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ramblings about Luciana and Gabby
GUYS. We are a week away from Cyber Monday. Which is the only shopping day of the year I care about and I only care about it because it's my yearly tradition to tear my hair out with American Girl.
But I already started the hair tearing early so really, what can you do? Before we jump into the Luciana stuff (woo, I love this time of year), my sort of account update:
Points: 20
Tier: Berry
Points to next tier: 0
Tier expiration date: Thu May 17 00:00:00 PDT 2018
which means they screwed it up in new ways! A) My expiration date was moved a day and now expires a day earlier (boo) and I know full well I had more than 20 points. So in the morning I guess I get to call and get that fixed. Nyargh. I'm going to have to be one of those people who keeps screenshots and spreadsheets about my balance. Or, and this is a novel idea, they could fucking pay their IT department more than peanuts and get something that works properly. This wouldn't even be as much of a pain in my ass if they would just fix the email situation as most Rewards emails contain your point balance.
Let's see. In other AG news, the Wishbooks started landing last week. I actually got mine the same day a lot of people reported getting theirs so that's nice. Maybe 11/15 or 11/16? (including that for future!me) It didn't include a 20% coupon but there is free shipping for everyone if you spend 100+ and use whatever code they're hawking on the site. But since some people DO have a coupon, they do exist and you might keep an eye out if that's your thing. The wishbook itself is large and I took my time to go through it and I enjoyed it, but I will agree that I wish they'd gone more all out and done the usual winter awesome pictures they've done for quite a few of the past few years. There wasn't a lot of new photography this go round, though I did like the group holiday dress photos. I'll see if I can find them or take a pic and share it later.
Now. Onto Luciana. More promo pics leaked here.
I assume these are her PJs as the slippers kind of go with that theory. *grabby hands* I have a mighty need for the To the Moon and Back shirt because yes, yes I do still love Savage Garden and I do still love that song and yes, I will buy dolly PJs for that reason alone. But I like them well enough anyway. I really like the leggings, actually. I'd like the shirt better if the sleeves didn't look so... odd? Or if it wasn't tunic length with those sleeves. One or the other and I think I'd like it better. Still, these are a solid B and I will buy them.
Jeggings are evil and I hate them and I will always hate them and you can do better, Luci. You can do better. Those shoes are adorable and that shirt is making all the nerds swoon and I'm a nerd soooooo swoon. Plus her bag of NASA swag! Am I the only one hoping for people to get Luci and have Maryellen and Melody be big ol' fangirls or have them swipe her stuff because both have shown a space interest? (ME in her books and Melody in her movie.)
Clearer promo photo. Showed her to Cass who said welp, she'll be needing Luci ASAP. The shoes and hair sold her.
I want that outfit and I'm curious as to what exactly is going on in this. But I also am willing to bet that this is going to fall in the $300-$500 range and I can't and won't pay that price.
Overall, I think it's interesting how they kind of hide Luciana's purple hair. I assume it's to keep people from freaking out as much as they did with Izzy's, but Izzy's wasn't permanent and also when hooked in you had to work for the pink to show. AG's trying to be stealthy and I can kind of get why but at the same time I want more purple. MORE PURPLE.
I wonder what else Luci will get. I also wonder if anyone is going to actively call them out once AG themselves put out Luciana's promo stuff because with all this, it's very, very obvious that Gabby was an eleventh hour switch with Tenney and she got lost this year. I was willing to give them a healthy dose of side eye but accept that maybe they'd go big in the middle of the year but they didn't. Gabby had one big selling point at the start of the year: she was one of the only modern dolls who was never scheduled to get the permapanties. However this also worked against her because when people went nuts buying the PP dolls, they didn't have to bother with Gabby because they knew she'd be safe. Seriously, let's look at all the reasons besides Obvious Racist Asshat one could break out for not getting Gabby this year.
1) Gabby, especially at the start of the year, was literally just #46 dressed up in Gabby's clothes. Literally and so obviously that AG proactively sent people who'd recently (within two years, I think) bought #46 codes to redeem to get Gabby's outfit for free.
1.5) Related to this, maybe mid-year maybe a little before, #46asGabby switched over to actual!Gabby who has slightly darker hair (I think) and darker lips and so if you'd been on the fence before but definitely wanted nu!Gabby, you'd likely put things off til 46Gabby sold out.
2) Right off the bat, Gabby was listed as available in 2017 and beyond. So any real sense of urgency for the doll herself that might have managed to make it through the being a dressed up TM doll went poof on day 1.
3) Tenney.
4) Logan.
