American Girl doll or Fake American Girl doll?

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Fake?

Or real?

That’s the question of the day for you mamas of little girls who covet an AG doll after getting the catalog in the mail, like my little girl does

(J really wasn’t ever into dolls much when she was young enough to like dolls)

What thinks ye? Discuss

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71 thoughts on “American Girl doll or Fake American Girl doll?”

  1. I'm going to sound like a wet blanket on this one, but I really don't like those AG dolls, real or fake. My first question would be — where are they made?

    Fortunately, my daughter has never asked for one, and I doubt that she ever will (she's 7). I bought her a cloth Madeline doll when she was born, along with 3 trunks and a pile of clothes, and she has been very happy with that. Still plays with it.

    I also bought her a custom-made Waldorf style doll, and Zid Zid Kid's Imma and Louise, and she has loved those as well, although with fewer clothing options, they get less play.
    http://www.designpublic.com/shop/zid-zid-kids/104…

    When I was a kid, the best present I ever got was a doll with a TON of clothes. (I think it is all about the outfits!) She wasn't a commercially popular doll (we lived in the communist block!), but the clothes…! The clothes were all hand-made by the two local seamstresses who lived in my grandmother's village. They were sisters, and everyone went to them to get their clothes made, because it being a communist country, there was nothing worth having on the store shelves. And since times were hard, and they had lived through WWII as well, they knew how to be frugal. They used the scraps from their commissioned projects to make doll clothes. So my doll (which I still have) has lovely silk dresses, and mod Pucci-style shifts, and hand.knit cardigans (which my grandma contributed to the project), all with very sophisticated dressmaker details… pins, tucks, trims, beautiful hems and seems… Her wardrobe is so amazing! I wish I could find someone who makes doll clothes like this now…

  3. I'd go Bitty Baby if she's younger then 8. I think with my oldest 2 I went by their age rec's which was 8 (or maybe 10) for the big dolls. Of course, by that point, in our age of grow up too fast they didn't spend an awful lot of time actually playing with them :*( They all played with Bitty for years though.

  4. We get the catalog too – and enjoy looking through it every month, but…I vote FAKE! Of course, my 3 year old likes to color on her dollies, so until I can stomach cleaning marker off of a $100 doll – we're going the target route. Walmart has a nice knock off brand too – I think they are prettier than the Target brand, same quality – but I cannot remember the exact brand.

  5. My 24 yr old considers them her "treasured possessions" from her childhood.
    We have a trunk full of real AG dolls and all their real belongings and room furnishings. Thank you Grandmas!
    She adored AG. All I saw when they came out was a marketing gimmick!
    They remain stored in a huge trunk in my daughter's old room.

  6. I forgot to add that we visited Colonial Williamsburg on vacation, and went on the American Girl history tour and she read all the books. she was about 10 years old. C seems sort of young for all of this.

  7. I have an AG, from *way* back, when the company was still run by Pleasant Rowland. I have Samantha. She was really expensive, and I was just on the cusp of not really wanting dolls anymore. I think I enjoyed the books more than the doll at that point. Fortunate for me, I guess, darling daughter is on her way in March and she can inherit my AG, my mom's Madame Alexanders, etc etc.

    They are expensive dolls. $95 is a *lot* for a doll. If you can acquire one gently used or a good fake, I think that's the route I'd go at her age. Maybe once C (as well as little G, who is likely to be slobbering all over C's beloved possessions sooner than later) is a bit older she can get a "real" one. Maybe even go with mom on a business trip and visit an AG tearoom and everything!

  8. One comment on the bitty baby, DD got one when little brother showed up and now at 5 she wants "a doll with hair".

    I'm in the go with the fake category, because of her age. while the AG dolls are really well made, she's just too young to invest that kind of coin.

  9. IMO this is a no brainer. 100+ for a doll for a 3 year old? Good grief- I wouldn't spend that on a single gift for a 33 year old. What are you paying for? Marketing and cachet- I am sure all these dolls, Target, AG, ToysRUs- they are all made in factories in China. I wouldn't buy into the hype.

  10. I have 2 AG dolls from my childhood that I have been holding on to for my daughter someday. Now that I have a little girl (10 months), I still plan on holding on to them until she is at least 5 years old and judging on her maturity. It's not so much the expense (although I agree it's too much to buy for a 3 year old), but rather remembering the experience of getting the doll, understanding the storyline of my Molly doll, picking out the accessories and saving up my allowance to buy them. I wonder if a 3 year old would prefer something softer, with long hair that's easy to style. Call me crazy, but I still really like cabbage patch dolls with their yarn hair and birth certificates.

