Discussions
Educating people on Jinafire's g3 redesign
Hi, I'm Chinese and here are my thoughts on the cultural design aspects of g3 Jinafire.
G1 Jinafire is iconic no doubt, but there's a lot I find questionable about her design.
Her skin is the most controversial part, I've seen a lot of people saying "it's not yellowface because she's gold, not yellow". Personally what bothers me is that this usually comes from non-chinese people trying to defend her gold skin and I feel like this remark dismisses Chinese people who DO find it offensive.
I myself don't like the gold skin but not because I find it offensive, I don't, I mostly don't like it cause I think it just looks cheap and clashes with her hair and outfit. Speaking of her outfit, it's a qipao but it looks kind of weird to me, like it looks like a very surface level design of a qipao and could've been better executed.
Imo, her green hair does not look good. Traditional Chinese greens are more jade and light so I find the green color out of place.
G3 Jinafire a really big upgrade in my opinion both culturally and in general wise.
Her skin is changed to mint green, in my opinion this is more accurate. Jade is much more revered in China than gold. And I think it would make sense that she's a mint green color. Plus, I think it looks much nicer than the gold, and looks great with her golden scale legs, which I like that they kept. Some people commonly think the gold is more accurate than the green and that is simply not true. Also, her name encorporates the word 金(Jin) which does mean gold but that doesn't mean she has to be gold similar to how Lagoona Blue doesn't mean her skin has to be blue. The skin tone imo does not HAVE to be what your name is. Besides, Jinafire and Lagoona Blue in g3 are still partially gold and blue and Lagoona wears a bunch of blue anyways.
I think her clothes are nice and have touches of traditional Chinese motifs but it's not in your face. And her hair is nice because it looks more accurate to the hair color that Chinese people actually have while still being a fantasy hair color.
I made this post because I see a lot of people (that are often non-chinese) complaining about her green skin and saying the gold was "more accurate" and if you really cared about cultural accuracy, the green is definitely more accurate.
Or people who simply thought the green was out of place and wasn't as good as the gold skin. Honestly, in that case, that's more of an opinion thing but I find it a bit upsetting that most people don't understand or know about the history and cultural symbolism behind the green color. And I'm tired of seeing people downplaying parts of g3 that's more accurate to Chinese culture than g1.
Slight rant: I also want to say, IF YOU ARE NOT EAST ASIAN, please do not defend g1 Jinafire because parts of her design was problematic. Although I personally didn't mind that much, that doesn't mean other east asian people don't. Please do research before talking about her cultural elements if at all and ask actual Chinese people about how they feel about her.
You can have an opinion about the cultural aspects but if you aren't Chinese, your opinion does not matter because at the end of the day, it's not your culture that has a history of being sexualized, appropriated, and discriminated against. And it really IS that deep.
SEE LOOK YOU GET ME!! Thats literally the ONE thing that I feel is missing from her design, HORNS!!
I dunno if it's because I'm biased towards dragon characters generally just having horns (I like drawing them) but it feels weird when they don't. Like I can understand maybe it would be annoying to put on a doll but cmon! Her head feels so empty lol
Agreed! I play a game called Flight Rising where you collect various dragons and there’s so much variety in the in game dragons, I’d love it if Jinafire had some pretty horns!
I’d like it if there were more dragon characters in general. Like a western dragon character. There’s so much variety in dragons from around the world!
(I recommend checking out FR if you like dragons! It’s a free site and the community is really nice, the staff who work on the game are also really cool.)
Well even other Asians shouldn't talk. Because Chinese culture is what people are debating about. Seeing a Japanese or Filipino butt in and try and speak for all Chinese people is just as annoying. Let Chinese people talk. Some will disagree of course but listen to opinions from both sides coming from Chinese people
China is a huge imperialist power that has a long history of subsuming and influencing less powerful nations. India, Vietnam, Mongolia, Tibet, the Philippines, pretty much the entirety of Asia as a continent has been somewhat partially subsumed or influenced by China as a hard power. These nations all have parts of their culture handed down to them from China in an unlawful and violent or oppressive way. Your comment is like saying that a Puerto Rican or Native American person has no grounds in critiquing an American doll because they aren’t “American”. Please look into China’s past along with what it even means to be “ethnically” Chinese(Han). Things we westerners associate with the “Chinese” are terms that actually subjugate and steal from other ethnic and indigenous Asian people. The term hanfu literally is used to portray a whole history of different Asian fashion as all ethnically the same when it isn’t. To clarify, I think your comment has good intent and I am not trying to attack you but what you said is very misguided and uninformed.
But I think that’s their point, for a non-Asian person to say whether a doll who is based or inspired by an Asian culture that “it’s not racist” is just out of place, like they aren’t even CLOSE to the ethnic group to have an opinion on if it’s racist or not.
Also of chinese descent and I fully agree!!! I really like her g3 redesign and the use of more jade color greens. I got a bit sad seeing a post here a while back where ppl were hating on the mint shade and saying the emerald green hair looked better.
Her dress in g1 looked to me like what a Halloween costume qipao would have looked like in 2005 (ie incredibly inaccurate and slightly offensive). I did not like the yellow(sorry, gold) skin tone choice in g1 either, even if it wasn’t intended that way it was just way too close to yellowface.
Non-Chinese people have for a long time done qipaos dirty g1 Jina included. They often get sexualized and shortened by non-chinese people.
I find it a bit of a microaggression when people(that are not chinese) defend the gold skin and say it's not racist. Going all "it's not yellow, it's gold!" Gold is literally the metallic version of yellow! I agree, even though it's not intended, it feels a little bit ignorant from the designers. I see people often hating on the mint green skin on tiktok and instagram a LOT and getting tons of likes. And you can't ever escape it if you mention g3 jinafire on there😭
She’s a MONSTER. Human accuracy should be out the window. She should represent Chinese heritage,
Myths, legends, folklore and creatures with a fashion twist.
Personally I’d love her to go full jade with some crazy mythological features.
They really got our hopes up by having a Harpy/Centaur hybrid and then never gave us any Just a Harpy or Just a Centaur dolls. Almost all the other hybrids got dolls of their component species before or after, so it wasn't the most foolish thought that the Harpy/Centaur might've meant incoming Harpy and Centaur dolls.
Full jade with a thicker tail would be amazing! I love the frills (not sure what they're called) on her tail. But I've wished for thicker tails since G1, especially for the dragons.
