GOTY 2019 Blaire Wilson Released at AGP Columbus: Part 2

I think Blaire is going to take three entries here. Photos and thoughts on the doll and her meet outfit can be found in the previous entry, this entry will show photos of her clothes and accessories, and an entry will follow this dealing with Blaire's Family Restaurant!

Blaire's Accessories: These cost $30.00 and include a tote bag, piece of artificial flowers, a clipboard and pen, a tablet with changeable screens and some paper items. The tablet appears to be the same basic mold as the one from Grace's Baking set, but I would say it's not the same weight of plastic. It's all cute, but it seems a steep price for what you don't get. On a sale or coupon, it's a nice addition to the whole Blaire theme.

Blaire's Pig: This is adorable! AGP Columbus was totally out of them by 2:00pm yesterday. It's not poseable and feels similar in quality to the nicer pets of the historical dolls. It's super cute, and my sister is planning on ordering one. For anyone that loves Tolkien and The Hobbit trilogy, this looks just like the pigs used in those films! Definitely recommend this, despite it feeling a bit silly to pay $20.00 for a small plush animal . . . but hey, it's different --- and the quality is nice on it!

Blaire's Lamb: This is also along the quality lines of the historical pets. It's cute but really light-weight and thin quality faux fur --- the kind of plush animal you'd pay $6.00 for at Wal-Mart. I'm really into wool and sheep, so this is a hard item for me to review. Personally, I think it's too large for a young lamb like they want it to look. It's too tall and too filled out. As lambs are not an uncommon plush, especially coming up on Easter time, I would be tempted to look for something else, because the price tag of $25.00 for this seems way too high. If this weren't marketed by AG, you literally wouldn't pay more than $6.00 for it. But here are some pictures that may help you decide how you feel about it.

Click on all photos to see at full size.

Blaire's Garden: Let's be honest. What you're really buying here is the Silkie Chicken, nest and eggs. That would probably be the item that prompted you into paying this price. The Silkie is actually really adorable. She's weighted with a nice amount of pellets inside, so she weighs a decent amount for her little size and sits very well. The faux fur used on her is nice quality, and she's a nice size. The embroidered feet are adorable! Her nest and eggs are plastic and fit her well. I think the nest and eggs are the same as found in the Wellie Wishers Chicken Coop but am not positive (similar enough, anyway).

The Garden is advertised with signs in the store as being for Blaire to plant vegetables. If that's what you wanted, then look elsewhere. This is a sort of window box with some flowers and herbs in it. No sign of vegetables. No sign of a garden, for that matter. The herbs and flowers are removable and look very cute, but the size, plastic and construction of everything really makes you think of Wellie Wishers. If they moved it to the Wellie Wishers area, more would sell. It just doesn't feel like an 18" doll piece. The basket is the same-but-lighter-color as the plastic basket in Kit's Gardening Accessories, if that helps anyone to know. The watering can is a cheap plastic and likewise sized for Wellies. I'm going to buy this set for my Nanea doll to have a chicken, but the rest of the items will be put with my Wellie Wishers.

Blaire's Gardening Outfit: I know a lot of people were really excited about this one. In fact, my sister wanted to buy it (from the release photos), but we were really surprised to see it in person. The overalls are cut so low on the side that you actually see the doll's panties, since the shirt is not as long as the opening in the overalls. The boots are cute, a different coloured version of the same boots that came with the old Truly Me rain coat (can't remember the name, but they were a brighter blue and lime green). Here are some pictures of the outfit. Sadly, it really needed a t-shirt instead of a fancy frilly shirt (seriously, who does real gardening in something like that?). My sister is going to use the old Earth Day Outfit overalls and make a version of her own. This is a real shame, and AG should never have passed this for production. Such a cute idea that is ruined by skimpy execution.

Garden Accessories: For $20.00 you get a straw garden hat, an apron and garden gloves. Surprisingly, this set fit the doll quite well. The hat had a bit of a tendency to slide up on the display doll, but a lot of that had to do with the hair-do. If she didn't have doggy ears on, it would have fit perfectly. The apron also fit fine. It's very cheap fabric and about as thin a cotton as you will find, but there didn't seem to be anything wrong with the cut. The gardening gloves were total cuteness! This is a set that both Mom and I think we'll end up purchasing.

