On Hiatus

So I apologize for the lack of posts. I have had some stuff going on in my life, making my time to do online activities quite limited. It is possible that I may also turn this into my main blog.

Comparision of the Jess mold MyAG dolls

If you have not noticed that this entry is late, it is because I am on a semi-hiatus from doing web stuff. So the entries, may be closer to once every two weeks vs weekly. This is only temporary, and the weekly entries will resume later this summer.

Now that the notice is out of the way, today I will be doing a comparison of the three available Jess mold dolls from the My American Girl line. Some may say that they just have different hair styles. But in face, there are more subtle differences than you may realize.

Here I have #30 and #54 side-by-side. Off hand there is not too much difference. Obviously, one has no bangs and layered hair while the other has bangs and a straight hair cut.

Now AG’s descriptions of #30, #40 and #54 are as follows:

#30: Light skin, layered black-brown hair, brown eyes
#40: Light skin, short dark brown hair, brown eyes
#54: Light skin, black-brown hair with bangs, brown eyes

So based on those descriptions, you would expect all three to have the same color eyes, and at least #30 and #54 to have the same color hair. However, that is not the case at all.

While the following photo is not great, the two actually also have different color eyes. American Girl actually have four different shades of brown in their lineup: decal brown (Samantha, Ivy), pinwheel amber (#26), pinwheel brown (#30, #40, and others), and pinwheel dark brown (#25, #54, and others). American Girl does not distinguish “brown eyes” from these four shades, and unless you have a store nearby you to compare the dolls in person, one would not realize the difference, as the stock photos particularly do not distinguish pinwheel brown from pinwheel dark brown all that well.

While the picture does not show it due to poor lighting, #30 in fact had the pinwheel brown eyes while #54 has the pinwheel dark brown eyes. #40 also has brown pinwheel eyes, like #30. In good lighting, this gives quite a drastic difference when comparing the dolls, and can also make a world of difference when you are looking for brown eyes for customization purposes. My poor Rebecca has had all three pinwheel brown eyes swapped in, and the pinwheel brown looks decidedly better than the pinwheel dark brown, which looked flat with her honey brown hair. Now this is not to say pinwheel dark brown is not a good color – but I personally have found it looks best in girls with dark brown to black-brown hair. Any lighter hair color, and it looks too flat.

Next we are going to compare the hair colors. Now #30 and #54 are stated to have black-brown hair, so you expect the same color. #40 clearly states dark brown, so we expect a slightly lighter shade than the other two.

As you can see, the shades are all distinct from each other. For a better compaison, here is a pic of #30, #54 and #40s wig side-by-side:

In person, #40 has the lightest hair – clearly dark brown with medium brown hairs mixed in. Overall, it gives a distinct brown shade to her wig. #30 is in the middle – her wig is mainly made up of only one shade of hair, the same dark brown that #40 has, but no lighter brown hairs thrown in. #54 has the darkest, with a mix of dark brown and black hairs. So despite the supposed same hair color #30 and #54 have, they are distinctly different from each other. The dolls were approximately purchased around the same time as well (along with #60, which the reason I mention will come in a moment), so it is not that AG changed their definition of “black-brown” over the years. So depending on your preference for obvious highlights vs a more overall even colored hair, I certainly would keep that in mind.

Why did I mention #60? Well #60 is also stated to have black-brown hair. Comparing her in the mix, she most resembles #54, with distinct dark brown and black strands of hair dispersed throughout her wig. Again, this doll was purchased around the same time as #30 and #54.

On a brief aside, regarding the hair style – the blunt cut will be even all around. While #30 and #60 both have layered hair, #30’s layering is much more drastic than #60. #30’s hair is longer, but she has starker layering which makes it thinner overall (if you are East Asian and get your hair cut by any East Asian styler, I think you know what I mean, and how much we appreciate the thinning and layering). #60 has minor layering framing her face, but in the back, her hair is all the same length. The shortest layer on #30 reaches her elbows when pulled straight while the shortest layer on #60 is about 1/2 inch to 1 inch above her elbows. The heavier layering on #30 does leave more bounce and flip to her wig, while #60’s tends to stay quite flat. I know some prefer thicker hair and dismiss #30’s thin wig, but as an Asian, this is exactly how I keep my hair, and appreciate that AG has a doll with a similar hair cut.

