Once Upon a Zombie / More Monster High Musings · 9:00pm Jul 21st, 2013
As a followup to my previous blog post, here's some more information. Unless you've been living under a rock for the last several years, you've no doubt noticed an increase of zombies in popular culture.
This has caused many to discuss what this obsession with the undead says about us as a society.
Zombies may represent many different things, but the big question remains; how does this affect the doll market? Well, if Monster High has proven anything, there's definitely a demand for creepy dolls. Monster High is a billion dollar idea, so it's no surprise that there would be some imitations popping up.
Mattel has a phenomenally successful line of dolls inspired by classic monsters and a spin-off series based on famous fairy tales. 
Where does the doll industry go from here?
Holy Romero on a Roomba! Fairy tale. Princess. Zombies.
It should be noted that these are not the Disney Princesses. This line of zombified fashion dolls just happens to borrow from the same source material as Disney.
Whoever came up with this idea is a marketing genius. After the success of Monster High, Mattel made Ever After High, which eschewed the creepy aesthetic in favor of a more familiar fairy tale setting. Once Upon a Zombie is attempting to merge two great tastes that taste great together.
"You got your zombies in my fairy tales!"
"You got your fairy tales in my zombies!"
Well, at least Once Upon a Zombie is sticking to fictional characters. It's not like they'd defile the memory of an actual historical figure just to sell dolls.
Zombie Pocahontas? No, really? You're serious?
This is so wrong. What's next? Zombie Anne Frank?
I was joking!
Some people complain that society's obsession with horror and zombies is forcing children to grow up too fast. When coupled with the exposure of the Internet, the window of innocence for children continues to shrink.
The question is, are monsters and zombies corrupting the childlike innocence of fairy tales? I would argue that by making these timeless stories more creepy, we're bringing them closer to the authors' original vision.
The Brothers' Grimm fairy tales weren't always associated with innocence, sweetness and light. When they were originally written, they were cautionary tales; filled with death and gore. 
For example, in the Brothers' Grimm version of Cinderella, the nasty stepsisters cut off parts of their own feet in order to fit them into the glass slipper – hoping to fool the prince. The prince is alerted to the trickery by two pigeons who peck out the stepsisters' eyes. They end up spending the rest of their lives as blind beggars while Cinderella gets to lounge about in luxury at the prince’s castle.
As society evolved, fairy tales were censored to be less frightening for children.
By injecting zombies into the narrative, fairy tales are able to once again draw on the darker aspects of human nature. These macabre fairy tales are closer in tone to their first iterations.
Once Upon a Zombie is made by WowWee.
Who are these WowWee upstarts?
In 1988, two Canadian brothers, Richard and Peter Yanofsky, founded WowWee as a company which specialized in toy inventions.
One decade later, they were bought out by Hasbro. Shortly before the Hasbro sale, Richard Yanofsky hired physicist/roboticist Mark Tilden as a consultant. Tilden worked part time with WowWee while he continued his work with the Los Alamos National Laboratory until 2001, when Tilden joined WowWee full-time.
One of Tilden's first projects under Hasbro was B.I.O.-Bugs. There were four bugs in the line, each with slightly different behavioral tendencies. The red Predator was the most aggressive, the blue Stomper the noisiest, the green Destroyer slightly more suited to moving in rough terrain and the yellow Acceleraider the speediest. The battery-driven bugs operate on their own or under remote control.
Mark Tilden, seen here with an army of his B.I.O.-Bugs.
B.I.O.-Bugs sold decently well, but underperformed based on Hasbro's expectations. Tilden and some independent experts are convinced that B.I.O.-Bugs would have sold much better if Hasbro hadn't been forced to abandon a portion of its advertising campaign in October of 2001. The television ads, which were geared primarily toward children and fans of science fiction shows like ''Star Trek: The Next Generation,'' began attracting angry letters from viewers who said the landscape that the bugs were crawling over looked like the ruins of the World Trade Center.
Then came the anthrax attacks. 
''We had the worst name you could come up with for selling toys during an anthrax scare,'' Tilden said.
While Tilden was developing his next big project, Robosapien, Hasbro canceled the project several times, leading Richard Yanofsky to negotiate out of the contract in 2003. Robosapien was released in 2004, and over 1.5 million were reportedly sold in the first 5 months of sale. Robosapian won toy of the year in 2004.
In 2007 Optimal Group Inc. purchased WowWee for $65 million.
In 2010 WowWee president Richard Yanofsky led a buyout of the financially-troubled Optimal Group for about $9 million in cash.
WowWee certainly seems to have been bitten by the zombie bug, since several of their toy lines have been infused with an undead aesthetic, including Once Upon a Zombie and Robo Zombie.
And just think, all these big ideas could've been Hasbro's if they didn't let WowWee slip away. But I digress...
I recently found these custom Fluttershy and Rarity dolls which someone made from Monster High dolls.
It's a sad commentary when customized Monster High dolls look more like the My Little Pony characters than the actual Equestria Girls dolls.
Now for one last comparison. Ghoulia Yelps is a zombie from Monster High. She's the smartest ghoul in school and a bit of a geek. In spite of this, Ghoulia has a "physical deaducation" doll which makes her look more athletic than the Rainbow Dash doll.
