REVIEW: Monster High Cleo De Nile & Ghoulia Yelps Set

I was thrilled that this gorgeous set was not actually an SDCC exclusive, although it appears to have been designed as one. I placed an order for two when they went on Mattel Shop a couple days before they were supposed to. I never got an email confirmation, so I placed a second order for one set the next day. That got confirmed right away and shipped out soon after. Then a day or so later, so did my order of two!

So I got three sets in the mail today, hence my ability to take the photo on the left of both sides of the outer box at the same time.

The main box has two flaps in the front that open like doors.

This is a bit of a pain if you're putting this box back into the outside one, but otherwise, it's cool.

I have a load of pics for this, so expect a lot of pics with only a few lines of text next to them. I hate doing that because it makes this look unfinished, but that's just me being a bit OCD.

The back of the box has lovely art of our heroines, as well as some story detail.

I wish I could clip the art and put it on my wall, but can't cut up expensive boxes! I don't keep many boxes, but ones like this I sure do.

The sides of the box both have an Anubis-inspired design.

If you open the lid of the box, you'll see the diary in a baggie taped to the top lid.



I was disappointed that the diary was so short. One side is a couple pages for Cleo and the other, if you flip it over, is a couple pages for Ghoulia.

Despite looking like pre-reboot dolls, the diary follows the ways of the reboot and Cleo's been locked in her pyramid from the ancient days until present time. Ghoulia follows a trail of clues to find her destined best friend and ends up discovering her right before the MH ghouls arrive to recruit her to Monster High in the Welcome to Monster High movie.

Why Ghoulia does not also make herself known, I don't know. Why Cleo doesn't point her out, I don't know.

This is what happens when you try to make everything fit into one universe and it just doesn't make sense.

Anyway, if you open the flaps, this is what you see.

Now let's get them out of there.

Remember I said I had three sets? Every one of three Cleos was flawed, while every one of three Ghoulias was fine. Considering I'm an Egyptologist and Cleo is my fave, this did not please me.

My choices were:

1) Cleo with giant space between her lips with no paint AND missing gold paint under one eye.

2) Cleo with two much smaller missing spots of paint between her lips.

3) Cleo with no missing paint between her lips, but a lighter "lip liner" on her upper lip.

I picked the third option, of course. Although the second one had a really cute face, too. Something about her eye placement was pleasing.

The deboxing of both girls was fairly easy, although Ghoulia's hat and glasses were unnecessarily overly secured.

Back to Cleo.

She is simply stunning. Easily one of the most beautiful Cleos ever made.

The level of detail on her outfit is superb and I, of course, love all the Egyptian touches like the eye on her belt.

While I do have a nitpick about Ghoulia wearing spike heels in the desert, Cleo can pull them off because she's had literally thousands of years of practice. Her shoes are epic.

Her makeup is perfect and the side-eye just makes this even better. That lip liner mistake even looks pretty good. At least it looks somewhat deliberate.

I did have a photo of Cleo holding up Hissette, but it came out blurry and I stupidly only took one shot. Maybe I'll reshoot it sometime.

She is amazing though. Simply glorious!

Ghoulia was surprisingly glorious, too. I knew I wasn't going to like her as much as Cleo, because duh, but I got hung up on the inappropriateness of her heels and shorts and went meh.

Then I opened her up and saw her.

Even with the ridiculous hat and completely not matching outfit, she looks stunning.

The hand earrings are awesome. Really love those.

The shirt is really cool, too, and her blue glasses are classic.

What makes Ghoulia though is her face. This is without a doubt, the single most beautiful Ghoulia face ever done. She is perfect.

Here's a look at her bag, which does open, and her brain fanny pack.

I didn't get a shot of her boots, because they're her classic ones but with green.

Do not wear heels like this in the desert ever though. Especially not around tombs.

Ghoulia's other accessories are a cool torch and a randomly green Sir Hoots. He looks cool that way though.

Let's reunite these two.

See, there's Hissette, all gold and cute.

This would have been one of the best SDCC exclusives of the lot, if they'd actually made it there. Instead, everyone gets a shot at enjoying it for way less money.

So go buy one!

PHOTO CREDITS: Mine.