Blaire Doll and Meet Outfit
Jan 12, 2019 9:00:24 GMT -5
Post by bingandnelsonfan on Jan 12, 2019 9:00:24 GMT -5
After a lot of waiting and speculation, it seemed very disappointing to see Blaire as a Josefina-mold. Out of the last five GOTY dolls, four of them now are Josefina face molds. She also bears striking resemblance to Rebecca --- who, in my opinion is one of the most beautiful AG dolls ever. Little girls also seem drawn to Rebecca, but often their parents get hung up on the idea that Rebecca cannot wear any outfits outside of her collection or play with any accessories outside of her own collection. That pushes Rebecca off the list, because I've (frankly) never seen a child choose one of Rebecca's dresses --- only the doll and her pajamas. Bearing that in mind, I think Blaire will sell amazingly. She looks like a modern Rebecca, and that obviously appealed to a lot of little girls yesterday. Dolls were flying off the table and shelves. I would totally recommend Blaire to anyone who is thinking about purchasing her.
The Blaire doll doesn't come with much in the way of a "meet outfit", but the print on the fabric is cute. Her white sun dress has bumble bees all over it and some decorative yellow buttons. The dress has thin straps at the shoulders, is lower cut in the back where it velcros closed. The quality and fit of this dress is on a par with the current Truly Me flowered meet dress. My sister didn't like it at all. Personally, I liked the fabric print a lot, though I have to admit the fabric feels rather cheap.
Blaire's shoes are some platform purple-strapped sandals. Obviously didn't cost a lot for AG to make, but they're cute if you like this style. As Nanea is my favorite doll, I'm drawn to the Summer styles, but it's not quite the same as back when the meet outfits has shoes and socks and multiple pieces. There's not a lot of play value in this outfit, so most little girls buying a Blaire doll were also buying another outfit for her. Blaire also comes with a flower clip for her hair and some kind of yellow thing to tie on as a bracelet. I couldn't quite figure out what it was.
Blaire's skin tone is the new light vinyl -- the same as Truly Me #78. A few people have asked if her vinyl felt normal. Yes, it actually felt very fine. We handled a number of Blaire displays, and they all felt fine. The TM #78 has a bit of a hollow feel, but I didn't feel any Blaires with that problem. It's very hard to get good colour shots in a store with pink walls, but this photo does show the vinyl tone and eye-colour similarities between Blaire and #78. (The hair colour here is totally not accurate.)
Blaire's hair is a very nice red. My sister has a re-wigged Julie doll wearing an AG CYO "red long wavy" wig, and the hair colour was exactly the same. Here's a photo showing them from the back, and it was the very same colour, though hard to get to show with the lighting which made the CYO wig look a little lighter. We took the dolls over to a window for this, so it's rather shiny. Don't worry --- Blaire's hair is as nice as any AG doll and not made of plastic wrap! The dolls just photograph extra shiny in the store. Blaire is on the right, and my sister's doll with CYO wig is on the left.
PoppetsandPosies Blaire comparison shows a very curly wig. I'm not sure what to say about that, but there must be some variety from batch to batch. All of the display dolls at Columbus had been brushed (not to mention that the store only likes sausage curls, so even Nanea wears them --- almost every Blaire had been sausage curled), but the doll above looks like a nice version of all the Blaires there yesterday. We saw a lot of the dolls purchased and unboxed for little girls there, many carrying them around in the store for a long while afterwards. No Blaire had as curly a wig as the one shown by Poppets and Posies. They all looks rather like the doll above. That said, I bought a Nanea at the store in May, and she had large curls in the bottom half of her wig. My sister bought one a couple months later, and it is slightly wavy hair, no curls at all. I'm sure that's all we're seeing here.
The hair style on Blaire doesn't seem to be very durable, though it's very beautiful. If your daughter is going to play with this doll, then another style would be advisable. In fact, there were at least two girls there with their mothers who took their Blaires to the hair salon for a more lasting style.
Anyway, back to the curly/wavy topic. Here's a picture that shows one of the display dolls when we arrived at the store (hair neatly curled):
This is the same doll three hours later after being moved around and handled:
As far as AG wigs go, I haven't seen a wig that I think is this nice on many dolls. Blaire has great hair! It's a full wig, and I couldn't find one display doll with the braids or doggy ears that showed even a tiny glimpse of the wig cap. And this was with the original waterfall style still in place and then the braids put in. It's a very nice wig!
Blaire does have a zip tie and the "new" body fabric that feels rather thin and poly-like, and while this is a detraction, I wouldn't not buy a doll because of it. My sister replaces the zip ties with strings, and on a couple of dolls that really "mattered", we swapped the cloth bodies with an older style. You don't need to do that, though. But to get on to the last point . . .
Blaire's eyes are definitely the new green colour that was released for TM #78. It's not a bright green and doesn't look at all like Felicity or the older and greener Hazel eyes. This is a greyish green and appears darker in natural light when seen from a bit of a distance. Here's a picture that shows Blaire's eye colour very nicely, but it will look a little darker than this when you're not actually holding the doll.