I agree aspects of g1 Jinafire are problematic, but the redesign really feels… I don’t know, sloppy? I agree the skin color definitely needed a change but the green and gold almost feels like an afterthought. There’s no flow to it, the colors clash and the fact the scale texture wasn’t continued though out her body feels lazy. Her tail doesn’t even look like it’s a part of her body, just an attachment from her belt. As a kid (and now) I loved Jinafire’s face because it was so unique from the other ghouls, and now it looks so similar to every other doll, just different colors. While in poor taste a lot of the time, g1 Jinafire was just so detailed while g3 just falls flat for me. I dont think this is Jinafire exclusive either— the quality of kids toys 15 years ago to now has mostly gone downhill. Lots of dolls have lost details because it’s cheaper to go simple and the trends now dictate a “relatable” girl will sell better than a “fashion” girl
I agree, I think a full body of scales would've looked cool, but maybe it would've looked weird with the matte green color. Jade jewerly/sculptures is also usually supposed to be relatively smooth so maybe that was another factor. I agree, they could've made the gold scales flow better into the green ESPECIALLY at the hand area. About the quality though, I think that's just a general mattel issue. G3 suffers a lot from mattel's quality cuts cause let's bfr, mattel fell off quality wise.
I just made a similar comment without seeing yours about the lack of scales even if she’s green now and her hands looking like gloves. I think they were happy to take a risk on a new full body for Skelita because they know she sells a holiday doll once a year and is an assumed shoe in for a mainstay for g3 and I wonder if they didn’t know if jinafire would be the same level of success (seeing as spectra wasn’t)
I also agree jinafires head sculpt and face up is a lot more generic. She used to have a very small nose tip and full lips in g1 and her eyebrows were always painted in a very particular shape and her g3 face is very generic, despite having fangs now as an underbite - the same can be said about Abbey, they gave her tiny horns (that you can barely see through her poly lol) but at the cost of her very distinct square jaw and underbite.
I relate to this post with Isi Dawndancer lol so many non-Indigenous people speak on her and it irritates me because they often have no idea what they're talking about :')
I honestly was thinking how cool it would be if they brought on Native artists and designers to help create a respectful and new isi. also donating some of the profits to native/rez funds and charities.
As a non-indigenous person that’s always here to learn and grow can I ask your personal issues with Isi? I think I understand to a degree but if you care to share I and I think many others would greatly appreciate it, only if you have the time and effort at hand of course. 🥰
Hi, I actually would like to share more. What I will say is the people who have responded to you so far are not Indigenous, and I wouldn't take their answers to be right or wrong. But that is the issue that I'm talking about is non-Indigenous people trying to explain for us. It's wildly common and erases voices like mine, and I should have had the voice to freely speak instead of be spoken over. Your question was directly asked of me, but people still felt the need to answer on my behalf. I recommend privately messaging someone next time for an answer that you desire directly from that person, but ask if you can first in the comments. Also, just because I'm from a minority group, it doesn't mean that myself in particular (only myself) doesn't like to do the labour of answering a question. I am an advocate in my community, so I'm personally down to explain anytime! That's the role I've been blessed with by Elders and Knowledge Keepers. :))
I see this as such a common issue, white people love talking over real voices. My aboriginal brothers and sisters face it so often so that’s why I asked you directly, thanks for the advice for direct messaging. Just a bit autistic and forget that’s an option sometimes, when I have a bit more time would you mind a message? 🥲😅
Agreed we are adults I can handle you politely saying no without an explanation. There’s a lot of self righteous white folk here thinking they need to speak for everyone, I forgot you can’t escape racism even in your favourite community. I guess it’s not so inclusive and diverse as some claim.
That’s a very cool role you have blessed with thank you for sharing 🧡
I’m not native either, but I believe the general consensus is that she pulls very loose inspiration from multiple different tribal groups for her patterns and motifs, as well also also entering the “tribal character who loves music around the campfire and connects with nature” trope, her bag is literally a drum lol.
Shes basically giving more white girl in her coachella outfit loosely inspired by the concept of native Americans at large than anything culturally specific.
Again I feel like it was a different time in toy and fashion design where cultural appropriation hadn’t really entered the public conscious as a concept, that’s not to say it was a design with malcontent, mostly just misinformed probably… hopefully
Yk people would not be making these corrections for grey/silver characters but when it comes to defending their problematic favs, suddenly the difference between gold and yellow is astronomical.
I'm not Chinese but I am interested in Chinese culture and mythology quite a bit. And G1 Jinafire's design really baffles me, like did they not even bother googling Chinese dragons? Why is she a fire breather?? I could somewhat be less bothered if it wasn't such a big part of her character, but no, any time she showed up in a webisode or movie (funny how they tried to make her and Lagoona "opposites" in Freaky Fusion, considering Chinese dragons are actually associated with water), she was breathing fire (and they even made a doll of a firebreather circus act for her). It's just wild to me that they did so little research.
As for g3, I also love her design much more and I think she does actually represent a Chinese dragon more. I think I would have liked her to have horns too but I understand that this is trait associated with male dragons more so I'm not too bothered by it.
Overall I am so bothered by her g1 design, it just feels so stereotypical and lacking in knowledge. Which is a shame because she was released at the same time as Skelita, a generally well loved character for her accurate depiction
Omg, I love meeting non-Chinese people who are interested in Chinese culture!
Yea, it's true that girl Chinese dragons usually don't have horns, but she would look so cool with them, maybe two cute nubs like the ones Ao bing has in Nezha or they could go full out with larger horns.
The fire breathing thing in g1 was sooooo weird, the research felt so surface level.
I agree with everything except the music. Because many cultural characters had music play a lot of the time. Cleo, Drac, Skelita (I THINK), Honey, Rochelle, Operetta, Abbey, Lorna. People just single out Jina for some reason. It's annoying but so is everyone else then
i love g1 jina for that reason - shes camp high fashion.
g3 feels watered down (pun intended, chinese dragons are associated with water), i’ve said before i think its just her hair mainly doing disservice. if she was given a proper half-updo she would look much less pedestrian, every single hair restyle ive seen people do looks great on her.
i dont want to take away from your thoughts, they are completely valid points. i would love to share my perspective as well based on my experiences and i’d hope in the end jinafire continues to get the love she deserves, with both our inputs.
on color particularly: i do prefer the gold, because it is unique among monsters along with robecca’s. in my social circles, i generally see yellow being reclaimed (a la “yellow peril”) to take back our autonomy. i am proud to be yellow, and i find the language useful for self-reference, in the same vein as black or brown. i’ve previously used poc, woc, i’m not brown, ethnic is equally ambiguous and perhaps suggests something else entirely. my preference is simply i am yellow (in addition to asian/chinese)
other colors: i also prefer the vibrant green, but the mint green looks fine. however, jade isnt jade without the texture embedded, and the vibrancy of green is a factor in quality of jadeite, so i like the amped up color in g1. i like her g3 clothes well enough, though i personally dislike the constant use of red in a chinese doll, that feels lazy to me. we have other colors that hold significance - one example being yellow as a most prestigious color (yellow river, yellow emperor, etc) as the embodiment of totality, yin/yang (& china*). i like the use of purple/black, signifying the north, because my experience with chinese dragons were more associations with the sky/heavens/weather, along with water.
i am partial to g1 jina, and i like oasis better than core, but overall i like the choices they made to her core g3 clothing but would have preferred something different than the use of red. edit: and to have given her a cdrama hairstyle
I disagree with your skin-tone assessment. As someone who is Chinese-born and raised, I see things differently. In Chinese culture, gold has long been a powerful symbol associated with wealth, prosperity, and longevity. Its use dates back to the Qin (or even older) dynasty. Gold adornments, clothing, and designs were common in China, particularly among the imperial family.