Tenney and Logan both came along and upstaged Gabby less than a month into her reign as GOTY. It was and is still very obvious that Tenney was meant to be the GOTY for 2017. She's got the extra book in her collection, her collection is huuuuuge compared to Gabby's, she's got the new hands and eyes that are traditionally the something New the GOTY gets to set her apart... Everything about her screams GOTY. Logan is the boy people have been begging for in the past however many years. He might not sell well in the long run, but right out the gate he sold very well and sold out of a lot of Kohl's for eons.
5) Permapanties. Just mentioned this above but with Gabby being the only modern doll specifically mentioned to not be in danger of getting them, that meant that anyone who was on the fence between Gabby and any of the later BF/any MyAG/Tenney/Logan dolls was going to choose the option they feared would later come with the dreaded PPs.
6) MyAG #67: aka what Gabby might've actually been supposed to look like (really long, dark curls).
7) The custom line.
8) Z's stuff. I gather Z the doll is still not doing well but her stuff IS and some people prefer to go with the doll whose stuff they like even if they like another doll better. (I prefer to mix and match and create the best of all possible worlds but that's just me.)
9) No big showstopping piece. Saige had that hot air balloon. Izzy had that sewing studio thing that I still lowkey want. Grace had the infamous bakery. Lea had her hut, even if did languish in the sale section for too long. Tenney has her stage. Gabby has a rehash of McKenna's bed. Wow?
10) No movie tie in.
11) I'm getting bored and I think the point's been more than made but hey, there was no huge midyear release which would be fine for any other GOTY but Gabby started out with less and kind of needed more than just a couple of extra things sprinkled in throughout the year. She needed some fire and AG never gave her any.
But I already started the hair tearing early so really, what can you do? Before we jump into the Luciana stuff (woo, I love this time of year), my sort of account update:
Points: 20
Tier: Berry
Points to next tier: 0
Tier expiration date: Thu May 17 00:00:00 PDT 2018
which means they screwed it up in new ways! A) My expiration date was moved a day and now expires a day earlier (boo) and I know full well I had more than 20 points. So in the morning I guess I get to call and get that fixed. Nyargh. I'm going to have to be one of those people who keeps screenshots and spreadsheets about my balance. Or, and this is a novel idea, they could fucking pay their IT department more than peanuts and get something that works properly. This wouldn't even be as much of a pain in my ass if they would just fix the email situation as most Rewards emails contain your point balance.
Let's see. In other AG news, the Wishbooks started landing last week. I actually got mine the same day a lot of people reported getting theirs so that's nice. Maybe 11/15 or 11/16? (including that for future!me) It didn't include a 20% coupon but there is free shipping for everyone if you spend 100+ and use whatever code they're hawking on the site. But since some people DO have a coupon, they do exist and you might keep an eye out if that's your thing. The wishbook itself is large and I took my time to go through it and I enjoyed it, but I will agree that I wish they'd gone more all out and done the usual winter awesome pictures they've done for quite a few of the past few years. There wasn't a lot of new photography this go round, though I did like the group holiday dress photos. I'll see if I can find them or take a pic and share it later.
Now. Onto Luciana. More promo pics leaked here.
I assume these are her PJs as the slippers kind of go with that theory. *grabby hands* I have a mighty need for the To the Moon and Back shirt because yes, yes I do still love Savage Garden and I do still love that song and yes, I will buy dolly PJs for that reason alone. But I like them well enough anyway. I really like the leggings, actually. I'd like the shirt better if the sleeves didn't look so... odd? Or if it wasn't tunic length with those sleeves. One or the other and I think I'd like it better. Still, these are a solid B and I will buy them.
Jeggings are evil and I hate them and I will always hate them and you can do better, Luci. You can do better. Those shoes are adorable and that shirt is making all the nerds swoon and I'm a nerd soooooo swoon. Plus her bag of NASA swag! Am I the only one hoping for people to get Luci and have Maryellen and Melody be big ol' fangirls or have them swipe her stuff because both have shown a space interest? (ME in her books and Melody in her movie.)
Clearer promo photo. Showed her to Cass who said welp, she'll be needing Luci ASAP. The shoes and hair sold her.
I want that outfit and I'm curious as to what exactly is going on in this. But I also am willing to bet that this is going to fall in the $300-$500 range and I can't and won't pay that price.
Overall, I think it's interesting how they kind of hide Luciana's purple hair. I assume it's to keep people from freaking out as much as they did with Izzy's, but Izzy's wasn't permanent and also when hooked in you had to work for the pink to show. AG's trying to be stealthy and I can kind of get why but at the same time I want more purple. MORE PURPLE.
