Thursday, September 12, 2013

Meet our Mini American Girls

I'd like to introduce you to our American Girl mini dolls.  I just love the AG minis.  They are affordable at around $24 each, and they don't take up much display space.  They are so much fun to create scenes with, and they work great in a dollhouse.  Here are a couple of our girls, Felicity and Kirsten, enjoying a tea party with their new Beauty and the Beast  tea set.

Welcome Friends



Kirsten 



This is Kirsten from 1854 with her Meet Kirsten mini book.  She is wearing a blue floral dress with a red pin striped apron, striped socks and white pantaloons.  She is also wearing a custom made gingham bonnet and replacement shoes from the Etsy shop, Auntie Robin.

I've been fascinated lately by how differently the current Mattel AG mini dolls look from the original Pleasant Company mini dolls.  I recently bought one of the older Pleasant Company Kirsten dolls from Ebay, so here are the two Kirstens together for a side by side comparison.


The older Pleasant Company Kirsten is on the left and the newer Kirsten is on the right.  (The older Kirsten is missing her apron, socks, and shoes).  She is actually smaller than the newer Kirsten.  The biggest difference to me though, is their eyes.  The older one has inset glass like eyes which look very similar to the 18" American Girl's eyes.  The newer mini dolls have painted eyes.  


In this picture, you can see the differences in their eyes up close.  The older doll on the left has the inset eyes.  They don't open and close like the 18" dolls though.  You have to look really close, but her lashes are painted on, not rooted.  Their hair is also different.  Newer Mattel AG mini dolls have rooted hair, but the oldest Pleasant Company mini dolls actually have wigs that are glued on their heads just like the 18" AG dolls.   The older face looks more rounded too, where the newer one has a slimmer face.  The blue dresses appear to be exactly the same with the exception of their tags.


Samantha



  

Here is Samantha from 1904 with her Meet Samantha mini book.   Samantha is my other older Pleasant Company mini doll that I also purchased on Ebay.  She is also shorter than the newer mini dolls and has the glass like inset eyes.  I think she looks exactly like my pre-Mattel 18" Samantha dolls.  She is wearing her plaid meet dress with matching hair bow, black tights and Mary Jane shoes.


Felicity



This is Felicity from 1774 with her Meet Felicity mini book.  Felicity is wearing the older original Rose Garden meet dress.  She does not have the inset eyes though, her eyes are painted.  She is from the time after mini dolls were switched to painted eyes, but before Felicity received her updated blue meet dress.  I love the older Rose Garden dress the best.  Her white bonnet is also custom made.


Rebecca



Here is Rebecca from 1914 with her Meet Rebecca mini book.  Her tiny burgundy dress with gold accents, and her two tone boots are adorable.  She has honey brown shoulder length curly hair.


Marie-Grace



This is Marie-Grace from 1853 with her Meet Marie-Grace mini book.  She is wearing a lovely rose colored dress and two tone boots.  Her hair is down in the back with braids pulled up on top of her head and curls around her face. 

Check out how adorable her hairstyle is from the top view.



Kit
 
  

Here is Kit from 1934 with her Meet Kit mini book.  She is wearing a lovely lilac sweater set with a floral skirt, and white strappy shoes.  She has a light green barrette in her blond shoulder length hair.  I just love her adorable freckles.
  

Caroline



This is Caroline from 1812 with her Meet Caroline mini book.  She is wearing a soft pink dress and matching pink shoes.  She has beautiful aqua green eyes and long blonde curly hair.


Julie



Here is Julie from 1974 with her Meet Julie mini book.  She has beautiful silky long blonde hair with a braid on one side.  She is wearing a peasant blouse over a striped turtleneck with two tone jeans and a braided leather belt. 


Saige



This is Saige with her mini paperback book.  Saige is the 2013 Girl of the Year.   Saige is the first Girl of the Year ever to have a mini doll.  All of the other mini dolls are historical dolls.  Saige has bright turquoise eyes and auburn braided hair.  She is wearing an indigo dress with southwestern style embroidery at the waist.  Her leather boots with wrapped straps are very realistic.  The beautiful Saige loves art and horses.

Here is Saige with her adorable horse, Picasso.  The horse is a FurReal Snuggimals that I found marked down to $2 since he was out of the box.  The horse really walks when you press down on his back.



That's our mini doll collection for now.  There are still quite a few more mini dolls to collect.  Next on my wish list are Kaya and Molly.

Since we showed the changes that the mini dolls went through over the years, I also wanted to show some of  their different boxes.  Mini Samantha came in a white box with a red cardboard sleeve around the middle.  Next is Felicity's box, which was dark burgundy with a window.  The third box was Kit's and the fourth box was mini Saige's bright pink Girl of the Year box. 


Our mini dolls are currently living all together on one shelf in my china cabinet in the dining room.


We have a dollhouse kit though, so we will be building a house for the mini dolls soon.  Here is a picture of their future home (its still in the box though).



Say goodbye girls...




Bye 


9 comments:

  1. I've never really been a huge fan of the mini dolls but yours are so cute! I might have to get one! I can't wait to see your dolls house when it's finished!

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    1. Thanks! I think the mini dolls are really sweet, and I'm looking forward to them having their own cute little doll house. I haven't ever built a doll house before though, so I'm a little worried about getting this kit started. I'm especially nervous about the roof right now, since I see that the shingles are not included in the kit. I have no idea how to figure out how many of those little bags of wooden shingles to buy. :)

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  2. My niece has that doll house it is very easy t opp put together and is is very cute I as m 10 and I still play with it is very good product I recommend it my niece's is lazer pink

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    1. Awesome Abbi! I really need to get started working on the dollhouse. I was thinking about painting it a very light blue.

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  3. Are there pleasant company dolls still in production?
    - Anonymous A.

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    1. American Girl dolls are now only produced by Mattel. Pleasant Company is the original company that released American Girl dolls in 1986. They produced the dolls from 1986 through 1998 when the owner, Pleasant Rowland, sold Pleasant Company to Mattel for 700 million dollars. All dolls produced after 1998 were/are produced by Mattel. Pleasant Company dolls can only be purchased now on the secondary market. They can be found on ebay, usually advertised as Pleasant Company or pre-Mattel.

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  4. hi i really like your mini dolls they are so cute!!! I love how they are more affordable than the bigger dolls and how u can use them for so many things!!!
    -u can use them for your big dolls
    -u can use them for travel buddies
    -u can use them for doll houses and much much more!!!
    have u seen the our generation minis??? they are super cute and they are about the same size as the ag minis and can share clothes.they have pretty inset eyes and really good quality hair better than the 18 inch our generation dolls and cloth bodies like the ag minis....unlike the beforever ag minis :( but i think you would really like them i have one her name is kendra :)

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    1. Hi! Thanks for posting. I agree 100% with all your observations about the mini dolls! Love them!!! They are a nice value and as you said, they're valuable for so many things! I have seen the new Our Generation Mini's at Target and I love them too! Kendra is adorable with her red hair, freckles, and boots! The Our Generation minis are precious and would make great companions for AG minis and as dolls for the bigger dolls too!

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  5. I love this blog post! I was curious to see how the AG minis have changed. Would you mind if I referenced your website on our blog?

    Thanks,

    Meg

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