First up is speculation about Gabriela's Whole World Price Tag. With so little information yet available, speculation is going to be potentially far afield but I think there are trends and big clues already in motion.
* The GOTY Whole World Collections have rapidly expanded in price and scope but in 2016, Lea Clark's collection became the first shrinking collection since 2011
* 2017 Gabriela is rumored, but not confirmed in any way, to be the last GOTY
* 2017 Gabriela is a late decision swap from the highly developed Tenney Grant (who has been moved to the Contemporary Series line) with possible resultant less lead time to develop and produce more complex or high-risk high-costs big ticket items for Gabriela
* 2017 will be introducing other modern character dolls including Tenney Grant and also a character doll rumored to be named Logan (possible boy character doll?)
* American Girl has been introducing more big ticket items for their BeForever line, with the advantage of being able to produce and recoup costs for more than a single calendar year of a GOTY. (It seems more plausible to see a Maryellen Airstream Camper next year than a fully decked out large Dance Studio for GOTY Gabriela)
I predict 2017 Gabriela McBride will have the usual complement of outfits and accessories close to but perhaps not quite as large as 2016 Lea Clark's collection. Specifically, I do not see Gabriela having 3 stuffed pets like Lea (perhaps just 1) and any big ticket items will be more modest in cost than some recent years.
I predict Gabriela will have 5 outfits (6 including her Meet Outfit), 2 accessory sets (one related to her Meet Outfit and perhaps a Hair Styling Set), a pet cat, 2 activity sets (such as a dance duffle bag set plus another interest/activity set for Gabriela) and 2 medium priced big ticket items, one around the $85 price point and the other around the $150 price point. I am having a hard time imagining AG creating a $400 - $500 priced big ticket item for this particular GOTY considering the lack of lead time due to the late swap and the rumored retirement of this line entirely.
With that all in mind, especially the lack of the super expensive big ticket item, I will predict the Whole World Price Tag for Gabriela will be more in line with 2014 Isabelle's collection and cap out at under $900.
What do you predict?
No comments:
Post a Comment