  12. Oh, you have to go real. I know they're expensive, but fake (in this case) is just not the same. Plus, if she plays with it for a few years, the cost will be owrth it!

  13. definitely get the Madame Alexander doll from Costco. It is as pretty and nice as the AG and is $20 or $30. They are all the same size and all the 18" doll clothes work on any doll. So hit Target for some outfits, AG if you are feeling especially flush and grab the doll at Costco!

  14. Definitely fake, then real if you are so inclined as she gets older. But be aware, the "real" AG dolls are fake too. They were bought out a few years ago by Mattel and from what I understand the quality of the dolls, particularly the hair has gone way downhill. Before they were sold to Mattel, the dolls were manufactured by a German doll company (Goetz comes to mind?) and were much higher quality. My 20 sonething year old SILs still have theirs and will have them for their daughters. I have 7 kids from 17 to 1, and we went the fake route first then moved up to real as they got more to the appropriate age.

  15. At this age, go fake. I'd go with the Toys r Us version by Madame Alexander over the Target version. MA dolls tend to be a better quality. The Target clothes should fit the MA doll. You could make it really special by getting a kid's suitcase that the doll will fit in and put the clothes in it with the doll. My parents did that when I was six. Now my six-year-old plays with the suitcase, doll and clothes.

  16. Real, for sure, provided she is the kind of child who does not abuse her toys. Used is always a great option. If you get it for her now, you can have years of buying her an accessory or two for each birthday and Christmas so that she can really have a nice collection. You can start reading her the stories in a couple of years, and it will be a springboard to reading for her.

  17. We got an AG catalog in the mail the other day, and since we have a 5yo little boy, I was just curious about the latest craze in girly-toys…HOLY CRAP!! A hundred bucks for a DOLL?? And the accessories are ridiculous!!! People seriously buy this stuff?? If I spent $100+ on a doll, the child would not even be allowed to touch the BOX, let alone take it out of the box and play with it… CRAZY. (But I guess Lego kits can be pricey, too…)

  18. It's funny you posted this because Tuesday night my 5 year old and I were looking at the AG catalog. I was hemming and hawing about it also, but I decided to start out with a Target or Toys R Us doll, and then, if she seems to like it and play with it, getting her a real AG doll for her b-day in August. For the price of one AG doll, which comes with one outfit, you can buy a Target doll with 5 outfits and a horse. Made my decision a lot easier when I came to that realization.

  19. Real doll – previously loved from ebay or craigslist. We found 4 dolls, the horses, brass bed, tons of clothes — craigslist for $120.00 That totally satisfied our two girls. I also found a new in box AG girl on cl last holiday season — half price — I bought it and put it away for dd's birthday.
    All you need is one 15 or 16 year old girl who wants to buy herself a fancy phone or something like that. They give the old AG dolls the heave ho.

  20. I have a 6 and an 8 year old. They each got Bitty Babies and then the oldest got the fake 18" dolls at Target when she was around 3. The doll's hair could never be tamed and it got tangled so easily that it really frustrated my daughter at that age. And it was more awkward/difficult to pose. She also had the 12-13" Corolle dolls (the Poupette series that I think has been discounted) at that age and they were quality multi-ethnic dolls with rooted hair that were easy for her to dress and yet light enough to play with. Without that option, I would opt for the Bitty Twin girl doll instead. AG sells them as a set only online but they will sell just one (boy or girl) at an AG store (last year I bought just the girl for a gift). I think it was around $50 or $55 for the single doll – more than a knock-off but much less than the 18". We actuallly ended up buying our girls the AG18" dolls when they were 4 and 6. The quality of the dolls really is worth the extra money and a Bitty twin would be a great compromise because it would be a bigger girl doll with nice hair that can be styled. As others have said, you can get clothing from many sources online on eb*y. And you know that if something does happen to the doll, that AG's customer service is oustanding and there is always the "hospital" option. Plus AG has some really cute accessories for the Bitty twins! I know last year that AG had a great internet sale for accessory items for the dolls either on the Friday after Thanksgiving or it was Cyber Monday. You know your child best so you'll have a better idea of how much play time she will get out of any type of doll. Happy Holidays!

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