Rambled Opinions and General Snarkiness: Nanea and The Historicals, or Four Months Late Ain't Shit When History Is Far Away

Aloha, Nanea!

*Gets up* 
*Gets back on horse* 
*Horse is dusty* 
*Gets off horse* 
*Gives horse a dusting* 
*Gets back on horse*

Okay. This is what I'm going to try to do, my loves and adorables, to get things back into a steady pace. I haven't done any rambled opinions on the old shit, we've got like two weeks before a whole slew of new shit comes out, and I really should get the old shit yammered about in some form before that.

Today, we do Nanea and The Historicals. Wednesday, we do the Contemporaries and the Wellies. Friday, we do the Moddie Shit. Giftmas, I'll just do a big damn post of All the Shit That's Fit To Blog About covering everything cool and good that has happened in My Dolly World since then. Then next Wednesday, we can talk about news and things that I've missed, in prep for the new shit.

S'all right? S'all right.

To Nanea and the Historicals. I've made you wait too long.

Why I'm An Outsider: Part Eight: Summer Chaos in AG > 18 and Persona Non Grata, or How I Got Banned (Temporarily) From A Goddamn Community I Started

Felicity in a flower garden. I need all the floofy pictures for this one.

Good lord it's almost October. Where did my month go? Oh, right. Seasonal Affected Depression. Or something like that. Fall comes on and I get moody and sad like a punk. Pbbbth. Well, that should be the best time to pull this painful tooth of my time in the AG fandom in the late 2000s, right? Right.

I've been trying to do my posts in chronological order, which is why this one has been hard to get to. Which is probably why I've been putting it off forever, even though I wrote about it once before. But not in a huge public format like this. But I can't get to the garbage that happened to me on AGPT if I don't get through the garbage that happened to me by my then-best friend in the fandom. I honestly thought it had happened after my AGPT shit, but when I started to dig through the archeological mess that is my recordings, I found out that no, this happened first. Fun. Welp, can't have my arsenic til I have my strychnine.

So, the setup, for those new to the Outsider Series who will later go back and read the other seven posts.¹ By summer 2007, there were two major American Girl groups to participate in, not including flittering  message boards which were the way tweens and teens begged for fandom attention before bokeh pictures with song lyrics on Instagram. The first major gathering of AG fans--called, appropriately enough, AG Fans MB--was slowly dying after restricting everyone from the group that didn't fit into their doorways, because you can't live when you close your communities to a small faction. But I was beyond them for the most part. I was part of two major AG fandom communities. AG Playthings was the big, open forum gathering, like the main hallways of a high school. AG >18, which had been started in summer 2006, was the back woods near the school where we smoked, drank, talked shit, and shipped queerly. They worked in balance with each other: AGPT was the public place found when searching for American Girl collectors,² and AG >18 was sort of an open secret place where you could talk some shit and not get hit. I'd started it with my then best friend, PNG, whose name--online or otherwise--I don't use. AG > 18 was doing pretty good at that time. That April, we'd installed two new mods: Bean and Colette. This took the modship of AG >18 to a grand total of four, including me and PNG. We were a self-running community, so we didn't need huge amounts of moderating. At most we were just semi-public figures, who if some one needed some business taken care of beyond public work, we did it. But we were all friends of varying levels, and PNG was my closest friend. To the point she had my address and even my phone number. She complimented my sewing. She praised my Fel-Beth shipping--I was even writing fic.

So that's why it hurt like a motherfucker when, in the summer of 2007, she stabbed me in the motherfucking back.

Prologue: Not Such a Sweet Baby Face
Part One: Finding AG Fans, or How Periods are Bad For Children
Part Two: There's Fundies in My Fandom
Part Three: The Wicked Witch of Customizing and the Birth of AG > 18
Part Four: Halloween is for Jesus, or How Otters Offended a Nation
Part Five: The AG Fans Revamp: No Pagans Allowed 
Part Six: The Great Mass Banning of Aught-Six
Part Seven: The Rise of AG Playthings  

Why I'm An Outsider: Part Seven: The Rise of AG Playthings

And then there were six--at least, until that spring. 

