June 27, 2017
Lee & Pearl visit American Girl® in Dallas, TX to see the June releases, including the NEW Grand Hotel!
On Thursday, American Girl® debuted their June releases. This is a huge collection that includes furniture and a dance outfit for 2017 Girl of the Year® Gabriela, outfits for Contemporary Characters® Tenney and Logan, THREE new Truly Me® dolls and a new Truly Me® meet outfit, a new mix-and-match wardrobe, new shoes, new pets and pet accessories, school items and a whole new themed collection the Grand Hotel as well as items for the Wellie Wishers® and Bitty Babies®.
Although we were concerned about the #permapanties debacle and other cost-cutting measures, we were thrilled by the recent announcement on the American Girl Facebook page that they would be returning to the old body style and offering a free body exchange for anyone dissatisfied with a new sewn-in-panty doll as well as re-instating the "iconic boutique boxes" and re-affirming their commitment to their customers and their "premium brand" status.
So on Friday, "Pearl" drove up to Dallas with her camera to have a look at all the glorious new THINGS.
We were pleased that Girl of the Year® 2017 Gabriela had some new items, including a Chair & Ottoman Set, and a Loft Bed with an integrated desk and assortment of art supplies.
Many people have pointed out that this bed is a re-tread of Girl of the Year 2012 McKenna's similar piece and it is. But the loft bed was a well designed, popular item back then, and we hope it will prove popular again. 2012 is already a generation ago for most of the young ladies in the target market.
The new Contemporary Characters® Tenney and Logan each got a new outfit in this release, and we are super-excited to report that those outfits include JACKETS!
American Girl® offerings have been notably short on sleeves recently. We applaud this move back toward a more realistic wardrobe for the dolls. They may not ever get chilly, but vinyl arms can look chilly for quite a few months every year.
Plus, every girl (and guy) knows that nothing pulls a look together like the right jacket. So here are Logan's Performance Outfit and Tenney's Sparkling Performance Outfit.
Tenney's jacket reminds us of the red corduroy blazer from the retired Photographer Outfit (2009-11), one of our favorite American Girl pieces which itself resembles the jacket from our own Lee & Pearl Pattern 1943: Molly Waves Goodbye 1940s Suit for 18 Inch Dolls.
Cute, huh? A curved lower hem is such a flattering look on these dolls!
Next up, here are three brand new Truly Me® dolls, and a new Truly Me Meet Outfit.
#67 has a Sonali mold head, brown eyes, dark skin tone and very long, curly brown-black hair. We have to wonder about the release of this doll, who looks so much like Gabriela only with more hair. Hopefully plenty of people will buy both dolls, as Gabby is lovely too.
#68 has a Josefina mold head, brown eyes, light skin tone and layered brown hair.
#69 has a Classic mold head, brown eyes, light skin tone and curly dark brown hair.
And look more jackets and more sleeves!
We think the new meet outfit with its sky blue, zip-front sweatshirt jacket is (mostly) a step up from the previous version.
We especially like the colors. We love pink and lavender, lime green, tangerine orange and turquoise blue. But we are pleased to see American Girl® adding some new blue tones to the girl-color mix. We can't be the only ones who have found the last few catalogs weirdly sherbet-y.
And girls like blue. My whole closet has been nothing but cobalt for the last three years.
We're not crazy about everything on this new outfit, though. The floral fabric of the dress is slippery and plasticky, and we HATE the molded-in-one-piece, glitter-dribbling white shoes.
We know that the original three historical dolls came with equally rubbery black Mary Janes. But since then, American Girl® has blazed so many wonderful trails in realistic doll shoe territory. This feels like such a step back.
These new shoes are also tricky to get on and off the doll, and they leave glitter all over your hands.
There were plenty of other new items for the Truly Me line in this release and more sleeves and blue tones on display.
The new Mix-and-Match collection includes two attractive long-sleeved sweaters: the Classic Knit Sweater with its neat, jewel-decorated color, and the chunky yarn, high-low hem Mixed Knit Sweater. We like 'em both.
And how cute are these new Teal Moccasins? If only these had been the new Meet Outfit shoes!
Two new pets debuted, a Tuxedo Kitten and a French Bulldog Puppy.
Another pet was found in the new school items display a Class Pet Hamster, complete with clear box, food dish, water dispenser and wheel. This is another item borrowed from 2012 GOTY McKenna. But it's one lots of people will be happy to see re-issued.
Here's the new Hot Lunch Set tacos! and the re-issued School Locker in a new color. You guessed it blue.
Finally, right at the front of the store, we found the big debut collection from this release the NEW American Girl Grand Hotel.
This is a big themed collection. It's not just one set, but SIX different furniture, outfit and accessory packs, at a variety of price points. There should be something for everyone here, which is something we love.
American Girl Grand Hotel ($275)
American Girl Grand Hotel Luggage Cart ($50)
American Girl Grand Hotel Room Service Set ($34)
Travel In Style Luggage ($36)
Travel In Style Accessories ($28)
Travel In Style Dress (with shoes and headband) ($28)NOTE: We photographed the hotel set-up on display in the store, which included the room service accessory set on the bed as part of the decor. This is a separate set, though, and needs to be purchased separately.
