Review: 1990s Twins / Pizza Hut Book-it Set

Sarah here again for the last time with Reviews of the new 1990s Twins Collection.

I don’t have to tell anyone that American Girl’s new 1990s Historical Dolls finally hit the stores, or that the names of the Twins are Nicki and Isabel Hoffman. I will tell you that we couldn’t get to our Columbus store fast enough on release day, but it wasn’t for any of the reasons you’d probably guess. Being twins ourselves, it certainly wasn’t the thrill of having twin dolls. (It’s just two dolls, like we’re just two people, right? Besides, we already made twin dolls by pairing two dolls up and giving them different names.) It wasn’t to buy any large ticket items, since we recently gifted the majority of our large pieces to a family with kids and storage space. We already own the nice old AGOT computer desk, nightstand and accessories. And heaven knows we don’t spend that kind of money on doll clothes.

Okay, so are you ready? Wanna know what’s kept us awake for several nights (a mixture of excitement and concern about how high the price would be)? It’s the PIZZA HUT BOOK-IT set! We were born in 1987 and are just the right age to wallow in the nostalgia of the 1990s Book-it program. It’s the reason we went to the AG store in a freezing rain yesterday. We HAD to have (and I mean HAD to have) those sets. From the minute the first leak mentioned the possibility, we knew we had to have more than one.

Besides reminding us of some of the happiest times of our childhood (reading and pizza with friends), it’s the magic word around dolls in our house. FOOD!!! Our dolls are food crazy. I know, I know. Like most of you, we already own a lot of different pizza sets. But we thought “This is a PERSONAL PAN PIZZA!” In the exact same pan we got as kids! With a box like we used to get to take home what we couldn’t eat at the store. And a spatula just like they let us use back then. With the parmesan and hot pepper shakers (the two of us used the parmesan, Mom the hot pepper). And you get the same button for your dolls (with a clip back, instead of the dreaded clothes-ruining pin back). And the coupon that you turned in to get your pizza. The Slumber Party book? Well, I know it’s a repro of an AG 1990s book, but it wouldn’t have qualified for the Book-it program at our library, so we’ll ignore it.

I’m going to use my own photos of these set pieces that I just snapped, instead of AG’s stock photos. Click on any photo to enlarge.

Sharp readers will know what I’ve saved for last. It’s the RED PLASTIC GLASS! I’m not kidding! It’s almost (okay, maybe not, but almost) worth the price of the set. As members of a homeschool group, we all saved our coupons to eat together, often filling the large sit-down area at Pizza Hut. It was a lot of fun, and seeing this set really brings back good memories. (Funny story. When we opened the box, we were all grabbing like maniacs. The glass came out, and a momentary silence hit before the squealing started. Three women all talking at once. What was the first thing Sis said? “Oh, I can’t believe it! It looks exactly like the real thing. Feel the rough finish. Can’t you just taste that awful city water with the bad-tasting ice cubes in it?” We all had to stop for a good laugh, because Mom and I answered with “Oh, you’re right! It’s just PERFECT!” True story.) The first thing we all did when we got to hold it was put our fingers inside and feel the ribs at the bottom!

The only thing missing is the paper-covered straw! And the paper placemat, and . . . HANG ON! I just noticed something. WHERE’S THE PLATE? Book-it program pizzas were supposed to be only available as sit-down items (okay, so a few managers overlooked that and let some of them go as take-outs, but the corporate idea was that the company made money on what the rest of the family bought), so it should have had a plate. You know, one of those oval ones. Pizza Hut never just plunked a hot pan down in front of the kids, expecting them to eat off the table! Why in the world did AG not include a cheap plastic plate? And WHERE’S THE SILVERWARE? A plate, fork and knife do not cost AG many pennies. Sheesh . . . They can’t expect that amazing red drinking glass to make up for everything, can they? It’s good, but . . . [I’ll show it to you again!]

