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Face Off Season 11 Episode 3 Recap: Mattel’s Monster High

By Morit Chatlynne

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Welcome to the Face Off Season 11 Episode 3 recap! This week’s challenge is based on Mattel’s adorably goth Monster High dolls.

Face Off is back for another week, and they’re not wasting any time. The artists pile off a bus onto a wide, green lawn. They see they’re at the Mattel factory and they’re pumped for this week’s work.

This Week’s Challenge

On Mattel’s front lawn, they meet Natasha Berling, VP of design, to tell them all about Monster High, the theme of this week’s challenge. The contestants are SO excited. Keaghlan is a huge Monster High fan, and says she’s “like pinching myself.” Ms. Berling explains that Monster High “Celebrates individuality and kindness” and is about kids who deal with everyday teen things… and things that only happen to monsters, like losing an arm during class.

Mattel is thinking of making a movie and want to see how the dolls might translate to real life. The challenge is for each team to pick a Monster High doll and make it into “a realistic character fit for a feature film.” They aren’t looking for exact translations, here.

Back at the Studio

They pick dolls and get advice from Rebecca Shipman, project designer for Mattel. She gives them details and background about the dolls’ characters

Ben and Evan have a plant for their skeleton character that sounds cool. Rachael is excited to sculpt some vines. Cat is psyched because she loves doing beauty makeups. Cig and George say they don’t know anything about monster high or beauty makeups. Are they in trouble?

Logan and Adam think this is going to be tough, and don’t have a complete concept by the time they go back to the lab. They’re still stressing about their character’s face and how to work in the simian characteristics at the end of the day.

Mentoring Time

It’s mentoring time! Michael Westmore tells Niko and Cat to make sure the ears are big enough so that more than just the tips show through the character’s big hair. He asks Keaghlan, “Don’t think you’ll have a problem with the whole face?” and tells her to make sure the edges are really clean. There are only minor suggestions for the shape of Gage and Rachael’s face sculpt.

He has more detailed advice for struggling Adam and Logan. Michael thinks they should go with simian face and try to make it cute, so they shouldn’t wrinkle up the nose so much. Logan is worried he’s going to have to sculpt a whole new face piece. Everyone else is speeding right along and feeling pretty good at the end of Day 1.

Days 2 and 3

At the start of Day 2, Logan and Adam are feeling better. Logan has ideas about how to finesse the face, so he gets down to work. They’re also making the character’s pet mastodon. Wig expert Emily is in her element making pink and black hair for Draculaura.

FACE OFF — “Monster High” Episode 1103 — Pictured: (l-r) Rachael Wagner, Gage Hubbard — (Photo by: Jordin Althaus/Syfy)

Cig and George are ahead of schedule, so Cig is practicing beauty makeup on George, who correctly says he looks “like a clownhooker.” George does Cig’s makeup and goes to town with the eye shadow. He actually does a very lovely job with Cig’s lids. Gage is making venus’ pet flytrap “Chewlian,” which the doll carries with her at all times. At the end of the day, everyone’s sculpts and builds are looking really cool. All the artists seem really happy.

FACE OFF — “Monster High” Episode 1103 — Pictured: (l-r) Melissa Ebbe, Keaghlan Ashley — (Photo by: Jordin Althaus/Syfy)

On application day, Rachael and Gage’s headpiece is messed up and it’s going to take a lot of work to fix. Emily and Tyler didn’t sculpt a face, so Emily is doing a full beauty makeup. It looks amazing even as she’s just basing it out in pink. Niko is transferring fur to his model and it isn’t going well., so he glues some over the model’s wrists instead.

FACE OFF — “Monster High” Episode 1103 — Pictured: Niko Gonzalez — (Photo by: Jordin Althaus/Syfy)

Melissa is worried the face looks really fake and is hoping her paint job changes that. It doesn’t. She and Keaghlan are not happy with their character’s face. They say it looks like “a drag queen, but not in a good way–like an old haggard drag queen.” They’re not entirely wrong. But it’s the end of Day 3, and they decide to scrap the face piece. They refuse to send it out on stage.

