And there goes 2018

Another year down. It went a lot like last year, with a little less dolly love. What did you do this year?

January 7. New dress.
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January 12. Meet Luciana!
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January 14. Taking Luciana home.
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January 21. Luciana settles in.
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January 24-28. Disney World (last trip before pass expires)
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January 31. Logan tries on girl clothes.
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February 11. Ready to travel.
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February 11. Practicing.
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February 16-20. New York!
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February 21. Snowy.
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March 10. My dad got a kitty.
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March 22. Lambs!
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March 25. Maryellen’s trailer.
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March 29. New Maplelea outfits.
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April 4. This is what 120 tablets of Albenza looks like.
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April 8. Cattle escape (they live two houses down–about a quarter mile!)
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May 12-13. Victoria.
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May 15. New Fluevogs.
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May 19. Half marathon.
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May 20. Orchestra concert.
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May 25-28. I missed Disney World, so I went without park tickets. Just hung out at the resorts.
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June 19. New neighbors.
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June 24. Shaw Island.
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July 1. Birthday in Disneyland (Paris!)
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July 1-8. Paris.
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July 27-29. Back to Victoria.
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August 2-9. England.
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August 5. Land’s End.
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August 8. Birling Gap.
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August 8. Canterbury Cathedral.
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August 10-12. Disneyland (not Paris)
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August 20. Air pollution, courtesy of California wildfires.
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August 24-25. House guest.
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August 26. Fluevogs.
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August 26. Lego Disney Castle.
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August 30. I ate my neighbors! They were delicious.
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August 31-September 3. Disney World, new annual pass.
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September 6-10. Yosemite.
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September 15. Fluevogs.
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October 5. Fluevogs.
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October 5-7. Salt Lake City.
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October 19-21. San Diego.
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October 24. Chili cook-off (I didn’t compete; I provided the prizes)
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October 29. Halloween Costumes.
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November 15-19. Disney World.
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November 26. Christmas Tree up.
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November 30-December 2. Vancouver.
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December 12-16. Disneyland.
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New (and some less new) BeForever Outfits

I picked up all the new BeForever outfits a few weeks ago, immediately after they were released.  Now they’re all on sale for about 20% off.  Sigh.  But these photos I took may benefit some of you who are thinking about grabbing these items now that they are on sale.  I was gonna post a really clever story about all of them, but I ran out of energy.  I’m pretty sure I have pneumonia, because everything inside my rib cage is aching as if I’ve done hours of heavy lifting (I haven’t).

So enough complaining, and on to the photos I took a couple weeks ago!

Ivy in Julie’s coat and beret:

Kirsten in Julie’s skateboard outfit:

Mia in Julie’s Maxi Dress:

Kailey showing off Julie’s new sunglasses (she dropped Julie’s tie-dye bag behind the TV…I think I’m gonna have to punish her):

Lindsey in Julie’s Funky Flower Outfit:

Ruthie in Kit’s Springtime dress:

McKenna with Kit’s new overalls and chicken:

Isabelle in Rebecca’s bathing suit:

Julie in her holiday dress and egg chair:

Nellie in Samantha’s Special Day dress:

Felicity in Samantha’s dress:

Chrissa in Samantha’s travel set (and Samantha’s old dress):

Saige in Samantha’s Flower Picking outfit (and the hat from her hairstyling set):

Addy’s new dress:

Marie-Grace in Addy’s sewing dress:

Kaya’s new shawl outfit:

There are some really great outfits in this set.  My first thoughts were “nice, but I wish they didn’t cost so much.”  The sale prices make them just about right.  Not exactly a bargain (like $55 Julie doll from the today show), but a fair price.  I wonder how long these “limited edition” outfits will be around.  I’m also surprised Caroline and Josefina got left out for this release.  Are they on their way out?  While I would be sad to see them go, I hear we’re getting new historical characters soon!  We’ll talk more about that later.  So long for now!

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Countdown to GOTY 2015

Have you noticed that I count down a lot?  Today I have started a countdown for Girl of the Year 2015, who will be named Grace.  Grace!  Like Kit’s dog!  Do you think Girl of the Year 2016 will be named Bennett or Argos?

