Whole World Price Tags (Updated Version)

Poppets & Posies has updated its infographic with the corrected total for Lea's current collection. The biggest change is that her Rainforest House retails for a mere $395 verses the pre-release rumored price tag of $500.

The current total for Lea's Whole World is not likely to remain at $1130, but other than a festive embroidered white and green dress with a gold belt, no other images have yet leaked for her anticipated mid-summer release.

The Embroidered Eye: New Changes for AG Pets?

With little notice or fanfare, BeForever Kit Kittredge's dog Grace has been modified from having plastic eyes to embroidered eyes.

This appears to have been a switch sometime in 2015, but I only noticed because of my recent purchase of Grace the dog. AG's website still shows images of Grace having the older style with the plastic eyes.

The wrinkles and ruffles throughout Grace's face and neck are all adorable still.

Many of the pets and animals are being quietly added or updated to embroidered eyes. Samantha's original Jip had plastic eye but the more recent Jip II has embroidered eyes. The new unreleased bunny (stay tuned!) will have embroidered eyes.

The response to this change seems to be split. However, I will confess that I only jumped in to buy Grace the dog last week because I was always secretly creeped out by the overly stern glare of her plastic beady eyes. The embroidered eyes are much more doleful.

In fact, I only ordered Grace recently on a swap board because the seller had snapped a picture and I thought "Wow! A sweet and doleful looking Grace!" not realizing the picture looked different because I was looking at the new version with embroidered eyes! Only after she arrived at my home and I was able to examine her closely did I realize the change. 

New embroidered eyes for Grace are an A+ for me. 

Stock Report: Lea's Rainforest House vs. Fruit Stand

Will Lea's big ticket items of the Rainforest House and Fruit Stand become so popular as to go into backorder status online? Or will AG stay ahead of the demand? The pieces look to be popular considering how the AG stores are having problems keeping them on the shelves in their stores.

All week the Rainforest House and Fruit Stand have been out of stock in-store at about half of the locations nationwide. The above chart is a snapshot from Saturday, January 9th, mid-afternoon. How will things look in-store once the weekend shoppers have left on Sunday night?

The ongoing unavailability of Lea's Rainforest House and Fruit Stand at the San Francisco store has pushed me to make a rare online order for one of the pieces above. Can you guess which one?

Melody's Melody: Never Stop Singing

Thanks to a head's up from one of Poppet & Posies readers (thank you, EsDolls!), I was able to find an image of the book cover for Melody's second book, Never Stop Singing.

This confirms that Melody's Flower Peplum Dress is part of her collection. Accessories seem to be off-white or pale beige sandals and a pink hair bow!

But the cover also could be clues to other accessories in Melody's collection--a microphone and stand! While a drum set or piano is possible as well, I would not be certain how well those would sell, especially if Melody is primary a singer and not an instrumentalist.

Melody's Medley: Flower Peplum Dress?

So many months until summer, so many tantalizing possibilities for Melody's wardrobe. Is the 1960's pink flower print a clue that this dress will be for Melody?

The sleeveless dress features a pleated peplum over a pencil skirt and a bow at the waistline. I imagine a a tasteful pill box hat, gloves and dressy shoes would make this a perfect dress for Melody to wear while singing a solo at church.

Melody's Medley: Play Outfit?

Will this colorful striped top and teal shorts be one of BeForever Melody Ellison's play outfits?

The stripes are a bit much, but remind me of Fruit Stripes brand gum from my youth.

Will the outfit (found on Ebay) be for Melody? Does the style seem mid-1960s? The teal color would definitely fit into the color palette introduced in Melody's Meet Outfit.

I like the basic cut of the shorts and the tassels on the top are adorable. What sort of shoes would you pair up with this ensemble?

Summer will be here soon!

A Poppets & Posies Review: Lea Clark First Impressions

Lea Clark has arrived at American Girl Place San Francisco!

Today's post is a combination first impressions Lea Clark review and AGPSF Flash store report.

Let me begin with my bold and biased opinion: Lea is one of the most stunningly beautiful GOTY dolls that American Girl has ever produced. I believe she rivals Kanani for sheer beauty.

What is new for Lea's face and hair is a new shade of caramel hair with highlights, a new color of hazel for eyes, and a brand new eyebrow shape!

