"Khaki Girl" Monster High Knockoff Doll from China

Since Halloween is rapidly approaching, I thought it would be fun to look at some monster dolls.  As I hunted around for an appropriately spooky doll to review, I was struck by how many lines are still imitating the spindly look or supernatural theme of the mega-popular Monster High characters.  There are the Mystixx zombie and vampire dolls, the Zombie Girls, Midnight Magic Day and Night dolls, the Once Upon a Zombie line, Mattel's own Ever After High dolls...and even a bunch of shameless bootlegs of actual Monster High dolls.

It would be great to show off several monster-themed dolls this week, but as things are going I'll probably only get to one or two.  I'll start with a very blatant example: a knockoff copy of Monster High Clawdeen that I found on eBay:

Khaki Girl knockoff doll (left) and Monster High Scaris Clawdeen Wolf (right).

The doll I bought is from a line called Khaki Girl that is sold out of China.  I paid $13.49 (including shipping) for this doll, and it arrived in twelve days.  The doll box was covered with bubble wrap and a lot of yellow packing tape:

The box was a little worse for wear after its journey, but nowhere near as bad as it could have been given the minimal protection offered by a single layer of bubble wrap:

Look familiar?

I have no idea where the name of this line came from. I tried to translate "khaki" into Chinese and then back again to see if there might have been a translation error, but the only different interpretation I could find was (predictably) "tan."  So maybe it's supposed to be Tan Girl, like the West coast has the sunshine and the girls all get so tanned?  Hm.

I mean, there's also a slang expression, "khaki monster," but that label has a pretty straight forward meaning: someone who is obsessed with wearing khaki pants and hates jeans.  That doesn't really fit the Monster High vibe, if you ask me.  In fact, it's almost the opposite of the Monster High image...so maybe there's some clever irony in this title?  Seems unlikely.

The auction title for this doll didn't mention anything about Khaki Girls, though, or khaki pants for that matter.  The actual title was, "Free Shipping Monster High 14" WISHES Count Fabulous DOLL IN ORIGINAL BOX."  Note that it doesn't say Monster High look-a-like...just Monster High.  It also says Count Fabulous, which I though was a pretty awesome (and original) title until I remembered that it's the name of Draculaura's pet bat.  Sigh.

Anyway, the auction also had a huge colorful Monster High banner at the top of the description page and one of the promotional pictures says Monster High, too:

Notice that this doll has completely purple hair--
my doll does not.

So anyway, this advertising makes me think that the Khaki Girl title is less about creating a clever new brand name and more about just writing something other than Monster High on the box so as not to get sued.

It seems that some effort has been made to avoid copying the Monster High packaging exactly, but it's not much of an effort.  Many things about the Khaki Girls box is taken directly from the Frights, Camera, Action! Monster High series--specifically, Elissabat's box:

Here are the two boxes side-by-side:

Frights, Camera, Action! Elissabat's box (left) and Khaki Girl knockoff box (right).

Although the words have been carefully changed, the graphics are almost all the same, including the picture of Elissabat in the lower right hand corner.

I don't actually own Elissabat, so I'll use old pictures of my Frights, Camera, Action! Honey Swamp to do a closer comparison:

Here's the top of the Khaki Girl box:

First of all, notice that the doll does not have purple hair--just a few purple streaks.  Also, in the upper right hand corner, the Monster High shield is replaced by a Khaki Girl shield...and Khaki Girl is abbreviated "KQ," which makes absolutely no sense and is probably a typo.  

The design of the shield has also been changed quite a bit, and the skull has been given a pink hat instead of a bow.  The backdrop graphic that's visible at the top of the box looks the same as the Frights, Camera, Action! backdrop.

Here's Honey's box for comparison:

The upper left hand corner of the original box has an ad for the 2014 Frights, Camera, Action! DVD...but on the Khaki Girl box it's just a picture of something that looks like a DVD with the words "New Style" next to it:

Here's the bottom of Honey Swamp's box:

The bottom of the Khaki Girl box has a picture of Elissabat and the Frights, Camera, Action! marquee...but with the words replaced by "Fashion Trends Popular:"

Another difference: this toy is marked for ages 3 and up, while the Monster High box says 6 and up.

