Tis the season and all that

Dammit, AG, why do you do this to me?

You might recall, but one of my favorite things in the world to do is wait for stuff to go on backorder at AG and then, when there's a code, order it. You can only do this when you're sure that you have the money for it and will in the future (as sure as one can ever be, that is) but it's super fun because Ag's backorder dates are ridiculously wrong. Sometimes it'll say a month from now and tomorrow it'll ship, and sometimes it takes six months... or longer. It is essentially present roulette.

I noticed the red dress for this year hit backorder status (color me surprised) and went to see what else was popping up. I... decided to take a chance on three items and when they arrive, I'll share either the "yay!" or the "wtf was I thinking?"


Now, let's move on to one more AG thing...

Soooooo, you might've heard a little explosion over in doll world. That sound was in reaction to the AG fans finding out that the Girl of the Year was a blonde.

Wait, no, we knew that months ago.

That she's white?

No, we knew that, too.

Oh, yeah, it was because she looks like this:
( dundunduuuuuuuuuuuun )

Meet Isabelle. Fun fact, her code name was Blanche. Anyway, Isabelle's gimmick is that you can hook a hair weft under the top layer of her hair and suddenly she has pink tipped hair. It's also the only thing that makes her unique. The dancing aspect was covered by Marisol and back in 2010, we had Lanie who was a green/hazel eyed blonde with the classic mold. Egads, brain, I think they're too chickenshit to use the Marie Grace mold again even though I could have had...

( Another photo )

Do you know how fast I would have bought this doll? (Especially with gray eyes, but I could go with any other color, too, since those are Marie Grace's eyes.) So fast your head would spin, that's how fast. This is the picture that made me reconsider MG. I figured if I liked the mold here, she had to be better in person and then there was a sale and BAM, she was mine.

Since Isabelle refuses to be the MG mold, I will have to buy another MG and make this doll.

Back to Isabelle. For people who already knew that Isabelle was going to likely be blonde and white, I want to smack them for the surprise they're expressing. No. You lot saw the actress playing Isabelle in the movie, there's no surprise there. The surprise, my chickadees, is in the mold choice. I kind of expected it not to be the Josefina mold because then she'd just be... McKenna with a twist. Which would have been more tempting than what we got but hey.

Nope, I'm joining the ranks of those who aren't surprised by the choice but are annoyed as hell that in the more than a decade the Girl of the Year has been a thing, we have yet to see a single African American doll and every single doll/character has been at least part white. Every last one of them with the POSSIBLE exception of Sonali, but she was treated as no more than an accessory so that's just not the stand you want to take here, Mattel.

And there's no reason Isabelle here couldn't have been decidedly not white. In fact, I'd wager the ballet dancer aspect would have offset a lot of the "but... she's black..." hesitation that could/would ensue. Pink and dancing, come the fuck on. You might as well coat this doll in glitter, give her a pet rainbow, and call her bait for the hordes of little girls who are going to be screaming for her.

And they'd have done it if she was black, too. With the sales Caroline must be doing (her stuff drifts in and out of backorder and clearly AG likes its blondes because they sell well), couldn't you have hedged your bets and gone a little less "safe"?

I hold out hope, however dim, that the mystery historical figure rumoured to be unveiled next year will be decidedly not white but even if she is, it still doesn't excuse the lack of color in the GOTY line.