November 17th, 2009 Quality vs. Quantity
We should have seen it coming when Mattel bought out Pleasant Company, the small company that produced the high quality and high priced American Girl Dolls. We should have known that quality and focus on history would soon be sacrificed to quantity and marketing.
I’ve loved what the American Girl dolls stood for since they first came out. They weren’t perfect, even with their nearly-$100 price tag, but they DID come with some really good emphasis on history and high-quality accessories.
Then Mattel took over, and of course money means more than education or anything else to them. They’re slowly getting rid of the core dolls and putting more emphasis on the “modern” dolls of the year (which change and the kids will want to buy every year, of course.)
It’s sad, really.
American Girls will still be expensive, I’m sure, but now they’re more and more being marketed to reflect current events.
