Recently I was in Toys ‘R Us when a woman came around the corner into the aisle where I was standing. With her were two girls, presumably her daughters, approximate ages ten and six. The ten-year-old stared at a shelf full of some boy doll, saying his name over and over as she pointed to each box, finally ending the litany with, “All [whoever] and NO JUSTIN. Why is there no Justin? I just want a Justin.”
Trust me, this didn’t sound bratty when she said it. She clearly had her heart set on a Justin Bieber doll–seemed to have been waiting for it for a while–and was so disappointed not to find even one. And while this may not seem like a big deal to Bieber haters or grown-ups, then I suggest you recall that time you tried to get concert tickets only to learn they were sold out within minutes of going on sale. Or remember when you were willing to stand in line in the cold to get an iPhone that this ten-year-old wouldn’t give a crap about. Or think about the last time you went to dealer after dealer looking for the car you wanted. Or store after store trying to find the right shoes for a wedding.
I felt bad for her, and even worse later, when I was in a Walmart and saw shelves of the doll she was looking for. It made me wish I had her mother’s phone number.
One reason I feel her pain is because of the Monster High dolls. These dolls have been around since 2010. In fact, during the 2011 holiday season, you could find scads of them that hadn’t sold and were therefore showing up in Odd Lots and Big Lots, Marshalls and Ross, at deeply discounted prices. It was my seeing a set of them in one of these places that landed them (fruitfully!) on my Christmas list. Then when Marika made a special request that I use the Monster High dolls to do the challenges for the Project Runway All Stars, I thought, No problem. I’ll just pick up some more of the cheap dolls at the discount stores so I’ll have enough to do the whole season.
HA! Monster High is my Bieber! None of the stores that had them before Christmas had them afterward. They all sold. Furthermore, the Monster High shelves in Target, Walmart, and Toys ‘R Us have been wiped clean in the months since Christmas. Either people know when the shelves get restocked and are waiting for them, or store employees are snapping them up, because it’s damn near impossible to find any Monster High dolls. To get the ones I have, I had to go out every few days to a range of stores that’s included nine Targets, twelve Walmarts, and three Toys ‘R Us stores. Even so, two of the newer dolls were grabbed by Tim for me when he was shopping with Hanley one day in Target.
You can find the dolls online–if you’re willing to pay crazy eBay bid prices. And you can order them for premium prices from online retailers, except after reading about the working conditions in the shipping warehouses (not just Amazon’s, but also the warehouses shared by multiple retailers), I’ve decided I’d rather buy locally even from chains than order online. At least I feel reasonably sure sales associates and stock people in the brick-and-mortar stores I patronize aren’t being treated like sweat-shop workers.
I’ve been researching to see if I can figure out what exactly is going on with the Monster High dolls. So far, I can find a lot about shortages, but not why there are shortages, certainly not anything that explains Mattel’s place in shoppers’ frustrations. Monster High has a lot of online forums, and many of the girls express their annoyance that one person will buy all the dolls on the shelves, sometimes putting one away to save, while customizing the others. I think that’s less of a problem than the number of dolls being resold by speculators on eBay, so I’ve determined not to buy any there, either, in solidarity with frustrated ‘tweens, even if I can get them for low bids.
There’ve been certain of the dolls that seemed unaffected by the shortages. Our Kroger even had some of them. Finally, to ensure that I’d have enough dolls for a final collection, I decided to buy a couple of them and customize them. I’ve never been able to customize Barbies–there’s just something about changing a Barbie that doesn’t sit right with me–though I have altered many bargain Kens over the years. So if any Monster High fans show up here, please don’t hate me for buying and redoing these dolls. I wouldn’t do that to the ones you’re trying so hard to find (Toralei, Cupid, Spectra, and Operetta, among others).
Here’s the Abbey Bominable doll I used in one of my challenges:
I bought two more, deeply discounted, at Kroger:
Here’s what I did last Craft Night. Following this online tutorial, I used gold Liquitex on one doll’s hair, and black Liquitex on the other’s hair. (Human hair dye doesn’t work on the dolls, fyi.) Then I used other acrylics to alter their eye and lip colors.
How they look on either side of the original. The customized dolls are dressed in Mattel Monster High fashions, not clothes made by me.
Now I should have enough to create a final collection. And if anyone out there needs a Justin Bieber doll, I can tell you where they were two weeks ago.
