Before we get started, I want to say that these dolls are NOT re-issues of the Marie Grace head mold. I know we’ve been referring to them like that for weeks, now, but they are definitely a modified Marie Grace. From the bridge of the nose up, they look like Joss. From that same line down, they look like Marie Grace. Like so many of AG’s other recent releases, you can see a mix of previous head molds in the faces on TM numbers 115-7. Scroll to the bottom of this entry for my personal observations and thoughts on this new head mold. Leaves me wondering whether these are actually rejected, short-run prototypes of what was supposed to be released as Joss. Just a thought. It’ll be interesting to see how long these last.
We just finished unboxing two of the new “Marie Grace face-mold” dolls that we brought home yesterday. That’s #115 (05 blonde) and #117 (25 brown) in the pictures. #116 (05 pink) is the same as #115 with a different wig, so comparisons will work for either of the 05 dolls. We’ll let the photos tell the story of how nice these dolls are, but we’re going to anticipate as many questions as we can with a few comments following the photos.
N.B. For what it’s worth, Mom has always been as staunch a “disliker” of the Marie Grace mold as my sister has been a “lover”. (We don’t use the “h” word in our home, but you get the idea.) Between the unboxing and the photo shoot, Mom had already talked Elizabeth into buying a second one for later customizing. That says a lot, coming from a woman whose dolls mostly have black/brown hair and 30 skin (smile). I’ve always stood somewhere in the middle. Now that we’ve figured out that it’s a modified MG head, it explains why the two of us really like these dolls so much.
We wanted to show you the two new dolls with an original Marie Grace (in the middle). This photo shows her skintones, left to right, 05, 10, and 25. The height difference is just the length of the neck.
COMMENTS SECTION
MG HEADS It’s a sort of modified Marie Grace head mold. Both measure the same, but they fixed the short-neck problem of the original with a neck length similar to current Truly Me dolls. Same color of face paint (eyebrows, eyelashes and lip paint) on all three of the new Marie Grace TM dolls, regardless of skintone. #115 has pinwheel grey (like Molly, Logan, Ruthie). #116 has pinwheel light blue (like what they’ve had for the last couple of years when they only had a single blue color for eyes). #117 has normal pinwheel brown (like Julie, Josefina, et al). It’s the eye sockets and eyebrows that were modified. If you could draw a horizontal line across the upper bridge of the nose, you’d see the modification quite quickly. The three new MG dolls have much rounder (actually more open, taller, if that makes any sense) eye holes and different eyebrows. While they look very similar to Marie Grace, there is a noticeable difference when a new doll is standing next to an original MG doll. I might describe it as the new dolls having a younger, more round-eyed look to them. In our opinion, the new dolls (while adorable on their own) would not make an exact replacement for an old Marie Grace doll.
25 SKINTONE The 25 skintone does not photograph well. The doll’s not as red as she appears in pictures (a problem with 25 and 35 skintones). She’s really very “average” looking in real life, like a light skin that is used to being outside a bit. In person, she appears less “medium” than a 20 like Nanea or Luciana.
BLUE EYES American Girl has two blue eye colors again, but they are NOT the same as before. The new Light Blue are the old Dark Blue (like #74 and Kit). The new Dark Blue are darker with a bit of a greyish cast (less aquamarine). We’ve only ever seen two pairs of these, one from the Doll Hospital, the other in a dark-blue-eyed CYO we ordered in Summer 2021. The dark-blue-eyed CYO we ordered in 2019 did not have these; hers were a much lighter “dark blue”. It took us a while to figure this out, but I hope we didn’t leave you more confused than ever.
WIGS The brown wig on #117 was very difficult to remove, and I don’t usually have any problem removing wigs. I would not recommend removing this wig, unless you’re experienced. The brown wig looks fabulous, though, when it’s repositioned from the center part to the side, and would be worth the trouble if you know what you’re doing. The blonde wig on #115 was no more difficult to remove than a normal AG wig. However, a little extra care was needed, because the wig cap is a super thin fabric that could easily be cut, compared to the thicker woven kind they’ve always had before. It’s probably how a doll with a small face like Marie Grace could wear a wig this extremely full and not look overwhelmed. With this thin a wig cap, the “hair” sits much closer to the doll’s “scalp”. The blonde wig is similar to (if not the same) as #83. These two MG dolls definitely look better with a side part (either side). They just don’t seem to wear a center part as well. Here’s a sneak peek at #117’s original wig removed and repositioned with a side part.
Well, back to the photographing. I’m doing wig photos right now with #115 and #117. I don’t want to spoil the waiting for anyone, but you aren’t going to believe how amazing these dolls turned out to be in such a wide variety of wigs. Particularly #117, with her 25 skintone. Amazing is all I can say! I’ll let you know when the wig photos go up. Oh, boy, and this is only two of the new dolls (smile).