Monday, September 10, 2012

Caroline's Accessories, Travel Basket, and Party Sets

Sorry for the delay on this! 

Took awhile to prep all of the pics and this weekend was busy, busy, busy.

Okay, first -- this post includes lots of shots of.... 

Caroline's Meet Accessories (bonnet, purse, and spinning top)....

Her Travel Basket Set (basket, two apples, six gingerbread cakes, napkin,
and embroidered map)....

And her Party Set (three plates, two mugs, two forks, two knives, bunch of flowers, milk jug, cut cake, two pieces of cake, two napkins)

And yes, we put Lottie in Felicity's shoes.
If she is wearing FiFi's dress, she might as well wear her shoes, too.

Oh and btw, we do keep any meet outfits of the historicals we collect -- just because we are crazy like that -- even if we don't really love them, haha.
But her shoes have already begun a transformation... 
and we didn't keep them as pink slipper flats....
Stay tuned to see what we did to them....

(Ooooooo, the suspense!!!)

Oh, and as far as the historical accuracy of pink shoes -- yeah, they did exist.
Not really sure Caroline would have really had them, 
as she seems more of an "out in the world" boots kind of girl.
And pink and red were more for boys, not girls.

Alright, reviews start now....


The bonnet is pretty nice.
AG's flowers are never what they should be in our opinion.
If you are going to do fake flowers, and then charge an arm and a leg -- do them right.
The main accent ribbon is pretty, but ours was sewn on with a crinkle to it, 
i.e. not flat against the hat.
Also, the ribbon is pretty thick for a hat tie mechanism....



The hat material is straw-like and we like it.
The ribbon edging is very nice.
It was difficult to get the hat to sit on her head the way we wanted to, but in the end we think it looks okay. ;-)



Up next, the purse and spinning top.
These are both perfectly well-made pieces.
Nothing seems wrong to us. Haha.


The purse has her name embroidered on it, which you can see when it is open.
When you cinch it closed, you can't see the name.


The fabric is a diamond-pattern tapestry or upholstery fabric (that is quite thick).
We like the funky color scheme.

The top is actual wood. Gasp!
With a painted blue trim.
And it does spin very well.

For scale, a shot of the purse with her hand....


Moving right along...

Her Travel Basket set.
It is difficult to find nice, small baskets for AGs.
So this one is a prize -- it's a real basket.
Not something molded out of plastic.



The cakes and apples are rubber and plastic.
But eh, they work for us.
The painting/color/texture are good enough for us.
Not like, totally awesome.
(Pippaloo could do them betters.)
But impressive by AG standards.


(Mug from Party Set included for size comparison purposes.)



Also included is the embroidered map -- hole-y cow that thing is awesome!
Behold the power of automated machine embroidery!!!

And a napkin is in the set as well -- made of very nice fabric.
Not thin polyester type stuff.


The Party Set.
We are impressed with the plates, mugs and flatware.
There are 3 plates, so two are stacked in our pics.

They are metal, heavy, and have good design qualities.
They do have some sort of slick coating on them, 
so if you expect them to "feel" like pewter in your hand -- you will be disappointed.

I would say, that despite them being semi-heavy, they are not pewter.
They look enough like it to please us.
And they are not plastic.

So they are a definite win.


We unfolded the napkins so you can see their whole size.
They are more of the thin polyester type fabric with a lace trim.
Nothing too astonishing about them.
But it is nice they included them.

The flowers are cheap and cheesy.
Pretty enough -- but please, we could walk into Joann's and find better quality ones.

They are tied together with a ribbon and have longer stems (which you can't see because we put them in the milk jug thingy).


I guess the milk jug is a "ceramic pitcher with a majestic ship painted on it."
Looks like a milk jug to us...
Anyways, we like it. It is boaty and actually ceramic.

The cake is....
Well....
It is supposed to be an applesauce cake.
It is mold out of rubbery like plastic stuff.
And then painted.
Overall, we aren't convinced.
It looks too plasticky.
Especially when paired with the actual metal dishes.


The cake and cake pieces work fine for play.
But as far as looking good, we wish they would get with the picture and start making their food out of clay to give it an artisan quality.
But eh, this is AG.
So it's easier for fanatics like us to just commission something from an AG food artist.


But we are very happy we bought the party set.
I mean, look at those beautiful knives and forks!
Eeeeep!
So awesome!


Okay, that's all of our thoughts for now on these Sets.

We don't regret buying any of them, as we are collectors.
But for play value, you'll judge them differently given their high prices.

______________

Honestly, though -- in our opinion, AG has done a really good job with Caroline's Collection.

We will probably say this a hundred more times:
We hope they see how much we like her stuff and 
continue along with this type of design and execution standards.

(I get the shivers every time I look at Cecile's bed or her dress/coat set that match M-G's.)

______________

Let us know if you have any questions about these items!

Stay tuned for posts on Caroline's coral traveling set, blue birthday dress, and Inkpot.


And thanks so much for visiting us today!


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2 comments:

imrachelnicole said...

Hey, I'm just wondering, could we do a video for the neext round of the design contest (like, making the clothes) and also include pictures in the video?

rachyracheshobbycorner.blogspot.com

Nora and Maple said...

Sure, sounds fine to us Rachel Nicole.

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