…Hate America for it’s American Girl.
:smack:
Are you fucking kidding me?!!! $100+/each!!! :eek:
I had no idea about this up and coming trend. Some guys at the gym told me about their kids’ obsession with this crap this morning. I’ve got an 8 year old girl and thankfully she’s not got wind of this. Yet.
The minute she does, it’s boarding school in Butan or home schooling in Alaska.
v is like, at the whole other side of the keyboard from t!
I have twins that turned two in November. I can entertain them for days with a big cardboard box.
I’m sure I’ll miss these days, some years from now.
This isn’t new. My daughter is now 15 1/2 and this stuff was around when she was a wee one. We never bought the doll and related accessories, but we did buy the Kirsten books. We looked at the other stuff, but she quickly lost interest in that stuff anyway. She was never much for dolls, even just pretty to look at dolls.
I’m over 20, and I also had these when I was a child. I had about four of their dolls, all of their books, and a lot of the furniture. I was so excited when I saved enough to buy the entire Felicity party set - I still remember the agony of waiting for it to come in the mail. I still have all of mine on display in my room.
They are actually very good quality - at least, they used to be, I’m not sure if they’re still made the same. I’m not sure I’d recommend them for a struggling family, but I found them worth the price.
We adopted Molly. And more than half of her stuff. My niece has Felicity and all HER stuff. All the AG stuff IS well made and will last probably through a couple generations (and if it doesn’t, there’s an American Girl doll repair service, too.) Yes, pricey stuff, but if you’ve got a big-girl-doll oriented kid, cool stuff.
Sadly, my daughter is not and never has been a doll kind of kid, so Molly and all her gear are in a nice Rubbermaid storage box for my hypothetical granddaughter. My niece loved Felicity though, and it was worth the money for her.
I do like the books and the gear for the historical glimpses.
Oh yeah, are they all right? Take it easy, they can last all night.
Lord-my daugher had 5 of 'em–and we never bought her a one.
Grandma got her Molly, Auntie got her Kirsten, she won Josefina in a raffle, another auntie got her the blonde 1920’s one, and nother grandma got her the one that “looks” like her. We went broke buying the accessories etc. There are many many craft fairs where the right sized clothing is sewn and sold–I suggest some of those outfits.
I am sure that the 8 y/o mentioned above knows all about them-she probably just isn’t interested in them.
We live near Chicago–home to the first (is it still the only?) AmericanGirl store–take that ! NY!
Eh-they’re ok. I know that Mattel bought Ms. Pleasant out a few years back so they’re probably complete crap by now, but about 7 years ago, they were ok-better quality than most dolls and at least they try to teach about American history. What does Barbie teach or Jeebus forbid-Bratz?
The books are fairly badly written (the dolls come first and the “authors” are told what to write, essentially), but they get the job done.
Molly was our fav-my daughter also wore glasses.
I figure we wait a few years and then hit e-bay with all our stuff…heh
There’s always something. My daughter really isn’t into dolls.
But she’s always up for something from here:
My daughter is 17 now and had two of these dolls when she was younger – I guess between 8 and 11 or so. The first was a gift from my mother, Kirsten that was, then we bought her Josefina. She also had one of the babydolls from the same line – Bitty Baby. She loved dolls and got a lot of play out of them. We never bought the accessories or clothes – which are all pretty expensive. I used to make outfits for them. We sure didn’t consider them a waste. Especially because our daughter is handicapped, so we never could get her a bike, or that sort of thing – the doll made a good ‘big’ Christmas present for her. In fact, the year she got Josefina was a ‘bike’ year for her brother – his bike actually cost a bit more than the doll, but you don’t hear people complaining about spending $100 on a bike.
I got Samantha in 1989, but no one ever bought me any of her things; in the last year I’ve bought myself some of her outfits, and they are of lovely quality. The Mattel buyout doesn’t seem to have affected that.
And, of course, there’s American Girl Place in Chicago and New York. Yes, these are “more than a store” dedicated to these dolls and their accoutrements. I knew you’d want to know.
GT
In one of their many attempts to ‘girlify’ me, my parents got me one of these (Molly). I liked the books but was never really into the doll thing. Regardless, they are very high quality, as said. The books, I think, also have some (minimal, maybe) historical value.
“Up and coming trend”? I’ve been seeing American Girl catalogs for at least a decade.
Bram Fucking Tchaikovsky, BBV Lou!! Yeah!!!
We couldn’t afford one (rather, my parents didn’t want to pony up for one – wise decision, Mom and Dad!) when I was a kid, but I checked all of the Felicity books out of the library over and over again. Man, I love that girl. Red hair, blue eyes, and the cutest clothes!
Pardon me while I turn eight years old again.
My daughter had 2 of these over 15 years ago (Kirsten & Molly, IIRC). She also had a few outfits and accessories for them. She had a nightly ritual for several years where they had to be tucked into their beds with their “favorite” stuffed animal before she could go to bed.
About a year ago, while preparing for college, she sold the lot on e-bay. Made about $130 or so. If you check e-bay for American Girl, you will be AMAZED at the number of listings for these things. I know I was.
I’ve been wanting one ever since I was 14 and my sister started getting the catalogs in the mail. (Yes, I’m too old for dolls, but I still want one). My cousin just got Josefina for her birthday, and she’s beautiful. They’re super-well made dolls, built for play, but they last a long time.
I think it’s better to spend a large sum on something like an AG doll, that will last, than the same amount on a lot of little cheap plastic garbage that’ll fall apart.
(I want Nellie. She’s so cute!)
I was still thinking about this thread last night and I’m still not sure I understand the… outrage? surprise? over the pricing of these dolls. As has been said, they are very high quality, beautifully made dolls. I’m curious, would some of you who’ve expressed this view (QuickSilver in particular, since he started the thread) be so horrified at the idea of paying ~$100 for a video game set, or a bicycle, or a set of roller blades? What’s the difference? Maybe the video game set is the best counter-example. The game set itself can be even more expensive than an American Girl (aren’t the latest ones running over $200 now?), and then you’ve gotta buy the games and accessories, which can surely cost as much as the AG extras.
Personally, I rarely bought my kids toys other than at birthdays and Christmas – once every month or two, they might get a small toy (in the $5 - $10 range), but an expensive toy like a bike or an American Girl was a major present for them. And, as I said, my daughter loved her dolls and played with them – as much as my son loved his roller blades, or his bike. Admittedly, $100 is a lot of money. For us, that was around the whole birthday budget for each kid and a large chunk of the Christmas budget (I usually tried to keep it to $150 - $175 per kid). The birthday when Doe got Josefina, the doll was all she got that year – that same year, Nick got his first set of roller blades, with the helmet and safety pads. Was Doe’s present ‘worse’ than Nick’s just because it was a doll – even though they cost the same? I never bought my kids video game sets (not a moral choice or anything, they just were never interested enough in them to justify the expense), but I had a friend whose kids got each ‘new’ version as it was released – Nintendo, SuperNintendo, ExtraSpecialUltraSuperNintendo, and so on – but who told me smugly when I bought Doe’s Bitty Baby that she would never spend “so much” on a doll.
I’m 18, and I had seven or eight of them (all the historical ones that were around back in my day, plus two of the modern ones). My friends all had at least two or three also. Now mine belong to my little sister (age 8).