For comparison of wig make-up, I think we can think of two other dolls: Saige and Marie-Grace. Saige pretty much lacks highlights, so to speak, of distinctly different colored hairs in her wig. Overall, her wig is made of hairs all of the same color. With Marie-Grace, there are noticeably different colored strands of hair in her wig – ranging from blonde to light brown to a maroon-tinted brown.

Is one better than another in terms of eyes or wigs? Not really. It is all more of a personal preference, as we as human beings can have a lot of variance in eye color and the natural coloring of our hair. Between a friend and I, our coloring is covered between #30 and #54. He has evenly colored black-brown hair that is undoubtedly brown in the sun, and medium brown eyes (#30), while I have the dark brown streaks in my hair mixed in the almost black hair and dark brown eyes (#54). If anything, I have to applaud AG for truly hitting real-life phenotypes.

So there you have it – the differences between #30, #40 and #54. If you are looking at the three, those are a few untold differences you may not catch otherwise. I should have #25 in a couple weeks as well to throw into the comparison. (I do not have an unhealthy obsession with dark haired dolls – there is only a distinct lack of dark haired dolls in the Historical and GOTY lines, so I need to make it up somehow.)

Hope you enjoyed this entry.

Creating Custom AG Dolls

So for those who are more invested in American Girl dolls as a hobby, custom dolls frequently come up. However what are custom dolls?

Custom dolls are dolls that commonly use American Girl brand parts (body, wig, eyes), but swap combinations around to attain the phenotype desired. So for example, one may change the eye color of an Isabelle doll but popping out her hazel eyes, and swapping in blue eyes from a McKenna doll. It is important to note that such customizations do void the warranty on a doll purchased from American Girl, so if you have any problems, AG is under no obligation to help you out.

The main two components to making a custom doll involve (1) an eye swap and (2) a wig swap.

An eye swap involves popping out the eyes. However, the dolls are made of a sturdy vinyl, so in order to make it easier on your fingers and hands to get those eyes out, one typically will remove the head by untying the neck strings, and pour close to boiling water into the cavity inside the head. This will make the vinyl more pliable and easier to pop out the eyes. You will likely need to “heat up” the vinyl again when you are ready to pop in new eyes.

Never Grow Up has a great tutorial here.

Regarding wigs, it is a bit easier on one’s hands. Simply, you need to work on prying the wig off using a spoon or other utensil. There will be some residue left on the head from the old wig. Then you can glue on the new wig of your choice.

Love. Believe. Create. has a great tutorial here.

So why create customs? Why go to the trouble of finding all the parts to get the certain phenotype you are seeking? Well, for some folks, it is a hobby, much like painting or sewing. For others, they are set on a certain face mold/eye color/hair color combo, and American Girl just has not produced it yet. So they take the initiative to make it themselves.

Here I will present two custom dolls of mine. The first is a #40 who now has Saige’s wig.

My goal with this combo was to create an Asian character who had dyed/permed hair, much like some of the popular pop singers. See the furthest right for a close example of the look I was going for:

So realistically, a ten year old girl will not have her hair dyed. But if she is biracial – why not? It seems that with the exception of Kanani, AG is stuck on having Jess mold dolls only with brown eyes and dark brown or black-brown hair.

The next custom involved both an eye swap and wig swap. The doll originally started off as a #53, and had her wig scalped and brown eyes popped out. Ruthie nicely donated her grey eyes, and Isabelle donated her wig. This doll is now known as Alex.

In some ways, I wish Isabelle had looked like this, or at least had grey eyes. However, I can understand why AG did not go this route, as she is somewhat similar to McKenna.

Many thanks to Jody at AG Playthings who actually did the custom work for me. You will certainly see a lot of pictures of Alex, as she is a doll I have been planning on for a long time. The first one is still unnamed, but she will make appearances at some point.

Review: Maplelea Saila

Today I am going to review a different doll line, The Maplelea Girls, and one of their character dolls, Saila. The line is stated to represent Canadian girls from various parts of Canada.

