American Girl Announces More Retirements
American Girl announced recently that not one, but four dolls are soon moving into the American Girl vaults. Kit’s friend Ruthie (1934), who I always thought was one of the prettiest companion dolls, as well as Marie-Grace and Cecile (1863) and Julie’s friend Ivy (1974) are all set to be discontinued “soon”. According to the announcement post on Facebook, supplies are “extremely limited”.
Good Bye!
“Soon, we’ll say farewell to Marie-Grace, Cécile, Ruthie, and Ivy: http://bit.ly/1nkMb9w Complete your collection while supplies last—quantities are extremely limited. This fall, the rest of the historical characters become BeForever, a fresh approach to these American Girl favorites that we’ll reveal in the coming months!“
To be 100% honest, the only doll of the four that I will miss is Ruthie. What will Kit do without her friend? What is a bit surprising to me is that Marie-Grace and Cecile, who debuted in 2011, are part of the four dolls going away. They are relatively new additions to the Historical collection.
BeForever Samantha
Speaking of the term ‘historical’, it looks like the historical dolls are being re-branded to ‘BeForever‘. Books and leaked packaging are already being seen with this branding. Regarding the book series and the new names and volumes featuring this re-branding, American Custom Dollhouse did some research and got some straight answers from Customer Service on what was ‘new’ and ‘classic’ in the re-branding of the book line.
American Girl even posted this video on their YouTube channel.
I have a feeling this is just the beginning of Mattel’s re-branding of American Girl. Myself, I need time to really process the changes. I know, it seems silly, but I literally grew up with this doll line and have become attached to certain aspects of it. What do you think of the recent changes and announcements coming from American Girl? Share your thoughts below.
Confessions of a Doll Collectors Daughter 
Susie replied:
Ashley it is so sad but it’ll be ok
May 22, 2014 at 8:11 pm. Permalink.
barbtheevilgenius replied:
Historical accuracy seems to be an afterthought. They’re going to have to change some of the stories around to jive with the new clothes they’re producing. The excerpt of Samantha’s Journey story was horrifying, poorly written and the plot pathetic. And this is coming from someone who devoured choose-your-own adventure stories as a girl. In my opinion, a story that attempts to convey history is a poor choice for that genre, plus they threw time-traveling in the mix, so it’s just a big mess. I think it’s a definite downgrade.
May 23, 2014 at 11:54 am. Permalink.
rainbow pallette replied:
What already! And nooooo not ivy she is the one and only Asian doll
May 23, 2014 at 12:37 pm. Permalink.
Rebekah replied:
I cannot stand the new changes, the new meet outfits for most of the dolls are ugly and hardly historically accurate, at ALL. Beforever just sounds cheesy and cheap. The prices are the same but the quality of the new clothing looks much lower to me; has anyone seen the new Caroline party dress, for example? Then they bring back a doll that they said was going to be “retired forever” and that we’d better “get her while we can” before she moves to archives PERMANENTLY. They lied to us!
At least I do like Samantha, I definitely think she’s an improvement to the doll line. Getting rid of the friend dolls was downright stupid, I’m sorry.
Ok enough ranting 🙂 Thanks for the great post! 🙂
September 13, 2014 at 2:19 pm. Permalink.
Dolly Report: American Girl and My Thoughts on BeForever | Confessions of a Doll Collectors Daughter replied:
[…] (including most of the original Pleasant Company girls– Felicity, Kirsten and Molly and others) and creating new illustrations and outfits for those that have stayed on in the line. The Girl […]
September 24, 2014 at 9:01 pm. Permalink.