Girl of the Year 2017

The upcoming American Girl of the Year is confirmed to be Gabriela McBride from Philadelphia. Gabriela takes dances lessons and attends speech therapy classes due to a stuttering problem. Her doll bears a strong resemblance to the recently discontinued Truly Me 46. 

Will you be attending her release day January 1?

Lea Sold Out Online

As of yesterday December 20 Lea is Sold Out online. This means her Starter Collection is also sold out.  The fruit stand is on back order online until February 10, 2017, all her other items remain in stock online. I know a lot of people thought she might not sell out before the end of the year  but she has so now we can start the count down to the next girl of the year.

Free Shipping on Wellie Wishers

Originally American Girl was offering free shipping on all Wellie Wishers purchases through the end of July. That offer has been extended to the end of the year according to the fine print at the bottom of the Wellie Wishers page on americangirl.com.

Possible Return of AG Felicity

Amazon has three American Girl BeForever 2017 books listed on their site and many are speculating this could mean the return of Felicity. 

Felicity's books were set in Williamsburg,Virginia  in 1774 and were written by Valerie Tripp. Felicity and her collection were archived in 2011 but she was available briefly after that at the American Girl Washington DC Store.

With a release date of February 9, 2017 the titles are:

A Stand for Independence by Valerie Tripp, which is tagged Colonial and horses.

Love and Loyalty by Valerie Tripp

Gunpowder and Teacakes by Kathleen Ernst

How do you feel about the possible return of Felicity?

My Life As Mini Dolls

My Life As has four mini dolls listed on their website that you should be seeing on Walmart shelves soon. The adorable mini dolls are seven inches tall and retail for $9.97. You can choose from a Baker, an Outdoorsy Girl, a Cowgirl and a School Girl.

I think I might add these to my collection so that my 18 inch girls have more dolls.

What do you think of the My Life As mini dolls? Which one is your favorite?

My Life As Boy Dolls

My Life As has updated their website to include the upcoming fall/winter products, and among the new items are 18 inch boy dolls. The website had two versions of the "School Boy" doll and both are adorable.

 They look like they would make a great addition to an 18 inch doll collection or a great new playmate for a child.

They are available for preorder from walmart.com for $27.97 and have a ship date of August 10.

What do you think of the My Life As boy dolls?

Will you be purchasing one?

Disney Limited Edition Beauty and the Beast Dolls

Tomorrow is the in store preorder for the Beauty and the Beast 17 inch limited edition dolls and the online preorder is August 3. The dolls are $119.95 each and ship early fall.

Will you be ordering any?

Melody Preorder Now Available

The rumored preorder of the upcoming 1964 Historical Melody Ellison has been confirmed and is now live. 

Now through August 8, if you are an AG Rewards member you can preorder Melody and part of her collection.  The American Girl website reads that she should arrive by August 18, and if you preorder her the shipping is free.

Don't forget that AG Rewards members receive a $10 gift card for every $200 they spend, so this set will get you a $10 giftcard next month.

Journey Girls 2016 Holiday Doll

The latest edition of the Journey Girl dolls have hit stores and this year the girls are in New York. *Does "Welcome to New York" start playing in anyone else's mind?* The Holiday doll for this year has been revealed, her name is Ilee and she retails for 49.99. There are two versions available a blonde and a brunette.

What do you think of Ilee? Will you be adding her to your collection?

AG Melody Pre-Sale

Last week American Girl sent out a cryptic email that read if you sign up for the AG Rewards program before July 27, you would receive a special offer on August 1. It was revealed, due to an IT error, that the reward will be being able to pre-order Melody and part of her collection. The items have been removed from americangirl.com but many bloggers were able to get screen shots of the pre-order collection such as poppetsandposies.com. 

What do you think of the pre-order bundle?

Are you going to pre-order Melody?

American Girl Rewards

It looks like American Girl's rewards program went live earlier today. You can register online using your americangirl.com user ID or you can create a new account on the website. When you register the site shows your current reward tier, points to next tier, and tier expiration date. I'm not certain  but it seems like you may have to maintain a certain purchase level to remain on the higher tiers.

I'm looking forward to seeing how the rewards program will develop over time.

Hearts 4 Hearts Girls To Be Rereleased

Heart 4 Hearts Girls have announced on their Facebook page that they will be rereleasing four of their dolls in time for the holiday shopping season. The four dolls to be released are Dell, Rahel, Nahji, and Consuelo and they should be more widely available than before. Playmates is also updating the Hearts 4 Hearts website to coincide with the rerelease.

  

What do you think of the rerelease announcement?

Return To The Isle Book Review

The sequel to "Isle of the Lost" was released May 24, 2016, and picks up where the Descendants movie left off. If you haven't read the first book or seen the movie don't worry, while Return to the Isle references previous events it is a stand alone story. It brings back the previously known characters and introduces us to some new ones. 

