It seems like just a few weeks ago everyone was talking about series 15 and how great it was. Sure, it gave us a much overdue character (Death), and had the lovely Gypsy and underappreciated Flamingo, but as a whole, that set didn't do much for me. One reason being that none of them aside from Death really looked dead. Looking at some of the series before 15, the only one I can say that really did much for me was 11. On top of that, LDDs had been getting screwed with some problems that have yet to be fixed. Things like long leg syndrome, cheap dye for clothing which ends up staining the doll bodies, and my major gripe- a lack of accessories. Give me one good reason why Gypsy didn't come with an accessory. That lame "talking board" doesn't count.
But with series 16? Things are definitely looking up. The creators went with a theme for all the dolls- Halloween. Why it took them this long to do a Halloween theme, is beyond me, but hey they finally did it. Each doll has their own unique costume, and they look great, especially when displayed together. While I don't know if I'll shell out the money for the other 3, today I'm reviewing the two that stood out the most to me: Squeak and Isabel. Squeak is a cute little pig girl and Isabel is an eyeless broad. Isabel is also pretty much the "it" doll of this series (like how Rain was THE doll to get from series 11, Frozen Charlotte from 12, etc.), and I'm seeing her going for $15+ more than the others on some sites already. So you might want to snag her right away if you're a completist of just plain love her.
Packaging: ***/*****
Nothing special here- the dolls come packaged in the standard coffin boxes with the transparent lid so you can see what you're getting before buing. Though in another LDD first, the dolls from this series feature orange tissue paper instead of the usual red, pink or green. Their chipboard poems have their prototype images on them as well. All the accessories are on the back of the cardboard with the tissue paper on it, so if you get a doll and see it doesn't have the mask on, don't worry.
Face and hair: Squeak *****/***** Isabel ***/*****
Let's get my favorite of this series, Squeak, out of the way first. Squeak died via poisoned candy, and she sure looks like it. One look at her face anad you can see that this poor girl's a goner. She's a combination of Lulu and Hush more or less, and the look turned out fantastic. Veins about ready to burst from right under the skin, a little bit of blood coming out of her ears, and her eyes are just plain crazy. My Squeak's paint was VERY clean with no sloppy work anywhere that I can see, which is rare. Her hair is also put in well, and gives her a nice youthful look.
Isabel though...man, it hurts me to say it, but she just doesn't wow me as much as I expected. If you go here:
http://www.sideshowtoy.com/?page_id=4489&sku=6927
You'll see the prototype picture. Notice anything big between that shot and mine at the beginning of this review? Yeah- she's flesh colored and not white like in the prototype. That REALLY bugs me that they changed it at the last minute, as her being white really helped hold her look together, making her look more dead. Now she just looks like a regular person who happened to lose their eyes. Ok ok, this is more of an overall paint issue instead of just the face, but I had to get it out somewhere. Aside from this stupid issue, the paint on her head is average. There were actually some black scuffs on her nose when I got her, but some acetone took care of that in no time. The blood around her eyes is neatly painted on too and looks good. But the hair? Oh lordy, that's another mess. Again, look at the prototype picture. So straight and clean! Here? It's like they figured "oh damn, that actually took a lot of work to make it look that way. Let's just put in 1/3 the effort". It's not terrible, but it could've been a hell of a lot better, that's for sure. They also used glue to hold the strands that fall down at the sites together. It works ok, but I can see it breaking apart fast if you play with the hair even a little bit.
BUT...there's a great bit of detail regarding her face that saves her from a low score, and that's the eye sockets. Normally, they just paint over an empty eye socket with black paint. Here they went the extra mile and actually hollowed them out! Check out this picture and look at Isabel's left eye:
I though this was an amazing feat, as it caught me off guard since I'm used to painted over eyes. Well done Mezco. Now just be sure to use this trick for future dolls that are missing an eye or two!
Outfit: Squeak ****/***** Isabel *****/*****
Squeak's outfit may be simple, but because of this, there's not much to screw up on. It's a simple pink pajama body suit (even her feet!), and it works perfectly. There's some weathering to make her look like she just rose from the ground. Her mittens come off so she can hold the pumpkin pail in her right hand, and...well, there's not much she can do with the open left hand, but it does have a hole in the palm to hold previous accessories that had pegs. There are also six buttons going down the front of the pajamas, though they don't work of course- it's velcro underneath just like most outfits.
One of my favorite things about Squeak overall though, is that they included her pig tail. I expected them to leave it out, but there it was in all its resin (or polystone?) glory. Well, ok, I don't know for a fact if it's resin or polystone, but it sure feels like it. It's heavy and doesn't feel like the regular LDD plastic we've had in the past.
Finally, Squeak has regular black shoes. Nothing fancy, and they end up looking like hooves for her outfit. But I might end up displaying her without them on because I just love her pajamas so damn much.
