How is MH Doing? Popularity, Sales, Overall, etc.

[SaelaVe]

Dolls in general don't seem to be selling as well as they used to.

I think in part due to blind bags.  Or at least that's my own theory.  Everyone's doing them, and Shopkins, Mixels, all of them fly right off the shelves.  They're cheaper, and with a "collect them all" mentality.

   I'd have to agree with this.  Most doll lines seem to be stagnating a bit right now—except for the large 18" dolls like My Life As, Our Generation, and American Girl.  Those get wiped out fast whenever they're stocked.  The fashion doll shelves are always overflowing and never seem to sell out.  Whereas the blind bags shelves are almost always cleared out.

[Crriya]

Thank you guys for all the replies!

Even being new to the fandom I've noticed many dolls here are shelf sitters as well. I finally found my Walmart stocking the new Frankie Electrified and was happy to see a parent come by and put a Draculaura into her cart. But at the same time I did notice that 99% of the dolls were the same from 2 weeks ago. Even a Gil and a Deuce have been sitting there for a few weeks. I talked to one of the employees and she says the Walmart doesn't get too many dolls in and if so they end up sitting in the back for a really long time before needing to be restocked. Bummer.

I love Monster High a lot and I want to see it flourish, grow and regain popularity but it seems its all time high has come and gone. At least on their social media, Mattel seems super passionate about it, so that makes me really happy.

By the way, what's with Great Scarrier Reef? Did they just produce too many dolls for that line? Every Walmart I've gone into the majority of the stock is GSR. 

[Morieris]

By the way, what's with Great Scarrier Reef? Did they just produce too many dolls for that line? Every Walmart I've gone into the majority of the stock is GSR. 

Which ones? I don't go into Walmarts often (& honestly I don't even remember ours having anything but the exclusives anyway)

[ReversedUser]

I'd say that monster high moves fairly quick out of my local walmarts. Except for GSR, even now you can still find them stacked up to the top in my walmart. I think the draculaura cafe playset is still floating around too. The reboot dolls seem to be moving out pretty fast though, nearly every time I go back the dolls are different. The first case of dance the fright away/photo booth ghouls (where Frankie didn't have her scar) went within a month and was promptly replaced with a new case (where she did) and BYBY finally got cleared out. Can't speak for Target or any other stores though, I don't get to places that aren't wal-mart very often

Heck, the ice cream four pack has already dropped from 45 to 35.

What a weird price. They were only 40 where I am, which makes sense since they'd retail for 10 bucks each if they were solo releases. I also haven't seen that pack in a while, I guess they sold out and then never restocked them.

By the way, what's with Great Scarrier Reef? Did they just produce too many dolls for that line? Every Walmart I've gone into the majority of the stock is GSR. 

Which ones? I don't go into Walmarts often (& honestly I don't even remember ours having anything but the exclusives anyway)

At my walmart at least it's almost all the Down Under Ghouls. Any of the regular characters are gone or down to one or two on a shelf.

[Shenanigans]

My Wal-Mart still has all the GSR dolls and I'm not sure why they don't clearance them out. There's a TON of them.

[KittyCourtz]

Every store I go to always has Great Scarrier Reef and Shriek Wrecked, basically dolls I don't need. >_< They also have the limited articulation lines. Again, I'm not interested in those. I live in the Midwest and it's hard finding stores that have good stuff anymore.

[Shahaila]

What I mainly see around here are Shriek Wrecked, and the reboot dolls.  The two reboot versions of Cleo seem to sell well as often times I will go and not see them, but everything else seems to shelf warm.  I have to admit I usually wait for a sale or a good price matching before buying any dolls anymore.  It certainly feels like the line is in decline, especially since TRU got the American Girl deal and minimized the MH and EAH sections to almost nothing  . The only way I was able to get Shriek Wrecked Gooliope was to order her online at TRU because the stores here told me they were only going to carry her in the warehouse .... sure hope the one they ship to me has a good face-up and hair  .

I have been collecting for about the last 5 years, and I have to admit that I am partial to the pre-reboot dolls, though there are a few that I do like and I will buy those on sale on a case by case basis.  But it is nothing like before when my wishlist always had 20+ dolls on it.  I do like the changes to Draculaura and Lagoona, and I did get Dance the Fright Away Cleo and I really really like her.  But all in all I am OK with that because I love sewing for them and taking pictures and I have more than enough dolls to do that with for years to come.  So even if I were not to purchase anymore dolls I would still be a fan and continue to enjoy the ones I have.