Joining in for the countdown today is Lindsey, the first Girl of the Year, before it was called Girl of the Year.  Lindsey debuted in 2001, as the first doll with short curly hair.  I shall share 2 photos; one of Lindsey in her original outfit on her scooter, and one photo taken today of Lindsey celebrating Hanukkah.

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Forever Kirsten

Cuteness follows.  Here’s Julie in Kirsten’s school dress:

McKenna gets to be Santa Lucia:

Lindsey is ready for a journey across the plains:

Marie-Grace looks quite angelic in Kirsten’s birthday dress:

Molly loves Kirsten’s Nordic winter wear (I love it too):

Emily in Kirsten’s traditional Swedish dirndl:

Jess in Kirsten’s baking dress:

And Kirsten is wearing the striped summer dress that I bought on ebay last week:

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A (pretend) trip to New Mexico

Today the dollies are pretending they’re in New Mexico.  Whether historic or contemporary, here are the girls in the collections of Josefina and Saige.

And because it’s awesome, how ’bout a photo from a real trip to New Mexico (October 2013):

 

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Dolly A-Z: Lindsey

Lindsey was the very first limited-edition American Girl doll (now called Girl of the Year) and she was introduced in 2001. I was a college student then, so buying her pretty much took all of my spending money for the quarter! I fell in love with her short curly hair and freckles. Here is the outfit she came in, and her scooter that I bought a couple years later (the photo was taken earlier this year):

This is our favorite picture of Lindsey, my mom sent the photo to me as a Christmas Card when I was living in Ohio.  I was in Ohio for 4 years for grad school, but Lindsey and Kailey did not live with me.  They stayed with my mom, and on the snowy day that year, my mommy took this photo of Lindsey in the dogsledding outfit:

And here’s Lindsey today in her Halloween costume (the first American Girl cheerleader outfit, ca 1996, and some tennis shoes I bought at American Girl Chicago a few years ago):

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Throwback Thursday–Girl of the Year

If you were born yesterday, and therefore know nothing about American Girl, then I’d like to introduce you to the Girl of the Year. Well, 12 of them actually. American Girl didn’t start calling them Girls of the Year until Jess was released in 2006. Lindsey and Kailey were released as limited edition–while supplies last, and if I recall they lasted a little longer than a year. Since then, each girl has been available for only 1 year. I was going to stop after Jess, but then I saw Nicki in person at American Girl Place Chicago, and I had to take her home. After that, I just had to keep collecting. Here they are, from left to right, back row to front:

Lindsey Bergman, 2001
Kailey Hopkins, 2003
Marisol Luna, 2005
Jess Akiko McConnell, 2006
Nicki Fleming, 2007
Mia St Clair, 2008
Chrissa Maxwell, 2009
Sonali Mathews, Chrissa’s Best Friend (absent from my collection is Chrissa’s other best friend Gwen. 2009 is the only year they released more than 1 doll.)
Lanie Holland, 2010
Kanani Akina, 2011
McKenna Brooks, 2012
Saige Copeland, 2013

Who’s your favorite Girl of the Year?

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Don’t All American Girl Dolls Look the Same? A Super-size Dolly Comparison Post

When people find out I have 30 American Girl dolls, they sometimes ask, “Don’t they all look the same?” Or, when I get excited about a new doll, my sister has asked, “Don’t you already have a doll that looks like that?” The answer to both of those questions is no, and this post is going to explore that. Please prepare yourself for a page full of dolly mugshots. I also want to say that my comparison will neglect the Girl of Today/My AG/Just Like You dolls, because I don’t collect them. That line offers even more hair/face/eye combinations, none of which I feel need to be added to my collection.

Let’s start with the biggest difference: there are dolls with different faces! American Girl has used multiple face molds through the years. Let’s go through them. I will follow conventional naming, naming the molds after the first doll that had them.

First, the classic mold. Pictured here on Kirsten, Felicity, Kit, Lindsey, Kailey, Emily, Nicki, Mia, Ruthie, Lanie, Caroline, and Saige.

I left Samantha and Molly out of this picture because my Samantha and Molly were made before the Mattel takeover, and I think they look different. Here are the first three American Girls: a pre-Mattel Molly, a Mattel Kirsten, and a pre-Mattel Samantha.