I wonder what else Luci will get. I also wonder if anyone is going to actively call them out once AG themselves put out Luciana's promo stuff because with all this, it's very, very obvious that Gabby was an eleventh hour switch with Tenney and she got lost this year. I was willing to give them a healthy dose of side eye but accept that maybe they'd go big in the middle of the year but they didn't. Gabby had one big selling point at the start of the year: she was one of the only modern dolls who was never scheduled to get the permapanties. However this also worked against her because when people went nuts buying the PP dolls, they didn't have to bother with Gabby because they knew she'd be safe. Seriously, let's look at all the reasons besides Obvious Racist Asshat one could break out for not getting Gabby this year.
1) Gabby, especially at the start of the year, was literally just #46 dressed up in Gabby's clothes. Literally and so obviously that AG proactively sent people who'd recently (within two years, I think) bought #46 codes to redeem to get Gabby's outfit for free.
1.5) Related to this, maybe mid-year maybe a little before, #46asGabby switched over to actual!Gabby who has slightly darker hair (I think) and darker lips and so if you'd been on the fence before but definitely wanted nu!Gabby, you'd likely put things off til 46Gabby sold out.
2) Right off the bat, Gabby was listed as available in 2017 and beyond. So any real sense of urgency for the doll herself that might have managed to make it through the being a dressed up TM doll went poof on day 1.
3) Tenney.
4) Logan.
Tenney and Logan both came along and upstaged Gabby less than a month into her reign as GOTY. It was and is still very obvious that Tenney was meant to be the GOTY for 2017. She's got the extra book in her collection, her collection is huuuuuge compared to Gabby's, she's got the new hands and eyes that are traditionally the something New the GOTY gets to set her apart... Everything about her screams GOTY. Logan is the boy people have been begging for in the past however many years. He might not sell well in the long run, but right out the gate he sold very well and sold out of a lot of Kohl's for eons.
5) Permapanties. Just mentioned this above but with Gabby being the only modern doll specifically mentioned to not be in danger of getting them, that meant that anyone who was on the fence between Gabby and any of the later BF/any MyAG/Tenney/Logan dolls was going to choose the option they feared would later come with the dreaded PPs.
6) MyAG #67: aka what Gabby might've actually been supposed to look like (really long, dark curls).
7) The custom line.
8) Z's stuff. I gather Z the doll is still not doing well but her stuff IS and some people prefer to go with the doll whose stuff they like even if they like another doll better. (I prefer to mix and match and create the best of all possible worlds but that's just me.)
9) No big showstopping piece. Saige had that hot air balloon. Izzy had that sewing studio thing that I still lowkey want. Grace had the infamous bakery. Lea had her hut, even if did languish in the sale section for too long. Tenney has her stage. Gabby has a rehash of McKenna's bed. Wow?
10) No movie tie in.
11) I'm getting bored and I think the point's been more than made but hey, there was no huge midyear release which would be fine for any other GOTY but Gabby started out with less and kind of needed more than just a couple of extra things sprinkled in throughout the year. She needed some fire and AG never gave her any.
no subject
I am super crossing my fingers she comes to Kohls and knocks blondie and her boy out of there. They've been there forever and it's time for a switch.
no subject
And I've yet to hear or see any mention that the purple isn't permanent, just that it's obviously capable of being styled so you can't see it as easily, which bodes well. :D I want the space pod to do well and I want people to buy it and use it and share because I won't get it but, like you said, I'm glad it will exist.
no subject
ETA (after reading the whole post): YAS for the SG reference, DOUBLE YAS for the NASA interest (I just watched a wonderful documentary on the Voyager missions and OMG I need a universe where Janine Kishi becomes an astrophysicist because YAAAAAS!!!!), and triple YAS for making it 2/8 for BSC stand-ins! Because you totally know Claud would have purple streaks at *some* point, LOL :P
no subject
And thank you for the code!
no subject
I hope we get Kristy's Big Day and Boy Crazy Stacey because I want to see that day camp (and Sea City) in action, LOL!!
no subject
I keep meaning to pick up #5 but then I get distracted. Maybe it'll go on sale on Amazon or something when I'm shopping for others. It could happen. I knew they were changing up Mal's storyline, but I didn't realize they were starting her without Jessi. But maybe she's just in training, which still wouldn't explain the meetings. Hrmm. I guess if you're going to change things a little, you could change them even further.
Pink! I was close. Which reminds me, next weekend I need to get off my duff and break out the pink dye.
no subject
Stop messing with my childhood, Graphix! *shakes cane at clouds*