Buy American Girl or similar?

[jm-mom]

Before you choose a doll for your daughter, you might consider giving her the catalog and see which one she prefers. Both of my girls are Chinese and 1 of the 4 AG dolls they have between them is the most Asian looking of the dolls sold and it's the one they play with the least. In opting for future purchases, I gave them the book and they actually chose dolls completely different than what I would have chosen. It's a big investment so lesson learned for me, let them give you their ideas before you buy! You might be surprised by the one they choose.

 

[CAFarmerGirl]

Before you choose a doll for your daughter, you might consider giving her the catalog and see which one she prefers. Both of my girls are Chinese and 1 of the 4 AG dolls they have between them is the most Asian looking of the dolls sold and it's the one they play with the least. In opting for future purchases, I gave them the book and they actually chose dolls completely different than what I would have chosen. It's a big investment so lesson learned for me, let them give you their ideas before you buy! You might be surprised by the one they choose.

Yep...my dd chose one that was different than the one I would have chosen (dangit).

 

[papertraveller]

My DD, now 12, has three AGs (I think). They live in her closet in an amazing little condo-style setup that still gets playtime. They have Kit's bed, plus some other kind of pullout; Kit's stove and all the fixin's to keep them fed, a dog and a cat, a guitar for sing-a-longs, and a get-well kit in case someone breaks a leg.

This is the accumulation of many years of birthdays and Christmas gifts. Since we live in Canada, it meant sending our relatives on crazy excursions whenever they were in the right U.S. city. This included getting Grandpa (who would never have dreamed of setting foot in such a store) having a most fascinating experience when he happened to be in Minneapolis and visited the store at the Mall of the Americas. I told him to take his list to the first customer service person he saw, and let them do all the work for him!

He brought the stove back, and had an interesting time getting it through the security machines at the airport! It's solid metal, and after running it through a couple of times, they finally unpacked his bag. They took one look at the stove, another look at Grandpa, and then without a word just waved him through!

 

[JAMminInDisney032012]

My girls (7 and 6) got their first American Girl dolls for Christmas last year...they got the look alike dolls. The quality is fab...the hair is great...and they are cute! We had the dolls from Target too...and while they were just fine, AG really is better quality. My girls seem to love their AG dolls a lot more than they did the other dolls. They want story AG dolls this year, but I am not sure if that is going to happen yet or not because of the cost...we shall see.

 

[Lisa loves Pooh]

My DD recently discovered the AG doll and I was planning on getting her one for Xmas but after reading this and a quick google search to confirm she will not be getting one. I can't believe something being sold as an American girl doll is not even made here.

If it makes you feel better, we export chopsticks to China. I saw a news report on it.

It doesn't bother me for some reason.

 

[tink576]

My Twinn dolls are probably the same price range as the American Girl but also very nice. They personalize them to your daughter, mine was hand painted with all the freckles on my face (and I have many very distinct freckles). But they are a couple inches larger then the American Girl dolls.

 

[LisaNJ25]

My 7yo has one and is asking for the bitty baby for Christmas and I am thinking about getting her the doll and started kit.

I keep pushing for Kanani lol

Thanks for mentioning the free shipping code a few pages back.

 

[neatokimmo]

I wish they had more Asian choices. Ivy's hair is too short.

 

[rapunzelmom]

Before you choose a doll for your daughter, you might consider giving her the catalog and see which one she prefers. Both of my girls are Chinese and 1 of the 4 AG dolls they have between them is the most Asian looking of the dolls sold and it's the one they play with the least. In opting for future purchases, I gave them the book and they actually chose dolls completely different than what I would have chosen. It's a big investment so lesson learned for me, let them give you their ideas before you buy! You might be surprised by the one they choose.

same here, my DD5 didn't understand why a doll should look like her, she said it was "creepy". However I did gently persuade her that Josephina was cool, cause I already got it off EBay! She really just wants the horses and the doll to ride the horse. Just couldn't pay $100 for an "accessory" for the horse!! if she ends up playong with it I'll cough up the $$$ next Christmas!

 

[leight]

dd11 still loves her AG dolls. She also has 2 madame alexander and the hair is such a mess on those. I will say that last year I bought her a 'knock off' from Paradise Galleries- and they are gorgeous and great quality. They do have a variety of ethnicities but the accessories are limited. But the doll quality is on par with AG from what I've seen- they are just as posable and the hair is great. Look for codes for splitting the payments and the shipping is often free. I paid only $29.99 but got it on sale with one of their codes.