Sarah here.
In this entry, we’re going to review their big-ticket item and new sports outfits for Skateboarding and Tennis. I’m going to ignore the fact that these pieces have been marketed as belonging to one doll or the other. It’s all cute enough to work for any AG doll, so I’ll review them like that. (I don’t have to tell anyone that American Girl’s new 1990s Historical Dolls are finally available, or that the names of the Twins are Nicki and Isabel Hoffman.)
2-in-1 TENNIS COURT & SKATE SPOT*
This set is a lot more impressive in person than it is in the photos. And it probably has a lot of play value for kids. Can’t imagine this won’t do well at Christmas time! This is a one-or-the-other set, the flooring printed to look like Skateboarding on one side, Tennis on the other. AG’s main stock photo for this item is deceptive and makes it look like you can have both things set up at once, with both dolls enjoying their own sports. That is not the case with this set. The thick, shiny “ground” flooring (think Blaire’s farm floor) is folded in half (foldable) and reversible, so you can only have one at a time (with flooring) set up like in AG’s photos. However, if you want just one or the other, you’ll probably be pretty happy with this.
SKATEBOARDING
The Skate Spot uses one side of the dual-purpose mat and has plastic ramps that sit on top. It has a sticker sheet to decorate the plastic pieces, a skateboard identical to the one in the Skateboarding Outfit set, a plastic helmet and plastic knee and elbow pads. The plastic used to make the skate-spot pieces are not a solid hard plastic but a stiffer soft-plastic rim. Nicer than you’d expect, actually, as long as you don’t let your little ones sit or stand on them. They’re a lot bigger than you think, too, and the contents of the set took up the better part of a 4×6′ (?) display top. Elizabeth agreed to pose for scale, because we were really impressed with the size of the actual play area. And you’d have this spread out even more in your house, I’m sure. The ramps are your typical thin plastic and fully movable for you to set up wherever you want. We couldn’t get even a glimpse of the tennis-court side of the floor, because it’s pretty stiff (think thinner than Scenes & Settings pages).
Click on any picture to enlarge.
TENNIS
You get a plastic tennis ball machine (launcher) that shoots the six (seven, if you buy the outfit) plastic balls at the doll. [I can just imagine what the kids are going to use that for (smile).] It isn’t electric or battery-operated. See that round pink disc on the back of it? You turn that plastic piece and a spring winds inside. Once you’ve wound it enough, the balls start shooting out (quite quickly and far, according to a store staff member). Hopefully, it’ll last as long as a modern kid’s attention span. Very nice that it doesn’t need batteries or a wall outlet, though.
The tennis balls are made of a ping-pong-ball type of lightweight plastic. (They bear little resemblance to tennis balls, other than a non-descript molding, for those of you wanting to use them for display. And they’re definitely too large a scale for the 18″ dolls. I’m sure they have to be like that to work in the machine, but I just want you to know you’re not getting tennis balls like Molly had.) There’s a short plastic net that sits flat on the floor, and you really don’t even need the tennis-court flooring. The doll can hold a tennis racket that is identical (in a different colorway) to the one with the Tennis outfit (sold separately). The last thing to mention is a chunky plastic basket for holding the balls.
SOMETHING TO THINK ABOUT
This big set came with a lot of stickers to slap down where you will, but we don’t recommend using them. We arrived at the store one hour after opening on release day, and all the stickers were curled up at the edges and/or falling off. We tried to stick them back down, but they had a post-it kind of sticky on the back and didn’t stay down for more than a minute or two. Some of what you see is printed on the flooring, but a few things on the floor and everything on the plastic pieces are stickers.
If I were buying this set for my kids, I’d get a piece of tile or carpet that looked like asphalt and put it under the large skateboard pieces. That way, I could use the tennis-court side of the floor and set that up in a separate play area. Mom was really into buying press-n-stick tiles from Lowes to butt up to each other (without the adhesive paper removed, of course) to delineate certain play areas. Made everything more fun, especially Playmobil! I think she’d approve of a stack of carpet squares to put under the skateboard area. Actually, even as adults, we have a large stack of inexpensive 24″ carpets square from Menards that has colors ranging from gray to brown to orange to water blue. You’ve seen them many times in our Photo Stories. They can look like sand or dirt or paving or rugs or water . . . you name it.