When the biggest nerd of Monster High can be made to look more athletic than Rainbow Dash, there's a serious problem. This is more evidence that Hasbro cut corners when designing these dolls. Rainbow Dash's Equestria Girls doll was made more generically-feminine than how she's depicted in the movie.
Even though the Monster High dolls are of much higher quality, there's no price difference between the competing brands. Both Equestria Girls and Monster High dolls each cost roughly $22. The level of detail between the two dolls is as different as night and day.
I also fear that I have been overly-critical when discussing Monster High. While I may find the webisodes vapid and insulting, I can't fault the dolls themselves; they're top notch products. Monster High was handled much better than the first wave of Equestria Girls dolls.
PixelKitties on deviantART has written a series of four blog posts which compares the Equestria Girls to the Monster High dolls. They are very well-written and help to illustrate just how much time and effort goes into making Monster High dolls.
You can find her articles in the links below.
In Defense of Monster High Part 1: Why Ghouls Rule
In Defense of Monster High Part 2: Ghoulia
In Defense of Monster High Part 3: Skelita
In Defense of Monster High Part 4: Jinafire Long
Thanks for reading and feel free to share your opinions in the comments.
From Pony To Person: The Disturbing Evolution Of My Little Pony
A Huffington Post article about Equestria Girls.
It's an interesting quandary: Would you rather have good dolls and a crap show, or a good show and crap dolls? The former shambles about without any purpose beyond base consumption, an undying mockery of animated entertainment, while the latter might end at any moment due to disappointing revenue.
In other words, a zombie and a victim. And Equestria Girls is the victim.
Aside from MLP, The Walking Dead is the only remaining show I watch on TV. It's really good, despite the cliche premise.
Zombiefied "Disney princesses"? Yes please. Hopefully there's a reason for it beyond just a character design. What's the point of having zombies if you don't do anything with it?
~Have a good one.
1225296
Here's Snow White's bio from Once Upon a Zombie:
media.tumblr.com/d7fc00ba3f788345fb9002e1a918ac84/tumblr_inline_mjrrywRsRL1qz4rgp.jpg
She likes putting bleach on her skin?!
These dolls are so twisted. I love it!
1225191 Well I expect to see a Zomie themed episode in season 4.
1225312
I thought this idea was dumb as Hell, except ...
The bit about beauty being fleeting because everything decays and her bleaching her skin, that's actually pretty neat.
On the other hand, what's on the inside decays just as fast when you go senile and your brain breaks down, so ... uh ... yeah, stupid moral. The usual bullshit been sold to ugly kids and morally concerned parents since the 70s.
Fortunately, I don't buy toys because it would ruin my anarchist credibility. So I don't have to worry in either way.
1225439
They've already planted the seeds.
1225499 Very true...
I remember 28 Days Later and 28 Weeks Later... good times. Inb4 zombies become canon in MLP.
These blog posts are getting depressing.
Question for future writing: how well do actual pony dolls do in comparison? Because as long as ponies sell, they'll keep making episodes. If ponies sell and humans don't, they most likely just abandon EqG and lave MLP in place; until it's time to can G4.
What would be cool: all new show, fashion-doll centered, but written, from the ground up, by Meghan McCarthy.
1225312
Huh. The bio is actually not bad. And jeezus, the nerd looks more athletic than the supposed really athletic RD. Fluttershy has sort of a softer, quieter face. Which is in no way represented by the giant eyed dolls you made by your own company. Hasbro, you dun goofed.
your info about once upon a zombie is wrong. once upon a zombie was introduced during the 2013 toy fair in February. mattel introduced ever after high on may 31st . ever after high does have a story line unlike monster high . raven queen the daughter of the evil queen does not want to be evil like her mother. aplle white however wants to be the next snow white. this creates a whole royal /rebel thing. you can't go around bashing this. mattel has created a true twisted fairytale series.please go to ever after high wiki and read the doll dairies and read their story . not only will this defeat eqg girls it wil also ko mlp .
1225217
if you have a toy company you have to make good toys. btw mh only has webisodes which are 2 min long what do you possibly want from a two min long webisode?
1319601
You can read more here.
sorry i did not mean to be rude but your info on once upon a zombie is wrong. like i said once upon a zombie was introduced during the 2013 toy fair while Mattel introduced ever after high in may. i have been able to contact one of the creator of ever after high. i got exclusives sneak peaks. and from what i have seen ever after high could easily compete with mlp. Mattel is taking there fairytale to it orgins not Disney's. cerise hood daughter of the little red riding hood is a werewolf. in the grim version the red riding hood is a young women who has a relationship with the werewolf and ends up having kids
1319625
I was simply pointing out that Once Upon a Zombie's creation was an attempt to cash-in on the phenomenally-successful Monster High. The fact that it was going with a fairy tale theme similar to Ever After High was pure coincidence.
I sometimes play fast and loose with the timelines for comedic purposes. Like when I was talking about Bratzillaz competing with Monster High dolls. I joked that it's a good thing Bratz isn't trying to compete with MLP before showing this image.
comparestoreprices.co.uk/images/vi/vivid-imaginations-bratz-circus-ponyz-dita.jpg
Now this isn't a rip-off of Fluttershy. It was made several years prior to Friendship is Magic.
When someone thought that the Bratz Ponyz were a new creation, I explained what actually happened.