Maplelea is the sole product line of Avonlea Traditions Inc. Originally the company maintained other product lines, including those based on Anne of Green Gables. In 2003, Avonlea Traditions Inc. introduced the Maplelea Girls, originally releasing four characters, Alexi, Brianne, Jenna and Taryn, to represent high quality vinyl play dolls of today’s Canadian girls from coast to coast, which eventually became their sole focus in 2006. Leonie and Saila were added to the lineup over the years since, and the company also introduced a new doll line, Maplelea friends, that are nameless dolls that you can make your own story for.

Each character doll has a wardrobe of outfits and accessories based on the character’s locale and interests. More general items, such as furniture and a few other everyday items, as well as the outfits and accessories for the Maplelea Friends line, are advertised for any of the dolls. Each character doll comes with s journal which introduces their character and gives information on their province and specific city they are from. You can add to the journal, as each outfit comes with journal pages about some activity related to the outfit.

So here we have Saila, who I picked for her unique heritage to my doll world. I always had an interest in the Inuk culture growing up, and Saila was a doll I could not bring home at some point. The dolls are priced at $99 CAD, and shipping is a flat rate of $9 if you are in Canada, and is significantly more if shipped outside of Canada. Based on filling up my cart, the baseline price for even a single outfit seemed to be about $25 CAD, so personally, I find it better if you place a rather massive order to help distribute those shipping costs over many items.

The dolls are made of vinyl, with sleep eyes, and soft bodies. The eyelashes are made of a finer plastic than American Girl doll eyelashes, and also curl upward. The wigs are made of kanekalon hair like American Girl dolls. Overall, I am impressed with the quality of the doll itself. The doll seems quite sturdy and durable for play with even a younger child. I did some tests of sleeping with the doll, like a child would, and Saila came out fine. Similar to AG dolls, the eyelashes may have been bent slightly, but returned back to normal as she was left out to “recover” for the day.

Here is a comparison of Rebecca and Saila. Maplelea dolls have their own face molds, sculpted by a Canadian artist. I particularly like Saila’s, and feel that it well represents a native girl. The smiles do not show teeth, and the mouths may seem a bit big, but overall, I am okay with at least Saila’s looks. Saila is medium skinned, and comparing her to Kanani, her skin has more peachy undertones versus brown, and is more similar to my PC Josefina doll’s skin tone. Height is the same, at 18 inches. The main difference is the limbs. I realize now I do not have a picture of them both naked, but I will add one later. In brief, the limbs on Saila are narrower, the arms a bit longer, and the feet narrower and longer. Talking with other folks who have tested Maplelea outfits on AG dolls, for the most part they fit, but the occasional pair of shoes or pair of pants may prove difficult to get on. Long sleeved tops may also look like the sleeves are too long on AG dolls.

The clothing is nice quality. Saila came in a fleece vest, pink short sleeved top, dark grey sparkle jeans and kamiik (traditionsl boots). I have no qualms on the outfit, and it seems decent for a meet outfit, maybe even a bit more than has been on the more recent Girl of the Year dolls as of late.

Dolls come in a “keepsake box”, as seen here. The box is very sturdy, and made of a much thicker cardboard than the standard AG doll boxes. I definitely am impressed with the packaging.

Here is the journal that was previously mentioned. It is a soft, ringed binder, with pages, both pre-filled in and empty for you to fill in, on the inside. While I knew some of the info stated, there were other pieces of information that were new to me, and I enjoyed reading the journal and learning more about Nunavut. what I found really wonderful was the same pages also come in French (as Canada is a bilingual country) and Inuktitut. Now that I thought was just plain awesome. It made me wish that AG still released Josefina’s books in Spanish.

Overall, I think Maplelea is a nice quality line of dolls. The company is still young, so their main focus is on outfits and small accessories only. Some of the collections can get pricey. I added up all of Leonie’s collection, and it was almost $700 for mainly a doll and outfits. Saila’s additional outfits and accessories were around $300, so a bit more reasonable, but she also has less being the most recent character doll added to the lineup. But in the end, I think the hardest thing to swallow for those outside of Canads, from multiple opinions, is the shipping cost.

