Review: Disney High School Musical 2 Midsummer's Night Talent Show Gift Set

Posted by Lindsay

A slightly different Clearance Review today, as I take a look at a set of slightly less geeky dolls. (Or at least less geeky for now, but stay tuned.)

This is a three pack I had been watching in the stores, and when it hit the magic number, which for me in this scale is less than $8 per doll, I snapped one up.

Even though, yes, they are from High School Musical. 
High School Musical 2, in fact.  Made by Mattel.



Full Disclosure: To date, I have never seen any of the High School Musical Series.

Appearance: Troy: 6/10, Gabriella: 7/10, Sharpay: 6/10
Overall: 6/10

After a quick Google Image Search, I can verify that the outfits are surprisingly movie accurate on these three.  They’re fairly well made, although the jewelry on the girls is huge and clunky.  

Gabriella (the brunette) picks up a higher score here for having a really sweet personable face.  

Sharpay (the blonde) just looks... odd.  Weird eyeshadow colors and a permanent side-long glance.  Although, I guess she’s the mean girl?  I suppose it might be character appropriate, but it’s still silly looking.

Troy.  Troy is another matter.  I picked up this pack because I wanted this doll, (I’ll explain why in a bit,)  but as a character he is slightly dull.  He has a vague serious Ken-ish face, while all the press photos of this character are highly expressive, and the eye-paint on mine is uneven.  

Incidentally, I took one look at this first Troy doll I saw, for High School Musical (the first one), and said to myself, oh, I see, this is the gay character.  (The slightly effeminate, sympathetic gay guy who all the girls like.  I did musicals in High School, too.) 

But reading the copy on the back of the package, I find he’s dating Gabriella? 

Huh.  Well, I suppose he’ll figure it out in college. 

In the meantime, I think I can guess why Mattel switched to a dopey “grinning like an idiot” face for the High School Musical 3 dolls.

Packaging and Extras: +1

The packaging is fine, allows you a good look at the dolls.  It wasn’t even that hard to get them out. 

The Bonus Point here is for the costumes, especially the shoes.
All the shoes are very well sculpted. 

I’m impressed with Troy’s sandals, they actually stay on pretty well, and both ladies’ shoes have sculpted on buckles and texture.

Gabriella comes with non-removable earrings, a necklace, two small bracelets, shoes and dress.  Her dress is also very nice, with an attached petticoat.

Sharpay comes with non-removable earrings, a necklace, one large bracelets, shoes and dress.  Her dress is fairly nice, although there is no glitter on the back panel and the silver tie at the neck looks a bit silly.

Troy comes with white T-Shirt, pants, jacket and sandals.

Play and Display: Troy: +1, Girls: ---

I was pleasantly surprised with the amount of articulation I was able to get out of Troy. 

He has joints at the shoulder, elbow, hips, and Barbie-style 3-click knee joints.  This does mean that he can’t bend his legs fully like a high-end Ken or a GI Joe, but they could have easily given me nothing there. 

The body (with its very amusing fake underwear) is marked (c) 1968, while his head is (c) 2006.  Interesting.  He is also significantly shorter than my Pink Label Kens, at 10 1/2 inches.

The girls are close to a Skipper scale, at 10 inches, and have slightly less articulation than your average Barbie, since their hips are cut joints, not partial ball joints.  I do like that their feet are flatter and wider than your average Barbie’s, as well.  This does mean they can’t wear generic Barbie shoes, but it gives them a much more natural, and younger, look.

In case you're curious, their bodies are (c) 2001, and their heads are (c) 2007.

Special Section: Discussion of Custom Potential

Okay, here we’ll get down to the nitty gritty.  I told you my first thought about Troy above.

My second thought was, that’s the most androgynous doll I’ve ever seen. 

I love it! 

Troy is a male doll, but much more delicate and feminine in the face than Ken almost ever gets.    Which will be perfect if I want to do a doll of a character who is either a feminine guy, or a masculine girl.  An androgynous elf-type, a female marine or athlete, the possibilities go on and on.  This is what I threw together in 5 minutes with stuff I had on hand.  It almost works already, doesn’t it?  

The girls are more standard, but I’m happy to have them for their small size, and for Sharpay’s evil grin.  She’ll be perfect for something, I’m just not sure what yet.

Price Tag and Final Analysis: 7/10

These are a decent set if you can pick them up cheap, but I wouldn't pay the 40 they were originally going for at Toys’r’us. 

But at 20 or better yet at 17?  If you know the characters, then you can look at the pictures and decide for yourself. 

Similar dolls of each character can be found singly as well. 

If you’re a customizer like me and you’d like a cute petite girl, an androgyne,  and a... goblin or something, give them another bonus point or two.

Want to see the kinds of things I turn helpless Barbies into?  Come by the Workshop and poke around.