When the photos were first leaked for this set, I figured $300 give or take. Having now seen it up close and in person, I think that at $175, it might be worth it for even just one of the sports. Knowing that the flooring is not really necessary (tennis moreso than skateboarding, but both still do-able without), you might be able to sell the other “sport” off and recoup a little of your money. Local would be better for the skateboarding portion, because those pieces are large in volume and shipping would be a killer. The tennis stuff would be easy enough to ship.
The following is the Review for the new Sports Outfits that are sold separately.
SKATEBOARDING OUTFIT*
Thumbs down from us! The overalls have the usual small velcro tabs on the waist sides and come with a short knit t-shirt. The cotton boat-type shoes look nice but may not fit with socks (just a thought, since they don’t come with any and resemble recent releases that are too small to wear with socks). The “puffer” vest has no closure, just hangs open in the front. The skateboard is identical to the one in the big-ticket item in the Twins collection.
TENNIS OUTFIT
Really cute! The one-piece sleeveless dress was made to look like a vest over a short white tennis dress, and it has matching white panties. The racket is plastic with a hand holder on the grip and is the same as the one in the big-ticket item (except that the rackets are colored differently). The plastic tennis ball matches the ones in the big-ticket item. The socks are white, tennis-length knit socks. The adorable tennis shoes (think Ked’s) appear to be a white re-make of Luciana’s Flight Suit shoes, made in vinyl instead of canvas.
SOMETHING TO THINK ABOUT
All three of us had the same opinion, once we got up close to the doll in the store that was wearing the Skateboard outfit. It was unanimous that this outfit is not worth any amount of money TO US. The fabric on the overalls is this cheap thin cotton that doesn’t resemble duck or denim in any way. Because it was so thin, it didn’t seem to hang right on any of the dolls in the store. The buckles are not adjustable, and we thought that AG didn’t give quite enough fabric for them to fit very well. And if you like short t-shirts, then this is just what you’re looking for. The shoes were cute, but the vest was a huge letdown to Sis and me. We (and our friends) wore a LOT of these puffer vests. But they had BIG zippers (BIG) that, when closed, made a visual stripe all the way up the front of the vest. AG’s vest doesn’t even puff, and the fronts are just plain straight-stitch hems, like the bottom of your sheet. Back to the old ’90s pieces we own. Bummer.
The tennis outfit is really cute, and we’d own it if we wanted a tennis outfit. However, you probably won’t want to ever wash it. Think back to the days when you had one-piece tops made of two different fabrics. I’m thinking blouses with knit collars and sweaters with cotton shirt collars. You washed them, and not only did things shrink differently, but you never could get the wrinkles out of the cotton bits. I’m convinced this is what will happen with this tennis dress. BUT, if you don’t think you’re going to need to wash it, it’s really cute!
*I’d like to make a comment that is less review and more just thought. I’m really disgusted that American Girl photographed Nicki in this outfit with the helmet and knee/elbow pads on. There isn’t one single photo on their website of Nicki in just what you get in the outfit box. To get the missing pieces, you have to buy the $175 big-ticket item. Imagine sitting there looking through the catalog with your little girls and they get excited about the doll’s “outfit”. If the adult bothers to scroll down to read the disclaimer at the bottom of the page, what are they going to say? “Sorry, honey, that outfit costs $215. Let’s see if we can find something else.” For all the buyers who don’t read the fine print, I hope their kids aren’t too disappointed when they get the boxed outfit and it’s missing the helmet and pads.Why didn’t AG just offer the complete outfit as shown as a separate purchase? Or the skateboard, helmet and pads as a separate set? And AG’s main stock photo for the big-ticket set is just as deceptive, because they photoshopped it to look like you get two sports set-ups. In fact, you get one reversible floor, so you can only have one set-up going at a time. Unless you use the floor for the tennis court and just leave the plastic skateboard pieces sitting by themselves. Unfortunately, that’s not what AG implies in their photo. American Girl has stepped over all the limits for me with this deceptive advertising, and I’m really bothered by this growing lack of ethics.
Stay tuned for more reviews of the new 1990s Historical Dolls Collection from American Girl.