It’s the 10 year mark which means it’s time to do an Old American Girl Catalogue post again! I’ve had requests for it, and this just might be the biggest one yet! I took sooo many pics. Here is the intro and Part 1 (1992-2000) and Part 2 (2001-2010).
Here is Part 3, catalogues from 2011-2020 with my thoughts and comments interspersed:
2011
2011 was Kanani’s year, and I still think Kanani is one of the most beautiful dolls AG has ever made. It is too bad she’s not full Hawaiian, but she was a refreshing change from the previous GOTY’s.
The illustrations in her book are sooo beautiful. And it was partly from reading her books that I decided to accept the invitation from my friend Abby and go with her to HI where we had numerous incredible adventures (and of course, my Kanani came with too!
Kanani’s whole collection is so neat, different, and refreshing from what was before. I love the color scheme of her outfits (and they’re all GREAT outfits too! I’d love to wear them myself!)
Her paddle board is surprisingly heavy and sturdy.
The historical dolls got new spring outfits!
This is such a cute two piece for Molly!
New Valentine pjs for the modern dolls:
New spring dresses,
And new winter outfits too!
New Bitty Baby Outfits:
And new baby care things for her too:
The Bitty Twins get new meet outfits and a suitcase stroller to pull them in.
New summer outfits:
This was a special year for AG (and for me!) because we both turned 25. They made special mini dolls in their Christmas dresses.
Kaya got a new dress.
And Bitty also got new summer and spring outfits.
I love this Christmas dress and I wish I had a better picture. The layers of the skirt are so delicate and light and the rich red color is so pretty. The shoes have beautiful embroidery and sparkles on them.
Performing outfits:
The MAG dolls get a new couch pull out bed.
The shower and the bathtub are two separate pieces and I love both of them. The shower comes with a built in caddy with shampoo and a bath sponge and towel.
Towards the end of the year, Kanani gets a new dress. Aren’t her sandals snazzy?
Kanani’s complete collection:
American Girl tried another new release that sadly fell through after three years. They introduced two best friend historical dolls: Cecile and Marie Grace.
I must admit, it took me a while (years) to fall in love with Marie Grace. But I’ve come so far now to say her face mold often flirts with being my very favorite face mold. I just love her sweet sensitive heart shaped face!
The Sonali face mold had not been used prevalently at this time also, so Cecile carries her own uniqueness.
I just love these outfits. Cecile’s school outfit is similar to Addy’s. The blouse alone is billowy and beautiful.
The Christmas dresses:
Bitty Baby gets a new onesie:
and new outfits:
The Bitty Twins get a whole bunch of new outfits:
2012
New 2012 outfits:
This tent is very similar to the first tent AG came out with back in 2000.
This is my favorite AG raincoat. It looks especially smart on Saige (her eyes look so bright under that hat!).
The new GOTY is a gymnast, McKenna:
McKenna doesn’t seem too special until you take a closer look.
She’s one of two dolls who do not have any part. I’ve never owned Kailey, but I’ve seen her and McKenna’s hair is longer and thicker than Kailey’s. I’ve enjoyed playing with her hair so much! French braiding her hair is so easy because there’s no part and then getting to make a part wherever you want for other styles is so much fun too. I’m surprised AG hasn’t made more dolls like this.
I love McKenna’s school outfit. Her sweater has a braided cable knit neck that’s such thin yarn it doesn’t look like she’s wearing a sausage scarf that’s choking her.
Cecile and Marie Grace get new spring dresses:
Julie gets a new fondue set:
New Bitty Twin outfits:
The MAG’s get new meet outfits. This is one of my least favorite meet outfits. The style of the shoulders make me think of onesies…..
New pets
The very first AG car! And don’t you love Julie’s patchwork summer outfit?
I haven’t taken pics of the historicals in a while so I thought I’d show you a couple:
Bitty Baby gets pea poded!
I love every outfit in the Bitty Twins collection
The next new historical was another very beautiful doll (and perhaps like Elizabeth, just a hint of Barbie to her?), Caroline Abbott.
She has very unique aquamarine eyes and very long, hard to manage curly blond hair.