Last looks

FACE OFF — “Monster High” Episode 1103 — Pictured: Keaghlan Ashley — (Photo by: Jordin Althaus/Syfy)

Cig and George are totally guessing about how to do a beauty makeup but it’s actually looking pretty good so far. Keaghlan and Melissa are bummed about not using their face piece and they’re actually removing it from the model during last looks. Ben and Evan seem happy with their makeup. Rachael is worried they neglected their beauty makeup because they spent so much time painting their model green. The little I can see looks kinda rough. At the end of last looks, Rachael is not happy and she’s glad this is an immunity week.

Judging

The artist walk into the judging room, but Neville, Ve and Glenn aren’t there. A bunch of strangers are sitting in director’s chairs at the front of the room. Welcome to tonight’s twist! Because this is ostensibly for a movie that Mattel is actually going to make, they’re using a focus group to look at the characters, just like the movie makers do. The panel is composed of eight monster high super-fans! Those are going to be some tough judges.

FACE OFF — “Monster High” Episode 1103 — Pictured: (l-r) McKenzie Westmore, Natasha Berling — (Photo by: Jordin Althaus/Syfy)

Natasha Berling is hanging out with Mckenzie. They tell the contestant there’s another surprise. The winners will get a pile of Monster high products, and Mattel will highlight the winners on all Monster High’s social media channels.

Gage and Rachael’s Venus McFlytrap is looking kinda rough and asymmetrical to me. Good hair, though. The plant looks adorable. Cig and George’s Lagoona Blue is gorgeous! And they said they can’t do beauty makeup. Niko and Cat’s Clawdeen Wolf face looks like a mask and Niko isn’t happy with the hair.

Logan and Adam’s Abbey Bominable turned out pretty great. The edges are a little rough, but I like it and the mastodon is adorable. At this first glance, Evan and Ben’s Skelita Calaveras looks kinda meh. Maybe it’s just the dark stage. Keaghlan and Melissa’s Cleo De Nile looks gorgeous with the face piece removed. I just hope that doesn’t take away from the character too much. She does still look Egyptian-y. Hopefully we’ll be able to see the mummy aspects in other parts of the character. Emily and Tyler’s Draculaura looks almost perfect to me and to them, but I’m not sure about those Monster High super-fans.

They leave the room as the panel goes to look up close. Venus McFlytrap looks much better up close and the panel says it looks just like the doll. They love Lagoona Blue and say it’s realistic and elevates the character to new heights. They totally squeee at Clawdeen Wolf. Her nose is cute but the panel wonders what’s going on with the fur.

Abbey Bominable was one of their favorites when it walked out on stage. But they don’t get the nose, and one focus group member says it makes the face look a little too Voldemort. Ouch.

The group love the bones on the arms and neck of Skelita Calaveras. Ok I see it now. They did a great job of making her look like a beautiful skeleton. To the Keaghlan and Melissa’s surprise, they just love Cleo De Nile. They like the bandaging and hieroglyphics and say the artists really got Cleo. Finally, the panel judges Draculaura to be “soooo cuuuute” and are impressed that the bat wings are coming out of her collarbones.

Top Looks

Draculaura from Mattel’s Monster High by Emily and Tyler on Face Off Season 11 Episode 3 (Image via Syfy)

Emily and Tyler: Their Draculaura is adorable. They hit all the Draculaura things and totally got her essence. Natasha says they really captured the “bubblegum goth aesthetic.”

Skelita from Mattel’s Monster High by Evan and Ben on Face Off Season 11 Episode 3 (Image via Syfy)

Ben and Evan: They made a skeleton look gorgeous. The panel loves everything about Skelita, and I do, too. Natasha says the details are just beautiful.

Lagoona Blue from Mattel’s Monster High by Cig and George on Face Off Season 11 Episode 3 (Image via Syfy)

Cig and George: They love Lagoona’s face and think her hair is amazing. The scales on the face are gorgeous and they want to see this Lagoona Blue in the movie. It’s one of Natasha’s favorite looks because they captured the essence while taking the character so much further.

Since this is not an elimination week, there are no middle or bottom looks. Cig and George win! They are so happy! They also have immunity next week and can’t wait to play with their Monster High dolls and meet all the awesome Monster High fans on social media.

Next: Face Off Season 11, Episode 2 Recap: The Devil Is In The Details

This is my first intro to Monster High. I am going to  go right out and buy all of these dolls this weekend and display them around my house. No I don’t have kids. Don’t judge me!

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