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Released August 2022.

Claudie's Dog, Dizzy Dot - $30.00
AG Description: Claudie and her brother love to play with Dizzy Dot, the dog that belongs to the boardinghouse manager, Miss Amelia. Dizzy Dot is a plush mixed-breed pup with long brown-and-white fur and a pink bow on the top of her head.


This is an entirely new pet, not a re-issue of “Sugar”. Claudie’s “Dizzy Dot” is a seated plush dog with no hard inner form. You can’t change her position (she will remain seated).

We went down on Claudie's release day to American Girl Place in Easton (Columbus, Ohio), arriving about two hours after the store opened. There were a lot of new Claudie dolls on the shelves, and we looked at every doll in every box!



Claudie definitely has a new, unique face mold. In fact, when you’re holding her with other dolls, she looks a little bit like practically every AG-doll face mold all rolled into one. Weird but true. Also, I’ve never seen another AG doll that looks so different from each angle as you rotate her in your hands. Her skin tone is dark, like TM #80, #85, #91, Makena and Anniversary Addy. (It’s the #35 tone option in the CYO creator.) This is a very difficult skin tone to photograph and show in its true color (as mentioned by mamared in the great review above). Most of the pictures I’ve seen posted online so far have her very overlit, almost appearing to have the lighter classic dark tone of dolls like Melody, Gabriela and TM #58. This is absolutely not the case! The photo below is pretty true to her real coloring and look when seen in real life.



And here's a picture showing her standing with a variety of Addy-mold dolls from different eras and in different vinyl tones. (Taken without camera flash, but it's still a little overlit for true color.)



Above left to right: TM #58 (c. 2010), TM #85, Claudie, custom Anniversary Addy, Pleasant Company Addy (1995).

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As for buying a Claudie doll, I would really recommend ordering through one of AG’s personal shoppers or picking her out in person. There was a lot of variation from doll to doll, though the head shape itself was unusually consistent. Off-center lip paint is certainly her biggest issue. It’s all over the place, with a tendency to move too far to the right (the doll’s left). It was very hard to find four dolls that had well-centered (but not perfect) lips — out of about forty stocked dolls. The other issue that was quite prevalent was a “flat” bottom of the vinyl eye-socket rim; and it didn’t seem to happen to one side more than the other, showing up on the left and the right. Hard to explain, but a LOT of the dolls had one eye socket where the bottom “lid” area (edge of the opening) was not curved correctly and looked like a horizontal line. This meant that you could sometimes see more eyeball parts than you should. Her eyes are the brown decal style from Samantha and Ivy. Yea! I love them! And they’re the regular 18mm eye size (rather than the larger 20mm eyes used in GOTY Corinne), so they should be interchangeable with other American Girl doll eyes.

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Claudie’s wig has black curly hair, exactly like the wig on TM #85, just trimmed a bit shorter. It’s a beautiful, soft wig that falls just below the shoulders. The ends aren’t all fried looking, either, like some of the earlier options. If you’re comfortable with the curly hair, then I can’t recommend this enough. Definitely would NOT be great for young girls or anyone who wants to brush their doll’s hair.

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Before moving on to her Meet Outfit review, I’d like to comment on the appearance of her ears and head. They look large compared to other AG dolls. It’s the first thing all three of us noticed when we walked up to the case in the store. Her body and limbs are the same size as other 18″ AG dolls. Her ears are large, with almost no sculpted detail to them (similar to Sonali).

To illustrate the visual difference, here’s a picture showing her with several dolls with a variety of face molds.

Face molds, left to right: Classic, Josefina, Claudie, Sonali, Jess and Corinne.
There are also photos comparing Claudie to almost all previous AG face molds in this thread: agplaythings.proboards.com/thread/140782/comparing-claudie-ag-face-molds

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MEET OUTFIT





This is a really cute outfit, though I would, personally, have chosen something with a little more color for a dark doll like Claudie. But that's just personal preference. It's a cute outfit!

DRESS
Short-sleeved, blue-gingham dress is cute on the doll in an old-fashioned way. Has back Velcro closure (buttons don’t work). Similar cotton to Love Shack Fancy clothes. Good for under the sweater. Only piece of the Meet Outfit with the AG plastic tag.
SWEATER & BOW
Mint-green knit sweater has rib knit at the sleeves and around the neck/front opening. Does not close. The bow is a piece of satin ribbon tied into a handful of hair for a princess and would have to be retied if you removed it.





SOCKS, SHOES & BLOOMERS
Bloomers are typical white cotton like Samantha or Kit. Socks are the usual white stretch knee socks. Shoes very simple black (black with a deep blue sort of cast but not navy) vinyl with Velcro closure.

After an official AG announcement at the beginning of August, Claudie was revealed on Good Morning America and released in stores on August 23rd, 2022.

Claudie Wells wants more than anything to be a person whose imagination can fly, instead of a person whose feet are stuck on the ground. She’s growing up in the neighborhood of Harlem in New York City during the 1920s, surrounded by writers and poets, painters and sculptors, actors and dancers, singers and musicians. When an eviction notice threatens her family, her friends, and the beloved home they share, Claudie has an idea that just might save the day. But first she’ll have to find the confidence to let her imagination soar.