Many collectors find her collection to be on par with the original historical dolls and I agree.
I don’t have too much of her collection but I love what I have.
Her parlor is gigantic! One of my fellow AG collector friends bought it for herself for Christmas. When it came she couldn’t believe how huge it was. She didn’t open it for two days! Instead she suffered tremendous guilt for having bought such a huge thing and paying so much for it.
After the second day, her husband thought she’d punished herself enough and told her to open it and of course she was thrilled!
Here is Rebecca in her original meet outfit:
I love this full spread pic of Kaya:
Christmas dresses of 2012!
I think this gingerbread set is the best out of all the ones AG has made. It’s totally classic (not too much pink like the recent one) and the apron is so cute! I love the little candy cane box and gum drop bowl!
Bitty Baby gets her own ginger bread set:
2013
A new party set:
Saige is the southwestern GOTY. There’s nothing amazingly special about her, but she is one gorgeous doll. Her hair is sooo lush and beautiful. It’s not too curly or too long to be unmanageable and it’s such a lovely auburn color.
Her eyes have that sparkling blue that dazzle when she wears certain outfits.
I don’t have much of her collection except her dog, Rembrandt (who’s huge!) and her pjs.
Such a sweet pic of Caroline:
More sweet pics of historicals and their best friends and animals:
Rebecca gets her kittens, Kaya gets Steps High, Josefina gets Sombrita, but where is Addy’s Sunny bird?
Bitty’s spring outfits!
The outfit on the right reminds me sooo much of Kailey’s meet outfit:
Saige’s new tunic outfit that also looks good on Julie:
Mix and match outfits:
The Bittys get new meet outfits again. I love these.
And Molly goes away. I was so shocked when that happened….
We got a Christmas bubble dress for 2013 that I really like. It’s a well made, surprisingly heavy dress. And the shoes have a plastic coating so the glitter doesn’t go everywhere.
The new coconut outfit looks pretty awful as a full outfit but I bought it for the pieces and have used all of them except the shorts a lot:
The Bitty Twins are sooo cute here!
I’m not so sure about the winter chalet. Only one doll fits in it and even in this pic she looks way too big for it. No room to move.
This is one of my favorite limited edition holiday outfits. This dress is so beautiful and the cloak is so soft and lovely! The accents – the gloves and crown and shoes add a delicately elegant touch.
2014
2014 brought on a lot of changes.
GOTY dancer, Isabelle came out with spunky attachable pink highlights.
Even without the highlights she has super thick hair that is difficult to get in a bun.
Another super cute raincoat set:
The historicals got another set of limited edition outfits.
AG went wild with pets and pet things:
Isabelle’s new outfit later in the year:
And then the great change.
Except for Kaya and Caroline, all the historicals got a brand new name and brand new meet outfits and Samantha was re-introduced.
The Beforever outfits are more flamboyant than the original meet outfits, but I do really like them all.
There were mixed reviews of Samantha’s new grand entrance; her color had suddenly changed to PINK!
And many people weren’t so sure how accurate AG was with these new outfits and accessories. But they are accurate. I’m on the AG forum, and someone looked up outfits from Samantha’s and other Beforever characters and found VERY similar outfits that people really wore back then.
haha…..yeah, I just wrote that paragraph and then I take a look at Julie’s meet outfit and think…..yeah….it looks more like a Halloween costume though, doesn’t it?
Kit’s meet outfits is so sweet and cute! She truly smiles in it! Right down to her strawberry colored toes!
Although I will always consider Addy’s from Miss Caroline to be the pink crinoline, I LOVE Addy’s new meet dress. It’s my favorite of all the Beforever meets.
They saved on material in her new school dress. No longer is her blouse and jacket two separate pieces. They’re attached now. Nor is it thick wool, but it’s still great quality.
Poor Caroline gets nothing…..and she’ll be sailing away soon….
The one new thing Caroline got was a thin little slip of a party gown…..not nearly the quality of gown she’s used to…
The mini meets:
The blue holiday outfits is so deep blue and full of sparkles! I love it.
The Bitty Princesses
The limited Holiday doll dress for 2014 was a very fancy tulle layered ball gown with a fuzzy white coat that doesn’t close. It’s still beautiful though!
