Saturday, April 21, 2012

Monster High Review: Rochelle Goyle and Roux

The newest lineup of Monster High characters is fantastic.  Rochelle Goyle, who is the daughter of the gargoyles, was just released, and in the next few months we should see Venus McFlytrap (there's so much awesome in that name, I don't know where to start) and Robecca Steam.  I am probably the most excited about Robecca (she is a steampunk robot), but all three dolls have great themes, interesting skin tones and fun accessories.  I hope I will be able to find them all at some point, but for now, here's Rochelle Goyle:

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Rochelle Goyle and Roux
Because Monster High dolls make frequent appearances on this blog, I'm going to skip over a lot of history and de-boxing details.  You can always go back and read more here:

As usual, there is a lot to be learned about Rochelle on the back of the box and in her diary.  Rochelle is from Scaris.  This took me a while to figure out.  I think it is a play on "Paris," because Rochelle is a very French name and Rochelle has French mannerisms in her writing.  She's 415 years old, enjoys sculpting and hates pigeons.  The pigeon part made me snicker.



Rochelle has several features that make me like her right off the bat.  She has wings, her pet is cool,  and her vinyl is a brand new color.

And, she comes with a stand, a brush, a book...everything.
Her pet is a griffin gargoyle named Roux.  Unless I am missing an alternate definition, roux is a floury base used to cook French sauces.  Strange name for a gargoyle pet if you ask me.  However, it is pronounced "roo" and I think that is adorable.  It reminds me of Winnie the Pooh.  My son used to love Roo.  Don't tell him I told you that, okay?  He's fourteen.

Look at how nicely sculpted Roux is:


The only problem I have with Roux is that he's a gargoyle...and so is Rochelle. Why does one of them get to be the master and the other has to be the pet?  It's like Pluto and Goofy.  That must've bothered other people, too.  I mean, one dog walks on two legs and can talk (not very well, granted) and the other dog walks on all fours and can only bark and pant.  That's not right.

Despite ordering this doll online, I managed to get a Rochelle without wonky eyes or face defects:


She is wearing only black, white and silver.  Her vinyl is grey with flecks of white and black mixed in to give it a granite-like appearance:


She has long, blue and pink cotton candy hair:


The hair is mostly soft and smooth and easy to manage. It is a bit uneven at the bottom, but a quick trim will fix that right up.  Her bangs are very stiff, as is the hair on either side of her face.

The stone flecks in her face are more subtle than they are in the rest of her body.  This is nice because a misplaced spot that was too dark or too light might be distracting.  It could look like she has a dirty face or bad acne or something.  I like the specks in this particular doll--they're almost like freckles or beauty marks:


You have to peer up under her wall of bangs to see her eyebrows.  She has a sweet, worried look about her:


Her eyes are nicely painted for the most part, although my doll has some tiny little smudges near the corner of one eye.


After some disappointments with the Meowlody and Purrsephone set (no pet, simple accessories, no stands) I was delighted to see that Rochelle has a full compliment of accessories, including a purse...


...that opens! Hurrah!
I like the fleur de lis buckle.
Rochelle is wearing a lot of nicely designed black jewelry, too.  She has an intricate headband (sewn into her hair), two mismatched earrings, a necklace and a bracelet:


The choker has a nice design on it.
The short earring on the right hides too much of her ear.
The dangle earring on the left shows off her ear better.
I like the contour of her ears.  They angle towards the back of her head, contributing to her slightly vulnerable appearance.  She reminds me of Felix Charlemagne when he's just peed on the floor.


The best accessory, of course, is Roux.  His coloring matches Rochelle's speckled vinyl exactly.  Roux is made of a bendable rubbery material, which is unlike the hard plastic of the other pets.  This is an odd choice, if you think about it.  The one pet who is supposed to be made of stone is the pet they decide to cast in a new pliable material?  Oh, well.    

He's the best Monster High pet yet, I think:

Rubbery stone awesomeness.
The seams are a bit obvious in this little guy, but they seem sturdy.
Check out his beady little purple eyes!  Very well painted.
 The wings are great, too.  Look at the details:

They have little molded cracks.

Rochelle's outfit easily accommodates the wings:



They stay put pretty well and look amazing:


The only problem with the wings is that they are so small, unless you carefully arrange her hair behind the wings like this...
Now you see them...
...the hair completely covers the wings:

...now you don't.
Two possible solutions: Rochelle could have had cute short hair like Skull Shores Frankie Stein, or the wings could have been a lot bigger.   Either would have been fine with me.

