impy | AG Collection, Felicity & Lizbeth, Part 1 (Reply)

~~It's 3am.~~ Perfectly reasonable hour to wonder what, exactly, is lurking in Bob's room, AG-wise, right? Right. (As always, Bob is my desk.)

I thought I'd start at the beginning and work my way forward, chronologically speaking in terms of the timeline, not their release. It's easier for me and I'm less likely to inadvertantly forget anyone. I hope.

Also, it begins easily. I don't have Kaya and I have none of her stuff. I do want her, but I've yet to win any of the nifty "win an AG doll!" competitions thus far. One day, maybe?

Which brings us to Felicity.

Felicity and Elizabeth were sent to the great archival in the vault in 2010, surprising quite a few people. I was not one of them, which still gives me more enjoyment to say than I should probably admit to. At the time the only reason I could think of for keeping Felicity was that apparently blonde!Elizabeth sold exceptionally well.

Yeah, two years later we're presented with Caroline so it's pretty easy to see why they figured they could finally be rid of Felicity and sweet, sweet Elizabeth of the Fair would be reincarnated shortly thereafter.

Otherwise, it made far more sense to me for them to keep Molly around. If nothing else, Molly still had the (great)grandparents' votes, the nostalgia factor from when Mom was a kid (one of the original three!), and also the parent off fighting in the war angle. This was my betting strategy for 2010 and it worked quite nicely. I'll admit that I totally hedged my bets and bought some Molly/Emily stuff at the same time, but mostly I went after the Colonial crew.

Sadly, I realized as I shuffled through the remaining pieces in Felicity's collection, most of the things I loved as a kid were retired or changed and thus no longer appealed. Archival/holiday time is not the time to be venturing to ebay for anything other than wishes and hopes because that way lies madness.

Anyway. My Felicity collection, as it were:

Felicity the doll, 2010 version.

Since they'd long ago switched from her Rose Garden gown to her Traveling Gown (...I don't even know beyond "little girls love purple!"), I tracked down the Rose Garden/original Meet dress. As a kid I thought it looked like wallpaper. Boring wallpaper, at that. As an adult, it's far more interesting. Curse you, maturity!

Also, her 2010 accessories were acquired. This is a case where I think the original set was far more interesting and beautiful. That purple choker is just... no. I'll take the coral necklace, thank you kindly. Also, the cap that isn't stuck being used for only one outfit. (I would understand it if they'd made them available separately so you'd always have an overly matching one but no. No they did not.)

Felicity's school outfit had been retired and replaced with the Tea Lesson Gown that is very, very yellow. Thing is, the review pictures managed to make it look okay to good, and the movie version is spectacular so... I bought it. And it's just very, very not Felicity. I've yet to find anyone who wears it well as Lizbeth kindly told me to shove off when she tried it on. A moment of silence for her Windsor chair that I could have bought on clearance if only I'd been paying attention at the time. Woe.

Onward. Felicity's Christmas Gown is probably THE outfit you think of when you think of Miss Merriman. It's even in one of the BSC: Little Sister books. I bought the version available at the time (so velcro instead of snaps) and I think it was on backorder at the time. Anyway, it smelled horrible. HORRIBLE. It's also one that suffers from the whole cheap(er) materials used to make it syndrome. Once I got that out of my system, I could move onto the fact that my version is huge and is really meant for a PC doll (they were rounder then, usually) so poor Felicity swims in it. In fact, it's still pretty huge because HTA has tried to wear it, and she's PM, and she's still swimming in it. :P Also, it still smells when you get too close to it.

I have most of her Spring Gown. As in the gown itself and the pinner, but not the super cute socks or the pompon. It miiiiiiiiiight be my favorite bit of Felicity non-furniture I own. Maaaaaaaaaaaybe. (Yes. Yes it is.)

Felicity's Tilt-Top Table & Chairs were acquired via eBay when rumors began circulating that the table was being revised and the pie-crust edge was being done away with. (It was.) It actually was cheaper that way, shipping and all, and my version is pretty much flaw free. Dad was actually quite taken with it. I think seeing this, and Kit's desk, he finally got why I still liked these. The detail made sense. The fact that he could point to this table and tell me that his grandmother had a 'real' version of it that tilted up and everything. Honestly, this is my favorite bit of furniture for this memory alone.

Ebay also brought us Felicity's cloak because it was cheaper and I hate felt with a burning passion and it's... felt. It doesn't drive me crazy as much as it could and it makes for a lovely Little Red Riding Hood costume every fall.

As a kid, I adored the pages devoted to Felicity's Nighttime stuff. Her bed? Glorious. Her Clothes Press? Like real furniture! It didn't matter that I hated folding my clothes, I could barely contain my glee at the thought of folding wee little doll clothes. Warming her bed with a little brass bed warmer? I died at the mere thought of it all.

Which is why it surprises me that I chose to buy Elizabeth's bed/bedding instead. I guess because all the other extras were gone by this point. The clothes press had morphed into doll storage for Lizbeth and Lyssie so people could make closet jokes, the nighttime necessieites had been retired sometime prior to her archival and without these things, her nightgown held no lure for me. Of course, it was also cheaper because it was from ebay. :P

AG considers the Best Friends part of the main Historical doll's collection and that sits a little funny with me. :P So Lizbeth will be paired with Felicity but she's got her own collection, dammit. It's just smaller than Felicity's.

Lizbeth

I bought my Elizabeth (she prefers Lizbeth) from QVC in 2009 when they had her on backorder with Easy Pay. That's right, I got myself a QVC account just to buy a doll I could have bought elsewhere. But it was a package deal and I couldn't/didn't want to say no. I wasn't sure I'd get her since she was basically on their version of backorder, which means no promises.

She came with her Riding Outfit, which I've never actually managed to put on a doll. I've tried on three different occasions but I always get distracted by something. Whoops. Since the deal was essentially "buy the doll and an outfit, get an outfit free" I think of this one as the freebie. ;)

She also came with her nightgown which has been used every Halloween since then as a ghost costume. ;) I think it's adorable but I've also realized I've got a dolly pajamas thing that is probably coloring my vision.

I bought her Tea Lesson Gown sometime and was so excited to try it on her but I think it looks awful on her. Something about it just seems off and I can never figure out what it is. Thing is, I still like the outfit (I'd like it more if they haven't cheaped out on certain things, like making the apron an actual apron and not attached it to the outfit)

Accessories are kind of useless and kind of not all at the same time. Dolls cannot hold their fans, so there's that mixed with the fact that you could buy a cheaper one elsewhere. But Lizbeth does like her jewelry so I kind of had to buy it. Her pinner cap is also useful for when she goes full on Colonial.

Lizbeth is also one of the few to have her doll, Charlotte. :)

I keep an eye out for both of their Summer gowns because I think I'd like them both (iffy on Lizbeth's, but when it calls to me, it calls loudly) and I'd like some more shoes/socks for them.

Of course, neither has really stayed Colonial. :P Lizbeth kind of stayed to herself until Ivy arrived and then the two hit it off fabulously. So much so that when Felicity arrived that fall, she didn't really fit in.

But when I dressed her in the holiday outfit I'd bought for someone else, I fell for her rather hard.

I still think Elizabeth is gorgeous, so I can understand why so many little girls made her so very popular, even if her Meet outfit screams Barbie in all the worst ways possible. :P

End Part 1.