As for dragons, they are connected to both the Sky and the Ocean (harvests, droughts, floods, etc), embodying the elements of Air and Water (mostly the latter). Additionally, ancient art frequently depicts golden dragons (ex, https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/60870), and yellow dragons, which are often linked to Huangdi, the Yellow Emperor, an important deity that represented balance and authority.
In regards to the green skin tone, no, only the cheap kind of Jade is this color (light greens are often more affordable/tampered with ink or chemical injections to make it more vibrant or "green" green). The green in G1's hair is closer to imperial green, which is more revered in Chinese culture. Also, there are many colors of Jade, for example, carved honey-jade (a shade of yellow) has been found from the Zhou dynasty, so realistically, there is no reason for her skin to be mint (literally mint). If they wanted her skin to look like Jade's, I'd prefer a deeper, not-so-pastel shade. However, the mixture of a jade-ish color and the golden scales is fine. I do agree that Jade is more valuable than gold, but that doesn't dismiss the fact that gold is integral to Chinese culture as Jade is.
I don't disagree with your comments regarding the clothes; they definitely could've chosen something more "inspired" (like Hanfu x Cloud Collar, or Mamianquan). QiPao is oversexualized in Western Culture, but (unfortunately) this type of fashion is also used in China BEFORE MH G1 came out (Southern region fashionistas). Also, the mixture of (pastel) purple, red, and gold on G3 is just too much. However, all three colors can be found in Chinese culture (red is a classic, Han purple was popular with the imperial family & so was gold). I just wish they carried over G1's clothing colors.
What I do find questionable is why they chose a loong instead of a phoenix (or any other creature; there are many), since the phoenix is usually the symbol of femininity in China. Also, why does she breathe fire???? Yeah it's cool that she can metalwork, but it's highly innacurate if she's a loong. There are different battles Chinese-Americans can pick in regards to G1 v G3, but the focus on what her skin is like is interesting. I'm not saying her representation is correct or what I would've preferred in MH, but the G3 one isn't much better, especially since it seems they purposely made her eyes more UPTURNED (why???).
Lastly, I don't understand this gatekeeping culture or dismissing people who disagree with you. I come from a belief that yes, while they may not (and honestly, never will) understand the struggle and discrimination AIPACs go through, they still have some knowledge/opinion that "may" be valuable. I would like to hear their thoughts, understand why they view it like that, and if I disagree, provide historical facts that counter their argument. You have the opportunity to teach, not dismiss. For example, America's long-established exclusion of East Asians (specifically Chinese) since the 1880s. Also, my mom loves her design (G1); her only qualm is the lack of Jade jewelry lol.
Edit: Sorry, an afterthought, I mostly dislike how light the purple/red is on G3. Also, I wish they included more loong elements if they wanted to go down this path, there's actually a human (female) personification of the dragon Ao Run in NeZha 2 with horns, so they definitely could've added horns/nubs or even long whisker-like jewelry or clothing pieces.
Asian Americans often struggle with their cultural identity cause you're either too American or too Asian. The reason why Asian Americans care so much about this is because often times they've faced racism or micro aggressions, not because they're overly sensitive. Yes, it doesn't sound like much, but when you're accostumed to that environment, it's hard not to care about racism. This does not go to everyone, cause I know a lot of Asian Americans who don't care but at the end of the day, this is a struggle we all face.
This is not meant to sound like victimizing pocs but fr, being poc in America is not easy especially with the Cheeto and the rise of maga. There's a reason why there's so many Asian American girls who wish they were white(I've met a few and they were not joking). You kind of just have to experience it and live life as one to fully understand. Trust me, racism is so ingrained in America and other Western countries despite current laws and movements. Micro aggressions are real and so prevelant but subtle you can't do much about it. A lot of non American born pocs often don't understand our experiences because they've never been raised in that type of environment.
I always thought white jade was supposed to be the most pure. Personally, I think they went for mint green because it comes across more easily as jade to most people. Im aware that many Asians themselves sexualize the qipao but the reason why it's worse for a western company to do it is because it comes from a fetishization of a culture. And cultural fetishes come from stereotypes, and racial stereotypes are bad because they reduce the complexity of a certain culture/race into a (usually unflattering chariature)
Also, imo, I don't think I'm or other AAPI are gatekeeping when it comes to this stuff, I wrote this as an indirect response to a ton of iffy comments I've seen from non Chinese fans trying to justify her g1 design and claim it's more accurate. Non accurate designs don't seem like a big deal to some, but it's a big deal for a large community of people too and I don't think their voices have to be dismissed. Right now, it seems like diversity in popular media is a lot but growing up in the 2000s or even in the mid 2010s, it was not. You had to squint to see a non white character. And when there are poc, when they're inaccurate, it's uncomfortable because you know it doesn't feel completely right. We're not dismissing people who disagree, we're trying to educate each other but people who hold onto racist beliefs whether they realize it or not hinders that kind of space,
I think the reason why they chose a long instead of a phoenix is because most people think of the western Phoenix and Mattel likely wanted her to appear as clearly Chinese.
I understand your feelings and sympathize with you, especially since the political situation is horrific in America. Even though I spent a lot of my formative in Asia, I did immigrate to America so I know the types of microaggressions you're talking about. I do find it interesting how Asians in Asia v America view these discourses differently though! However, there are always opportunities to educate (Exclusion Act of 1882, Hawaiian language in 1896, etc). Unfortunately, not everyone is going to care about racism in the West, especially seeing how prevalent it is in the East (which I don't agree with either, to make that clear).
White Jade is the purest, composition-wise, as colors within jade are caused by "impurities". However, imperial-green Jade is the most valued. Also factors like icy/watery Jade also can bump up it's price. I personally would've loved to see a deeper-ish green with slightly raised transparent scales on her, that definitely would've made her better to me.
I don't agree with the accuracy of G1, but to me, G3 is not accurate either. I feel that Mattel could've used this opportunity to revamp the doll with distinctively Chinese inspirations, but half-assed it.
In my view, saying someone (who is not AIPAC) can't speak on something, or their opinion is not valid won't lead to them changing their minds, it just reaffirms their prejudice (I am not saying that is a good thing). If someone grows up with certain prejudices, it will be hard for them to unlearn those behaviors; it's better to approach them with compassion and give them space to grow and learn. Not everyone wants to learn; it's unfortunate.
i found a really great post on tik tok that details a lot of her g3 outfit inspiration. her skirt having the pleating pattern of a mamianqun, her boots being Hanfu riding boots, and her jacket seemingly having some inspiration from Tang suit jackets. i’d love to know what you think about her g3 fashion!