In the place of the doll's name and parentage, the Khaki Girl box just says "Beautiful new series of magic girl!  Fashion party."

This is so random, it got me wondering if there's some kind of automatic phrase generator that's used for fake Monster High doll advertising.  Like doll box Mad Libs or something.  

Here's my own version:

I got this: Meet the Trendy Girls!  They're fashionable, magic dolls with their own joyous sense of style. Enter their party world to unlock your miracle imagination and begin a stylish series of fun adventures!  You've never seen anything as popular as this!  

That works, right?

Anyway, here's the back of the Khaki Girl box:

And here's the Monster High box for comparison:

Once again, a lot of the graphics are the same, but the words have been changed.  For example, the Monster High box has the slogan, "Be Yourself. Be Unique. Be a Monster" at the top.  The Khaki Girl box could have gone with something like, "Copy Someone Else. Be Repetitive. Be a Monster," but instead they went with: "New series of magic girl!  Give children more surprise!"

I'll tell you right now that there are certainly a lot of surprises with this doll, but few of them are good.

The picture on the back of the Khaki Girl box includes Honey, Elissabat, Clawdia and Draculaura.  These copied images take the place of what is usually a cartoon of the actual character that's in the box, alongside a short biography:

The special thing about the Khaki Girl box is that it has some holographic stars that shimmer when the box is moved.  You can see them pretty clearly on Elissabat's dress in this picture:

I think Mattel should copy this.

At the bottom of the box, there's supposed to be a description of the Frights, Camera, Action! story, like this:

Honey Swamp's box.

But with the Khaki Girls, we get this instead:

I think they were using a random phrase generator again here.

It would be cool if the red words held some kind of secret message, but "Monster girl, joy to experience a miracle, come on, Shining Star, took me home!" sounds more like a bad come-on line than anything else I can decipher.

Not surprisingly, there's no copyright information at the bottom of the box, just some text that I cannot read and a warning about keeping the doll away from children under three:

The doll is attached to a corrugated cardboard backdrop that slides out of the main box:

Despite being in a Frights, Camera, Action! style box, this doll's clothes are more similar to the second wave Clawdeen Wolf's outfit:

I don't have second wave Clawdeen anymore, but I did find this old picture where you can kind-of see her shirt:

The Khaki Girl doll (who I should give a name--maybe Deena, after Clawdeen?) came with a lot of dust and debris on her face.  It was hard to tell at first which of the white marks were paint scuffs and which would be removable:

Most of those flecks brushed off, but there is a real scuff on the nose.

This doll also has a noticeable and unpleasant chemical smell that did not lessen throughout the review.  It makes me wonder what types of cheap plastic were used in the manufacturing.

Deena comes with a brush and a suitcase.  The deluxe dolls in the Monster High Scaris line all come with suitcases.  So now we have three Monster High lines represented with this knockoff: Frights, Camera, Action!, the second wave, and Scaris.  

I was really hoping that the copper rectangle displayed behind the suitcase was a journal (that would have been fun to read), but unfortunately it's just a piece of cardboard:

Deena was attached to the backdrop with several wire ties.  Her accessories were attached with plastic ties.  It was pretty easy to get her out, although the plastic ties in the suitcase were very tight.

Here's everything that was in the box, including the fake journal:

The fake journal has the same holographic stars as the back of the box:

Deena's suitcase is small and made out of hard pink plastic. It has a mirrored apple on the front, because why stop at ripping off only Mattel's logos?

The iSuitcase.

Update: actually, Alina_Mau's clever eye figured out that this is actually the same mold as Ever After High Apple White's Legacy Book!  That's what the apple is for.  The levels of copying go deeper than I thought....

