Author |
Message |
Llkoolaid
Member
08-01-2001
| Monday, March 01, 2004 - 7:19 pm
You said it Hippy, sometimes it takes longer to get the darn toy out of the box than the kids have interest in it. As for the clothes, I would rather see the little girls wear the belly shirts and maybe have the young women put more clothes on. Either way it is not a big issue with me but to each their own, I am sure we are all just doing the best we can trying to raise these little beauties into strong young woman.
|
Deesandy
Member
08-12-2003
| Monday, March 01, 2004 - 9:22 pm
Oh, I meant to ask about the American Doll craze...is this likely to still be popular in the next few years to come, because if so, I better save for them now! Talk about expensive...
|
Twiggyish
Member
08-14-2000
| Tuesday, March 02, 2004 - 8:53 pm
We collect them, too. Each doll has a story. You can buy the book to accompany the doll. There are wonderful stories of girls from different countries and cultures too. The American Girls are depicted in positive rolls. The dolls also have different things you can purchase with them, too. They may be expensive, but they are well worth it.
|
Texannie
Member
07-16-2001
| Wednesday, March 03, 2004 - 5:16 am
My daughter loves American girl, just got into them this year. I am like Twiggy, I think they are worth it too. Barnes and Noble has American Girl story time once a month, and she so looks forward to going to that. I am trying to figure out a way to go to Chicago to the store.
|
Llkoolaid
Member
08-01-2001
| Wednesday, March 03, 2004 - 7:36 am
I have never heard of American Girl, guess its cause I am in Canada.
|
Texannie
Member
07-16-2001
| Wednesday, March 03, 2004 - 7:40 am
could be, Ll! LOL http://www.americangirl.com/
|
Wargod
Member
07-16-2001
| Wednesday, March 03, 2004 - 10:43 am
Dakota gets the American Girl catalog everytime a new one comes out. She loves to get her own mail and spends hours looking through the catalogs at the dolls. We haven't bought any yet because she's just too young to take care of an expensive doll (she'd strip it naked and "fix" it's hair.)
|
Landi
Member
07-29-2002
| Wednesday, March 03, 2004 - 10:55 am
my daughter is 13, and still has her american girl doll. (she has samantha) when she was younger they used to have clothes that matched the dolls. she had a kirsten dress, and a molly dress, and a samantha nightgown. she was just too cute! the dolls are very high quality. they have an american girl magazine, website, hallmark has made ornaments. it's a wonderful thing for girls. much better than those ugly bratz dolls (holly never liked them)
|
Secretsmile
Member
08-19-2002
| Wednesday, March 03, 2004 - 11:06 am
American Girl is the one doll mentioned here that I can comment on. Brianna has the Samantha Doll, she is the Victorian age doll. One corner of her room is still set up for Samantha. Lots of you know she's now in her second year of college. For Christmas one year my mother made her 3 dresses and a night gown to match Samantha's. Talk about little girls looking like little girls, when she had on that pink striped dress with white pinafore my heart melted.
|
Not1worry
Member
07-30-2002
| Wednesday, March 03, 2004 - 12:21 pm
I can't wait till my DD is old enough for the American Girls. A lot of homeschoolers use the series as a history curriculum.
|
Tabbyking
Member
03-11-2002
| Wednesday, March 03, 2004 - 12:38 pm
my daughter got bitty baby for christmas several years back, with the baby carrier, little wagon, wicker suitcase of clothes. she still has every piece that goes with bitty baby. she also has the my twinn doll, not an american girl doll, which is made up to look quite a bit like your child. you send a picture of your child, pick eye color, hair color, where to put a smattering of freckles, etc. we also got the nightgown so my dd matched her my twinn doll. without ever saying anything, each time she took the doll with her someplace, people would say, "my, that doll looks just like you!" we love the american girl dolls. my brother's "aunt-in-law" designs/makes some of the clothes. i remember one outfit of hers had a cute little handknit sweater, hat and maybe a jumper? it was for the kirsten doll, i think. she also designed some of the old fashion styles, i believe for the samantha doll. i wish they weren't so expensive, though!! we always wanted the samantha doll the most...