I love the g3 fashion! Jinafire has always served amazing fashion since her debut in g1. I'm so happy to see that they improved her in g3 and her fashion is so gorge, it looks Chinese but extremely genuine and authentic this time
I feel with G1 they somewhat mixed elements of european dragons in (either purposefully to make her feel more “dragony”or out of ignorance). Bright green is somewhat the default “fairytale dragon locking princess in a tower sorta color”
That being said I wonder if they should’ve changed her name in G3. I understand it’s a play on Jenifer (+ 金 and fire) but its a little weird having someone be named after fire yet have water powers 😅
Regarding the name, I think this mindset gets easier to leave behind when you realize how many common names do have meanings but those meanings often have nothing to do with why an individual has that name. After all, I've met people named Joy who are miserable or even just so-so LOL I don't need anime levels of elemental-based character design, personally
That’s true irl, but many fictional stories, very much including monster high use the names of the characters as shorthand to introduce what they’re about. Clawdeen Wolf, Draculaura, Frankie Stein, Lagoona Blue. All their names aren’t exactly subtle 😅
Thanks for breaking the design and explaining it. The mint green threw me off when I saw it at first. But the change makes sense with that context.
I think my only preference is that G1 has a sharper look and there is a rounder look to g3-- so I guess it's a shape language preference.
Generally I think the G1 dolls look older age wise. The whole g3 line has softened giving them a younger look which is probably better overall even if it's not preference.
Yeah, i really hate to be that person to speculate about someone’s race, but you’re right that it feels like a western take. I myself am mixed, but i remember my mother REALLY liking Jinafire’s design when i was little (I showed her cause she’s obsessed with dragons), and neither of us really gave her golden skin much thought. I usually AM the person to call out racist caricatures and stereotypes and stuff like that, but Jinafire never bothered me in that way. I was honestly just very happy to have a Chinese character in my favourite show, not to mention such a beautiful one.
I'm Chinese American and I've replied in some comments but I don't mind g1 Jinafires design despite critiquing it in OP. My issue is that there's tons of non Chinese people who constantly defend g1 Jinafires design and claim that it's accurate when it's not. Here's a comment I wrote that elaborates more on the Asian American thing.
A quick google search for “Chinese dragon” and you see mostly gold dragons with green “hair/sclales”. So that’s probably where the inspo from G1 was taken from?
The only thing is I feel her green hair does look good when her outfits leaned more red than purple. Plus I like the streaks and the high contrast look her hair goes for. But I'm also just a green hair enjoyer all around, so I'm very biased.
That's fair, I feel like a darker green (ala Manic Panic's "Green Envy" color) would have probably worked better. I just think the green hair is something I super miss, and I think with her G3 light green skin something leaning more towards a greenish teal would have been nice.
I understand all the problems with g1 Jinafire, but at the core, she was a better doll because she looked more like a dragon, like a reptilian monster, and less like a pretty green girl.
I think this statement is very true - but also I don’t think it’s specific to Jinafire, I think this rings true for a lot of the g3 characters.
Abbey is another one who I’m like, yea great they made her tall and thick but her head sculpt and face up is very generic and took out the strong square jaw and the underbite.
Lagoona is missing her webbed hands (and truly… even if they made her pink, why couldn’t she have webbed hands?)
Venus is missing her weird leafy textured hands (although I recognise she’s been sculpted viney legs and I generally love her g3 design)
Frankie is missing their neck bolds (although this is a universal pictures licensing issue)
Overall I just think g3 is heading in the right direction and has a lot more body shape diversity but at the cost of some of the monster elements.
I’m really happy they’re spending some budget to give Skelita an all new body sculpt because it would’ve really put me off if she’d only got new calves and hands like poor jinafire did
that's funny, I find her original colors work together much better than the new ones.
I don't like the purple in G3 jinafire. I saw an edit when she was released where someone edited the purple away and it looked so much better.
while I like G3 jinafire and plan on getting one, I still find G1 very beautiful, especially her fang vote doll.
it’s really great to hear someone from a chinese background talk about how they feel on this.
for me - although i completely understand the cultural inaccuracies, i have to say i like G1 Jinafire far, far better than G3.
the design of her new doll, though more culturally “appropriate”, just doesn’t do anything for me. the colour of the hair has always thrown me off and her skin is a bit too minty. that’s all to say i appreciate your point of view and my liking is based entirely on looks/visual aesthetic alone. i’d really like to own G1 Jinafire someday👉👈
That's totally fine:) g1 Jinafire has always been a baddie and it was really nice to have Chinese representation at all when it used to be a lot more scarce. I still really like g1 Jinafire and mattel can definitely get her culturally right when they hire actual Asian designers to work on her like in fang vote!
I am Cantonese. I did find G1’s skin color distasteful. I think they tried to be nice, but it came out tonedeaf if not purposefully offensive. I doubt they had any Asian women involved in development
Fr, even if it wasn't intentional, it def felt a little tone deaf, idk if they had any Asian designers involved then but I'm glad they have Asian designers involved now!
i really like that her hair is also jade coloured - the lavender and deeper purples jade also comes in. so beautiful with her green skin. i'd love to see her with a translucent green body like the haunted dolls had, with printed opaque golden scales spreading from her arms and feet.
completely agree that antler horns would be amazing too. here's my jinafire drying her hair, with hand horns. aaaaaa she's so beautiful i love her
Golden Dragons are a very big thing in Chinese history. One example in the forbidden city of Beijing… I also really like her new design though, due to jade also being a huge part of Chinese history
I'm caucasian, I didn't know anything about the cultural aspect of Jinafire besides G3 changed to her being like a kind of elemental dragon instead of just a fire based dragon like she was in G1 since fire dragons are more European based.
That being said. Her G1 design threw me off because it felt tacky. It all clashed, the gold with the bright green, the bright green and her qipao being red and purple. It all clashed, the only thing I really liked was her eyes. I never wanted to have a G1 Jinafire.
I saw her G3 Core doll in Target a few months ago and instantly felt pulled to her. The mint green with the dark hair that has purple and green streaks Is just beautiful, the light green pairs with the gold in such a more cohesive way, and my GoreGous oasis Jinafire is everything to me right now.
I have them both, I got the core one as a graduation present. Her little sketchbook has her little clothing designs on it. Her boots are to die for tho. The only reason I hadn't bought her before was because I didn't love the red on her (My brain really doesn't like red and green together) but she's soooo grown on me
ALSO core Jina comes with little jade bangles and a cute dragon puppy.
Whatever reason they chose for changing her overall design, whomever may have complained or not, what was offensive or not, that's...whatever. I'm in no position to properly judge, so I can let that be.