Premium features:
An 18" Claudie doll with dark skin, brown eyes that open and close, and shoulder-length black hair with tight curls that comes in a half-up style with a wide green hairbow. She has a soft cotton body, and her movable head and limbs are made of smooth vinyl.

Also includes:
A yarn-dyed woven plaid dress with a Peter Pan collar, a green knit cardigan sweater, a pair of black Mary Jane shoes, a pair of white knee-high socks, and a pair of cotton underwear
A Meet Claudie paperback book by Brit Bennett


Claudie Wells, the 1922 Harlem Renaissance doll, finally made her debut earlier this week, and after seeing her in person, I couldn’t resist bringing her home.

Here she is on the box front:



And here she is in person:



She has a new face mold, dark vinyl skin, and curly black hair that is worn half up in a rubber band and half down.

I love the new face mold. I think she has a cheery, wide-eyed expression, and I like the size and spacing of her eyes and also the open smile. Her ears are a little larger and less well-detailed than many past molds, but since they’re covered by her hair, it’s not really noticeable. Even though I’m not as much a fan of her profile (she doesn’t have the chubby round cheek profile of dolls past), I can easily overlook this because of the overall adorable-ness of the mold.

The vinyl is currently American Girl’s darkest tone, which my phone camera keeps wanting to lighten in photos. I think my first photo of her above is the closest match to her actual coloring, much more so than the lighter closeups later in this post. I really like the eyebrows, and even though I’m not really fan of painted lashes, Claudie’s don’t bother me. She has the darker painted lips of recent AG dolls, and her body cloth is a nice weight, without neck wrinkles, and a fairly decent (but not perfect) color match to the vinyl. She has a well-concealed zip tie and a body tag that says c2018.

Her hair is mostly black and in ringlets, with a couple short ringlets on each side. I was kind of surprised by the length and might have preferred it a bit shorter for this time period. All curled up, her hair falls a bit below the shoulders, but if the ringlets are pulled out straight, they’ll go down to her waist.










Claudie comes dressed in a sweet light blue and white gingham checked dress. It has short sleeves, a faux placket down the front with six plain white buttons, a Velcro strip up the back, and a plastic oval American Girl tag sewn on the bottom (in addition to the cloth tag inside the back seam). This is the same dress that she wears in nearly all of the book illustrations, although the book shows a rounded color and this dress’s collar comes to two points. I had to look through several dolls to find one where the stripes on the bodice section lined up well with the stripes on the skirt section; this might be something to watch for if you’re particular about that sort of thing.





Claudie is also wearing white knee socks and black Maryjane-style shoes, which seem sturdily made and close with Velcro.





Her undies are crisp white cotton (or maybe cotton blend?), with gathered elastic at the waist and leg openings.



Finally, she tops off the outfit with a mint-green satin hair ribbon that’s tied into her hair (which is about 4 cm wide, but I haven’t untied it yet to figure out the length) and a matching mint-green cardigan. The cardigan is nice and soft. It has no buttons or pockets, but does have cuffs, a hem on the bottom, and a nice edge along the collar and front.







(Her hair is still in the hairnet in these last two photos! The vinyl skin tone here is also pretty close to how Claudie looks in person, maybe just a tad darker.)

Overall, I’m quite happy with the Claudie doll and her meet outfit. I would have loved slighter shorter hair, but the face mold and overall quality are the bee’s knees, in my opinion, and I’m happy that Claudie has joined AG’s (and my) historical crew.

I have this for Emerson, and it is a tight fit, but does close.

Claudie Wells, the 1920s Harlem Renaissance girl, has made her debut!

After rumors earlier in the year, she was officially announced on August 1st, 2022, and she made her debut today!
All of her items have had review threads started, so please add your additional photos and reviews on the existing threads.

Reviews of Claudie's books can go here.

Thank you for sharing your good quality photos, impressions, and information with the AG Playthings collecting community!

I bought this set during a sale. It's a perfect little set for a St. Patrick's decor.
I personally found the $18 a bit high for what you get, but the sale price plus another sale added brought this to half off. A bit easier to stomach lol.

I was able to get the postcards and sticker to fit inside the cookie tin with the cookies. And the tin fits nicely in the satchel.

I love the concept of this series, and I do recommend them.

Pretty Plaid Christmas Dress for Wellie Wishers

SKU#: HBY44
Price: $24 ($16 on clearance in 2022)
Details:
The holiday season is full of special occasions and celebrations for the WellieWishers to gather.
This festive outfit features:
* A plaid taffeta dress with short sleeves and a shimmer of gold woven throughout. It has a full pleated skirt, a velvet ribbon at the waist, and a plaid fabric bow.
* A matching headband with a plaid double bow
* A pair of navy shoes perfect for dancing

This is a perfect Holiday dress for any of the dolls, not just WW. The matching dress for the 18in and Bitty Baby are just as timeless.

The original price wasn't a bad price for this compared to the taller dolls. I can't wait to try it on a doll!

I ordered this set from the Last Chance page. I don't have a WW doll yet, but $19 was too good to pass up for my future WW.