Rochelle's outfit is very well done.  Her shirt is a simple black and white striped tank top with an interesting criss-cross neckline.  The stripes of the shirt conjure images of French navy uniforms, but the style is modern and if you look closely at the stripes, they're actually broken up and look washed out...as if they are very old.


That could be 415 years old, I guess.
The skirt is black with a shimmering silver print.  The print is meant to be reminiscent of stained glass windows, I think.  It reflects the colors from her hair (and whatever else is around) in a clever way:


The skirt is fully lined in black netting, which peeks out a bit past the hem of the skirt:


Rochelle is wearing pink fish net ankle-high stockings with satiny ribbon trim. They're great, and they set off the grey high heeled sandals perfectly:


The strap of the sandal has a fleur de lis accent.  Tres francais.


Underneath all of those lovely clothes is Rochelle's unique vinyl body:


For some reason, the flecking in her lower leg is much denser than it is in her upper leg


Here's the lower leg up close:


I think the vinyl looks great and the body seems more solid and heavy to me.  This could easily be an illusion, but perhaps the flecks actually carry some extra weight.  Here's Rochelle showing off her stony, winged form: 






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Here she is all dressed up again (no earrings, no necklace):

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So, I really enjoy Rochelle's black and pink color scheme.  I think her carnival hair is an interesting and appropriate contrast to her granite body.  However, I can't help but wonder what Skull Shores Frankie Stein's black and white head would look like on this body.  Frankie's bobbed hair would show off Rochelle's wings really well, and I think the doll might be fun without any color.  I might try this, but I am nervous about getting the heads back on their original bodies if I don't like the outcome.  

Monster-High-Rochelle-Goyle
Off with my head??
Bottom line?  Another hit from Mattel and the Monster High design team.  This girl has all of the creativity and innovation I love to see in these dolls, and she comes with all of the accessories we know and love.  Rochelle's pet gargoyle is fantastic.  He is well sculpted, well painted and has a name with a bit of French flare.  Rochelle herself is a great mix of stony monochromaticity, French style and bubblegum fun.

Ideally, this doll should be picked out in person, since I can imagine that the specks in her face might fall in unfortunate places.  That being said, I ordered my doll online, sight unseen, and I could not be more pleased with her.  Aside from needing a slight hair trim and perhaps a wash, this doll is great right out of the box.

Monster-High-Rochelle-Goyle

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46 comments:

  1. I love all your pics of Rochelle! I hope to find her somewhere...eventually. I refuse to pay the online pricing for me. One of these days! :-)

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    1. Oh, I know. The online prices are awful, aren't they? I should have waited, I usually do, but for some reason my Toys R Us has been devoid of Monster High dolls for a long time. Well, that's not completely true--they had about 50 of the Skull Shores Frankies, but that's about it! I found Rochelle for $29, which didn't seem as bad as it might have been. I hope you find one soon for a good price. She's worth waiting for! :)

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    2. I found a Rochelle from the Scaris collection at BJs Wholesale for $15.99! It is true, there is no pet but I love her dress and outfit accessories! BJs always has Monster High dolls for the holiday season!

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  2. I love how unique all the Monster High dolls (except that that makes me want to buy them all and I have no room!), Rochelle is really sweet. I'm looking forward to seeing more of Venus McFlytrap!

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    1. I can't wait to see Venus' hair--it looks great! I know what you mean about wanting to buy them all--ugh! I know I'd complain if they all looked the same, but there are hazards to the uniqueness, too.

      I wonder if this was what went "wrong" with Liv dolls--people didn't want to keep buying essentially the same dolls in order to get new wigs and new outfits? Hmm.

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    2. That's very true, I've thought about getting another Liv doll just because the good ones might disappear soon but they look so similar to the Sophie I already have that I can't justify it, especially since I already have a couple different wigs.

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  3. I am loving Rochelle!!! I can't wait to find her either. I won't go there with online prices either. I have been very lucky finding dolls in my stores. Let's hope Rochelle and Venus McFlytrap show up!!!

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    1. I hope your luck continues, April! I try pretty hard not to buy online, but occasionally I cave. :)

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  4. Rochelle is so cute! I really like the granite-style skin. I happen to know that the word "roux" is French for "red" (have a friend with last name Roux), and that got me curious about the name Rochelle. Dug in an online French dictionary, and the word "roche" is French for "rock" ... well, "elle" is French for "girl" ... so translated she is: Rockgirl Goyle (get the "girl-goyle??" LOL!!). Pretty clever of this company!!