The body of the suitcase is in the shape of a (Legacy) book, and the edges are decorated to look like pages and a binding:

The handle of the suitcase is very short, but it does lift up and down:

The suitcase also opens and can hold several small items:

Here's Deena's suitcase next to Scaris Clawdeen's suitcase:

Clawdeen's suitcase is much bigger, with a tall handle.  It also has a lot of elaborate molded decorations.  I really like the Scaris suitcases because they're completely different for each character.

Clawdeen's suitcase even has molded details on the interior:

Deena's brush uses the same mold as the Monster High brushes, but the lettering along the handle has been replaced with a zig-zag:

You can still see where the tips of the "Monster High" lettering would have been, though.

The Khaki Girl brush is made out of thinner plastic than Monster High brushes, and the molding job is not as good.  The edges are white and there are some rough tips on the teeth:

Here's an actual Monster High brush for comparison:

The edges of this brush are thick, and the teeth are rounded and nicely uniform:

Here are both brushes together:

I had a hard time getting Deena to stand up on her own.  Her joints are pretty loose and her shoes are also very thin and crooked.

Her hair is a nice rich brown color with a silky streak of purple running through it:

There were a lot of tangles in the back of the hair, though:

I brushed the hair carefully (as I always do...) and this is how much hair came out.  No joke:

The brush was 100% clean when I started.  Promise.

Here's all of the hair on its own:

The hairball is so big, it almost looks like another accessory...

...like a pet, perhaps?

I'm going to name him Croissant.

Not surprisingly, Deena was left with many empty hair plugs:

Although the rooting job was not especially dense to begin with:

The hair actually has a lot of volume when it's down, though:

The texture isn't terrible, in fact the purple strands feel nice.  The brown hair fibers are soft at the top, but very coarse at the ends.  The rooting is also haphazard, so it's difficult to get the hair to fall in an orderly or fashionable way. 

I had a really hard time making the hair look good, so I ended up just putting it into a ponytail:

And it still doesn't look very good.

You can see in these pictures how the hair won't lay flat on top, and how the coarse ends stick out significantly:

Deena's head mold is exactly the same as Clawdeen's:

The head is made out of soft vinyl (no hard glue inside...) and it has a shiny appearance overall.

The eye decals are the same basic shape and style as Monster High eyes, but the quality is pretty bad.  A lot of the paint is peeling and the coverage is not perfect:

I think there's supposed to be glitter around the eyes--like eyeshadow--but there are only three or four single pieces of glitter above each eye.

The right eye also has a small white paint smudge on the iris:

The lips are light pink and also have a few areas of missing paint:

Those fangs are actually better-painted than some real Monster High doll teeth, though.

The entire area around Deena's eye is really shiny.  I think the eyes and eyebrows must all be part of the same large decal.

Deena is wearing a long shirt with a knitted collar, hem and cuffs:

The shirt closes in the back with velcro, which didn't look very good right out of the box:

The back looks a little better with the velcro straightened out, but there's still a pretty big gap at the bottom of this seam.

Before (left) and after (right).

The entire shirt is stitched together with pink thread, and this is visible along most of the seams.

The thread is especially visible along the left side of the shirt, where most of the seam is ripped open:

The right side of the shirt is in tact, though:

Aside from the ripped seam, the construction of this shirt is decent.  The pink thread is such an odd choice, though.

The fabric of the shirt is a loose purple knit with shiny spotted leopard-like patches:

Deena has tall black boots that are made out of very thin plastic--like what vending machine toys or carnival prizes are made out of:

The bottoms of these boots are uneven, so they can only stand on their own then they're leaning against each other.

The boots have a molded leaf pattern, but the underwhelming look is an insult to the legendary Monster High footwear.

Footwear Fail.

Update: Presto recognized these as Ever After High boots--from Legacy Day Raven Queen.  Sheesh.  Now that I've been told, I can definitely see that they're the same mold.  Thank you, Presto!  The cheap plastic and bad molding make these boots an insult even to the slightly-less-legendary Ever After High shoes.