Maplelea is going to get a big test with American Girl’s expansion to Toronto and Vancouver. For the first time, Maplelea offered free shipping (or a $9 discount off shipping if outside Canada) this past spring, usually only a fall offer, and also had their first ever warehouse sale this past weekend. While you have a small company competing against a mega corporation with Mattel, I am hoping the company continues to thrive for many years to come. Many Canadians I know have stated that Canadians love to support Canadian products, yet AG also has an established fan base in Canada. It will be interesting how this all plays out.

Etsy Shop Review: Clarisse’s Closet

Today I will start my first Etsy shop review. These reviews are meant to look at the quality, price, and variety of items for American Girl dolls that seamstresses and crafters produce. The first to be reviewed today is Clarisse’s Closet.

I first met Clarisse through her amazing style blog of the same name. I was always impressed with her photography as well as outfits she put together. I would notice how some items were marked as “Clarisse originals”, and I never thought that Clarisse would share her amazing talent with the rest of the world.

Well, low and behold, Clarisse (and her owner, Nicole) decided to open an Etsy shop with pieces inspired by Clarisse’s style. I was incredibly excited to hear about this, and more so with a Spring launch, since I desperately lack spring and summer clothes for my girls.

Here we have Cassia modeling my purchase from Clarisse’s Closet. I opted to go with the Ruffle Wrap Dress and Belt since I was in sore need of modern dresses, as well as a Wool Felt Floppy Brimmed Hat since I personally love wearing hats, and sometimes my own style spills onto my dolls.

Upon arrival, I was very impressed with the items in person. The materials used were sturdy, and the seams were serged, a big bonus. Now I understand that not every seamstress has a serger (and I certainly will not once I being sewing), but I do appreciate the finished seams on handmade items. I cannot rate the items high enough for their craftsmanship and quality.

As for price, most of the items are in line with what you would pay for an outfit from American Girl. A few items were a bit more than I was willing to pay (and hence did not buy), but this shop is hardly the most expensive Etsy shop out there, and I feel that the pricing is appropriate based on the amount of time it took to produce said item. In that regard, I would rate the pricing as very good.

Regarding the variety and style – Clarisse has a very unique style that is likely more aimed towards an older audience (teens), so if you are looking for an item that represents what a young child would wear, you will not find it here. The shop has only had one release so far, but for the more fashion-conscientious, this shop is perfect in following the current fashion trends that you will also find in store in adult sizes. I do not expect every shop to have multiple styles to cater to different audiences. Each shop should have its own flavor, which makes it unique from others, yet also have a variety of items that a casual passerby should find something they like. And Clarisse’s Closet does just that.

So overall, I recommend Clarisse’s Closet for your modern girl’s fashion needs. Nicole is pleasant to converse with, and her work is impeccable. I very much look forward to her future releases, and hope she continues to run her shop for many years to come.

Review: MyAG #58

Today I will be reviewing My American Girl #58 (Dark skin, curly dark brown hair, brown eyes; product #F0935).

So I do not have a picture of her in her default outfit she comes in, but with the MyAG line of dolls, it is best to review them in other outfits to see how they really look. So here she is, who I decided to name Lupita, after actress Lupita Nyong’o. Since this is my first review post, I will try to be as detailed as possible.

For those of you unfamiliar with American Girl dolls, the company originated as Pleasant Company, started by Pleasant T. Rowland, a former educator, in 1986. The story goes that she wanted to bring a doll line the covered the years between the baby doll stage (up to 5 years old) and not have dolls that were mimicking adults (ala Barbie). She wanted a doll line that was the age of the girls playing with them (7-12) and represent children. At the time, she was in Colonial Williamsburg, and was inspired with the idea of making the dolls represent different time periods in American History, and so Pleasant Company soon came to be.

Originally, the company only produced 18 inch dolls (designed by German doll maker Goetz), with vinyl heads and limbs, and a soft, stuffed body. The limbs and head were posable, and the dolls had sleep eyes (eyes that closed when in a laying position). In 1986, there was originally 3 dolls: Kirsten, representing the mid-1800s migration to the mid-west; Samantha, a wealthy girl who lived at the turn of the 20th century; and Molly, whose father was overseas fighting in World War II. Each doll came with a set of 6 books illustrating what life was like during her era, and also had clothing, accessories, and furniture appropriate to her time period.