The next chapter of my time in the mid-Aughties of the American Girl Fandom--circa 2006--follows the last chapter of my connections (for the most part) with any and all membership at AG Fans. They had pulled a Charles Lee/John Adams and shat the bed. A whole mess of people from AG > 18 had just been banned from their prohost boards in the wake of the moderating staff overreacting to the idea that there were people in the fandom--nay, in the world herself--that were not 100% Christian, straight, or monogamous, that they were doing their own thing and being happy about it, that we were looking at them or participating in their community, and/or and that some of them, someone, somewhere, might be talking about them behind their backs in an unflattering way. And then tried to feed us some lines about trolling.

In the wake of the Great Banning of Aught-Six, the new hub of American Girl fandom became AG Playthings. As people left AG Fans and their madness to wither like a neglected avocado plant in the harsh winters of Alaska, they went to the open doors of AG Playthings.¹ And you know, for a good long while, AG Playthings was pretty okay to be at. With AG Fans locking down, AG Playthings was the place for news, sports, and weather Buy/Sell/Trade in the American Girl Fandom. It had its nasty aspects, and I plan to talk about them in depth in this and future posts. But they at least didn't start that way. They started as an open, accepting AG community that allowed dissident opinions, complaints, and even calling the mods out on their shit without the fear of being throw out on your ass to bounce down the road.²

Brief discussion of the Gang Situation. The AGGiR--for we were still living in Redmond--was now one member larger by that Giftmas, with the addition of Felicity Merriman, with all her pretty tribadism and her missing her Elizabeth--and not wanting the blonde one. She was best friends with Naomi, close to Addy as another Historical even though Addy had to school her on why her grandfather's plantation was an issue and Owning Slaves Was A Bad Idea, and had a crush on Marisol that Marisol didn't even get a whiff of. Yes, Lissie liked Brunettes, and a whole photostory was made about how she did and how the gang didn't judge her one bit for being queer. As Otters said outright: "I'm not going to give up my faith because of what other people think I should be. I'm a pagan, and I'm proud of it. Being a lesbian--a tribade--is part of who you are. Do your own thing and screw the haters." It was 69 pictures of dolls,³ full of the F word and blatant paganism, and out of respect for some of the members of AG Playthings, I did not post it there or even a link to it. But I did post it at AG > 18, and I did post Otters Teaches Paganism Part Four: Yule on AG Playthings with warm reception.

So what did I have to complain about? A lot. As 2006 became 2007 and Nicki replaced Jess, I continued to post on AG Playthings comfortably and be a content participant, work at Nintendo, and make good friends in the AG fandom. And things happened, for good and for ill. These are going to be in the order I took remembering notes in, because it was around six to seven months of AG Playthings participation mixed with AG > 18 participation.⁴ Also I have no access to anything AGPT anymore, obviously, so I can only go on my notes I've had.

None of these were big sweeping things like the Banning of Aught-Six or what would later be The Final And Complete Bannination of One, Nethilia from AGPT. But they were things that happened in, on, and around the fandom.

This one might be on the long side. Let's go. [/Alexander Hamilton]

Prologue: Not Such a Sweet Baby Face
Part One: Finding AG Fans, or How Periods are Bad For Children
Part Two: There's Fundies in My Fandom
Part Three: The Wicked Witch of Customizing and the Birth of AG > 18
Part Four: Halloween is for Jesus, or How Otters Offended a Nation
Part Five: The AG Fans Revamp: No Pagans Allowed 
Part Six: The Great Mass Banning of Aught-Six
  

Rambled Opinions and General Snarkiness: '15 Summer Launch with BF Bedtime, Grace by Space, and Modern Comforts

Just because we don't get along doesn't mean I can't frame you well, Samantha Parkington.