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    1. That's great! How cool. I was thinking that the name Rochelle was a bit boring, but now I am completely impressed. There is definitely a lot of thought and intelligence in this line and I absolutely love it. :)

      Thanks for the insight, Barb!

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    2. Um, sorry to stick my nose in, but the French word for red is rouge.

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    3. Hmm, you're right. But online it says that the name Roux means "red." Maybe it's like my name means (apparently), "rival, laborious, eager" but you wouldn't use the word "emily" if you wanted to say "rival." Or at least I hope you wouldn't (!). I don't have a very good name meaning, do I? Sigh.

      Anyway--we need a French speaking friend to set us straight! ;)

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    4. "Roux" is plural for "rousse", because in French, you have to pluralize the adjective if the noun is plural. "Rousse" is sort of a gold-reflecting orange color, according to Larousse dictionary. So the way most people have heard it is "cheveux roux" as in red hair. Except in French it's "hairs" because you have many of them (hopefully). I think this whole "roux"/"rouge" thing is similar to the way many people will call anything vaguely related to red, the "red" one because it's a more general name for the color.
      I'm not sure this really helps your gargoyle pet's name make more sense. Sorry.

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    5. That's incredibly helpful and well-said, Jupiter! Many thanks! :D

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  5. Rochelle is awesome. I think she feels heftier and sturdier too, maybe it is an illusion? The OOAK doll artists pop their heads off (there is a neck hook to work it off over) so if I feel brave I'll remove the heads of Rochelle and an older Monster to weigh their bodies on a digital scale. Or wait for someone else to do it. :)

    I paid $25+tax at TRU so $29+shipping online is a very fair price (your time and gas are worth a few bucks!!). If she turns out to be HTF the online price will shoot up, you were smart to act fast.

    I don't buy all the monsters but these three new characters appeal to me so they're my top doll priority this spring/summer. Steampunk is such a popular theme I hope they don't plan to short the robot girl's numbers to keep interest in the dolls high. :\ My cynicism about Mattel shines through, love their dolls but not their methods of messing with collectors.

    Thanks as always for the photos!!!

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    1. I took a peek at the Steampunk girl and really like her, so I'm putting her on my list as well. Nearest toy stores to me are 45 miles away, so I definitely also hear you on the potential values of buying online!

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    2. Kristi--I hope you'll let us know what you find out about Rochelle's weight on your blog! I could bring Rochelle and another doll to my lab and weigh them, but my students might give me some strange looks. Hee hee. Might be worth it. ;)

      Thanks for helping me feel better about my online purchase. She was expensive, but this particular seller wasn't asking $40, which I thought was worth rewarding.

      I am nervous about Robecca's availability, too. On the one hand, I'd rather see rare dolls than tons of extra unwanted dolls on the shelves, but the marketing can get very frustrating.


      Barb--I am with you on the driving. All of my stores are at least 30 minutes away, and some days that seems really far! I'll keep you in mind if I see a shelf full of Robeccas this summer--I can grab an extra one.

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    3. Thanks, Emily -- that's a nice offer!

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  6. Hello from Spain: congratulations on these photos so detailed. I love the bag to be opened. The doll is very original. I like the dress she is wearing. I agree with you that Goyle Rochelle has some very original accessories. Keep in touch

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  7. She is AMAZING!!! I wish I could have her ;) I'll definitely go for Robecca! I think Monster High dolls are getting better &better!

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  8. she's amazing! But she's actually not the real gargoyle. in the books the gargoyle is a guy, called Granite.

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  9. Rochelle is my favorite monster high! I will soon have it. I find it very original and very pretty and I think his expression a little melancholy is its charm! ;)
    PS: I speak French so I went to the translator, sorry it did not work very well: (

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  10. Hi there! I discovered your blog yesterday, and I love your reviews! I thought you could be interested in visiting this site http://www.dreamofdoll.com/eng/main/mapage.asp
    You're the expert, so you probably know about these dolls already, but I think they're really cool, and since I couldn't seem to find any review about one of them in your blog, I thought I wouldn't lose anything leaving the link here :) Greetings! and keep up the great job!

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    1. Thank you so much, Ella! I absolutely love getting new doll store links. :) I thought I had a pretty good understanding of the BJD market, but this is a site I haven't seen before! I am really excited to explore. Of the Asian BJDs, I have only ever owned one Limhwa doll, One SOOM doll, one Elfdoll and two Dollstown dolls. Iplehouse is on my list... and maybe now these dolls, too. Thanks again!