|
Happymom
Member
01-20-2003
| Wednesday, March 03, 2004 - 12:40 pm
My 10 year old loves the books. She has had a subscription to the magazine for 2 yr. She knows exactly when it should arrive in the mail. The day it comes, we don't see her until she's finished reading it. That mag. is one of the best gifts she's ever received. Well worth the $. She also loves the American Girl books about relationships and decorating and art. A very good line of books. She used to really like the Amelia books too. I think we have all of them. As for Bratz, my 7 year old received one or two for her birthday. She does not play with them unless a friend comes over. before her birthday, she told me she didn't want any of those dolls, doesn't like the name. Some of that probably came from me, although I cannot remember saying anything specific. I do, however, not like the name at all. I haven't paid much attention to the way they (and their clothes) look since not only was no one here interested in them, but we didn't want them in the house. My 7 year old has been attracted to dolls/pictures of girls with those same eyes for a few years. Lisa Frank also has some similar dolls, I think. (But I think the Lisa Frank dolls probably have clothes with more coverage. Maybe.) She liked those better. She loves that Lisa Frank artwork of the cute animals and the girls with those particular eyes. She's not really in a doll phase anymore, doesn't play with Barbies either.
|
Texannie
Member
07-16-2001
| Wednesday, March 03, 2004 - 1:18 pm
American Girl also has a great series of "changing body" books.
|
Landi
Member
07-29-2002
| Wednesday, March 03, 2004 - 1:58 pm
annie, i didn't have to explain things to holly, just gave her the book "the care and keeping of you". thank god! she then asked me questions. we spent an hour in the "personal care" section of the grocery aisle. i was busy explaining the different products, and she was asking questions with no embarassment. also the book "the care and keeping of friends" is a wonderful book. i can't say anything bad about american girls... except... the price of the dolls themselves. but they are BEAUTIFULLY MADE. tabby - holly has a "my twin" doll too. looks just like she did when she was little.

|
Deesandy
Member
08-12-2003
| Wednesday, March 03, 2004 - 2:58 pm
Well, I am sold! I will start saving now. Perhaps I can find a bargain on ebay. I had no idea what these dolls are all about, and everything here has impressed me. Thank You!
|
Twiggyish
Member
08-14-2000
| Wednesday, March 03, 2004 - 3:52 pm
I wish they had them when I was a child.
|
Deesandy
Member
08-12-2003
| Wednesday, March 03, 2004 - 4:05 pm
If anyone wants to sell their's, please let me know!
|
Texannie
Member
07-16-2001
| Wednesday, March 03, 2004 - 9:10 pm
They are wonderful. DD got her first for Christmas, Samantha (they look very similiar to each other!) and she is getting Kailey (one of the newer ones) for her birthday. It's great cause, she does want all the accessories, but I can't afford all of it, so we can farm those out to the grandparents, and they are thrilled for the ideas.
|
Tabbyking
Member
03-11-2002
| Wednesday, March 03, 2004 - 9:40 pm
one thing on the american dolls and buying at auction. i used to see people sell things that were NOT american doll products. for example, they would sell bunkbeds "for" american dolls, but were not american doll products. which is fine, but the american doll brand would cost 80 bucks, whereas you could buy bunkbeds at jc penney (as we did) for 29 bucks. and i could see the pink bunks were the jc penney ones and people were paying big bucks because they thought they were american doll makes. the true american girl bunkbed sets were red. were the jc penney ones as good? yep, i'm sure they were. but people were paying for a 'brand' and they weren't getting it.