2015
Grace and her things were a hit in 2015.
I like this Grace, but I like my own better. My Grace has the classic face mold and brown eyes.
The Blokus set is so fun! I played it with my cousin once and had a great time!
The gardening bench set is wood and heavy plastic. Very well made and usable not just for gardening. My dolls use it as an elaborate nightstand/vanity.
The camping treats set is also really nice. The grill folds very compactly.
More of Samantha and historical limited edition sets for 2015:
The bitty twins get to golf.
MYAG got a new meet outfit and a name change: Truly Me. This meet outfit is soo much better than the previous and the accessories are so fun! The funky zipped jacket and skirt make neat mix and match outfits possible.
I love this hammock! Unfortunately it’s not quite long enough for a doll to lay lengthwise on it comfortable. They do fit, but either their head or feet kind of stick out a little. But the colors are so fun, beachy and inviting and the dolls sit in it so well. (The Wellie Wishers love it too!)
More mix and match meet outfit examples:
Grace’s end of year new outfit:
Maryellen gets released this year!
Maryellen’s play outfit is really fun! Even the modern dolls look good in it.
Maryellen’s school outfits is also so adorable.
Together: A pic of all the dolls together – the historicals, moderns, and GOTY’s. I like this because that’s how I used to play – my historicals and moderns all lived together. Now, that’s not quite the case. My historicals and moderns live in the same room but have their own separate sections. And the colonists live in my bedroom.
I love this coconut cutie outfit:
AG really went out on mix and matching time periods in these catalogues. Can you spot Maryellen’s dress?
I love this pic:
I really love so many photographs of this Christmas catalogue:
And here we get the mix and match time zoned bedrooms which I think are pretty cool and creative.
2016
Lea is a beautiful doll and the last GOTY I’ve gotten so far.
Her accessories are very cool except for the braided headband that’s nearly impossible to get on her head.
I love her hiking outfit (Kanani looks fantastic in all of these outfits too!)
The minis get special outfits again for the 30th anniversary of AG. This time with the limited edition and birthday dresses.
AG came out with a totally brand new line of dolls called the Wellie Wishers. I totally fell in love with these dolls and bought Willa who became Felicity’s Nan, and Camille who’s very famous on the blog.
Their faces are so bright and openly curious, and welcoming and fun-loving.
Their stories are written by Valerie Tripp who wrote many of the AG books.
The boots for girls are pretty ingenious: they’re clear boots, and then you buy a set of socks and you can be any of all of the wellie wishers!
New summer Bitty outfits:
Usually I’m not a huge fan of AG’s mix and match outfits, but I really like these.
The camper: Flo got this camper and her review of it made me want it SO badly but I never actually got it….
Lea’s new spring outfit is really neat and very fancy! The layers make the dress heavier than I thought it would and I love the sandals.
The new 2016 Christmas outfits:
The new historical of the year was Melody.
I only had Sonali and Cecile in this face mold and it’s one of my favorites of AG. I love Melody’s bangs and spiffy hair. She seemed so different from the other dolls and I love her story so I bought her for myself for Christmas when she came out.
AG came out with a wonderfully designed kitchen. I don’t own it, but I had a lot of fun at the AG store playing with it when it first came out.
New Wellie Wisher outfits:
I love these Historical Christmas photos:
Maryellen’s strawberry dress is so adorably cute, and it really buttons like it shows! No velcro.
2017
I would say 2017 was the worst year for AG. So many changes and most all of the bad.
First, was the GOTY. Everyone was excited that AT LAST AG came out with an AA GOTY, but they played it safe and used a modern #46 doll and just changed her name and gave her clothes and called her GOTY. I’d been on a streak of purchasing GOTY’s, but Gabby stopped that streak for me.
I bought her meet outfit, and put Cecile in it who looked aaawfully like Gabby…..
Spring Mix and Match outfits:
What was even worse, was AG seemed to think Gabriela would need ‘help’ and they introduced the Contemporary Characters; a new doll line that didn’t last long, with the release of white, blond Tenney:
Did I get this doll? Yes, I did because she is a unique doll with the new hand mold, and she is such a pretty doll. However, I did not keep her. I gave her away to a most dear friend
I did keep Logan though. There’s no way I’m going to give away AG’s first boy doll.