Deena is also wearing very simple, crudely-stitched purple capri pants:

The pants are made out of a knit fabric and stitched together with white thread.  Knitted textiles have two sides--the knit side and the purl side.  On these pants, one of the legs has the knit side facing out, the other leg has the purl side facing out.  That's pretty sloppy.

There are a couple of snags in the fabric, too.

Here's the inside-out or purl side:

Deena's body mold is the same as a Monster High doll:

Deena's lower legs and full arms are made out of much softer vinyl than what's on a Monster High doll, though.  This gives the body a very different feel.

Overall, I don't like the bendy limbs, but the softer vinyl does allow Deena to cross her arms in a sassy way:

The quality of the molding and construction is not very good.  Deena's torso side seams don't line up perfectly:

She has stains along her arms and on her legs:

And there are fragments of plastic and vinyl at most of Deena's joints, but these don't interfere with movement.

The copyright has been removed from the mold and replaced with a simple "Made in China" mark and a number:

Deena's lower arms and hands are removable--just like they are on real Monster High dolls:

Khaki Girl hand.

The peg attachment is slightly different (shorter and wider) on the Khaki Girl hand, though:

Khaki Girl hand, Clawdeen hand.

The hands come off easily and feel like they will stay in place without any problem.

The hand mold is not the clawed version that newer Clawdeen dolls have:

Khaki Girl hand (left), 13 Wishes Clawdeen hand (right).

The shape looks identical to the original Clawdeen's hand mold:

Khaki Girl hand (left), first wave Clawdeen hand (right).

Notice how the edges of the hand are rough on the Khaki Girl, but nicely smoothed on the Monster High hand.

Khaki Girl hand (left), first wave Clawdeen hand (right).

The lower arm shapes are very similar, too, with the exception of the peg:

Khaki Girl arm (left), 13 Wishes Clawdeen arm (right).

The leg molds look almost exactly the same, except that Deena's feet are different.  They don't have a space next to the big toe:

Overall, Deena poses like a Monster High doll.  The biggest difference is that her flexible vinyl limbs are shiny and have less stability.

Here's Deena next to 13 Wishes Clawdeen:

Khaki Girl, Monster High Clawdeen.

Deena's body has a noticeably different color: she's paler with a yellowish cast while Clawdeen has a richer orange-brown skin tone.  Also, Deena's head color doesn't match the rest of her body very well.

Because their bodies are identical, Deena and Clawdeen can share clothes perfectly:

Deena can stand up better in Clawdeen's shoes than she can in her own boots, but she still isn't an easy doll to balance.

Looking at Deena on her own, I suppose it would be possible (maybe even easy?) to mistake her for a Monster High doll.  But when she's side-by-side with an actual Clawdeen, the differences are strikingly obvious.  Let me show you a few examples.

Here's 13 Wishes Clawdeen up close:

13 Wishes Clawdeen.

And here are the heads together:

There's so much more character in Clawdeen's face.  She also has a nice matte finish on her head, and dark, vibrant eye paint.

Here's Clawdeen's eye:

13 Wishes Clawdeen's eye.

Notice the deep black pupil, the interesting mix of colors, and the careful glitter application...

...and then contrast it to this:

Khaki Girl eye.

Next, here's the original Clawdeen (one of my very favorites):

Although her hair has become really waxy...

First wave Clawdeen Wolf.

And the two heads together:

There's just no contest here.  The original Clawdeen has a masterful mix of cute, elegant and fierce while Deena is just...meh.

Again, the difference has a lot to do with the eyes, but in this case Clawdeen's lips are also extremely well-done compared to Deena's:

Clawdeen's mouth.

Khaki Girl mouth.

For one last comparison, here's Scaris Clawdeen, whose coloring and suitcase were copied in Deena:

Scaris Clawdeen Wolf.

I love her Eiffel Tower earring!

Here are the two together:

Scaris Clawdeen's eye paint is glitter-free, but still spectacularly better than Deena's:

Scaris Clawdeen's eye.