|
Tabbyking
Member
03-11-2002
| Wednesday, March 03, 2004 - 9:47 pm
oh, landi, it looks like we got our girls their twinn dolls while the going was good. how sad!! they tried to cut costs to make the dolls more affordable and ended up having to declare bankruptcy. January 17, 2004 Dear My Twinn Customers, OUR APOLOGIES AND THANKS Over the past few weeks we have received a considerable number of communications from you, ranging from the very positive to the very negative; we thank you for taking the time and making the effort to reach us. Unfortunately, our current resources are extremely limited and we are not able to individually respond to your communications. We know that we have disappointed some of our customers; that is very painful for us because our goal has always been to strengthen families and bring joy, happiness, and a sense of specialness to each child who receives a My Twinn doll. To you we express our sincerest and deepest apologies. We wish we had the resources to address each of your concerns and issues. You and your child deserve that and we will be the first to acknowledge it. Despite the limited resources we are still continuing our efforts to locate and deliver those dolls and accessories that were ordered, created, and shipped from our Shanghai, China operations facility in time for Christmas, but have not yet been delivered. To those who have expressed their love for their My Twinn doll, and who have shared some of the joyful and memorable experiences that their child or children have had with their My Twinn doll, we thank you. Over the years we have also donated dolls to disadvantaged children, children's hospitals, schools, and other children's organizations. It has been fulfilling to know of the happiness and hope that those beautiful gift dolls brought to those with special needs and challenges. Thank you for the hundreds of letters of support, and your expressions of sadness that My Twinn has had to cease operations. Your kind words have been appreciated and helpful as we deal with the necessity and the attendant consequences of no longer creating the unique, one-of-a-kind dolls that have brightened the lives of literally hundreds of thousands of children over the past eleven holiday seasons. It is still our hope that someone with greater financial resources will acquire the inventory, the customer list, the brand name, and the know-how to make it possible for My Twinn dolls to again be available, possibly even in time for the next holiday season. BY WAY OF EXPLANATION AND BACKGROUND My Twinn was founded in 1993 and it has incurred losses in every year for a variety of reasons: (1) the start-up costs of a new and very unique personalized doll business; (2) high labor and overhead costs due to the seasonality of the business; (3) a debacle in 1999 with a major toy retailer; (4) the September 11, 2001 tragedy that occurred the week that millions of My Twinn holiday catalogs were arriving in homes; (5) a struggling economy coupled with high product costs and high retail pricing; (6) a lack of sufficient financial resources to adequately execute a profitable business plan in the highly competitive doll and toy industry. In April 2003, the results of an independent feasibility study revealed that the same premium quality My Twinn dolls and accessories could be more economically manufactured and then shipped directly to our customers around the world if we relocated virtually all of our internal production and shipping operations to mainland China (prior to 2003 most My Twinn doll components, clothing and accessories were made by or through a Hong Kong toy manufacturer, then shipped to the U.S. for hair styling, packaging, final inspection and mailing to our customers). After extensive product and shipment tests during this past summer, My Twinn secured additional financing and relocated its primary operations to Shanghai, China. In so doing, we were able to meet a long-term goal of reducing the price of a My Twinn doll from $140 to $89, thereby making these special dolls available to many more children. In September 2003, My Twinn finalized a shipping and delivery contract with China Post (the China postal service), with whom we had tested shipping times and procedures during the summer months, to ship My Twinn packages directly to the U.S. from our facility in Shanghai; final delivery to homes would be made by the U.S. Postal Service under an international postal services agreement. My Twinn's agreement with China Post was that "China Post shall deliver all international parcels and mail in accordance with the following time commitments: Express Mail Service - 3 to 4 days delivery; international air parcels - 10 to 12 days delivery; international air parcels sent by SAL - 15 to 20 days delivery." The agreement also provided that "if (China Post) fails to perform its obligations under this agreement or its performance fails to satisfy the terms of the contract, it shall bear such liabilities for breach of contract in accordance with Chinese law, which may include…compensation for such losses." My Twinn began shipping to our customers from Shanghai in October 2003. In November we discovered that our packages were not being delivered in accordance with the terms of our agreement with China Post. We registered our concerns and also accelerated the switch over from the 15-20 day delivery time to the 10-12 day schedule, at much higher cost. In