Post by mamared on Aug 27, 2022 21:38:37 GMT -5
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.
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.