It took me a bit to handle the new shit. The weekend right after the new launch I went to the mall that has my comic books but not AG stuff as well as a festival, and since the Bae does the driving we can go to one mall a weekend if they're in opposite directions from each other, and they are. Look, I don't argue with the conservation of gas. Save the Planet. So instead I went to AG on the 3rd, spent the 4th burning things in the name of AMERICA, and the 5th complaining that it's too damned hot to type. It's still too damned hot. I think I brought the Texas Weather back with me to the PNW. But I'm at least in a position to get my blog on for you, the eager consumers of my content and happy audience--and if you're here to be a hater, then hate on, I don't give a fuck sweetie.

AG is getting fairly good about their social media presence, even if I'm still unable to interact wholly with their FB page.¹ Not only was the Spring Fling given leaks on Pinterest (which I hate to deal with) and Instagram (which I like dealing with), so was this Summer launch, giving us eager buyers and collectors an idea what was up and coming. Even if I pretty much knew a huge amount from scoop fairies and unethical eBay sellers selling factory seconds that folk be finding, that doesn't mean that everyone does, and I like to see how AG pushes their own hype. Which is why I hate hate hate comments on posts like AG, Monster High, and Ever After High media posts that are all "we already know this is on the way and the name of that character and her monster parent and blah blah blah give us something new."² Companies have their own way of announcing things and building up marketing for their products, and it's not by you finding leaks of shit on line and spreading it among your little small media circles to the point you're bored already when they start talking. Not everyone knows everything already from leaks and dig ups and is in the loop like that. Don't be a fucking killjoy about new stuff to people that maybe haven't seen it. It's arrogant, rude, and dickish. Don't be a dick.

This summer release comes right on the very heels of  the Truly Me Revamp--only about a month later, in fact. This is because, come August, Caroline sails away to the big Archival Vault and Maryellen pops out and that is going to be the thing to sit in the spotlight and the book set I'll buy immediately. Ah, I remember when Addy was launched and she only got her first three books and the rest came in the next spring and there was nothing to be done but wait on the entire second half of her story. Be glad you little cheeky baubles get things much more upfront now.

To the shiny things!

Rambled Opinions and General Snarkiness: '15 BeForever Spring Fling with Modern Add Ons

Addy forever slaying these ButterCream and Wonderbread Heaux.

All right, it's the American Girl Spring Fling Release! Some leaks came out a few days ago on Pintrest, which I saw and had early squeal. I only have a Pintrest account because there's no damned way to get links to interesting things without one. I still use my bookmarks, I know, what. (Ignore they need to be cleaned as much as my damn non-virtual bookshelves.) I went up to AG Seattle last weekend--tea with friends if you've seen my Instagram account--so I won't get to go back until next week at probably the earliest. Official shots it is. Also, gods bless the other admin of the AG Wiki, Akaikaze, who swoops in and gets all the new stuff up fresh and hot while I'm still having mini fits over doll scissors and chickens. This release was a lot of BeForever and some Spring stuff for the Moddies. With some Bitty shit but lol Bitty Shit, I ain't here for that, my Polar Bear not withstanding. 

Since I probably won't post tomorrow, I want to announce this as well: Tomorrow is the one-year anniversary of the opening of American Girl Collectors. What a year it's been! I thought when I started this blog that my time in a huge fandom space was behind me, and the board launch would ultimately be tiny space dwarfed by the looming power of AG Playthings and their chaos. Now we have almost 350 members and a bunch of active ones, and together we've build a beautiful, safe, exciting community of people with open minds and lots of full discussion. We've talked about everything from the launch of BeForever to the still lingering remnants of WonderBread; instructions on rewigging and body fixes to how to pop the eyes out of a head; we're bringing back DollerDay, and of course there the heartwarming tale of The AGC Cousins, Lightning in a Bottle. Boom, Starzz, and I couldn't have done this alone without the people there that keep us a community. If you haven't joined already and you're of age, what's keeping you? Run on and join the lovely chaos.¹

To the new stuff. Some of these images are the larger Pintrest shots because no need in double saving images.

