Monster High (Toy Line)

Monster High is an American multimedia-supported fashion doll franchise created by toy designer Garrett Sander and launched by Mattel on June 11, 2010. Aimed at children ages 7–16, the franchise features characters inspired by monster movies, sci-fi horror, thriller fiction, cryptids, folklore, myths, fairy tales, and popular culture, centering around the adventures of the teenage children of monsters and other mythical creatures attending a high school of the same name. Though the fashion dolls are the main focus of the franchise, a 2D-animated web series and 15 animated TV specials/films were released to accompany them, as well as video games, a series of young adult novels written by Lisi Harrison, and other forms of merchandise. The franchise quickly became very popular among children and was extremely successful in terms of earnings for Mattel; it was worth $1 billion in its third year of existence with more than $500 million in sales annually, and was at one point the second best-selling doll brand in North America. Two spin-off toy lines were launched as companions to Monster High: Ever After High in 2013, based on fairy tales and fables, and Enchantimals in 2017, featuring human-animal hybrids. However, sales declined in 2016, prompting Mattel to reboot the franchise with a revamped aesthetic and a new fictional universe. The reboot was a commercial failure, eventually leading to the discontinuation of the franchise in 2018. Monster High relaunched a second time in 2020, with the release of new dolls, culminating with the 2021 announcement of an animated TV series and a live-action musical film, both co-produced by Mattel Television with Nickelodeon.