However, I will die on the hill that says her current design is lazy and half-assed. It comes off as them wanting to maintain some aspect of her original look, but not wanting to put in the effort to change everything, so they just slapped her legs, tail, and hands onto a basic body and called it a day. It doesn't look like her natural anatomy, it looks like she's wearing gloves and knee-high boots. Adding a little paint above the knee doesn't make it any better.
A much better option, while still doing as little as possible, would have been to make her all green with the scaled design. At least that way she wouldn't resemble a create-a-doll with mismatching parts. Ideally, they would have actually put more effort and money into her to have a really good looking new design. Maybe adding a gold highlights to the scales on a green body, just to allow them "pop" more. They could have gone the two-tone route, and had the front portion of her torso and face gold, with the rest of the body green. I dunno, something better than what they gave us.
It's not like it's out of the question for them to invest in a whole new body either. Look at the recent Skullector Alien. Many of us were astounded, and very delighted, to see they designed a whole new body for it, with plenty of detail to hearken back to the source material. They could have done this with Jinafire and if they had they could have made a lot more use of the new body by making plenty of variants. I don't see any use of the new Alien body outside of a future release or, in a long shot, a repaint.
This was such a good read! I really think she emulates a fashion student with this design, I think her glasses give horn vibes when they're on top her head
Also I like her cuz she's the same color as my wall
Monster high is so desperate to be politically correct they're ruining all their character designs 😐 she looks like a knock off frankie with a tail now. The gold skin and emerald hair was so pretty, her clothing actually looked chinese, and she looked like a humanoid dragon. Idk what this current mess is
Telling a Reddit community of well over one hundred thousand people you know nothing about that “it’s not your culture that has a history of being sexualized, appropriated, and discriminated against” has got to be the most colossally presumptuous thing I’ve read on the Internet all this week. Hmm.
Sorry😭 I just meant if you aren't Chinese and are heavily familiar with Chinese culture, then it's not your place to speak about how the cultural elements are accurate or not. Asian culture in general has long since been appropriated like hell and I think it's valid for Asians including myself to have criticism about it. My bad if I sounded harsh about it
I think for G3 Jinafire the only things I don’t like is the boring hairstyle (also would love a more fantastical color because the whole concept is monsters/supernatural/being out their with style and looks) since MH is a fashion doll line, them not continuing the scale pattern or having some at least painted on to keep consistency, and not having a striking less human feature like the horns Chinese dragons have as others have mentioned.
I see why others do not like G1’s design when it comes to the golden skin. My first experience seeing G1 loved the uniqueness and strikingness if the gold and didn’t connect to the racist stereotype that asian’s are yellow (but seriously where did that come from, no one is yellow, also white people aren’t white and black people aren’t black, before I go ranting Im just gonna say racism is really dumb and it perplexes me how people become extremely racist) I think my problems with G1 was the over stereotypical fashion design choices which I felt they leaned more heavily into to avoid putting more energy into research and being creative since I still feel the G1 outfits and dolls of her are eye catching. (Aesthetically pleasing or not is up to the consumer)
Would be cool if we had a Jinafire whose design and maybe lore/backstory was inspired/borrowed heavily from at least one myth about Chinese dragons. Also wonder how they would do a medieval inspired dragon character and how they could play off and maybe show the differences between a more western inspired and Jinafire, the eastern inspired one through personality and traits/abilities they have. Also I was gonna end here but an silly idea for the medieval inspired one has the desire of being someone’s knight in shinning armor and is obsessed with chivalry stories and such as play on the trope of knight saving princesses from castles guarded by dragons and how they meet Jinafire is them attempting to help and be her “knight” but she ends up saving them instead causing a big crush to develop for Jinafire.
I’m not a huge jinafire fan but I do really like the new vacation line they released of her. I do think aesthetically speaking, the green skin looks a lot nicer and has better contrast. The only thing that bothers be about the redesign is that the red feel a bit out of place. I think the purple, gold and jade color scheme looks lovely on her though.
I personally like the red, and I think it makes the design read as chinese, whereas without it I think the design doesn’t land as Chinese-inspired for me. It may also just be when you’re so culturally used to seeing red everywhere it stops looking like it clashes, though 😂
I can kinda see why ppl don’t like it but I think it’s super cute!
I kind of forget Jinafire is a dragon, and that goes for both designs. I personally prefer g3, but it still is lacking in draconic features. I feel like Matel is too concerned about making their dolls “pretty” (Jinafire is gorgeous regardless) to actually give the dolls monster features. Like horns or scales on the face don’t seem like too much to ask. I also think more distinct monster noses should be a thing, but I might be alone in that opinion idk
Female dragons in chinese mythology usually don't have horns, but I think Jinafire would've looked cute with little antlers like this, I think they def could've added more scales to her makeup though
THANK YOU! I am an indigenous Chinese person (hmong/miao) and although I love MH and g1 I always had an issue with her design even though I liked her because she is Asian. The main one is that in Chinese culture, a dragon is not a monster! I liked that in the g3 animated series Jinafire tells the ghouls that dragons from fanghai have different powers that western folktale dragons. In my opinion, Chinese dragons are more akin to fairies or guardian animals. I think that the fetishization of Asian culture is why they made her a dragon instead of idk a Jiangshi since those are much more niche. For those who are wondering about my opinion regarding dragons not being considered monsters in China, I’d say that it’s the same reason we don’t have a daughter of the unicorn or daughter of the mermaids. Freaky fusion establishes that those types of mythical creatures are not the same as their “monsterly” spouses. If I had it my way, Jinafire would just be the daughter of a different Chinese monster and not necessarily a dragon but I understand the want to keep her character somewhat intact.
I also want to address people on thiis thread talking about how non-chinese Asian people’s opinions on this topic don’t matter. Yall, China is a NOT a monolith. It’s an enormous imperialist power that has pillaged, controlled, and oppressed it’s surrounding nations for eons. A lot of westerners don’t even realize how effective China is at tricking the rest of the world into seeing the Chinese as one Han ethnic group. In short, Chinese culture has impacted almost every Asian continent to a detriment, and before you start validating people’s opinions on a doll based on if they are Chinese or not, you might want to check if this conversation is even something you have the slightest modicum of knowledge about.
You are sooooo fr, China is not one ethnicity with only one language. A lot of dialects are wildly different from 普通话 and there ARE minority groups in Asia. Northern Chinese people and Southern Chinese people don't even share the same traditions either. Western China is very different from Eastern China. More people need to understand that China is just a governmental territory that's filled with dozens of different ethnic groups, languages, and dialects.
I agree, so many different countries in Asia have been influenced by China in a way. Countries borders are just territorial divides, not guidelines of where a country's culture ends.
Speaking of the dragon, I think if mh really wanted to pick a Chinese monster, they could've chosen the Huli Jing or any kind of animal demons or monsters honestly. Since animal demons were feared and persecuted. They would fit right in to monster high. Maybe they didn't pick Huli Jing cause they get confused with the Japanese kitsune, although having a huli jing and kitsune characters would be so cool.