[Scaredevil]

It's all been shelf warmers for over a year at stores around here. I remember when shelves would be bare. Now they linger, even on sale.

[Lhianneth]

There's been a pretty big decline in sales locally, and it's very visible. Nothing sells unless it's on sale, while it used to be that dolls would vanish as soon as they were available. The number of dolls is also down overall. I'm not sure how non-local stores are going by comparison, other than the Wollongong Target, which no longer has any dolls from MH or EAH, and only has limited Barbies and DC Girls dolls. After the holidays, I'll probably go on a proper hunt to see how other parts of the city are doing, but my area is pretty dire.

• Target used to devote a full aisle side to MH, with the opposite half being EAH, Bratz, Novi Stars, and other smaller line dolls.
  
  • This has now become half an aisle for MH and EAH combined, with a handful of leftover dolls from pre-reboot lines. The other side of the aisle is a mix of 1/3 MC2, Shibajuku Girls, and the rest is Barbie. Barbie is also spread throughout end caps. The dolls vary in price from pre-reboot clearance at $12 (FdC Twyla is still there in large numbers) to $45 (play sets from the reboot like Frankie's hair crimping thing). 
• Toys R Us had a wall of dolls for MH and EAH, with about 1/4 reserved for EAH.
  
  • For a while, Bratz and Disney Descendants snuck into the EAH section, but they've vanished and have been replaced with MC2. MH has also shrunk and been infringed upon by Shibajuku Girls. The new Disney Princess line has taken over the end caps and opposite side of that part of the aisle, especially Frozen goods. Their stock is the "best" in terms of pre-reboot releases, but they're the most expensive as well, so they don't move very fast.
• Big W (kind of our version of Walmart) was similar to Target, but had the most playset releases.
  
  • Now, they only have reboot items and Monster Exchange or Brand Boo Students. While it used to be an aisle full, they've shrunk to about half an aisle, and EAH only has the budget ballet dolls that I've seen.
• Reject Shop used to get leftovers for $10-15 but I haven't seen any in forever.
  
  • They still have the minifig Megablocks and chase figures/vinyls, but no dolls in months.

A few other stores have stopped carrying them all together. David Jones no longer has them, Meyr has cut back on how many they carry and hasn't gotten any of the reboot dolls at all, which seems to indicate they're going to be gone entirely soon.

[TheFuzz]

It's been a pretty steady decline, I think. More dolls sit than last year, which was more than the year before, etc. All of the reboot dolls seem to be sitting, fully stocked, full price, not moving. GSR is also warming the shelves, despite the initial popularity when it first came out, I think they just made too much stock and nobody wants to clearance them yet. The minis seem to be selling well everywhere and I think I missed my chance to get the huge Skelita (All the stores had tons of stock and I knew nothing else was moving, but I only saw her around for about a week and then GONE).

This years online sales were the steepest I've ever seen for newer dolls, I mean, 50-60% off dolls that have only been out a few months? Something about it seems planned to me, might explain the REAL reason behind why the reboot dolls are such cheap junk.

I think it comes down to a combination of Mattels waning creativity with the brand, budget cuts resulting in less appealing dolls, the original target demographic aging out, and the gigantic popularity of blind-bag toys. Dolls and action figures don't seem to be doing too well in general lately (I say this also as a Transformers collector).

[Rhana]

Well, I think it has declined, much due to the rise in prices + the reboot. Sure, I live in a pretty small town, and are the only adult collector here as far as I know.
We have one toy store; They have GSR and SW, who are priced between 40-50 USD per doll, which stopped me from getting Catrine.
I've also seen them carry the first budget line of the re-boot, the non articulated ones, but since I am not interested in them, I don't really care. They retail for about 20-30 USD each.

EAH has been gone for over a year, taken over by Disney Descendants. Heck, they used to have a large shelf space with only MH, now they just get a small section next to the Barbie shelf...

The store sometimes has sales or offers, but it's usually only 20 % or take three, pay for two, which still rings up a pretty high price.

