American Girl Prototypes

       

       Hi guys! I need to work on the next part of my collab with Viola, but for now I thought you might enjoy seeing some AG Prototypes! There are a lot of cool AG prototypes out there, and I recommend going down that rabbit hole if you have the time. For now, though, these prototypes are my own pictures. They all came out of the book American Girl Ultimate Visual Guide. I haven’t seen all of these on the internet, so I thought it might be fun to show everyone. 

       Soooooooo, here’s the book. You may be wondering, WHY IS THE SPINE NOT ATTACHED?? That’s because I got this book back in 2017 and it’s been used so much that the front cover fell off. So, anyway…

       Our first prototype is of some hairstyles tested for Maryellen. Here’s a closer picture:

       I personally like her final hairstyle best, but the very right hairstyle looks like how I imagine her bangs looked after she cut them herself. It looks like Maryellen also originally had line brows, which is interesting. She’s also wearing a prototype dress that was never produced. 

       Our next prototype is a sketch of Samantha and what later became her school outfit. This is interesting because if you look closely, you can see that it’s labeled “Meet Samantha” and “Doll in Arrival Outfit.” This shows us that what later became Samantha’s school outfit was originally intended to be her meet outfit. 

       Then, we have one of McKenna’s color palettes! 

 

       Here are some outfits that were tested for Saige. The center one was the final outfit. Depending on my mood, I like the other ones better. I definitely would not have been mad if a different outfit won. I mean, that outfit on the left. 🤩 The doll wearing the outfits also looks a lot like truly me 23, and I’m not sure if it really is truly me 23, or if that was an earlier design for Saige. The paragraph under the picture is talking about how AG had girls rate the outfits in an online survey, and that the center outfit won. 

       Then, there’s an entire section dedicated to the development of Kaya. There are 2 photographs here of people from AG looking at Kaya. One of these photos is very interesting, though. Here’s a closer shot:

       At some point in her development, Kaya had the classic mold! She looks really cute, but I’m glad AG gave her a face mold that represents her culture better. 

       Here are 2 sketches of some of Kaya’s products. 

       Next up is a sketch by Pleasant T. Rowland herself. This is the original design Pleasant wanted for the doll boxes. As you can see, the dolls would be sitting and you could view them through a little window. The book says that the rectangle box became final because dolls are better protected standing up. 

 

       Next up is probably the most interesting prototype in the whole book. These are sketches again by Pleasant T. Rowland. The first sketch shows us that she wanted to name the company “Pleasantries.” This sketch has the copyright date 1984. The third sketch is an overview of each doll’s collection. I love how she underlined “each” twice because each doll definitely does not have all of that stuff nowadays. Oof Mattel. But the middle sketch requires a bit of detective work. (And a closer picture…) 

       This sketch is for a character named Rebecca. Your mind might go immediately to a character named Rebecca Rubin from 1914 who was released in 2009. The thing is, these sketches are from 1984! The sketch also says, “Norwegian immigrants in the Midwest.” You know who else is an immigrant in the Midwest and was one of the first 3 dolls? Kirsten. I think this sketch is for a character who later became Kirsten. So, now you know that Kirsten was originally Rebecca from Norway. It also looks like Pleasant almost had this Rebecca character live in a neighborhood, but crossed it out and wrote “farm.” 

       Then, this isn’t exactly a prototype, but it’s an interesting piece of trivia. If you have Josefina, you probably agree with me that her hair has a texture that’s unique to the doll, and this is why. 

       Here’s a sketch of Addy’s Christmas outfit. 

       And finally, here’s a picture that’s labeled “choosing between two different looks for Josefina.” Like Kaya, it appears that Josefina also the classic mold early in development. Her outfit is also a prototype, but it’s pretty close to her final meet outfit.

       And that’s all the prototypes I spotted in the Ultimate Visual Guide! I hope you guys enjoyed. I’ll be back soon with the next part of the blog wars, so stay tuned. Have a great day and remember to eat your veggies! Bye! <3