All in all, I think Blaire is a great doll option. She doesn't have the unique factor, in my opinion, that I would want to see in a GOTY, but she's a fabulous addition to the available combinations. It's a shame she won't be a lasting choice, because I think she is going to be one of the most popular dolls with little girls. Her hair is beautiful, and her eyes are good. She looks like a younger doll than lots of others, so she's not the type that will look like a teenager. She'd make a great historical doll. Thumbs up for Blaire, and I wouldn't hesitate to recommend her. I think AG is going to have a real winner here!
The Blaire doll doesn't come with much in the way of a "meet outfit", but the print on the fabric is cute. Her white sun dress has bumble bees all over it and some decorative yellow buttons. The dress has thin straps at the shoulders, is lower cut in the back where it velcros closed. The quality and fit of this dress is on a par with the current Truly Me flowered meet dress. My sister didn't like it at all. Personally, I liked the fabric print a lot, though I have to admit the fabric feels rather cheap.
Blaire's shoes are some platform purple-strapped sandals. Obviously didn't cost a lot for AG to make, but they're cute if you like this style. As Nanea is my favorite doll, I'm drawn to the Summer styles, but it's not quite the same as back when the meet outfits has shoes and socks and multiple pieces. There's not a lot of play value in this outfit, so most little girls buying a Blaire doll were also buying another outfit for her. Blaire also comes with a flower clip for her hair and some kind of yellow thing to tie on as a bracelet. I couldn't quite figure out what it was.
Blaire's skin tone is the new light vinyl -- the same as Truly Me #78. A few people have asked if her vinyl felt normal. Yes, it actually felt very fine. We handled a number of Blaire displays, and they all felt fine. The TM #78 has a bit of a hollow feel, but I didn't feel any Blaires with that problem. It's very hard to get good colour shots in a store with pink walls, but this photo does show the vinyl tone and eye-colour similarities between Blaire and #78. (The hair colour here is totally not accurate.)
Blaire's hair is a very nice red. My sister has a re-wigged Julie doll wearing an AG CYO "red long wavy" wig, and the hair colour was exactly the same. Here's a photo showing them from the back, and it was the very same colour, though hard to get to show with the lighting which made the CYO wig look a little lighter. We took the dolls over to a window for this, so it's rather shiny. Don't worry --- Blaire's hair is as nice as any AG doll and not made of plastic wrap! The dolls just photograph extra shiny in the store. Blaire is on the right, and my sister's doll with CYO wig is on the left.
PoppetsandPosies Blaire comparison shows a very curly wig. I'm not sure what to say about that, but there must be some variety from batch to batch. All of the display dolls at Columbus had been brushed (not to mention that the store only likes sausage curls, so even Nanea wears them --- almost every Blaire had been sausage curled), but the doll above looks like a nice version of all the Blaires there yesterday. We saw a lot of the dolls purchased and unboxed for little girls there, many carrying them around in the store for a long while afterwards. No Blaire had as curly a wig as the one shown by Poppets and Posies. They all looks rather like the doll above. That said, I bought a Nanea at the store in May, and she had large curls in the bottom half of her wig. My sister bought one a couple months later, and it is slightly wavy hair, no curls at all. I'm sure that's all we're seeing here.
The hair style on Blaire doesn't seem to be very durable, though it's very beautiful. If your daughter is going to play with this doll, then another style would be advisable. In fact, there were at least two girls there with their mothers who took their Blaires to the hair salon for a more lasting style.
Anyway, back to the curly/wavy topic. Here's a picture that shows one of the display dolls when we arrived at the store (hair neatly curled):
This is the same doll three hours later after being moved around and handled:
As far as AG wigs go, I haven't seen a wig that I think is this nice on many dolls. Blaire has great hair! It's a full wig, and I couldn't find one display doll with the braids or doggy ears that showed even a tiny glimpse of the wig cap. And this was with the original waterfall style still in place and then the braids put in. It's a very nice wig!
Blaire does have a zip tie and the "new" body fabric that feels rather thin and poly-like, and while this is a detraction, I wouldn't not buy a doll because of it. My sister replaces the zip ties with strings, and on a couple of dolls that really "mattered", we swapped the cloth bodies with an older style. You don't need to do that, though. But to get on to the last point . . .
Blaire's eyes are definitely the new green colour that was released for TM #78. It's not a bright green and doesn't look at all like Felicity or the older and greener Hazel eyes. This is a greyish green and appears darker in natural light when seen from a bit of a distance. Here's a picture that shows Blaire's eye colour very nicely, but it will look a little darker than this when you're not actually holding the doll.
All in all, I think Blaire is a great doll option. She doesn't have the unique factor, in my opinion, that I would want to see in a GOTY, but she's a fabulous addition to the available combinations. It's a shame she won't be a lasting choice, because I think she is going to be one of the most popular dolls with little girls. Her hair is beautiful, and her eyes are good. She looks like a younger doll than lots of others, so she's not the type that will look like a teenager. She'd make a great historical doll. Thumbs up for Blaire, and I wouldn't hesitate to recommend her. I think AG is going to have a real winner here!