Rambled Opinions and General Snarkiness: BeForever: Dropping It Like It's Hot

Bring in the new noise, bring in the funk!¹

It's been a wild ride for the AG fandom in 2014 regarding the Historical line. We've heard since February that Samantha Parkington, the Pretty Princess of American Girl, was on her way out of the AG Vault like a Disney animated flick. We've heard of the end of the Best Friends Line and the way it screwed Marie-Grace, Cécile, and Ivy over. (Oh and Ruthie. But eh, whatever.) We've seen people whine about the historical accuracy of items and cite the 1940s and black and white pictures to say that color wasn't invented before 1970 like they're Calvin's daddy--you know who you are--and the terribleness of them without actually seeing the stuff out and mewl that Addy's skin is lighter--hat tip it's not any lighter than it was on August 27th. (ETA: Proof from someone who got Addy and BF Addy a day apart can be seen here at Lissie and Lilly: BeForever Addy vs Original Addy Comparison ) We've had happy squeal, new book covers and book rebundling, mini spoilers, eBay leaks, and videos on the official AG Youtube leaking images to us and revving us up for the new looks. We've seen the hype and smelled the haterade. And now, we have the official Launch of BeForever. *trumpets and confetti* Whoo, BeForever!

What's BeForever? Have you been under a damn rock for the past several months? Oh, no, you're new to AG fandom somehow. All right, I'll play nice for a sec. Basically, BeForever is a rebranding of the Historical line to make the characters of the past appeal to the hip youth of today--what with their touch tablets and Internets and cell phones and iPods and hip hop and Wonderbread Girls of the Year. Out go best friends--Cécile and Marie Grace included, alas we hardly knew ye--and in place returns Samantha as the backbone of support for this new launch, since AG has relied on her for the launch of new things. The Historical characters all got new meet outfits except two: Kaya--who really can't get much of a change in wardrobe since her era is pretty stuck in the past; and Caroline, but she's only been out for two years so we're letting it slide. There's outfits inspired by the meet outfits--both loosely and pretty close--and new items, and the books have adapted into a new form. And many things changed--but many stayed the same. Sort of like the line is advertising again.

Yesterday, the whole thing dropped. After seeing things online at 10 pm my time--two hour diff from AG's headquarters--and losing half my shit at AGC, a buddy of mine and I went to AG Seattle and squealed the hell out and I lost the other half of my shit. I snapped a bunch of pictures and then got several things to bring home. I wondered in June if my body was ready and OH NO IT WAS NOT. There's so many new things and if I were a rich girl with a house large enough for everything I would have gotten the world of stuff. As it is, I came home with a decent amount, and will be doing reviews on the newness later.

This post is about all the shiny good-good and new hotness--including the All New and Semi-Improved Samantha. Pics are all my own pictures taken at the store--some of mine are off center, I was too busy jumping around in excite. I'm already excite about something else in AG fandom (if you're part of AGC you'll know what) and so the last week and change has been an utter crazy whirlwind of ups and downs and swings and swirls. I tend to have a lot more feels on historical things than moddy stuff, so this is a long ass post. I had to start the post, go to sleep, wake up, finish it, and then back time it. There will also be handfuls of animated gifs so if those bother you, take that into account. I know photo sensitivity since I have it, and warnings are appreciated.

Before I start into this all new Historical minty freshness and the new hotness in the streets for the young jeezies, a mini rant. We already have a stupid split between PC stuff and Mattel stuff hovering around and stinking up the place like spoiled Similac formula. It's irritating and annoying and people should slip into the sea for it. We don't need another split. The first split is terrible and I really can't stop it except to hiss at people. But we can prevent prefixes on titles right now.  Don't do it. Don't do it. I swear to the gods, fandom, if you make "pre-BeForever" a thing like "pre-Mattel" I'll find ways to make you hurt like I rammed glass and Legos in the soles of your feet. I will curse you to never find the last item you need in your Molly collection in a sensible price range and for your first edition Kirsten to develop silver eye and you to never find a person to do an eye swap to keep her soft lashes and for your favorite girl to get a mysterious stain on her cheek that won't come off without a full head replacement. Consider this my preemptive strike against your stupid smelly failure. Also the old stuff isn't coming back, BeForever is the way things are from now on. You can't have the old looks, the NOLA girls are gone, Pleasant Rowland wasn't the Lord Goddess of Historical accuracy by a long shot, and there's not going to be any return to the past of how you want AG to be or plaid dresses for Samantha no matter how many likes your ill punctuated mewling little wet pants baby rants on the AG Facebook page and Instagram filtered Samantha selfies get. Stop being an irritating little buttboil on Facebook and move on. I have worked customer service and the people having to reply to these things are both sighing in irritation and laughing at you. You're now in the file of "stupid jackass customer." Ahem.

