REVIEW: Monster High Music Class Cleo

This doll is annoyingly hard to find in my area. I ended up buying this one off ebay last week, and then the seller screwed up the shipping, so instead of getting her in a couple days, it took a week! But she's finally here. I did see her at the Walmart I hardly ever go to, but that doll's eyes were so horribly off that I just shook my head and set her back on the shelf.

Cleo will always be one of my faves from MH, because I've loved Ancient Egypt since I was young. (To the point that I even have a masters degree in Egyptology.) I absolutely love that they are adding reds to her color palette and I always enjoy when they do copper elements.

Cleo is a stunning doll, as always. They styled her hair a bit differently. She has streaks of golden gel in her bangs, which means I can't do my usual gel washout, but oh, well. Her headpiece was stapled to her head by three different plastic tabs, which of course meant everything got all tangled around them while I was deboxing her and dealing with the tabs stuck into the back of her head. I ended up removing all the tabs and the headpiece stays on pretty well.

My only complaint about the hair is that there's a gap in the rooting where her headpiece sits. Not nearly as bad as the debacle of SDCC Scarah's rooting under her headband, but there's a definite gap made more visible by the bangs you have to keep gelled.

Her makeup is superb. I always love an interesting lip color on Cleo. It is not nearly as vibrant as it photographs! The extra detailing on her right eye is also excellent.

And as always, the Egyptian details are amazing!

This style of dress hasn't been seen before for Cleo and it's really neat. Again, I love the color palette with the deep yet bright blue and the red.

Cleo comes with a little stool with three lovely snake legs that you snap in.

The harp is decorated by a curling snake hair accessory and the top part is removable and doubles as a comb.

I have seen some complaints about her lack of arm articulation, because she can't actually look like she's playing the harp. I agree, but not to the point that I disparage the doll. Joints would have been cool, but her design is so great that I don't care. I mean, I could swap her head with the pet line Cleo if I really cared about her looking like she was playing, but I don't.

I mean, really, the harp is a series of bent teeth, not strings, and she's, you know, A DOLL, so it's not like she's gonna serenade me anytime soon!

In case anyone was wondering, the Egyptians did have the first harps, although they didn't look like this. I love that they did enough research that they picked an actual Egyptian instrument, and I understand why they used the more typical look for it. An Ancient Egyptian style harp wouldn't have worked that well as a doll accessory and certainly not as a play hair accessory for kids.

I almost forgot a zoom shot on her amazing shoes, so here's an awkward rotated photo, because I was too lazy to go get my backgrounds back out. Ha!

Overall, this is another stellar addition to my collection of Cleo de Nile dolls and I'm really pleased with her.

PHOTO CREDITS: Mine.