Author: Melissa De La Cruz

Length: 320 Pages

Summary: contains spoilers

Mal, Evie, Jay and Carlos receive messages to return to the isle by the new moon and Mal's is signed "M." They immediately assume their parents are behind the letters and that is all but confirmed when Evie can't see their parents in her magic mirror except lizard Malificent. 

Meanwhile King Ben is dealing with an issue of his own. Camelot seems to have a monster stalking it and Merlin has come to seek permission to use magic to catch it. When Ben ventures to Camelot and meets with the Knights of the Round Table it is confirmed that no one has actually seen the monster. Ben and the knights go on a camping expedition to the last known location and are stunned to find the monster is a purple dragon. Ben rushes back to meet with the council and come up with a game plan, he thinks it could possible be Malificent, but how is she getting out of her glass dome?

Carlos starts tracing the email he received asking him to return to the island and stumbles upon the evil Internet. There is a message board dedicated to the Anti-Heros with a picture of the four with their faces crossed out. They come up with a plan to return to the Isle and crash the anti-hero meeting and confront their parents. As they are leaving for the Isle they meet up with Ben who approves of their plan and tells them about the purple dragon. 

Once back on the Isle they start looking for their parents but no one has seen them. They run into some old acquaintances who appear to be up to something. They go to the location of the Anti-heros meeting which is held in the basement of the Evil Queen's castle. They are surprised to find Yen Sid (one of the teachers from Dragon Hall) teaching a select group how to be good. The Anti-heros meeting is a group dedicated to emulating the goodness that the first four to leave the island found since good is more powerful than evil. They ask the professor where their parents are, but while he isn't certain he thinks they may be looking for the tunnel that connects the Isle of the Lost to Auradon. He explains that his class has been studying and trying to map the tunnels because they are protected by magic and unless the magic is released it will continue to build and could destroy the island and Auradon. Mal, Evie, Jay and Carlos are the only ones that can get the medallions and stop the magic, if their parents get to them first they will have their evil powers restored.

Meanwhile in Auradon Charmington is being stalked by a large purple snake. Ben ventures out to try to find a scale of the creature so the fairies can analyze it and tell him if it is definitely Malificent. He manages to find a scale at a farm where the snake had slithered into a chicken coop, he takes  the scale to Neverland to the fairies. After the fairies examine the scale they can not tell him if it was from Malificent or not but they do tell him that there was a mine the dwarfs started excavating years ago that also contained scales. The mine was shut down after finding the scales but the scales found there are a match for the scale Ben found. Ben goes to get Merlin and comments he will let him bring his wand and heads for the mine tunnel. 

Back on the island Mad Maddie and some other Isle residents throw Mal off of a bridge. Carlos dives in to save her while Evie and Jay distract the crocodiles. When Mal is underwater she sees a cave a deduces the hidden opening to the tunnel must be on the shore. The members of Yen Sid's class help them locate the tunnel entrance. Before they enter Yen Sid gives them the maps his students made and offers them each some words of wisdom. The group enters the tunnel and makes their way to the first challenge which is Evie's. She retrieves the magic apple but is sent into a dream where her friends have abandoned her, she remembers what Yen Sid told her and defeats the power of the talisman. The others each defeat their tailsmans and Mal has to get a dragon's egg which is her talisman. When they emerge from the tunnel they come face to face with Ben and Merlin. 

Ben informs the group that the dragon lives in the tunnel but the group didn't see it. Merlin gets ready to seal the tunnel when purple smoke appears and Madame Mim materializes. The two get into a magic battle and Mim traps Merlin in a cage. Mal and company debate on Isi g their talismans but realizes the magic will probably turn them evil without redemption. Merlin gets out of his cage and casts a spell to send Mim back where she belongs and seal the tunnel.

When the group arrives back to Auradon they use Evie's mirror to try to locate their parents again because they didn't see them in the tunnel. Their parents are back in their houses and the group figures the villains had followed them through the tunnel so when Merlin cast his spell they were sent back to the Isle along with Mim. They notice a goblin giving Jafar something and realize its the remote that opens the magical barrier from the Isle of the Lost to Auradon. Luckily the remote is broken and hopefully Jafar won't figure out how to fix it. Mal is stunned to see the dragon's egg she had to retrive is starting to turn green which means its hatching. The story ends with a line that Yen Sid told the group on the island, "We're anti-heros, were the villains you want to cheer for."

Wellie Wishers in Store Event

Lea To The Rescue Store Event

Upcoming Explore With Lea Book

There is an upcoming American Girl book titled Explore with Lea, due out June 23. The description invites you to craft your way through Brazil with Lea. It is available for pre-order now.

