure if I just got lucky with this particular doll or if Mattel responded to consumer demands and made a studier doll. Either way, this does make her easier to pose and dress. This is a doll that people should be gentle with. It isn't for small children but the improvement (intentional or not) makes it worthy of five stars.

I am very happy with this toy. I will probably get other versions of Ghoulia at some point. She is the coolest doll in this series in my opinion. Cleo is flashy and dramatic, Draculara is pretty and girly and all the other dolls have their good points but Ghoulia is a zombie who marches to the beat of her own drummer. She is funky, cool, beautiful and unique. Great job Mattel!

I have bought 10 dolls for my daughter, yet I don't know why I do. The legs on all of them keep breaking off at the hip. The only thing keeping the legs together is a piece of elastic. Mattel doesn't seem to care or want to fix the dolls. I've had to super glue them back on. I guess they expect children to buy these and set them on their shelf, instead of playing with them.

My daughter and her friends play with these dolls a lot. We have five of them and none are broken despite all the play. However, they do not bang or throw them about. These dolls are "different" and interesting. They take the "horror" theme and put it in playful fun. I like removing the fear from monsters and making them playful. We have not experienced any problems with them. Our only challenge was finding some of them.

Please take note, there isn't an issue with the durability of these dolls. They are MONSTERS! They are meant to have loose joints. My daughter has Lagoona Blue and it says in the instructions what parts of the body can come off. :o) About the only negative reviews I would agree with are the price of the dolls. Most of these you can get at common retailers for less than $20. I saw this one for $16.99 here on Amazon, but didn't have the funds at the time to purchase. Now I'm just waiting and hoping the price will drop again so I can surprise my daughter for her birthday. This is the one character she doesn't know exists. :o)

Just remember, they made these with the concept of them being monsters. Every type of doll has it's flaws. There are Barbies my daughter gets upset over because their wings won't stay in, or the shoes fall off, etc.

They are toys. Take it at face value and have fun! You're only a kid once.

My daughter has had me looking for this doll left and right since she fell in love with the monster high dolls. This doll put me through so much time trying to find, and when I was about to give up, she appeared at our local Target. It was a great price only $16.99 and she is so much better than the rest. Her hair is softer and her limbs are harder to get apart. But the smile on my daughters face to complete her collection... PRICELESS! :)

As a collector of fashion dolls, I adore Monster High's original designs and encouragement of young folks that being different shouldn't be considered a bad thing (despite all the artificial controversy generated around Clawdeen). I would recommend these to any young people who feel a bit different and more original. :)

I'll start this off and say I am over 18, and I still love this doll. I got Ghoulia first and now own Abbey Bominable and Specta Vondergeist. While I don't play with them like a young child would I can say they have an appeal. I plan on taking all three and doing some customization work on them, but only because I don't like the way they are painted. I will also say they have highly unrealistic torsos, but their hands and feet are really well done. I like that all of them are different in their faces and you can feel there is a difference between them, right off the bat.

Overall these are really interesting dolls if you're looking to get into customization or if you're interested some more expensive ball joint dolls, but want to start off slow.