REVIEW

The Columbus AG store had everything displayed in cubes, so we couldn’t touch anything. But we opened the one we bought to do this review, so this is a hands-on, true-to-life review of the pieces that came out of that box.

Have you gotten the idea that we’d give this set more than five stars if we could? Everything in here is the PERFECT size for AG dolls, and that isn’t always the case with their items. Thumbs up to AG for making sure this happened! The cardboard box looks just like the ’90s Pizza Hut boxes.

The red glass has the old logo and pebble finish of the ’90s. (I won’t bother showing it again.) The parmesan and hot-pepper shakers are similar to the ones you got in Maryellen’s Seaside Diner, and the “innards” look more like the real thing than the glitter they usually use. (No kidding, it looks like parmesan and red-pepper flakes inside the shakers).

The pizza is a really nice plastic (nicer than previous pizza releases, in my opinion) that resembles a stuffed-crust pizza a bit. They even painted the bottom of it to look like a golden crust, which is a step up for them.

The spatula is plastic and looks just like the old ones.

The perfectly sized “pin” is a clipback, and the Certificate is a perfect reproduction of what we used to get.

And did I mention the red glass! Your dolls will insist on EACH having one! American Girl needs to put these on sale REALLY SOON! ($32 per glass is wearing thin!)

SOMETHING TO THINK ABOUT
Sis and I were born two months early and can’t eat meat. Cheese pizza all the way! And it was everyone else’s favorite at any buffet we ever visited, too. The minute the cheese pizza hit the buffet, the other guests would swoop it up before we could get our little arms in. The managers always told us that Cheese was everyone’s favorite, but they felt so bad for us at the buffet that they usually brought a small pizza to the table for the two of us. When it came to play-food, though, Mom raised us to pretend that the usual pepperoni on pizza was just slices of tomato.

It turns out that we didn’t need to worry too much. The pepperoni on these pizzas doesn’t really look as much like pepperoni in real life as they do in these pix. It’s a tomato color, painted (in our opinion) to look like tomatoes. AG may say it’s pepperoni, but we couldn’t be happier at not having to always explain to off-island visitors that it’s really just slices of tomato (no one ever eats meat on Islandshire). Yippee yahoo, in the words of Roy & Dale! (If you like pepperoni pizza, then you’ll be thrilled, because you can pretend that’s what it is. See? Something for all of us!)

There are two things worth mentioning about the set, I think. We don’t want you to have the same slight letdown we had when we opened the box. I don’t know how important it is to you, but the box is not a cardboard box like AG’s previous releases. It’s just a lightweight cardstock with a shiny finish. They really shouldn’t have chintzed here, but you now know that you’ll just have to be really careful with repeated use. The other issue is a bit more serious, but don’t let it keep you from buying the set. Ready? It isn’t a Personal Pan pizza. Nope. It’s the size of Pizza Hut’s classic medium pizza, and we’ve eaten enough over the last 30 years to consider ourselves in-the-know about this (smile). The size of the pizza and pan are way too large for a PP pizza. The pan is not the PP tall-sided one. It’s the shallow medium pan. Harold (aka Pizza Boy) serves a lot of pizza on Islandshire, so he and Bunty are already saving for the next big AG sale.

While it was momentarily disappointing to see that it was not a PP pizza (nix that photo story), the jubilation from the crowd was enough to make it just as good . . . in a different sort of way. These boxes and pizza slices are a perfect medium-size for the dolls. It will look like they medium or large pizzas, and the dolls can pose with the boxes. These pizzas almost look edible (better than any other 18″ doll pizza we’ve seen), and now Harold will have a stack of to-go boxes that fit in his delivery wagon!

This is the last of our reviews for the Twins Collection. Thanks for reading through all these text- and photo-laden entries. Hope it helps! You might want to watch for a blog entry next week describing our idea of what the big-ticket item should have been for these Twins!

Thought you’d like to see this new Pizza Hut pizza side-by-side with the pizza and box from AG’s TM Pizza Party Set #2 (2018-21).