early December when it became clear that even the 10-12 day delivery time was taking 20-30 days we converted to the 3-4 day Express Mail Service, again at substantially higher costs. As it now turns out, virtually none of the deliveries were made within the contractual time frames. On average the 15-20 day schedule took 35 days; the 10-12 day schedule took more than 25 days; the 3-4 day schedule took more than 10 days. And, contrary to information we were initially given, only the EMS packages are trackable. There has been some questioning of our public statements that all My Twinn Christmas orders were shipped prior to Christmas. We want to affirm that these were accurate and truthful statements; the last Christmas orders were shipped from our Shanghai operations center on December 18, using the 3-4 day shipping option. However, on January 15, with the help of the U.S. Postal Service, we became aware that thousands of packages that left the My Twinn operations center in Shanghai were never actually shipped by China Post to the U.S. until mid-January when 40 small containers arrived by air at the USPS San Francisco processing center, followed by another 20 containers on January 16. In early January we filed complaints with the China Post authorities about the complaints we were receiving from many My Twinn customers who had still not received their dolls and/or accessories. At the present time China Post is refusing to accept responsibility for the failure to make timely deliveries to our U.S. customers. My Twinn has not paid China Post for the last two weeks of shipments, although we did pay for the tens of thousands of earlier orders that also were not delivered on schedule. Our internal analyses show that the excess shipping expenses and the lost sales due to the shipment delays cost My Twinn in excess of $2 - $3 million. As a result of our stalemate with China Post and the control that China Post has over the physical location and movement of our inventory, coupled with a shortage of working capital for marketing this past season to generate broadscale awareness of the new My Twinn doll pricing and thereby an increase in sales, we are unable to continue our operations. The net impact of the China Post shipping debacle is that unless there is a financial resolution before the end of January 2004, it will be necessary for My Twinn to file Chapter 7 bankruptcy, under which the My Twinn assets will fall under the control of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court. A bankruptcy trustee will be appointed and will make the ultimate decisions about the dissolution and liquidation of the company. We hope that the bankruptcy trustee will continue to provide updates on www.mytwinn.com so that you will be able to follow developments as they occur. In the meantime, several thousands of My Twinn dolls and accessories are expected to be delivered to homes across the U.S. over the next two weeks starting immediately. We do not know if there are still more containers to come, and China Post has not been forthcoming in acknowledging anything. Once again we apologize for this terrible situation and thank you for your patience and your continuing interest in My Twinn. We are grateful for the opportunity we have had to provide My Twinn dolls to your families and that special linkage we have felt with literally thousands of mothers and daughters. Hopefully, near term My Twinn will be in the hands of new owners and managers with stronger financial resources and the ability to resolve the shipping issues that have forced the company to prepare for Chapter 7 bankruptcy filing. My Twinn Doll Company
|
Landi
Member
07-29-2002
| Wednesday, March 03, 2004 - 11:01 pm
how sad! my mom bought holly her doll when she was 6. one of the last things she got her. she has long hair in french braids just like i used to do hollys. it was the best doll because my daughter has grey eyes, and it was the only doll that was made to look like her. it even has a little spider vein under her right eye, and a little brown mole on her cheek. she's at my dad's house, i'm looking for a pic of holly and her doll that was taken when holly was little.
|
Tabbyking
Member
03-11-2002
| Thursday, March 04, 2004 - 12:05 am
i am going to look for a pic of caitlin and her doll, too, and maybe dh can help me scan it if i find it! i think caitlin got it in '94 or '95. she and dolly are each wearing the little rosebud nightgowns...we used to go to walmart and buy infant outfits to fit the doll...and size one sandals and tennies, etc. we also bought two of the my twinn cousins--i think that's what they were called--the smaller dolls that came out later. it's sad that my twinn is a thing of the past.
|
Deesandy
Member
08-12-2003
| Thursday, March 11, 2004 - 11:41 am
There is a local company that makes the dolls here, I will see if they ship if anyone is interested.
|
Landi
Member
07-29-2002
| Thursday, March 11, 2004 - 11:52 am
deesandy, i'd love the information, as i would like to get a doll for my best friend's daughter! she has eyes like nikki from AI1 and white blond hair. very striking! but of course, no doll looks like her.
|
Deesandy
Member
08-12-2003
| Monday, April 05, 2004 - 9:51 pm
LANDI! I finally got the correct info! Go to www.lil-folks.com I am doing this for my mom as a gift. I hope it turns out at great as the ones I saw at her store! She also makes "to die for" children's clothes.
|
|
|
|