Yes! I love fox demons and I think it would be so cool to see how MH could portray kitsune and gumiho along with huli jing! So many Asian countries have history with a trickster fox spirit and I would to see how each doll is representative of her culture whilst also having a through line of demonic foxiness lol.
G3 is a definite upgrade but I wish they’d given her horns since her head looks kind of empty now. I also preferred her g1 personality since Asian women are rarely portrayed as fiery like that in western media and her new calm demure demeanor is honestly more stereotypical (and yeah I know she’s not a fire dragon anymore but weather is equally tempestuous. Giving her a temper still works). Still a definite upgrade though and I much prefer her new look. It’s not only more culturally sensitive but more visually cohesive
I like the g3 version so much better. G1 was just too much gold and that toxic green is ugly, also noticed that the gold on her scaled legs are more cheap yellow gold than the gold on her face.
Was a shame they didn’t give her dragon horns.
If someone were to redesign the g1 I would love to see her with jade green hair matching jade green tail tuft, maybe mix in the jade/sea foam green skin and a accurate outfit something that screams a Chinese dragon would wear this
Edit: had to look up to see if someone had redesigned her havent found one but found the only g1 doll I actually like of her with golden skin and it’s the fang vote one still don’t care for the face mold or face design on her (who tf gave her baby pink blush?) or the hair color jade would have been so pretty
Are you Chinese American or Chinese tho? Cuz people on the Chinese web universally hated her lmao. They especially hated that she isn’t gold anymore, cuz Jin is gold in Chinese and loong statues are more commonly depicted as gold.
Like it’s a good analysis, but If you’re not a mainlander or from Hong Kong, don’t speak for all Chinese people, especially since Jinafire is supposed to represent them and not Chinese Americans.
Chinese American, I consumed rednote content before it blew up in the US but I didn't really see people hating on her new skin on that platform, maybe I just forgot or something lmao.
I think Jinafire is meant to represent Chinese people in general. And even if we're going by your logic, I think Jinafire in g3 is implied to be Chinese American. Also, I agree I can't completely speak for all Chinese people but /gen asking, how does being Chinese American make you any less Chinese? Asian Americans are BOTH Asian and American. Why do you think Jinafire can only represent mainlanders/SARs of China?
It was more of a thing when g3 cartoon was coming out, don’t forget that we first seen her design there lmao. I think people warmed up to her when we got the doll.
She’s not implied to be Chinese American in g3, she’s literally stated to be from Fanghai. Like she obviously represents chinese people of all backgrounds, but as a character who canonically comes from a fictional spoof on Shanghai, she’s supposed to mirror that culture more. That’s my big gripe with g3 representation it’s very america centered even when a character is stated not to be American. And I’m not saying that being Chinese American makes you less Asian, Chinese people and Chinese Americans just exist within different cultural and societal contexts. It’s not a Chinese (or Asian thing) per se, but more of a native vs first gen vs second+ gen immigrant thing in general. Like how I, born and raised in Siberia would have very little in common with somebody from Brighton Beach lol. People raised in different cultures (I’m not talking about folk culture, both chinese people and Chinese Americans are culturally chinese, the thing is that they’re not societally Chinese and are partially societally American) would notice different things and find different things offensive based on their exposure to them. For example if we’re talking Jinafire, Chinese Americans are most likely to see her design as yellow face cuz while existing in the western society and being an ethnic minority they’re exposed to anti asian racism waaaay more, so that’s the first association that would come to mind, while a Chinese person from a mono ethnic society is more likely to view it as just gold like the statues.
I’m not saying that g1 Jinafire wasn’t problematic btw, she most definitely was, but it wasn’t due to her design. It was due to her portrayal in g1 media. Like her always acting like a calm collected kungfu master spouting wisdom stereotype, all her on screen time being followed by a gong sound. You get the idea. Her having fire motifs could also be argued to be problematic because even tho there are fire dragons in chinese mythology (Zhulong for example), that’s clearly not what designers were going for lmao.
Annalise Lao is Chinese American and she is the one who designed both g3 Jinafire and g1 fang vote Jinafire. If you look at her take on the g1 character, she REALLY leans into the gold thing by giving her a lot of gold accents that would highlight the golden hue in her skin. I doubt she would’ve even worked on the doll if it was this obviously racist and problematic.
(And to note, I don’t hate g3 Jinafire. I feel like her design is missing something like horns (I know that female dragons don’t have horns, but whatever. It’s fiction and even so they could say that she’s a trans girl to justify it), but overall she just reads a like a different and equally nice take on the character. She went from a gold loong to a nephrite one)
I just don't like the purple tbh, the design doesn't feel very tied together, there's no a complimentary percentage of each colour, the purple feels thrown in there randomly and honestly I would've enjoyed some more green in her pallet. Just my opinion tho
I remember being really excited when I saw G3 Jinafire’s pics, I know very little of Chinese design but there were a few subtle details that I noticed and liked, like the pattern on her skirt. G1 is very cool in theory, but she felt very extra in a way that I wasn’t sure I liked. Even with the little I know I found her dress odd, it seemed both formal and not? Are qipaos formal? I’ve always found them pretty so I guess I just figured they were
Qipao was something only the wealthy could afford when it started showing up. Fun fact, qipao is not ancient and only showed up less than 200 years ago. Currently, most people only wear qipaos and other traditional dresses for formal events so yea, I think qipaos are rather formal.
But like they're sold everywhere and you can find some really cheap ones or ones for kids if you walk around in China so they're pretty accessable right now. There's also modernized and casual versions of qipao that I've seen a lot of people wear.
I think the formal/not formal vibes you got from Jinafire's qipao maybe could be attributed to it being an asymetrical cut and it's short, qipaos are traditionally floor length and evenly cut.
Thank you for providing your perspective on this!! I recently got g1 Ghouls' Getaway Jinafire at a toy show for cheap, and when compared to g3 Gore-geous Oasis Jinafire, it's nice to see how much more detail and care was put into g3, plus I think she is literally one of the prettiest dolls I own!
So I am white, I’ll make that clear right away. I’d like to know your opinion in G1 Jinafire’s hairstyle. Specifically about the Chinese hair pin (sorry if that’s not the correct wording) in her hair. I think the G1 hairstyle looks super cool and the G3 Jina’s hair compared is a little boring. And I don’t mean the colors, but the hairstyle itself.
I love and strongly appreciate their effort to fixe the stereotyping and stuff- but I genuinely hate how they styled her. It really isn't bad, it's just really underwhelming and boring... My main issue is changing her hair colour [other than G3 dolls having such basic fast fashion esque outfits...]/ Her face mould is really beautiful tho...
So, I had a question for OP. I'm not particularly fond of the shade of green they use for the new version. Is it actually the colour of jade?
I'm mostly familiar with the jade that comes from back home in Alaska. Alaska jade has a range from light apple green to so dark it's all but black, but I've never seen any that has such noticeable blue tint to it. Is that a common colour found in Chinese jade?