Khaki Girl eye.

Scaris Clawdeen offers a good comparison to Deena overall because the two dolls come with similar accessories.

Scaris Clawdeen comes with a suitcase, a brush and a stand.  She also has several pieces of jewelry and an elaborate belt.  She cost me $17.99 (including shipping):

Clawdeen's biggest flaw is her hair.  It looks pretty, but the ends are really coarse and they make the hair puffy and hard to control.  The thing is, I could pretty easily fix this (at least temporarily) by trimming the ends and giving the hair a boil wash.  The shoes are also not as good as many other Monster High shoes, and they don't help Clawdeen balance very well.

In contrast, Deena comes with a too-short suitcase and a brush (no stand) and she does not have any jewelry.  She cost $13.49 (including shipping).  So the price difference between these two dolls is $4.50.

Deena's biggest flaws are that she smells really bad, her hair falls out, her shirt is ripped, her suitcase is too short, her body is stained, her face paint is peeling, half of her pants are backwards, her boots are thin and wobbly...and I could probably go on.  Instead, let me re-introduce my phrase generator, but with different words:

I got this: Meet the Stinky Girls!  They're the peeling, bald dolls with their own ripped sense of style.  Enter their backwards world to unlock your cheap imagination and begin a copied series of hairball adventures!  You've never seen anything as sloppy as this!  

That works, too.

I started taking some pictures of Deena to end the review.  First I put her in Clawdeen's boots so that she could stand up on her own:

But I could only really get her to stand in this one position, and she wasn't inspiring me.

She's a scraggly, ill-made doll that wastes the excellent body design of the Monster High line.

The best thing about Deena might be her hairball pet, Croissant...

...and yet somehow even the hairball pet is shedding his own little bits of broken hair all over the place.  I have no idea how.

What's happening to my hair???

I see absolutely no reason to buy one of these knockoff Khaki Girl dolls--at least not here in the United States where the prices of legitimate Monster High dolls are comparable.  How is it even legal for these dolls to be made?  I mean, what is the point of a copyright if this kind of blatant copy isn't a violation?  

Besides, if you're just looking for a new type of Clawdeen, there are so many fun, new, legitimate options on the shelves these days.  You can get a Clawdeen that's 17 inches tall, or even one that's not even three inches tall:

Frightfully Tall Clawdeen and Mega Bloks Clawdeen.

This mega-monster can be purchased for just over $22:

I also like the new Mega Bloks Monster High characters.  These little figures are a great way to get a quick Monster High fix for under $5.

So, instead of ending this review with lots of pictures of Deena, I'll end with more picture of Scaris Clawdeen, who I think is a very nice doll...especially when she's being directly compared to Deena.

Bottom line?  Because of her suspicious smell and shedding hair, my Deena will go straight into the garbage after this review.  I don't think I've ever thrown a doll away before (even the doll I microwaved is still around...).

There's not much else to say here.  I've had my fair share of complaints recently with Monster High, that's for sure, and I'm certainly not a die-hard cheerleader for Mattel.  However, Khaki Girls Deena has given me a new perspective.  Seeing so many things done badly gives me a fresh appreciation for the things that Mattel does really well.  I fear that this reaction is the symptom of a more general problem: things that are done well tend to go unnoticed while problems (however minor) are immediately criticized.  For me, that's definitely food for thought.

A week ago I might have looked at Scaris Clawdeen and seen only her frizzy hair, glue-filled head and underwhelming shoes.  Today I see a well-constructed, highly-articulated doll who is carefully painted, full of character, and has hair that doesn't fall out.  I appreciate her multi-piece outfit and all of the themed accessories that were designed and made just for her.  I even appreciate the way all of the seams on her body have been carefully smoothed.  It's a bit like going back in time and experiencing the uncritical wonder of seeing my very first Monster High doll.  For that feeling alone, I suppose I got my money's worth out of dreadful Deena.