Upcoming American Girl Guide

The American Girl Ultimate Visual Guide is available for pre-order from Amazon with a release date of September. There is very little information available about this book right now but I'm sure that will change soon.

http://www.amazon.com/American-Girl-Ultimate-Visual-Guide/dp/1465444963/ref=sr_1_142?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1463284012&sr=1-142&keywords=American%20girl&tag=viglink20340-20

Tonner Says Goodbye to Sindy

I revived an email from Tonner earlier that stated they are at the end of their licensing of Sindy. They are having a nice sale so if you are still considering getting a Sindy doll now might be a good time.

New Barbie Fashionistas In Stores Now

The highly anticipated, and highly publicized, multi body type Barbie Fashionistas hit the stores last Tuesday. Over the weekend my mission was to find these new dolls and see them for myself, and possible purchase a few. 

Below are photos of the new Fashionistas I found available in my area:

First the new curvy body:

The tall body:

The new petite body:

I'm really excited about the new body molds of these Barbies and look forward to this line evolving even more.

Have you purchased any of the new Fashionistas yet? If so which ones?

Tonner Unveils Minette

Tonner recently announced the addition of a new character to the 2016 lineup, Minette.  Minette's line is retro-fantasy inspired and includes the addition to detail that is the Tonner trademark. If you place an order through March 8, you receive a 10% discount.

American Girl $100 GiftCard Giveaway

American Girl is hosting a contest on americangirl.com for a $100 GiftCard. To enter you must log in or create an account on their website and leave a product review. Anyone who qualifies, I think you have to be over 18, and writes a review of an item before March 22 will be entered in the prize drawing.

You can read all the details on the company website.

Tonner New Releases on March 9

The Tonner Company will reveal their new releases on Wednesday, March 9. The release will include the beautiful Ellowyne Wilde doll featured in the email.

Monster High Fierce Rockers

During an impromptu weekend adventure I stopped by Toys R Us to look at all the new things that had been released. I noticed these multi-packs and had to share them with you. 

First we have the Fierce Rockers 3 pack 

Featuring Clawdeen, Venus and Jinafire

Then we have the Fierce Rockers 2 pack

featuring Catty and Toralei.

I love that the three pack comes with instruments and I think Clawdeen would probably be my favorite of the set with her purple/blue hair. Between the 2 pack and the 3 pack though I would have to say I like the two pack better. I really like how Catty looks in this set, with the broken mirror eye make up and silver lips.

Monster High Revamp

It was recently announced that Monster High will be undergoing some transformations in 2016 to make the line more massively appealing and less scary. This change comes after an overall decrease in sales and the lose of the Disney Princess account to Hasbro.

Among the changes will be a budget line with static arms, more pastel color schemes, and less noticeable stitches and scars. A lot of collectors and parents are concerned and upset over these impending changes and have left comments expressing their concern on Mattel's corporate Facebook page and on the Monster High Facebook page. Most feel like Mattel is doing away with what first made Monster High a success, edginess with a message of accepting that everyone is unique. Others feel the change is needed because some of the characters are scary and there are negative connotations in telling a child to "be a monster."

What are your thoughts about this revamp?

New Disney Animator's Lilo Doll

Pictures were recently released of a Lilo Animator's doll.

 I'm excited and surprised to see this doll and can't wait to see here in person. I hope we see more new additions to this line this year.

What characters do you hope will be added to this line?

Our Generation Love Blooms Retro Set

This year the Our Generation Retro sets have a 1970s theme. From lava lamps to tie-dyed headbands these sets are bringing a past era to life again. I purchased several of these sets and wanted to review the Love Blooms Set today.

Our Generation Love Blooms Set $6.99

This set includes daisy sunglasses, a bongo drum, a multicolored headband, a necklace with a multicolored striped pendent, and flower stickers. I'm not sure why the stickers are included but I might eventually use them to decorate the drum. The pendent is nice and heavy and on a black cord, it's not adjustable without untying the knot so it is a little long when the doll is wearing it. 

Olivia modeling the Love Blooms set, you can see how long the necklace is.

The hair band is three multicolored cords braided together and attached to a piece of elastic. The drum is hollow plastic and the the details are painted on, the top of my drum has a few paint scratches.

I really like this set, especially the headband. I think it looks adorable on Olivia, even if it doesn't quite match her current outfit.

I feel the Our Generation sets have great play value for there price and I look forward to picking up more the next time I'm in Target. Do you have a favorite OurGeneration  set?

Disney Collectors Edition Minnie Mouse

The first Disney Collectors doll of the year  will be released Friday, and who better to start off the year than the legendary Minnie Mouse. The price for this adorable doll is $79.99 and should be on sale online and in select Disney Stores.

What do you think of the Minnie Collectors doll?

Disney Descendants Genie Chic

The new Genie Chic Descendants line has hit stores and is based off of an episode of the Descendants animated series on Disney Channel. In the episode we meet Jordan, the daughter of the genie of the lamp, when she confronts Mal about taking her lamp. When several of the girls accidentally pop into Jordan's lamp they end up in genie chic outfits similar to the ones seen in the doll line.

I'm looking forward to seeing what else and what new characters this line has in store for us?