New to my collection: Mattel's Monster High Clawdeen Wolf doll

I've been keeping an eye on Mattel's Monster High doll collection since it's release last year. There are several things going on in this line that are cool, firstly it isn't Barbie. Secondly they have kinda a cutesy non proportional head and body which isn't as garish as Bratz, kinda anime-eque. Thirdly, in some way they remind me of Sailor Moon which I have always been a fan of. Lastly, I think the idea of trendy, high school themed Horror movie inspired characters is pretty cool.One thing I noticed about the toys was that I never saw a Clawdeen Wolf on the shelf.

About two months ago I saw two new series of the doll's at a Walmart when I went to scope out Christmas clearence (btw these were not clearenced, my finding them just coincided with looking for clearence; otherwise I rarely shop at Walmart anymore). The dolls were from the new "Dawn of the Dance" and "Gloom Beach" assortments. Clever names for a line of dolls whose characters are the High School aged offspring of the classic Movie Monsters. I'm not sure what it is about this doll line that appeals to me, even though I only ever collected Sailor Moon dolls before (note: some people consider action figures dolls, in which case I've always collected dolls.)

I weighed my options after I saw the new dolls, and since Clawdeen Wolf was available on Kmart.com and Shop.Mattel.com, I figured I could get everything else in one swoop and order Clawdeen. Sure enough between a couple of Targets and 1 Walmart I found the 3 other dolls from the first series, the 5 "Dawn of the Dance" dolls, and the 5 "Gloom Beach" dolls. I passed on the first series 2 pack as it is readily available and I expect to see it marked down eventually.

I did hit a few glitches in purchases. First at Walmart the dolls were magically $1.02 higher at checkout then they were marked on the shelf tag, so rather than holding up the checkout line, I went over to customer service to get a price adjustment refund. Secondly, after I got home I ordered Clawdeen Wolf off of Kmart.com to complete my collection. I ordered it for pick up at my local Kmart. I ended up getting a call claiming they didn't have the doll even though it was available from the website. They ended up cancelling my order within a day or so. This was not the first time I've had problems with Kmart/Sears, I don't think I will be doing any web purchasing from them in the future.

So I checked out Mattel's main site and somehow they had Clawdeen available even though I had never seen her in store. As a new customer I got a 10% discount and I could get free shipping  with a purchase over $50. I mulled over the purchase and decided to delay it for something better. Then the other day, March 15th, they had a 20% off sale for nine hours. I ended up just ordering the 1 Clawdeen I needed, and she came out to under $20 shipped, which I feel was good for a doll that retails for $17 at Target but $20 at Toys R Us. Although I don't have the product in hand just yet, it was the score of the week.