We're starting with Addy, of course. She's my first girl--and the best.

AG Identifications: Historical Underwear

Insert "Panty shot" jokes here, with Cécile.

Hey, so as of tomorrow I will have been AG blogging for a year. Not bad work for a year. Let's keep going.

So a discussion came up on the AG Collectors board¹ about the historical underwear--basically, if Addy and Caroline had the same underwear. And they do and don't. From that I decided that it would behoove us to have an ID post showing the slight--and the not so slight, in some major cases--differences among the historical panties, bloomers, and undergarments that the historicals came with. And so snapped pictures as I was changing everyone around. That way if your girl comes without her panties, you can--if you so choose--seek out her drawers and bloomers and cover her ass, as the case may be.

A little history before we start looking up skirts and down pants. Most of the historicals have white underwear. To modern eyes, white underwear might not seem to make sense, because white is traditionally harder to keep clean and shows dirt fast. But here's the sitch, Mitch: white can be sun bleached. As in laid out in the sun and allowed to fade. And in the days before Clorox² this was was the best way to get out major staining without scrubbing the entire hell out of clothes. Other colors will and do fade (which is why old clothes can often look really pale, when they likely had vibrant bright colors.) So underwear were white because you wore those often and maybe had one or two sets (one to wear while the other got washed) and you had to get those stains out with vigorous abuse of the cloth. Sure they might get dingy and faded, but honestly no one was looking at your underwear most of the time anyways. Also, why would you waste expensive dyes on underwear? Again, no one was looking at your underwear.

Furthermore, the girls between the invention of pantaloons and the later shift to bloomers--from Caroline to Addy--have sealed drawers. That is, not split crotch. Split crotch drawers weren't wide open, but there was an opening front to back so that when you squatted down to attend to nature's call, you didn't have to pull down your pantaloons. Like elastic instead of tie strings, we're letting it go. I could go into historical underwear all day, but that's for review posts.

Listed in Reverse Historical--starting with Julie Courtney (as of 2021) and going back to Kaya. Note that the petticoat Cécile is wearing under her meet dress isn't one that's made by AG. I have a Laylie³ who got out of all that frilly historical stuff and Cécile now wears her petticoat as ruffly cute under her dresses.

AG Complaint Department: Fucking It Up With Kaya, AG Style

Kaya can be modern and not be a stereotype.

So if you have been surfing my blog and have seen my header, you will notice that it's Kaya up a tree, with her hair in pigtails and in an outfit I'll probably review on her, the Earth Day outfit. When I first thought about getting Kaya--and I absolutely was going to get her, because Dolls of Color rock--I assumed that she was going to be as historical as any other Historical I had. All my other historials had, after all, stayed in their time periods. And then a buddy of mine who is Native goes, "Why do images of Native people always stay stuck in the past?" And I got a smack awake--one of several I've had in my life. I'm not going to lie, it wasn't until college or so that I started really learning about Native people properly instead of "the stuck in the past" way mainstream history does. I had studied Pocahontas, I knew about Sacagawea, and I'd read Island of the Blue Dolphins in middle school and of course learned the little I had in school--but the approach in American history still sticks Natives in a past narrative. Having Native friends--really open, honest ones who weren't and aren't afraid to call me on my shit--is one of many ways how I opened my eyes. I'm no expert on Native people and I'd be the last person to claim expertise, but I've been taught a thing and as an anti-racist and anti-bigot¹ I am passing the learnings onto you.

