Clothes Reviews: McKenna's Warm-Up Outfit (2012)

Warming it up--with Mellie, not McKenna. Cause I'm cool like that.

So, back on the review train. I stated that I'd stop the holiday reviews and hold those til the next holiday season, true. But I will still be doing mad reviews, cause that's one of the major drives that led to me starting my blog in the first place.¹ Honestly, most people's reviews of AG stuff falls under of "this is cute, do like" or "A+++ WOULD THROW MONEY AT AG AGAIN" without very much breakdown of the components of the outfit or good close-ups, and we need less of that. Learn how to review.

As anyone who's spent more than five seconds on this blog knows,  I really, really can't stand Isabelle, AKA WonderBread the Ballerina. But she's not the only Girl of the Year that I have had an active, twisting "fuck you" feel towards. Lemme take you back just two years to 2012, when we had, after the magnificence of Kanani, the mediocrity of McKenna Brooks, GotY for 2012. As soon as I saw her, I hated her. I hated her name because I hate names beginning with Mc. I hated her focus because I was (and still am) 100% convinced that it was to capitalize on the gymnast that was favored to win the all around at London, and then the girl didn't even make it into the competition. I hated that she was whining that she didn't care about school cause she was going to be a super famous gymnast, when you burn out on that by age 20 most of the time thanks to the compression of the sport. I hated that she was set in Seattle, because I now live in the Seattle area and I didn't want this doll associated with my region. I hated her parents. I hated her bed because it came with a tiny copy of Charlotte's Web and I wanted that book alone.² And I snarked all over her movie, because I could. She got slapped with the nickname McSeattle--only the first in a line of Refreshing Haterade names for GotY--and I have not regretted it.

But I at least liked a good portion of her clothes, which is more than I can say for Wonderbread. Over the course of the year I got my hands on McSeattle's pajamas, school set, and umbrella and rain boots--which I proceeded to give all of them to the mods, especially Mellie. The only other outfit I liked enough was her Warm-up Outfit: a jacket, windbreaker pants, sneakers, ponytail holders, and the new hotness in McKenna's clothes sets: a card on how to do her hairstyles her sets showed, this one being #1: Fishtail Braids.  There was just one problem with trying to get my hands on it easily, and that that was that it only came with her starter collection as a bonus. And I was not about to pay $185 for a doll I hated, her starter accessories, the two books I had already, and her practice uniform just to get a single outfit.³ Instead, I patiently waited for the eBay Fates to put one up for a decent not -stupid price--and I hit it in 2013 with a cost of $34.99 plus low shipping. eBay costs have jumped, however, into the $50+ range. This is straight up bullshit, don't do it.

Naturally, since Mellie Croom has made it her life goal to look twice as good in McKenna's clothes than she ever could, she's modeling this set. Mellie is about the closest I'll ever get to a AG me, in that she has my face shape, my semi-curls, and wears glasses. I actually took these pics before Mellie changed into holiday wear. I'm skilled like that.

Clothes Reviews: Holiday Bibs Outfit (1998)

Holidays: Now with Mellie Croom!

Are there any major holidays on December 8th? *wikipedia* Yes, there is! It's the Feast of the Immaculate Conception. Contrary to popular mistakes, the Immaculate conception is not when Mary got pregnant with Jesus, it's when St. Anne got pregnant with Mary. According to Catholic faith, in order for Jesus to be born holy, Mary had to be conceived without Original Sin--that thing going all the way back to Adam and Eve that makes humanity unworthy of Heaven. And since the Nativity of Mary is September 8th, the church just went nine months back (or three months forward) and say she was conceived by on December 8th. It's also Bodhi Day, or the day historical Buddha, Siddhartha Gautauma, awakened and found Enlightenment. This was discovered in three parts: the cycle of rebirth, or Saṃsāra; the Law of Karma and the importance of living by the Eightfold Path; and the Four Noble Truths, finally reaching Nirvana.

Not bad for a eclectic pagan, huh?

Today, we'll be covering an outfit that I adore. The Holiday Bibs Outfit was one of the earliest non-specific holiday outfits released by AG in that transition between Mattel ownership and Pleasant Company, or PC. As...interesting as Ballet Outfit I was, it wasn't really holiday wear. In 1996 Pleasant Company seems to have realized this and came out with cultural holiday outfits and accessories (The Kwanzaa Outfit, Chinese New Year Outfit, and ever so creatively named "Hanukkah Outfit") along with a recital outfit that wasn't really holiday, and none of it came with matching child sized wear. Finally, after the completely lackluster doings of 1997¹, more holiday wear came out in 1998, and the Holiday Bibs Outfit was one set in this offering. It came with a winter white satin blouse, velvet overalls, gold flats, a green and gold hair ribbon, and an AG logo necklace for $22. I got it for $22 with the Starry Night Outfit--the two came for $44 so divided, it was $22 each, and it did not have the necklace or ribbon. And, like the Starry Night Set before it, I have it twice--I got a second set with the ribbon and necklace for $21.50 + shipping. This review is the complete set.  Ebay prices can spike high, of course. But it goes for a regular cost of about $15-30, 30 being as a complete set. I guess it's not as flashy as most AG outfits so it goes for less.

As I said there was fairness needed in the AG reviews, this one covers the last moddie to be seen on the blog in her own review: Mellie Croom. Melinda Mae "Mellie" Croom was picked up from the AG Dallas store in 2010 soon after she was released; I almost didn't get her because she was online only at the time and so wasn't in the Fishbowl² But the manager saw me sulking that she wasn't there and said they had one in the back, and boom! Got her out for me. I couldn't not bring her home. My mom took one look at her as I was putting her glasses on, and said I'd just gotten a mini-me and should name her after me. But I've always felt a little weird naming my dolls after me directly. It feels a little Sue-like. So I said that I'd name her after Mom's maternal grandmother, who was a magnificent seamstress and taught my mom to sew. And my mom thought it was perfect, as she likes to say that I sew like her grandmother did. Mellie is named after my maternal great grandmother wholly. Well, with the small exception of her first name being Melinda instead of just Mellie, but once she drops to her nickname it's a perfect match. Family History! I like to tease that she looks like but isn't the lovechild of Sonali and Otters. Mellie likes doing carpentry and building, being in nature, being a pretty tomboy, and looking better in McSeattle's³ clothing than she did.

As I was starting to link to the AG wiki page about it, I saw that it didn't have a picture. Welcome to AG Wiki fame, Mellie. You now join Naomi and Marisol and Shanna there. (ETA: And then I found the catalog pic, so down Mellie's pic came, except for a close up.) Any pictures taken by me here are mine unless I upload them to the wiki, and are not to be scattered around. Don't make me whoop your ass.

Casual Friday: Abebi Nicole "Nikki" Rhodes

Nikki can't help being gorgeous.

My birthday was on Tuesday, making me the illustrious age of thirty-three years old. And still not too old for a doll. So I decided that my Casual Friday would be on one of my prettiest, most delicate dolls, most photogenic dolls. The one who I'm extremely careful with because of how delicate and lovely she is.

Meet Nikki Rhodes. 

Braid Spray and the Ingratitude of the AG Fandom

Tara and Abbi know damn straight how braid spray can make a girl look good.

As a woman with 25 AG gang members--and many other dolls and ponies and other things with silky hair that can go rogue--I tend to invest time into their hair care regiment. And one of the centerpieces of my hair care is a big old bottle of braid spray. Not that the AG community at large really appreciates that I introduced this into the fandom. So this post is part basic care, part backstory, and part bitchiness.