A local supermarket used to have MH dolls, but they've stopped carrying them and redone their entire toy section. :/

I know that another supermarket had some MH dolls last year, but I haven't been there since, because it's pretty far from where I live. I could take the bus and have a look, of course, but, eh...

The minis haven't arrived here yet, sadly. But we're going to the next town over next week, so I hope TRU has them.

[Wardah]

Sales were lagging for MH before the reboot since that's why the reboot happened in the first place. Unfortunately I don't think the reboot can solve the main problem which is a change in buying patterns.

Lately the doll aisles been rather empty looking but that's just because holiday gifts and once the holidays pass things will move slowly again. Kids used to save up their pocket money to get a doll they wanted but now it's like they can get a blind bag right away without having to wait to save up.

[8BrickMario]

It's a cruel system, really. The dolls can't be cheap enough, but then if they are cheap, they can't be good enough.

[Morieris]

I'm surprised new stuff hasn't come out in time for the holiday, especially the new Signatures.

[Scaredevil]

Braved Target today and the MH area was just as packed, with the exact same merchandise that was there a week ago. The rest of the toy section looked barren, but it was fully stocked.

[Shenanigans]

Went to Wal-Mart earlier tonight and seemed like the same dolls were there, just the shelves were very messy. There is a display of the Electrifed dolls, Party Hair Drac, Locker Clawdeen, and Surf to Turf Lagoona in the middle of the aisles and I would say at least 12-15 of those dolls have been bought up since I last saw it a few nights ago. So at least some of the newer stuff is selling for Christmas. There's about as many Great Scarrier Reef dolls as there are Shriek Wrecked dolls though and they just aren't moving.

[Marshallbenjie]

Hello!  so i'm basically a new collector from Indonesia. I used to see them everywhere and some of toy store in my town (Jakarta) even had one big shelf dedicated for monster high. A month ago, I decided to start collecting bcs my friends gave me cleo doll for my birthday and i love her! She's so pretty and articulated and all that. I went hunting for a few weeks to many toy store and to my surprise i couldn't find them anywhere! Even when i did find them usually they are only in small amount and put in the corner of the store(on sale).
 After a few toy hunting with zero resut i finally ask a staff at the toy store why monster high doll is nowhere to be found even if that store still has a shelf decorated with mh posters, and he said that monster high are pulled from the market and they want to empty the stock.

I totally confuse here, anyone has same problem in their town? Or maybe know the reason why they did this? Is it bcs of the reboot? So many question lol feel free to reply and sorry if my english is not good and my explanation isn't quite clear, english is not usually use in Indonesia.

merging with similar thread - Melissa, Monster Discussion moderator

[Rhana]

@Marshallbenjie We had the same thing happen to the EAH dolls in my country. It was never clear why they aren't sold here any more, since other European countries still carry them.

[Marshallbenjie]

i wonder if they want to stock the store with the new reboot dolls (EAH also got reboot?) or if their sales and popularity are declining so they stop selling the dolls

[Nemesis]

I have been collecting MH since the very beginning. I remember picking one up in the store, having never heard of the brand, and thinking: 'Huh, that's an off-beat idea. Pretty cool!' Overnight, the MH dolls went from a corner of the 'Pink Aisle' to OWNING the Pink Aisle. Most people here probably remember the massive surge of competing doll lines that popped up after MH became a hit, with Novi Stars, Bratzillaz, Mystixx, etc. making up about half the toy commercials on television.

Alas, fads come and go. I doubt there will ever be a day when fashion dolls go out altogether, but their time in the limelight has come to an end for now. Now it is the age of the Shopkins (and their blind-bagged mini-competitors).

Kinda like how the 'space toys' replaced the 'Woody's Round-Up' in Toy Story 2, LOL. Mattel was wise to release their new MH minis into the fray!

All in all, I don't think the reboot has had much effect on sales. New and old dolls alike are still warming shelves at my local stores, and even online. The initial marketing for MH was aimed at teens, then they quickly shifted demographics to tweens/pretweens. Now they're lowering the target age-range further still, probably in the hopes of selling to the younger 'Barbie' crowd. I tend to believe that MH, like MLP, will continue on in some form for a long time to come... just probably not as king of the toy aisle anymore.