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But of course, the really big news in this collection is the really big set the hotel itself.
American Girl has experimented lately with play structures that provide an internal structure AROUND WHICH one plays, rather than an external structure INSIDE WHICH one plays think Tenney's stage and Lea's fruit stand, rather than Grace's bakery.
We approve of this. Structures for playing AROUND can be easier to fold and store. They offer the play-value benefit of separated areas that can be separately themed. And they're easier to light and photograph which is great for both collectors and the older end of the target market.
This hotel is a marvelous example of a "play around" structure.
The headboard of the bed is attached to the wall, with the rest of the bed on a hinge. When the hotel is open for play, the bed folds down. When it's ready to be stored, the bed folds up, and the remaining walls close around it, forming a slender, rectangular box.
With two side wings and a two long flat pieces, this hotel expands in zig-zag fashion to offer FIVE separate play areas. There are two lobby areas a recessed reception alcove and a hallway with a faux-elevator door and hotel room door and three hotel room areas a bathroom, a bedroom, and (separated by a short wall with its own faux window) a flexible area with a big window and a dresser. In another bit of multi-use cleverness, that dresser transforms into the hotel lobby front desk.
This is still an easy-to-open, simple shape but it's a big design step up from, say, Tenney's Stage & Dressing Room, which offers only a front and a back: the stage and the dressing room.
For even more flexibility, there are two-sided cards that slide in and out of the two windows, offering either "night in the city" or "daytime at the beach" views. There's also a slider in the Hotel Lobby reception area that offers either a Directory or a framed piece of modern art.
On top of all that, this set comes with SO MANY WONDERFUL ACCESSORIES that we couldn't come close to photographing them all.
There are over 50 pieces in this set items that one might really find in a deluxe hotel room, such as a telephone with an answering pad, an ice bucket with tongs and glasses, a Do Not Disturb sign that really hangs on the doorknob, a welcome basket with a hotel information folder, towels, toiletries, fancy wrapped soap, and oh my goodness, look at that tiny blow drier!
There's even a mini fridge section tucked inside the dresser because of course there is.
All of this leads up to the big question: if this wonderful set has SO MUCH to offer and it does why have we taken pictures of it in the store and not in our workroom?
Because we didn't buy it.
Awkward...
Yes, there is a lot to applaud here in terms of big, bold design. And we want this collection to do well, because we want American Girl to go on creating big, bold designs.
But there are quality issues here that would not let us justify the expense, even for the smaller sets like the Luggage Cart and the Room Service tray.
Many of us have had complaints about clumped items in the past, and the inconsistency that makes any arguments for the necessity of clumps seem silly.
There's a tiny tongue depresser in the bathroom, so why do the flowers on the bedstand come in a solid, glossy plastic clump? The itty-bitty salt and pepper shakers can be removed individually from their box, so why are the scrumptious-looking chocolates lumped together?
It just doesn't make sense.
But for a set this marvelous, we could deal with the clumped chocolates, and we could replace the plastic flowers with pretty paper ones from the craft store. But that still leaves one big, unanswerable quality issue.
The plastic.
We HATE American Girl's recent move to mold these beautiful designs out of cheap, lightweight plastic.
Please understand we're not even asking for wood and metal. We just want that solid-feeling, circa-2015 plastic back.
Look at this delightful little bench that sits at the foot of the hotel bed.
That bench is a lot less delightful when you pick it up and realize it's made out of the same flimsy plastic as an Our Generation® or My Life As® piece at a considerably higher price.
And it's not just the feeling or the expense. We are concerned that toys made with such cheap plastic will not survive a season in the playroom.
One of the reasons we were in the store on Friday was to RETURN the last furniture piece we bought from American Girl Z's Desk Set. We love the modern design of the desk, and we wanted it for photo set-ups in the workroom. But the fold-out legs are molded from such flimsy plastic that we almost snapped them off the first time we set the thing up.
It looks as though parts of the Grand Hotel are equally flimsy. We are particularly worried about the dresser that transforms into the front desk unit. The floor model was already squeaking alarmingly one day after release.
We aren't surprised to see such cheap materials. As we discussed in a previous newsletter, Mattel management has promised to squeeze an additional $120 million per year out of their already stressed supply chains. Cheap plastic is how that gets done.
But all is not lost. There are signs that things may be changing.
The items we are seeing now and even the presentations at Toy Fair represent management decisions that were made before the current Mattel CEO took office.
Since then, the message has shifted.
We did not expect to see such a quick about-face on the #permapanties. And we really didn't expect to see a return to the old-style, closed boxes as the stitched-in, plastic-fronted boxes seemed a necessary accommodation to the new retail channels. But boom #permapanties are out and the old boxes are back in.
In the most recent investor conference call on June 14, 2017, Mattel management admitted mis-steps, recognized the importance and depth of fan loyalty, and re-affirmed a commitment to a "premium" American Girl brand.
The Grand Hotel collection shows that American Girl is still capable of remarkable, unique and yes, grand design work. We hope that the supply chain restrictions demanded by parent company Mattel will be loosened in the future so that premium materials will once again be matched to these premium designs.
See you next time!