The Return of the Prodigal Doll: Samantha Parkington

American Girl purposefully let the cat out of the proverbial bag 

on their Facebook account alerting the world that 

Samantha Parkington would be returning to their historical line this year.

So this probably isn't news to you.

Word on the street is that she might reappear from the Archival Vapor August 28th.

And she probably won't have Nellie in tow.

Other rumors exist that some of the current historical girls 

will be retiring this spring/early summer.

Which is a major bummer.

If they bothered to tell us who was reappearing -- 

why can't they tell us who is going away?

Samantha's reappearance will probably coincide with 

the rumored Historical Line Makeover. 

Which we don't really know what that will mean. :-/

But overall, her resurrection makes us roll our eyes.

American Girl said they were archiving dolls 

so that they could release new characters.

Sam is not a new character.

Not that we have anything against her.

She is awesome and cute and had some cool items in her collection.

But what will she look like now?

Will she be older? Wiser?

Less frooffy?

What will her collection consist of?

Will it only be her in one outfit and we should be satisfied with that?

Will she have multiple clothing items?

Will she have accessories?

Will she get one of those "Hair Styling" sets that AG just released?

Will she just come with $64 Limited Editions Outfits?

Will there be furniture?

I guess we should be happy that Sam is coming back, 

and that this means new historical stuff.

But we don't know what to expect.

And given the fact that so many historical collections 

have been nearly reduced into non-existence even 

without being officially 'archived,'

we wonder if she will just return 

as a craptastic version of her previous existence.