Isabel's outfit though, is just plain perfect. This is the most beautiful dress I've ever seen on a Living Dead Doll, and it's made of a silky smooth material- something I haven't seen on any other LDD I own. Please note that I tried super hard to get good detailed pictures of the dress, but it's so shiny that it reflects light easily, and these were the best I could get!
I was expecting it to be single layered, but again, they went the extra mile and went all out with this sucker. I'm impressed, and the dress itself earns the 5 stars easily. But what REALLY got me were the buttons:
Fucking hell those are rad! The only other thing to talk about here are the boots. Simple in design, these give her a height boost over all my other LDDs, rivaling LeatherFace for the tallest doll spot. We don't get this type very often, so I more or less forgot about the design.
While I appreciate the effort there to add matching boots for her outfit, I wish they had just made some fancier shoes since I personally feel Isabel should be more dainty in apperance. But that's just me. These don't take away from her outfit or the score I'm giving it. She's got this category nailed!
Articulation: Squeak ***/***** Isabel ****/*****
Squeak uses the standard LDD body: articulation at the head, arms and legs, so she gets an average score. Isabel is just slightly above average, but I rounded her score up since I don't do half stars here. Her head and legs get standard articulation, as does her left arm. But her right arm is the same style as LeatherFace's so she can [almost] properly hold her mask. I'm glad they did this with another doll, but there's gotta be another way around this articulation issue. Though at the same time, that'd be cheating previous classic dolls of the same thing. Hey, they could always re-release those ones. Anyways...if you don't have LeatherFace, Isabel's arm bends at the shoulder and right at the elbow/forearm so she can rotate that section of her arm seperately from the shoulder/bicep.
Accessories: Squeak ***/***** Isabel ***/*****
I was originally going to give both these ladies 4 stars here, but that was due to the over-excitement of getting dolls with accessories for a change. I consider accessories for LDDs to be whatever comes in the baggie behind the cardboard with tissue paper. So the masks here are accessories rather than parts of the outfits, despite being intended as that. Squeak obviously comes with her pig mask. It's insanely creepy to look at on its own, but when she wears it, it's downright uncomfortable to see in-person. The mask is made of a very thin plastic (like a regular, real Halloween costume's), so be careful when handling this, as it could be crushed very easily. The elastic band is thick and sturdy, and after seeing it, I wasn't worried one bit that it might snap (like a certain Sybil's did). Like the rest of Squeak's costume, this has some weathering too. 'cool of them to do that instead of leaving it clean.
Isabel comes with her eye mask on a stick. The stick looks a little odd since it starts out thick and gets lopsided towards the top, but whatever. The eyes painted on it look good, and have some make up around them to look like the real thing (well, in the LDD world I mean).
Again, I didn't expect them to do much with this, and as a result, I got surprised. The back of the mask has bloody spikes that actually go into Isabel's eye sockets, and she can wear the mask and have both hands free!
Now for the thing that helped earn both dolls an average score. See, before they were released, all the pre-order pages for the dolls mentioned something. Here's the exact quote:
"BONUS: Each figure includes a pumpkin trick-or-treat bag! Each doll is packed carefully, exhumed in its own coffin with a unique death certificate. Don't miss series 16 -- They've passed away, now it is time to play."
Did you read that carefully? "pumpkin trick-or-treat bag!". Bag. BAG! Wouldn't you assume that it means that each one will come with like a plastic bag to put candy in while you go trick-or-treating or visit Halloween parties? Yeah, me too! But nope. Imagine my surprise when I opened Squeak first and didn't see any cool LDD plastic bag in the back of her coffin, but instead found this:
'looks more like a pail or bucket than a bag to me. Isabel has one too, so it's a safe bet that all the dolls have the same one. It's nice that they gave them both these accessories, but I'd have been happier with a cool LDD bag that Kairi could use when she goes trick-or-treating this year. Oh well. That, again, doesn't hurt the score here.
Value: ***/*****
Each doll cost me $26.99. That's either the same, or a dollar more than what those from series 15 cost me back in March. Blame oil prices, blame the economy, blame kids that listen to Nickelback, it doesn't matter. These are average prices. But with these two, I felt like I got my money's worth (even with Isabel's flesh-ness and shoddy hair). Had the detail on he faces not been there, or had Isabel's dress not been what it is, the score would've dropped a little.
Closing:
What else can I say? I've already wildly masturbated over how much I love Squeak, and how beautiful Isabel's dress is. These are two great dolls worthy of anyone's LDD collection. They've just started shipping on the west coast this week, so like I already said, get Isabel fast if you like her even the slightest bit! She'll definitely be the one everyone's going to go for immediately. And eventhough I didn't review the other 3, from what I saw, they don't look like they'll be as hot of sellers as her. Regardless, this is a great series of dolls that'll look awesome displayed together, and especially if you have Hemlock and Honey. Don't wait to pick them up though- with Halloween just a little over 2 months away, I can see LDD collectors and non-collectors buying these for sheer Halloween decoration purposes.
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