I am pretty sure my set came with the Costco bundle that had the Car and picnic set bundled. I got no box, just a bag with the item name. The outfit came on card stock pieces.

So I have added pictures of my set along with some close ups of the accessories for those curious.
I think this set is darling. And I love that the different pieces can be used for mix/match options.

I definitely recommend this for the $19 clearance price!

My Samantha owns this dress! She is a late Pleasant Company Samantha (though she has a Mattel head) and it actually fits well considering her chubby body. I imagine that if the dress had sleeves it would be a different story. The shoes, however, DON'T fit, but that's ok because her white party slippers go with the dress nicely. Once I figure out how to insert a photo from my personal computer I'll show a picture. I personally think she looks beautiful in it - and that a crinoline isn't necessary!

EDIT: Here's Samantha!

Very cute outfit! When it came out I knew I had to have it for Willa. I just loved the type of fabric they used and the embroidery. Glitter shoes! (again yay!) And not plastic! They are just like the 18" doll's.

In real life it did not disappoint. Everything was well made and fitted like a glove. The tights are nice thick quality. The dress is like Sarah mentioned "twirling" type of velvet fabric. Some people have complained on AG site about the clip, and while it's definitely a small little plastic deal (bordering on flimsy) it does it's job. It's purely a hair accent, don't expect to clip a ton of hair. It just holds a tiny amount and stays.

The skating shoes have the usual skate guards that come one and off easily. Very stable, Willa can stand on her own; no problem.

A must have!

Hugs & Well Wishes Outfit

A bright-green hoodie with a sunny flower at the top of the pouch pocket
Soft, comfy pink joggers for relaxing
Pink shoes with flowers on the toes
A headband with felt flowers





This one is still available as a last chance for $19

Another cute little outfit for the wellies. Leggings seems to be a popular choice for them as well as pink and green as a color scheme. Despite this, it's still something worth considering. 
The joggers have elastic at the waist and at the ends. The "pockets" are fake; stitching only. The hoodie is large enough to actually use, though as Willa has curly/wavy hair it's a bit poofy for the hood. The pockets on the hoodie are real. No Velcro in the back. You have to unzip in the front and pull the hoodie onto the doll from the top. Plastic shoes. Headband has felt deco.
As always, the outfit looks awesome on Willa,  And I have done different combos using pieces from this outfit. Definitely happy to have.


Here is an example of using the jogger from this outfit with other outfit pieces:

I recently bought Bo at the MCM sale
He's wonderful. He's about 7" long and 4" high
He's very very cute, and very soft and cuddly.
I learned that Historical pets are soft and cuddly, but Truly Me posable pets are hard and jointed with a fur covering.

One thing I realized- Bo's leash is sewn into his neck. I wanted to use it with another small stuffed toy dog, and realized that I couldn't. I had to actually cut several stitches in the back of Bo's neck, to release the collar/leash combination. But, I do love that the leash folds away into Bo's collar for storage. I'm sure a real puppy wouldn't let that tucked away leash stay put though

I got Willa in July 2021. Been wanting a Wellie for awhile and after deciding against Emerson, waited for a good promo to get Willa.

Fixed eyes, plastic body. Painted eyelashes. The body is what I consider the weaker feature having a rather "glorified" Barbie look. Otherwise very cute, hair is soft and nice quality, just like an 18" AG. She has the short hair in the back as she comes with pigtails. The wig is full enough, and not too thin.
Her eyes are beautiful! No 18" AG has hazel eyes like this. I appreciate that they made the effort to create different Hazel eyes.
Her hair is a beautiful highlighted strawberry blond. Happily more on the reddish tones then blond tones.

Her outfit is adorable and well made. I like that they did a top and skirt which means they will be good for future mix and match. The little headband is cute and easy to put on and off. The rubber boots are easy to pull on/off. I took her with the pierced ears option and so she came with a little packet of cute earrings. Have used those with ease.

Willa always looks like a shot of sunshine. Always happy and cheerful.

Overall, I do think they are overpriced (especially now with the new "cheaper" looking outfit and increase on the price) But if you have a good promo or rewards and want to splurge, you won't regret these little cuties!

Came home from work today to a fun surprise on my doorstep...



I wasn't planning on buying any new AG fits so early into my triumphant return in collecting, but the AGoT Hiking Outfit is one that I've had my eye on, and after seeing a complete version on eBay for a great price I just couldn't pass it up. Here's my #32, Moira, modeling it!

First off, the windbreaker is incredible. I mean, look at that giant pocket? The colors are so much fun too, definitely one of my new favorite outfit pieces.



Here's a pic of the shirt with the shorts. The pattern is so bright, but I think it could mix well with any other basic. The belt on the shorts is so realistic. AG just doesn't make them like that anymore.



Here's a bonus pic of one of the shorts pockets. This outfit just continues to impress me.



Here's a closeup of the boots and the socks poking out on top. The detailing is *chefs kiss*.



Here's one more pic of Moira just because she's cute. I absolutely ADORE Pleasant Company outfits and can certainly see myself buying more once I finish downsizing. 




Grade A+