Felicity was the next doll released, and she shared the classic face mold. The next doll is Addy, who was released in the mid-90’s (after I got my first catalog, but before I picked my first doll). Addy is African-American, and thankfully she gets a new face mold.

A few years later, but still before the Mattel takeover, we get Josefina. She gets her own face mold, and since then many dolls have shared it. Some argue that it’s more popular than the classic mold (Chrissa and McKenna both sold very well), but I like the classic mold better.

Here are dolls with the Josefina mold: Josefina, Elizabeth, Nellie, Rebecca, Julie, Marisol, Chrissa, McKenna

To really see the difference, here are Julie and Kailey. They both have blond hair and brown eyes, but you can see how different they look:

In 2006, we meet Jess, who is half-Japanese. While at this point there was an Asian Girl of Today, Jess got her own mold. The same mold is used for Ivy and Kanani.

Even though these three dolls have the same face, there’s no denying how different they look from each other. In fact, for years I thought Jess and Ivy had different faces because Jess’s eyes looked more round than Ivy’s. As it turns out, Ivy’s face is painted to make her eyes look pointier.

Slightly creepy close-up of Ivy’s eye:

And Jess’s eye:

And I’ll through in a round eye (Josefina’s) for good measure:

Kaya gets her own face mold. She is the only doll who doesn’t show her teeth, because showing teeth is rude in Nez Perce culture.

Sonali is of South Asian descent, so she got a new face mold when she came out:

But now Cecile has the same face:

Here are my three Black dollies:

And finally, Marie-Grace has her own face mold.

Compare it to the Josefina mold (Chrissa) and the classic mold (Ruthie)

Marie-Grace has a pointier chin than Chrissa and fuller lips than Ruthie.

So that covers all the different face molds. Let’s look at some other differences. Look at these 3 dolls with blond hair and blue eyes:

Different hairstyles and different faces make for three distinct dolls. I think even their eye color is different:

Kirsten

Kit

and Elizabeth

Next let’s compare the redheads:

A beautiful rainbow, from strawberry to auburn. Let’s get closer.

Felicity (left) and Saige (right)

Emily (left) and Felicity (right)

Nellie (left) and Mia (right)

There’s so much variation in each of these wigs, that I wonder if you’ll even find differences among each Saige doll, each Felicity, etc. Each wig has multiple hues, and that’s what I love most about these redheaded dollies.

Here are all the dolls with freckles:

Nellie is the only doll with freckles who’s not a classic mold. I noticed right away that Kit and Lindsey have identical faces:

That was most noticeable because Kit was my second American Girl, released in 2000, and Lindsey was my third, released in 2001. Nicki and Saige have the same freckle pattern as Kit and Lindsey (here’s a closeup of Saige):

But Mia’s freckles are significantly lighter:

We’ve covered blondes and redheads, how about caramel? What is caramel-colored hair? I’d never heard hair color described as caramel until American Girl, but here it is. Nicki and McKenna have caramel-colored hair. It’s not red, it’s not blond, it’s not brown.

Let’s finish off with some buddy shots of dolls that are similar, but different.

Caroline and Lanie. Both have curly blond hair and green eyes, but Caroline’s eyes and hair are both much lighter.

Samantha has darker hair than Molly, but after 20 years or so, the frizziness looks pretty much the same color:

Brunette variation is easier to see on newer dolls Lindsey and Ruthie:

Of my 30, I think Chrissa and McKenna are the most similar looking. They both have blue eyes on a Josefina face mold, with straight hair and no bangs.

I hope you’ve enjoyed exploring the similarities and differences among my American Girl dolls. I wish the photos had more consistent lighting (I took them all today, indoors, with no artificial lighting. All color correction was done automatically by the camera. I did no editing.) so that the details were more clear. As of right now, I have decided I will stop collecting when they come out with a doll that looks like one I already have. But as you can see, that probably won’t happen soon. The possibilities for American Girl appear to be endless!

Oh, and here’s what one’s living room looks like after a 30-doll photo shoot:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Throwback Thursday

It’s Lindsey, girl of year 2001! (that’s the very first girl of the year!)  This is the outfit she came in, and her scooter, helmet, and wrist guards.

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Dollies in Jammies

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