The other most grievous act AG committed was the permify the panties of the dolls: Many popular dolls, including all the TM’s got permapanties: permanent underwear that was attached to their bodies.
This created the greatest uproar in the AG community. So many people boycotted AG and protestedHeck! Even the dolls protested!
The Historicals got new summer outfits. Julie’s embroidered blouse is especially cute.
It was so wonderful to see Felicity come back from archival. I got so excited at the rumors flying around that she would have a whole collection like Samantha. And I couldn’t wait to see her new dresses, especially her Christmas gown.
Sadly, that never panned out, but I do love this new Felicity. She has such a sweet, tender face, her gown is lovely, and the undergarments were must have for me. The stomacher not only ties but also velcros which saves a lot on time, and the bumroll is a really neat historical addition.
The next new change AG released was the CYO dolls – Create Your Own. I’ve been tempted to do this, but I haven’t come up with a dream combination yet and the price scares me…..
The TM’s got new meet outfits which I love. I also love the accessories.
Z Yang was the next contemporary character to be released after Tenney. I enjoyed watching AG’s stop motions with her on youtube.
And the bright new historical doll for 2017 was Nanea. Some people complained that this facemold has a Disney Princess look to it with the big eyes, but I fell in love with it immediately and bought Nanea very soon after she was released. I even took my friend, Abby, who’s Hawaiian to the AG store for her approval. She did approve and she loved her holoku dress.
2018
2018 introduced a STEM GOTY – an aspiring astronaut, Luciana Vega.
Her collection is so cool and I still kind of regret not getting Luciana’s space suit.
Thankfully, things went back to normal and AG stopped making permapanty dolls, but they did loose a lot of customers, and sadly many people left blogging and the AG forum too.
Tenney and Logan got new outfits:
Maryellen got a big ticket item – her airstream!
I felt like this was the year of sets for AG. The video game set, the skateboard set, cooking sets, and more….
2019
I was sure I had more than 2 catalogs for 2019 but I have no clue where the rest of them went if I did have more….
Blaire is a beautiful doll, but so close to 61, I wasn’t tempted.
I was very tempted on her restaurant. I think it’s so versatile, and the ways in which you can take it apart make way for lots of play. I spent a long time playing with this at the AG store.
A bowling alley!?! How cool is that!?!
2020
2020 was a fun year of releases for AG.
I came very very close to buying Joss. I think she’s a beautiful doll. I’ve marvled over every picture I’ve seen of her. She has a face that reminds me of Marie Grace. Sweet and tender, her coloring and make up are soft and light, and the fact that she has a hearing aid makes her very unique.
Her hair has gorgeous highlights, just like Marie Grace’s, but because she’s so close to MG, I didn’t get her.
The TM’s still didn’t get a name change but they did get new meet outfits, which I”m not totally a fan of, but they are very vibrant.
The kitchen set changed a little:
The Olympics were supposed to be this year and AG came out with the coolest outfits and put out the coolest pictures to go with them.
I’m hoping they’ll go on sale, but if they don’t, I just may be tempted to buy one…..
Here’s a bigger pic of Joss’s minibus:
Courtney was a big hit for AG. An 80s video game girl!
I can’t wait for the care bear set to go on sale!
AG has covered the 1930s, 40s (twice), 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s…..do you think they’ll do the 90s next or the 20s or something completely different? (I’m hoping for the latter but not holding my breath….)
I really regret not getting the first Nutcracker collection AG came out with in 2019 which was Clara and the Prince. When I finally decided I would pull the trigger and buy them they had sold out.
But this year, the mouse king and the land of the sweets outfits went on sale and I snatched them up! My dolls had fun dancing the nutcracker at home!
Hopefully next year, I can take them out to it like I did with Isabelle last year.
Wow, for those of you who actually read and looked at all the pics of this entire blog, I am AMAZED! In another 10 years, if AG is still alive, I’ll be doing this again! In the meantime I do still hope to make a post on the wishbooks AG’s produced. So stay tuned!-Heather