Kaya is the only canon Native American in the AG line, released in 2002 (and at the time, put Felicity in semi-retirement). She's billed as the First American Girl--as is her right, contrary to some shit people say. And because of this, AG collectors tend to fuck up seven shades with her and her collection. Shit, AG has fucked it up. This post is a not-even-remotely complete list of the multiple ways that people fuck up Kaya's presence. I plan to just pick a few to rip into--mostly because I've seen them recently.

Learn, and stop doing this shit.

Clothes and Accessories Reviews: Garnet Holiday Outfit and Coconut's Christmas Accessories (2001)

Kaya and Macro are excited for Christmas Eve!

I'm all bouncy today. After all there's only one more sleep til Giftmas! And Giftmas is one of my favorite holidays. I don't do much right now, but the tingle is there.

When I was a kidlet, I loved Giftmas Eve, and Giftmas Eve Eve, and pretty much counted down the days from the time winter break started to Giftmas--the day of presents and ham and visiting relatives and the joy of the day. My mom would hang our stockings next to the tree in front of the window, and we used to use that spray snow in the windows that got you a little buzzed, and throw the long streamer style icicles all over our eight foot artificial tree that we started setting up at the start of December. I liked making ornaments in school, and adding a new one to the tree every year. One year my mom made a fireplace with wrapping paper under the mirror in the living room since we didn't actually have one in our apartment and I had panicked that Santa couldn't deliver things. (After that, she explained that Santa just came in the front door while we were sleeping.) I used to have a holiday stuffed flat doll that my mom told me to make my Giftmas wishes to (one year all I wished for was ponies, and I got at least one--MLP Yay!). And Giftmas Eve was the best. I'd set the radio to holiday music at about eight p.m.--this was before I was totally burnt out on most songs--and I'd watch holiday specials and slurp down candy canes and stay up until that beautiful stroke of midnight, where we'd have Present Frenzy, and then regardless of the temp I would get out one of my holiday sweatshirts and wear it to my grandfather's house.¹ I liked the plays--I was in a semi-nativity play once (I got to be a shepard with spoken lines and everything which was very important for six to seven year old me, and used my grandfather's cane as my crook), I used to perform or act with the school choirs (I was Vixen when I was acting for the Reindeer (w)Rap in 7th grade, and dyed old clothes deep brown to do it) and in fifth grade I got to play the ghost of Christmas Past in a retelling of A Christmas Carol (she was from the 20s). I still love Caroling of the Bells. I once went caroling with my college buddies. I have favorite commercials.² The I just adore the season.

When I had a job, I didn't like Giftmas Eve. Sure I got off work an hour early, and I liked Giftmas as a day off with my husband. But I also had to go in an hour early, I had to go in the day after Giftmas regardless of it being a normal day off or not, and I had to deal with so much shit the day before and after. Mostly people screaming at me that because the (3)DS(i) wasn't turning on or the Wii wasn't reading discs or a point cards got messed up or whatever, I was personally responsible for their issues and yelling at me would solve them. I would sometimes come home crying. from people's nastiness.³ The bright spot was wrapping and giving gifts to myself, my husband, and my gang. But I don't work there anymore, and in the two years since I haven't the holidays have become happy for me again. And even if I don't wrap gifts for the Gang specifically anymore, I still get everyone dressed up. I'm sure I'm going to be one of those moms that decks the tree out and wraps presents and spoils my kids rotten. But I will not ever do the Elf on the Shelf. Fuck that shit. I know that there are people setting AG presents under trees to be opened and loved by people of all ages (hopefully of an appropriate age, at least). And gang members are getting in or already in their wear. Thanks to these reviews, I've gotten everyone except a few into at least the first round of holiday wear, and the two who didn't have sets before will likely be getting dresses cut out tonight or tomorrow. And everyone has special fancy wear, generally.