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  11. I love EVERYTHING about Rochelle... except her face :/
    I just think her face looks weird, her lips are too big. I really, really hate that I don't like her face because everything else is just perfect!
    Luckily, a new monster high doll wave is coming called ''Scaris nights''
    I really love Rochelle in this wave, you can google pictures if you want.
    (Sorry if you already knew about this, I'm still busy reading all your posts yet)
    There's even going to be a Frankie Stein vanity, a light up Spectra, a light up Frankie, a new skeleton and a Clawdeen that growls :O
    Just wanted to let you know that, in case you didn't already knew about it.

    Btw: Omg, Venus and Robecca are clawesome!!

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    1. I see what you mean about her lips--they are big! It doesn't bother me too much, though. Maybe you could customize a Rochelle for yourself? Re-paint her lips to be smaller or less bright?

      I had not heard of the Scaris dolls! I heard about Scary Tales (had to get the Threadarella from that series..) but not the Scaris City wave! Cool! Thank you for the tip. I can't find any pictures yet, but I'm still looking. I'm very curious about the new Rochelle.

      I found a coffee shop for the MH dolls at Toys R Us yesterday--that looks pretty fun. There are SO many new things coming out right now, it's kinda overwhelming! In a good way. ;)

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    2. I've never customized a doll, I'm sure I'll just mess things up if I try so I don't think I'm going to try it.
      Rochelle isn't even released here anyway, here in the Netherlands we mostly have dead tired dolls, maybe some skull shores (probably not) maybe a Frankie sweet 1600 somewhere and some basics if you're lucky.
      We don't even have Abbey or Spectra, I'm really sad about this since Spectra is one of my favorite characters. The only way you can get some
      ''new'' MH dolls here are via the Dutch Toys R Us website but they only accpet paypal and creditcard, I have neither of those.
      All the Toys R Us shops here changed into Toys XL shops back in 2009 I think, and Toys XL doesn't even come close to the stock that Toys R Us has. Man, I wish I had enough money to go to that amazing Toys R Us on Times Square and buy everything I would love to have and admire everything that is there.

      About the Scaris Night dolls, I could make some print screen of the pictures for you but it's even easier to just make a quick account on monsterhighdolls.com You'll find pictures of every new monster high realeases there, including scaris nights and SDCC dolls!
      Just go to the Photos section and look at Featured Photos on the top of the page, click View All and you'll see photos of the newest MH dolls! :D

      I assume you're talking about the MH coffee bean set that comes with Clawdeen Wolf, I love that!

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    3. I just had a look at the photos section and the scaris nights pictures are gone... but don't worry!
      Google is our friend! I found all the photos that were on monsterhighdolls.com
      Follow these links to view them:

      Scaris Nights JinaFire Long (new character, she's a dragon!)
      http://i1139.photobucket.com/albums/n556/Porcelain_Ninja/mh-scarisnightsJinaFireLong.jpg

      Scaris Nights Skelita Calaveras (new character, she's a skeleton!)
      http://image.forumcommunity.it/7/2/4/4/8/9/1341082581.png

      New set
      http://api.ning.com/files/RC0Zuusf3l9KITWSYo9IAORkrbZf2-Je9XPvTzjJP9nJN1GI*PSzcBDFb1fVhDlv2K5K*lJSLWjM6QrBV-41x01fKdq694QX/ScarisGoodieStandPromoPic.jpg

      Abbey's bed
      http://i1139.photobucket.com/albums/n556/Porcelain_Ninja/mh-abbeyicebed.jpg

      Clawdeen Wolf
      http://i1139.photobucket.com/albums/n556/Porcelain_Ninja/mh-clawdeenhowl.jpg

      The rest of the pictures were really hard to find, even the ones above are really small, sorry about that.

