American Girl Doll Fail (Page 2)

trinnas - 2013-04-02 12:48 PM

jmk-brooklyn - 2013-04-02 12:42 PM This thread and the one about thong underwear for tweens at Victoria's Secret make me glad i have a boy.

You and me both!

Just stay clear of the Lego store...it's the boys version of AG, from what I hear.

I am surprised by the reports that some folks have been successful in getting the cheap Target version and that their kid's "don't care."  I had a homemade Cabbage Patch doll and while I liked the doll, and put on a good face for my mom, I only ever really wanted a real one.  Or maybe the knock-off versions are very close, I haven't looked at them.

I would have loved the American Girl doll as a little girl, but I can see with my nieces that they are not for everyone.  It's a nice thing for relatives to have to buy for, though!   But yeah, way too pricey if the kid's not into it. 

Right! In my head it was going to be this really fun girl time shopping visit. In reality I had my husband and son wandering around the mall then coming back in the store asking "is she done yet?". Then my 70 something year old parents were following us around the whole time with my mom making comments about how expensive the dolls are and saying she did not even think they were cute and I hope we're not eating at the restaurant because we looked at the menu and there is nothing we want to eat, and my daughter skipping from one section to the other not able to make a decision and me walking a tight rope trying to make everyone happy when all I wanted to do was make my daughters 5th birthday special. BLAH! I ended up with a headache wondering what in the world was supposed to be fun about that LOL!

Did you know the company is in Wisconsin, I think that's he state but check out the "Made In" tag on the AGD, yep Big Red.  How much do you think the profit margin is on that baby?  Manufacturing Costs I guess at $15, Retail $100 , probably 85% Profit Margin

And we have 2.  But I refused to pay to pierce ears, so I drilled them myself with a drill and bit, there you go, perfect!

It can be overwhelming - that's for sure.  A lot of my daughter's friends were getting them and I was really opposed to getting something that expensive for a 5 year old that wasn't responsible enough to take care of it.

My wife and I came up with a great solution - we let our daughter prove that she was responsible enough.  We laid out a set of tasks that she had to do every morning without being told - my wife made a checklist with pictures.  She did every item on that checklist to 95% accuracy for the 2.5 months leading up to Christmas.  Our threshold was that she had to get an "A", or 90%.

We absolutely, or more to the point, my wife absolutely did a bunch of research and we got a couple of books from the different girls to see which one she liked before making a decision.  If we'd gone into the store in Houston before knowing what we were getting into, there might have been a hostage situation.

I like that it gives a timeline of American history.  We're sticking with one doll, but have several books and movies and are fairly entertaining.

Just one guys experience,

twomarks

Thanks and I like all of those ideas and will be stealing them if she asks for a doll for Christmas. We really should have read about each doll online and researched like you said but I really did not know what I was getting into!

I love the books.

I thought it made most sense to get a Target doll and then buy the AG outfits. Dressing the dolls to go with the stories seemed really fun to me.

My daughter never got into them, though. So I'm glad we only paid for he Target doll. lol

hamiltks10 - 2013-04-02 2:05 PM

trinnas - 2013-04-02 12:48 PM

jmk-brooklyn - 2013-04-02 12:42 PM This thread and the one about thong underwear for tweens at Victoria's Secret make me glad i have a boy.

You and me both!

Just stay clear of the Lego store...it's the boys version of AG, from what I hear.

The Lego store is a dangerous place for boys and girls, especially if Dad is a bit geeky and likes to build stuff.

My daughter is way into the Lego Friends sets.  Those things are stupidly expensive.  And I can't help but buy them because they're fun to build.

My daughter's AG "Bitty Baby" umbrella stroller cost twice as much as her real stroller. (Grandma gift -  I didn't pay for it)

At the NY store, they even have a hair salon for the dolls

My two girls have so much AG stuff but almost all of it came from my family as Christmas and birthday gifts.  Between the two of them they have 9 dolls, a campfire set, sleeping bags, a scooter, a hibachi, a smores making kit, dogs, rabbits, suitcases, backpacks with all the school supplies, violins with stands, a big table with baking stuff, a concession stand...  And that is not including all of the clothes - so many outfits!  I can't even imagine how much money went into the stuff, but it was really all they asked for on holidays for a few years.

My mom and aunt also loved to take them to the AG store in Mass when we would go visit.  We only got to go twice before they outgrew it but it was kind of fun.  We did get their hair done (the dolls) once and have lunch.  The food was horrible but the experience was nice for the kids.

We didn't get them their first dolls until the were about 6, my youngest might have gotten her Bitty Babies at 5.  They never played with them as much as some kids do- they mostly set them up and dressed them over and over. 

The bad part about all of this is that now my girls are 10 & 12 and are pretty much over their dolls.  We just moved to a new house and the 12 year old said maybe she would keep one or two in her room, the 10 year old said she would pick a few.  But really all they want to do now is make videos on the Ipad, make rubber band bracelets and listen to One Direction!

Count your blessings......my 12 year old now plays with this....and don't ask me what we spend on swim club/meet fees. 

(lbike.jpg)

We bought a Trek for my 10 year old a couple seasons ago.  Unfortunately we have triathlon, swim, and duathlon fees for my 8 and 10 year olds and they both still play with their AG dolls. 

My 8 year old got a Trek bike as well as AG doll....yes triathlon is her thing so here we go.  I'm thankful she doesn't wanna play golf....and Build a Bear has more clothes than mommy.

It used to be that the American Girl dolls were better quality than other dolls. Is this still true?  When our three girls were small 25 years ago, they each had a AG doll.  We got a few accessories over the years. They were presents, Christmas or birthday. There were no AG stores.  We got catalogs in the mail, lots of catalogs, which the girls looked at.

The girls always picked their own main presents for Christmas or birthday.  The budget was always the same.  It was a question of how to spend the money.  They sometimes picked an AG item.  I do not recall having an opinion or offering any advice about their choices.  I do remember thinking that AG must be making a fortune and that it was marketing genius.

The moral to this story is that we can see how it all turned out for them.  They turned out pretty well. They still like a few nice things.  The acorn does not fall too far from the tree.