And then we get to Kaya'aton'my. Kaya, understandably, does not have special holiday wear. Her third book, Kaya's Hero, is about general winter giving. And this is only marginally. Kaya wasn't Christian by the slightest--she canonically had her own Native faith. But AG has only made one third book that hasn't mapped to the winter and that is because Marie-Grace and Cécile are splitting a year. So Kaya's "holiday wear" with AG is generally her Adorned Deerskin Dress, if you go by her LE mini. I have it, mind, and when I first thought about adding Kaya to the gang I was sure she was going to want to stay in her own clothes, because I was a historical purist with everyone.⁴ But when Kaya first arrived with Josefina in early 2007, I learned quickly that--while she loves her classic clothes, and I've gotten almost every one of them for her--she is not about that Braids Beads and Buckskins life, and we started putting her in modern stuff. We tried various things with her for Giftmas wear--the Adorned set in 2007, the Jingle Dress in 2008, and Otters' first set I made for her in 2009.  Then in 2010 I got my hands on the Garnet Holiday Outfit and Kaya claimed it as hers, and so it has been ever since. At the same time I got a good portion of Coconut's Christmas Accessories. And while I do have a Coconut, she's not really part of my gang because I prefer more creative pets if possible.⁵ And Kaya has her own mini-pet: Macro the mini buffalo. While buffalo are not part of the Nimipuu situation--she's not a Plains Indian, let's not assume all Native people are stereotypes--she loves Macro and Kaya is a net girl. So Macro it was, and he's our display instead of Coconut. Some people would say I hate white dogs as much as I hate white people, but that's not true at all. How could you say that? Some of my best friends are white. They're just not, you know, white. I don't even see them as white unless they do white things like kiss their dogs on the mouth, threaten to move to Canada every time politics don't go their way, cry when called out on racist thought, claim that a handful of characters of color are enough for fandoms, or oppress the shit out of me.

The outfit itself consists of a garnet colored empire dress with faux fur trim, white tights, and garnet velvet ankle shoes and was the Super Special Holiday Set of 2001 and so was gone by 2002--it even had the special Shiny Box. The official accessories--barrette, purse, and gift box with snowflake ornament--are not owned by me. Coconut's set came out the same year but stayed around til 2003; it has a body drape, reindeer headband, stocking, and snowman and candy cane (the latter two are Sirs Not Appearing in This Production since don't got em). Original cost was $26 for the dress and $14 for Coconut's gear. I got one set I'm sure in a private purchase off Craigslist with the Coconut set, and while I can't remember how I got my hands on two sets of the dress I am 100% sure I paid less than retail both times--in fact, I got it twice and gifted a set to AJ when I sent her Miss Mari. (When I love you, I give you nice things all year long. When I don't like you I throw hexes all year long.) eBay shows the outfit rarely, sometimes with the box, often with the stocking, rarely with the accessories, almost always in the $15-30 range which is pretty respectable. The Coconut set is almost never complete, and most of the time bits of it show up with the dress.

Bonus unrelated hair clips, because Kaya twists her hair up nice. No LE. That's for when I do the Adorned Dress.

Clothes Reviews: AG Exclusives (Part 1) and the White Tank and Brief Set (2010)

Kaya shall join us on this excursion into exclusives.

American Girl has several boutiques and physical stores where people can buy AG stuff and clothes, other than ordering online or through mail order (do people still do that?). It's the only way to get some hands on touchy feels for AG things before you buy 'em. While it's marketed as an "experience", I tend to go to mine often enough that it's like any other mall trip. In that I go maybe once a month--two times a month if something comes up. Anyways, they have exclusives--clothes, accessories, and shit one can only get at an AG store.  This has been true since the first AG place opened up in Chicago in 1999. Thanks to the magic of the eBay Resale Shop and Orphanarium, AG place visits (I might have fell all over AG Dallas the first time possible, and I plan to stalk the fuck out of AG Houston), and buddies who know what will make me happy as a souvenir when they're near a store, I have a lot of exclusives. This is Part One of who knows how many.

Oh, Kaya? Yeah, around here we don't keep our Native people stuck in the Braids Beads and Buckskins life. She's 90% moddie in that she wears the old shit, but she loves the new shit.

A few of the things we'll be reviewing today.

Today we shall go with reviews of the LA exclusive Red Starburst Tee, the current Star Cargo pants, the Summer Accents and the second issued Doll-Sized Tote. Also a bonus underwear review.