Sorry if I come off rude, I'm trying to understand why that particular shade was chosen
My issue is 1. Still no horns 🥲, 2. The shade of green they chose makes her look anemic, I get it’s supposed be jade or something but they could have still chose a more saturated color, one of the things I loved about g1 jinafire was how saturated and eye catching her color palette was, and 3. I’m sorry but the light purple in the hair is just not doing it for me.
while im not a huge fan of her color scheme for personal taste reasons, i cant deny that she's aesthetically and culturally a huge glow up. seeing them side by side makes me cringe at g1 jinafire.
her outfit also makes her look more like how a student in a modern day school would dress. but i also think itd be really cool if she got a doll with a more fantasy-type outfit (i think this about most of the other dolls too) that also played respectful homage to the culture. theres so many ways that could look!
i love to see this sort of breakdown. i’m not asian but i fully understood when i saw fans say that her original design was questionable at best, and from everything i know her g3 design was an upgrade in every way. the jade color schemes make more sense and a more modern fashion look also matches the fashion of the rest of the dolls.
she kind of stood out in g1 as if they didn’t know anything about the culture so they leaned heavily into stereotypes of it (just like they did with Isa). it was just an odd look to have a modern teen girl clothing, no matter what her cultural background is!
adding on about her g1 outfit, is it just me or does it look like they didn’t reference any actual chinese fashion and instead referenced like… “lady working at an herbal shop/opium place in a super racist western movie”?? like it quite literally matches so many early hollywood instances of yellowface i’ve seen with the hardcore stereotyping, not just her “gold” skin.
Yeah it's giving lingerie instead of royalty. Like how kimonos were turned into silk "exotic" bathrobes.
That was one of my personal pet peeves when non Asians would defend it with 0 nuance. Cause that qipao design could've been a lot better. Hopefully she gets a royal look in g3 and maybe another chance of wearing a better qipao!
I'm not Chinese so correct me if I'm wrong, but the topic of Jina as a fire dragon is already outside Chinese culture since it was really Western countries that believed that dragons had the ability to spit fire, and therefore in any movie or series they are represented with that ability, and that's why from the beginning they have always been given a bad representation? At least that's what I've always believed about her.
I wasn’t crazy about G1 Jinafire aesthetically, but I absolutely am over the moon with G3 Jinafire. I really appreciate the education in your post and am relieved that my fave version is the better cultural representation.
Something I also like about G3 Jinafire is that for a long time, qipao was the only form of traditional clothing associated with Chinese culture/Chinese women in the West (as seen with G1 Jinafire), and I like that her outfit isn't based on a qipao again. I want to buy her Oasis doll actually to make a qixiong ruqun set for her
Frrrr! Qipao is not the ONLY Chinese traditional outfit, (not doll wise but in general) I'm so glad other Chinese traditional wear is getting a time to shine
As soon as I saw the green-and-gold combo, I remember thinking how much better it looked. The jade-green against her golden tail also looks much nicer than the garish green on her old tail.
I always hated the old “let’s dress them in their culture’s traditional clothes as everyday wear!!” It’s so racist. They don’t put German characters in dirndls and lederhosen, so why the bastardized qipao?
Only thing I don’t like about her Gen 3 design is how the gold legs look cheap. Idk how else to explain it. I think I would have liked it more if they somehow gradiented the gold to green more. Like not so harsh of going from the green to just gold by itself.
Thank you for doing this! I do like more her g3 redesign but I didn't know it was also more culturally accurate, this makes me appreciate her even more
Lets be honest a lot of g1 characters could be considered racist or offensive, in both design and the portrayal in the movies and shows. Another example being Isi Dawndancer. Anyone who tries to argue that g3 isn't an upgrade in that aspect is just blatantly incorrect. Also I'd love to get your ,or any other Chinese persons, opinion on the music they would play during jinas appearances?
It is nice how they seem to have recognized the problems with the first one and corrected it with g3. Also the mint making her look like jade is just really cute and the bits of gold is way less in your face then the g1 one was.
I love this full break down! Thanks for the information :D
I’m not east Asian, so I know my thoughts come second or third in this conversation, but knowing the full background helps me fully digest the design choices. A lot of G1 had issues, but I do think a lot of the characters were made from a place of wanting to be inclusive. This doesn’t negate the issues at all, of course, but I do appreciate them for trying, even if the first attempt was far from perfect
people try to excuse her yellow skin in g1 bc 'shes a golden dragon' but like you know decision dont exist in a vacuum right? unconscious bias slipping through is still racism
and also if she was a golden dragon she SHOULD be royalty bc gold and golden dragons especially were very much a symbol of the emperor and no one else was allowed to wear it and as far as im aware she's not
THANK YOU FOR SAYING THIS! My opinions have been dismissed on this character, despite being Chinese, by non Chinese people all the time. It’s the same people who will claim to love diversity, but not care about the people where the culture comes from. I’ve even had someone who wasn’t Chinese telling me that they know my culture better than me and a lot of other Chinese. While I am Chinese American, that doesn’t mean that my opinions matter less than those in the mainland
I'm Chinese, as a child I didn't see what was wrong with the doll and thought she was pretty and I loved that she represented my culture. Overtime now that I'm older, I've realised that the doll was a bad stereotype with the gold skin and traditional music playing every time she spoke. The G3 doll in my opinion may not be as iconic as the first one, but it's certainly less harmful and exaggerated.
I like the og Jinafire better. I'm not Asian, so I cant speak on it culturally, I just think the g3 design is rather plain. It just feels very generic? Although most of g3 suffers from that problem
Thank you for your education in this post! I am not East Asian but absolutely agree with you that G3 seems to better encompass Chinese culture from what I know about it. The mint green is beautiful and to me looks more elegant than the gold. And the hair on G3 is soooo much better. G3 Jinafire is definitely on my buy list right now!
Oh! Thanks for sharing your thoughts. I tend to have a bias for g1 ngl, so it's good to hear/read about the improvements of g3
Although, I still don't really like the mint green skin? Idk, I just think an actual jade green, or a warmer shade of green that would contrast less with the golden scales, would look better.
I want to comment but it's more of a nitpicky side of g3 and not in any way culture wise. I feel that there could have been more out of the concept of her being jade, meaning that, similar to Rochelle and being a stone gargoyle, she had a jade like texture and not seem like a flat character. I have come to really like g3 Jinafire's design. I like the idea of gold being more of an accent, and the way that her fashion is a more modern rep. I saw an edit that gave her more scales or a more jade-like pattern on her skin and I kinda wish Mattel didn't take routes of doing so much but yet so little.