      You can see the Google miniatures of the rest of the pictures here:

      https://www.google.nl/search?num=10&hl=nl&site=imghp&tbm=isch&source=hp&biw=1024&bih=635&q=monster+high+scaris+nights&oq=monster+high+scaris+nights&gs_l=img.3..0i10i19.1772.10411.0.10656.34.26.4.4.5.0.99.1328.26.26.0...0.0...1ac.hoiZGYFyGxA#hl=nl&site=imghp&tbm=isch&sa=1&q=scaris+nights&oq=scaris+nights&gs_l=img.3..0i10i19l2.5627.5627.12.5930.1.1.0.0.0.0.66.66.1.1.0...0.0...1c.T-NfKFleTwo&pbx=1&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.r_qf.&fp=9ec15762a5b505f&biw=1024&bih=635

      But if you click on them they don't work.
      If you scroll down a bit you can also see Frankie's vanity.
      Really sorry for the quality of the pictures and that I can't find all the working pictures.
      I don't understand why the pictures are gone on monsterhighdolls.com but I still recommand you to look at the Featured Photos what I told you about, there are all kinds of photos of new releases there! :)
      Also, you might notice that on the top right corners of the pictures of Draculaura and Skelita there are other dolls shown but I haven't seen pictures of them yet so we only have those mini miniatures for now :)

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  12. Oh yeah, I forgot, I have a question, do the wings from the CAM pack dragon doll fit in the holes on Rochelle's back?
    Sorry if you already heard that question.

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    1. Unfortunately, I gave my CAM set away so I can't check this for you! Sorry! I would be really surprised if they didn't fit though, they look very similar.

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    2. Ah, it doesn't matter :)
      It's true that they look very similar but you never know with the CAM packs :)
      Did you know that the CAM packs now include not one, but TWO torso's? Yes, I said TWO.
      If you google monster high CAM pack, you can also see that there are MH boy CAM packs!
      I wish I could buy a CAM pack, it looks really fun.
      But after reading you're review I think I'll just take it slow with the CAM packs and focus on the normal dolls for now :)

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    3. They *sort of* fit. I haven't tried recently, so I don't remember which was which, but one has slightly larger holes/pegs than the other. One fits pretty well if you jam the wings in; the other only works if you don't touch the doll, because otherwise the wings fall out.

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  13. the monster high dolls are silly prices online ,ebay being the guilty party for this , mattel must have a problem making these dolls to ship to the uk, as they turn up in small quantities in stores unless its ghoulia yelps who is the only one you find in abundance, she doesnt speak on the cartoon apart from the odd grunt , i wonder if thats why shes so unpopular, and as for gill he is ultra rare.

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    1. I've never watched the show, so that's an interesting thing to learn about Ghoulia. I assumed she must talk a lot because she's the "brainy" one! I really like her character, just from what she looks like and the theme of her clothes.

      I agree that the online prices are crazy. It's so hard to find any normal retail prices on these dolls. I am noticing that it's easier to find them here than it was about six months ago, so maybe we're starting to see Mattel keep up with the demand? If there are suddenly tons of these dolls on the shelves, do you think they'd still be just as popular? It will be interesting to see what happens.

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  14. Great pics! I was actually going look into Getting her myself.

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  15. I've seen her for £12.79 with FREE shipping at Amazon.uk (12th Oct 2012) I think this is an unusually good price so I might have to give into temptation! She'll be my 9th MH doll and she is gorgeous!

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  16. Rochelle is pretty neat, but I'm thinking of snagging a Robecca Steam doll soon. She so wonderfully detailed, better than any of the other Monster High dolls! She's totally steampunk, and her whole ensemble just screams "COOL" and "AWESOME"! I love her Victorian, lace-up, rocket boots! I would love to see you do a review of her, Emily!

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  17. Rochelle is really pretty, it's my favorite of all the Monster High! I hesitate to buy it, I live in France. I love your analysis very comprehensive! ^ ^ Kisses ♥.

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  18. Thank you for this rewiew. I´m thinking about buying this doll and your rewiew told me a lot about it.
    She is my faworite monster high together with Ghoulia and Spectra dolls.

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  19. I don't think it is right that Rochelle is the owner of Roux, either. Rochelle reminds me of a weeping angel from Doctor Who.

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  20. Rochelle ismy favorite MH doll! I own one myself and I love her, but I quickly discovered the same problem with the overly long hair that you did.
    Therefore, I chopped it off!
    http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v181/Hakari-chan/Monster%20High/IMG_0410_zps9d10bdc5.jpg

    Much better now!

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  21. I was trying to figure out what to do with her hair so that I would not have to cut it but would still be able to see her wings. I finally figured it out, if you braid her hair it looks super cute and the wings are completely visible.

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  22. amei !!! Eu vi vc no Programa da Tarde !!!!

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  23. This Rochelle Goyle was my first Monster High Doll ever! I totally love her and I'm glad you made a review about her. Rochelle is so cute and awesome! :)

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  24. I found a post that hasn't been locked for comments, ha! The spambots have been here, with hilarious results. Also RIP TBP, the best doll review website ever.

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