Floral Flair Outfit: This was obviously the favorite outfit of most people purchasing Blaire dolls and of the AGP Columbus display department! It looks cute on her, but it's quite form fitting, so I think the older dolls would be out. AG didn't have to spend a lot on fabric for this one, though the leggings seemed to fit pretty well, and I didn't notice them being to short in the waist. The headband is plain plastic but quite cute. The sandals are a bit faded on the light vinyl tone, but I think they'd go really well with a variety of AG clothes. Personally, I think this outfit would look really great on Luciana!

Bridesmaid Dress: This was the only "fancy" dress, and I'm not at all a fan of the high-low hem line. The pale blue  suits Blaire's colour. It looks like it should have a slip, but I don't know how you would do that with the hem. It's a sheer flowered overdress over a blue satin under dress. Shiny shoes are pretty cute. This has the feel of a bunch of the little Truly Me outfits, but the price seems high ($36.00) for only a dress, some shiny flats, a headband and a choker necklace that looks rather poor.

Blaire's Party Decor: This is her second-most-expensive item at $85.00, and it doesn't seem like there is a lot of versatility or play value here. Not many people were interested in this, so it was easy to look at. The arch is very plastic and seems more suited to Wellie Wishers. The table and cake are fine, but they have a very grown-up feel and colour and don't seem like they match the feel of Blaire. However, if you like to play weddings or want to set up a wedding scene/display, this may be just what you need. I think you're looking at the quality seen in the Grand Hotel pieces on this one, if that helps anyone.

Blaire's PJs: These were actually only on two display dolls in the store, and we didn't notice them until way later. They suffer from the same problem that the last releases of clothes have --- the pieces are too short and tight. The shorts did cover her bottom, but just. The shirt is pretty short and only just covers the elastic waste of the shorts, and the slippers seem like velvet additions at a last minute. You don't get the "huggable and comfy" feel with these that so many AG pajamas offer. the colour on the shirt is pleasing, though, so it's a shame.

Floral Tote for Girls: Just a quick note about this. It's a really nice bag! Nice weight, and it's large enough for a woman to use. So, if you like it, I wouldn't hesitate to pick this up. Here's a picture showing a doll beside it, which should give a fair idea of the actual size.

More photos coming shortly to discuss Blaire's Family Restaurant!

GOTY 2019 Blaire Wilson Released at AGP Columbus: Part 1

Yesterday was a big day in the American Girl world. Girl of the Year 2019 Blaire Wilson was officially released in stores and online. No ice and snow here, so we packed a lunch in the car and headed down to AGP Columbus. The store had a "By Reservation Brunch" that started at 9:30am, though the store was not officially open to shoppers for another half hour. We got there at about 10:45am, and there weren't as many people there as I would have expected. Crowds picked up a bit
around 11:30am, but the store was never too crowded to look around.

Blaire's corner is over past the Historical displays by the second entrance, and she was mostly contained to that area. Behind the checkout counter were some large wall posters for her and six Blaire dolls, each wearing a different outfit. Very cute and appealing.

Click all photos to see at full size.

This first entry will talk about the doll. Check out the next entry for her collection.

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.

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.

This brings us to the question about Blaire's eyes. There's a lot of discussion about the "new" eyes that were introduced some time in 2017. The whites are on the very outside of the eye and way too white. The Iris and eyelashes are so thin and narrow that the expression is off, and the eyes don't close quite right, etc. A month or two ago, American Girl released a statement that they were working on addressing this eye problem and changing to a new style. Well, something has already been done, because Blaire definitely had better eyes. The whites are still on the outside of the eye, but the iris and eyelashes are back to a normal width. No one can say for sure, but I would personally not hope for anything better to change. Blaire's eyes were all acceptable, and we all three (Mom and my sister and me) agreed on it. All Josefina mold faces have a downward glance, so you have to discount that. It's also not uncommon for the eyes to appear to look not quite straight together. My PC 1997 Josefina has both those problems, so it's inherent to the face mold, I think. By making the iris and eyelashes a normal width, Blaire looked really good. So, I would really think that she is as nice as she will ever be. There wasn't a doll in the store that we wouldn't have enjoyed.

Photos are hard to take in-store to show the eyes, because even the "old style" eyes look odd most of the time. Here's a picture of a Blaire beside my Bunty (Rebecca) and Elizabeth's Nancy (re-wigged Julie with 2014 body tag).

Here are some photos to show Blaires in boxes and on display. Just click on them to see full size.

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. Thumbs up for Blaire, and I wouldn't hesitate to recommend her. Feel free to ask questions, if you'd like to know something else.

Stay tuned for reviews of Blaire's clothes and accessories . . .