In 1990, Our New Baby was launched, marketed as a baby doll for younger children. This was renamed as Bitty Baby in 1995. In the same year, the Girl of Today line was launched (the precursor to what is now known as My American Girl), meant to provide an array of phenotypes for girls to pick a doll with a blank background and create them to be whoever they wanted. In 1998, Ms. Rowland sold Pleasant Company to Mattel for $700 million, which it became known as American Girl, a subsidiary. Ms. Rowland stayed on board for a few years after to oversee the transition, and then left the company.

So it would have been more appropriate for me to review my Kirsten doll as my first review, but she is currently packed away (I rotate which dolls I have out to prevent dolls from overtaking my place), so Lupita was the first one I grabbed.

Lupita has a beautiful warm brown skin color, which is noticeably different from my 1995 Addy. This is the first Addy mold I have gotten since Addy, and while I was concerned the two would be too similar (I was contemplating between #26 and #58), they are certainly very different dolls. Yes, one could argue the different wigs is enough to warrant two different dolls, but I keep my collection on the small side, so I rarely get two dolls who have the same skin tone, face mold, eye color and hair color. However Lupita was a doll I have been eying for a while, due to her adorable curls, and I am glad I finally did.

Her curls are springy, and not easy to lose their shape, and in that sense, she makes a great starter doll as her wig requires no brushing or maintenance. However, if you have a child who wants to be able to do many hair styles and be able to brush hair, she probably is not the one. Her eyes are a lovely brown, and seem to sparkle with some mischievousness.

I am very pleased with this purchase. I think #58 is one of the best MyAG dolls American Girl has produced as of late, and it is welcome to see a short, curly wig. Two often we have gotten long or medium-long length hair that is either straight or wavy. And the decent number of reviews on the American Girl website speaks volumes on how well she has been received.

Thanks for reading my first review post.

Visit to AGPLA Summer 2013: Part II

Many apologies for the delayed posting. Just to clarify, I do not think I will be posting more than once a week, as that is all I think time will allow for me.

So after browsing the first floor, I wandered up to the second floor, first greeted by Saige. The one corner had the Bitty Baby and Twins items, and there was another large area of MyAG items. But as I glanced to my right, I saw what I was precisely aiming for – the Historical Character section.

Each character has a display of her entire collection behind glass, as well as a small tall glass display of items appropriate to her time period. The first section I came across off the escalator was Julie’s.

Sadly, I do not collect for Julie, but it was still nice to look at her items in person.

The 1970s is just not for me. I missed the whole “That 70s Show” bandwagon, thank you.

In the aisle connecting all the historical sections was a Caroline display, being the newest girl. Right behin the display was Caroline’s section, and just to the right of Caroline’s section was Kit’s section. I guess they must be the most popular girls, since they were to closest to the escalator.

Of course, Caroline’s section had a boat.

I am not planning on posting all the pictures her on the blog, and you can see them on my Flickr, but for the most part, I enjoyed this section the most. I liked the individual rooms, as it felt like I could have more privacy browsing the items, than the openness of the GOTY and MyAG sections. Overall, I enjoyed this part a lot, even though I did not buy anything from the historical collections.

Just a few last pictures for kicks:

Thanks for reading!

Visit to AGPLA Summer 2013: Part I

The first few entries are going to be catch up entries until I have time to take some current pictures. So last summer I was granted to biggest wish ever – a chance to go to an American Girl store. My family was in Los Angeles so we visited American Girl Place.

As your first walked in there was Saige! She looks so pretty. Who could not resist her walking by this window display?

A little bit past Saige was the library section with all the books for sale. They had some dolls mixed in.

Saige had a huge wall to herself on the first floor. Here were some of her smaller displays.

I was definitely interested in looking at the new items that were just released, such as the scenes.

As you can see in this picture, the store was well stocked with items.

I loved this display. I thought it was so cute. Like a nice summer party – it made me want to join in.

For a few more pictures of displays from the first floor, see my Flickr account.

Thanks for reading!