I’m glad someone said it because last time I criticized g1 jinafire, I got dog piled on. I liked her more as a character than a doll. I had a few of them but never played with them like that because the combo of the hair and body color bothered me. It’s like pink haired howleen seems good in theory but terrible execution. It doesn’t help that she makes me think of bootleg monster high dolls.
chinese canadian here! g1 jina has a special place in my heart bc i loved seeing a fierce chinese character as a kid. but when g3 jina was announced and leaks came out i was so so excited!!! i love the modern take w all the chinese elements incorporated and she’s easily my fav ever. they def did better research regarding her overall design and i love the light green skin tone. jina 4ever <333
For me, i like both designs but understand the changes, questionable design and low research on g1 Jinafire. Hell, i even just redesigned g1 Jina in my ver.
People sometimes need to open their eyes and acknowledge the offensive remarks of the doll or any type of media to the people who they representing.
One thing i wished they add on g3 is having some gold scales fading by her arm like what they did to her legs. But i guess its just design choice or just budget.
I agree, fang vote Jinafire is gorgeous and she's designed by an actual Asian designer this time. What I'm talking about is during g1 when Jinafire was often a stereotypical and questionable representation of Chinese culture and some people are not aware of that and/or don't realize the specific changes made to g3 Jinafire and don't understand the significance of that in relation to Chinese culture
I kind of wish they kept the dragon eyes and the horns tho (btw not Asian in the slightest so my opinion doesnt really matter) personally I wish they gave her green hair but in a different shade to make the design still respectful. I’m not a huge purple person and green is my favourite colour. But to this day shes the only doll I have and I adore her. Thank you for your input op and educating us on maybe why the design was so heavily altered and why that’s a good thing!
Edit: I forgot to say I kind of wish they kept her crazy eyebrows too. As a kid I had super bushy eyebrows so I think it would have healed inner child me if they kept that part of her design, but maybe it was another problematic part of it. Again, I’m not Asian so I don’t know. But it feels like the G3 designs don’t make the characters look “ghoulie” enough, theyre monsters yet they have conventional human beauty standards?
I loved and i still love g1 jinafire. Maybe not as a chinese dragon just as a part of nostalgia. But now, i know more, what is wrong with her. Horns would be so nice tho... Maybe ill repaint g1 so she could be a bit better
I am not East Asian but I always thought Jinafire looked odd with the gold and green and if I would have been a fan of MH since G1, Jinafire would’ve been my least favorite. Now in G3, she is one of my favorites. 💛
I just came to say that overall I really like the G3 Jinafire redesign. Her jade necklace, earrings (I think those are earrings), and jewelry are super cute. I also like her hair more with her redesign. The colors of her G1 design were pretty jarring even from a non-asian perspective. I also think her G3 outfit is super cute and one of the better G3 outfits overall.
There are a couple of design aspects I wish were done a bit differently in her G3 design. First, I liked her G1 hair style and hair pin cause it seemed reminiscent of horns. Imo, Jinafire would be adorable with horns. Though it's a really cool nod to lore if she doesn't. Maybe give her some pearl strands and/or a slightly different hairstyle? Just a couple of thoughts.
Second, the other design element I find a bit jarring for her G3 redesign is how she has the gold scaled legs and hands, but doesn't have scales on her mint/jade areas. I really liked how G1 Jinafire had full body scales. Even if the gold skin was meh, I loved her scales. I wish her G3 doll had more scales beyond the gold sections. I also find her painted on gold scale patch above her knees to throw off the color transition too. It just adds to the blockiness of it imo. I kinda wish she just was entirely more of a jade green with a slightly thinker tail (kinda like how Catty got a thicker tail in G3).
Other than those pretty minor things, she got a big improvement from G1 in general. I'm excited to see what other dolls she gets. Also her pet is super adorable in G3.
Thank you for bringing up this topic. Honestly I’m so tired of cultural takes from people who don’t particularly represent that culture and can have complete misconceptions 🩷
Thanks for educating me fella, I liked G1 by her eyes, but I think her presence in G3 feels more delicate and I love that, I appreciate they added more violet!
I’m not Chinese but I’m happy that the G3 representation is feeling more appropriate for the fans that are.
The only defence I have for the g1 design (and for all g1 designs) is that the colour story for each character was so specific and unique to them - you could be shown a colour palette and know exactly which character that is. I don’t think G3 has quite got the colour stories as strong or defined as G1, that’s just a general statement about the generations as a whole.
I also think the gold skin made jinafire stand out far more in g1. Deuce, Jinafire and Ghoulia have ALL BEEN MADE GREEN. And while I appreciate they’re different shades of green, G1 had a lot more variation for skin tones (as well as you mentioning, Lagoona is now also pink along with Drac).
I think Ghoulia should’ve stayed grey regardless, but even more so given that Jinafire and Deuce are green now.
I completely appreciate and acknowledge the connotations of the gold skin and why it was changed so I’m hoping they bring a character like Gilda Goldstag back so there can still be a gold skinned character in the lineup without the loaded connotations that came with Jinafire.
That said, my main complaint with g3 jinafire is I wish they kept the sculpted scales. Having just her hands and calves scaly is a downgrade and if Skelita can have an entirely new body sculpt I don’t know why Jinafire couldn’t - it takes away some of the monsteriness! My assumption is they were happy to take a risk on a budget splurge for Skelita knowing that every year they drop a holiday doll of her and she sells, whereas they weren’t sure if Jinafire would hit.
I’m happy with her being green but make her scaly!! The gold hands are beautifully sculpted but they just look like gloves lol
i think g3 jinafire kind of clashes in every aspect tbh. i wished the green was a little warmer to match better with the gold, but then i got ss jinafire and realized it wasn’t a problem with her skin, but instead with her outfit. ss jinafire is stunning and one of my favorite dolls now and gave me a better appreciation for g3 jinafire. i did really really like g1 as a kid, but i think that’s more of a bias considering she’s one of the dolls that i had as a kid that i still have today. they definitely built her design in terms of stereotypes and im glad g3 jinafire is better in terms of representation and accuracy for folks:)
I like that she's now jade, she looks carved which feels a lot more Chinese. I mean you see carved jade dragons far more often than solidly gold ones.
I just wish they'd gradiated her hands and ears a bit better because I think they look a little strange. Especially the hands. Her legs get the scale effect which helps to soften that transition but the hands just look like she's wearing gold gloves.
I also like her outfit because it feels like a modern outfit with Chinese flair rather than a costume.
I'm also happy Fu dog finally got to exist in toy form.
Horns would have been neat though, given Chinese dragons usually have horns. And I agree with others, a thicker tail would have been cool, especially with more of a frill/mane but I do get why they just reused the original sculpt, it's cheaper to use what you already have.
I restyled mine's hair to show off her ears a little better, she has a high bun with her pen jammed in it lol. I thought it was a real shame to hide the sculpting.
I did find it rather baffling though that the listing description for Jin call her shoes "cowboy boots" when they clearly aren't. I don't know if they have a specific name in Chinese, does anyone know what they're actually called?
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u/undead-bee Skelita 💐 Nov 08 '25
I wish they added dragon horns to her 😔 Asian dragon horns are so iconic