While the wild colors and prints of her dress are not my draw, her compass necklace is absolutely wonderful touch.

And while I was not originally a fan of the yellow braided non-functional belt (it only goes to her sides), I did end up warming up to it in person.

Cute, unique sandals. A bit odd, too. I am curious if they will mix-and-match well with the rest of Lea's wardrobe or with other Truly Me outfits.

Lea Clark's Accessories (camera, braided headband, wish bracelet, passport and sea turtle magazine) are very well integrated with her Meet Outfit in the sense that I think I would go crazy with having Lea but not her braided hairband! Well played, American Girl! Though to be fair, the Meet Outfit does come with the messenger bag, which is a great extra for the doll and I imagine many would be frustrated if the messenger bag and braided hairband had been swapped.

Camera. Not sure I like how the straps attach to the camera itself.

Passport!

High quality printed mini magazine.

The wish bracelet with the turtle charm is perfect!

And we could not complete Lea Clark's head-to-toe without talking about her Beach Dress ensemble, available only as part of the bundled package Lea's Exclusive Collection. The exclusive collection includes the Lea Clark Doll, Lea's Accessories & Lea's Beach Dress all for $180.

The Beach Dress is a tie-dyed purple sun dress and comes with sunglasses, a butterfly hair clip, and simple lime green flip-flops.

Even I am smitten. The tie-dyed purple sun dress was my second favorite outfit of the leaked images--amazing how well American Girl "knows" its customers. But it is only available in the bundled set...

My thoughts on Lea's Exclusive Collection (doll, accessories and beach dress)? It is very very very tempting. While I kept to my original decision to not purchase poppet Lea or gobs of her collection on her debut day, there is much discussion among the poppets at home about adding Lea to the family.

As for the store itself on debut day, we arrived around 3pm. We decided between the California cold snap and generally not feeling well from an earlier bout of winter illness, to go later in the day rather than stand outside in line in the wee cold hours of the morning.

No giveaway handouts! Sadness! It was only 3pm, but the children's craft table had already been shoved to the side and if one did not know better, it felt like just another day at AGPSF. I have located the giveaway (Lea's Sarong and Turtle Craft) on the secondary market and hope to share pictures of it mid-week.

Inside the store was bustling and there was much evidence of heavy traffic inside the store all day--shelves were stocked but with merchandise but in disarray.

I need to check out the Messenger Bag for Girls (above with Lea's Meet Dress for Girls) for possible repurposing for an adult collector. :)

We did see lots of Lea dolls in the arms of little girls, already freed from their boxes! The hair salon and ear piercing station upstairs was doing brisk business. And the Meet Dress for Girls looked like it was also getting brisk business as well.

My first impressions of Lea Clark is that she is even more stunning in person than she appears in AG's print or online catalogs. Her long, glossy hair is sure to be a hit and I personally think her light hazel (green) eyes make her face look animated and alive. I have seen some breathtaking photography of this poppet by collectors and I have to say Lea is extremely photogenic!

Final thoughts for this first impressions review of Lea Clark and her Exclusive Collection? My birthday is in February. I don't think I need to say much more!

Melody Ellison: Summer Debut Date Announced!

Melody Ellison, the newest BeForever poppet arrives this summer! I am really excited for her debut!

The bouffant! The flip! Her hair bow! Will we see a new face mold??

In the meantime her first book is now for sale as of January 1st! I can't wait to "meet" her in her book today--and to meet her as a new BeForever poppet this summer.

Giveaway Winner: I Love Baby Sloths!

Thank you to all who entered Poppets & Posies first giveaway!

The winner of the new Sloth from GOTY 2016 Lea Clark's new collection is

CLOUDYKAT

Congratulations, Cloudykat! Please email poppetsLOVEposies@gmail.com 

with your mailing address to claim your prize.

***

Thank you to all my readers and fellow American Girl enthusiasts. It was probably almost as fun for me to anticipate the giveaway results as it hopefully will be for the winner!

Not a winner this round? Interested in more Poppets & Posies fun? Keep an eye out for more 

contests and giveaways to be announced in January, including a special and newly designed Baby Sloth contest!

I am headed to American Girl Store San Francisco in the morning for the debut of Lea Clark! In store pictures to follow!